I'm Right Here by Rose Haze

Disclaimer: I do not own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

A/N: Woohoo Chapter Two. I like to rhyme : ) Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I'll have Chapter Three up in a few days. And to clarify something, doesn't save astericks (aka those little stars) for some reason, so if you see this: I----------I that means that some time has passed, or there was a change in the setting. There's another note at the bottom. Enjoy the chapter!

"I had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." Groucho Marx

Chapter Two

One Second Headache

As Esteban giddily brought Mr. and Mrs. Devereux's luggage up to the third floor, Zack followed closely behind him. He was being as quiet and nonchalant as possible so that nobody would see him and get suspicious.

Zack was on a mission. He was still mad that Mrs. Devereux accused him of stealing. It was embarrassing when she yelled at him in front of everybody in the lobby. It was payback time.

Zack had a small jar in his pocket. The jar was filled with red ants that Cody collected for a science project that he was working on.

'Cody's going to be mad at me when he finds out what I did to his ants' Zack thought to himself, '... so I'll have to make sure he never finds out that I'm the one who took them.'

He discreetly followed Esteban into room 237.(1) He ducked behind the two biggest suitcases. Esteban didn't notice Zack at all. He was singing to himself as he unloaded the smaller suitcases from the cart. Zack took this moment to unleash his plan. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the jar of red ants and unscrewed the cap.

"Oh this room is beautiful," said a shrill voice from behind.

Zack froze. He'd recognize that voice anywhere... Mrs. Devereux and her husband were standing right behind him.

'Uh-oh…'

"Yes, it's very nice," Mr. Devereux agreed, "Look at the view."

They walked over to the window. Zack knew it would be the perfect time for him to get out of the hotel room without anybody noticing him. Just as he was about to creep out of the room he felt a sharp stinging sensation on his hand.

"OUCH!" he yelped.

Mr. and Mrs. Devereux all looked up and screamed.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Devereux asked sharply.

"I-uh-I was helping Esteban with your luggage," Zack lied.

"Oh, thanks for the help, Zack," said Esteban.

"You're welcome...well, I guess I'll be leaving now."

He turned to go. Just when he though he got away with it, Mrs. Devereux screamed again.

"What is that!" she shrieked.

Zack looked down and his heart sank. A hundred red ants were crawling around the white carpet.

'One of them must have bit my hand and that's why it hurt,' realized Zack

"BUGS!" he cried, trying to cover up for what he did, "How did these bugs get into the hotel?"

Mr. Devereux's narrowed his eyes, "I think I have an idea. Maybe they came from that jar you're holding."

"That's ridiculous," Zack said with a nervous laugh.

Mr. Devereux crossed the room and yanked the jar out of Zack's hands, "THAN WHY ARE SOME OF THE BUGS STILL IN HERE!"

Zack flinched. No stranger had ever yelled at him like that before. In fact, nobody had ever yelled quite so angrily at him in his life.

"I've had enough of you, young man!" Mrs. Devereux shouted, "We are going to have a long talk with the manager of this hotel. I will not let you ruin my vacation!"

She grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and led him downstairs.

I---------------I

"Zack, I don't know what's gotten into you lately!" said Carey as she paced in front of them. The two of them were in their suite. Zack was sitting sullenly on the couch and Carey was walking back and forth in front of him.

After the Devereux's told Carey and Mr. Mosbey what Zack did with the ants, everyone was furious with him. There was a lot of yelling. Mr. Mosbey had to call an exterminator, and the money to pay for it was going to come out of Carey's commission check. Carey told Zack that he was grounded for two weeks and that they would be discussing his behavior as soon as they got back upstairs.

That discussion started the second they returned to their suite... and thirty minutes later, it was still going on.

"You haven't been doing you're homework, you're failing science, you're causing way too much trouble with Mr. Mosbey, and you have been mean to your brother—very mean. What is going on with you?"

Zack shrugged sheepishly, "I don't know," he muttered.

Carey sat down next to Zack and draped her arm across his shoulders, "Come on, Zack, talk to me."

Zack starred at the floor. His mom was right... sort of. He hadn't really been himself lately. He never liked school, but recently everything was getting harder—especially science and math. But Zack never really worried about his school work—he had Cody there to help him with that. As for being mean to Cody, Zack knew that he hadn't been very nice to his brother lately. But he knew the reason for this. Cody was more than a brother to Zack—he was his best friend. But in the past few weeks (and most of their lives) they'd been spending all of their time together. Zack was just tired of Cody, and he started losing his temper with him more often. But he didn't know how to tell his mom that.

"I'm sorry," he said simply.

"That's what you always say," said Carey, "Do you ever actually mean it?"

"Yeah," Zack replied, "I'm sorry for causing trouble for the Devereux's, and I'm sorry for doing bad in school, and I'm sorry that you have to pay for the exterminator, and I'm sorry—"

"Zack, stop," Carey interrupted, "You can say 'sorry' all you want, but it won't fix anything unless you really mean it."

Before Zack could say anything to her he felt an excruciating pain in his head. He clutched his forehead and groaned.

Carey starred at him intently, "Honey, what's wrong?"

Just as fast as the mysterious headache arrived, it disappeared.

"I'm fine…" he said softly, "just a headache."

"Do you want some aspirin?"

"No, it's gone...it doesn't hurt anymore."

Carey looked at him with a look of worry and confusion on her face, "That's weird..." her voice trailed off for a second, "...listen to me, Zack. I don't know why you have been acting so strangely, but I don't like it."

"I'm s—"

"Don't say you're sorry. I want you to go to your room and think about everything I just said."

Zack stood up and walked to his room.

"Oh, no!" cried Carey.

Zack whirled around, "what's wrong?"

"Cody! I was supposed to pick him up from the library at three thirty! It's already passed four!"

She ran into the walk-in closet and grabbed her jacket, "have you seen my keys?"
The phone began to ring so Zack picked it up.

"Hello?"

Hello, may I speak to Mrs. Martin?" the caller asked. The voice was that of a woman. She sounded shaken and upset.

"Yeah, hold on a second," he put his hand over the receiver, "Mom, it's for you."

Carey had just found her keys and was heading out the door, "Take a message. I'm over a half hour late for Cody."

"She can't talk right now, can I take a message?"

"Tell her it's an emergency," the caller said urgently.

"Hold on."

Zack set the phone down on the table and hurried out to the hall. His Mom was waiting in front of the elevator.

"Mom," he called, "they said it was an emergency."

Carey sighed, "Okay, I'll get it." She followed Zack back to the suite.

"Hello, this is Carey," she said after picking up the phone.

Zack watched her. He wondered what the emergency was.

"Yes, I am," said Carey. All of the sudden she looked as if she had been slapped across the face. The color drained from her cheeks and her mouth dropped open. "What happened?... Okay... okay... I'll be right there."

She hung the phone up on the receiver and looked at Zack. She looked dazed—she was shaking and her face was white.

"What happened?" Zack asked. He was nervous because he had never seen his mother like this before.

"It's Cody," she whispered.

Zack felt his stomach drop, "Mom..."

"There was an accident."

"Is he okay? What happened?"

"We have to get to the hospital. He was hit by a car."

To Be Continued...

(1) If you, like me, are a fan of Stephen King, than you will understand : P

A/N Many thanks to everybody who reviewed!

Lauren Thank you! I hope this was soon enough : )

I-Luv-Ashley-Tisdale The plan was unveiled: ) Thanks for the review!

Britt199 Thanks for the compliments! I'm glad you like this!

Yami No Seto Thank you very much!

Loren Thanks!

Optimistic Girl94 I've already finished writing this, so I guess the correct thing to say would be 'please type more' : ). Thanks for reviewing!

There you go people. If you want a shout-out at the end of the chapter, all you need to do is leave me a review like these cool people did :P Peace out.