OH GAWD I ACTUALLY HAVE A STORY WHO KNEW.
Seriously, I haven't REALLY updated in like a month, and I really am sorry. Aw shit, now I'm turning into one of those FF authors who never update. Crap.
Still, school is a retarded bitch and updates won't be once a week, but they WILL come more regularly now.
I hope.
Well, this as a long AN. OOPS. Whatevs.
DISCLAIMER: Don't own Suite Life. Blah blah blah.
Ms. Tutweiller clapped her hands together and smiled, trying to get the attention of the class. "All right! Today is the day that. . .dun dun dun. . .the baby project ends and you'll be able to get more than two hours of sleep!"
Instead of the overwhelming applause that she expected, she was greeted only with silence. Half of the class looked sad. The other half was asleep. ". . .Class?"
"Ms. Tutweiller, it's not that we're not looking forward to sleep, but we've gotten attached to our babies, and we're going to miss them, and it won't be the same, and I don't want to end the project!" Addison's voice had risen steadily in pitch, tone, and speed until she burst into tears.
The teacher sighed. "I'm sorry, Addison, but I don't have any choice. Now, could you and your partner please bring your baby up?"
Addison cradled Patrick protectively as she laid him down gently on the desk. As the doll came in contact with the wood, its head rolled off.
"I'm going to miss how he does that!" Addison sobbed. Woody patted her back.
Ms. Tutweiller decided not to question it, checking the baby
He handed the baby to Miss Tutweiller, who quickly checked the doll over for damages. Upon turning her upside-down to inspect her back, the doll's head fell off into the cardboard box.
"I'm gonna miss how she does that!" Addison sobbed, leaning against Woody for comfort.
He pulled her into his arms. "It's okay. . .me too. . ."
Ms. Tutweiller eyed them warily, thinking about sending them both to Mr. Blanket for a "counseling session", but then dismissed the idea almost immediately. It wouldn't do to traumatize the two poor kids even more. "Maya and Zack?"
Maya sighed and gave both Caleb and Alex a quick kiss. Zack looked over and hugged them both before handing them to their teacher, who inspected both dolls closely. When Caleb began to scream at the top of his lungs, she gave a small smile. "I see that you two have been taking good care of them," she said happily.
Zack grinned. "Of course."
Ms. Tutweiller quickly took out the batteries and the baby's crying abruptly stopped, before placing them both back into the box. "Bailey and Cody?"
Cody was on the verge of tears as he handed the baby back, and Ms. Tutweiller again considered the Mr. Blanket option.
"Last, London and Marcus," she called out, pretending not to notice Zack hitting his brother and shouting, "Man up, Codes, man up!" London quickly took the baby up tot the desk and handed it to the teacher.
Ms. Tutweiller frowned. "Um. . .London, you may take her clothes off."
London huffed. "Clothes? Please. I just dug these from my jacket jet, my shoe submarine, my cap car, my. . ."
"That's enough, London," Ms Tutweiller rushed to tell her, eyeing the pink sparkly clothes warily. She didn't fail to notice the huge diamond earrings hanging from the doll's ears and smiled to herself. "N-never mind, that's okay!"
Maya, meanwhile, turned to Zack. "I'm gonna miss this."
"What, hanging out?" he said, giving her a carefree smile. "We will still hang out, you know."
Maya bit her lip, not sure how to phrase what she was trying to say. "Yeah, but we won't be. . ."
"Married?" he offered. Maya nodded meekly.
"Heh, re-lax," Zack laughed. "It'll still be like this."
Maya sighed. "Okay."
"Say, speaking of hanging out. . ." Zack grinned. "How 'bout we go to the video game lounge tonight? Play some games, kill some monsters. You up for it?"
Maya grinned. "Oh, totally."
"You ready, Maya?" Zack yelled from his seat on the bed.
"Yeah, yeah," Maya called back, stepping out. She was dressed casually – a classic t-shirt with glow-in-the dark swirls on it and a pair of jeans. Her hair flowed down, cascading down her back.
"Is this the first time you've played Invasion Force?" Zack asked as they walked down to the video game lounge.
"Heck no!" Maya replied. "I'm a pro at it."
"Great!" he said enthusiastically. "It's just you, me, and Cody. If you want to, we'll play Ninja Slayers 2 afterwards."
"Sure," Maya agreed. "Sounds good to me."
They arrived at the lounge just as Cody appeared in the doorway. "Hey, Maya."
"Sup, Cody?" Maya returned. "You got the controllers?"
"All three of 'em," he answered, passing one to each member and taking one for himself. Cody grabbed the remote control from the stand next to the TV and pressed the On button. The screen flickered to life.
Theme music started to play as all three of them settled into comfortable beanbags, calibrating their video controllers.
"As tradition, Zack's commander of our squad, so he gets to picks his character first – sorry, Maya," Cody explained apologetically.
"No problem," she answered, as Zack picked a cool-looking avatar. "There's another character that I always pick."
As she calibrated her video game controller, Maya selected a female character dressed entirely in black and equipped with firearms.
"Nice choice," remarked Cody, as he picked out his own character. "By the way, did you prepare the arsenal for tonight, Zack?"
"Maya and I both did," said Zack, smirking. "You'll find it in the supply shed – fly back to Planet XR-17."
"Gotcha," Cody replied, and selected some commands on the screen. After a few minutes, all three characters were fully ready.
"What mission do you want to take?" Cody asked, addressing everyone.
"We've never tried taking out the Eclipse Force aliens," Zack remembered. "And that mission gives us the most money. You wanna try that one?"
"But no one on the ship has ever beaten it," Cody objected.
"Exactly," his brother answered, grinning. "That's why we're gonna be the first!"
Cody shrugged and turned to Maya. "Are you good at Invasion Force?"
"Oh, please!" Maya said indignantly. "I once took out the entire Fujimoto Squad by myself. In challenge mode."
Cody looked impressed. "Sounds fair." He raised his controller and chose the aforementioned mission.
Maya grinned and cracked her knuckles. "Let's go kick some asteroid."
"How much ammo do you have left?" Maya yelled.
"I'm down to one charge of light – gotta reload," Cody answered urgently. He switched to a grenade and chucked it at an offending alien while trying to get his light gun to recharge.
"I've got plenty," called Zack. "This Shadow Force Sniper is awesome!" He unleashed a hail of bullets.
"Cyborg attack at three o'clock!" Maya suddenly noticed. "Zack, can you cover for me?"
"I got your back!"
Maya's avatar quickly ducked behind a stack of crates, switching to a Pulsar Energy Rifle. She leaped out from behind the boxes and fired a bolt of pure energy from the gun, killing five aliens instantly.
"Cody, throw your bomb!" Zack screamed.
"Smoke bomb or uranium one?" Cody inquired, trying to fend off a particularly nasty-looking alien.
"Anything!" he said urgently, blasting a foe to shreds. "We're being overwhelmed!"
"No, we're not," said a voice behind him. Zack whirled around and found Maya standing there with a determined look in her eyes.
Zack could only think, God almighty, she's beautiful.
"Follow my lead!" she called out, fire in her eyes. Maya's avatar whipped out the Energy Rifle and a wave of energy obliterated an advancing line of enemies.
"Cody – is your weapon ready?"
"Yep – all reloaded!"
"Zack, what about you?"
"Same here."
"On my mark!" Maya yelled. "Five. . .four. . .oh, you know what, screw it. FIRE!"
At the command, Maya unleashed a blast of neon blue energy, Zack rained a hail of bullets down, and Cody tossed his bomb, then followed by shooting a high-powered beam of light.
The three attacks met, turning into a huge sphere of fiery red destruction. It surged toward the crowd of foes, paused a second, and then crashed down with so much force that Zack swore he felt the game lounge shake.
A ripple of flames spread out from the epicenter, utterly destroying everything in its path. Thousands of aliens were blasted into dust, the remains scattering away into the "wind."
Maya, Zack, and Cody watched in awe as all the enemies disintegrated, leaving a path of obliteration in its wake. When the smoke finally cleared, there was a moment of silence, and then the words Congratulations – You Won! flashed across the screen.
The three teenagers paused for a moment to process the information, and then Zack let out a whoop of joy. "We did it!"
"Awww yeah!" Cody exulted, fist-pumping the air.
Maya just smirked and pointed her game controller at the screen defiantly. "And that's why you don't mess with girls."
Cody turned to his friend. "Well, I owe you one, Maya. You were definitely the MVP of the game."
"Wha-that's not what I meant–" Maya stuttered, all her previous bravado gone.
"Of course that's what you meant!" Zack cut her off, throwing an arm around her shoulder.
Maya looked at him and grinned, thinking oh, what the hey. "Yeah, okay."
"Look!" he said, pointing a finger at the screen. "We've achieved Galaxy Supreme status!"
"Sweet!" Maya said, offering everyone high-fives.
"Ah, well, gotta crash," Cody said suddenly, looking at the clock on the wall. "It's already eight thirty."
Both Maya and Zack looked at him blankly, half-questioning his sanity, but waving at him nonetheless.
"I wonder about that boy sometimes," Zack said, sighing resignedly. "Eh, well. Let's hit the video game lounge."
". . .We're in the video game lounge."
"Oh. Oh, right. Yes. Definitely. I knew that."
"Sure you did," Maya teased, fishing out the Ninja Slayers 2 CD and inserting it into the console.
And five minutes later, they were firing at ninjas like their virtual lives depended on it.
"I'm out of knives!" called Zack, ducking behind a wall. "Cover for me!"
"Gotcha," Maya replied, controlling her avatar to leap up and unleash a whirlwind of shuriken at a force of opposing ninjas. "But I'm going to have to wait for the cooldown duration."
"It's okay, you bought us some time," Zack assured her, now fully equipped. "You hide behind that truck over there."
Zack leaped out from behind the wall and fought desperately as he struggled to defend himself against a new onslaught of ninjas. Once they got too close, he switched to a sword and started slashing, moves becoming increasingly frantic.
"Come on, reload!" Maya said, urging the screen.
Zack finally killed the last enemy and turned to her, grinning. Maya was just about to return the smile before she saw a rogue ninja jump out.
A warning cry just reached her lips before Zack's avatar was hit by a well-aimed throwing star, dropping to its knees and winking out of existence.
Zack smiled at her sheepishly. "Didn't see that coming. But it's okay, my sacrifice gave you some extra HP. You'll be okay."
"You didn't have to do that!" Maya said, feeling guilty.
"Don't worry," he answered. "Besides," he added in a softer tone. "I would always do it for you."
Maya's eyes widened at the statement, but her reflexes took over as she instinctively struck out at another ninja, and then another one.
"Nice job," Zack called out. "I think all of the ninjas are gone. Hurry and get back to our base – we're under a time limit, you know!"
Maya looked up at the top left corner of the screen, eyes widening in shock as she saw the timer ticking down. "I forgot where it is!" she confessed.
"It's okay," Zack said, reassuring her. "Go behind that stack of crates and go left."
Unfortunately, he had placed his hand on her shoulder and his lips were right next to her ear, distracting her.
"Your other left."
Maya blushed hotly. "Oops," she confessed. She hoped that Zack didn't find out what made her make the mistake. He would be insufferable.
Luckily for her, he didn't seem to notic.
"There it is!" Zack yelled, motioning toward a bright red sphere of light. "That's the base! You've got five seconds, Maya – hurry!"
"Not helping!" she yelled back, trying to make her character move faster. As the timer flashed the number 1 on red, she made a final stride and touched the base.
A red glow rose around her, and then exploded in light. Maya and Zack held their breath.
And the words You won with 0.36 seconds to spare! flashed on. Virtual confetti showered the screen.
"Yes!" Maya said, exulting and shaking out her hands. "Talk about high pressure."
Zack crossed over to her and hugged her tightly, surprising Maya, but then she slipped her arms around his back and hugged him back.
"Nice job," he murmured, breathing in the scent of her hair.
He released the hug but didn't let her go, smoothing back her hair. "Maya, you are wonderful."
Maya was about to reply with I know, but she saw that he was serious, so she decided to change her reply. "What makes you say that?" she replied softly, drowning in his eyes.
"You're my girlfriend," he answered, giving her one of his trademark grins.
"Well, thanks," Maya said, laughing softly.
"And guess what?" he continued. "Prom night's next week. And it's guys ask girls."
"Okay," she said, not really seeing where this was going.
"I'm a guy," he said. "And you're a girl."
Maya gasped. "No way! You found out?"
"Oh, shut up," he teased, earning a playful smile from both of them.
"Continue," she prompted, crossing her arms.
Zack gently uncrossed them, earning a squeak of surprise from her, and took her hand gently. "Will you go to prom with me?" he invited, flashing her a hopeful smile that Maya found adorable.
Maya paused for a minute, then smiled softly. "Of course I will."
"And we can slow dance," he ventured.
"Yes."
"And after that, we can have dinner together."
"Yes."
"And after that, we can go up to my room and have some really hot, steamy, s-"
"Zachary Martin!"
"Soup! I was gonna say soup!"
Welp, a little dirty joke at the end :)
Yes, I'm a jerk for that incredibly rude rant (hey, I needed SOME way t get it out of my system), but PLZ reviews? :3
BTW, I'm playing MapleStory now, so. . .um. . .dunno how that's relevant. . .but. . .ya. MAPLESTORY IS AWESOME. My username is MaxLiang99, I'm a level 25 Mechanic, and I'm in the world of Nova. Just thought I'd let you know. o.o