What's Cookin' in the Kitchen

Chapter 2:

The Testing

Saturday Afternoon

"Come on Cody lets go already." Zack said impatiently to his twin.

"Alright Zack it won't be much longer, I promise." Cody answered.

Zack was worried while he waited for his twin to get samples off of the leftover food in the giant cooler. He was watching to make sure nobody caught them while they snuck around the massive food preparation room. As he stood there he started to think about just how they had come to end up in the school cafeteria after hours.

(Zack's Memory) Friday After School

They had decided to go on Saturday to sneak into the kitchen to test the food because Cody thought that maybe all their friends had gotten food poisoning, so they were going to find out. It was just not normal; they needed to figure out where everyone was.

All the ill students were all supposed to be home recuperating, but nobody was. Were they so sick that maybe they were in the hospital? Cody had tried calling the hospital to see if any of their friends had checked in, and was told that they were not allowed to receive information on any patient unless they were their family members.

So they had decided to go a different route.

"Do you really think you can figure out if something is wrong with the food Cody?" Zack asked his smarter twin.

"Yeah, I could at least figure out if it is food poisoning. I mean we would be immune because I make our lunch." Cody answered.

"Well how's about we sneak in the cafeteria tomorrow and sample a little lunch?" Zack had suggested.

"Alright, I think we can do that. I really want to know what is happening to all our friends. Lets do it." Cody agreed.

So they worked out a plan that night that involved their favorite Tipton hobby, crawling thru the ventilation system. It took some investigation, but with a little help from some blueprints of the school that Cody happened to find on the Internet, they finally figured out the way in.

Saturday - Back In The Present

And that's how they ended up here, Zack at the door and Cody in the cooler.

"Ok, Zack lets get out of here." Cody said waking his brother out of his daydream.

"Alright, finally we get to go home," Zack smirked at his little brother, "up we go."

Zack gave Cody a boost up to the vent, then after pulling himself up Cody grabbed the backpack with the samples from his brother, then helped pull Zack in behind him. They crawled slowly out the way they came in and then hurried home.

When they got home Cody went straight to their room to test the samples, Zack sat down on the couch and started to pull out his cell phone so he could try Bob again. He checked his pocket and found nothing.

"Cody have you seen my cell phone?" Zack yelled towards the bedroom as he started checking all his pockets.

"Not since we left here earlier Zack, isn't it in your pocket where you always keep it?"

"No, I can't find it anywhere. I swear it was in my pocket." Zack answered as he bent over to look under the couch. He then proceeded to where Cody was and started looking around his side of their bedroom.

"Zack, those aren't the jeans with the hole in the pocket are they? You know you aren't supposed to be wearing those til Mom can fix them for you." Cody explained for the thousandth time.

"Oh man, I wonder where I lost it?"

"You don't think that you could have lost it at school today do you?" Cody asked fearing the answer.

"Surely not, how could I have lost it and not know it was gone? Wouldn't I have felt it going down my pant leg?" Zack asked.

"Obviously not, you lost it didn't you, why didn't you just put it in another pocket?" Cody asked he confused brother.

"I couldn't put it in my back pocket, sheesh Cody I'm not that dumb, I could have sat on it and broke it."

"You do have another front pocket don't you?" The smarter twin asked his brother.

"Uh, yeah I do… I guess I could have done that."

After much searching, and even more discussion about where the phone could be, the two decided that they needed to go back to the school and look for it. Zack wanted to make sure that the tests were done before they left them. Cody still had a few more things to do with the food samples, so they decided to go the next morning.

Sunday Morning

After the twins woke up and checked the tests, they found that there was nothing wrong with any of the food. Well they were disappointed to find that out, now they had to find another reason for the sickness. They put that aside for the time being, they had other things to worry about, finding Zack's cell phone being number one on the list. So they had breakfast, got their stuff together and headed out.

When they got to the school they went around to the back where the vent was that they used the day before. Not finding the phone anywhere near there they decided they better go in.

"You know we really getting to big to be crawling thru vents like this." Cody said as they were crawling towards the kitchen.

"Nah, we will never be that big."

As they kept crawling they heard talking. Zack turned back to Cody with a worried look on his face. Cody put his finger to his lips to signal Zack not to say anything. As they got closer to the voice they found out it was coming from the cafeteria office. They stopped so they could both hear what was being said, they could tell it was Miss Crocker the lunch lady and she was on the phone.

"Yes Jeanine, I know what this means."

"I know, I can't believe that they were here either. You know I have heard things about those two. They live in that big hotel downtown and I have heard they cause all kinds of trouble there."

Zack and Cody looked at each other in a panic. They were thinking the same thing. 'She is talking about us.'

"How did I figure it out? It is kind of hard not to notice a cell phone lying in the middle of the kitchen floor; it belongs to a kid that never eats the food here. That and when I went to the cooler there was a couple of test tubes on top of one of the leftover containers."

That did it the boys decided they better leave. But as they started to backup they heard something that made them freeze in their tracks.

What did they hear? Who is Jeanine? Find out next time. I promise it won't be such a long wait this time. Thanks to everybody for hanging with me.