.:Chapter 10:.

Under The Microscope

"Hey buddy, you got everything?"

Zack looked up and grinned at Kurt as he leaned against the doorway to his and Cody's room. Zack then nodded and closed the top of his suitcase. "Not unless you want to help me close this thing." He placed both hands on top and pressed t down as hard as he could, then slowly moved his right hand down to grab onto the zipper, hoping to lick it in place. However, as soon as he moved, the lid popped back open, nearly propelling Zack to the floor.

Cody, who was sitting on the other side of the room, his bags neatly packed away, laughed as Zack let out a growl and moved to viciously attack his less than cooperating duffel. "That's why you roll your clothes when you pack," Cody said. "And know how to pack for a simple weekend."

"Excuse me, but you can't go to Dad's apartment and not bring along a basketball, a football, baseballs, water balloons…" Zack listed as he opened the top of his bag again, his eyes scanning the contents that were inside. Hard to believe that they were actually able to use all of them while they had only been gone for the weekend. Kurt walked over and grabbed onto the top of the bag, holding it down with his arms. Zack grabbed onto the zipper and moved it around the shape, locking the contents in place.

"Did you put any clothes in there?" Cody pressed, lowering his science textbook.

"Umm…" Zack lifted the shirt that he was wearing and sniffed it. It didn't smell too bad, a little musky, nothing that cologne or body spray couldn't handle. "Yeah, a little." He and Kurt laughed and high-fived as Cody rolled his eyes.

"This is why Mom and I have a chore chart," he remarked.

"And that's why your Mom isn't the fun parent," Kurt replied. He reached over and ruffled Cody's hair as he scowled and then clapped his hands together, briskly rubbing he palms back and forth over each other. "Ok, so what did we agree on? Oh, yes. Don't mention to her that we ate nothing but junk food and I won't mention you didn't do your homework. Now that we got that squared away, are you ready to go?"

"Oh, one thing!" Zack snapped his fingers and turned to the corner of the room where a black Martin X Series LX Little Acoustic Guitar was leaning against the wall. The small coating of dust was the only indicator that it hadn't been used in a while. "That guitar that you have other there? Is it still for sale?"

Kurt glanced over at it, then shifted his eyes back to his eldest son, a slow grin spread across his face, his eyes crinkling in the corners. "Were you thinking about picking up the guitar again? Taking after your old man, huh?"

"In the girls department, maybe," Zack replied.

"Do you mean in clothes?" Cody teased.

Zack moved his arm behind his back and gave his brother the finger, holding it up long enough to be sure that his brother got the picture. Smirking to himself, Zack turned his attention back to his father and his smirk immediately dropped when he saw the disapproving glance that he was sending his way. Zack immediately dropped his arm and crossed them over his chest. "Hey, you're the fun parent, remember?" He reminded him, and then ran a hand through his hair. "Actually, it's not for me, Riles was asking if you were still selling it."

Kurt's right eyebrow rose for a moment, studying his son before he walked over to it. Whistling a song to himself, which Zack recognized as one of his earlier hits, and picked it up. He looked it over for a moment, studying the strings, the frets, the woodsman ship, before turning around and handing it out to Zack. "How much was she asking for it?"

"I don't know." Zack shrugged. "How much are you selling it for?"

Kurt rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How does one fifty sound?"

"Sounds good to me." Zack shrugged and pulled his shoe off of his right foot. Reaching down into the side, he pulled out a couple dollar bills. He handed it over to Kurt at the same time that Cody leapt to his feet and slammed into his brother's side. Yanking the shoe from his hand, he looked at the money that was inside. "D'you mind?" He took the shoe back from him. "You have your ways on money managing and I have mine." He elbowed Cody in the stomach and slid his shoe back onto his foot. "Thanks, Dad." He placed the guitar on top of his bag.

"You're welcome," Kurt replied. Now he ruffled Zack's hair. "Ok, so you have your stuff, we went over what we're not telling your mother, and…I think that's everything. Oh, Cody, don't forget what I told you about loosening up a little." Cody smiled and nodded. "And Zack, don't forget to follow that workout plan that we worked out." Zack nodded a well. "Ok, now give me a hug." Zack and Cody walked into their father's arms and hugged him tightly. Kurt hugged them back, giving them each a kiss on the side of the head, causing the boys to groan and wipe at the spots. "Come on, you can't be too old for that."

"We're not the old ones, Dad," Cody remarked, not-so-secretly pointing at him.

"Old huh?" Kurt reached over and grabbed onto a pillow. He swung it around and whacked Cody on the side of the head. Cody fell over and Zack laughed loudly, pointing at him. In retaliation, Cody reached out and grabbed onto Zack's ankle, knocking him over onto the floor. Kurt was then on top of both of his sons, tickling them and hitting them with pillows.

Their laughter mixed together with their groans of pain and pleads for the torture to end.

Though they didn't want it to end.

When Kurt got tired of the tickle torture, he hauled the boys to their feet. "Let's get going. If I don't have you back within the hour, you know your Mom is going to call every hospital in the city." He suddenly grimaced, scratching the back of his neck as Zack and Cody gave him pointed looks. "Man, you accidentally give your kids food poisoning once and she thinks I'm out to kill you each time you cover over."

"You gave us hot dogs that were being sold from the trunk of a guy's car," Cody pointed out.

Kurt shrugged. "They looked OK to me. Besides, you were only in the hospital for one day. You were just so mall and it must have really hit you hard." He started laughing and when he saw that his boys weren't laughing as well, he abruptly cut himself off. "Ok, I guess we'll find another time to joke about it. Ahem, let's go."

"We should take one more bathroom break before we go," Cody suggested, getting that scholarly look in his eyes that he usually got whenever he was about to spurt out random facts. Zack rolled his eyes and looked at his father, who gave him the same look in reply. "That way we won't have to worry about any potential accidents or-"

"Ok! Ok!" Zack threw his hands up into the air. "Geez, you dink a monster bottle of water on a drive once and you're branded for life." Kurt burst out into hysterical laughter as Zack abandoned his bags and crossed the apartment to go to the bathroom.

Zack stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He turned and stared hard at his reflection in the mirror. Blonde hair that was turning brown, light blue eyes, freckled across his nose, mole above his lip, mouth that seemed to curl into a mischievous smile by default. However, as he looked into the mirror, he could see that there was something different about his face. A little less pudge, maybe? They had been doing nothing but play basketball, watch sports on TV, eat junk food, and do it all over again as the weekend went on. He and Cody had played hard against each other and Zack had gone to the weight room as often as he could. Even the times that he could sleep at night, he would get a quick set of weights in, though his muscles would be screaming in pain. Still, it made him feel good knowing that he was working hard to get better at his position on the team. Zack leaned forward and continued to study his face.

Yeah, he had lost a little weight in his face, it wasn't as around as it used to be, and he could see some of his cheekbones as well. Apparently it was something that all of the girls liked, he had been commented about it multiple times, along with his smile. Zack's eyes moved down to his chest and he lifted up his shirt to study his chest and stomach. Not much there, his stomach was flat, but there were no defining characteristics of a six pack or anything of the sort. He was going to have to work on that. His chest wasn't that amazing to look at either, his nipples just sat there, no ounce of muscle that seemed to make his stomach stand out either. Frowning, Zack lowered his shirt, and rubbed his hands over his arms. There was muscle definition there from the many sports that he played over the years, he didn't skateboard as much as he used to, but his constant running around worked well for him as he was growing up.

Zack narrowed his eyes as he continued to watch himself in the mirror. He was working to change his diet and workout routine and the people that he mentioned it to so far had reacted with surprise. How were his friends going to react? What was Max going to say? She was really supportive of Tapeworm and Cody and their decision to want to try and join the basketball team, even going as far as to help them get ready without telling him. That sort of bugged him, when he had found out, not that Cody had been working to steal his position—which he still couldn't seem to get over, no matter how many times he told himself or Cody that he was—but that Max hadn't told him what she was doing.

Not that I would even know, she's always so busy with her own stuff that I barely see her anymore. Zack ran a hand through his hair then rubbed the sides of his face. Turning his head, he glanced at the toilet next to him. A buzzing sound reached his ears as he sluggishly moved over to the porcelain throne. Kneeling, as if bowing for a king, he lifted the lid to the toilet and stared at his distorted reflection in the water.

"Eating, maybe. That just means that you're going to eat twice as much as you usually do at the buffet."

"And God knows Zack would never miss a meal."

"You're fat!"

Funny how it was water that most people looked at to get a good reflection of themselves. A mirror was perfect for someone to have a clear view of how they saw themselves, seeing how someone else saw them in their outward appearance. However water, it distorted everything as it never really kept still, there was always something moving it. A clearer picture was the thing that could give you a harsh reality check, even harsher than any one person could. Your demons were exposed, you saw the darkness in your eyes, you saw how everything else went on around you and you were the one that was holding things back.

Zack's stomach lurched to the side and he leaned over, opening his mouth, throwing up. He grabbed onto the sides of the toilet bowl and his seized, sending out another wave of puke. Zack grimaced as he looked at it, watching as the hot dogs, chips, candy, ice cream, sandwiches, fries…everything that they had eaten had come up. He didn't mean to eat that much, after he had thrown up the first time, he hadn't been hungry, but then after a couple of hours, for the rest of the weekend, he stuffed his face as much as Cody and Kurt did.

All of those basketball games must have been catching up to him.

"Zack, are you ok?" Kurt knocked on the door, sounding concerned. "Do you need me to get you some ginger-ale or something?"

"No!" Zack managed to choke out. He dry-heaved and shook his head, slamming his eyes shut. After a few seconds of heavy breathing, he swallowed thickly. "No, I'm fine. Just an upset stomach. I barely made it in here."

"I told you that we should have gone to the bathroom before leaving," Cody said, sounding a little smug.

"Shut up, Cody, or I'll beat you to a pulp," Zack murmured. He closed the lid of the toilet and with a shaky hand, reached up and grabbed onto the toilet handle. Letting out another sigh, he rested his cheek on the top of the closed toilet seat. With his damp hand, he smoothed his hair off of his face. "I'm fine, just let me rinse my mouth out."

"If you're sure," Kurt called back.

"I'm sure." Zack took a deep breath, letting it out through his nose.

His throat burned with stomach acid, but he felt better; he felt emptier.

When Zack and Cody had gotten back from their father's apartment, it was like things hadn't changed. They got back to the Tipton hotel, harassed Moseby a little bit, talked to Esteban, and then headed up to their suite on the 23rd floor to see their mother. She babied them, as she usually did when she saw them after being away for even a short period of time. The school week had gone by at its usual speed and its usual monotony. Classes, homework, teachers, classmates, friends, annoyances, and laughter over and over again day after day. They sat with their friends at lunch did their homework together—when Zack conned Cody into doing it—went to basketball practice together and played in a game on the weekend, which was a big win on their side. But they could still feel that something was off, something had shifted in their group, though they weren't exactly sure what it was. They didn't want to ask either, just knowing what the answer could potentially be. Still, they knew that something was there.

Cody gathered his books into his backpack and stood up from his place at the table in study hall. He had all of his homework done, didn't have practice that afternoon, and now had a free afternoon to do whatever he wanted. Unsurprisingly, Zack had ended up getting detention after breaking the school's code of conduct with Max again—Cody had asked him about it and Zack just shrugged and said that people cared too much about what happened in janitor's closets, he didn't want to know anything after that—so he was on his own to entertain himself for a while. I guess I could get some more work with Christian done. Maybe he needs some files moved or something. Cody slung his backpack up over his shoulders and walked out of the room that held him for study hall. He went to his locker and exchanged some of his books, telling himself that he should get a head start on the homework for next week.

Hearing a locker door slam shut, he looked over and saw Rhuben replacing her combination lock on the handle. "Oh, hey Rhu, how was math class?" He asked. Rhuben stuck out her tongue and turned her thumb down. "It's not that bad."

"That's because you're good at, like, everything academically related," Rhuben protested, bringing her hair behind her in a ponytail. "And I'm only slightly good at science, somewhat good at history, and amazing at English and that's it." She rolled her eyes before turning to him. "You hear about Zack and Max?"

"Yeah, I thought that was kind of weird," Cody said, leaning against the locker bay. "Things have been kind of weird between them lately. Like, Max hasn't been talking as much." He rolled his eyes. "Not that it makes a big difference, half the time they don't talk to each other anyway, they're too busy making out." Rhuben laughed and nodded and he pushed himself away from the lockers. "Don't you have swim practice?"

"No, we have the day off," Rhuben said, pointing over her shoulder. "Coach is sick I'm pretty sure. Anyway, it's Riles' turn to chauffer the boys everywhere they need to go, I think Crys it at work, so it's just me, myself, and I back at the Manning household." She started to walk down the hallway. Cody followed her, matching her stride.

"I was planning on heading there anyway," he said. "So let's go." He waved an arm and smiled at Rhuben. Rhuben smiled and nodded back and the two started out of the school and on to the short walk to the Manning house. "So how was your guys' weekend without me and Zack around?"

"Quiet." Rhuben was balancing on the curb, holding her arms out so she resembled a 'T', carefully placing each foot in front of her. "Thank god, nothing is every quiet when you all are around." Cody reached out and gently nudged her in the ribs, causing her to lose her balance and fall into the road. "Hey!" Rhuben got back to her feet, whipping a rock at him. She reached out with both hands and shoved him on the arm before climbing back onto the curb, balancing once more. "You have to admit, you guys are nothing but noisy trouble makers."

"So are you all," Cody returned. He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, flicking his hair out of his face. He then flashed her a warm smile, which she returned. Despite how cold it was outside, Cody felt a warmth burning in his stomach. "You're a lot louder than Zack or I could be, combined." He noticed Rhuben looked like she was going to deny it, but then she closed her mouth, shaking her head. "See? You can't even deny it. Zack and I may have been the ring-leaders behind everything, but you guys didn't have to go along with it."

"Um, yeah we did," Rhuben replied. "We were bored and you guys were the least boring ones around." She shrugged and then reached out, patting him on the back. "And, yes, I meant it the way it sounded. I only hung out with you because I was bored."

"Gee, thanks."

The two laughed and continued walking along the street, reminiscing about some of the things they had gotten into when they had been living at the Tipton. Of course one of the main conversations was of Cody having to dress up like a girl in a beauty pageant to try and win money for a couple of bikes. He smiled as he remembered it. He didn't do it for the bikes, Zack did; he did it just so he could meet a girl whom he had never seen again. But in that moment, being twelve years old and not having his first kiss yet, he had only just started getting into girls and she was the most beautiful one he had ever seen. The memory was a bit…bittersweet for him, considering it was only shortly after the Jacksons had moved into the Tipton hotel. They had been incredibly rude and standoffish since they had met the twin blonde boys, but on a subconscious level, Cody had thought that there was something off about them and just wanted to be friends.

Being a very friendly person as it was, he didn't really take it to heart whenever one of them snapped at him or said something rude to try and push him away. He took it in stride and continued to talk to them and try to make them feel at home at the Tipton hotel. Something about them—or as Cody thought, the pranks that they played on Moseby—turned them around and they became friendlier after that. Cody looked to the side, studying Rhuben as she walked along beside him, studying her face; taking a note of how light her eyes were, though they still held a bit of darkness in them, the scar in her eyebrow. I never understood how they could go so long with what was going on with them. When they were around us, it was like nothing was really going on at home. Now they're happier than I've ever seen them.

Rhuben looked at him out of the corner of her eye and then turned her head, her eyebrows lowering as she caught his gaze. "What?" She raised a hand up to touch her cheek. "Is something on my face?"

"No, I was just…looking at your scar," Cody said. He licked his lips when he saw Rhuben's eyes shut down, darken, and she scowled. "I-I didn't mean to. I was just…thinking about-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Rhuben said sharply. She dropped her arms and started walking faster, ducking her head so her hair covered her face. Cody sped up to match her stride.

"It's just that we never really have and-"

"There's a reason why," Rhuben murmured, keeping her gaze away from him. He even tried moving in front of her to get her attention, but she expertly turned her head away. Annoyed, Cody dropped his shoulders and moved out of her way. They were silent for a few moments. "I don't even know why, all of a sudden you want to talk about it when we didn't before?" She gave a humorless laugh, running a hand through her hair. Her dark eyes flashed and she clenched her teeth together. "I mean, you even broke up with me over it."

"Ok!" Cody held up his hands. "We don't have to talk about it." He immediately regretted the words coming out of his mouth, watching as Rhuben's eyes shut down again.

She was right though, they hadn't really talked about it when they were dating and it was part of the reason he had broken up with her. Their relationship was great; they had fun together, they were interested in the same things, they had twins, they were honest with each other, and it being one of their first serious relationships at the tender age of thirteen-fourteen they went through a lot of insecurities together. However, honesty at times was a problem as there were some things that Rhuben would keep from Cody or just not talk to him about. So he tried to ignore it, thinking that it was helping. He didn't know how to deal with her demons, being so young at the time, and thought that it would be better if she dealt with it on her own. Since then they had acted like nothing had happened and very easily went back to being really close friends. There were many times he still wondered what things would be like if they had stayed together.

Or if he had even listened to what she was going through rather than running away scared. Cody wanted to say something else, anything else that would get them back to the good conversation that they were having. To laugh, to joke around, to be friendly towards each other. It was too late for that, once you got one of the Jacksons thinking about what they had gone through, they were completely checked out. And if a birthday or an anniversary came up…you either left them alone or got out of their way, risking getting your head bitten off. Cody dated Rhuben long enough to know when to leave her alone or talk to her and this was definitely not the time to talk to her.

Once they reached the Manning house, Rhuben kicked off her shoes by the door, which was a surprising contrast to the large pile that always seemed to be there, and dropped her backpack to the ground. She went into the kitchen and started to look through the refrigerator as Cody carefully took off his shoes and placed his backpack by the door. "If you're looking for Christian, I'm sure he's in the basement," she said in a clipped tone, her footsteps falling heavily, in angry slaps.

Cody bet she was imagining slapping his face with each sound that caused him to wince.

"Thanks," Cody said. As he walked by the kitchen to get to the basement, Rhuben turned from the refrigerator and threw something at him. He brought up a hand and caught an apple as it was about to hit him in the side of the face. And I thought only Zack and Riley got into food fights. Cody twirled the apple in his hand for a moment, then slipped through the basement door and headed into the basement.

The basement of the Manning household resembled that of a usual basement on one side; a foosball table, big screen TV, as many video games that you could think of, a large couch, bean bag chairs, pillows, and a bubble chair were all on one side of the room. On the other, it resembled a laboratory. Pristine while walls with tables, beakers, microscopes, computers, and scientific tools were scattered along that side of the room. Christian was currently sitting at a table, his face pressed up against a microscope. When he heard Cody come down the stairs, he turned and greeted him with a warm smile. "Hey Cody, getting some hours done today? I wasn't expecting you," he admitted.

"Yeah, practice was cancelled today, so I figured that I would get some work done," Cody said and walked over to the older man. His feet were a bit cool, feeling the cold floor through his socks, he rubbed the toes over each other and stood next to Christian, taking another bite of his apple, being careful not to drip the juice on anything. "So Rhu and I just walked back here. She said that Riles was driving the guys everywhere today or something?"

"They started getting on my last nerve," Christian admitted. 'You try having four boys who seem to find a way to break everything in sight around each other all the time when they have nothing to do." He chuckled and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I think I know how your Mom felt for a while."

"Ha." Cody gave a humorless laugh as he leaned against the metal table. "Mom's convinced that we prematurely gave her gray hair and that's why she dyed it brown."

"I believe it." Christian laughed. He stood up, pushing the chair back from behind him. "Anyway, I was just watching to see what this bacteria did considering the different kinds of habitats that it's influenced by." He yawned, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been watching it for hours, it's supposed to react well with a mixture of two natures, but I haven't had much luck with it yet. So do you mind just watching it for a while and taking notes?"

"Yeah, no problem." Cody finished his apple and tossed it into a waste basket. He then walked over to a sink and thoroughly washed his hands, just so he wouldn't contaminate the samples that Christian had gotten, then traded places with him in the seat. Leaning forward, Cody pressed his eyes against the scope and looked down into the slide. He could see little bacteria wiggling and squirming all over the place. Some were sluggish while others were moving a bit faster. "This is kinda cool." His eyebrows lowering, he leaned back to grab a notebook. Taking notes was the most important thing when it came to experiments. "What is it exactly?"

"Samples I got from Patrick's feet." Christian's nonchalant answer Cody burst out laughing. "And from some other places around the house." He crossed his arms over his chest, shrugging. "It's just a small project I'm working on while taking a break from that nuclear fission idea I had."

"Right." Cody nodded. Quickly scrawling a few notes down, he dropped a pen on the notebook and leaned back into the microscope. Cody barely blinked as there was a thudding sound from over their heads. "Either the guys are back, or Rhu dropped something," he murmured.

"If it was the guys, you would know from the pounding feet and Riley's screaming at them," Christian said with a laugh. "Having them all together can be a nightmare though."

"Yeah, I was saying that to Rhu earlier," Cody said under his breath. "She was saying that Zack and I were nothing but trouble and that the only reason that they hung out with us is because they were bored." His voice took on a bitter tone. Surprised, he sat back and looked over at Christian, who looked amused. He was leaning against the table, a hand over his mouth. Behind his hand, Cody could see Christian's cheeks puffed up, the only sign that he was smiling. "It's not funny, Christian."

"From my standpoint it is," Christian said. He rolled his eyes, stopping the roll at the ceiling. "If I was ever as obsessed with who was dating who as you all are when I was young, I probably wouldn't have ended up with Kristin."

"Wasn't she the only one that you were actually serious about?" Cody reminded him. Christian blinked rapidly, his mouth puckering at the same time. Seconds passed and Christian continued to think about it, the muscles in his face steadily tightening. Cody decided to let him off the hook, he would let him squirm about it later. "Anyway, the only reason we care so much now is because of all of the dating pressure anyway."

"And because you just so happened to date my niece and my daughter," Christian pointed out. "And because both of them are still your friends."

Cody winced. He winced every time it was brought up to him. Not many other could date two people in the same family without some sort of consequence. However, the girls must not have cared about it, or talked about it, because they were both on great terms with him and each other. He expected some sort of a blow up when he had started to date Crystal, but Rhuben was perfectly fine with it, which shell shocked him. It was one of the more casual relationships he had—he and Barbara had been very competitive-and when he had broken up with Crystal, they ended amicably as well though they never told the others the reason why.

"But, hey, that's none of my business," Christian held his hands up, as if to show Cody that he had nothing in his hands. The he took a few steps forward until he was standing directly at Cody's side, towering over him. "Just remember that I can get many illegal substances that I could accidentally slip into your food if I ever need to."

Cody's eyes widened and he pushed his chair back away from Christian with his foot until he was a good five feet away from him. "Are you willing to go to jail for that?"

"For my family? Yeah." Christian nodded.

Cody snorted. "I don't think Zack's ever been threatened by any of his girlfriend's fathers."

Christian looked at Cody for a long moment, not saying anything. Cody looked back at him, his eyes shifting every few seconds. Did he say something wrong? Did he offend Christian in some way? What was wrong? Christian continued to look at Cody and finally turned away, bring his hand up to his mouth once more. Then he lowered his hand and placed them on his hips, pacing back and forth. Cody's eyes watched him; around and around he went. Finally, Christian grabbed another chair and turned it around so that his arms were resting on the back of the head rest.

"Let me tell you something," Christian said in a low voice. He immediately had Cody's attention; Christian rarely ever raised his voice, he was usually so laid back and let everything around him go with the flow. This was the most serious that Cody had seen him outside of his work as a nuclear physicist. "You need to stop comparing yourself to your brother. I know you do it subconsciously, but you need to stop. There are many things that you can do that Zack can't and many things that Zack can do but you can't."

"Mmm, like play basketball?" Cody rested his cheek in his upraised palm. It was ridiculous really. Zack had said that he was happy that he was on the team and that he was sorry for being such a prick about it. He was telling the truth, right? Wouldn't he have known if his brother was lying?

"Who said that you weren't good at basketball?" Christian pressed.

"Zack," Cody admitted.

"And after he said that, did you ever try to play?"

"Not really."

"Why?"

Cody licked his lips, his light pink tongue a contrast to his pale skin, light blue eyes, and flaxen hair. Reaching a hand up, he rubbed his nose before scratching the back of his neck. All of a sudden an upsurge of warmth flooded through his bod and he could feel his cheeks enflame. He hung his head, pressing his lips together.

"That's what I thought," Christian remarked. "The sooner that you and Zack realize that you're not the same person and that there are some things that each of you can do that the other can't or that you're interested in and the other isn't…once you figure out that that's a good thing, you'll be happier. I promise."

"Yeah." Cody was skeptical. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Christian replied. He then grabbed onto Cody's head and turned him back toward the microscope. "Now, get back to work, I'm not paying you to sit here and get my unsolicited advice."

Cody laughed and nodded, looking at some of the other slides placed on a rack next to the microscope, mentally wondering which one he wanted to look at next. Cody picked one up and replaced the slid on the microscope with it. He leaned forward and looked at the bacteria that was swimming around, blissfully unaware of what was going on above them.

Funny how life was the same way.

You were always under someone else's microscope…

A/N: Hmm, starting to think that keeping this story in mostly Zack's POV may have hurt it more than helped it. If I showed other POVs more when the story started, I wouldn't feel like not much has happened so far. That being said, because the plot started with the past couple of chapters, I might switch it so that Zack's POV has a bigger part, but you see more of everyone else's POVs.

The only reason I decided not to at the beginning was because I wanted to keep it limited to Zack's third person, so you couldn't get into anyone else's head or see their thoughts. Let me know what your thoughts about that are.

I hope you liked the chapter, I particularly enjoyed writing the Cody/Rhuben part since I haven't done it in a while. I still think this story's pacing is slow, but that may be because I'm so used to writing fact paced/action element stories. More romance is coming in starting with the next chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles