Summary: CrossFic Zoey 101 x The Suite Life of Zack and Cody Zoey, Chase, Dana, Logan, Nicole and Michael form a band and are invited to The Battle of the Bands at the Tipton Hotel. What happens when they meet all the people at the Tipton? What friendships and romances will be formed? Which ones will be broken? They'd better look out, because Zack and Cody are double trouble! I'll let the pairings be a surprise!
A/N: Here's an update for you guys! This chapter, I believe, has much emotion. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoey 101 or The Suite Life. Or Outside Looking In, by Jordan Pruitt.
IMPORTANT: This story takes place for Zoey 101 in the middle of season 1, and has no relation to my other stories. It takes place after the episode Quinn's Date, so everything that happened before that did occur. And for The Suite Life, it takes place when they are thirteen, a year after the episode Band in Boston, okay? And everything that happened in all that time on the show happened in this story, okay? Okay…
Double Trouble
Chapter 7:
Heart Or Mind
That night…
Zack's POV
Max and that Chase kid?
That Chase kid and Max?
Max?
With him?
It just didn't make any sense. I knew that I wasn't the kinda guy to comprehend everything, but as I had said, I usually got it in the end. Well, not this time.
Why would Max, the Max that I used to spit spitballs with, the Max that loved basketball more than makeup or jewelry, date him?
I didn't even know who we was. I only knew his name was Chase and he was friends with Zoey. Then why was this bothering me so much? I was Zack Martin…I didn't get bothered by this kinda stuff. I would shrug it off and move on.
But this was different.
Wait, what am I talking about? This is Max! Max! Your bud, your b-ball teammate, one of the guys, in a way…right?
Maybe not.
No, of course she is. She's just my friend. Nothing else.
So you're just going to ignore whatever else you're feeling? Like you always do?
What was wrong with me?
This was not happening to me…no. No way. Zack Martin didn't feel stuff like this. According to others, I barely felt at all.
But I did feel. I did! Crap.
What was it I was feeling, then? I dunno or care. Zack Martin didn't feel…so how was he supposed to know what he was feeling when he was?
I groaned and shoved a pillow over my head, trying to block out my thoughts.
Think about something besides Max and Chase…anything besides Max and Chase…
Yup. I had officially lost it. Woo hoo.
Zoey's POV
I couldn't sleep. You know those days where you're so, so tired but you just couldn't fall asleep because you just had so much on your mind that you needed all the time in the world to think about it?
Lemme tell ya, this was one of those nights. Great. It was two days before the stupid band battle and I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't believe what I had just seen! Max and Chase? That was as idiotic as Logan and the cranky old lady running the booth at the theater!
Max was with Chase…my Chase… No! Wait, what? Not my Chase. He wasn't mine. He wasn't my property.
But somehow, selfishly, for this whole year, I thought that he'd always be there…my best friend with the goofy, out-of-control hair, those happy, bright grenn eyes, that lopsided smile. Not that he was with someone else…I guess I was…
My mind and my heart both finished that sentence.
My mind said 'weirded out.'
My heart screamed: jealous.
Back at home, I was always taught to listen to your brain, your common sense, your knowledge.
My mind said that Zack was cute, so I went out with him. My heart had told me it was a horrible mistake, but I didn't listen.
My heart cried that maybe Dana and Nicole were right, that Chase did love me…and that maybe I loved him-I didn't…I think. Um.- but my mind told me was just a friend.
Well, Zoey. I thought to myself, coming to a realization. Time to listen to your heart…
I closed my eyes and listened…hard. I was thinking that this was an idiotic idea, but brushed past that, and discovered something shocking.
I'm jealous. Jealous of Chase and Max. Jealous that he was with her and not me. Jealous that she was now his. Jealous that he would flash her smiles of love and me only smiles of friendliness. Jealous that he apparently loved her…
But I loved him…
Oh. My. Freakin. Gosh.
I, Zoey Anne Brooks, was in love…
But not with Zack.
On that note, I closed my eyes, wishing for a better tomorrow.
The next morning…
Normal POV
Max heard the alarm beep. She stumbled out of bed, praying Zoey wouldn't wake up and pressed the snooze button.
She turned to Zoey, still fast asleep under her purple covers. She sighed with relief and turned to the clock: 7:04. She had about one and a half hours to turn herself into Zack Martin's dream girl.
You don't know my name
You don't know anything about me
I try to play nice
I want to be in your game
She was sick of it. Sick of being Max, one of the guys, a buddy to him, the tomboy, the girl wearing sports jerseys and baseball hats.
No one knew the real her. Sure, she loved basketball and baseball, but she was so, so much more than that. She was a girl.
The things that you say
You
may think I never hear about them
But
word travels fast
I'm
telling you to your face
I'm
standing here behind your back
She heard all the things the kids at school said about her.
"Is she really a boy?"
"Why doesn't she try to be fashionable?"
"Ew, why's she wearing a baseball hat?"
She tried hard to ignore them. But they hurt. A lot. When would anyone get it?
Max eyed the clothing she had secretly put out the night before. Pinks. Purples. Baby blues. Nothing Max would ever wear…
But what Maxine Annabelle had to wear.
You don't know how it feels
To
be outside the crowd
You
don't know what it's like
To
be left out
And
you don't know how it feels
To
be your own best friend on the outside looking in
No one understood. Not even her. Max knew it was wrong, changing yourself for someone else, but she felt that she had to. Slowly but surely, she slipped on all the "pretty" colors and fashionable trends. A flowy but short bubble gum pink shirt, a white mid-drift with sparkly silver rhinestones, a cropped short-sleeved jean jacket over it, and tan Uggs.
She looked in the mirror. She felt like a stranger in these clothes, like she didn't know who she was anymore. All she knew was if she wanted Zack to fall in love with her, it was what she had to do…
If you could read my mind
You
might see more of me that meets the eye
And
you've been all wrong
Not
who you think I am
You've never given me a chance
No one ever gave her a chance to show who she truly was in her heart. They just assumed there was only one side of her. If only they knew what was going through her mind, but then they would pity her.
She hated pity.
Almost as much as heartbreak.
Max walked down the quaint room and into the small bathroom the four girls had to share. She opened the cupboard, where in the back, she had hid her own hair supplies: a curling iron, hair straightener, hair spray, hair shine, hair dye…the list went on.
She took a good look in the mirror at her boring, straight hair. She sighed, knowing in her heart that she had never really cared how her hair looked until now.
For the next 50 minutes, Max curled her super straight hair into luscious, beautiful curls. She then clipped one part back with a sparkly pink and purple butterfly clip she had gotten from her Great Aunt last year but never touched. Then, she doused it in hair spray, coughing at the annoying fumes.
She'd always hated hair spray.
You don't know how it feels
To
be outside the crowd
You
don't know what it's like
To
be left out
And
you don't know how it feels
To
be your own best friend on the outside looking in
She looked in the mirror yet again and smiled a little at her new appearance, then frowned when she realized what was up next.
Makeup.
Makeup had always made her want to gag. Max had always thought it was so pointless and slightly gross to put random, sparkly gook above your eyes or on your lips.
But if she wanted to be Maxine Annabelle, she would have to, as Zack had said once about dating her, "take one for the team."
But in this case, she didn't have a team. She was all alone as of now.
Well, I'm tired of staying at home
I'm
bored and all alone
I'm
sick of wasting all my time
She put on some light pink, sparkly eye shadow, pink lip gloss, and some bronzer. She looked in the mirror one more time and gasped in surprise.
Max was no longer existent in that reflection.
She sighed, partly happy and partly sad, and walked out the door. She heard Zoey's alarm go off and ran out the door and out of the hotel room before anyone could see the stranger is now called Maxine Annabelle Livetica Samuels…or notice that the Max they thought they knew had gotten up early and changed herself for a guy.
Nicole's POV
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Ah, no! Stupid alarm clock, interrupting my beauty sleep. That was so suckish.
"Dana!" I screamed, still in my uncomfortable. "Get up! We have to go to band practice!"
Dana stayed silent, sleeping in her bed. I sighed, sat up in bed, and threw a pillow at her head.
She rolled over in her bed and mumbled, "Logan, I love you, you idiot." I laughed.
Dana loves Logan…Dana loves Logan…Dana loves Logan…Dana loves Logan…
Zoey walked out of her and Max's room, all ready for the day. How could she get up as early as 8:30? It was soo weird. I was more of a 10:00 person.
"Hey, Zoe!" I greeted with a smile. "Good morning!"
"Morning," Zoey mumbled sadly. I frowned.
"You okay?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. Zoey had told ne everything last night once she got back, about Chase and Max. She was in denial, but I so think she was jealous with a capital J.
"Yeah, I guess," she sighed.
"'Kay, can you wake Dana up?" I asked her. "She's dreaming about Logan again and I need to go get ready before rehearsal at 12."
"Yeah, sure," she agreed. I grabbed the clothes I was gonna wear and ran to the bathroom to change.
I put on my jean capris, light blue lace tanktop, blue, sparkly, skinny scarf, light blue Converse low tops, and an assortment of jewelry. Then, I walked over to the blow dryer only to be stopped and confused because…
It wasn't mine. Neither was the hair products or makeup! Who else could it be? It wasn't Zoey's, 'cause she towel dried her hair and always put away her makeup and stuff. Like always. A piece of tape stuck to the wire of the dryer caught my eye. I lifted it up, turned it and gasped.
Maxine Samuels.
I gasped silently, and looked at all the pieces of tape on the products and on the makeup.
They all belonged to Max
Wow-ie.
I put all of it away, and I took out my dryer and makeup and in an hour, I was done.
I ran out of the room, seeing that Dana was ready, too.
"Ready to go, peppy?" Dana asked.
"Yeah," I answered. "Oh, my gosh, you guys! You'll never guess what I just found in on the bathroom table!"
"What?" they asked in unison. I was about to tell them of my discovery when I realized: Max probably wanted to keep it a secret.
Uh…" I thought fast. "My lost scrunchy!"
"Cool," Zoey commented, picking up her purse. "Let's go!" I followed Dana and Zoe out the door.
Max so owes me BIG TIME.
A.N: Oh no…Max is trying to be something she's not. That's a no-no. And, oh, god, Nicole knows! Nicole, the BIG MOUTH! Who just so happens to be dating Zack's brother…and what will happen during rehearsal when Zoey and Chase face each other? How's that bet going between Logan and Dana? And OMG, it's implied that Zoey realizes she loves Chase! Ah! What will happen with that? REVIEW TO FIND OUT!
FutureStArLeT101
