Bailey fumbled with the yellow duct tape flower, feeling its roughness in her hand. She had debated this countlessly, tuning out during the sales sometimes, wondering what Cody would react if she gave him another colour, only to snap back to reality with Maya's hand waving in her face.

It was minutes before the first period, and they would be closing soon. Maya had texted her beforehand that she would be late this morning, for what reason she didn't specify. So Bailey was alone for a while.

She herself had bought two dozen yellow roses to give to all of her classmates that afternoon. The rest of the flowers' quantities were low, only enough for this morning's fundraising.

The hallway was mostly quiet-most people did not like to arrive any time before required to, especially for school.

Bailey heard soft, pacing footsteps that seemed to get louder by the second. Looking up, she recognized the face immediately. It was Marissa Anderson, captain of the school's basketball team, soccer team, and volleyball team. She was in her grade, but not in most of her classes, since P.E seems to occupy her school life.

She was wearing her soccer uniform, which was a green jersey and white shorts, with the ship's initials plastered over it. It was abnormal, Bailey noticed, to find her wear anything casual, and her brown hair was usually tied up in a pony tail.

"Hey." Bailey greeted with a smile. "Care to support the fundraiser?"

"Sure, why not?"

Marissa studied every colour closely, and pointed to the white bundle. "Do you think Zack would like these?"

"Zack?" Bailey choked out, astounded, though she really shouldn't be. This wasn't the first time a girl had asked this, as strange as it is. Thank goodness Maya wasn't here this time. Even so, Bailey had to make sure. "Zachary Martin?"

Marissa nodded, with an anxious look on her face. "Or would he think it's too much?"

"Well…uh…I don't know how to put this but…Zack has a girlfriend." Bailey informed her.

"Oh. Must be another girl he went out with." Marissa shrugged carelessly.

"No…actually Zack went out with Maya for almost two months now. I think he's finally considering a long-time relationship with her."

Marissa's face was crestfallen. It surprised Bailey that news didn't travel to everyone. But then again, Maya wasn't big on public displayed affection, so she supposed it wasn't hard to miss it.

"Hmm…well I suppose I can buy a dozen for Cody. Oh, how I love twins. Plus, he seems cute as well!" Marissa giggled.

As much as it wasn't her business, this bothered her. A lot. It was really nothing, just flowers, but the image of Cody going out with someone else again just shattered her. She found it irritating.

If she broke up with him, why should she care if he moves on?

Bailey calculated the amount, and put Marissa's money into the deposit box.

"Here's your change." Bailey said, her voice sounding upbeat and cheerful.

She was always told that she was a good liar. Bailey could act like everything's alright, but could be full of dread in her mind. They've been proven a gift and a curse as well. Sometimes, even her own parents couldn't tell if she was feeling okay or not. But in times like these, they've been proven useful.

"Thanks."

Then Marissa did a double take.

"Wait…didn't you date Zack before?"

Bailey chuckled. She was one of the few Zack didn't date, actually. But she supposed that was only because she was dating…

"I dated…uh…" Bailey stammered. It was uncomfortable to say his name aloud anymore. "The other one." She substituted.

"Oh…then do you mind that I'm going to give these to your ex-boyfriend?"

"Please. Like I'll ever care." Bailey fakely brushed off. "It's fine. Go ahead."

Once again, her acting skills proved believable, and Marissa left with a happy grin on her face.

Soon enough, the last few dozen roses disappeared, and Bailey began to close up the sale and clean up.

"Gosh, I'm so so so sorry I'm late, I-" Maya paused, looking around, and collapsed onto a seat in exhaustion of her sprint to school. "Sorry you had to do everything by yourself."

Bailey shook her head in disagreement. It didn't really bother her.

"Here, I'll help. It's the last thing I can do."

Maya dusted off the poster and began to fold them, then noticing the table, and said, "No more red roses? Guess I'll have to get Zack something else for Valentines' Day."

"Not exactly."

Bailey reached under, into a small cardboard box.

"I saved these for you this morning."

Bailey pulled out six duct tape roses and set them on the table.

Maya's jaw dropped in surprise and ran over to hug her friend.

"I owe you big time." Maya breathed out in relief.

They finished clearing out the hallway quickly, and packed up their things to go to class.

"Soo…there's no more white roses either. I'm hoping you saved some for you to give to Cody?"
Maya asked, crossing her fingers.

Bailey flinched at the sound of his name, then slowly shook her head.

"Bailey! You said you'll think it over!" Maya exclaimed.

"I did." Bailey told her, putting her backpack over her shoulder. "I thought it over, and I'm still going to play it safe."

Maya sighed, and both of them headed off to their separate morning classes.

Maybe she should contact Marco Polo's corpse and the zoo, because right now, even Zack's exaggeration seemed simpler.

"Marissa sent me these flowers. Huh." Cody looked at the unexpected gift in surprise. It was pasted to his locker with her neat signature on a white card.

She had never spoken to him much, and he was almost positive she had a crush on Zack, not him.

"Must have been for me." Zack grabbed it out of his brother's hands and placed it in his locker, which by now looked like a Valentine's Day mess.

Cody didn't argue, even though he did believe those were meant for him, as strange as it is. There wasn't a point anyway. It wasn't from the person he wanted it to be from.

Cody quickly shook the thought from his head.

Bailey hadn't even forgiven him for the play, why exactly would she spend even a cent on him? Don't even think about 'admiring' flowers.

He didn't even blame her. He blamed himself. His stupid and ignorant actions landed in the place he's in right now.

"Hey dude, don't be like that. No offense, but Marissa's super hot. She would never settle in with a wind bag like you. She must have mixed up between us, even though I am the good-looking one."

Cody wasn't in the mood for Zack's usual obnoxious attitude.

"Even though we may not be identical anymore, doesn't mean we don't look alike."

"You know what bro? You're right. We do look alike." he paused, "For the blind."

Zack began to laugh at his own joke, finding himself hilarious apparently, though Cody did not.

"What did you get Maya for Valentine's Day?" Cody asked, changing the subject.

"Well…I'm thinking of giving her red, white, pink, and purple flowers." Zack casually said, reading another Valentine's Day card he received.

"Thinking?" His brother repeated in disbelief. "The fundraiser ended this morning! You missed it, Zack."

"I wasn't saying I was going to buy it for her."

"Then how-"

Zack collected the dozens of roses her received and taped them together.

"You are the sleaziest person I've ever met."

"Now, now, now. I have good intentions!" Zack protested. "These hard worked on duct tape would not be wasted, and Maya wouldn't need to make other ones. See? Just looking out for my girlfriend."

"And…" Cody waited.

"And…maybe I'm also saving up all of my earnings to take Maya to 'Neptune's Paradise' tonight. That is…if everything works out the way she wanted it to." Zack accidentally thought aloud.

"What's supposed to work out?"

Zack panicked for a second at this question.

"It's none of your business." He snapped.

Cody shrugged, and headed back to his cabin.

Zack sighed. Actually, it really was his business –more of Cody's than of Zack's – but Zack knew it was supposed to be kept secret until the plan unveils.

He just hoped Maya would find some way to hurry up and get them back together again.

Like really, do you know how long it takes for a guy to find the perfect tux on Valentine's Day?

"Zack! There you are!" Maya called out after her boyfriend, finally finding him in the underwater sea lounge.

"Hey Maya." Zack greeted. "Look, no offence, but I think we should call it quits. Your whole 'convince-Bailey-and-Cody-to-give-each-other-red-or-white-roses' failed miserably."

Maya didn't argue with him, but his statement didn't make her feel any better. She sat down on the couch, deep in thought.

"Cody and Bailey are extremely clever. They both wanted to give each other roses, but in case the other one did not return the favour, they gave each other 'Friendship' roses, and to prevent humiliation, they did it for the entire class. That way, if they gave each other the friendship rose, Cody or Bailey would feel like they were just another classmate of theirs. In fact, they only wanted to give the roses to each other."

Maya was so exhausted by these games.

Why was love so hard to mend back together?

"This is the worst Valentine's Day ever." She muttered.

"Well…then I suppose these will help?"

Zack pulled his colourful collage of duct tape from his back with a cocky grin.

"Oh my gosh, Zack!" Maya jumped up and gave her boyfriend a tight hug. "This must have cost you so much!"

"Uh huh." Zack agreed quickly.

"I'm really sorry, I only got you half a dozen red roses, and the rest ran out." Maya apologized.

"Do not worry. All I need this Valentine's Day is your love."

Maya giggled.

Zack could be so cheesy sometimes.

"Or that date…" Zack played with his fingers, hinting about tonight.

"I don't know, Zack. By the way this is heading up; I don't think we can have our dinner."

"B-but can't we make an exception?"

Maya shook her head. She wasn't one to break promises, especially the ones she made to herself.

"The roses are really beautiful, Zack." She gazed at every rose deeply, smiling at their meanings. Zack had bought her every colour, except the yellow one, of course.

"Well that's because you made them."

Maya did a half smile. "Every detail of each rose must be perfect. To think that these will become gifts for everyone's special someone's, every rose means something."

Thinking aloud, Maya didn't realize this idea until it hit her.

"That's it! Zack, I have a brilliant plan!"

"That's going to score us on that date..?" Zack asked hopefully.

"Yes. But can you think about Cody and Bailey now?"

"Fine." Zack said, disappointed.

"Okay. So you have Cody's essay papers you stole right?"

"In my trunk." Zack proudly claimed.

It was so useful to print copies of his brother's essays. All he has to do now, is to take his brother's old papers, change the wording around a bit, and then voila! An 'A+' paper, right under ten minutes.

Heck, sometimes he didn't even need to do that.

"And I have Bailey's chemistry notes. And all we need is-"

Maya stopped in mid-sentence, staring at one particular white rose that had a red marker dash on it. She had remembered so clearly that she sold this one to Clara…who said she was going to give it to…

"Zack… why do I have a feeling you didn't buy these yourself?"

Zack's eyes widened.

"So we were talking about that plan right? You know, about Cody and Bailey getting back together?" Zack hopelessly changed the subject.

Maya put her hands on her hips and shook her head in disapproval and disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Maya I-"

"Zack, I don't want to hear it."

"But Maya, I really-" He hated to get in a fight with her, and today was a horrible day to do so.

"Zack, you didn't let me finish. I said, I don't want to hear it, because now, I think my plan's going to work out a bit better." She said with a snide smirk.

Zack began to shuffle in his seat, uneasily.

"Alright Maya, whatever you say."

**Author's Note: I know there are a lot of questions right now, but it'll make sense in the next chapter, I promise. Next chapter will also be its last, so I'm hoping I can write up to all of you guy's expectations. Needs a big finale! Ha-ha.**