Author's Note: Welcome back, Sketchy here. In this chapter, which I wrote… stuff happens. If you want to know what stuff, you have to read it.

Mini-Disclaimer: Neither of us own Ipecac. We don't own the company, and I'm praying we don't own any of the products. I do not recommend purchasing/using it. We also don't own Google or Henry Ford, and of course, we still don't own tSLoZaC.

Chapter Three: A Secret Not Well Kept

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Cody woke up the next day, Thursday, feeling odd. He could feel something strange as he woke up in bed. First he felt the painful stabs of hunger. "Uggh," he groaned. He opened his eyes to see Zack already up and dressed.

"C'mon Cody, let's get some breakfast," he said. At the word "breakfast" another jab of hunger attacked his stomach. He was famished.

He slowly pulled himself out of bed, which curiously required some effort. When he stepped onto the floor, he had to grab the side of his bed because his legs felt weak.

"You okay, bro?" Zack asked on his way out the door.

"Yeah," Cody managed. Zack shrugged and continued out into the kitchen.

When he found his sea legs, Cody got dressed and walked carefully into the bathroom to weigh himself. 113 again. All that puking for two lousy pounds. Well, it was better than nothing.

Although still weak, he managed to walk steadily out into the kitchen. His mother looked up at him and motioned toward the table where a tall stack of pancakes was placed at his seat. He practically salivated.

He almost bolted for the food. Stop! He told himself. You'll gain back the weight from those alone! He remembered his mental note to skip breakfast and lunch today after the mess of lasagna he ate the night before. But the lasagna didn't mean anything anymore because he had thrown it back up… maybe just a little breakfast…

His mind kept waging a war for nearly a minute. Carey looked up again to find him still standing where he was before. "Honey, you okay?"

"Yeah, Mom," he said. He could still taste the dull, horrific taste of vomit somewhere in his mouth. A couple pancakes would fix that…

"Um, I gotta go… I told Tapeworm I'd work on our… project!" Cody said, hastily grabbing his backpack and running out the door. Even though he wasn't going to eat it, force of habit made him grab his lunch bag off the counter before he left. Carey shrugged it off, but Zack was deep in thought.

What project?

---

Cody walked briskly down the sidewalk toward the library near his school. He only now noticed the food he held in his hands and impulse swept over him.

He opened the bag and found a slice of leftover pizza, a Coke, and five dollars to pay for use of the cafeteria microwave. He drooled over the food. He almost reached in and ate the pizza cold right there.

Don't do it! he told himself. He restrained his hand continued walking, ignoring the lunch bag he held tightly in his left hand.

When he arrived at the library he thought of something. He walked around to the back and, as he expected, found a dumpster.

Before his hunger could tell him anything, he threw the lunch bag into the large dumpster and ran back around to the doorway.

---

After about fifteen minutes of reading (where more than once all the words turned into steaks and tacos from Cody's vision) in the library, Cody decided he'd better head to school. He put the book he had been looking at back on the shelf, grabbed his schoolbooks and preceded toward the door.

"Done already, Cody?" Miss Lyons, the friendly, gray-haired librarian, asked. Cody spent so much time in the library that she had learned his name by heart.

"Yeah," Cody replied, fairly loudly. Miss Lyons' hearing wasn't that good anymore, but it was more to hide a particularly loud quake from his stomach. "I've gotta get to school."

"Okay dear, but come back soon," Miss Lyons said with a warm smile. Cody smiled back weakly and continued out the door.

Cody walked slowly toward his school across the street. He swore his stomach groaned ten times before he reached the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road.

He caught sight of Tapeworm talking to Max away from the group of kids waiting for the bell to ring. Cody stood behind a tree near them so he was in earshot but out of sight.

"Why are you hanging out with him?" he heard Max ask.

"Look, Max, you need to think for a second," Tapeworm said. "If you hadn't missed that three-pointer in the third quarter, we wouldn't have even been in that position."

"Nobody our age makes three-pointers!" Max retaliated.

"Then you should've gone closer for a shot you could make," Tapeworm said calmly. "Max, come on. It was just one shot. It wasn't Cody's fault we lost the game, it was everyone's fault. If everyone had played a little better, we would've won!" Cody risked a quick glance around the tree to see Max put her hands on her hips. Tapeworm continued, "And besides, Cody had barely played all year. You can't blame him for not being ready for a game! And one missed shot doesn't mean he isn't the same truly nice, good-hearted kid he is."

"That championship was supposed to be the highlight of my childhood," Max said coldly with a touch of sadness. "He took it from me, and I won't forgive him for that."

"Cody didn't take it from you!" Tapeworm yelled to Max's back as she was walking toward the now open doors of the school. "It wasn't only him!" Max ignored him.

Cody stepped out from behind the tree. Tapeworm turned around and looked surprised to see him.

"Thanks," Cody said. Tapeworm smiled.

"No problem, buddy."

---

Cody trembled with hunger. It was fourth period – the period right before lunch. But it was also History, one of Cody's all-time least favorite classes. It never seemed to end.

"For the last ten minutes of class I'll let you research your historical figures," Mr. Harrison, Cody's history teacher, announced. Cody stood up, slowly letting pressure flow into his legs. He feels weak, but he can make it to a computer.

He went to Google and entered Henry Ford into the search bar, but he didn't get anything done. He couldn't concentrate on studying – he was too hungry. After ten endless minutes the bell finally rang.

He stood up and trudged to his desk where his backpack was. He sat down in his seat for a few seconds to regain his little energy and stood up with his backpack.

His legs gave out and he collapsed.

"Cody?" Lily, a nice enough girl in Cody's history class, asked. "Are you okay?"

Cody tried to stand up. He had collapsed under the weight of his backpack. He moved it off of himself and stood up, almost falling again

"Cody, you don't look so good," Lily stated. "Want me to bring you to the nurse?"

Cody shook his head and trudged wordlessly through the crowd of people who had surrounded him. Mr. Harrison, a friendly man, looked fairly worried but didn't comment.

"Hey, Cody!" Tapeworm said as he caught up with his friend on their way to the cafeteria. "Hey, where's your lunch?"

"My mom gave me some money and I lost it," Cody lied. He had to avoid eating lunch today and throwing his lunch away had helped.

"Oh," Tapeworm said. "Well, my mom gave me an extra hot dog today, you want it?" Cody desperately wanted to say yes, but he forced himself to shake his head.

"Are you sure?" Tapeworm tried. "You really don't look so well. I think you should get something to eat."

"No!" Cody said moodily. "I'm not hungry, okay?"

Tapeworm looked surprised. "Okay, okay! But you know…"

"What?" Cody asked, just as moodily.

"I don't believe you."

"Why not? Do you think I'm fasting to get good at sports? Do you think I'm crash dieting and that's why I'm so weak and look so bad? Well, fine then, you're right! Okay? There! I said it!"

Tapeworm stared at him and stopped short. "Cody, you have to stop!"

"I can't!" Cody said. "Everyone on the team hates me now, even Arwin, even Zack! Even me! I have to redeem myself! I just want to be good at something other than school!"

"Cody, what you're doing is dangerous! It could kill you!"

"No it couldn't," Cody denied. Somewhere he knew how dangerous it was, but he wasn't going to admit it.

"Cody," Tapeworm said, thrusting his hand into his lunch bag. He whipped out three of his five hot dogs. "Here! Eat these, you need to!"

"NO!" Cody yelled. He wanted so badly to reach out and take them. He wanted them so badly, but he didn't take them. Instead, he sat down on the grass and started crying. Luckily everyone was in the lunch area by now so only Tapeworm could see him.

Tapeworm sat down next to him and rubbed his back. "Cody, you know how bad this is! People have died doing this!"

"I have to," Cody whimpered. "I have to."

Tapeworm sighed. "If you won't stop by yourself, I'll just tell your mom and Zack." Cody looked up at him with fearful eyes.

"No, please Tapeworm! Don't do that, please!" He looked desperate.

"Cody, I –"

"Don't Tapeworm!" Cody said, looking at him with puppy dog eyes. But this time they weren't just trying to get something he wanted – they looked involuntary. He really meant it.

Tapeworm heaved another great sigh and was inclined to agree. He couldn't hurt Cody.

But somehow he felt like by agreeing he was hurting him.

---

So Cody painfully went that day without lunch. But by basketball, he was even hungrier and weaker than before.

He avoided eye contact in the locker room and walked slowly to the gym. Since practice yesterday hadn't been too good, he had to make sure he did well today.

They started with a three-on-two drill. Cody was on offense and he jogged as fast as he could down the court with his teammates.

He felt a wave of dizziness as the ball came toward him and he grabbed his head instead of the ball. The dizziness subsided and his vision focused on a glare from Bob. Cody sighed.

A few minutes later they started free throws. Cody stood last in line to take his shots, as he couldn't get there fast enough.

When it was almost his turn the dizziness returned and he felt his knees weaken. He crouched down and by the time he could get back up people were shouting at him to get up and shoot.

He missed his free throw – the ball didn't even reach the basket because he was too weak.

He returned to the back of the line, receiving a mixed reaction of glares and snickers.

They started doing passing drills and thankfully he was partnered with Tapeworm – Arwin figured that would probably be best and Cody agreed.

But after two passes the dizziness returned and Cody's legs gave out. He noticed a few people turn to look at him, including Zack, before he blacked out.

---

"Cody?" Cody opened his eyes to see two fuzzy pictures of his mother. He shakes his head weakly to focus his vision. "Are you alright, honey?" She seemed worried.

"Yeah," Cody said. His throat was dry and he felt another wave of dizziness. He also noticed the ever-present stabs of hunger.

"I'm really thirsty," he said. Carey reached into her bag and pulled out a can of Coke and handed it to Cody.

After emptying the can, he looked back up at her. "What happened?"

"You passed out in gym," came Zack's voice from behind Carey. Cody realized he was in the nurse's office because he could see Nurse Stevens typing at her computer.

Then a thought struck him. Oh no. Did I just drink that entire Coke? It's full of sugar and calories – he was going to get fatter just by that! In the back of his head he knew he was acting delusional, but he wasn't listening to that.

He stayed lying there listening to Carey talk to the nurse and Zack looking fairly uncomfortable, pacing back and forth with a combination of worry, suspicion and boredom plastered on his face. Cody wanted to leave and fix what he had done, but he didn't get that chance for about half an hour.

"C'mon honey, let's go."

"Um, Mom?" Cody said. "Can we stop at the pharmacy on the way back?"

"Why?" Carey asked.

"I, um… want some candy," Cody tried. Carey seemed to believe it so she nodded.

When they were there Zack wanted to get some too, but Cody persisted. "I'll get it for him!" he finally said. Zack settled down after this and Carey handed him twenty dollars, figuring he'd get a drink too.

So Cody went inside and grabbed two Milky Way bars, one for Zack and one for him. He got Zack a soda but then went venturing into the pharmacy part of the store.

Where is it… he thought, searching the isles until he finally found what he was looking for. He grabbed it, stuffed it in his bag and went to the counter.

"Alright," the man behind the counter said. "Two Milky Ways, one root beer, and one bottle of –"

"Just ring it up please!" Cody said hastily when the cashier gave him a weird look.

"Okay then," the man said, shrugging it off. "And that's… $18.76." Cody handed him the twenty and received his change before rushing out the door back to the car.

He sat down wordlessly, handing Zack his soda and candy bar while unwrapping his own and biting. He knew it wouldn't matter now if he ate it – he couldn't blow his cover by avoiding it. It felt so good in his empty stomach.

When they finally returned home, Cody hurried up the elevator to the 23rd floor even before Carey or Zack could get in. Once on the floor, he swiped his key card in his suite and ran for the bathroom, pulling out his new bottle of Ipecac.