.:Chapter 21:.

The Fourth Journal Entry

aka

Brotherly Love

January 22

It's been almost ten days since I last wrote a journal entry and I have some good news. We've continued to win more of our basketball games and Coach says that we could be going to the championship this year. That means that our season would be going until March or so. I really need to focus now. Step up my workouts and diet. So far I've lost over twenty pounds. Everyone says I look great and Coach has even said that my playing skills have gotten even better. Cody may be the point guard now, but I'm still the better player. Sure, I don't score as much as I used to, but I'm doing a very good job of keeping the other team from scoring. My ball handling has improved as well. Even Dad says that he's noticed I've been bulking up. Well, he said it in a sort of weird way when Cody and I were at his apartment for the weekend again.

"Whoa, Zack, have you been losing weight?" Dad asked as I walked through the door.

I closed the door behind me with a sharp kick of my foot and turned back to face him. "Yeah, kinda. I've just been working hard."

"You look great," Dad said with a proud smile. I smiled and nodded back at him. "I can really see the muscle definition." He grabbed my arm and lifted it; I clenched my arm muscles and he whistled as my muscle poked out in a large bulge. Not a bulge, more like a mountain. It was big. Not that I'm bragging. Ok, I am a little. It's nice to brag sometimes.

He then grabbed the sides of my face and tilted my head back, bunching up my cheeks. The last time that happened was when Grandma had been gushing over how much Cody and I had grown. I had red cheeks for weeks from the way she pinched them and kissed them. Her lipstick is always this bright red color, and she puts on so much of it that it gets smeared on us.

"Dad? I can't feel my face," I managed to mumble.

"Keep doing it then," Cody piped up as he pulled out his schoolbooks to get started on homework. He always does that. He makes sure he had homework done as soon as possible so he can spend the rest of his weekend to hang out. Really? Really? How does he do that when he does the whole year's worth of homework and then starts next year's when he finished? He knows how to have fun and has always been my right hand man in my schemes since I could remember.

Well, we haven't been doing much pranks and stuff for a while. I wouldn't want to jeopardize my job. Yeah, that's part of the good news. I officially got the job at the Day Care center. Mr. Moseby had called me into my office when I had gotten home from school that day. He had grabbed me as soon as I walked through the revolving doors of the hotel.

"Uh-Oh," Cody said, stopping by my side. He looked as anxious as I did and in that moment I was glad that he was on my side. We may have started to grow up and drift apart the older we've gotten, but I know he would always be there for me whenever I needed him. "He didn't have that normal 'You-did-something-and-I'm-going-to-make-you-admit-it' look on his face. This seems really serious."

"I know." I ran my hand through my hair, rubbing my chin. As I did, I brought my hand up to my mouth to keep from yawning. "I have no idea what I could have done in the eight hours I was at school." I started to count off on my fingers. "I haven't had anyone call home in a while, so Mom shouldn't have anything to complain about."

"Well, you better go see what he wants," Cody said. He paused and gave me a sympathetic look. No, it wasn't of sympathy, it was of concern. "Do you want me to come with you?"

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. "You just want to be sure that whatever it is I don't try to blame it on you," I accused him.

"That," Cody agreed. "And I really hope nothing's wrong."

"Well, whatever's thrown my way, I can handle it." I reached out and grabbed onto Cody's shoulder, gently shaking him. I gave him a warm smile before turning on my heel and walking over to Mr. Moseby's office. Rather than knocking on the door, I've never done it before, why start now, I just barged right in. A second later, I could hear cheering in my ear and saw Mr. Moseby standing in front of his desk, arms behind his back, smiling at me. I looked over at saw Maddie throw a pile of confetti in my face, causing me to cough and wave the pieces of paper away from me. "What's going on?" I lifted a finger. "Oh, I get it. You finally got that skunk out of the Tipton!"

Mr. Moseby's smile slowly faded until he was glaring at me in that way that only he knew how. His face completely changed and his eyes flared with irritation and suspicion. "What…skunk?"

My eyes widened. Cody and I had released a skunk into the Tipton hotel probably a year before and had never heard of it again. There had been a few reports of people complaining about the bad smell, that Moseby would take care of quickly, but the skunk hadn't been caught. Last I heard, Esteban and Dudley were the last ones to see it. It wouldn't surprise me if he decided to keep it as a pet as well. There's only so much company you can get from a chicken.

"I don't know anything about a skunk," I said quickly, holding up my hands defensively. "I don't know where that thought came from."

"Whatever, Zack," Maddie teased, rolling her eyes. "If something goes on around here, we know that you and Cody are usually behind it." She laughed lightly, shaking her head before crossing the office and gently shoving Mr. Moseby's shoulder. "Go on, Mr. Moseby, tell him the good news."

"You're finally getting married?" I guessed.

Mr. Moseby growled at me again and I pressed my lips firmly closed. Apparently now wasn't a good idea to make fun of him about his lifestyle. And he did seem pretty excited about something. He walked towards me, holding out a hand. Confused, I reached up my hand and slowly took it, shaking it along with Mr. Moseby's grasp.

"I'm slightly surprised that I'm even saying this Zack but, congratulations," he said. I continued to stare at him as he covered my hand with his other one, shaking my hand even firmer. "You got the job at the Tipton Daycare Center."

"I did?" My eyebrows rose as I looked over at Maddie. She beamed and nodded. "I got the job?!" Mr. Moseby nodded as well. "Wow. Thanks. I thought you'd go with one of the other applicants." I lowered my hand, reaching up to scratch my forehead. "I mean, they have so much more experience than I do with kids and have had jobs before and—"

"Zack, the reason that you stood way above the others that I've looked for at this job is the same reason that you annoy me so greatly," Mr. Moseby said. I looked around, waiting for his response. Surely it would be some sort of insult. "Because you still know what it's like to be a kid, but at the same time, you have a sense of maturity and wisdom that none of the other applicants had." Mr. Moseby dropped my hands and gently leaned towards me. "I know that I've been giving you a hard time with some of the things that you've put me through over the years—"

"The cake fight with Ilsa from the St. Mark," Maddie said, starting to count off on her fingers. "The time you let rats loose in the hotel, the time we were trying to catch that hotel thief the time we were searching for the Tipton treasure, when we were searching for the Tipton ghost, when you were chasing that French girl around, bringing Tippy into the hotel, busting holes in the walls, running through the air ducts—"

"I get the point, Maddie," I said quickly, trying to keep Mr. Moseby in a good mood. I could see his face starting to turn the longer Maddie went on with her examples. Mr. Moseby chuckled, moving his hands behind his back once more.

"I know you're going to be a great addition to the Tipton staff and I can't wait to have you officially join the team," he said. He gave another smile, this time a warm one and turned back to Maddie. She clapped a couple of times, much like London would, and opened her arms, moving towards me to give me a hug.

I smiled, opening my arms and giving her a hug as well. It was something I had always dreamed about when I was younger and it still felt as good as I remembered them. Maddie, though she did get irritated by my flirting attempts, was always someone that gave me the benefit of the doubt and helped me out as much as I could. She helped me with my homework when she was babysitting us and always put up with me no matter what. I would be able to give anything to have had her reciprocate my feelings for her. I was always sure that I was going to marry her, and now, thinking back on it, I think I just liked the attention that she gave me. Don't get me wrong, I thought she was hot too, but being older and seeing how happy she was with Julius, I wasn't mad about it. Just like I wasn't mad when Max and Tapeworm told me what happened between the two of them.

I didn't want to dwell on it. What was the point? It happened and I needed to get over it. But it wasn't like I hadn't thought 'what if' a lot, wondering what would have happened if things didn't turn out the way it did.

Still, I seemed to have reverted back to my eleven year old self because I held on a lot longer than I should have. Maddie's arms had dropped to her sides and were waiting for me to let her go. "Zack, I need to breathe at some point," she said with a light giggle. I had always wanted to hear that giggle too. It made her light up and still did.

"Sorry." I quickly let her go and took a step back. "But you know what you do to me, Sweet Thang." I flashed her a charming smile, causing her to laugh.

"Just like the Zack I always remember," Maddie said. She reached out her hand and ruffled my hair, much like she usually did when she was around me. It seemed to have become our 'thing' or something of the sort. Like Cody's and my handshake was a thing. "I'll be glad to work with you whenever I have the chance around my classes. It'll be fun."

Mr. Moseby then explained the hours that I'd be working, moving it around my basketball schedule, and told me how much I was going to be paid. Minimum wage, I thought I'd be getting more than that, having him give me such good feedback when he told me that I had the job. But I guess I have to start somewhere. I've worked a couple of times with my schedule and it's been great so far. The longer it takes for anyone to find out about the soccer ball incident, the better off I'd be.

So back to what was going on with Dad. He continued to twist my face this way and that, studying every inch of my face. I was forced to look up into his eyes. I could see the concern that was there and it only surprised me a little. Dad was always the fun parent, the one that was hardly concerned about anything other than how his band was going. That was before he had gotten into his apartment in the city and started to become a bit stricter. He really hit the roof the time Cody and I had brought dates to his apartment without him being there. I could sense the same air of tension coming from him as he held my face.

"You look great kid, but you shouldn't overdo it," he said, finally dropping his hand from my face. I reached up and started to massage my cheeks. "Just remember that it's a high school sports team, not the NBA."

"Well, you just said it yourself, I look great," I said, placing a hand on my chest. "And I feel even greater." Apart from the sleepless nights, the restlessness, the fact that I got more irritated than usual, the bags under my eyes, constant yawning…I even started to become a dizzier than I was used to…and the cold was starting to affect me more than usual.

I couldn't help the smirk that slid onto my face when I noticed Cody roll his eyes. He had always been a bit jealous of that sort of attention from Mom and Dad. Whenever it came to athletics or anything that didn't have to do with school, I usually went to Dad to talk about it. When it came to academics and jobs, we went to Mom to talk about it. And because we lived with Mom every day of the year apart from weekends and some holidays, Cody typically got more attention than I did.

Did I care?

Not for the most part. But that's why I was glad to have Dad around more than usual. They were still on somewhat good terms since Mom asked Dad to work with her for Christmas. I'm still surprised about how well that went over. Mom and Dad had practiced hard together and ad even shared a lot of laughs and good memories. Dad had dinner with us every night as they practiced and performed during the holiday season, and things seemed to get back to normal at that point. As normal as it could be, Mom and Dad trades insulting jokes with each other the whole time but they continued to laugh as they did it.

It was weird, Cody and I did the same thing, made fun of each other, but we had somewhat more bite to our tones. Mom and Dad could say some really insulting things to each other but they could laugh it off. Maybe they were very aware that they were just different and that was why their marriage didn't work out. Maybe it worked for them. I still didn't understand it

Speaking of concern, now I have Crystal on my case about everything. I was practicing basketball with her one day, while waiting for Cody and Riley and Rhuben to come back from the mall (Cody had the car and he said something about wanting to get some new basketball shoes and Riley said she would go with him to be sure that he got some that were good for him. I think what she was really doing was being sure that Cody actually made up his mind about something. He can be so indecisive sometimes). We had been passing the ball back and forth for a while, even playing a game of twenty-one.

She was definitely better than I had anticipated her to be, she was keeping close tabs on my score as we continued to near the twenty-first point to end the game. I knocked the ball out of bounds and Crystal jogged over to retrieve it, calling over her shoulder as she did so. "That's a technical foul, I get a free throw!"

"Over my dead body!" I replied, wiping sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. "Sure, you need the points more than I do, but by cheating?" I shook my head as I started to walk over to her. "That never seemed to be your style, Crys."

"It's not cheating, it's knowing how to play the game," Crystal replied.

I started to walk over to her as she picked up the ball, and then stopped. I frowned as my vision started to swim. The gym slanted sideways and I could feel a wave of cold wash over me. I felt so strange. I had never had dizziness hit me so bad before. This time I felt like I was starting to lose my breath. My chest was tight and my head started to pound.

"Zack? Are you ok?"

I nodded, keeping my hand to my forehead. I let out a low groan. Having nodded like that made everything worse. I felt nausea roll through my stomach and quickly moved a hand over my mouth. Nothing. Thank God. The nausea passed in a second and I placed both of my hands on my forehead, trying to cool myself down.

"Here, come sit."

I followed Crystal's voice and walked over to the bleachers, sitting down on the bottom step where our bags were. I sat down and blindly grabbed a towel from the side pocket. My fingers scraped against the spine of my journal, scratching some of the skin. Ignoring the sting, I placed the towel over my head and draped it down so when I put my head down I was only focusing on my feet. I told myself to relax, to try and focus as I regulated my breathing.

"Zack?" Crystal pressed again. I kept my mouth shut, just nodding to acknowledge that I hear her. "Is everything going alright with you? You seem to be really out of it lately. If there's something wrong…"

That was the last thing I needed. I have Rhuben worried, I might have Dad on me, Cody is probably smart enough to notice something as well, I'm sure Syd didn't come to the daycare just to watch me, and it wouldn't be long before someone else asked about me too. I just needed to get smarter with everything that was going on around me.

"I'm fine," I finally managed to say, thinking of a good excuse. "I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately. I've had so much to do, what with working at the Tipton Day Care, getting school work done, practicing for the team, having games. It's a wonder that I still have time to keep up with my video games."

"If you're sure," Crystal said. She didn't sound convinced, I know she didn't, but something I really like about her is the fact that she doesn't push anyone to talk when they don't want to. Last thing I needed was someone's opinion on what I was doing.

Ok, what else happened in the past ten days….

Oh yeah!

I started my guitar lessons with Riley. They've been going well. As well as swimming has been. Riley still hasn't been able to get me into the water to swim with her yet and she's been pressuring me to do it, even getting a little annoyed, as she hasn't has anyone to base her time off of, but she's been doing very well. I don't even know why I don't want to get into the water, really. I mean, who wouldn't want to be able to share a swimming pool with a girl?

I would jump at it whenever I got the chance. Usually. Being in a gym like that, being able to see everyone around me working out…it freaked me out a little. Seeing guys that had muscles the size of my whole body was so daunting and freaky. Especially in the locker room. At school I was one of the fittest guys, at the gym I was scrawny, as if all of my work wasn't visible. So I continued to sit by the end of the pool, wrapped up in my sweatshirt, my arms around my knees as I held the stopwatch in my hand, calling out times whenever she would get to the end of the lane and head back in the other direction.

Maybe I should get into swimming though. It's one of the exercises that anyone tries to do when they want to lose weight. I've read about it online. Swimming helps you lose fat all around and I already come out to the pool with her just about every morning, so why not kill two birds with one stone? But then she could probably figure something out. I don't know how, but she'd always been really good at knowing what I'm really feeling when it came to things. She was the one that had accused me of missing Cody when he went to math camp so much that I couldn't help but admit it. It annoyed me, but it helped.

Maybe that's why I was so attracted to her at the beginning. Apart from the obvious, anyway. Maybe it was because she understood so much about me. She lived at the Tipton, she was a twin, she had problems with her parents—depending on which way you looked at the problem—and she usually kept her emotional feelings inside. Other than that, she was very blunt and usually said the first thing that came to mind, like me. But at the same time, she wasn't nearly as selfish as I could—admittedly—be she didn't fight with or tease Rhuben like I did with Cody, she was always worried about other people and willing to help whenever they needed it.

And here I was, trying to lose weight so I could…

So I could what?

I know why I started but I don't think it was the same reason that I was still doing it. Why was I still doing it? I had lost twenty pounds and was continuing on, though I think I may have hit a plateau, I was in a running spot as a coach of the team, I got a job, and I was starting to look at colleges. What could go wrong now?

Maybe that tiny voice that kept me pushing. My competitive edge. I think that was it. I can't know for sure. Or maybe it was because it was the only thing I could really control. I had lied to my friends when I told them about my grades before the girls' basketball games. They were worse than I thought. So much so that if I didn't pull them up soon, I couldn't go to prom. That's not the only thing. I probably wouldn't be able to graduate in the spring. Over the years I've had teachers graduate me because they didn't want to have to deal with me as a student anymore. I bet that's why Mom felt so strongly about my grades. I didn't care up until I didn't think I would graduate.

It was something I always joked about.

But now that I was faced with it…

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about my guitar lessons. I had been in my study hall with Tutweiller when Riley had strolled inside and over to Tutweiller's desk. I watched from my doodle of an alien shooting up the school as she said something to Miss. Tutweiller, pointed to the book that she was reading, and smiled sweetly. Miss. Tutweiller looked irritated having been interrupted from her current romance novel, before she looked concerned and then nodded. Riley turned and walked back over to me, sitting down in an empty seat by my side.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what are you doing here?" I whispered to her, going back to my doodle. "You don't have study hall this period."

"Thankfully," Riley replied. She looked around the room before turning sideways in her seat, her knees brushing my thigh. "Having Tutweiller as a study hall teacher will probably make it that I don't get any work done. And Uncle Christian thinks very strongly about our grades." She brushed some of her hair out of her face, starting to shift her legs back and forth, continuously bumping them over my leg. "We have to keep a certain GPA or else our extracurricular will be taken away." Her eyes moved over my face. "Something I think could have helped you."

"Yeah, well, school isn't my thing anyway," I replied, twirling my pen around my fingers. I shrugged, bobbing my head back and forth. "School work anyway. If I could do whatever it is I wanted, to be a coach of a sports team or to become a physical therapist or something without having to do all of the work to get there. If I could learn to do it on my own…" I shook my head and went back to my drawing.

"Anyway, do you have practice after school today?" Riley changed the subject so quickly I almost didn't notice it. Until now when I'm writing this down. I didn't know then that were was a reason for it. It's always so interesting how hindsight is 20/20. "I was thinking today would be a good day to start those guitar lesson for you."

I nodded. "Sounds good."

"Ace." It was always so funny to me how she and her siblings would choose to stick with their accents when they were back home, but speak in an American one when they were in Boston. I never understood why they did that. Maybe it was easier for them? With the culture shock maybe?

Whatever.

"We can go to the Boston harbor and work there then…it seems to be a place where you like to go think. It might serve for some good inspiration for you."

See what I mean? I didn't think anyone knew that. Cody knows that I like to go there sometimes just to think, so does my Mom, but I don't think they ever stopped to wonder why. Actually, I don't know why either. It's just a good place for me. Maybe because it's so quiet and there's no one else there to bother me? Maybe it's because I'm able to get a glimpse into other people's lives, to see the life of those that work there and to see those that can the tours around the harbor? Tourists were always entertaining to me. Seeing how they ooh and ahh, running around the city.

I didn't think I'd be the same way until we ended up at Hollywood that one time. Now I see how irritating it can be. But I love Boston as much as I loved Seattle so having more people come see how the cool the city is, is fine with me.

The lesson was really cool, actually. I had gotten to the Harbor a little bit before her and was just sitting with the guitar on my lap, gently plucking at the strings. I could see how Dad liked it so much, it was a cool guitar; the design was awesome and it was well maintained. I don't know why he wanted to let it go.

"If you want to be alone, I could come back later," Riley teased as she walked up, a guitar case swinging off her back. She sat down on the step next to me and swung the case to her front, carefully opening it to take out her own acoustic guitar. "I mean, I've seen people in love with their guitars before the look that you were giving t…" She trailed off, giving me a teasing smile.

"Ha." I rolled my eyes before shifting to the side, resting my arms over the top of the instrument. "You're just jealous."

"Of a guitar?" She raised an eyebrow, turning the dial that sat on top of the guitar.

"That I'm going to play it ten times better than you ever will," I continued.

Riley's other eyebrow rose and she dropped her hands to look at me, slowly smiling. She leaned over the top of her guitar. "I've been playing since I was three; I think out of the two of us, that I'm gonna be a better player than you are." She held up a finger. "You may learn fast, but that doesn't mean you'll be good. There's a difference."

"I'm going to play notes around you," I continued.

"You wish."

"You wish."

Riley laughed and checked over the other strings of her guitar and sat up straight. "Ok first thing that you need to know about the guitar is that people learn how to play in different ways. Whether it be from chords, notes, or tabs." She turned and took a notebook out from her guitar case and flipped it open, resting it between us. She pointed to a song that had been written in the notebook. I had taken enough music lessons in elementary school to recognize the notes. Underneath it was a different picture with six lines that held at least four numbers written on it in a strange pattern. "Those are chords, and those are tabs." She pointed at another picture underneath that held the same six strings but these numbers ranged from one to twelve with some of them repeating more than others. "These are tabs."

"What's the difference?" I asked.

"Chords show you the shape of your fingers, tabs is where it shows your finger placement on different frets and how many times you strum those notes individually," she explained. "Tabs are a lot easier to learn so we're going to start there."

And we did start there and it was a lot of learn. Riley explained the different strings, the different notes on each string, the frets that each note went along with, and the different fingers that you used on the specific frets to play a song. There was a lot more to it that went to it than I thought it would be.

What really stuck me though was that while she was teaching me the different parts of the guitar and was moving my hand to different places on the fret board, her hands weren't cold. You may think that's a weird thing to think about while a girl is holding my hand, trust me that wasn't the onlything I was thinking about, it just struck me as odd. She and her siblings absolutely hated the cold and did everything they could to stay warm. But this time she wasn't as bundled up as she usually was, the tip of her nose was red, and she wasn't complaining about the cold at all.

That was even weirder.

The Jacksons complained about the cold as much as they could and sang their praises when it finally stated to get warm again. And they were always outside when it was warm.

"Aren't you cold?" I pressed, copying the short tune she wanted me to play, using only the first, second, and third frets on the high E string of the guitar.

She shrugged. "Didn't even notice," she mumbled. Now that I had mentioned it, she brought her hands into her armpits, hunching over. "That's something else you need to know, to keep your guitar at a good temperature or else it will easily fall out of tune."

"Thanks," I said with a nod, continuing with the tune. It was hard to keep time, my fingers cramped up pretty quickly. "How long did you say you've been playing?"

"Since I was three," Riley said. "Julius got me into it." She gave a wry smile. "Actually, I followed Julius into it. I bugged him so much to teach me that he finally did and I never really stopped after that."

I slowed down until I came to a stop then just rested the guitar against my chest and stomach. Riley looked away, glancing over the fret board of her own guitar, frowning as she looked over it. What she was looking for, I don't know, but I think she was just trying to stall or change the subject. I'd have to go a different direction then.

"Must have been something you liked a lot."

"There are a lot of things that you like, it doesn't necessary mean that it's good for you," She said mysteriously. I looked at her and she looked away. "Forget it."

"No." I frowned, crossing my arms and resting my chin on top of them. I tried to catch her eye but she continued to keep her gaze away. "What does that mean? And I'm actually being serious; I don't know what it means."

"What it means, Zack," she said with an edge to her tone. Yeah, she was in a bad mood. I don't think it had to do with me, but she was really distracted. Enough to forget how much he had liked to play the guitar before. She could deny it all she wanted, but I had seen how excited she was about them. And when she had told me and Cody that she didn't perform but that didn't mean she didn't like to still work on music, it didn't really make sense.

"What's wrong?" I pressed.

"Nothing."

"But since you brought it up, don't want you want to—"

"No!" She snapped then looked taken aback. She reached a hand up to scratch her forehead, letting out a heavy sigh. Dropping her hand, her face softened and she tapped her thigh for a moment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you." She looked at her watch. "I gotta go. I'll see you later, yeah?"

I didn't answer as I watched her gather her things and walk away.

I had ruined it. Things were going well between the two of us before that point. I mean, really well. We were joking around and laughing so much I could tell hat she was enjoying my company. She actually said that she did too, I'm writing it down with the date so I can use it later in case she decided to deny it. And then I had to go and ruin it by pushing her to talk about something she didn't want to talk about. That's always me, though. If I don't say something to mess things up, I do something and either get a punch or a slap. Beggars can't be choosers.

And that's essentially everything that's happened in the past ten days or so. I'll write again when there's something else to talk about. But right now, my stomach is growling, I can't stand the sound, and I need to work out for another hour or so since I was cut short this morning. Hopefully the nausea and dizziness won't be a problem anymore.

-Zack

"Hey Zack, what are you doing?" Cody walked into his and Zack's bedroom, closing the door behind him. He dropped his backpack onto the bed and watched as Zack rolled off of his side and onto his back. He blinked at me, looking delirious before slowly standing up. Cody watched as Zack stumbled a second and his heart started to thud. He couldn't explain why. It had to be that twin thing that they got sometimes, where they could tell what the other person was thinking or feeling. Cody could never tell what Zack was thinking, but he could always tell what he was feeling, from happiness to anxiety to depression. But this was a different feeling, he felt a little scared, to be honest. But scared of what?

Cody wasn't sure. "Zack? Are you ok?" He moved over and grabbed onto his twin brother's arm, pulling him to his feet.

Zack blinked at him a few minutes then gave a slow smile. "I'm fine Codes, what are you doing here?"

"It's almost midnight, Zack, I'm going to go to bed," Cody said. Zack nodded and sluggishly slid his arm out of Cody's grasp. He moved to sit down on the edge of his bed, but slipped off and hit the floor. Cody moved to help him back up, but Zack quickly got back to his feet and sat down on the bed. "Which I think you should do, too."

"I still have some homework to do," Zack said, turning his head away from Cody to scratch the back of his head.

Cody's eyebrows rose for a moment. Zack? Doing homework? He does his best to make sure he doesn't have to do homework, even going as far as to pay someone to do it for him with money he doesn't like to spend and now he willingly wants to do it? Cody watched as Zack yawned and rubbed his eyes before pressing his fingers to his temples as if he had a headache. "You do homework?"

"I figured I may as well start at some point," Zack said with a half smile. "Shake things up a little." He groaned, leaning forward. Cody walked over and placed a hand on his brother's back in a comforting gesture. Zack shrugged Cody's hand off of him.

Cody took a step back and watched his brother, Rhuben's words now echoing through his head. He could see where her concern was coming from. Zack looked like he could barely keep his eyes open and he was usually bouncing off the walls around midnight. He was even paler than he remembered his freckles and blue eyes standing out more often than they usually did. He had bags under his eyes and his eyes couldn't seem to focus on him.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I just had a bit of a head rush," Zack explained. He scooted back on his bed and leaned forward to stretch his legs. "I was doing some sit-ups and I guess I moved too fast."

"Mhm." Cody nodded. Looked like you were asleep to me. He turned on his heel and pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called the Manning house. He hoed Christian wouldn't answer, knowing he wouldn't be able to speak to any of his friends and had to wait if he did. This needed to be dealt with now.

Aaron was the one that answered the phone. He sounded wide awake and in the background Cody could hear yelling, as if someone was playing a video game.

"Hey, Aaron, it's me," Cody said into the phone, keeping his voice low. "Yeah, I know, I'm calling late, but I need to ask you something. Are you guys free this weekend?" He paused when he got a response. "Prom isn't until April, why are the girls getting dresses now? I guess that makes sense. I just need to make a meeting of some sort."

He turned and looked over at Zack, who was now lying on his bed, an arm over his face, snoring quietly. Cody walked over to his brother and lifted his feet, carefully pulling off his shoes. He tossed them aside and pulled the covers out from underneath him before bringing it up over his shoulders, tucking him in. He backed away from Zack's bed and to the corner of her room, lowering his voice even further.

"About Zack," Cody said into the phone. "I want to talk about Zack. I'm starting to think there's really something wrong with him."