Sitting in Mr. Moseby's office, Mikayla began to feel anxious. It wasn't that the hotel manager was being unfriendly to her. In fact, he couldn't have been more pleasant. She just had a feeling that whatever he wanted to talk to her about was serious.

"I hope you don't think I'm prying too much into your personal life," he said. "But from talking to Carey and London, I understand that you haven't attended regular school for some time."

"Yes, I had private teachers," she answered.

"But since you became independent of your parents and then were let go by your record label..."

"I ran out of money to pay for them," Mikayla finished. "To tell the truth, with all the stuff I was worried about, school wasn't the number one thing on my mind."

"Understandable," Moseby replied. "But I trust that you do realize the importance of a proper education. I thought we might talk about what your plans are when the summer is over."

"Um...you mean school?" Mikayla asked even as she began to imagine what going back to a regular school would be like. "I don't know. The idea is a little scary."

"I'm sure you'd be able to handle it," he said. "But I can understand your nervousness. As it happens, I know an excellent teacher who could start working with you on a trial basis. That way you can make sure you're at the proper grade level when school resumes this fall. Then, you could begin normal classes or continue with your private instruction, whichever you're more comfortable with."

"How much would this teacher cost?" Mikayla asked.

"Pish posh," Moseby said dismissively. "Consider it a job benefit. The hotel budget can easily absorb the expense."

Since she'd moved into the Tipton, Mikayla had been astounded many times at the generosity all her new friends had shown her. She still couldn't get used to it.

"You've done so much for me already," she began.

"So this one thing more hardly makes a difference," Moseby countered with a confident smile. "Trust me. Your new teacher will do an excellent job. And quite frankly, you wouldn't be the only one to benefit from this situation."

Mikayla noted that the hotel manager seemed quite eager for her to go along with his idea. So, she did. Then their discussion turned to when Mikayla would officially debut her act in the hotel lounge. Moseby told her that he'd already made some tentative plans with Carey. The senior lounge singer would be going over those plans with Mikayla soon.

After the teen had left his office, Moseby picked up his phone and hit the first number on his speed dial list. His smile grew wider when he heard the person on the other end of the line pick up.

"Miss T, this is Mr. M," he said. "You know how we've talked about how nice it would be if you found a job here in Boston? Well, how soon can you pack?"

The next night at Carey's show, London and Mikayla were in the audience. Carey took a break between songs to introduce the 'special celebrities' in the crowd. Then she asked Mikayla to come up on stage and do a number with her. To the audience it looked like a spontaneous moment, but actually it had all been planned out. The duet went perfectly, and as Mikayla went back to her seat Carey commented about how nice it would be if Mikayla could appear in the lounge more often. That was London's cue.

"That is a great idea," the heiress announced loudly, and over-acting just a bit too much...but fortunately the audience had no reason to suspect her. "Mikayla, you can do some shows here at the Tipton, can't you?"

"That sounds like a great idea," Carey added from the stage. "Come on people, let's hear it for Mikayla!"

The crowd didn't need much urging to start applauding the idea. And soon the young singer 'graciously agreed' to set up some 'special performances' starting next week.

Everything was going according to plan.

A day later, Zack and Cody were at their favorite park near the hotel. The brothers had spent the afternoon playing basketball against one another, and both were pretty winded. Though Zack had won, as usual, the victory had not been easy. Ever since Cody had started practicing yoga, his strength and overall fitness had improved so much that he no longer took a backseat physically to his twin. In the end, it was only Zack's experience that had given him the edge.

But regardless of the game's result, the important thing was that the brothers were enjoying doing things together once more. With their conflict over Mikayla resolved, there was no longer any tension between them. In fact, they were both looking forward to joining Mikayla and London at big club opening that weekend.

"I hear there are going to be a lot of celebrities there," Cody commented. "Especially lots of models and actresses."

"Sounds nice," Zack said. "But does Mikayla know you're excited about all these famous babes?"

Cody shook his head. "I'm not interested in any other women. I just mentioned it because I thought you'd be excited."

"Oh...yeah," Zack said with little enthusiasm. "Sure,"

Cody studied his brother closely. "You've been a little different lately. Are you okay?"

"What do you mean? Different how?"

"I haven't seen you talk to any girls for almost a week," Cody pointed out. "That's a long time for you."

"That's crazy. I've been talking to girls," Zack countered. "I talked to that girl over by the soda machine right before our game."

"You asked her if she had change for a five," Cody said.

"That was talking."

"Cody rolled his eyes. "I mean, you haven't been hitting on any girls. And that makes me wonder if you might still be a little upset about Mikayla and me."

"Oh...no. No way," Zack replied. "I'm happy for you guys. Seriously."

"Well, I'm glad about that. But there is something different going on with you."

Seeing that his twin wasn't going to let the matter drop, Zack decided to be honest. "The truth is, I have been seeing this girl." He paused. "And...it's sort of a big deal."

Cody's eyes widened. He'd very rarely heard his brother sound so serious about a girl. "A big deal?"

"A very big deal," Zack repeated. A smile came to his face as he thought about London.

"That's great," Cody said. "When do I get to meet this girl? Hey, maybe she could come with us this weekend. I'm sure London could get another guest into the club."

"Well, actually..." Zack began, but a loud voice captured his attention.

"Dude, she is so hot!" The voice belonged to a large, well-muscled teen who was talking to a slightly shorter but even more muscular guy. The two were taking turns looking at a magazine. Zack and Cody didn't know the two jocks, but did recall seeing them around their old school. The talkative strangers continued their loud conversation as they settled in a spot close to where Cody and Zack were sitting.

"Yeah, Mikayla is fine," the shorter guy said. "You know I saw her going into the Tipton last week."

"Wish I'd been there," the taller jock replied. "I'd rock her world."

Realizing who the jocks were talking about, Cody frowned slightly. He knew that his girlfriend was famous, and it was natural that she'd have many admirers. But he didn't like the tone of the two strangers.

"Don't let it bug you," Zack whispered to his twin. "These guys don't even know Mikayla."

"They're being disrespectful."

"Yeah. And if they weren't so big, I'd go and tell them to shut up," Zack went on. "But come on...they're just two jerks."

Cody knew his brother was right. Getting into a fight with the strangers would be pointless. But as he and Zack were about to leave, the two jocks continued their conversation.

"You know who's even finer than Mikayla," the short one said. "London Tipton."

"Aw yeah," the tall one replied. "And you know she's gotta be easy."

That was too much for Cody. He wasn't going to stand by and let anyone insult his girl and one of his closest friends as well. He started to tell Zack he was going to take action.

But he never got the chance...as Zack had already stepped over to the two jocks and was telling them, in no uncertain terms, to watch their mouths.

Sometime later, the Martin twins were quite a sight as they entered the hotel lobby. Their clothes were torn and smeared with dirt and grass stains. They were also sporting a few bruises and Zack had a black eye, but neither of them was really hurt. The fight with the two jocks hadn't lasted long before a passing policeman had come upon the scene and everyone had taken off running. All the combatants had made a clean getaway, so there would be no legal ramifications for the twins to worry about later.

But they did have to deal with the fact that their mother was in the lobby when they entered.

"What happened?" she exclaimed as she ran to them.

Soon the boys were surrounded by a crowd that included Mr. Moseby, Mikayla and many of their friends from the hotel staff. Cody did most of the talking as Carey insisted on getting the whole story on what had happened.

"Cody," Mikayla said when she heard his story. "You could have been hurt. I don't care what some jerks are saying about me. How do you think I'd feel if something had happened to you?"

"Listen to her," Carey said. In truth she was angry about what the strangers had said about Mikayla and London, but she still felt that was no reason for her sons to put themselves in danger. "You can't ever do something stupid like that again!"

Seeing as how most of the focus was on Cody, Zack felt he should try and take some of the heat off his brother. "Look, it was my fault," he said. "I'm the one that threw the first punch."

"Yes," Carey said as she frowned at him. "And you should've known better. Why would you do something like that?"

Before Zack could answer, a new presence barged into the group.

"One side people," London's voice called out. "Out of the way!"

A moment later, the heiress had made her way into the center of the crowd, she saw the twins and gasped.

"Oh Zack!" she said in near panic as she grabbed him. "Are you alright? I heard you were in a fight. Please tell me you're alright." Her eyes started to tear up as she kissed the side of his face.

Carey and almost everyone else who saw the scene were struck speechless. Cody's mind flashed back to how the fight had started, and to the conversation he and Zack had been having prior to it, and all the pieces fell into place. Zack...and London? he thought in shock.

Mikayla could only look around at the surprised expressions everyone else wore. She cleared her throat. "Um...yeah," she said. "Zack and London are dating." She paused, unsure of what else to say. Finally she added, "Surprise."

To be continued...

author's note: Thanks for reading. Please review.