Falling Through the Cracks
by Aimme,
with touches by My Note Book
Summary: His mask was flawless. His walls were perfectly structured. Protection and cautionary containment at its finest. Even a perfect pretend held fractures, though, and no matter how strong his glue, under the right circumstances, glue cracked and had to be gutted and filled in again.
Author's Notes: Please see the first chapter for all thorough disclaimers, warnings, and notations made by the author(s). Furthermore, I (Aimme) would like to take a moment to say that this chapter is a change of pace from the last one, but bear with me and bear with it. While it may seem to be as a filler chapter, it is still part of the story. I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless or at least for what it is!
Additionally, I (Aimme), and also on behalf of My Note Book, would like to thank our anonymous reviewer, BlackKeys96, for taking the time to leave us a comment! We appreciate it, hope you come back for round two, and that you enjoy the rest of the story just as much (well, we'll start with this chapter, huh?). See the note at the bottom about updating!
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Chapter Two - Happy Smiles and Bright Colours Upon a Beaten Surface
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"Memory is a child walking along the seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things." -Pierce Harris
"Cody, want to get some lemonade?"
"No, thanks, Woody. Life already gave me lemonade." Cody waved the other boy off with a bright smile, thinking of his recent time spent with the girl of his dreams.
"I can't imagine why," Woody pouted, turning away. "Life never gave me lemonade. Sometimes, Zack won't even give me lemonade! Ooh!" he turned back, grinning and bouncing. "Do you suppose life would give me a giant super burrito and a large fries?"
Cody gave his roommate an odd look. "Burrito and fries? Those two aren't even in the same-"
"Un!" Woody protested, holding up a finger, shooting Cody a warning look. "If I don't eat the fries, how will I have a full serving of veggies?" He looked very self-satisfied.
Cody frowned. "Woody," he began, slowly. "Fries can hardly be considered healthy or your serving of vegetables considering that-"
"You can never let a person dream," Woody stomped his foot. "I need a lemonade now and a large Banana Fofana," he declared, pouting his way out of their shared cabin.
Cody shook his head, reaching into his pocket as his phone vibrated. He grinned at the display, a text message notification informing him that his girlfriend had sent him one.
Hey, Cody! Sorry I had to run off on you earlier; London's "wardrobe problems" have been solved—and it only took her modeling 37 different outfits, but she did care more for her mirror's input than mine. I'll see you in a little bit for our day off, alright? Luv you! Bye. Bailey.
Grinning, Cody sent her a short message in reply, clicking the send button before flipping his cellphone shut.
That's alright, Bails. Only 37? That's a new record. See you soon. Lots of love, Cody.
Stretching lazily after pocketing his phone, he breathed deeply and then frowned as he returned his arms to his side. He absently rubbed his left wrist, shaking his head as if to clear it. With another smile, Cody turned his attention to his desk, which was unusually mussed at the moment as he had left a textbook or two lying open.
He bookmarked his places and set the school books aside, reorganizing the loose papers of notes and homework assignments. He shuffled the few remaining out of place objects to where they belonged, straightening up his mess as he waited. It wasn't necessary; he was a neat person by nature and kept his things organized and tidy, but what few things were out of place, he fixed.
Once returning his desk to its proper order, he sat in his chair and pondered his next move. After a moment, his gaze fell on the corner of an envelope of developed photos lying beneath a textbook, a remnant of Bailey's scrap-booking exploits. He must have missed this envelope of gathered favourites the last time he helped her get several batches of photos developed, which would be ages ago now.
Picking it up, he made a mental note to take it with him to meet with Bailey. He had to wonder if she even needed them now…but he shook his head the moment that thought entered it. If she had filled one book, she'd simply start another. She'd be happy to have the extras. Curious as to what was in this batch, he opened the envelope to glance at some pictures.
As he pulled out the photos, he smiled at the ones on the top, the memories captured therein. One was of Bailey and Addison smiling crazily at the camera in front of the zoo entrance in England. Another was of London glaring cross-eyed at her high heel, followed by one of Zack carrying London piggy-back at the zoo, because she promised him 50 bucks—she had worn spiky heels to an all-day field trip to the zoo, and had quickly become tired. Yet another of London screaming at the lion before her—it was in a cage, of course, but she was terrified regardless. Another of Cody and Bailey smiling at the camera, with London tripping on a crack in the pavement (dratted spiky heels, right?) and taking a tumble into the fountain in the background.
He grinned at the horror on London's face in the next picture, captured forever dripping wet and mortified.
There were several more from that same trip. Woody running from a caged -but angry- baboon; Addison framing the lion's face with her hands, though she technically stood a handful of paces away from the cage; Woody staring in wide-eyed terror at the snake exhibit; Marcus giving the camera a chill look with his arm around a gator—a statue of one, that is; Zack chasing a high-tailing Woody across the lawn in front of the wild bird exhibit; Zack tackling Woody on the green, and several confused onlookers backing away from the scuffle.
He flipped to the next photo and stifled a laugh at the memory. They had gone for ice-cream, and Woody had promptly lost his two-scoop top—the horror as he stared at the melting goo on the ground was obvious. Then one of London caught in a rare moment of sheer undignified glee, as she stuck her tongue out for a lick of ice cream but had stared at the camera instead. Marcus looking decidedly like a pig with two cones in his hands. Zack giving the ice cream vendor a rather blank look, for the poor man had handed one twin a plain vanilla and had intended to give the other mint chocolate chip—and had given Zack the wrong cone. The next photo, the vendor was obviously confused as he asked who had ordered the mint chocolate chip and Zack informed him that that was his, whilst holding a vanilla in one hand and relieving the flustered man of the mint with the other.
It had been obvious that Zack had ordered only one cone, for the man distinctly remembered that there had been two separate people, but in the crowd he had begun to confuse his orders.
A smirk turned the corners of Cody's lips as he flipped to the next picture, knowing what came after. However, his smile slipped slightly, because the next was one of a museum tour in Brussels, Belgium. The Museum of Europe, to be exact. It was a group photo outside the building, but it was definitely not the one he was thinking of.
"Cody, you'll just have to order yourself another one, as this one appears to also be mine." Zack had decided to hold onto the extra cone, turning to inform his brother of this new development, but he promptly found his face full of vanilla ice-cream as Cody shoved the stolen cone into his brother's face. "You're right. I'll have to get another." The shock in his elder's expression as the ice-cream was shoved into his face had been priceless, and Bailey had snapped the picture at exactly the right moment. The immediate following one had been the ice-cream slipping slowly down his face and splattering on the ground, and Zack's expression had been frozen (pun intended) in surprise.
Both photos were strangely absent, skipping to the museum tour.
Maybe they'd gotten out of order. He shrugged and continued flipping through the stack.
There were photos of the tour, of exhibits and what had interested or bored different members of their group. London had dragged her feet through the historical findings, unless there was gold, then she exclaimed "shiny!" or made other comments about the state of the artefacts; she shied away from the dinosaurs; she'd knocked over a coat of arms and, to cover up her graceless accident, promptly proclaimed that she would take it and asked how much it cost; Zack had been particularly fascinated with some of the dinosaur skeletons, but his interest had truly been piqued when they'd examined some of the artefacts recovered from the Middle Ages.
So many memories, he smiled as he looked at all of those captured moments. Yet, he found himself getting to the end and having the strangest feeling that there were photos missing.
There was the one of Zack gripping his head, having eaten his ice-cream too fast and gotten brain freeze; or, in the following moment, his older brother giving the camera a rather ugly look, to which Bailey had informed the whole group deserved such a caption as, "There's truly a face only a Momma would like—if it's because she's grounded you!" They had all had a good laugh at Zack's expense when the camera was passed around, and even afterward when Bailey had been picking out pictures to develop.
There was also the absence of one where Zack had gotten his sleeve inadvertently caught on a display of ancient plaited chains and had pulled them right off the wall. The sheepish, apologetic look on his face had been priceless as the ancient artefacts dangled from his arm.
Cody remembered Bailey picking these pictures despite Zack's protests, to which he had promptly promised that he'd just have to make sure they disappeared.
With a shake of his head, Cody knew exactly what had happened to the ones he realised were missing—and wondered how many more he had forgotten about. Deciding that his brother really wasn't allowed to make off with their prints, he got up to raid Zack's room in search of the stolen pictures.
Figuring that his twin was in the Aqua Lounge, probably playing a video game, he would just sneak into his brother's room and find the missing photos to take to Bailey. He slipped into the room across the hall, but to his horror he discovered that it was most painfully not empty.
The envelope of captured memories slipped from suddenly lax hands, spilling its contents across the floor. Their shiny reflections plastered happy smiles and bright colours upon a beaten surface, but it mattered little.
"Oh my god, Zack, what did you do?"
"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." -The Wonder Years
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Author's Note: So, Zack's been found out...or, if not, then what did he do? I think we all know, yes, but what is Cody's reaction, what will the coming confrontation bring, what will happen? We shall see you all again next week, unless the writing goes exceptionally well and we make an exception and post sooner. However, if not, you can count on next week! Thank you all for reading and we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you! We welcome any thoughts you feel worth sharing or you feel like taking the time to, but by no means feel like they won't be appreciated!
Also, if I have any discrepancies (particularly with my zoo and museum mentions—I have never been to either, so I am at a clueless loss there, I am afraid), I would appreciate hearing your comments, or answering any other questions that might have arisen if there is such need.