Chapter 4

I don't own these characters, but it would be nice if I did.

Wait...In this story, I actually created some of them, so I do own them.

Anyways, I do promise to keep them true to themselves.

And as for the ones I did create, who they are is up to me, so...

Austin, Texas

Zack and Cody both just sunk even further back into their beds. Both were overwhelmed thinking about the implications of what they had both just discovered. At the same time, both felt confused, sad and angry. Confused by the recent knowledge that was turning their worlds upside down. Sad that they had gone fifteen years without knowing of the other's existence. And angry that their parents could not only have separated them but also never felt the need to tell them about each other. Finally, Cody took a deep breath.

"So...do I have any other siblings I never knew I had?"

Zack looked up at him and shook his head. "No. Well, not really. Addison is like a sister, but no biological ones." He paused. "Do I?"

Cody shook his head too. "No. I can't believe Mom and Dad did this to us! Where do they get off screwing with our lives like this?"

"I don't know. I'm still dealing with the fact that I have a twin brother. One...from what I can tell...is absolutely nothing like me!"

"Well...we're twins...not clones of each other. While our DNA is 99.999999999% the same, there are going to be some differences."

"Yeah...but you're a nerd!"

Cody rolled his eyes. "And you're a jock! Trust me...you aren't the only one who has been thrown for a loop here..."

Zack sighed. "So...what are we supposed to do now?"

Cody paused and reached over for his cell phone. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to call Mom and get some answers!"

He was about to dial his Mom's number when Zack stopped him. Cody looked up and saw his new twin brother grinning at him.

"What?"

"I have a better idea."

"I'm all ears..."

Zack's grin widened. "I say we get a little payback on them first. I say I head back to Boston and you back to Seattle. We have an entire summer to mess with their minds. And at the end of the summer, we find a way to switch back. That way, we are no longer the ones in the dark. They are!"

Cody shook his head. "That would never work."

"Why not?"

"For starters, you know absolutely nothing about my life in Boston. You don't know any of my friends or my routine or who I am. The only person you'd be able to fool right now would be London..."

Zack kept grinning. "True. Right now, I would have no chance of pulling it off. The same with you with my life in Seattle. But...we can teach each other everything we need to know. We have a week left here to get down the basics..."

Cody just looked at him. "You're serious about this?"

"Dead serious."

Cody paused. It would actually be nice to finally get to know his Dad for once. And he had never been to Seattle before...that he remembered. The more and more he thought about, the more and more he began warming up to the idea. Finally he sighed and shook his head. "We better get started then. We have a lot of work to do. But...we switch back before school starts. I've worked long and hard to have a perfect attendance record and GPA. No offense, but I refuse to let you screw that up!"

Zack laughed. "Fine by me...And this works out perfectly. You can do my summer school work for me!"

Cody hung his head, but they immediately got to work. Both pulled out their cell phone to show pictures and began giving the other detailed descriptions of the people they would see on a regular basis. Zack gave Cody the lowdown on their Dad, Addison, Addison's Dad, Billy, his basketball coach, his teammates and everyone else he could think of. Likewise, Cody gave Zack the lowdown on their Mom, Woody, London, Esteban, Mr. Moseby and everyone else he could think of too.

Cody paused. "Wait a minute. Do you have a girlfriend?"

Zack shook his head. "No way. No way the Zack man settles on just one..." He paused. "I know the answer to this is probably no, but what about you?"

Cody smirked at him. "Not currently, but you might run into Barbara, so I should tell you a little bit about her. Like...don't get her mad or she'll stomp your foot. I would ask about the girl's you've dated, but you've already shown you can't remember names, so I should be alright..."

"Ha ha..."

Cody paused. "There is one thing you're going to have to do if this is going to have any chance of working..."

"What?"

"Cut your hair."

Zack frowned at him. "No way! Chicks dig my hair! You have any idea how long it took me to get my hair to come down to my shoulders?"

Cody sighed. "Exactly. I will have only been gone three weeks. No one will ever believe my hair grew that much in such a short span."

"Can't you just say you used some Rogaine?"

Cody just gave him a look. "Not a chance, Goldilocks. You're tresses will have to go."

Zack sighed. "Oh...alright. I can grow it back later."

"Tell you what. You can keep them until the day before we have to leave. That way, there will be less questions from people around here."

So, up until the day they had to leave to head back to Boston and Seattle, they kept quizzing each other over the things they needed to know. And on the day before they left, Zack did indeed get his hair cut to match the haircut that Cody had. And by the morning they had to leave, they thought they had covered everything...though both would soon learn there were a few things they forgot to tell each other.

"Now, if anyone asks, you can't play basketball for the rest of the summer because you tweaked your ankle and aren't supposed to do any jumping on it."

Cody nodded. "And you'll avoid doing anything like trying to cook in the hotel suite. I've written down everything you need to do for London's webshow. And you have my cell phone number in case an emergency comes up."

"And you have mine too."

Cody paused. "And how exactly will we pull off switching back?"

Zack just grinned. "We'll worry about that later. I'll come up with something."

So, three weeks after they had left to come to Austin and a week after their worlds had been turned upside down, Cody found himself on a plane towards Seattle and Zack on a plane towards Boston. When both landed, they were a little worried about how everything would go despite their careful planning.

Boston, Massachusetts

Arriving at Logan International Airport, Zack departed the airplane and walked through the concourse towards baggage claim. Suddenly, he realized he wasn't sure what to expect exactly. He kept looking around, but nothing looked familiar to him at all. The one thing he did notice was that everyone had deep Boston accents. He briefly wondered if he would be able to pull off one of those off, but he remembered that Cody didn't have one. Walking over to baggage claim, he didn't see his bags. But then he remembered he was using Cody's bags and quickly found them. It wasn't too hard as there was a tag attached them with all of Cody's information on them.

"Cody!"

Zack didn't immediately turn around, but then he remembered that he was supposed to be Cody. He turned around and saw a red headed woman smiling at him and coming right at him. It was his Mom. Carey walked over to him and engulfed him into a huge hug.

"You're home! I missed you so much!"

For the first time in his life, Zack wasn't sure what to say. How do you handle the first time you see your mother that you actually remember? Carey pulled back and looked at him.

"You didn't miss your old mom?"

Zack felt his emotions getting to him and choked out a whisper. "Yeah...I did. More than you can imagine..."

Carey paused. "Are you okay, Cody?"

He swallowed. "Yeah. I'm fine. Guess I'm just anxious to get home."

She smiled. "Good. And I'm glad your home. I think Woody's been counting down the days until you got home. He practically driving Chef Paulo crazy." She began laughing too. "London too. She's been complaining about him producing Yay Me! so much that I think she's actually missed you."

Zack had to laugh at that. He didn't know London Tipton, but he had read about her in magazines and heard everything that Cody had told him about her. "Imagine that..."

Carey finally got Zack outside to and hailed a cab. And the whole ride back to the Tipton Hotel, Zack kept looking around taking in Boston. When they drove past Fenway Park, he was practically plastered against the window of the cab looking at it in awe. Finally, they got back to the hotel, and Zack finally got to see the majesty of the Tipton lobby.

To himself, he mumbled. "This place looks awesome..."

Back up on the 23rd floor, he began looking around the suite. He looked at Cody's meticulously clean room and cringed. Something would have to be done about that. But more than anything, he looked around at all of the pictures in Cody's room. He picked up one of Cody and his Mom when Cody was about five or six, and Zack felt a pang of jealousy.

"Are you feeling okay, Honey? Looks like something is wrong."

Zack turned and saw his Mom looking at him in concern. He nodded. "Yeah. I guess...ummm...due to the jet lag, I'm not quite feeling like myself today..."

Seattle, Washington

Arriving at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Cody departed the airplane and made his way through the concourse to baggage claim. Remembering he now had Zack's bags, he quickly found them. At the moment, he was glad he had inserted Zack's name on the temporary tags available at the Austin airport. Once he had them, he turned around but not quite sure what to expect.

"Zack!"

Cody looked around and that's when he saw him. His Dad. At that moment, Cody found himself go through the full gauntlet of emotions again that he had felt a week earlier. The one prevailing one was that he was finally meeting his Dad. But he didn't have time to think any further as he found himself being lifted up in a big bear hug.

"There you are, Zack. How was basketball camp? Learn any new moves to use to trick your opponents?"

Cody just looked at him when Kurt sat him down. He swallowed. "You could say I learned all kinds of things while I was there..."

Kurt laughed. "Good." He stopped laughing and paused. "What happened to your hair?"

Cody paused. "Oh...ummm...well, I was sweating so much during practices that I cut it to keep it from getting in the way."

"Not a bad idea." Kurt began laughing again. "Probably a good thing anyways. The hair band look went out in the 80's anyways..."

Cody found himself laughing too. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Come on. Let's get you home. She'll never admit it to you, but Addison's missed you too."

Kurt lead Cody out to a very nice sports car, and they began driving back towards the Martin house on Puget Sound. And as they passed the Seattle Space Needle, Cody looked at it in awe. To him, it was such an awesome display of engineering and architecture. Finally, Kurt and Cody arrived at the house, and Cody was taken aback by how large it was as well as the dock right on Puget Sound. He remembered Zack saying their father had done fairly well for himself, but he was impressed. Cody lugged his bags up to where Zack said his room was and shuddered in disgust when he finally saw it. The place was a pigsty. He would have to do something about that. But that was when he noticed a picture of Zack and his Dad on the dresser. In the picture, Zack looked to be about five years old. And that's when the painful feelings returned, and Cody realized everything that he had missed out on.

"Getting settled back in?"

Cody turned around real quick, and Kurt noticed the look on his face.

"Everything okay, Zack?"

Cody collected himself and nodded. "Yeah. Must be jet lag. Not quite feeling like my usual self I guess..."

Kurt nodded. "Well, why don't you take it easy tonight. I hope you and Addison can look after yourselves for a while because Billy and I have to run down to the studio for a little while."

Cody nodded. "No problem."

Kurt smiled. "Good. Oh...keep open next Saturday night. I have a surprise for you."

To be Continued...

AN: I did have a review where someone said I had written Bailey as a jerk. How? She hasn't even been really introduced in this story yet. And, like I say at the top of every chapter, I always keep the characters as true to themselves as I can. If you don't, what's the point of using the characters in a story anyways? What's the point of writing them to do things they would never do? That would be a slap in the face to the characters who we already know so well.