A/N: Thank you to all those who read my story and a very special thanks to those who review...means a lot to me. Also, if I'm going wrong anywhere please let me know...this is not a good chapter but I hope you like it.

Act and Reality

It was not anything new for Cody to come home tired after a long day of meetings and deals...but today had something extra in charts of his exhaustion. A certain meeting with a certain someone was still stuck in his head and he was constantly having flashbacks. It had been a long time since he met a girl, specially the one who didn't obliged with everything he said and only motioned her head to say "yes, sir". This girl got guts...and it was exactly how much he was hating her, to his guts. Then another highlight of his day was his brother asking him to set him up a date with Mr Tipton's daughter, the man he was doing business with. He had no idea how he survived through the day but now that he was home, there was nothing he wanted more to just sleep.

Cody quietly stepped in the house, it was already past 11 pm so he knew his mom and Zack would be fast asleep by then. But the moment he entered the living room, he found Zack sitting there on the couch. Cody didn't have the energy to get into the conversation that he was suspecting would happen if Zack would notice him. So he marinated it as quiet as possible. He was just about to take a step towards the stairs to go up to his room when he was stopped...

"Cody, you're home! I've been waiting for you, dude."

Cody just sighed. It seemed like his day was still not over...

"Why, Zack? Do you have another one of your brilliant ideas to pull on me?"

"NO! Though it does sound good to prank you at this hour, the look on your face would be priceless."

Zack was looking up, probably thinking how he would be doing that...Cody just stared at him...

"Right! Sorry. That's not what I was waiting for to do when you get back home. I just want to ask you if you talked to that Tipton guy."

"Wilfried Tipton. And yes I did talk to him. The deal is final..."

Cody said that and was about to go once again but Zack stopped him...

"What deal? I didn't ask you about one of your pointless business deals...I asked you if you talked to him about his daughter."

Pointless? Right, his business deals were that. Cody thought and just sighed..."No, Zack...I was not talking about any "pointless" business deal...I mean he said yes to letting his daughter meet you."

"This is awesome!"

Zack exclaimed and for another time Cody thought the conversation was over but Zack spoke up again...

"Wait! I have no idea what she looks like, or what she's like in general...what am I even going to talk to her about?"

Cody still couldn't understand his brother..."Zack, if you didn't know her, never even seen her...why did you want to meet her exactly?"

Zack looked at him with a look that Cody knew was suspicious in his case before he spoke..."No reason" that was all he said before he started to leave...the same Cody that had been eager to end the conversation, suddenly felt more interested or rather obliged to find out what was in his brother's mind...he stopped him by the back...

"Not so fast, Zack. You have to tell me what are you really upto?"

Zack turned around and sighed..."Okay. I'll tell you, but you have to promise me that you won't tell anybody about this...specially mom."

Cody nodded and getting that signal he continued..."Everytime I see you, its like...I don't know, man...its like you have your life all set, all under control...I know you've put yourself closed off and you don't particularly agree with the idea of dates or girls...but still, you have this whole huge empire to speak in your favour if you ever do decide...I don't have anything...I barely graduated High School and you know how bad my grades were...you have a degree..."

"I'm seriously not following you, Zack...where are you going with this?" Cody interrupted...

"I'm coming to my point, just be patient...anyways, I was saying that you have a degree and even if one day mom decides to not give you anything out of this...you'll still be able to survive...but what about me? If I don't get anything from our family's business, you know I'm screwed, man. I'm screwed."

Cody was still not catching up to what he was saying..."And that has to do with you wanting to date London how?"

Now Zack beamed..."Because mom told me that she'd transfer my share in the property to my name if I show some responsibility. And what's a bigger responsibility than a girlfriend? Now before you ask me, I'll tell you why I choosed London...I've heard stories about her, for one i heard she's not so...you know, smart...so she wouldn't ask all the crazy "girlfriend" type questions...and she wouldn't interfere much in my life either...and also the fact that no girl I've ever dated has been with me for me...they were always there for the money...and London is one girl who'll never date me for money since she's already got everything...you know what I mean?"

Cody looked at Zack with a look mixed with confusion and surprise..."Uhhh...I think I'll eventually know what you mean..." He yawned..."well for now, all I'm thinking about is my comfy bed so you have a good night..."

Cody got up and turned away before he stopped once again to say one last thing to Zack..."I forgot, you're meeting her at The Mark for lunch...be there"

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Bailey Pickett felt like she made a mistake when she said yes to Mr Tipton's offer...he was paying her more than she'd make in the next 2 months just to act for a few hours..at that time the deal sounded too good to refuse...but now that she was thinking about it, she was scared...she had no idea what this girl was like...except for the stories she heard from people...according to Mr Tipton, this Martin guy had never seen or met her...she could agree with the meeting part...but the seeing part was one that was making her worried...how could someone who himself is in business could never have seen a single picture of the heiress? It must be all over the internet, she thought...and thoughts were too many to let her sleep...she was also thinking that being the girl that she was, she could never be lucky enough to get someone like that...that jerk she ran into was right...through out her 20 years of life, she had never met any guy in particular...when anyone even talked to her, it never got too far to being in any kind of proper relationship...she sighed...being a nerd was already hard then her being broke didn't leave much room for socialisation either. And for once she was meeting a nice guy who's teeth weren't broken or who wouldn't hug her to pick her pocket...but she was not allowed to tell him who she really was..

Bailey lost in her thoughts didn't realise that it was already time to get up...she quickly got dressed and went to the Tipton Hotel...she was just in luck that she had a day off from College so she'd have some time before she was suppose to have her "meeting" to get ready and be like London Tipton.

As she entered the big gates of the Hotel, she was welcomed by the same familiar lobby...but today was a little different. She never thought she could be so important that the owner of the place she worked at would be there waiting for her...there he was...Bailey was getting a cold feat but she knew she already made a commitment with him...she went to him and greeted as he looked up from his phone...

"Oh hey, Bully. I've been waiting for you..."

"Its Bailey,.."

Mr Tipton just looked at her..."Who's Bailey?"

"I AM!" Bailey exclaimed annoyed.

"Are you sure? Because Bully suits you better..."

Bailey sighed...she was not in the mood to get into an argument over such silly thing...after working with the Tipton for a year, she knew how the rich people think and she was immune to such insults by then. Right at the moment, she had other things on her mind...

"Mr Tipton, can we just skip the whole "insulting me" thing and get to the point?"

Mr Tipton stood up and from underneath the table picked up a package...putting it on the table, he extended it to where Bailey was standing..."Here, that's the dress you'll be wearing today...and there's nothing else you need to do. Just be you and we'll be safe."

"Mr Tipton, I'm not so sure about this...I mean, what if he catches me? Or worse, what if he doesn't and would want to see me again? Where do I end up then?"

And once again, Mr Tipton looked at her like she was crazy..."See you again? Oh please. After one meeting with you, I doubt he'd want to go through that ever again..."

"Well, if you're going to talk to me like that, find yourself a new London..." Bailey smirked.

"Oh alright...now just go and get dressed..."

Mr Tipton was about to leave when Bailey stopped him...there still was one question that kept bugging her...

"Wait, Mr Tipton...I want to ask you something..." He stopped and turned around to face her and gestured her to ask..."I was wondering, your daughter must be famous right? How come this Martin guy has never seen any picture of her?"

"Because there aren't any on the internet"

"Huh?" That was all what Bailey could say and guessing her confusion, he continued...

"Ever heard of identity theft? Well when you're rich, people do that to you...years ago a news broke out that my daughter, London Tipton was staying at a hotel and not only using up all of their services in my name but also causing problems for them...her name was mentioned in the news in quite bad words...when one of my employees told me about it, I immediately contacted London to find out what she was upto...she told me she was peacefully asleep when my call woke her up...I knew then that the girl doing all of that and putting a bad name on the Tiptons was an imposter who looked a lot like London...so after dealing with that situation, I ordered to take all the pictures of London off of the internet and also restricted people from posting any in the future so that this identity theft situation never occurs again..."

"WOW!" Bailey exclaimed in surprise..."And I thought being rich is all fun and games..."

"Oh it is...but you'll never know that."

And with that Mr Tipton left without saying anything else...now all Bailey had was the package he left her...she opened it up and inside was a really beautiful dress...her eyes shone brightly upon seeing it..."at least there's something good happening in all of this mess" she thought...she excitedly took the bag with her to the changing rooms to change...

Bailey gave one final look to herself in the mirror...and if she was being honest, she did look pretty good in that dress..."Hey, I'm London Tipton" she extended her arm to great her own reflection in the mirror...she sighed. She had no idea what she'd do today..."You must be, Cody Martin? Its a pleasure to meet you..." She practiced one more greeting but still wasn't satisfied enough...she kept saying all sorts of things to her own reflection till it was time to finally leave...

As Bailey entered the Hotel they were suppose to meet at, her heart was pounding...she almost felt it'd burst out of her chest...she was shivering...and she didn't even feel her own legs...somehow Bailey managed to go inside and took a seat...it wasn't long enough when she heard a voice and she knew it was time get the act started...

"London Tipton?"

Although it was not her name, since about 24 hours she called herself so many times by it that now she was conditioned to respond on that...she stood up and turned around to face a blonde guy...he was tall...he had a good physique too. She couldn't help but think that he was quite handsome...although she was not getting attracted to him the way she had been expecting...

"Yes, I'm London Tipton..."

She didn't know why but it did feel good to call herself by a name which in such a world sounded honourable and prestigious...the man in front of her already looked impressed...but she knew it was not her but the name she had right at that moment...

"Nice to meet you..." He extended his hand to shake with hers..."I'm Zack Martin"

Bailey just looked at him surprised...now who was this, Zack?

To Be Continued...

A/N: I know...boring chapter, right? I'm new to this writing thing so I don't know much. Please be kind to me (:

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Love, Ash!