.:3:.

"So how did your little meeting with Sadie go?"

Cody shrugged as he gathered his things together. He briefly glanced at his watch. The meeting of the student government had ended sooner than he thought, so there was plenty of time to hang out with their friends before their first period classes started. Then he focused back on Bailey's question.

He had met Sadie not long before the meeting was to start, leaving at what Zack called 'the butt crack of dawn' to get there. (Cody reminded himself to ask their dad if Zack had eaten breakfast that morning). She had met him with a friendly, yet distant smile, seemingly as aware of the discomfort between them. Cody hadn't outright said that he would call the police on her the last time she, Zack, and Cody had spoken, but it had been implied. He felt bad about it, really. But Sadie needed to learn a lesson. No one was going to mess with his brother and get away with it, and she needed to learn that her actions had consequences.

Their conversation had been straight and to the point, her speech was lacking and he helped her out a little with it. Not writing it entirely himself, he had been taken advantage of in that aspect enough in his life to know how to avoid it. She had been very receptive to the instruction he gave her and she had been very thankful when they were finished.

Nothing so out of the ordinary. Neither of them had said anything about her former relationship with Zack and she promised to make up for taking time out of his day to help her before parting ways. It was like she was an entirely different person from the vindictive and angry girl she had been when Zack broke up with her.

"It was fine," Cody said. "I think I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she willingly asked for my help."

"Because she should've asked me instead?" Bailey flashed a charming smile, fluttering her eyelashes.

Cody laughed. "You had to get that last one in there didn't you?"

"I'm just saying…I was the first one to be voted as the president of the class."

"Co-president," Cody reminded her. The two left the meeting room and headed towards their lockers. "And the only reason you were 'voted' first,"—he used air quotes around the word—"was because they read your name alphabetically. Which, really, it should've been my name first because my last name comes before yours. But this is Miss. Tutweiller we're talking about and she likes to do things 'off the cuff'." He shook his head. "Remind me to mention that in her teacher evaluation at the end of the year."

"Sure, and she'll have her hopes and dreams dashed with it after she reads my glowing review of how she made me valedictorian."

The two laughed. The hallways started to become filled with students coming into school for the day, excited to talk about what had happened to each other over the weekend. Cody and Bailey ran into Patrick and Noah Jackson as they went, Patrick bouncing a basketball at his side as he went.

"Hey," Patrick greeted them. "Did you remember to bring your gear for practice at lunch?" He chest-passed the ball to Cody, who easily caught it, then brought it up to his finger to spin the ball on top. He smiled, watching it for a few seconds, and bounced it back over to Noah.

"Yeah, I remembered," Cody said. "I guess it's also good that I worked as the team manager for a while, so I'll know how to time the laundry in enough time to practice later."

"Ah, you mean after you were a cheerleader?" Noah teased.

"Being a cheerleader is very respectable," Cody called back.

"And it looks good on his resume," Bailey added, as the groups parted.

The two continued towards the hallway that held the lockers for the senior class, smiling, waving, and greeting other students from other classes as they went. Cody was happy to see how everyone appeared happy to see each other. Honestly, starting senior year it was the first time he felt popular. Not just because of being on the basketball team, finally, but because of what he was doing to run the school. They didn't have a complete student body president, but the senior class presidents, who served that role. They led the team to make the different events for the school as well as worked with the senior class for their volunteering efforts, class gift, and class trip.

With the end of the school year coming so close, they, thankfully, only had a few events left that they had to plan. Not including making sure graduation went on without a hitch. As it was, he hated the idea of leaving. Not just because of the first thing that came to mind, leaving his friends, but because of leaving Boston and everything he had become to see as his home after moving around so much. It was as bittersweet as it was exciting and his high hopes for Yale was far enough away but not too far from his family to visit.

The next step in his life was looming closer and he was finding that he hoped it would stay back a little bit longer, no matter how prepared he had been for academia since he was little.

"How is basketball going anyway?" Bailey asked.

"Are you really asking or do you mean how's Zack doing?" Cody corrected her. Bailey bobbed her head back and forth. "It's not so bad. I can see that he's frustrated that he's not doing as much as he wants to, though. I think sitting on the bench is starting to get to him more than it did when he first started out on the bench."

"As long as he's getting the chance to play again," Bailey said.

"Yeah, now if only he saw it that way."

The two made their way to the senior hall and it seemed like everything was amped up then. Almost like each hallways of classes were different cities. The freshmen was like a farm community in a way, keeping to themselves and not one to completely mingle with the rest of the city; intimidated at their status of being the new students but growing bolder as their year went on. Sophomores were the portions of the suburbs that had a great sense of community and wanting to help each other, a little boisterous at times, much like a block party. The juniors were the hustle and bustle of a city, understanding they weren't the youngest nor the oldest but that there was a lot of upcoming responsibility for them. Stuck between work and play.

The seniors were like the downtown area of a city, the place that everyone knew about and liked to visit. There was always something going on, something to be excited about. And that's definitely what Cody and Bailey stepped into that morning. It was like everyone was in a good mood; his classmates were talking and laughing with each other. Some were laughing over something they were showing on their phone, others were going over their homework from the day before, some were on their computers, the Drew Crew were clearly talking about whatever party they had gone to from their boisterous laughter and 'remember when' moments. But then Cody heard the sound of music coming from the part of the locker bay that their friends had claimed.

(Well, not claimed so much as their last names all lined up making it easier to find a place to hang out between classes). Cody smiled to himself when he spotted his friends. Max (of course), Riley, Rhuben, and Crystal were dancing around to the music that was coming from Tapeworm's laptop, that rested on his lap. Tapeworm and Zack both had comic books up over their faces and were pointing things out to each other every few seconds. Moose, Janice, and Jessica sat along with them with Janice and Jessica hanging on to every word that Moose was saying, probably reminiscing about life back in Kettlecorn. He and Bailey had gone back home over the break and it seemed like their old idiosyncrasies had become strengthened once they did so.

Then again, when he and Zack went to visit their relatives, specifically those in Appletown, Texas, where their Aunt Martha lived, they were consistently teased for the slight Boston accent they had apparently picked up. As far as Cody knew, he didn't have an accent.

"Hey!" Bailey greeted, lifting her voice over the music as they approached. "What're you guys doing?"

"Rhu was showing us the new routine the dance team came up with," Max replied, still working on her fancy footwork without a break in stride. "You want to try it out?"

"Sure!"

Bailey put down her purse and backpack and joined in with them while Cody sat down on the floor with the guys. He glanced up at Rhuben as she moved to Bailey's side and slowly—yet quickly—moved through the steps she had just learned. She had always been a very graceful dancer and while Cody wasn't a pervert—or didn't consider himself once—he found it really hard to not watch as she danced. Well, he knew the real reason why but, unlike Zack, he was never one to be that open.

With a low sigh, Cody leaned back against the lockers behind him and stretched out his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankle. He looked down at his clothes, the more laid-back casual style he had started at the beginning of the school year. It had been a hard change for him to go from sweater-vests to hoodies and skater shoes that he used to wear when he was really young. But he found it to work well, allowing him to grow up. There was a lot of growing up they had to do within the next couple of months, but that didn't mean he didn't have to still be himself in personality.

Face it, Cody, you spend too much time comparing yourself to Zack, he thought. Which was certainly true. Everyone around them compared the twin boys so much that Cody found himself stuck in that rut time and time again. There were a lot of things that he could do better than Zack and vice-versa. It was the things they couldn't do that showed up more than anything else. Cody took in another deep breath.

That wasn't so true as of late. Now he felt more for the adversities Zack was facing; once the most popular boy in school due to his athleticism and outgoing personality was not watched for entirely different reasons. It wasn't like Zack was completely incompetent and couldn't do things for himself, but he needed to have someone in his corner, no questions asked. That's what twins were for, right?

"So dude," Zack said, grasping Cody's attention. "We're going to play Galactic Warriors tonight in the Tipton's game room."

Cody's eyes narrowed. "I thought you were still playing Medieval Magic Quest. Like, the last time I tried to change games, you tried to shove your wand up my nose."

"Yeah," Zack said. "And I barely got it in before you were whining and crying about it."

Cody crossed his arms. "You know I have sensitive sinuses."

"You have a sensitive everything!" Zack rolled his eyes. "And Mr. Moseby was starting to get on my case because was getting mad that I was playing and doing plundering mission without him." He waved his hands in the air. "How was I supposed to know he had a lot of those boring manager meeting to go to? Plundering doesn't wait for anybody!"

Cody laughed.

"Galactic Warriors is the hottest new game," Tapeworm then explained, lowering his comic book once more. "Not only did it get the highest projected score for the most highly anticipated game of the year, but the pre-orders have sold out for months."

"So how'd you get the game?" Cody asked.

Tapeworm's smile turned into a smirk. "I have an uncle who works in marketing and this was one of the games they had been working on so he got an advanced copy of the game." He reached over and patted his backpack. "Yep, in just a few short hours we'll be playing a game of intergalactic destruction from here all the way to Andromeda."

"Is Andromeda as far as they go?" Cody asked. "What about the Interacting, Starburst, and active galaxies? Like the Blazars and Quasar?"

"I'm not sure but the luminous infrared galaxies should be included as well. I heard they had gotten Neil DeGrasse Tyson included on the creation of the game. To make sure things were scientifically correct."

"What about magnetic fields? You can't ignore those, too."

"There're entire campaigns surrounding them."

"What about—"

"Oh my God!" Zack declared. He slapped his comic book over his face. "I've never been so bored in my entire life." He paused, his pause directly coinciding with Bailey turning off the music to catch her breath. "Well, except the time Max made me watch The Notebook with her."

Almost as if there was a record scratch, Max whipped her head towards her ex-boyfriend, rolling her body along with the movement and rested her hands on her hips. "Excuse me? I didn't force you to watch it." She tapped her finger against her cheek. "Actually, I fell asleep when we were watching and you kept watching the entire thing."

"There was nothing else on," Zack defended himself when Moose, Tapeworm and Cody all turned their attention to Zack. All trying their best to keep smug smiles on their faces. Who would've thought rough and tumble Zack Martin would enjoy a Nicholas Sparks film?

"Mhm." Now Max projected major attitude in her voice. "So how did I force you?"

Now Zack lifted an eyebrow, a mischievous look flashing through his eyes. "Well, I'm not sure if you remember, but after homecoming—"

"Can we stop with this bizarre version of the Newlywed Game for a minute?" Riley broke in. She nodded her head towards Bailey and Cody. "How was the student government meeting…thing?" Cody watched her as she spoke. She didn't cringe; actually she did a great job of keeping her expression neutral. But he could see in her eyes that she was practically smacking herself in the forehead. Especially since the last thing she would've cared about was the student government meeting.

"It was fine," Cody said. "We were going over the budget that we have for the senior trip mostly."

"And?" Janice asked.

"How much do we have?" Jessica asked, the moment her sister finished her one-word sentence.

"Not enough to go as far as say, Cape Cod," Bailey said.

"Cape Cod, really?" Moose asked. His eyes lit up at the thought. Then his excited smile faded when everyone turned to look at him. "I heard they have really good fish. And there's nothing I enjoy more than a good ol' fish fry."

"Aw, I know what you mean," Bailey said. Her tone suddenly turned wistful as she tilted her head to the side. "Nothing was better than going fishing down at the lake and getting a nice, big, fish for dinner. Helping my dad skin and de-bone them was always the highlight of my day."

"You didn't get out much, did you?" Max asked.

Bailey didn't take offense to Max's question. "With as many sisters as I have? Not so much. Sometimes it'd be hard to get any attention so it was a special moment with my dad."

"Hmm." A smug smile came to Crystal's face. "I know the feeling." Clearly she was referring to how her cousins had all been taken in by her father once their abuse foster father had lost his rights to them. He remembered shortly after they moved into her house how much she complained that they 'took up so much space and keep touching my stuff' and she could barely be heard over their talking.

"We made your lives that much more entertaining, I reckon there's no need for you to complain, yeah?" Rhuben said. Crystal smiled, not denying the statement.

"But what were you saying about the budget? We don't have enough to go on the senior trip?" Max's eyebrows came together. "That sucks, that's the only thing that suffering through high school for four years makes worthwhile."

"We're trying to come up with a lot of different fundraising ideas for it," Cody said calmly. Though he understood their hesitation. Past years of senior trips had been some of the best events the school had put on. There was a trip to Disney World, a trip to LA, a trip to Seattle…and so far they were the only ones that hadn't come up with anything and the time to get it blocked out by the school was getting really close. "So far, Sadie suggested that we have another dance next month."

"A dance before prom?" Tapeworm's eyebrows rose. "Why don't they just increase the cost of the prom ticket?"

"Because there're enough students that the ticket price is already too high," Cody explained. People like us, he added, looking over to Zack, noticing the intense expression on his face. The only times it got there was when he was angry or when he was thinking very hard. The latter that he hadn't seen too often. They both had jobs, but there was only so much that they could afford to spend on prom tickets, a tuxedo, flowers, reservations… "Not to mention how much we need to spend on the different vendors and everything. We came up with our budget after factoring all of that in."

"So what about this second dance?" Janice asked. She lifted her hands as if reading off a newspaper title. "What if we made it a Sadie Hawkins theme?"

Jessica clapped her hands together. "Where the girls ask the boys? That sounds so romantic."

"Really, really romantic."

"Hey, as long as I'm not the one paying for everything," Zack remarked, finally snapping out of his intense stare. A charming smile came to his face as he pointed to the British twins. "Actually, I think they have something there. What if you did a sort of…Winter Homecoming?"

"Homecoming is usually when alumni come back to the school, mate," Riley pointed out. "Hence the name, homecoming."

"No, hear me out," Zack said. He wrapped his arms around his knees. "The winter sports are the ones that don't get a lot of attention unless the team is winning. So if we treated these winter sports like it was a homecoming event, even going so far as to have another spirit week, there'd be enough excitement for the ticket price to the dance, and maybe even admission to the games, from candy sales…it's enough to make it so that by the time prom comes around, the money collected from those tickets will be chump change."

"Is there going to be another date auction?" Max teased.

"No!" Bailey and Cody said at the same time, making everyone laugh.

But Janice and Jessica were the only ones who pouted. "It stinks that we had to miss it," Jessica said. She let out a sigh, tilting her head and twisting her hair around her finger. "I mean, it seems like it'd only be fair if we were to have one for the girls."

"No!" This time Bailey was the only one who said it. She glared at Cody, who suddenly seemed as interested as Zack, Tapeworm, and Moose all did. It wasn't necessarily a bad idea. There had to be something they could do that would have the same fundraising efforts to it. Of course the worst part was the double-standard that arose.

"I mean, isn't that what prom is for anyway?" Tapeworm spoke up. The smile on his face proved that he really thought he was making things better, but the glares from Max and Bailey that turned his way immediately wiped the smile off his face. "What? What'd I say?"

"Never try to understand girls, Tape, it just makes things worse," Zack said. Then all glares, including Cody's, turned his way. Zack looked around and threw his hands into the air. "What?!"

The bell rang, signaling them to go to their first class. No time to explain the points of sexism and double standard that day. As it was, he would probably get eyes rolls in response. Was it his fault that he tried to make sure he treated girls as well as they should? Cody got up from the floor and wet to his locker to gather his books for his first class; Advanced English. He looked over his shoulder, finding Tapeworm and Max walking off down the hall together, Moose, Bailey, Janice, and Jessica talking together as they hurried to their class, and Crystal and Riley arm-in-arm as they walked together, talking to Zack as he walked backwards to talk to them.

Maybe that's the problem, Cody thought. I'm too busy thinking of everything while they're so busy doing everything. The last girlfriend he had was Barbara and, before she moved to date Bob, they had a real puppy love that resulted in his first drama free relationship. It had been nice, they had a lot in common but…he didn't quite feel the kind of spark that felt he would make him do anything to be with her. (Other than the time he had snuck Barbara into his dad's apartment and got caught, after that night he was scared from doing anything like that ever again).

His entire high school career had been encompassed with making sure he got the best grades and was at the top of his game academically, being on every academic team, club, and position he could possibly be in. But what did all of that mean if there wasn't anyone to share it with?

"Penny for your thoughts?" Cody looked over at Rhuben as he closed his locker door, surprised to still find her there. Her dark blue eyes roved over him for a minute. Her eyebrows rose as she pulled her strand of purple hair form her eyes. "Actually, I reckon a dollar, you look really…lost."

Lost? That wasn't the word he would use to describe himself. "Really?"

"Or, lost in thought."

That was better. "Just a lot to think about," Cody said. "School stuff, mostly. And Zack. We made a bet that I lost and I have to do his homework for the next two days."

"And that's a problem, because?" Now Rhuben's eyebrows lowered as they headed off to class. She was in Advanced English as well as Riley, Crystal, and Bailey. "You never had a problem doing his work before, no matter how much you whinged about it."

"Yeah, but that was before it actually decided whether or not he was going to graduate," Cody reminded her. He frowned. That wasn't true, it had happened before. And he had gone to summer school for it. But this time it was Zack's lazy study habits and something that he couldn't really control that was putting his life at Zack. Zack didn't talk about it much, he rarely even reacted to it or when their teachers would comment on the work that was missing or needed to be turned in. But he knew his brother, his twin, and knew it was only a matter of time until it started tog et to him. "Now I really don't know what he's going to do."

"He asked us for help, didn't he?" Rhuben pointed out. "And you have to admit he doesn't usually ask for help unless there's some sort of monetary and entertaining gain for him." She motioned with her hand. "Remember when he convinced the rest of us to hold a car wash in sophomore year and he 'just so happened' to be the one to take the money to the principal and 'just so happened' that there was an arcade competition along the way?"

"Oooh, yeah," Cody said. He frowned. He had bailed Zack out of that one, too. But not after letting him know how lazy and entitled he was for it. "That wasn't fun."

"What are you talking about? You had a blast."

"No, I mean, it wasn't fun because Zack wasn't there." Cody frowned, realizing how bad that sounded. "I mean, not that I can't do things without him but—"

"—But it's more fun when your twin is there, I get it," Rhuben said with a warm smile that she typically reserved for him. And she would. She and Riley were the first set of twins he and Zack had met in a long time. One of the first conversations they had when they met was the strange questions and comments they got for being twins. Being able to talk to someone else about it was always easier.

And things had been easy since he met her, even if they were exes. Fortunately their breakup had been very amicable and they'd remained close since then. Cody watched her as she gave him another smile before ducking into the classroom, moving into the seat that was across the room from his own assigned one. Cody felt warmth start in his stomach and spread to his cheeks, a surefire sign he was blushing.

A strange thought entered his head just then. One that didn't make sense for the conversation at hand but was also very telling.

He liked being around his brother, loved being a twin, but was glad there were times where he could be by himself and his own person.

The strange part was that he hadn't noticed how much he truly did care about being his own person, despite the issues of their constant comparison being within himself.

A/N: Pacing moves faster with the next chapter but it does bring up Cody's biggest issue, wanting to be there for his brother while trying to equally balance being his own person. I think there were moments of that struggle on the show/s such as in Rumors from SLOZAC and Goin' Bananas from SLOD.

Please let me know what you think.

Cheers,

-Riles