Zack and Marcus are packing up to spend the 2 week holiday with their respective families. Marcus pauses in folding one of his shirts when Zack starts to laugh suddenly. He looks up and sees Zack laying on his bed with his empty suitcase open and a giant pile of his clothes on the other side.

"What's funny?" Marcus finally asks after about 3 minutes of Zack laughing to himself. Zack shook his head and tried to stop laughing. After successfully muted, Zack stays laying down and begins to talk.

"I just remembered when I was younger, I noticed this one kid, Bob, had extra time for tests and stuff and I asked him about it. He told me that he had dyslexia and described it to me. It made me think that I had dyslexia because I would jumble up some words but not as much as I did a couple months ago. I told Bob that I didn't know other kids had trouble reading when the teacher was near and the teacher jumped in and had me tested. I was exaggerating a lot of what I couldn't do but Cody and my mom thought that I was pretending. I wasn't really, it just wasn't as severe as a lot of people's. I got in a lot of trouble that summer and I had to eat a lot of vegetables. No one would believe me now if I told people I have dyslexia. Wow, mom's going to think I'm pretending again. Crap." Zack told him. "I just won't tell her anything and I'll pretend like everything is okay and I don't have trouble reading." he said mostly to himself unaware that Cody had came into the room halfway through his explanation. Marcus faced Cody with wide eyes and saw that Cody had his mouth open in shock.

flashback.
"But I'm trying as hard as I can!" a young Zack pleaded to his mother. His mom, Carey, pointed to the report card she was holding,

"Then why have all your teachers written, 'Could try harder'?" Carey asks.

"I know you can do better than this. And if you don't, you'll be spending the summer in school with no video games, no tv and no food!- fine- vegetables. And french fries aren't a vegetable!" she called as she walked off. Zack slumps his shoulders and goes into his room.
end flashback

"I forgot about that" Cody muttered and Zack shot up into a sitting position.

"It's fine, I just won't tell mom anything and we can pretend like nothing happened." Zack attempts to reassure his twin.

"Zack, you've had dyslexia this whole time and we thought you were pretending. Why didn't you ever say anything!" Cody exclaims.

"Because everyone told me that I could be doing better but I was trying as hard as I could and I didn't even know dyslexia was a thing until Bob and he had a harder time than me so I thought I was just being stupid." Zack says and Cody walks over to him and sits on the edge of Marcus' bed facing his brother.

"There are different severity of dyslexia. Why would you make us think you were pretending when you could've told us you weren't?" Cody asks.

"I didn't know I had it. I thought I was pretending myself too and I didn't want to bother anyone after everyone thought I was pretending. Please don't tell mom, she won't believe me and she'll just think that I'm pretending again." Zack begged Cody. Cody reluctantly sighed and agreed.

"Thank you!" Zack exclaims.

*time skip* (next day)

Zack and Cody have arrived to the Tipton Hotel and were currently sleeping in their shared room. Carey was in the kitchen making scrambled eggs and bacon. As she was plating the bacon, the twins stumble into the living room from their bedroom as the bacon scent called to them.

"Mornin' mom" Zack and Cody said at the same time.

"Morning,boys. I made breakfast."

"Sweet" Zack said as he and Cody settled down to inhale the food. Before they could bite into the eggs, Carey slid a piece of paper across the table in between Zack and Cody. Zack could only make out the Seven Seas in the giant bold letters across the top of the page.

"Tell me why I received this letter from the school informing me that you missed almost three weeks of school and this is the first that I heard about it?" Carey demands.

"Um, uh, you see, Zack got sick and couldn't talk for a while and our friends and I were trying to help Zack not fall behind and we forgot to tell you?" Cody tried to play it off as a not-big-deal. Carey wasn't having it.

"That's not good enough. You should've told me the second you got sick. Now, both of your first semester report cards were great. However, Zack, your first semester report card shows mostly A's and one B, while last years had mainly C's and D's. Is there anything I should know about, like, how you didn't fall completely behind, Zack?" she asks. Zack and Cody exchange a look, having a conversation through their eyes and facial expressions.

"Nope! Nothing to tell here!" Zack replied too quickly. Carey raised one eyebrow.

"Mhm, what is it?" Carey asks.

"Zack has dyslexia!" Cody exclaims, flinching when Zack slaps his arm with a whispered, "Dude!". Carey lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Not this again. Zack, I told you that you shouldn't pretend to have a learning disability just because you want to get good grades. You have to work hard for them and earn them." She scolds him, not noticing the way his shoulders slump. He turns to Cody and whispers, "I told you this would happen". He pushes away from the table and stands up.

"I'm not hungry anymore. I'm going to my room." Zack announces and rushes off to his room and shuts the door firmly, not wanting to get yelled at for slamming it like he wanted to. Carey stares at the closed door and turns to Cody with an exasperated look. Cody looks upset at Carey for making his brother upset.

"Don't look at me like that. He shouldn't be pretending to be dyslexic and you shouldn't go along with it. Hasn't he learning anything from the first time?" Carey mutters the last part to herself. Cody goes to his bedroom without a word to his mom, pulls out an orange packet that has different documents from Zack's diagnosis that he made the nurse copy for him. He goes back to the kitchen, wordlessly hands the paper folder to her and goes back to the bedroom. Carey opens the file, donning a confused expression as she sits down at the table and reads each paper.

*In Zack and Cody's room*

"Zack, come on. You can't hide under your covers forever." Cody pleads with Zack to emerge from the cocoon he wrapped himself in.

"No, I told you she wouldn't believe me and would think I was pretending again." Zack's voice is muffled by the heap of the cotton material.

"I'm sorry for telling her like that, I was panicking. I'm really sorry. I gave mom the papers of your diagnosis so maybe now she'll believe that it's true?" Cody says. Zack's head peaks out of the comforter and nods.

"It's okay. We can deal with whatever comes at us, right?" Zack says and holds out a fist and asks, "Brothers?"

Cody smiles and bumps his own fist to his brother's.

"Brother's"

Hey, guys. So this is the end. Thank you to anyone who stuck around this long. Honestly, I lost inspiration for this fic but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging so here it is. The ending is really cheesy and I didn't really know how to end it but I hope you enjoyed it anyways.