Disclaimer: I didn't own The Suite Life or Tuesdays with Morrie in the previous chapters. Nothing's changed. I still own nothing…
A/N: Okay…. this chapter is a little longer than the other ones. It needed to be, since this story is progressing so, ever so slowly…If Zack had been irritable before his crazy crash diet, then there wasn't a word to describe his surly mood the following morning. His level of irritability had increased at least three times, making the previous level seem nice.
Not only did his intestines growl at him, but the lack of food had also created stomach pains. Intense, undeniable stomach pains that brought along nauseas ness and light-headedness as part of the ride. It hadn't even been a full twenty-four hours and already he found himself yearning for food, allowing the temptations to draw him in…
He surprised himself by staying committed, however, by tricking his Mom into thinking he'd eaten breakfast. He hovered the toast inches from his mouth, holding his breath as to not barf from the smell, until she turned away from him. When she headed for the bathroom, he convinced Cody, who wasn't aware of the incident the night before, that he wasn't hungry. Then he slipped off, down to the lobby and out the revolving doors to catch the bus.
What seemed even more surprising was the fact that it was Cody who kept lagging behind. Cody, who ate his breakfast instead of Zack eating Cody's. Cody, who had gotten a head start in dreamland the night before.
Wasn't a good night's rest and breakfast supposed to give you energy? Not suck it from you? Zack didn't know what was up with his younger brother, but he didn't bother to ask. He was the one who hadn't eaten the past two meals. He was the one who felt lighter than a feather, almost certain that he was moments away from unconsciousness. He was the one with issues. Wasn't he?
Of course he was. And if Cody was too preoccupied with a useless book to see them, then why should Zack care about his issues with decreased energy, probably a result from becoming all riled up about Morrie's death? It only made sense to ignore Cody if Cody was ignoring him. Right? Of course, he assured himself, of course.
As the school bus rounded the corner and shuddered to a halt in front of the boys, Zack felt his weak start already catching up with him, already working on his body. For the first time, he dreaded walking up the three tall steps of the bus. He didn't feel enough energy within himself to do it. At the moment, he could have sworn that the mere task of lifting a pencil would be enough to push him over the edge, enough to drain that last ounce of energy stored inside his muscles, enough to make him drop dead.
It hasn't even been that long! The voices snarled inside his head, you are such a wimp! Pick up the pace, fatso!
Zack moaned, although he'd become used to the thoughts trespassing into his head. And once again, they were correct. It really hadn't been that long yet. Sure, it'd been the longest amount of time that he'd ever been through without a single drop of food—but still, it hadn't been so long that he should be feeling weak and complaining. He was sure that people who fasted didn't act the way that he was at the moment.
He shook his head. The first step was to pull himself together. If he wanted to lose this weight, he would have to stop complaining. Whining and crying didn't look good on him—that much he knew from observing Cody cry and get upset. It was for babies, not teenagers. And especially not for boys.
"Zack!" Cody yanked Zack out of his contemplation, "C'mon—Mrs. Havin's waiting!"
It took Zack several moments to realize what his brother was talking about. Mrs. Havin…he knew her…who was she again? Oh! Bus driver! Right, of course…for school.
With a groan, Zack dragged his hungry, weak, and exhausted body up the suddenly steep steps and glanced down the never-ending, black aisle in search of an unoccupied seat. The closest one happened to be located halfway down the bus. Naturally.
He would have rolled his eyes if he'd slept well. And had a few of those scrumptious-looking, steaming-hot, chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs with extra cheese that Mom had prepared for breakfast. With pulp-free, claiming to be one-hundred-percent pure orange juice…his stomach growled, drool threatening to leak from his mouth in a reputation-ruining way.
Stomach still crying out for food, he trudged moodily to the empty seat and slid over to the end of it, leaning heavily on the window. Had he not brought breakfast to mind, his stomach might have stayed quiet and content. Now suddenly, it viciously growled, over and over, louder and louder.
He imagined a tiny tiger inside his stomach, at the foot of his esophagus, with an empty food bowl labeled Hungry that it circled impatiently. It continued to growl, revealing sharp, white fangs. Its main source of food was what Zack ate, and when Zack didn't eat, neither did the tiger.
The picture lightened Zack's mood a bit as he watched the tiger in his brain. The image was erasable, something his mom had planted inside his mind from a certain story she told him as a child...
" Mommy, why do tummy's growl?" four-year old Zack questioned one night as Carey began tucking him in.
His stomach warned him with a rumble, bringing up the query. Cody found the question intriguing as well, because the youngest boy hopped onto Zack's bed, ready to be all-ears.
"Yes, mommy, why?" he inquired, eyes round with wonder.
Carey giggled, "Well," she began, "If you must know…" she paused, obviously stumped and preparing to make up an answer on the spot. "You have a tiny baby tiger—a starving tiger—inside your tummy--"
"A tiger?!" Cody piped up in disbelief, "But, mommy--"
"Hey, hey, little mister!" Carey smiled playfully, "No questions until the end!"
"'kay," he nodded.
Carey smiled, wondering what she'd gotten herself into. She hadn't intended on something so far-fetched. "As I was saying," she continued, " All the starving, undeveloped tigers in the world are automatically transported to live in our bodies, because they can't survive on their own. That's why it's so important to eat all of your meals and get in all the food groups,"
She figured this might as well double as another attempt at getting the boys to eat their vegetables. The younger they began eating healthy, the better. "Especially carrots and green beans. Baby tigers love those. Remember, not only are they for your health, but they are for the tiger as well. He needs nourishment too, after all. You don't want him to starve, he's like a little puppy. If you can't take care of a little tiger, can you take care of a puppy?"
It was a rhetorical question, which was good because neither of them answered it. They decided to ask a different question.
"How does he get the food?" Zack wondered, "I mean, we don't know he's there unless he growls. So how can we be sure he gets the food?"
"The food you eat leads straight down to him," Carey explained, now beginning to applaud her imagination. She should have considered taking creative writing classes. Maybe she could have been an English major…
"To a food bowl?" Cody asked eagerly.
"Yeah, exactly,"
"Does he have a name?"
"If you want him to," Carey shrugged.
"Mine's for Timmy, then!" he merrily exclaimed, tossing his arms up joyfully in the air.
"Timmy?!" Zack laughed.
"Timmy the Tiger!" Cody announced proudly.
"You didn't even believe Timmy existed in the first place!" Zack pointed out.
"Well now I do believe," he replied, pouting at the dagger-eyes that his brother shot at him.
Zack crossed his arms and Carey turned to him, "Zack, honey, are you going to name your tiger?" she asked gently, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Naw," he sighed, "I guess right now his name is Hungry."
"Well then he's pacing his bowl right now in anticipation. We'd better go feed him!" Carey said, "What do you think Hungry's in the mood for?"
"Cheezits!" he cried out eagerly.
"Okay, then you go ahead to the kitchen with Daddy, and Mommy will be there soon," she told him.
The little blonde nodded, jumping up and bouncing out of the room.
"What about you?" she turned to Cody, "Is Timmy hungry?"
"No," Cody replied, "Timmy's tired. He's ready for a nap,"
Carey nodded, kissing her youngest son's forehead and lifting him into her arms, twirling him around in the air to hear him giggle with glee. She glided him over the other bed, inches away from Zack's, laying him down on the sheets. The boys would have shared a bed if it weren't for the fact that Zack was still a regular a bed-wetter. Cody only had accidents every now and then.
"Night-night, mommy!"
"Night, baby," she smiled, kissing his forehead again, "I love you."
"I love you, too,"
She stood up and drifted into the kitchen to discover Zack already chowing down on baby goldfish snacks. She allowed him only one of the pre-measured bags, which held one serving.
After the bag disappeared and she found him rubbing his eyes, he said gently, "Finished?"
"The tiger's name is Full now," he informed her quietly.
Across the room, Kurt raised an eyebrow. Carey mouthed, 'later' to him as Zack followed her to his bed.
Tucking him under the covers, Zack yawned.
"So did I answer your question for you good enough?" she asked, brushing his blonde hair out of his face.
"There's really a tiger?"
"Sure is!" she answered, without warning plunging in to tickle his stomach.
Zack burst out in giggles, "Aaah! Tickle attack!!" he shrieked between breaths, "Help! Stop!"
"Alright. That's enough," she said as soon as he pleaded to quit, "We wouldn't wanna wake your brother now would we?" Her eyes traveled to the deeply asleep form of Cody.
"Yeah, I guess not," he agreed.
"Well, goodnight, sweetie. I love you,"
"Night-night. Love you too," young Zack answered, closing his heavy eyelids as his Mother planted a loving kiss on his forehead…
"ZACK! Wake up! We're here!"
Zack jolted awake.
"Huh?" he mumbled groggily in confusion.
It took him a moment to drink in his surroundings, to focus in on everything around him. Cody stood over him, his face contorted in concern.
"You fell asleep," Cody said dully, obviously wishing he'd been the one asleep.
"Yeah…guess so…" he'd been so lost in his childhood memory that he couldn't even recall nodding off.
For some reason, his Mom's tummy tiger story weighed heavily on his mind. He considered the fact that it was because he was slowly and steadily killing his tiger. Even though it was just a silly fantasy, the guilt still hurt unbearably. He was murdering his childhood memory, the tiger he'd never before neglected. The tiger that's name would remain Hungry from now on…unless he changed his mind. And until the voices moved on to drive someone else insane.
He glanced around at all the other seats. Apparently he and Cody were the only ones left on the bus now.
"How long did it take you to wake me?" He questioned, looking around in shock.
"Several 'ZACK!'s," he answered quietly and slowly, "We gotta get to class,"
Agreeing, Zack scrambled up and made his way through the halls to first period, just seconds before the bell rang.
Unfortunately, that's when he realized that he'd forgotten to do his Tuesdays With Morrie book report. And it was due today, right now. English had to be his first hour of the day!!
"Cody!" he whispered harshly across the room.
His younger brother looked over at him, mouthing 'what?!' irritably.
"I really need help!! I didn't do the book report!"
Cody's pale face somehow seemed to whiten even more, though why, Zack couldn't understand. Did he not finish it? He worked on it all night, did he not? Still, Cody quickly regained his posture with a shrug.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you!"
"Code, please!" he frantically begged.
"Zack—I didn't--"
He was silenced as Mrs. Floana cleared her throat from the front of the classroom.
"Okay, time to start class!" she bellowed, "I reminded you yesterday that I'd take up your book reports first thing today. And if you are sitting there right now saying, 'oh, yeah! Whoops!', well, I hate to break it to you, but that's just tough cookies. You will take a zero."
Zack gritted his teeth, biting his tongue until he could taste his own, fresh metallic blood. Just what he needed—another big, fat zero. He grumbled under his breath as Mrs. Floana reached his desk.
"No book report, Mr. Martin?" she asked disappointedly.
Zack shook his head, which did him no good. It increased the light-headed feeling he had, swaying the room around him oddly, the figures and colors all bleeding into one for several terrifying seconds.
Mrs. Floana seemed to notice the discomfort written on his face, observing his overall appearance. He did seem rather troubled, with dark circles under his eyes and no-energy attitude. She decided that she didn't have the heart to give him yet another bad grade, therefore offering him one last opportunity.
"Don't think I'll always do this, Mr. Martin. But just this once, I'll allow you more time. The end of this week, you understand?"
Zack perked up. Sure, it was already Thursday, but she'd given him another day!! A day to at least fake a report somehow. And for that, he was grateful.
So was Cody. When Mrs. Floana approached him, he explained how he'd fallen asleep the night before, how he'd read to the end and Morrie's death upset him. How he finished only half of the report. Luckily, she trusted his story. Cody was one of her best students, after all. She gave him another day.
Relief washed over him. It paid to be known as a good student, a responsible and trustworthy person. But at the same time, Zack had begun to work on him. He worried about his mood lately. Glancing over at him, he always appeared to miles away. His mind was in a completely alternate dimension. What he thought about all day long was an absolute mystery to Cody. It had been for quite some time. He used to be able to know at least somewhat the thought process of his brain, back when they were inseparable. But anymore, it was impossible. Which worried him. Especially now, when Zack looked so vulnerable and tired. He even looked sick. And he hadn't eaten that morning—the most out-of- character thing for Zack to do.
As the bell finally sounded to signal the end of second period, Cody rushed over to Zack, who's ghastly pale face told Cody that perhaps his brother was only moments away from throwing up. Or fainting.
"You okay?" he said, doubting Zack would tell him anything. But he had to try.
He received a sharp glare.
"I—I think you should see the school nurse. You don't look so well,"
"Well I think I shouldn't!" Zack returned weakly, yet still in his classic rebellious way.
He roughly gathered his books, swaying violently as he reached the door. Panicking, Cody ran over in hopes to assist him. But Zack gruffly rejected his help.
"I'm fine! You go see the nurse! UGH!!"
Cody felt as if a dagger had been stabbed into his heart. In a way, he wished it really had been. It might be better than this torture. Not knowing what his brother was going through. Watching him and sleeping in the same room as him, though they barely spoke. The wall between them stung Cody worse than the three wasps that had bitten him two summers ago. It seemed unbreakable and hopeless.
Not only did he worry for Zack and his far-away relationship with him, but he worried about himself as well. What was wrong with him?! He'd slept every day this week after school, so unlike him. He'd neglected to finish his homework!! And altogether, he felt cruddy. Lately he didn't even want to crawl out of bed, as if his energy had already been sucked out of his body. Before his day began. And as each day ticked by, the little energy he had to work with lessened and lessened. He was constantly in slow motion. Any slower, and he'd be going backwards.
A/N: It was probably a weird chapter, I know…but please, please, PLEASE review anyways!!!!!