.:Chapter 19:.

My Boyfriend's Back and There's Gonna Be Trouble

"Is everyone ready to go?" Julius called, leaning against the front door of the Manning household. He shifted the wrapped box in his hands, looking it over before resting it against his chest once more. "We're going to be late if we don't get going."

"When are we not late?" Riley asked walking down the stairs, pulling a brush through her hair, her head tilted to the side. In her other hand was a red beanie, clutched tightly in her fist. "Punctuality isn't one of our best traits when it comes to getting all of us together at once." Standing in the hallway mirror, she studied her reflection as she continued to run the brush through her hair. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the box in Julius's hands. A sly smile slid onto her face as she turned to her brother, placing her hands on her hips. "Is that a gift for Maddie?"

"Maybe," Julius replied, tucking the box behind his back. He lifted his chin towards, giving her a haughty look. "Not that is any of your business."

"So you can ask questions about my non-existent dating life but I can't ask you about yours?" Riley twisted her mouth to the side as she gazed at her older brother as he smiled and nodded. "That's really not fair."

"Must suck not being the oldest around here anymore," Julius teased, reaching out a hand and mussing her hair.

"Not really," Rhuben commented as she walked into the room from the kitchen. She held a perfectly wrapped present in her hands as well. She cast a grin over to her twin sister. "It's so much better when you're around. You're not nearly as bossy as you don't yell as much."

Riley frowned. "Thanks Sis, feeling the love here."

Rhuben and Julius laughed as Riley tried hard not to smile as well. It wasn't the first time she had gotten that comment from her siblings and it certainly wouldn't be the last. From everything they had gone through, when Julius wasn't around, she quickly stepped up to fill in the leadership role to help them all. Sometimes it was strange for her when Julius came back and the role would switch to him, then again there were plenty of times where she would be gone and the role would switch to Rhuben. It was something the three elder Jacksons had fallen into since they were younger, especially considering the vast age differences between Julius and Sydney. She knew he was just trying to stay as close to his brothers and sisters as he could whenever he had a break from his schooling.

"Ok, we're, finally, ready to go," Crystal said as she, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, and Aaron came from the basement, all holding onto wrapped boxes as well. She had a decorative bow that usually rested on top of a Christmas present, stuck to the side of her head. The boys had pieces of tape and ribbons hanging off of them. "That's the last time any of them wait until the last minute to wrap Christmas presents." Reaching up, she took the bow out of her hair, carefully pulling at it. Noah reached over and detangled it from her hair. "Thanks, No."

"No worries." Noah glanced at the two boxes he was holding and passed one over to Riley, who gratefully took it. "Here, I wrapped yours too."

Julius laughed loudly. "You mean you still can't wrap Christmas gifts?"

Riley shook her head. "No. I'm good at just about everything else, but the one thing I can't do is wrap a Christmas gift." She grimaced as she looked over the gift Noah had wrapped for her. The last time she had tried to wrap a Christmas gift she ended up using three rolls of wrapping paper, having ripped it, used too much, or used too little so that it ripped at the corners. In the end, she had gotten Christian to wrap the gift for her while she and Patrick wrapped each other up in the leftover paper and had a jousting fight with the cardboard tubes they had originally been on. "Hey, as long as I can pass it off as my own, I'm good."

"That's the spirit!" Patrick cheered, punching the air.

"Way to set an example, Sis," Sydney said with a disapproving shake of his head. Julius laughed and waved an arm, reaching over to the doorknob and opening the door. Riley pulled her beanie down over her ears and followed her family as they left the house. Sydney made sure to lock the door behind them before they started to walk to the bowling alley. "Uncle Christian said he's going to be at the Tipton at the Christmas party that Mr. Moseby is throwing for the Tipton staff. Hopefully he manages to get some good stuff from there like last year."

"I know, I could really use those fancy chocolates right about now," Patrick agreed, rubbing his stomach and licking his lips. As soon as he did so, the frigid air caused him to wipe them off before producing a tube of Chap Stick and moving it over his mouth. "God, I can't believe people actually like to live in places like this."

"You guys complain too much," Crystal said with a light laugh. "It's not that cold."

Riley's eyes widened as she took in her cousin, who was only wearing a sweatshirt, compared to her cousins who were all in winter jackets, hats, and gloves. Even Aaron didn't seem to be bothered by the cold as much. "Yeah, well, you're cold almost year round; it shouldn't be that much of a stretch for you."

Crystal made a sound of shock and moved forward to smack Riley on the arm. Riley laughed and high-stepped out of her sister's way. She grabbed onto Patrick's hand and the two started running forward, swinging their arms high between them as they went. Noah and Rhuben quickly followed behind them with Crystal, Sydney, and Aaron trailing behind. Julius smiled though continued at his leisurely pace. Riley continued to smile as she and Patrick ran along the icy ground, slipping and sliding as they went, but not slowing down their speed as they went. What wasn't there to smile about? They were on Christmas break, Christmas was in a couple of days, and they were going to a Christmas Party with all of their friends at the local bowling alley like they did every year. Who cared if there was bound to be some sort of drama that could potentially come out of it? They were going to be with their friends and hang out with no school pressure or anything for a while.

After nearly falling onto her back, thankfully Patrick had a good grip on her arm to hold her up, Riley started to slow down. Patrick glanced at her. "What?" He leaned forward and peered at her face. "You're brooding."

"I'm not brooding," Riley quickly denied.

"Yes, you are. Your eyebrows get scrunched up and your mouth turns down when you brood," Patrick continued.

"I'm not—"Riley stopped, feeling her eyebrows move apart. She let out a quiet sigh, her shoulders dropping. "Ok, Bro, I'm brooding. I was just thinking about Zack and Max, hoping things won't get too weird with them there."

Patrick gave a half smile, tightening his grip on her hand. "Yeah, well, at least you weren't there when they got into their fight." He shook his head. "It was pretty brutal." Riley glanced at him and Patrick quickly explained.

He had been coming out of his study hall the last period of the day, and was going to his locker to put up his books and get his bags together for basketball practice later that afternoon. He looked up and smiled as Noah arrived at his locker. "Hey, how was your class?"

"Not bad," Noah replied. "Though, personally, I don't think having PE at the end of the day, right before practice, is a good idea." He wiped sweat off his forehead before lifting his arm to sniff under it. "Though I think it helps when it comes to getting ready for it, so I guess that's ok."

Patrick took a step back, waving a hand in front of his face. "But your stink isn't. Maybe you should think about showering more than twice a week," he joked. Noah frowned, his eyes glinted, and then he reached out an arm and wrapped it around Patrick's head, pulling him into a head lock. Patrick reached up and wrapped his arms around Noah's head as well, the two trying to force each other to the floor. After a few minutes of their grappling, the two let go and gave each other a high-five before turning back to their lockers to get their bags. "You haven't seen Tape around have you? I have to give him back some clothes he leant me last practice."

Noah shook his head. "I still don't see how you, someone who is so into sports, could have forgotten your stuff again. You know coach is really serious about dressing out for practice."

"Yeah, yeah." Patrick waved a hand. "I never really understood the point of that anyway. Dressing out for practice, it sounds like you're going to a formal or something." Noah opened his mouth to correct him then shook his head, finding it not worth it; it would just make his twin brother even more confused. "C'mon." Patrick closed his locker door and with a tip of his head led the way to the junior locker bay. As they turned the corner the bell rang and the hallways filled with students coming out of their classes. Up ahead, he could see Max, Tapeworm, and Bailey coming out of a classroom, heading down the hall. "Hey! Guys! Wait up!" He and Noah started down the hallway towards his friends, then slowed when he noticed Max, timidly, walking over to Zack as Bailey and Tapeworm looked on with worried expressions.

"What's up?" Noah asked, stopping by them.

"Yeah, you all looked like you just swallowed puke or something," Patrick added.

"Or something," Bailey agreed. She let out a sigh, exchanging a glance with Tapeworm. He shrugged, shifting his backpack up her shoulder. "I know I said for Max to be honest with Zack, but I didn't think she was going to do it this soon."

"Well, it's just like you said," Tapeworm reminded her. "Honesty is the best policy and it'd just make things worse if she just waited longer to say something." His eyes shifted for a moment. "Maybe I should go over there too."

"Could someone please explain what's going on?" Patrick demanded. "I'm so confused."

"There's a shock," Noah commented.

Bailey started to answer, but was cut off by Zack's suddenly raising his voice. "Listen, Max, if there's something that you want to tell me then spit it out!" He then smiled a little. "It must be something kind of serious if you're actually not talking for once."

Max let out a frustrated sigh, wringing her hands together. "Ok," she said in a low voice. "It's like this…we've been having a lot of problems between us lately and I didn't know how to talk to you about it. And it's not like we ever really communicate our feelings about anything anyway. All we really do is just, hang out and study, and go on dates and make out." Her eyes shifted. "Amongst other things." Zack grinned. "But we never really talked and I couldn't really keep it in anymore." She dropped her hands, suddenly gaining confidence. "I know that you said you can't help it and it's always been a part of your personality, but I can't help but get annoyed each and every time I see you flirting with another girl."

Zack rolled his eyes, turning back to his locker. "God, not this again," he mumbled.

Max's eyes flashed. "You see? This is exactly what I mean! You never want to talk about what's going on between us."

"That's because you don't talk, you whine and complain," Zack shot back. Now he was starting to look angry. He set his jaw, turning back to Max. "And if we're on the subject about things that bug each other, you're controlling and you think that everything you do is better than me."

"Oh please," Max said.

"That's exactly what I think, each and every time you act like that," Zack continued. "It's like, I can't ever be myself around you because you're always going to try and find something about me to change. I mean, yeah, it may be better if I took a shower more than once a month, but you don't have to act like you're better at me than everything!" He started to count off on his fingers. "You're better at school, you're better at sports, you're better at dancing. Not that that's a stretch you show off each and every chance you get."

"I'm not a showoff," Max snarled. She shook her head, bringing her finger tips up to her forehead, massaging her temples. "This isn't the way I wanted out conversation to go; this isn't what I wanted to talk about."

"Then what is it?" Zack snapped.

Max looked worried for a moment, but taking in Zack's cold exterior, taking in all of the things that he had said to her must have made her change her mind. She crossed her arms over her chest, giving Zack a cold glare. "I kissed Tapeworm," she finally blurted out.

Beside him, Patrick could see Bailey wince and shake her head. Patrick's mouth dropped open as he looked over at Noah, who looked just as surprised. He had never thought any of his friends would have done something like this, though now he knew it wasn't particularly bad that he had seen it coming. It was hard for anyone to come between two best friends and Max and Tapeworm had known each other much longer than Max and Zack had.

Zack's eyes narrowed for a moment. "You what?" His voice was dangerously low.

"I kissed Tapeworm," Max repeated. "That's what I wanted to tell you. But for a while, I didn't want to. I was afraid of how you'd react and it was driving me crazy."

"And yet, you still kept it a secret," Zack pointed out. He then gave a hollow laugh, shaking his head. "What am I saying? Of course you kept it a secret. You weren't thinking about me when you didn't want to say anything, you were thinking about yourself. Just like you always do." He viciously gestured towards her. "All you think about is your college applications and your extracurricular activities and how it's all going to affect your life! The way you'll actually show me some attention is if I initiate everything first. Our phone calls, our dates, hell, even I have to kiss you first just to be able to make out with you a little."

There was a brief pause between the two of them before Max continued. "You're selfish! All you care about is when the next time we're going to hook up or have some time alone. The world doesn't revolve around you and what you want out of a relationship."

"You're controlling!" Zack shot back, raising her voice to match Max's. Everyone else in the hallways had stopped and was now listening to the conversation. "You're asking me to change when I can't. I can't believe we're having this conversation again, anyway. I already told you that it's the way I am, I'm a bit of a flirt. I admit it. But I'm with you."

"It's not like I can help it! You're always looking at other girls and-"

"-And you're always insecure about it. Why don't you trust me? Why can't you trust me? I feel so much pressure from you-"

"-Like I don't feel pressure from you?!"

"At least I didn't jump to the next guy that came my way!"

Max's mouth dropped open and she stared at Zack for a long moment. Finally, she shook her head and turned on her heel, walking away from Zack. Zack turned back to his locker door and slammed it shut as hard as he could before turning and walking off in the opposite direction.

"Wow," Riley said, after Patrick finished his story. "No wonder things have been so weird." She stopped, holding up a finger. "Not that I care about petty relationship drama anyway, but are you telling me that Bailey knew about what was going on?"

Patrick shrugged.

Riley lowered her gaze to the ground, focusing more on the icy patches that came up in front of her. It wouldn't help anything if she slipped and fell then. After a few minutes of walking in silence, she shook her head and pushed the thought out of her head. It wasn't her business anyway, why should she care about it? Things were fine between the three of them now, or that's what they had wanted to have people think. They could do whatever they wanted for all she cared. The group continued to the bowling alley and when they arrived, walking inside and headed over to the back corner of the bowling alley where their friends were waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" Maddie greeted them with a smile and a wave. "It's about time you got here."

"They were freaking out about the cold, again," Crystal said with a roll of her eyes. She walked over to a table that was set up and placed her gift down on it with the others that had been placed there as well. "Let's see what they do when a blizzard rolls through."

"We'd be out of here before a blizzard could hit," Rhuben protested. "As soon as it comes up on the news, we'll have everything packed and shipped off to Oz before you can say 'put some shrimp on the barbie'." She held up a warning finger. "Just a tip, never say that to an Aussie."

"Y'all will get used to it," Bailey said with a wave of her hand. She motioned to her own sweatshirt and jeans. "I mean, I'm from Kettlecorn, it's always warm there except for the occasional shower." She smiled warmly. "Even I'm getting used to the cold, especially the snow. It's so pretty."

"Yeah, yeah, snow is pretty and everything's cold," Zack broke in. He walked over, holding onto a black bowling ball and rested it on his hip. "Can we please get started?" He pointed behind him where a row of bowling shoes was already set up. "Our shoes are already rented and I'm ready to beat each and every one of you." His eyes flashed as he smirked, bringing the bowling back in front of him. "Again."

"And you wonder why people get annoyed of your bragging," Cody said. He reached out a hand and patted his twin on the shoulder. "You never know, one of these days someone is going to beat you."

"I highly doubt that," Zack replied.

The Jacksons and Mannings placed the rest of their gifts on the table and sat down to change out their shoes for the rented bowling ones. Once they had everything ready to go, they split up into their bowling lanes and typed in their nicknames on the screens before picking out their balls to start the game. They all went through the first frame, some having more success than others. Zack, of course, had managed to get a strike, Tapeworm came close behind with nine pins, Julius, Maddie, and Crystal got eight, Bailey, Patrick, Noah, and Max got seven, Sydney, Aaron, and Rhuben got six, and Riley managed only to get two.

"Do you need the bumper?" Tapeworm teased. He picked up his silver bowling ball, ready to take his turn again.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea, actually," Riley said, waiting for her own red ball to come back out of the ball dispenser. "Though knowing my luck, it's not going to help at all." She laughed, moving her hair behind her shoulders before sitting down in a seat and reaching behind her for the plate of cookies that had been set up. She took a bite and smiled when the chocolate from the chocolate chips melted on her tongue. Nice and soft, just the way she liked them. "Who made the cookies?"

"I did," Bailey replied. "I figured, since we were only doing Secret Santa for one other person, that everyone should get a gift." She leaned back and picked up the plate, pointing to the assortment of cookies that rested in small piles on the ceramic. "I made chocolate chip, butter, almond, and some of the more festive sugar cookies." She lifted up one that was in the shape of a Christmas tree and was even decorated to look the same way. "See?"

"That's cool," Riley said, taking a couple more cookies then holding the late out. Sydney and Aaron grabbed a handful, which didn't beat the two handfuls Patrick took instead. Julius shot him a disapproving look and Patrick shrugged his mouth full with a chocolate chip cookie.

"Patrick!" Rhuben admonished, also giving him a hard stare.

"Don't worry about it," Bailey said with a wave of her hand. "Where I'm from, eating handfuls of food is a sign of respect and it means that the food is actually that good." She laughed before her eyes shifted behind him and her eyes widened. She stood up, her mouth dropping open. Everyone followed her gaze, noticing a teenage boy about their age walk through the door of the bowling alley. As he stepped inside, he pulled off a large gray beanie, his dark eyes moving around the alley, as if searching for someone.

"Bailey," Cody said, lowering his bowling to the ground, pausing in his turn. "Who is that?"

"Moose I think," Rhuben said from his side. She chewed her bottom lip for a moment. "She showed us a picture once but he didn't look as good in his picture." Cody glanced at her and he felt a spike of jealousy move through his body, watching as she openly looked Moose up and down before turning to Crystal, Max, ad Riley. "And I thought people were kidding when they said that cowboys were good looking."

Riley, Crystal, and Max laughed, nodding agreement.

Cody frowned, his eyes on Moose.

"That's ex-boyfriend, Moose," Bailey said. She let out a sigh, pushing her hair back out of her face with both hands. "He said he was going to come to Boston for a visit, but I didn't know he was coming this soon." She let out a noise of annoyance before hurrying over to him.

"For someone who's ex-boyfriend just decided to visit the, she doesn't seem so happy to see him," Zack pointed out.

Riley turned to look at him, giving him an odd expression. Seriously he didn't understand that exes were exes for a reason. Not that he'd really understand that, all of his exes were girls that he just had fun with and never particularly showed must interested in. Apart from Max anyway. She frowned, remembering what Patrick had said before. It was obvious that Zack didn't know that Bailey had known what was going on before he did; she wasn't sure how he was going to react to it when he did. He seemed to be getting happier now, especially considering he was finally starting to become interested in what he was going to do after high school.

Riley twisted her mouth to the side as she thought about her own past boyfriends. More often than not, she got angry, if not moderately annoyed thinking about them. Sure, she could admit that most of them were her own fault, having been somewhat desperate for positive attention. There were some boyfriends that clearly didn't care much about her, caring more about her fame than anything else, and then there were others that just didn't treat her right. Thankfully, there were the few that were nice, but they had broken up due to the distance and her constantly going back and forth from Australia to Boston.

She contemplated telling Zack about one or two of them at that moment but decided not to, the moment wasn't right. Plus, she didn't want anyone else to hear about it either. If she wanted them to know, she would have told them. It was one of the many things she refused to think about, ven more than what Robert had done. "The weirdest part is that she said their break up was mutual, so she shouldn't be that worried to see him," Riley added. She picked up another cookie and handed the plate out to him. Zack looked down at it and reached out to pick up a cookie, then dropped his hand once more, shaking his head. "You don't want a cookie?" Maybe Syd was right.

Zack shrugged, sticking his hands into his jeans pockets. "I already ate before you guys got here. Mom made a big lunch for us actually." His eyes widened a second, seeming to be filled with panic, before he relaxed once more. "Thankfully she ordered room service for the lunch, so Cody and I ordered as much as we could."

"That explains it then," Riley said. "I'm guessing you're getting some sort of a discount now that you're working at the day care, yeah?"

Zack gave her a sly smile. "Something like that." He looked down at the bowling ball that was resting by her feet and picked it up, his eyebrows lowering as he looked it over. "No wonder you really suck at this game." He looked up at her from under his fringe. "Do you always use this ball when we play?"

"Uh, yeah!" Riley gave him a duh look. "It's red and it has my favorite number on it." She pointed to the '11' that was painted on the bowling ball in gold. "Why wouldn't I want to use that one?"

"Um. Maybe because it's eleven pounds and too heavy for you to carry," Zack replied. He placed a hand on his chest, giving her a haughty smile. "Not that it would help you beat me anyway. Not even my Dad can beat me at bowling." A bitter look suddenly came over his face. "And the Tipton would have won against the St. Mark a lot faster if Mom would have let me play in that tournament game."

"Yeah, but Arwin came through for you all so that's not a big deal," Riley reminded him.

Zack shrugged, walking over to the ball rack and replaced the ball. He looked around for a moment before picking up another red bowling ball. He walked back over to Riley and handed it to her, dumping it into her arms. It was much lighter than the one she had been using before. Zack tapped his fingers against the ball. "There, now you might be able to actually beat me, but don't hold your breath.' He then produced a long, flat box out from behind his back. "I got your name for Secret Santa this year." He handed her the box before holding his hands up defensively. "I swear I didn't switch with anyone this year."

"Right." Nonetheless Riley tore off the wrapping and opened the box. Her eyes lit up for a moment, reaching out and running her fingers over the soft material inside. "A scarf!" Picking it up, she ran her fingers over the cloth. She laughed. "Thanks, this is actually what I really need." Wait a minute…her eyes turned downcast, before she sifted through the tissue paper still sitting inside the box.

"What are you looking for?" Zack asked with a low chuckle, noticing her movements.

"Mistletoe," Riley murmured. She lifted her head, flicking her hair out of her face with a quick shake of her head. "Considering every year since you've met me you've managed to sneak mistletoe around somewhere to get a kiss." She closed the box before picking up the scarf to examine it. "I was actually starting to expect it this year."

"Yeah, well, I was starting to get tired of all of the punches and slaps I got in return for each and every one," Zack said. "I'm just full of surprises, I guess." He picked up the scarf and wrapped it around her neck.

"Speaking of surprises," Bailey murmured. Zack and Riley turned to look at her and saw that Moose was standing in front of Bailey, who was holding onto a velvet box, staring down at the silver necklace that rested inside. "Moose, this is nice, but-"

"It's your birthday gift," Moose said with an air of pride, his chest swelling as he did so. He placed his hands on his hips, gently rocking back and forth on his heels as he smiled down at her. "I know that we haven't talked in a while, but I missed your birthday and felt bad. So I figured I'd bring it along when I came to visit you."

"That's nice of your," Bailey said. She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear, only one side of her mouth turning up into a smile. Her eyes moved back over to her friends and she seemed relieved. "Moose, I want you to meet my friends!" She grabbed onto her arm, yanking him over towards the group that was watching her. "Guys, this is my friend Moose. Moose this is Zack, Cody, Max, Tapeworm, Maddie, Julius, Riley, Crystal, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, Aaron, and Sydney." As she pointed to each of her friends in turn, Moose smiled and gave each of them a warm nod and a smile.

"It's nice to meet all of my Haybails's friends," Moose said politely. "She talks about you all the time in her letters."

"Good things I hope," Maddie said. She and Julius exchanged a look before laughing. "What am I saying? With this group, it's never a dull moment."

"That's what I always say," Bailey agreed. She clasped her hands together in front of her, smiling at all of her friends. "Ever since I came out here, you guys have really helped me out. I mean, you became my friends when no one else would give me the time of day. You showed me around and really made me feel like I've lived here all along." She shrugged. "I had to tell my family and friends about the best people I've ever met."

"That's so sweet, Bailey," Maddie said.

"You're a good friend to us, too," Aaron added.

Bailey gave a modest shrug.

"Moose, why don't you come join in the game?" Max suggested, waving him over to the lanes they were using.

Zack reached into his pocket and pulled out the small box that he had resting inside. Glancing at Max, he opened it to look at the sparkly earrings that gently rested inside. He had gotten them for her long before the two had broken up and was excited to see the look on her face to give it to her. Zack closed the lid to the box and put it back in his pocket.

He went over to the ball return and picked up his ball. He turned back to his friends with a wide smile, the first one he had genuinely felt in a while. "Is it my turn?"

What I ate today

Breakfast

-Power Bar

-Orange Juice

Lunch

-Nothing

Dinner

-Nothing

Time spent at the gym today

-3 hours

Weight loss to date:

Fifteen pounds

Gained Muscle to date:

Four pounds

*Threw up two times

A/N: Woot, got some Jackson/Manning family moments done as well. So this chapter didn't really have that much of a Christmasy feel to it, if I had written it around the time that it actually was Christmas, I probably could have done it better. Though I liked the friendship feel good feeling from Bailey, I feel she really would be the one that would be outspoken with the friendship like that. (If I remember correctly—I didn't watch a lot of SLOD—her character was actually like this, so I hope I did it well). Some new twists and turns came up in this chapter. Now I remember why I try not to have the whole group together, I don't have everyone talk as much as I wanted them to. I'll have to work on that.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles