A/N: Have I mentioned their ages at this point yet? Well, if I haven't, the twins are about 16 right now.
Rock Squared finally got all their equipment in the laundry room and got it all set up. Their new Christmas outfits was a green background with the words 'Rock Squared' on it in red cursive writing, with holly on the top left corner of the letter 'R' in rock. They started to play the song, and it went smoothly for a first time.
After another hour or two, they had gotten it where they could play without errors every now and then. As they continued to play the song, they found some parts with the instruments where they could make a note higher or lower, or change the speed or tempo of one part, or add a short solo, etc. to improve the overall sound of the song. They were definitely getting really good, and this new song was going really well.
Arwin was in the laundry room when they returned from lunch two hours later. They had gone to eat lunch thirty minutes previously to the time, and when they got there, Arwin started to get really excited.
"Oh guys, you're finally here! I can here your new song!" he exclaimed.
"Errr, okay," muttered Zack as they got ready to perform their song.
They rehearsed it once and at the end Arwin was dancing and clapping. As he continued to dance when they started an encore, he slipped on a banana peel and fell over. He raised his right arm lightly.
"I'm okay," he said in a flustered voice, and his arm fell limply to his side.
"Okay," Max said, ignoring Arwin being on the floor, and they began playing again as if nothing had happened.
At around six o'clock pm, they left the laundry room and showered to get rid of the smell, coming back down to the lobby at around seven. Zack had picked up the pictures to take down there so he could show them to Maddie when he was down.
As the ding sounded in the elevator and they stepped out, Zack jumped the few stairs and went to Maddie.
"Hey, sweet thang, I got the pictures developed," he said.
"Ooh, let me see them," Maddie said excitedly.
Zack gave her the pictures and she flipped through them, absent mindedly nodding at every one. There were some that she stopped to look at for a while longer than just a few seconds, like the snow house one, and the one of Zack, Cody, and the snow couple all together. She laughed at some, like the one where Zack was pretending to be in a fight with the snowman, while Cody to pretended to be hitting on the snow woman. After she had seen them all, she set them back down.
"They look good. Good work on them."
"Thanks. Is your band competing in the Battle of the Bands?"
"No, I decided not to, and Waterworks didn't really feel like it either. How about you?"
"Yeah, we are. And we already have a song written and have rehearsed it a few times. Arwin seemed to like it when we performed it to him."
"Cool, I can't wait to hear it."
"Really?" There was excitement in Zack's voice.
"Of course. Since we aren't in it, I want your band to win!"
"Awesome!"
Zack nodded and walked off with the pictures. While he was walking away, he has just thought that he needed to get Maddie a good Christmas gift. As he plopped down on one of the couches in the lobby, he mentally whacked himself for not thinking about it early.
What would be perfect for Maddie? He thought about jewelry, but not only would that be too expensive, but it would be too romantic, and Maddie was only a friend, not a girlfriend. Maybe some money? No, that would make it seem like he was too lazy to put any though in for it, and he didn't want her to think that of him. Well, what did Maddie like?
He thought for around two hours, but still no luck. He had been staring at the Tipton Christmas Tree and drinking some nice hot chocolate while thinking. He decided to think about it the next day more, and drank the last sip and threw the plastic cup. He saw that Maddie was cleaning up the counter. There was no one else in the lobby.
She made her way to the door as he was on his way to the elevator, and they met right next to the door. Zack looked up hopefully, and when he saw it he grinned. There was a small bit of mistletoe hanging above them. He pointed it out to Maddie and grinned happily. He didn't really expect anything to happen, but it was still fun to think about it and taunt her about it.
"Look, sweet thang, there's some mistletoe."
"And?" said Maddie, trying to keep herself from blushing.
"You know what happens when there are two people under the mistletoe, don't you?" Zack asked, still grinning widely.
"Hmm, it seems I don't. Why don't you enlighten me," she said, teasing him.
"Well, technically, you're supposed to kiss."
"Really, is it completely necessary?"
"Not really. You don't have to if you don't want to."
He was about to walk away, but Maddie surprised him with a light peck on the cheek. She then walked gracefully out of the spinning doors of the Tipton. Zack brought his hand up and lightly touched his cheek where Maddie's lips had just brushed his skin. It was short, but it was the best thing he had ever felt. He stood there for quite a while, absorbed in what had just happened, grinning even wider now.
He then rushed towards the elevator. He couldn't wait to tell his twin brother what had happened. He knew Maddie didn't mean anything romantic by it. She was just being friendly, but Zack definitely decided to at least pretend to himself that it had happened in a romantic way.