Chapter 5-Jeremiah vs. Maddie

Maddie Fitzpatrick smiled as she watched Zack, Cody, and their new brother Jeremiah leave for school the next morning. She has never met Jeremiah and really wants to, but she's never had the time. She may today because she has a small shift because she's been working over time. Who else can bother her on her shift but London Tipton, the hotel heiress. She was making her way towards the candy counter in one of her fashionable clothes: a metallic pink bray, a light pink tank-top, white long pants, and black designer boots; a metallic pink handbag was at her side.

"Hi Maddie," she greeted me in her normal cheerful way.

"Hi London. What's up?" Maddie questioned. London looked blankly up at the ceiling of the lobby and back down a Maddie.

"The ceiling? Duh!"

"That's not what I-oh never mind. Guess what? Zack and Cody have a new brother."

"Are they triplets now?"

"No. They're still twins."

"Zack and Cody are twins? Since when?" (1)

"Since always! I've seen glimpses of him and he's kind of cute."

"So you're dating younger men now?"

"No I'm not!"

"So who are you dating now?"

"No one!"

"Honey, you need to get back into shape?"

"What do you mean? I'm not out of shape. I play volleyball every afternoon at school."

"I mean get back into the dating shape."

"Who can I date?"

"No one, I hope," Maddie's brother, Luke Fitzpatrick (2) responded as he walked up carrying a box. He pulled it open and placed a stack of magazines on the counter. He turned to London and held one out to her. She took it and quickly walked away.

"Relax, Lucas. I'm not dating anyone."

"Nice to hear that, Madeline! Hey, you hear about the new Martin?"

"Yeah. Did you catch his name?"

"Nope. I've never seen him."

"I just hope he isn't as bad as the Trouble Duo," Mr. Moseby commented as he walked up to them. "Zack and Cody have to keep that brother of theirs in line."

"Something tells me that that is not going to happen with Zack and Cody causing trouble here almost every day. It makes it worth coming doesn't it?" Luke asked as he smiled at Mr. Moseby. Mr. Moseby gave him an evil look and he said quickly, "Never mind. Don't know what I was thinking. I'm going now."

"Seriously Maddie, you may not want to barge into the other Martin's life," Mr. Moseby warned.

"What am I going to do? Make him hate me forever? C'mon, I'm good with kids! Remember that Day Care?" Maddie questioned as she smiled confidently. Slowly her smile turned into a frown and she muttered, "Never mind."

"Mhm."

"Oh yeah! What about that one time where I had to watch Zack and Cody and it was the night of that wedding? Oh yeah, that went bad too."

"Mhm."

"Well what about the time when-"

"Every time you watch Zack and Cody they seem to cause even more trouble to my hotel."

"This kid is a lot younger than them. I can handle it."

--

"Will you be ok today?" Cody asked Jeremiah once they reached the lower school. "If you feel sick you can always call my mom to pick you up."

"I'll be fine," Jeremiah muttered.

"Yeah, Codes. Listen to my man Jer here. He's a big boy," Zack said as he slapped Jeremiah on the back. Jeremiah winced a little but did well to hide it. Cody noticed pain in his eyes for a split second but said nothing of it. 'Zack may have hurt him a little too much. That's all.' But down inside he knew that wasn't the reason.

"That name aint riight. Aint riight at atll," Jeremiah said as he shook his head and started to walk inside.

"Have a great day!" Cody called after him. Jeremiah just lifted his hand and continued walking. A lot of the kids stared at him as he made his way to the classroom. A lot of the kids in his class parted like the red sea as he passed with an angry look on his face. He smirked to himself as he sat down and put his feet up on his desk. He could hear whispers with his name and was satisfied with their reaction: fear. If only they knew about his past, then they would be even more scared.

He stayed quiet the whole day. All he did was draw. The teacher was too afraid of him to say anything so she just le him do what he wanted. He drew a lot of pictures of Zack and Cody and some of Carey, Sarah, and Buddy. But there was only one thing that puzzled him when he drew himself He always had a faraway look on his face and he was always had a hand on his partially unwrapped bandage. He looked down at it and lightly traced his finger across every line.

'Maybe I should show them. It doesn't mean I have to tell them my whole past.' As he flexed his wrist he suddenly felt pain shoot up his arm. Random scars suddenly appeared and he started to bleed on both arms. He quickly jumped up and ran to the bathroom before anyone could see. He stopped at his backpack and brought more bandages with him and wrapped his arms all the way up to his mid upper arm. 'Zack and Cody will notice. And I don't want them to ask about my past. I can't tell anyone. Not yet.' Jeremiah came back and saw that they were working on math problems. He didn't have much use of his arms because of all of the pain so he had nothing to do but sit there and be bored. He was smarter than everyone in his class and he was amused by how dumb they seemed.

"Jeremiah…what last name do you go by?" The teacher asked,

"What do you mean?" he asked in a bored tone.

"I have you here as Jeremiah McGwire, but Mrs. Martin called in saying that your last name is Martin. Which do you go by?"

"…I don't go by either of them. I'm just Jeremiah."

--

Jeremiah sighed as he sat on a bench in front of Revolution High School. He kicked his feet as his head was hung back so his bangs were away from his face. His eyes were gazing up at the sky and he watched clouds pass by. He raised his arms to shield his eyes from the sun and his sleeves rolled back but he ignored it. He heard a dull bell ringing inside the school and lowered his head so he could look at the sea of high schoolers to find his 'brothers'. Zack grinded down the rail on his skateboard while Cody took the steps.

"Zackary Martin! You know the rules! No skateboarding at school!" Principle Granger called out of his window. Zack just rolled his eyes as he stepped off his skateboard and tucked it under his arm; Cody had books under his arm, like usual.

"Hey Jer-woah! How'd you get all of those bandages?" Zack exclaimed once he saw Jeremiah's arms.

"I've had them," he lied smoothly as he got off of the bench and slung his backpack onto his back.

"But I thought they were just bound at your wrists," Cody added as they started to walk to the bus stop.

"It only looked like it because my jacket sleeves were all the way down."

They fell silent as the got closer to the bus stop. As they waited they saw a familiar red convertible roll up and waved as Maddie honked. Jeremiah looked at the car curiously as Zack and Cody stepped closer. He noticed that the blond haired girl was staring at him strangely. He tried to ignore it but the feeling of eyes burning into the back of his skull started to bother him.

"Jer, you coming or what?" Zack asked from the back of the car. He started to forward and got into the back next to Zack; Cody sat in the fort next to the blond haired girl. He buckled up and stared off in the distance as the car started to drive away from the high school.

"So you're Carey's new kid? I'm Maddie Fitzpatrick, Zack's and Cody's friend," she said over the wind. Jeremiah just stayed silent the whole ride back to the Tipton although Maddie tried to start a conversation with him. He winced slightly each time he changed his position and had to move his arms and Zack noticed this but didn't want to alarm Cody so he didn't say anything.

"Maddie are you going to join us in our dance practices? They're really fun!" Cody offered as they reached the Tipton parking lot and got out of the car.

"Who goes?" She questioned as she slung her laptop case over her shoulder.

"Me, Zack, Crystal, Max, and that's it. Chris and Tapeworm and their partners had to drop out because they were too caught up in school work and practices. London decided to join along with our mom."

"Who's the teacher?"

"Esteban! He's really good," Zack responded. "He's helping us I all of the jr dancers requirements: Ballroom dancing, the waltz, salsa dancing, and the tango. Max and Crystal are helping us with the break dancing part and the hip-hop part. Jer is our stage manager."

"What do you do to help?" Maddie asked Jeremiah as they entered the Tipton.

"What do you think?' Jeremiah snapped as he brushed past her.

"I-I just thought-" Maddie stammered.

"Didn't seem like you thought at all," Jeremiah interrupted as he glanced up at Maddie. Zack and Cody gasped and could tell a fight was coming because Maddie's eyes were narrowed.

"I meant what do you do specifically?"

"So why didn't you just ask that instead? It aint rocket science!"

"And what do you know about rocket science? You're only nine!"

"Enough to get by."

"Why're you guys arguing?" Zack suddenly interrupted.

"Because Maddie;s trying to barge into my life!" Jeremiah spat.

"No! It's because Jeremiah's being a stubborn little brat!" Maddie countered.

Stubborn little brat…

Little brat…

Brat…

Jeremiah just stared at her, anger written all over his face and in his eyes as he breathed heavily, trying to control himself. As Zack opened his mouth to say something an angry cry escaped Jeremiah's lips and he lunged at Maddie, knocking her over onto the floor. Jeremiah slapped her face and pulled her hair as she yelled at him. A lot of the guests stopped and stared as they saw the fight developing before them. As a wild look took place in Jeremiah's eyes he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. Using his teeth, he revealed that he held a switchblade in his hand. Zack and Cody quickly grabbed his arms and tried to pull him off Maddie who had a look of horror on her pale face. Maddie backed away as Zack and Cody rushed to the elevator. Cody frantically jabbed the UP button as he struggled to hold onto a thrashing Jeremiah. Once the doors closed they sighed with relief; the only sound was of Jeremiah flipping the blade to his switchblade back in and putting it into his pocket.

"What is the matter with you? You could've hurt my future wife!" Zack exploded.

"She wanted to know too much," Jeremiah responded simply.

"That can't be the only reason."

"She looked like Sarah."

--

(1) I don't own that line. That's from an episode.

(2) Luke is also an OC. He is Maddie's brother.

Oh, in your reviews critics are welcome. Just no flames. And if you have any suggestions about what I should do next or something to make it better or something like that you can add that in your review too. I got a review about this fic and I wanted to make it clear that for this fic everything that happened to Jeremiah in The Heart happened to him when he was nine. This is a fic so I changed it. Also it has references to the new episode Loosely Ballroom and I just wanted to say I don't own it. I don't own Suite Life or The Heart, only my OCS!

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Next Chapter:

Chapter 6: Abuse of the McGwire Kind