How We Got Here
by Grifflekin
Disclaimer: I do not own SLOZAC. Ain't mine, never will be.
Chapter Seven
A cab pulled up to the Tipton and the Diminutive Duo bounced out of it like rubber balls and went to the main entrance. On entering the lobby, their eyes became saucers and they ceased to breathe as they took in the splendor.
"Hey, Codes, Do you see the size of this place?" Zack said.
"This is almost as big as our little league field," Cody replied, getting his breathing back to normal.
"Oh, wow, look at the hot blond at the candy counter. Follow me and listen up good and learn how to handle women," Zack bragged.
"Maddie saw the two approach the stand and thought Oh my God, look at those two. They are adorable. If only they were older or I was younger. They're going to be heart breakers.
"What will you have," she said, grinning from ear to ear.
"You as my wife, sweet thang," Zack replied.
"Aren't you being a little forward not to mention out of your league? We haven't even met and already we're married. By the way, my name is Maddie."
"My name is Zack Martin," Zack said. "Get used to it, because when you marry me, you'll be a Martin."
Maddie began to laugh and couldn't stop herself. Zack's face turned red and he felt a punch to the arm.
"Hey, what am I, chopped liver?" Cody asked.
"This is your future brother-in-law and my twin brother, Cody. I'm the better looking twin, and the girls dig me," Zack said, with his chest puffed out.
"Is he always like this?" Maddie asked.
"Pretty much," Cody replied. "But you don't have to worry about him; he's harmless."
Zack gave Cody his "I'll get you later," look. Just then a black haired Asian girl came up to the counter.
"Has my Teen Vogue arrived yet?" she asked.
"Yes," Maddie said. "It just came. By the way, these two are Zack and Cody. They're Carey's twins."
"Twins," London mused. "Does that mean that they're the same age?"
The boys looked at each other and Maddie. All three shook their heads.
"I think it's about time you two found your mother. She just finished with her photo shoot and I think she went up to the suite." Maddie said. She looked around the lobby, spotted Esteban, and called him over.
He came to the counter and said, "How nice, Little Blond Peoples."
"These are Carey's kids," Maddie said. "Could you please take them up to 2312? I think Carey's there."
"Follow me, Little Peoples," he said as he led the boys to the elevator.
"Codes," Zack said. " 'Little Peoples' is just as bad as 'My Little Men.' "
The elevator stopped at the 23rd floor and he ushered them to the left. When they came to 2312, Esteban knocked at the door. "Just a minute," the boys heard their mother say. When she got to the door, she looked through the spy hole and saw Esteban's smiling face and she opened the door. She was unprepared for what she saw. Two boys. Twins. Twelve years old, with guilty looks on their faces.
"Thank you, Esteban," Carey mumbled as she grabbed the two by the ears and dragged them in, shutting the door with her foot.
"What are you two doing here?" she demanded. "I told you to do your homework, watch TV and order pizza. I said nothing about taking dangerous trips by yourselves."
"We missed you, Mommy," they said in unison.
"Put a sock in it," she said. "Zack, you should know better than to drag your poor brother into another of your harebrained schemes."
"Not guilty, mom, honest," Zack said, "It was Cody's idea. I tried to stop him, but he was too much for me to handle."
"Cody Jeremy Martin, you are the last one I would have expected to pull an irresponsible Zack stunt. What do you have to say for yourself?" she demanded.
Boy, I stepped in it now, he thought. She never uses three names unless she is really really mad. He was used to hearing Zachary Connor Martin, but never his name. He became frightened and his lower lip began to quiver.
"I'm sorry, Mommy; please don't be mad at me. You told us about this place and we were curious and couldn't wait!" he said as he began to sob. This was too much for Carey. The quivering lip, the sobs, the tears, the sad expression on his face. The cute factor was enough to melt an iceberg. He could have saved the Titanic had he been on board. She grabbed Cody and pulled him into a tight hug.
"Don't cry, honey" she said. "Mommy isn't all that mad. I suppose it was my fault not telling you that I planned to bring you here tomorrow after school."
"Oh, sure," Zack said. " I do something and it's 'you're grounded. No TV, no PlayStation, no allowance, no nothing. He does something and he gets a hug and an apology? Why do I get stomped and he's given the 'get out of jail free' card?"
"Cody never did anything bad unless you lured him into it and got him into trouble through your bad example. So while you wallow in self-pity, I might as well continue in the Monopoly vein. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail."
"And I don't have enough money to bail you out, so you can stay there," Cody muttered and to add insult to injury, he stuck his tongue out at his brother and winked while still performing manufactured hiccuppy sobs.
I knew it, Zack thought, it was all an act. Gosh, he's good. Well, he learned from the best. I should be proud of mu accomplishments.
"Now that you two are here," Carey said "Would you like a tour of our grand suite?"
Both boys nodded and the first thing that they spied was the big screen TV on the shelf and they made a bee line for it. Before, their eyes were the size of saucers. Now, if possible, they upgraded to salad plates. It's a wonder that their eyeballs did not fall to the floor.
"Wow, a cable box," Cody exclaimed, jumping from foot to foot. "Mom, we have cable!"
"Yes, but don't get too excited. Arwin, the hotel engineer, went over it with me and we blocked some channels and all movies that were not rated G, so to see them, you would need my password to override the block and you'll never get it."
"Cody," she continued. "Stop jumping and follow me before you leave a puddle on the carpet. The bathroom is this way."
Carey opened the door, reached in and turned on the light, quickly getting out of the way of a bouncing Cody. She shut the door and waited for him to come out. Five minutes, no Cody. She knocked at the door. "Cody, are you okay?"she called. No answer. All of a sudden, the bedroom door opened and a hyper Cody catapulted from within, shouting "Zack! Zack, wait into you see our room! It's huge!" Cody had found the door that led from the bathroom to the bedroom.
Zack stopped venerating the TV and followed Cody into the bedroom. Carey followed, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed as the boys inspected their new environment with yelps of glee as they jumped form bed to bed and looked through all the drawers and went over every nook and cranny.
Carey checked her watch. It was a little past 6:00. Time to rein in the Bucking Broncos and corral them at the kitchen table. "Dinner time, boys," she said. She went to the drawer near the stove and took out the room service menu and gave it to them. Zack read over Cody's shoulder as he licked his lips. Cody raised his eyebrows as he read.
"I'll have the chef's salad with a mild vinaigrette," Cody said, "and a ginger ale."
"Big surprise," Zack opined." I'll have a bacon burger deluxe with bleu cheese and a lemon Coke."
Carey wrote down the orders and added a Chicken Francese with spaghetti on the side and a ginger ale. She went to the phone and placed the order.
Carey then turned to the boys and said, "Time for us to have a serious talk while we wait for room service. I'll talk, you two will listen. I've already told you that this is a great opportunity for us. We could have a wonderful life here, but a good bit of this depends on you treating everyone with respect and consideration. Now I'm not foolish enough to believe that you two are angels, but I do expect you to act appropriately while in the hotel. You have not met Mr. Moseby yet. He is a very kind, but extremely proper man who I can see will not put up with any nonsense. Aside from him, you will treat all hotel employees with dignity and respect. They have enough trouble with obnoxious tourists who are paying guests. Say 'Please,' 'Thank you,' even 'Can I help you with that?' If you have a problem with anyone you can be polite and then tell me and I will be the sole judge and jury and take appropriate action."
The door bell rang.
"That was fast," Carey said. "Looks like dinner's here. Cody, can you get the door please?"
Cody went to the door and opened it and was greeted with "Hello, my name is Marion Moseby," Moseby said in a big booming voice. "I'm the manager of this hotel. Is your mother here?"
"Please come in, sir; she's right inside," Cody replied, grasping and shaking the man's offered hand and stepping aside to permit entry. He's not so mean as mom made him out to be, he thought. "My name is Cody."
"Ah, there you are Carey, and this young man must be Zack." He shook the boy's hand. "They must drive you crazy. However do you tell them apart?"
"You don't know the half of it," Carey said. She regretted saying this as soon as it left her mouth. She didn't want to give Moseby the wrong idea.
"Be that as it may, I wanted to tell you that the band leader will be here tomorrow to discuss your song list and to arrange for rehearsals through the week. He'll be here at 3:00pm. With that said, I'll bid you three good evening and call it a day." Moseby said.
Cody went to the door and opened it for Moseby as he left. "Thank you, sir," he mewled. Cody shut the door.
"Suck up," Zack sneered.
"You see," Carey said, "that is exactly what I was talking about before. Cody was only showing Mr. Moseby the respect and courtesy that he is due."
"He was just kissing his a—"
"Zack!" she yelled, cutting him off before he could finish. "It's time you learned a lesson from your brother."
Unknown to the three occupants of suite 2312, Moseby was standing at the door with his ear pressed against it and his hand over his mouth, trying almost in vain to stop laughing out loud. He knew that he was going to take a good deal of joy in the antics of those two. Little did he realize the fun he would have in the ensuing years. Just then he heard the elevator door open and a room service cart come out, being pushed by a waiter. Best to catch the elevator before the door closed lest his secret be discovered. He put his finger over his lips as a signal to the waiter to be mum. The waited nodded as Moseby disappeared into the elevator and was gone.
Carey was still berating them when the doorbell rang again.
"Saved by the bell," Zack said as he jumped up to answer the door. The waiter rolled in the cart and handed the check to Carey. She took it from his little tray along with the pen that was with it, added a modest tip, signed it, returned it to him without the pen, and thanked him. He nodded as he took it. "Just leave the cart outside the door when you're finished. Thank you, ma'am." He exited the suite.
While Carey busied herself moving the contents of the cart to the table, she took the opportunity to fill the boys in on what they were going to do the next morning.
"First you have to get together all your school books and then we go to your school to turn them in. It's a good thing you didn't do your homework since you won't be going to class. Boy, I never thought I'd say that. Ever. From there we go to your new school to register you so you can start a week from Monday without losing any time. Next will be Stop and Shop to pick up sodas, juice for Cody, milk, tea, coffee, bread, cold cuts, etc. Also we need a lot of empty boxes so we can move. Enough for now, eat."
They sat and began to eat. The conversation became normal. Normal meaning that the boys were sniping at each other. Cody decided that he'd get even for being called a suck up and kiss a--.
"That was really cool of you with the candy counter girl. 'Sweet thang' and smooth remarks about marriage. She put you in your place. She laughed at you. I never saw that shade of purple before on a human face, well, your face anyway."
"Zack," Carey said. "I'll let that slide for the moment." From the hangdog look on his face she felt that all she did was pick on him. Lighten up, Carey, she thought. "Cody, that was very mean of you. IF Zack did something like that, you'd be crying by now. Did I ever tell you about the boyfriend I had in high school?"
This was met with "Not another boyfriend story!" from the peanut gallery.
"The point is that you are twins and they say that twins have a special bond. When one is sad or hurt, the other can feel his pain."
"Yeah, mom,"Zack said. "Remember the time Cody broke his leg?"
"Zack, Cody broke his leg because you landed on it."
"And I knew it right away," Zack said. "That is strange."
It was all that poor Carey could do to keep her composure. It would not do to break out laughing in front of them. She'd lose any control she still had over them. The cuteness factor was deadly.
"You really like Mattie, Zack, don't you?"
"Duh."
"We'll you're going to spend a lot of time with her. I've arranged for her to babysit when I have to work late."
"Hey Codes," Zack said. "Do you suppose she knows how to play 'Truth or Dare'?"
The boys faced each other and exchanged a high five as Carey came up in back of them and smacked them on the heads. She quickly retreated to the bathroom, grabbing a towel and stuffing it into her mouth to suppress the fit of laughter that exploded violently from her. When you add adorable to cute you're doomed. When her fit subsided, she splashed cold water on her face, dried it and left the bathroom.
"It's getting late and we have a lot to do tomorrow, so let's clean up here and get going back to the apartment," she said, when she got back to the table.
The boys moved everything from the table to the service cart and rolled it out of the suite. Carey looked around to make sure that everything was neat and in place. They put on their coats, shut the lights and left the hotel.
The walk to the car took them past Buckner Middle School.
"Way cool," Cody said. "It's so neat and clean-looking!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Zack said, sneering. "It's still a school."
They continued the walk to the car in silence and the drive back to the apartment was uneventful. As luck would have it, Carey found a parking space in front of the house.
After talking off their coats, Carey asked if they wanted milk and cookies. Stupid question. Zack took out the milk; Cody got the glasses; and Carey got the cookies from her hiding place. It didn't make a difference when they saw her secret place because she wouldn't be using it any more.
"Zack, you better not have ice cubes in your hand," she said, not turning around to look. She heard a clinking sound as Zack dropped the ice cubes into the sink."
"You see?" Zack said. "She does have eyes in the back of her head."
She smiled. One for Carey. Zero for Zack.
They finished the cookies and milk and put the glasses in the sink.
"Go brush your teeth and get ready for bed," she told them.
Carey set up the coffee maker. It was going to be a long night. She went into the boys' room, kissed them good night and tucked them in.
She went back to the kitchen and poured herself a mug of coffee. Sitting down at the table, she began to organize her thoughts.
First things first. How to move some things they would need for the next few days. There were five suitcases in the hall closet. After taking them out, she brought them into the living room. Going over to the TV, she turned the cart around and disconnected the PlayStation and the DVD player and moved them to the couch together with the A/B switch and wiring. Next, came the games and DVDs from the bottom shelf. She looked at the pile on the couch and decided on a large suitcase. Placing it on the couch and opening it, she decided that because electronics were going to be in it, she needed to pad the insides of the bag. Entering her room and taking the contents of her sweater drawer, she began to line the bottom of the bag and place the electronics over the sweaters. She was surprised that she could get all the DVDs and games in and still have plenty of room left. She put all of her CDs in and added her heavy winter coat, closed the suitcase and toted it to the front door. She continued in this manner until all of the things for the next two or three days were packed and at the door. She brought the bags out to the car and loaded most of them into the trunk. It was 3:00am. She set her alarm for 7:00am and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be another day.