Cody laughed silently at Zack's shock as the door closed in front of him. It was about a minute before Zack moved, and he returned to the cough as Cody got Home Alone 2 out and popped it in.

Bob got in London's chair as the movie began. Out of the two original Home Alones, this was the favorite of all four of them. As it began slowly, it got into the comedic parts and everyone began to burst out laughing at various parts, with very short pauses between each fit of laughter. At the end of the movie, Zack wiped his eyes dry from all the laughing as Cody got up and took the movie out.

"So, what now?" Bob asked curiously.

"I dunno, but something that still has to do with Christmas, because otherwise it wouldn't feel like a Christmas part," Zack said with everyone nodding in agreement.

"Maybe we could go to the game room and ya'll could practice more songs, not only your own song but other Christmas songs, while Bob and I play ping pong," Warren suggested.

"Sounds good," Tapeworm replied.

So they got the acoustic and electric guitars and the keyboard with the stand and headed downstairs. They snuck through the empty lobby since there were still rooms somewhat close, and then headed to the game room, which was also empty, but they closed the door to make sure not to wake anyone.

Zack opened into the song with the piano, followed by Cody picking up on the acoustic, and then Max added in an electric guitar counter melody as the last bit of instrumental. Tapeworm began singing the first verse and Bob served it for the first part of the ping pong game.

When the score was 18-17, the song ended. Cody began strumming a tune that sounded like a small rendition of Joy to the World. Zack grinned, remembering the way they had played it one time that had been a different version that they both agreed was cooler. Zack began playing Jim Brickman's version of Joy to the World on the piano that added a nice melody to what the guitar had started off. Max listened for a while until she caught on, and then began playing something barely different than what Cody was playing, followed by Tapeworm joining in and singing.

Bob won the game 21-19 in the middle of the song. The piano stopped abruptly, throwing everyone off beat, and then the song stopped altogether.

"Thanks a lot, Zack," Cody said exasperated.

"Hey, I couldn't resist playing the winner!" Zack protested in defense.

"Whatever," Cody sighed, strumming the slow tune to Silent Night on his acoustic while Zack started off against Bob.

Max joined in with the same tune, and Tapeworm began singing as well, as Zack served, mouthing 'P' as he served it, signaling the middle of P-I-N-G to find out who got to serve first. Bob won with a well placed shot on the right corner of Zack's side.

Almost every single point turned into spin battles, both players equally skilled. This also led to a lot of sprints for the ball when it flew off the table due to the crazy spin on it. After a long time of playing, Zack won at 47-45, one of the longest games either of them had ever played.

"GOODNESS!" Zack yelled at the end. "That took forever! Sheesh," he said, everyone laughing.

Then Zack and Cody played Bob and Tapeworm in a game of doubles while Max and Warren played against each other in air hockey. They continued to all talk with each other, even though they were on separate games, which led to some of them losing focus and missing a ball or puck because of it, but it was all in good fun.

At about one o'clock, they finally returned back up to the apartment, and got in their spots to sleep in the living room, Zack and Cody sharing the couch bed, Max in one chair, Warren in another, and Bob and Tapeworm sleeping on stacked up quilts on the floor. In about fifteen minutes, all of them were fast asleep.

Zack woke up the next morning to a cinnamon aroma. He rubbed his eyes and got up to see his mom microwaving some microwavable cinnamon rolls. He woke Cody up, and they waked up everyone else. They watched Miracle on 34th Street on the TV while Carey finished making the cinnamon rolls. After she was done, they gathered around the table and each got two cinnamon rolls and a few pancakes, which Carey also microwaved for them.

After they got done, they said bye to Carey, Warren and Bob left, and the rest of them gathered the equipment and headed down to the laundry room again. Arwin was working on some random thing when they came in and didn't notice them. Max giggled quietly and plugged in her electric guitar to the amp and turned it all the way up. She then grabbed a pick and strummed the strings as hard as possible, and it produced an extremely loud boom that startled Arwin so much that he fell out of his chair. Everyone burst out laughing.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," she said, still laughing, as she turned the amp back down to the appropriate volume.

They began playing yet again as he continued to work on whatever it was that he was working on. They played it through perfectly, no one messing up on the lyrics, no one messing up on the instrumentals, and no more modifications to make.

"Perfect," Zack said, grinning.

They started again to continue practicing, since the Battle of the Bands was only two days away, and they wanted to make sure they did perfectly so they could win the prize money and get the perfect song done. As they finished the fifth time through, each one being perfect, Arwin finished his work, still nobody having any idea of what it was.

"All you all ready to see the perfect present for Carey?!" Arwin asked excitedly.

"Sure," they all mumbled.

He then grabbed what it was and turned around to show them. Their mouths all dropped. It was definitely the perfect present for Carey. It was an amazing diamond necklace, and Arwin had been working on a few adjustments, which included rearranging the diamonds a little to make the big one in the middle with it dwindling on both sides as it went around instead of it having the biggest diamond on one side and them getting smaller as they went around.

"Where did you get the money for that thing?" asked Zack, still in shock.

"Well, I worked a lot of overtime ever since early November, and I finally saved up enough for it," he said.

Then Zack thought that maybe he should get Maddie jewelry. His cut of the prize money would be enough to buy a bracelet with a small diamond as one of the charms. Who knows, she might like it so much that she'd give him a kiss. It was unlikely, but possible, which made Zack grin.

A/N: Sorry for the lousy chapter. I couldn't think of much, but I wanted to update, so…yeah. Here ya go.