You Are The Music In Me

Chapter 1 - Sticks & Stones

A/N: HEHE. My first Maddie/Zack-centric fic. I hope you will like it. I got this idea while listening to that song from High School Musical 2. Sure enough, there will be a bit of Cody/London romance (for I can't resist) but mostly it will be a Zaddie. Ya know, for all the Zaddie fans out there (I am one as well) so WOOHOO!!! Read on...

Note: The Lacey I refer to is that girl on the opposing volley ball team in the episode 'Volley Dad'. The one who called London dumb. So, technically, I don't own her either, but I made up her name and the school she goes to, because I can't remember what they really are...lol.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Suite Life of Zack & Cody or any of it's characters. They all belong to Disney.

Summary: After they get into a fight at their parochial school, Maddie and London are transferred to Zack and Cody's high school. Maddie finally gets the chance to star in the school's musical, but will it be Zack's big chance to win her over? Zaddie and Lody. R & R!

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"Gym sucks," Maddie Fitzpatrick whined, completely winded and her legs surging with pain. The entire class of Sister Dominique's were running laps in the gymnasium that day, and everyone was tired of running. Maddie had completed the least laps out of her class, as she felt her asthma flaring up.

"I hear ya," London shouted to her, running ahead of her.

Maddie simply could not run anymore, so she approached Sister Rose.

"I need my inhaler," she said, out of breath. Sister Rose wrote her a note, permitting her to see the nurse.

On her way out of the gym, she bumped into someone vaguely familiar.

"Watch where you're going!" Came a shrill reaction, and Maddie noticed the blonde-haired annoyance as London's biggest volleyball rival.

"What are you doing here, Lacey?" Maddie asked her, noting that she did not go to Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow. Lacey attended St. Martha's Academy. Maddie felt her breath catch in her throat, as she realized Lacey was wearing an Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow gym uniform.

"I just got transferred. And now it looks like I'll have to endure your's and London's stink for the rest of the school year," Lacey replied rolling her eyes. London had appeared at Maddie's side suddenly, casting death glares in Lacey's direction.

"Oh look, if it isn't the only girl here who can count her IQ points on one hand," Lacey spat, adding an evil laugh.

"You can't even do that," Maddie said in London's defense. Lacey scoffed, and crossed her arms.

"At least I can afford to buy decent clothing," Lacey stated, running her fingers through her frizzy hair, as if she were the most delightful thing in the room.

"You wouldn't know it by looking at you," London chuckled, at which Lacey gasped. London and Maddie shared some short-lived laughter.

"At least my parents love me," Lacey informed her, gravely, dropping the games. London took this seriously, as could be recognized by the tears shining in her eyes. They were more out of anger than sorrow.

"Sticks and stones may break our bones but words can never hurt us!" Maddie said childishly, unaware of anything else to say.

"I'm gonna break her bones!" London squeaked, before pouncing on Lacey, scratching and punching at her mercilessly. Lacey struggled to fight back, but London simply overpowered her.

As much as Maddie would have liked to see London tear Lacey limb from limb, she elected to pull London off of Lacey, so she wouldn't get in too much trouble. But as soon as Maddie had done so, one of Lacey's cronies smacked her across the face hard, to which Maddie could only respond with violence.

"Oh! No you didn't," Maddie exclaimed, completely caught off guard. Maddie pushed the girl back against the wall and began to fight with her. This allowed London to go back after Lacey. Soon enough, students surrounded them, chanting the word 'fight' as if they were enjoying the show. Unfortunately for Maddie and London, so had Sisters Dominique and Rose. They pulled the scrapping girls apart with ease, even though they still thrashed to get back at the ones who had scorned them.

"This will stop at once!" Sister Dominique shouted with a thunderous voice, that echoed through the empty gymnasium. This caused all attempts at violence to stop.

"Who started this?" Sister Rose demanded of the students who weren't involved.

"Well, I saw London go after Lacey first. Then Maddie got into it with Lacey's friend," one girl said, simply recounting what she'd seen. And it was technically true, even though Lacey had started the fight.

"No! We didn't start it--" Maddie tried to say desperately, but was cut off.

"No! I do not want to hear it Madeline! You and London will be sent home right away, and your parents will receive a phone call informing them of your punishment. And I will have you know, there is a no fighting policy at this school, so you may as well expect the worst," Sister Dominque scolded her, to which Maddie dropped her head. If the 'worst' happened, her parents would probably disown her or something. Maddie and London said nothing else, but instead limped out of the gym, trying to physically and emotionally support each other.

"What do you think they're gonna do to us?" London asked Maddie fearfully.

"We're probably going to get expelled," Maddie informed her friend, bitterly.

About half an hour and a silent city bus ride later, Maddie had arrived home. Her school uniform was badly torn at the arms, and she bore scratches all over, especially on her face. She assumed she'd twisted her left ankle, as it was quite hard for her to walk on it. Her mother wore a look of disappointment as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

"I just got a call from your school. You've been expelled," she said, nothing but anger in her voice.

"I don't want to hear it," Maddie said, suddenly brought to tears, and struggling to quickly get up to her room. As soon as she could, she plopped down on her bed and sobbed into her pillow.

Her door opened seconds later and Maddie heard what sounded like a voice through a bullhorn.

"Liam, get out!" Maddie yelled, throwing her pillow at her younger brother with all the strength she could muster. He tumbled out of her room, obviously blindsided by the pillow attack, but Maddie didn't really care that her door had been left open.

Her phone rang a few moments later, and as Maddie assumed it would be London, she answered it. It indeed was London, who was as crestfallen as Maddie had been.

"I got expelled," London sobbed.

"So did I," Maddie responded in a cracking voice.

"Moseby went ballistic on me. He said that now I'd have to go to public high school," London said regretfully. Maddie's tears suddenly stopped. Public high school? Would that be her next option? Maddie suddenly found that being expelled from parochial school may not have been so bad. Sure, her parents would probably yell at her or just stop speaking to her for a while, but she would finally obtain the public high school experience.

Maddie surveyed the perks of this. Free to dress as you want, a wider range of studies, a lot more boys...maybe this expulsion thing would be a wonderful oppurtunity.

"Um, Maddie?" London called out, as Maddie had not spoken in quite some time.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking...Maybe public high school will be much better than you think," Maddie chuckled, with a sly grin.

A/N: Hehe. I say hehe way too much. But ANYWAYS...That was action packed. Jumped right into the swing of things, in fact. Hey...that rhymed! Moving on...next chapter will be up ASAP, so don't fret. Love you all! Ciao!

xoxo Trish