Hello hello, The Suite Life fanfiction! JustVilda Potter has arrived, in all her procrastination glory, and on Christmas Eve, no less! I am here to start up my Suite Life series oneshot collection! This is also my first The Suite Life story (if you don't count my crossover, Fourteen Strangers Experiment).
I don't really have anything else to say than let's just go!
Takes place: Season 2 of The Suite Life on Deck.
Rated: K+
Christmas.
The time of year when everyone comes together as a family to have fun, eat food and open presents. The snow outside creates a marvelous atmosphere, and so do the decorations people put on their houses. Even though it's cold, people go outside to see all the magic, because it's simply what you do.
However, that was not the case for Zack and Cody Martin and their friends. They were on a cruise, so drowning their house in colorful lights wasn't possible, and the boat was currently cruising in the sea around Australia, so it was neither snowy or cold. The employees on the ship had made some attempts at lighting up some Christmas spirit by hanging up whatever decorations they could find on the different decks. Still, something was missing to fulfill the Christmas spirit requirements.
As December 22nd came around the corner, the group of friends were still trying to lift their holiday spirits.
Bailey lay on her bed, the thoughts in her mind racing at a fast pace. The Christmas garlands on the wall, and the jolly music filling her ears didn't help her come up with what she wanted. Though she hadn't told the others, she had figured out long ago what was missing from this year's Christmas. It was the traditions and games. They were expecting the feelings to just come to them, without doing any work so that could happen.
The reason for her lying on her bed was that she was trying to come up with something that could kick off the holiday spark. What did they usually do back in Kettlecorn?
Every year they recreated an old Christmas photo from when Bailey was five. That wouldn't work on the S.S. Tipton - they had no old Christmas photos.
The gingerbread baking contest? No, Zack strongly disliked baking, and Cody would have the win in the bag before they even started.
There was also the corn cob Santa game, where they decorated corn cobs like tiny Santas. Unfortunately, there was no corn on the cruise. Besides, the others had clearly expressed that they thought corn cob art was kind of strange.
Then the perfect idea hit her. Their longest running tradition, and the one that her greedy cousins liked the most. The Secret Santa!
"London, I got it!" she said, sitting up vigorously on the bed.
London turned around on her spinning makeup chair. Bearing her usual confused but happy face, she asked: "Got what?"
"What we need to do to make it feel like Christmas!"
"Oooh!" London squealed. "Can I see it?"
"Um," Bailey said, unsure what to say next. "London, it's not a solid object. It's something we should do."
"That requires effort?"
"Yeah, kind of!"
"Huh," London scoffed. "Then count me out."
"Oh, give it a chance, London!" Bailey pulled her friend out of the chair, and out of the room. With London complaining that she wanted to get back to her makeup, Bailey dragged her to the deck below them; the boys' deck. She knocked on the door to one of the cabins.
"Come in!" Cody's voice was heard from within. "But be very careful!"
Bailey obliged to this strange request of her boyfriend's, and opened the door carefully.
"Hey guys! What are you doing?" she asked.
"We're seeing how many chocolate bars Woody can balance on his elbows," said Zack, chuckling as he spoke.
Woody lay on his bed with his elbows facing the ceiling. Zack and Cody sat beside him on the bed, stacking small chocolate bars on top of each other on Woody's elbows. It was truly a strange sight.
"That's why you have to be careful in here," Cody explained. "He's up to nine on each arm, and we don't want any vibrations to make them fall."
"O...kay," Bailey said. "Anyway! I came up with something Christmas-y we can do!"
"What?" Cody asked excitedly. He was one of the people who wanted the Christmas feeling the most.
"I was thinking we could do a Secret Santa," Bailey revealed.
"Which will involve effort," London let the others know.
"That's great," Zack said quickly, focusing more on placing another candy on Woody.
"It's not just great, it's amazing," Cody said happily. He got off the bed and walked up to Bailey. He seemed to have totally forgotten his words from earlier, because as soon as he rose, the bed moved, and a second later, the floor was scattered with chocolate bars.
"Come on, dude!" Zack complained loudly.
"We'll do the Secret Santa," Cody told Bailey, pretending as if no interruption had happened.
"Should we get more people?" Bailey asked.
"We could ask Mr. Moseby and Ms. Tutweiller," Cody suggested.
"We'll do it!" Zack exclaimed.
It took a bit of convincing to get Mr. Moseby on board. He said that with all the people taking part, getting himself would be impossible. The only reason he usually took part in Secret Santas was so he could pull his own name, and buy himself nice stuff.
Ms. Tutweiller was quick to join though. She didn't seem to have any plans for the holidays, except for spending time with her many cats.
Then finally, the group of teenagers had written everyone's names on little pieces of paper, and put them all in a bowl. They had gathered on the sky deck, where they had had to pull Mr. Moseby away from his crossword puzzle before they could get him to join them in the drawing of the names.
"Who do you hope picks you?" Cody asked Bailey as they watched Zack fumble around in the bowl for way too long.
"Easy question," Bailey giggled.
"I know," Cody replied, smiling at her.
"You," he said at the same time as she said, "London."
When Cody made a slightly offended face, Bailey explained herself.
"Just imagine what she could give you."
Cody nodded, now understanding and kind of agreeing with Bailey's point.
Meanwhile, Zack finally pulled a card out of the bowl. He cupped his hand around it as he unfolded it and read the name written on it.
Bailey.
He was unsure how to feel about having to give his brother's girlfriend a Christmas present, but he moved out of the way to let Woody pick his person. Woody stuck his hand in the bowl, and pulled out the first note he could feel.
"London," he mouthed to himself, too quietly for anyone else to hear. "Not good."
Bailey and Cody stepped up next, and put their hands in the bowl at the same time.
"Good luck," Bailey told Cody when they both had papers in their hands.
They opened the folds, and read their names. Cody got Mr. Moseby, meaning Marion wouldn't get to give himself a present. Bailey smiled at her piece of paper. Cody, it said in Cody's neat handwriting. She grinned at the fact that his wish came true, and she got to give him a present (or another present, to be correct).
Mr. Moseby was next. He was by far the most uncertain person when it came to picking a name. He looked like he really didn't want to be there, which, to be fair, was kind of true. His mood didn't improve greatly when he read that he had to get Ms. Tutweiller a gift.
"Why haven't I gone yet!?" London suddenly shouted. She pushed away the others in front of her so she could be next to pull out a name. "I wanna get me, I wanna get me, I wanna get me," she whispered very audibly as she ruffled her hand around in the two remaining papers.
"I wanna get myself," Cody corrected her grammar before she pulled out a card.
She was about to read the paper aloud, before Ms. Tuttweiller stopped her.
"You don't read it out loud, London," she said, shielding her eyes from the unfolded paper as if it was an inappropriate scene she had walked in on.
"Okay!" London happily agreed. Instead she read the name in her mind. "Zack."
Lastly, Ms. Tutweiller pulled Woody's piece of paper.
"So, shall we let the Secret Santa shopping commence?" Cody asked formally.
He got loud sounds of agreement from his fellow teenagers, and quiet "okays" from the adults. They all started going in different directions, to different parts of the ship. On the way out, London stopped Zack.
"Zack, on a note completely unrelated to the Secret Santa, what do you want for Christmas?"
"Anything you can find that costs more than a thousand dollars," Zack quickly said.
"Okay!" London happily said, before skipping away.
When she was gone, Zack turned to Cody. He brought his closed fist to his side, and whispered "yes!" to demonstrate his happiness to have gotten picked by the richest girl on board.
Ten minutes or so later, London had skipped all the way to her favorite store on the cruise ship. Diamonds for Every Occasion. It was a store she had specially requested when her father was having the ship built. Everything in there was fancy, designer things that barely anyone but her could afford.
Zack had said that he wished for anything that cost more than a thousand dollars for Christmas, so that was what London had to get him. When she thought back at the moment she asked him about that, she couldn't help but admire how sneaky she had been.
I should really award myself for that sneakiness, she told herself. For the next fifteen minutes she completely forgot what she was doing in Diamonds for Every Occasion, and instead focused on buying something nice for herself. That whole Secret Santa thing was genius!
A floor below her in another, way cheaper shop was Woody, desperately trying to find something, anything, that would please London's expensive taste. He knew she liked clothes, so that was a safe bet. On the other hand, as far as Woody knew, all things London wore were designer. Anything he would afford was as far from designer as possible.
"Excuse me?" he asked a passing store clerk. "What's the most expensive thing you got in here?"
"Are you looking for clothes, jewelry or something else?" she asked in a very practiced voice, which she had clearly been told to use by her manager.
"Anything that a girl would like," Woody answered, making the answer sound more like another question.
"Then I would recommend this shirt," the woman grabbed the closest shirt, either out of laziness, or because that shirt just happened to be the most expensive thing in the store. The only thing Woody was sure about was that the shirt was nothing London would even be seen in the same room as.
"Do you have anything with more... glitter?" Woody asked unsurely, making up the last word on the spot.
"If it's glitter you're looking for, I recommend you go to Diamonds for Every Occasion." The woman now sounded very salty about Woody not wanting to buy the ugly shirt she first showed him. "You also wanted expensive, right? Then I also recommend Diamonds for Every Occasion."
"Okay...," Woody accepted her "advice".
"Not that you look like someone who would afford anything from that store." The clerk had forgotten her worker attitude long ago.
"Hurtful," Woody responded, placing his hand on his chest in an offended way.
The woman showed no sign of remorse for her words whatsoever, and simply walked off to help another costumer. In the end, Woody was no closer to finding out what to get London than he was before he walked inside the store.
Ms. Tutweiller was really unsure what to get Woody. She had no idea what he liked, except comic books. A comic book would feel like a very cheap and unthoughtful Christmas present.
"Excuse me, please," she walked up to the desk in the store she was in. "I'm looking to get a student a present. What do you recommend?"
"Ah, I get it," the man behind the counter said. "Highest score on a test?"
"No," Ms. Tutweiller said awkwardly. "Far from that."
"Your son or daughter's in the class?" the man asked next.
"No, I don't have children," Ms. Tutweiller answered. She could feel how the situation got more and more awkward as the worker continued guessing.
"You got a special bond with this student?"
"No! I'm just getting a student a present for a Secret Santa!"
"You put yourself in the students' Secret Santa?" the man asked.
"No, they put me in their Secret Santa."
"Why?"
"Just tell me what to buy!" Ms. Tutweiller lost her patience.
The guy behind the counter put his hands up as a way to say "take it easy" and bent down to grab something from the shelf underneath the desk. He reappeared a few seconds later with a book in his hand.
"What about this?"
"Oh," Ms. Tutweiller said, restraining herself from yelling again. "He's not really a book type."
"Okay then," the worker scanned the store with his eyes. "We've got some sports equipment over there," he pointed at a wall of shelves, on which balls from several different sports were stacked.
"He's not a sports type either..."
"What type is he?" the worker asked, frowning.
"He's kind of a... a food... and video games type."
"We've got some video games," the man shrugged.
"Perfect. I'll take one of those."
Bailey sat in the cabin she and London shared. She was eagerly working on her gift for Cody. It would be perfect, and he would love it. Though to speak the truth, he would love anything she gave him. That was the main reason why this had to be so particularly great.
On her desk she had an abundance of materials spread out along the edges. In the middle was the project itself, surrounded by a ten inch radius where nothing lay. She had already worked on it for an hour and a half. The door to the cabin was locked. If London entered and saw the gift, she would not be able to keep it from Cody. London had absolutely no filter for secrets.
Bailey was in the middle of lining the edge of her project with glue when someone suddenly pushed down the door handle on the locked door. Hadn't she had such self control, she would have flinched and ruined Cody's gift.
"Hey, why's this door locked?" she heard Zack's voice outside.
"Because I'm working on my Secret Santa gift!" Bailey answered, not shifting her focus from the glue.
"You're actually working on your gift?" Zack asked in a weirded out tone.
"Yes! Because I actually care about the person I'm giving it to, and I want to put visible effort into what I give them!"
"Have you got Cody or what?"
Bailey didn't answer. Luckily, Zack kept speaking.
"Hey, listen! There's an emergency, and you gotta help!"
Bailey half-wanted to not care about the emergency, but wasn't able to. She wanted to help, so she finished her line of glue a bit quicker than she would have wanted to, and rushed to the door. She unlocked it, and opened it enough for her to look out on Zack, but not enough for him to see inside.
"What's the emergency?" she asked.
"Cody can't find Buck," Zack revealed. Bailey gasped. Buck was their rat from a science project, which they had gotten to keep. "Cody needs your help down in his and Woody's cabin."
"I'm there!" Bailey said quickly. She rushed out of the room, and away to go help Cody.
This left Zack the perfect opportunity he had made up the Buck story for. He slipped into Bailey's room, and looked around quickly. He needed some kind of clue to what Bailey would want for Christmas, and it was her room if anything that would tell him that clue. The first stand-out thing he spotted was the chaos on her desk. He had always thought of Bailey as a neat and tidy girl.
When he walked to check out the mess, he found out that he might just have been right anyway. The mess was just her Secret Santa gift for, as he had guessed earlier, Cody.
He went back to looking around. The biggest challenge was determining what belonged to Bailey and what belonged to London. To anyone else, this would have been easy, but Zack had never been that observant.
Bailey had a bunch of farm-y, Kansas-y things on her side of the room. She wouldn't mind some more of that would she? Or maybe a book... Zack knew for a fact that she was just as into reading as Cody was, and Cody would never say no to a book.
When he had a general idea of what Bailey would like, he exited the room. He spent a few seconds adjusting the door, so it would be exactly how Bailey had left it. Then he walked away down the corridor. He had only walked for a minute or so when he ran into an obstacle.
Mr. Moseby.
"Oh, Zack," Mr. Moseby said, though in a way that was way different from his usual exhausted and annoyed voice when he said that sentence. "Just who I wanted to see."
"I didn't do it," Zack said automatically. Those were usually the words he had to say when talkin to Mr. Moseby.
"Do what?"
"Are you not blaming me for something?"
"No! I'm asking for your help."
"You want my help?"
"Yes."
Zack frowned. This was most unusual.
"With what?"
"The whole Secret Santa thing," Mr. Moseby answered, in what could be interpreted as an ashamed voice. He probably wasn't proud that he had to ask his least favorite person for help. "I got Emma, and I'm not sure what to give her."
"I thought you weren't supposed to tell people who you got?" Zack said, being very unhelpful.
"Would you just help me?" Moseby hissed.
"Sure," Zack stopped to think. "Just give her... a book, or an apple or something. Isn't that what teachers like?"
"Wouldn't that say that I only view her as a teacher?" Mr. Moseby asked.
"Are you saying you don't?" Zack slowly asked.
To answer this, Mr. Moseby blabbered some nonsense while waving his hand in Zack's face. Zack simply watched him with a weirded out expression. When Moseby stopped after a couple of seconds, Zack said his final sentence before leaving.
"Okay, I'm off to buy the perfect present for my secret friend."
"Good luck with that," Mr. Moseby said, clearly disbelieving Zack's ability to buy a perfect present.
Meanwhile, Bailey had been on her way to the boys' deck when she ran into Cody.
"Cody!" she said. "Where did you see him last?"
Cody looked evidently confused.
"Who?" he asked.
"Buck!" Bailey seemed to be in a bit of a panic.
"In his cage, of course," Cody said, grabbing Bailey's hands and bringing them up to their chests.
"Where do you think he could have gone?" Bailey asked, a bit calmer now.
"Is he gone?" Cody asked. Now he began worrying too, but Bailey instead looked puzzled.
"Zack said you couldn't find him," she informed him.
"What?" Cody said. "Buck's safe in his cage."
Bailey switched her emotions for the third time that minute. She pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Then Zack just purposely got me to run away from my cabin!"
"It's not the first time he pulled a move like that," Cody admitted.
"My gift!" Bailey turned from angry to stressed. "I just put glue on it; I've got to go back and finish it before it dries!"
Cody smiled kindly. "Good luck with it."
He gave her a kiss on the cheek before she hurried off, feeling if possible even better about having gotten Cody. Cody himself had, as you know, gotten Mr. Moseby, who he thought very easy to give gifts to. It hadn't taken him any time at all to find the perfect gift. Though to be fair, Cody barely ever had trouble buying people gifts they liked.
He knew the hotel manager would enjoy his gift.
Three days later, Christmas Day arrived, and it was time for the group to open their presents. They gathered on the less crowded Fiesta Deck. Everyone else was busy celebrating on the Sky Deck, so the Fiesta Deck was a perfect place for them to gather in quiet to finish their Secret Santa game.
Everyone had at random placed their gifts under the small Christmas tree in the corner. The sight of a Christmas tree with presents under was almost enough to bring the Christmas spirit to life.
"Me first!" London demanded excitedly. "Someone bring me my present," she ordered much more strictly.
Ms. Tutweiller, who stood closest to the tree at the moment read the labels of all the presents, and picked up London's.
"Here you go."
London took the present from Ms. Tutweiller in an aggressively excited way, and ripped the paper off it. It revealed a cardboard box, which she opened with the same amount of enthusiasm. She pulled out the white shirt Woody had gotten for her, and immediately let out an ear-piercing shriek. She dropped it to the floor as if it had just snapped its fangs at her.
"Who let me touch this?!" she pointed at it with horror held in every part of her body.
The other six people exchanged exasperated looks. They hadn't expected any other reaction from London.
"Guess who your Secret Santa was," Bailey encouraged with as much fake enthusiasm as he could master for London.
"It could be any of you," London stated, nodding quickly to herself. "Tutweiller and Bailey have the horrible clothing taste for it. You three are poor enough to touch this, and Mr. Moseby just doesn't know fashion at all; I mean look at the combination of that tie and those shorts!"
The others ignored these highly insulting statements, and instead went on to the next person, who happened to be Ms. Tutweiller. She picked up her present and opened it with much more caution and respect for the wrapping paper than London. Finally, it was revealed to be a romantic novel.
"Oh my!" she said thankfully, looking at the cover. "I've wanted this book for a while now!"
"So who gave it to you?" Mr. Moseby asked. The question made it even more obvious to Emma that he was her Secret Santa.
"You did," she said happily, before giving Mr. Moseby a hug.
"Okay, you're done with that, it's my turn," Zack decided for them. He bent down and picked up his present, which he already knew was from London. Excited to see what expensive item he would get, he unwrapped the present.
The child-like smile on his face dimmed when a small jewelry box was revealed. He opened it with a small string of hope that London was just reusing an old box. Inside was nothing else than a gleaming bracelet.
"London, what's this?" he asked, sounding like a seven-year-old who had just received socks as a Christmas present.
"It's a bracelet!" London said cheerfully, sounding very proud of herself. Zack thought to himself whatever he would do with a bracelet.
"I... don't really wear jewelry," Zack said.
"Then should I take it?" London asked, still excited.
"Yeah, sure," Zack said, shaking his head. He had hoped for too much.
"Phew," London said, just as Zack was about to give her the bracelet back. "Wouldn't want those seven thousand dollars to go to waste!"
"On second thought," Zack snatched it right back. "Maybe I will find some occasion to wear this on!" he said, chuckling and trying to sound convincing. To avoid any further comments from someone else on the topic, he quickly said; "Codester, you're next!"
Cody rolled his eyes at the nickname as he bent down and picked up the small present, the label of which read "To Cody". Next to the text was what looked like a scratched out heart. Cody smiled as he got a pretty good idea from who he got his present. He carefully unwrapped it, and found a small box. He opened it, and immediately got a smile put on his face.
Inside lay a glass heart, intricately decorated to be adorable and personal. In the middle stood the two names, Cody and Bailey.
"What is it and who's it from?" Zack asked impatiently. He found watching his brother almost get emotional over a gift he hadn't shown the others yet incredibly boring.
Cody took the heart out of the box and showed the others. He looked straight at Bailey.
"Thanks Bailey," he walked up and embraced her closely.
"Anything for you," she said to him.
"Before any of us others throw up, Woody, go get your gift!" Zack instructed.
Woody happily obliged, and picked up his present. He opened it with the same energy as Zack, but was way happier to see what he had gotten than his friend.
"Zombie Killer Ultra!" he exclaimed when he saw the video game. "This is from one of you," he said to Zack and Cody, who both gave no clue that told that it wasn't.
"Can I go now?" Mr. Moseby asked, gesturing back and forth between himself and the presents.
"Go for it," Zack said.
Mr. Moseby picked up the rectangular present, and opened it carefully. Inside was a black frame.
"Is this what I think it is?" he asked, happiness for once bubbling up inside of him.
"It is," Cody confirmed. "It's a pocket hanky display."
"Yes!" Mr. Moseby cried in a high-pitched voice. "From you?"
Cody nodded proudly, he then put an arm on Bailey's shoulder.
"You're next, Bailey Bunny."
Bailey giggled sweetly, and picked up the last present from under the tree. She went back to stand by Cody before she opened it. She immediately smiled when she saw what was inside.
"Oh my gosh, this is perfect!" she said, putting her hand on her mouth in awe. "101 Ways to Cook Corn! We've run out of new ways to cook our corn back in Kettlecorn!" She admired the cook book a little more.
"Shall we get on with the Secret Santa reveal?" Mr. Moseby asked, unmistakeably getting bored of the game.
"Okay, I'll go first," Bailey volunteered.
"No need," Zack sighed.
Bailey giggled again and looked up at her boyfriend. "Probably not."
"I'll go instead," Zack said. "Bailey. I gave you that cookbook."
"Zack, really? Thank you so much!" Bailey hugged Zack. "How did you know I wanted this?"
"Lucky guess," Zack admitted. He had picked the first thing he saw that said "corn".
"I gave Woody his video game," Ms. Tutweiller revealed.
"Really?" Woody asked, dragging out the "y" in really. Ms. Tutweiller nodded proudly.
"I gave Zack his bracelet!" London said, pointing excitedly at Zack.
"Yeah. Thanks," Zack said. Sarcasm that went unnoticed by London laced both words.
"Everyone knows who their Secret Santa was now?" Ms. Tutweiller asked. She looked around at everyone, and they nodded.
"Then let's go celebrate with the others, shall we?" Mr. Moseby suggested.
"Yeah!" Zack shouted. "Merry Christmas guys!"
"Merry Christmas!" they all wished him back, before they exited out onto the sunny Christmas Sky Deck.
Merry Christmas!
Now that you've finished reading, I'd be very happy if you chose to review the story. If you do, I'll be very happy, and you'll have taken part in making someone's day. I'll be extremely grateful, and you'll become one of my favorite people on this site (that is how my favorite people work). If you don't review, it's fine. I just won't like you as much.