Disclaimer: I don't own The suite Life of Zack and Cody or The Suite Life on Deck. If I did, I would probably be able to come up with a wider variety of disclaimers. Wait a minute... I feel like I've already used that one... dang it!


Chapter 12: Revolution

The sun extended a golden finger through the porthole and rested it square on the forehead of the sleeping girl. In response to the encroaching light and the mounting noise of her roommate's preparations, Maya blearily opened her eyes and sat up in bed. She remained in this position for several minutes, though, and it was only a combination of the time and Addison's insistence that finally got her out of her bed and ready for school.

The reason behind Maya's exhaustion was the still-lingering effect of the videos. After seeing all of them, and Zack's letter to Cody, Maya felt a sympathy for her boyfriend that was stronger than anything she had ever felt before in her life. She knew that it was hers, and everyone else who had seen the video's, responsibility to tell Zack and help him get through the loss of his brother. It wasn't fair for them to hide like cowards and ignore everything they had just seen. They had to help him.

Unfortunately, the rest of her companions seemed to disagree. Bailey was the least opposed and Maya was pretty sure she could sway her to her side, but even she didn't want to hurt Zack by bringing up the past and pitying him. Mr. Moseby, Miss Tutweiller, Woody, and Marcus had the same concerns, the only difference being that they were much firmer in their stances. Mr. Moseby had already warned Maya multiple times to not talk to Zack, for it would be too painful for him. Despite this, Maya had not changed her intentions, but she knew she had to be more subtle when she acted upon them.

They had almost wrapped up the twin unit. For the past few days, Maya hadn't been focusing at all on the class, except to know vaguely the topic of conversation to know how to expect Zack to react. So far, he hadn't done anything close to as extreme as his reaction on the first day, although Maya suspected that that was because he assumed that, after that reaction, they would be watching him. He was right, but for the wrong reasons.

However, even though he didn't show it, Maya could tell that this whole unit unnerved and bothered him. She was not at all surprised, and frankly was amazed that he had managed to come to class every day and hide as much as he did. Although, five years of practice at anything was sure to make one at least somewhat of an expert.

This knowledge, of course, made Maya feel even worse for her boyfriend. Especially when, strangely enough, he was happy. Whenever he joked around with her or played pranks, Maya couldn't help but remember Cody's prank on him, or how ruined Zack had been in the aftermath of his brother's death. She was still amazed at the fact that he could ever, even briefly, be happy.

Then, she felt incredibly upset at the fact that Zack had to go on without Cody, and learn to be happy alone and hiding a tremendous burden that no one should be forced to shoulder by themselves. Eventually, it all looped back into a big circle, and Maya became even surer of her conclusion. She had to get at least Bailey onto the same page and tell Zack about what they had seen.

Throughout the day at school, Maya broke from her normal routine of gaging Zack's reactions to everything Miss Tutweiller said, to Bailey's, trying to figure out a way to persuade her friend to see her side. Luckily for Maya, this task was much easier than watching Zack, because she happened to sit directly behind Bailey. (Although, Bailey was so smart, Maya would be surprised if Bailey hadn't figured that she would try to do this sooner or later.)

Once again, every single word Miss Tutweiller spoke was forgotten by Maya within two minutes. When the final bell rang, she quickly grabbed her bag and bolted from the classroom before anyone could stop her and immediately headed for the Sky Deck. True, as the most popular gathering place amongst the students, it probably wasn't the best place to hide, but Maya also knew that this fact meant that Bailey would have to show up sooner or later.

Maya was settled comfortably in her favorite chair, at the table farthest from the juice bar, when her friend finally arrived. Bailey pointedly made a beeline for Maya, her crossed arms and exasperated expression immediately betraying how well Maya's spying efforts had gone.

Nevertheless, Maya feigned innocence. "Hey Bailey!" she chirped brightly, sitting straighter in her chair as her friend sat down. "How's it going?"

Bailey shut this down instantly, fixing Maya with a withering glare. "Cut the crap, Maya," she snapped. "Want to explain to me why you've been oh-so-subtly watching me and bringing up suspicious topics of conversation in class for the past few days?"

At her friend's sharp accusation and the reminder of their solemn subject matter, the fight drained from Maya and she slumped back down in her chair. "I'm sure you already know why. I assume you're here to lecture me about not interfering?"

Bailey's reaction surprised Maya. Instead of sitting up taller, like she often did to enhance her superiority before giving a lecture, the blonde girl merely sank back into her chair, until the two of them were sitting in much the same position. Maya quirked one eyebrow and watched her friend expectantly.

Bailey kept her gaze on the wooden slats of their table for several minutes, but she must've felt Maya's impatience, for she eventually spoke up. "I'll be honest with you," she confessed to the table, "I'm not really sure why I'm here. I was planning on telling you the stuff you said, but now I'm not so sure that staying quiet is the best idea." She finally lifted her gaze to meet Maya's, who was now staring back with wide, eager eyes. "So I guess I'm looking for confirmation that this is really the best course of action," Bailey finished uncertainly.

Maya bit her lip and looked down to her hands. She believed that she was doing the right thing by telling Zack what they knew about Cody. She believed that it was the choice that would have better results in the long run, even if it was more painful now. With Mr. Moseby's plan of staying silent, he wasn't at all affected. He had already known about Cody, and Zack knew that he knew about Cody. And he had seen Zack improve since Cody's death, so Maya knew that it would be easy for Mr. Moseby to convince himself that everything would be fine in the end.

But Mr. Moseby hadn't been there on the night Maya and Bailey had found Zack sobbing on the Sky Deck after curfew. Mr. Moseby hadn't seen how much Cody's death still haunted Zack. But she had. And Maya wanted that to count for something. She wasn't as naïve or idealistic as Mr. Moseby. They both wanted what was best for Zack, she knew that for certain, but she believed that her plan was the only way to truly achieve it. Forcing him to suffer alone would only draw Zack into himself more, which was the exact opposite of what he needed to improve. For the past five years, in his attempts to forget about Cody, all he had done was ingrain the loss deeper into his personality. If they let this continue, sooner or later, Zack, and Cody's death, would become completely indistinguishable from each other. They had to act now- to get Zack to open up to them- before they lost him too.

Maya knew it would be hard. She didn't want to break the news to Zack that they had watched the videos any more than Mr. Moseby did. But she was a New Yorker. She was tough. And she knew that sometimes that harder or more painful route was the one that paid off more in the end.

Cautiously, taking time to phrase everything correctly, Maya explained this to Bailey. Once she finished her explanation, Bailey kept her gaze on the table for several more minutes, turning everything over in her head, Maya knew.

She was relieved to see that, when Bailey finally looked back up, the doubt in her eyes had been replaced with a steely determination. "Alright," she said as a smile slowly spread across Maya's face, "I believe you. Let's tell Zack."


The passing of half an hour found Maya and Bailey sitting in Bailey's cabin, with the door locked and a mountain of papers spread out on the floor before them. In her hand, Bailey was holding a notebook that had ideas taken from their past half hour of brainstorming. So far, the two had determined that they would need to wait a few more days before breaking the news to Zack, to quell Mr. Moseby's suspicions about their loyalty. Then, Maya had dug out the scrapbook that they, Marcus, and Woody had found before Mr. Moseby showed them the third video, and was rifling through it, trying to get a more accurate picture of Zack and Cody's relationship.

Bailey looked up from where she had been writing Maya's observations in her notepad. "What exactly do we want to tell Zack?" she asked.

Maya paused in her flipping of one of the album's pages and let it drop, staring at a picture of Zack and Cody with their arms slung over each other's shoulders, sending the camera matching grins. For several seconds, both girls were silent, trying to come up with an answer to Bailey's question.

Maya spoke first. "We shouldn't say too much right away," she said slowly, thinking. "Like no questions involving details about what happened to Cody. And it would probably be good to keep it as upbeat as possible." Bailey shot Maya an incredulous look, and she quickly amended her statement. "I mean, it's obviously not going to be a cheerful conversation. But maybe we should wait on telling him that we saw Cody's actual death, and the reactions and funeral until a little later."

Bailey frowned. "So what do we tell him first, then?"

"Maybe just that we know that he had a twin brother who died. And that Mr. Moseby showed us and also Marcus, Woody, and Miss Tutweiller, so he can talk to any of us if he wants," Maya responded. "Like I said before, we need to get him talking about it."

Bailey couldn't help but avert her gaze to her notebook at Maya's last statement, but still answered. "Yeah…" she said, poking her pencil at some curls of paper stuck in her notebook's spirals. "I still can't see him handling this anywhere close to well, though."

Her friend acknowledged her statement by biting her lip and returning her gaze to the picture of Zack and Cody. "You're probably right," she responded after a minute. "But we still need to try. I don't want to lose him."

Even after she finished speaking, Maya's words rang in Bailey's head, and she closed her eyes. She flashed back to Zack and Cody's interactions in the first and last videos, then to Zack's reaction to Cody's death and his speech at the funeral. Those things were all so terrible that it hurt Bailey to remember them. But even worse… she remembered the first day of the twin unit, Zack's midnight talk with London, and his fight with Drew. She understood the actions in the context of five years ago. They were bad enough, but she probably would've been surprised to see him react any less extremely. By now, though, he'd had five years to recover or at least improve, but the things she'd seen showed without a doubt that Zack wasn't any less affected by his brother's death than he had been five years ago. And honestly, that scared her, a lot. Maya was right. He needed to get better. And it didn't look like he'd be able to do it on his own.

Shakily, Bailey drew a deep breath. "You're right," she said to Maya. "We need to talk to him."

She kept her gaze downward for a while after speaking, but eventually lifted it when she noticed that Maya still hadn't responded. Her friend was holding tightly to the photo album, staring at the same picture of Zack and Cody. She felt Bailey's gaze, though, and lifted her head, looking her dead in the eyes with her typical Maya fierceness. Her eyes themselves, though, were not fierce, but rather sad and full of the same strain from the burden that still rested so heavily on their friend.

It was this strain that finally hardened Bailey's resolve. Up until that very moment, she had still deep down been the tiniest bit skeptical and hesitant about following Maya's idea. She hadn't been as sure as her friend about the intensity of the danger Zack was in; she thought they could've waited for a little while if they needed to. Now though, she could see her naivety.

Maya was the only one of them who understood the gravity of the situation. She had connected with Zack in a way none of them had, and because of that, learning of Cody's death affected her differently than any of the others. It was almost as if Maya had taken on a part of Zack's burden herself by watching his reactions in the third, fourth, and fifth videos.

Bailey finally made up her mind. She was surprised by the sense of calm her certainty gave her. It almost felt like a gift from Cody himself; that he was giving her the strength to comfort his brother, the person he had been closest to in the world.

They were going to tell Zack. And they were going to do absolutely everything they could to make sure he got better.

He had been forced to suffer alone for five long years, but he wasn't going to be alone any longer.


It was almost six o'clock on the SS Tipton, and Mr. Moseby was finally beginning to wind down after another long day of work. Thankfully, the day had been relatively quiet; no meddling teenagers or whiny guests had stopped him at all. But that didn't mean that it was any less tedious.

After so much time of seemingly-infinite torture, Mr. Moseby had finally finished showing the story of Zack and Cody to the teens. Although several days had passed since they finished watching the sixth video, he was still having a bit of trouble adjusting to the knowledge that there were now seven people on board who knew Zack's secret, instead of just two.

He tried to push these thoughts from his mind as he filed paperwork in preparation for the end of his shift, for they had occupied his attention for the majority of the day already. Of course, this was not successful, though he could hardly claim to be surprised. Instead, he resigned himself to focus on the uncomfortable topic and let his thoughts wander as they pleased.

Again, Mr. Moseby was not surprised when they finally settled on Maya's resolve to tell Zack about the group's video watching. She hadn't ever stated that to be her intention directly, but he still had no doubts, and was at the moment trying to come up with a way to keep her from following through on her resolve. At the moment, he was fairly sure that Zack was still oblivious, for he hadn't yet come furiously storming to Mr. Moseby demanding an explanation.

Unfortunately, he knew that this state was unlikely to last long. He was fairly sure that the only reason Maya hadn't yet gone to Zack was that the rest of the group still opposed telling him, and she didn't want to break the news without any backup. However, he could tell that Bailey was less resistant than the others, and judging by her relationship as the closest in the group to Maya, it was only a matter of time before she came around and they spoke to Zack.

Sadly, he hadn't yet come up with a way to stop her, for Maya was stubborn and hardly ever listened to arguments in favor of a side she disagreed with. And of course, she felt particularly strongly about this topic, so was likely to be even less reasonable. Mr. Moseby had known Zack a lot longer than she had, though, and had had experiences that she never could. Maya hadn't been there six years ago, when both of the twins were together and they worked in perfect unison to wreak havoc on the Tipton. Maya hadn't been there five years ago when Zack was shattered after Cody's death to the point where everyone begun to question if he would ever recover.

Maya hadn't seen the wall that Zack gradually begun to raise against all things Cody. She hadn't seen him break down even after years of adjusting to living on his own. She had no idea how much Zack still missed Cody. And because of that, she had no idea how much damage breaking a hole in Zack's wall would cause. For years, Mr. Moseby, Carey and Kurt, and almost everyone who knew Zack had tried everything they could to help him recover. And none of it had worked. None of it. Until Zack started going to Seven Seas High.

Being in an environment where people hadn't known him before Cody had done wonders to Zack's recovery. True, he wasn't anywhere close to recovered yet, but he had been having fewer and fewer breakdowns. In fact, Mr. Moseby was pretty sure that there hadn't been one since Miss Tutweiller first asked him about twins in class on the day he had shown the group the first video.

Maya could have no idea how precarious this situation was, and how much effort made over the past five years would be wasted if she told Zack. She couldn't understand from prior knowledge, she wouldn't listen to him if he tried to tell her, and London, the only other one who had known Cody, didn't even know that they had seen the videos.

Mr. Moseby sighed and mentally cursed his bad luck for a while as he finished wrapping up all loose ends. He was only a few minutes away from leaving the lobby when one of the administrators for Seven Seas High entered and purposely strode up to him.

With a sigh, the manager pushed aside his work, expecting a discipline report concerning one of the students- by far the most common report he received. To his surprise, though, the administrator handed him a thick envelope, with the words, "Mr. Moseby, there has been an application submitted by a potential new student. Normally, of course, applications for the current school year are not taken mid-semester, but reading through it, we figured that this one was worth your attention. Their record is outstanding. Of course, we still make the final decision, but we wanted your input."

Confused, Mr. Moseby hesitated for a moment after the administrator finished speaking. Eventually, he was able to manage, "I understand. Thank you. I will read through this and get back to you tomorrow," and the man left, offering a polite nod as he exited.

Once he was alone, Mr. Moseby turned his attention to the envelope in his hands. He had reviewed the applications of potential students before, but as the administrator said, only during the spring and summer for the following school year. Students had never been taken this late in the year, and the administrators knew that. So, if they were considering letting one in now, the student had to be incredibly valuable to Seven Seas High- even more so than Bailey. Keeping that in mind, Mr. Moseby opened the envelope.

He did not recognize the handwriting on the application- not that he expected to, but it would've been a way to interest him- so he read the introductory letter quickly and without care. Once he got to the personal information form, though, he forced himself to slow down.

Only a few minutes later, the manager's efforts were rewarded. He had read no more than a few words into the first box on the form when he saw something that caused his eyes to widen and his hands to shake. He quickly scanned the rest of the form, emotions beginning to swirl even more violently when his initial observation was confirmed.

It was probably a good thing that there was no one around to see his reaction when Mr. Moseby finally reached the application's end.


Yay, Chapter 12! We're finally getting into the end of the story now! Only a few more chapters left! Of course, knowing me, that doesn't mean that the story will be over soon, but now that I've finished my other stories (thank goodness), I should hopefully be able to give this one more attention. I wanted to have this chapter up yesterday for National Marching Band Day (and yes , that is in fact a thing :P), but I was a bit preoccupied with writing it. So happy Marching Band Day everyone! Marching band rocks!

Thanks so much to everybody who reviewed Chapter 11! We're at over 200 now! I don't know about you, but to me, that's just unbelievable! Thank you all for your support; each review really does mean the world to me! :)

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