.:Chapter 01:.

The Beginning

"Zack, get up! We're going to be late!"

Zack Martin opened an eye and looked above him at his brother. Cody was standing above him, completely dressed and ready for school. Of course. There was never a time in his life where Cody Martin wasn't ahead of schedule by at least a half hour. It showed in their birth, they were a month early. Their mother said that they couldn't wait to greet the world; Zack said that Cody was just too annoying and that he pushed and fought his way out of his mother's stomach so he could get some peace and quiet. It didn't last long, but for ten blissful minutes, he was alone.

Now he was stuck in the same sort of cycle at seventeen years of age. Only this time, it happened every morning. They were almost always late to school because Zack slept in. It wasn't even that he tried to sleep in. though he was never one that enjoyed school, he was just a heavy sleeper. That excuse never flew with anyone, and for him it was easier for people to believe that he really was that lazy. He could admit that, half the time, he didn't want to go to school. There was nothing useful for him, school wasn't his forte, he just liked being able to hang out with his friends and play sports.

"Zack!"

Cody reached out and poked Zack on the cheek. Zack brushed his hand away and pushed himself up onto his elbows before rolling onto his back. Scratching his bare chest, he squinted his light blue eyes at his twin brother. "What part of I don't like going to school do you not get every morning?"

"Unfortunately, you have to go to school until you graduate, it's the law," Cody said. "Now c'mon, you're going to waste your youth lying in bed all day." He took a step back, allowing Zack to climb out of bed, roughly running his hands through his hair. "Though that would be a good alternative to your possible future or going to jail…or getting stuck in a nowhere job while I' m a CEO of the top company in the United States."

"Dream big!" Zack gave an over-the-top smile, shuffling to his dresser and pulling out some clothes to wear. He sluggishly pulled on a black layered t-shirt and baggy jeans then bent over to pull on his shoes. Once he was dressed, he picked up his backpack, haphazardly threw his books inside. "Ready," he mumbled, turning to Cody.

Cody's eyebrows lowered as he took in his brother's appearance. His hair was sticking up all over the place, he had bags under his eyes, and there was some dried drool on his chin. He was used to seeing his brother completely unkempt, but this was different. "Zack, are you ok?" He had never seen his brother look particularly bad before, but something was up. Cody's eyes glanced over at Zack's desk. His books were unopened, so he couldn't have been studying.

"I'm fine," Zack replied, his voice still thick with sleep. His eyes narrowed further. "What's with the second degree?"

Cody blinked once. "Third degree." He crossed his arms over his chest. "You know, you'd know that if you actually paid attention during class."

"Class is for sleeping," Zack replied. "Don't you get it? The only people that pay attention are the nerds. Like you…and Tapeworm…and Bailey."

"We prefer studious enthusiasts," Cody said flippantly. He reached out a hand and slapped Zack on the shoulder, before leading the way out of the room. Zack and Cody slowed as they walked across their suite, spotting their mother, Carey, standing over the stove. "Mom…didn't we just talk about this?"

"You can cook us breakfast, but we can't guarantee that we're going to eat it," Zack continued.

"Yeah, I still don't remember what happened between Tuesday and Saturday of the last time I ate your breakfast," Cody added. His eyes narrowed into a glare and he looked at Zack, who whistled innocently. "It wouldn't have been so bad if Zack hadn't slipped me his."

"Hey, better you than me." Zack grinned. "The world needs to see the handsome twin, not the lonesome twin."

"Boys!" Carey turned away from the stove, holding onto a coffee mug. "Relax; I didn't make breakfast for you. Not from scratch anyway." She walked over to the toaster and grabbed two PopTarts as they popped out. "Here you go." She handed them over to her sons. "You better hurry or you all are going to be late."

"Thanks, Mom." Zack grabbed one of the pop tarts and took a bite out of the corner. He looked at Cody out of the corner of his eye, as he looked over his. "It's food. Eat it."

"But it's so unhealthy," Cody said, his upper lip curling. "There aren't many nutrients, it's all processed and-"Zack reached out and placed a hand on the end of the pop tart. He thrust his arm forward, shoving it into Cody's mouth, causing it to crumble to his feet.

"It's food," Zack repeated. "Eat it." Lazily, he waved a hand to his mother. "Later."

"Bye! Have a good day," Carey replied. "Love you."

"Love you," Zack and Cody replied.

The twin boys left the apartment and walked down the hallway to the elevator. Jabbing his thumb into the call button, Cody finished the bite of pop tart that was in his mouth. He brushed the leftover crumbs off of the front of his shirt. The boys got into the elevator and rode it down to the lobby. Once the doors opened, they were greeted with the sight of Mr. Moseby, the hotel manager, chasing after Esteban, the bag boy, into one of the wings of the hotel.

"I wonder what pissed Moseby off so early," Zack commented.

"If it doesn't have anything to do with us, it's none of our business," Cody replied. He reached out a hand and grabbed onto Zack's shoulder, noticing his head starting to turn in the direction that Mr. Moseby and Esteban had gone. "Don't even think about it, you're just going to make things worse!" Dragging Zack behind him, he walked the two of them out of the Tipton hotel and down the street. Once they were far enough away, he let go of his brother, allowing him to fall into step beside him.

Zack yawned again, running hand over his face. He swung his backpack to his front and reached into a pocket. Pulling out a can of Monster, he popped open the tab and tilted his head back, slurping down the liquid inside. Cody cast him a distasteful look.

"That's not healthy," he warned.

"Neither is staying up late doing homework," Zack replied. He shrugged. "If I'm going to get through today, then I need this stuff."

"But before a soccer game?" Cody shook his head. "It's your last game of the season since you guys didn't get to the playoffs or whatever. It's not going to help your playing at all if you continue to put that junk in your body."

"Hey, I'm a junior and a captain, I can do what I want," Zack said. The dismissal was still evident in his tone. Cody didn't take any offense to it; he was used to it, to Zack's bad attitude in the morning. "Besides, I play soccer just to fulfill the requirement-"

"-And because you like the attention-"

"-that too, but I prefer to play basketball anyway. So I don't need to waste my time with soccer." Zack's face was suddenly filled with nothing but an egotistical veil. His eyes flashed and his upper lip curled as he smiled. "Even though I'm the star."

"No one can ever say you're modest, Zack." Cody laughed.

Zack laughed along with his brother. Once they reached the entrance to a well kept, middle class neighborhood, they took a left and waited outside of a nice looking, light blue house. Shoving his hands into his jean pockets, Zack rocked back and forth on his heels, looking down the sidewalk. He turned back at the sound of the door to the house opening. All at once there was a clamoring of loud noise as six raven haired kids came out of the house. They were all talking at once, seeming to make sure that each other had everything that they needed for the school day.

"God, are you guys always this loud in the morning?" Zack playfully covered his ears with his hands.

"Not usually," Rhuben Jackson replied. She adjusted her purple backpack on her shoulders before brushing her purple strand of hair out of her blue eyes. "But Uncle Christian said that he'd ground us if we ever left anything again. Because its causes too much trouble keeping up with everything."

"And, you know, something about getting detention," Noah, her younger brother, added. "Can't forget that."

"Crys in detention? Never!" Cody smiled.

"My cousins in detention?" Crystal Manning shot back. "Always."

Zack and Cody laughed along with the family. Shortly after they had moved into the Tipton hotel, the Jacksons, twins Riley and Rhuben, twins Patrick and Noah, and the youngest Sydney, had moved in to a suite across the hall. As Riley and Rhuben were Zack's and Cody's age, only a month younger, they got caught up in the twin boys' schemes pretty quickly. Their brothers fell into the plans along with them and the seven kids quickly got on Mr. Moseby's nerves. A few months afterwards, their cousin, Crystal Manning moved to the area with her father, the Jacksons' uncle. It got pretty hectic with all of them around, especially how multiples ran in their family. The girls, Riley and Rhuben, and the boys Patrick and Noah were the only multiples, though with Crystal being their cousin and being born on the same day as Riley and Rhuben, they were constantly mistaken as triplets.

"You might see us in detention a few times but not nearly as much as Zack," Riley commented. She smirked, turning to him, crossing his arms over his chest. "What do you say, Blondie? Don't you think it's about time that you got a seat engraved with your name?"

Zack cocked an eyebrow. "You'd think that, but then that means that the teachers would actually want to keep me around," he said smoothly. Then he smiled his most charming smile. "But as long as I got a seat next to you, Sweet Thang, I'm fine."

Riley rolled her eyes.

"Should have seen that coming," Patrick remarked to his eldest sister. He suddenly looked over Zack's shoulder and waved. "Here come Bailey, Tapeworm, and Max. We should all get going or we're going to be late."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Max commented. She was in the middle of braiding her pigtails. "My Mom already got on my case about being late tree times last week." She nodded over at Tapeworm Michaels. "Tape's parents weren't that happy about it either."

"So less talking and more walking." Sydney Jackson turned on his heels and started to walk down the sidewalk. The others laughed and followed along behind them. Zack slowed down a little bit and held his hand out to Max. She finished braiding her hair and slipped her hand into his, leaning into his side.

"You smell nice," Zack commented. He gave her a teasing smile. Max squeezed his hand.

"Thanks, sicko," she replied. "Did you get that homework done?" Zack shook his head as he took another gulp of Monster energy drink. "I don't know why I asked. Zack, if you don't catch up on your homework, you're not going to be able to participate in any afterschool activities and the basketball team needs you since the season is starting soon."

"If you want Zack to catch up on his homework, it's going to have to be from, like, freshmen year," Bailey Pickett commented. She was walking to the side of the group, walking with her arms outstretched, balancing on the curb as she went.

"How would you know, Bailey?" Tapeworm laughed. "You only started school with us last year."

"I've seen Zack's report card," Bailey explained. "It makes even the dumbest persons' grades look good."

"Can we please get off of the conversation about me?" Zack scowled.

"I thought you liked it when we talked about you," Crystal said innocently. "I mean, you talk about yourself enough."

"Yeah, that's because I can talk about myself and know what I'm talking about," Zack said, as if it were obvious. In his mind, it probably was. "The rest of you guys just want to make me look bad. Which we all know is basically impossible."

"Don't even get me started," Riley commented.

Zack let out a breath, watching her walk in front of him, her ponytail swinging back and forth between her shoulder blades. She was listening intently to whatever Tapeworm was talking to her amount, nodding her head, smiling and laughing every now and then as he continued to talk. Zack sucked in a breath, looking at Max, who was walking leisurely beside him. He and Max had been dating since their freshman year of high school, having broken up shortly while they were in their sophomore year. Max felt too much pressure from Zack, wanting to be around her too often, while she just wanted her space, having to adjust to the new school course load as well as the many after school activities that she took on.

Before then, he had flirted with and gone on dates with a lot of girls, though he never particularly felt anything for any of them. He usually enjoyed the chase, more than anything else. That's all that he seemed to get when it came to Riley. Ever since he met her at the tender age of twelve, he had been interested her. He flirted with her as often as he could, even doing so without having to think about it most of the time, and she turned him down each and every time. Some times more harshly than others, yet there were many times that she tolerated it. Zack thought it was out of pity, but he wasn't complaining. Though he managed to hold off on the excessive amount of flirting when he started to date Max, he always wondered what it would have been like if Riley had given him a chance. The two tended to be very competitive with each other, and she put him in his place as much as she could when he was getting out of control with his schemes and narcissism, but the two had ended up being pretty good friends.

I'm sure it's only because of Cody, but I'll take what I can get. Zack finished his energy drink and crushed the can in his hand, shoving it into the mesh pocket on his backpack. The group arrived at Cheevers high school and went their separate ways to their lockers.

"Meet us outside at lunch ok?" Rhuben called to Sydney as they blended in with the crowd. "Then one of us will walk you back home?"

"Ok!" Sydney waved back before disappearing around the corner.

"How's Syd adjusting to going to high school at the same time he's being homeschooled?" Tapeworm opened his locker, holding up his arm so that Max could duck under his door to reach her own locker. "It can't be easy, considering he's a genius and everything."

"Ha!" Rhuben snorted. "It's easy because he's a genius and everything. But there are some things that Uncle Christian can teach him and some things he can't. So he comes to the high school for two hours three days a week and stays homeschooled with Aaron the rest of the time."

"How's Aaron dealing with it?" Cody turned to Crystal, speaking of her adopted younger brother. "Does he want to go to a normal school too?"

Crystal shrugged then placed her hands on her hips. "As far as I can tell, he likes it just fine. I don't think that he'd particularly like it if he went to a 'normal school'." She regarded Cody with a critical eye. "And it's not nice to say whether something's normal or not."

"Your brother's blind," Zack reminded her.

"Not incapable!" Crystal snapped.

Zack, Cody, Riley Rhuben, Max, Tapeworm, Crystal and Bailey all looked up as the bell rang, letting them know that it was time for homeroom. They quickly opened their lockers and gathered their books before heading off to their assigned homerooms; Zack, Cody, Riley, and Bailey to one Crystal, Max, Tapeworm, and Rhuben to another. Zack slid into an empty seat in the middle of the room, slouching down so that he could lift his feet and rest them on top of his desk. He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling.

Blah blah blah. Why am I here again? He looked at Cody out of the corner of his eye, seeing that he was taking out a notebook and pen, wanting to write down everything the homeroom teacher had to say for announcements. He's the only person I know that takes this so seriously. Doesn't he understand that the only thing that high school is worth is all of the sports games? Like the soccer game tonight. Zack swung his legs to the floor and spun to face his friends. "Are you guys coming to the soccer game today? I need my cheering section."

"Just ask the cheerleaders," Riley remarked. She rested her chin in her hand, her dark blue eyes flashing. "I'm sure you already have them wrapped around your finger already."

"And another body part," Zack said. Riley rolled her eyes. She did that a lot around him. Half the time he just had to look at her and she had some reason to roll her eyes and shake her head at him. Yet, she still stuck around. "But seriously, are you going?"

"I am!" Bailey said. "I love watching you guys play. We never got to play while we were on the farm," she looked back and forth from Zack, Cody, and Riley. "Once you hit a certain age, you were expected to work along with the adults. Even as a kid I spent most of my time working."

"It at least put a good work ethic in you," Cody complimented her.

"Mhm. And a good amount of muscle mass."

Cody smiled before turning to address his twin brother. He took a breath, suddenly looking nervous. "Actually, I might be a little late." Zack's eyebrows rose, waiting for his twin brother to continue. "I was going to talk to the basketball coach."

"About what? Sitting on the bench for again?"

Cody looked hurt. "No. About trying out."

Zack stared at his brother for a long moment and then burst out into hysterical laughter. Cody playing basketball? The idea was ludicrous. Zack was the athlete. He had the natural drive and sense of competition. Cody liked everything to be fair for everyone. If there was a way that everyone could win, he'd do that. He sanitized everything before he used, touched, or even looked at it. He was the only one that made sure everyone had their own individual supply of toilet paper when they went camping. Cody and basketball being put together was the furthest thing from his mind.

"I don't see why he can't try out," Bailey said. She looked at Zack with distaste and a little bit of attitude. "Genetically speaking, anything that you can do, he can do, too." She shrugged. "Maybe better."

"Thanks Bailey." Cody smiled.

Zack laughed. "Cody do something better than me? That's a laugh! Really. He was so terrible on the basketball team when we were in middle school that he was on the team only to take up space on the bench." Cody frowned. "Sometimes, he would get so lonely he would talk to the people in the crowd right behind him. They made their own book club, because he got to know them so well."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to stimulate my mind while I'm waiting for my abilities to be realized," Cody said calmly.

"Uh, there is if you could use that same sort of stimulating to actually become good at the game," Zack shot back. A weird look crossed Cody's face that Zack couldn't quite place. It was like…there was something that Cody knew that he wasn't telling Zack. Not like that was a big deal, there were many things that Cody knew that Zack didn't. But this time, he could sense Cody's arrogance. No, not arrogance, his confidence. Cody was confident about something that he wasn't quite sure what it was.

"Zack!" Riley's voice caused him to turn to face her. Normally she had a somewhat amused look on her face when she was talking to him, if not a bit annoyed. Now she looked downright pissed, which wasn't much different from the looks she normally gave him. "Lay off."

"I'm just saying." Zack held up his hands defensively. "The day that Cody gets on the basketball team is the day that I willingly do my schoolwork, and we all know that's never going to happen," Zack remarked. He looked up as the bell rang and, still laughing, gathered his books and left the room.

A/N: So thanks for the feedback so far. I've gotten some input over who Cody should end up and that's been helpful…and kinda not because I'm even unsure who to choose. Though writing ZackxMax for a while will be fun of course there's a good chance (but that I mean 99.9%) that this is going to end as a Ziley (ZackxRiley) but I'm sure everyone's seen that coming. I wanted to do a Ziley that was without element powers because I don't think I ever did one (besides Did You Runaway, Did You Fall Apart because I think that was terrible).

Downfall will be uploaded soon and I swear it's the last story in the Mystic Melody series. I've been asked to re-do the HOME series and I'm really leaning towards it at this point. Someone asked if I would do another element story when they're at the Tipton, not sure if I'll do that. But I also have ideas for regular Suite Life stories. They'll probably all have my characters because those that don't, I think, are better as one-shots.

Oh and because this isn't a element story, some of the things of ours and Crystal Manning's personalities are a bit different as well as their family dynamic, as you've seen here. Also, because there are so many characters here, if you see some in one chapter, then you won't see as much of them in the next. For that reason I'm figuring out whether or not to take Bailey out and just leave it as a SLOZAC story. I'm contemplating doing it from Zack's first person POV, but I haven't written in first person in a while. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles