.:Chapter Six:.

Unexpected Returns


September 15

Can I just say that being on a specific diet to gain weight sucks? Not only does it make my stomach hurt more than it did when I didn't eat, but it makes me feel like everyone's constantly watching me. Like, this morning for example. Mom put my breakfast in front of me and while she has gotten better with her cooking—though I'm not going to say that I hadn't thought about ordering room service instead—it's still not something that I'm going to dive back into eating.

But I knew that Mom had been watching me, I can always tell. Cody was doing his best to keep form looking at me and that makes it worse too. Really, I preferred that they would just talk to me as opposed to thinking that it'd make me upset. Surprisingly enough, talking helps a lot and at least my therapists make me do it at my own pace.

I can't say it's all bad, though. At least they all know it's not something easy that I'm trying to get through. There are still many times that I don't want to eat something, I have no desire for it and then there are times where my body just rejects the food and I involuntarily throw up. Those are the moments that I know it has Mom staying up all night, crying or wondering what she could do to help me even further. But I'm getting everything I already need for help; I just…need more time.

But time had been the problem in the first place; I had too much time on my hands to constantly think of different ways to make sure I lost the weight. Now that I have so much time away from school, I need to find different things to fill it up or else I'm afraid that I'm going to fall back into that pattering again. Not only do my appointments only go for a certain amount of time, but then there's the rest of the day between my appointments and going to work at the day care and even then I don't work every day. But that's just as hard, I'm not allowed to do exert myself so I can't run after the kids and I can't play as many games with them as much as I'd used to and I know they don't understand what's going on.

Maddie explained that I'm sick, and then I had a bunch of them asking me questions.

What soup would make me feel better?

Did I have the chicken pox?

Could they make cards for me? Would that make me feel better?

And I couldn't help but laugh. Of course their views of the world were so innocent, if I asked them did they ever not eat, they'd probably think I was being silly. It would be hard to explain to them and hard to not scare them. In fact, I'm surprised they hadn't run screaming when they saw me right before I went into treatment. Looking at pictures of myself form them and looking into the mirror now…I can't really see a difference.

I still see fat. I still see the chubby kid I used to be. I still see all of the baby fat and the weight gain from my unhealthy eating habits when I was a kid. I know, realistically, it's not there, but I still saw it. And that was my main problem, the longer I saw that I was fat, the harder it was going to be for me to get better. That's what I'm constantly told and told and yet, I still can't eat as much as I used to.

It hurts.

-Zack

What I ate today: Half of my oatmeal, glass of orange juice.

Zack closed his notebook as the bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom. He gathered his things together, slinging his backpack over his back. Of course all of that had only been what I ate this morning, he reminded himself. I still have the rest of the day.

He followed his friends out of the classroom and fell into step beside Tapeworm as they headed off to their elective class, Local History. It was bad enough that he had AP History to deal with, but he found it a bit difficult to keep up with the homework assignments for both classes, especially as to those that were due on the same day. I don't think I can do this.

"Hey, Zack, are you OK?" Tapeworm asked, looking over at his friends.

Zack glanced up at him and shrugged. "I'm doing alright," he lied.

Tapeworm reached out and grabbed onto his arm, pulling him to a stop. "I'm not asking how you're doing with…your sickness; I'm asking how are you doing right now? You look like you'd rather be anywhere else than at school." He tilted his head to the side. "But you were practically begging to come back here"

"I know." Zack rolled his head to the side. "I'm just…" he motioned to the students that walked by him, looking their way. "I'm just tired of people whispering about me like I can't hear them. I mean, can't they find something else to talk about."

"You mean me and Max?"

Zack eyed his friend warily. A little alarm bell was going off in his head, alerting him to where the conversation was about to go. Tapeworm twisted his mouth to the side. "When they're not talking about you and what you've done through, they're talking about us. I mean, I hurt one of my best friends to—"

"I really don't want to talk about this," Zack interrupted in the same fashion that he had with Max. "You and Max can do whatever you want. I don't and didn't own her." He shrugged, turning away. "We were having a lot of problems anyway."

Tapeworm's chuckle attracted Zack's attention once more. "If you'd let me finish," he said. "I was going to say that they talk about us a lot, after what happened to you, sure. But they also talk about how we're both on the basketball team and stuff and I know how much it sucks that you can't play when you clearly want to do it again." Zack shrugged once more. "So, I was thinking, why don't you and I work on your endurance and stamina with basketball again? When we have free period during school when we're not doing homework or something. We could go to the gym and work out."

Zack studied Tapeworm for a long moment.

This was the teenage boy that had gone from being a complete dork, to one of the most competent people he had ever known. He played the drums very well and that sense of rhythm had fallen into all other aspects of his life. Sure, he was as smart as ever, easily rivaling Cody and Bailey as the smartest, but he held a quiet confidence with it, not wanting it to control his life. And, if he truthfully thought about it, he knew that Tapeworm had a crush on Max for a long time. The signs were there, they were always together, and there was a history he couldn't compete with.

But Zack had been new and so assured of himself and the two couldn't get over a crush they had when they were young and didn't get to when they should have. Even when he and Cody had started Club Twin and he had flirted with Max and she proved that she clearly wasn't interested in him, they still went back together. Maybe it was because they were afraid of what would happen when they were apart, maybe it was because everyone around them expected them to be together. He wasn't sure what the real reason was and no matter how times his therapist asked him about his feelings on the whole situation, Zack still couldn't allow himself to open up to it.

Emotions were never his thing and he didn't think it'd change anytime soon.

Lest he became a cold-hearted robot in some ways.

"You know if anyone finds out I'm more than likely going to be lectured until I die?" Zack pointed out, causing Tapeworm to chuckle again. At least someone was able to appreciate his humor about the whole situation.

"Then we won't get caught."

The nonchalance of Tapeworm's statement cased Zack to grin. He flicked his hair out of his face and held out his hand. "Deal." Tapeworm slapped his palm into Zack's and shook it firmly. He then gently patted the elder of the Martin twins on the shoulder with his textbooks and tilted his head down the hallway. Zack followed him and the two went off to their class, getting inside before the bell rang once more, signaling the start of class.

Sliding down into his seat, Zack opened his backpack and started to take out his homework.

Despite knowing there were a slew of reasons not to, he was more than excited to get back to be able to do something other than constantly watch his weight. And for the first time in a while he had a genuine smile on his face.


Heading towards the Boston Harbor later that afternoon, Zack stopped on the corner sidewalk of two converging streets and waited for the traffic to move in front of him. He didn't have to work that day and having had finished his homework at a good enough time so that he wasn't expect back for a while, it was a better time than ever.

He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and bounced on his toes, waiting for the light to change. Glancing through the cars the whizzed by, he noticed a familiar ponytail bobbing in front of him as a female figure walked came out of a building and started walking down the sidewalk. He looked both ways as the flow of traffic slowed down before hurrying after her.

"Hey, Riles! Wait up."

Riley looked over her shoulder, hearing her name called and smiled when she spotted Zack hurrying to catch up to her. "Hey Zack, what's up?" She tilted her head as he fell into step beside her and they continued down the sidewalk. "Did the kids at the daycare finally get tired of looking at you?"

"Ah, I should've seen that one coming," Zack commented, tilting his head back, laughing lightly. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Can't seem to go one day without some sort of joke can you?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly be me if I didn't, would I?"

"That's very true." He lowered his chin. "I'm not working today. Got the day off, there aren't many kids going in today and Maddie can take care of them all." He flicked his hair out of his face. "So what are you doing out here? Don't you have cross country practice?"

"I missed it today, I had a doctor's appointment," she explained then gestured back behind her. "Then I had meeting with a friend that Uncle Christian has at the gym, to talk about getting a career in fitness and everything." Her upper lip curled. "I don't think that's a career that I'd particularly want to go into, but you never know."

Zack snorted. "If you ask me, I think people are taking it too seriously. I mean, it's senior year, we should be having fun, not obsessing over the colleges that we're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on going into debt. Which, of course, just means that I should probably be looking for scholarships right now, but that's also the lease of my worries because last I checked, I was threatened to be tied down and force-fed."

Now it was Riley's turn to snort. "By now you should know that I never…usually, follow through with any of the threats I make. I just like to be playfully threatening. Actually scaring people isn't my bag, yeah?" She shrugged. "Not that many people believe it anyway."

Zack nodded silently, but didn't say anything else. He wasn't a fool, god knows there was something he was going to say that would be taken the wrong way and he would pay for it with a well aimed punch to the arm. The two continued until they reached the Boston Harbor and as Riley sat down on the top step above the lapping water, Zack stooped down and picked up a handful of rocks.

Despite it being the perfect weather for sailing, the only thing missing was the wind that would propel them along. However, it gave him the chance to look at the boats that were stationed in port. Seagulls swarmed and dove around, convening on the murky water. The waves continuously lapped at the steps and out to the Massachusetts Bay which would then lead to the Atlantic Ocean. His eyes followed them, rising and falling, watching as they crested and dispersed, taking along the slight film and debris along with it.

As he watched, Zack slowly threw the rocks into the water one by one, almost absentmindedly. In fact, for the first time in a long time he didn't find himself thinking of anything in particular. Not his worries about his wait, school, his parents—especially as he and Cody were going to be at Kurt's place for the next week—nothing. And if that wasn't a weight off his shoulders he didn't know what was.

"You know what your problem is, mate?" Riley's voice caused him to twist around and look at her. She lifted a hand and pointed at him. "You don't know how to have fun."

Now both of Zack's eyebrows lifted upwards incredulously. He didn't know how to have any fun? The guy that had a rooftop party his first week in the Tipton Hotel, who tried to get the picture of the million dollar kiss, who started rock squared, who tried to catch the hotel thieves, who led the charge in looking for the treasure rumored to be buried in the hotel, who got the French girl Jolie to go out with him even for a few minutes, and however any other things that had gone on at the Tipton hotel and he was the one that didn't know how to haven any fun?

Granted, his definition of 'fun' and hers were probably two completely different things, but not that different. She was usually the first one to join in on his plans around the Tipton hotel and in some cases teased Cody as much as he did. But still, he knew how to have fun and was probably the most fun person he had ever met. The incredulous expression must've still been on his face for Riley lifted her blue eyes to his and smirked at him.

"Yes, I'm talking to you," she said and then shrugged. "You don't know how to have any fun."

"Excuse me, but I think I know how to have fun and I'm insulted that you're implying that I don't." Zack turned back and continued to throw the rocks into the water, watching as each fall of the stone into the water created a splash like mini-canon fire. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only reason you guys came over to the Tipton all those times was just to hang out with us because you were bored and needed something fun to do."

"We lived at the Tipton hotel, dummy." Riley pushed herself up and brushed off the seat of her pants before moving up to his side, arms crossed over her chest. She flashed him a playful smile. "Though it doesn't surprise me that you don't really remember. You were usually too busy trying to get Maddie to go out with you."

"You were jealous and you know it," Zack said, returning his smile with one of his own. "Either that or you just liked spending time with me. That works, too. I mean, I am a likeable person."

"You got us into a lot of sticky situations that's for sure. And you are charismatic, I'll give you that. Not that it would've mattered if I recognized it or not, every girl you've ever gone out with has seen it." She sucked in a deep breath, suddenly looking serious. "And, for the record, it wasn't fair that you were considered not to go out with, by a lot of girls, because you were dating around. I mean, how else are you supposed to find the one you're supposed to be with, right?"

Zack's right eyebrow rose at eth sudden change in conversation topic. Not that he minded it being a serious conversation topic, just didn't really understand how it had come out of nowhere. "You sound like you've wanted to say that for a long time."

"Kind of," Riley admitted. "Not only that, but you look like you needed to hear something positive." The smirk came back to her face. "Though if you're fine with me messing with you, that's cool too." Zack matched her smirk with one of his and he threw the rock into the water once more, putting a spin on it. Riley's eyes widened as she watched the stone skip across the water. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

He threw another rock and it skipped across the water seven times.

"That!"

"Skip rocks?" Zack gave her a funny look and did it again. "You don't know how to skip rocks."

"I know how to skip rocks, mate." Her voice dripped with sarcasm along with a hint of condescension. "You can't live at the beach and go up to the lake as often as we do and not know how to skip rocks. I mean, I don't know you can get it to skip more than three or four times."

Chuckling, Zack put another stone into his hand. "It's not that hard," he said to her. "You just have to get a flick of the wrist along with having a good trajectory pattern in mind." Riley gave him a look and he rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know what trajectory means. I've done enough flight simulations in my eighteen years of life to understand how it works." As if to prove his point, he gently bent to the side and tossed the rock against the breaking wave, skipping it nine times before it sank under the surface of the water. "You want to try?"

Riley held out her hand to accept the rock he handed to her. "Knowing my luck, I probably have a better chance of the rock ricocheting off of something and hitting me in the forehead."

Zack clamped his hand down over hers and looked her directly in the eye. "Knowing my luck, I have a better chance of you accidentally hitting me."

"Because you're ego's so big you mean? Yeah, Zack, I can agree with that." Riley pulled her hand away from Zack's and pressed her lips together in concentration. She pulled her arm back and threw it forward, shooting the rock across the water a few times before it sank. As Zack burst out laughing, she reached out and shoved him on the arm. "It's not that funny!"

"It's very, funny, actually." He skipped another rock to prove how lame it was in comparison. "Just another thing you're not good at Sweet Thang, that's something I look forward to each and every time." He paused. "Apart from looking good anyway."

"Thanks for the compliment, but you're going to have to be a bit more original. Though if your aim is to improve my ridiculously low self-esteem then you're doing a good job." Sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth she tried throwing another rock and managed to get up to five skips on it. "What are friends for, right?"

"To embarrass the other in what is the most pitiful rock skipping competition ever!" Now getting up to eleven skips, Zack threw his hands into the air. "Whoo! I'm the king! And no one can touch me!" He looked over as Riley scratched her forehead, effectively covering the pout that was working its way onto her face. "And you can't handle it." He reached out and poked his finger into her cheek, digging it in until she slapped his hand away.

"I can handle it just fine; I just need to find a better rock."

She knelt down and stated to root along the stones that were at her feet. Zack knelt down as well, under the guise of looking, but reached his left hand out and flicked his fingers, splashing her in the face with water. She jerked back out of the way and moved to slap him on the arm, but, laughing, Zack quickly moved out of her reach and continued to move as she tried to hit him.

He continued to back out of her way, as she chased after him, face starting to turn a light shade of red. Anyone that knew the Australian teen knew she was starting to get very angry when her face started to turn as red as the dye in her hair. And not wanting to be on the receiving end of it for once in his life, he quickly gave up the chase and allowed her to get a few hit in before quickly fending off her blows.

"Sheesh, you really need to learn how to take a joke, Sweet Thang."

"I can take a joke, just not when I have water with who knows how what kind of bacteria flying into my face." She brushed her cheek with her shoulder as she turned, sniffing. "If I get sick after this just know I'll kick your ass."

"And I'll be waiting for it." Zack made a show of bowing regally, receiving a glare, "C'mon, I'll walk you back home, I'm sure Christian would be the one to really kick my ass if I let you go by yourself." He picked ups his backpack and slung it over his shoulders once more before the two started to walk back to her uncle's house.

Along the way they talked about the upcoming Red Soc baseball games, noting that the team had a chance of making it to the World Series, but only if they didn't mess up any of the games that were coming up.

"I'm telling you though," Zack said. "If they changed out Ellsbury with Uehara, they'd have an even better chance of winning. Ellsbury is a few games away from tearing a ligament or something. It happens like clockwork." He snapped his fingers to prove his point.

"And all I'm saying is that Ellsbury is what's working for them right now and if it ain't broke, yeah, don't' fix it." She shook her head. "But if you want to be the one that single-handedly jinxes our team from winning this year, then be my guest, mate. It'd make you a boofhead, but be my guest."

Zack rolled his eyes. He glanced up towards the front porch of the Manning household and quickly threw out his arm, stopping Riley when he noticed there was someone standing on the front porch. The person didn't seem t notice that they had approached; nevertheless he had no idea who it could've been that was looking for the house. Christian surely would've mentioned something. Glancing over at Riley, he noticed that she appeared just as confused.

"Excuse me," She called. "Can I help you? Are you looking for someone?"

Zack and Riley both stopped short when the figure on the steps turned and Robert Jackson looked back at them.