.:Chapter 23:.
Revelations
Zack walked into the science room and made a beeline for Crystal's desk. She had her books spread around her and was looking back and forth from a textbook to her notebook periodically staring at the textbook as she scribbled in her notebook. Zack watched for a few moments, wondering how she was able to focus so much before jumping onto the stool next to her, dropping his bag to the ground at the same time.
Crystal jumped at his sudden appearance beside her. "Geez, don't do that." She glanced at him for a moment before turning back to her studies. "I thought you were Moose," she added. She lifted her head and read off the board. "Have you noticed that he seems to stick to Bailey's side like glue? For someone who's supposed to be an ex, he doesn't seem to act like it."
"So what does that have to do with you?" Zack asked with a light laugh, twisting back and forth on the stool.
"The fact that Bailey doesn't want to be alone with him and she has now tried every way she can think of to keep people around her," Crystal said. She started to smile a little, counting off on her fingers. "She's already tried to stick him with Max and Tapeworm and now that that's not working, she tries to stick me in conversation as much as she can. And when that happens, Moose pays me a little too much attention and…" she waved her hands. "Personally, I think this is all just a stupid game of the jealousies but what do I know."
"Um…" Zack gave her a funny look as he leaned towards her. "You'd know enough from the fact that you were jealous when—"
"Old news, Zack, that's old news!" Crystal interrupted him. She finally dropped her pen and turned to face him completely. "So to what do I owe this early morning pleasure? You're usually the last one through the door, not one of the first."
"You're going to be proud of me," Zack said with an impish smile, sitting up straight.
"You finally learned how to tie your shoes?"
Zack rolled his eyes. "Who needs to tie them when they're designed to just stick into your shoes by your feet?" He waved a hand. "Anyway, no, that's not what I was going to say. I was going to say that I finally talked to my Mom and Dad." He bobbed his head back and forth. "Ok, I kind of yelled it at them, but I finally told them everything I was feeling about the divorce and everything." He clasped his hands together between his knees, his legs bouncing up and down as his feet rested against the metal rungs at the bottom. "They seemed to listen to what I had to say."
Crystal eyed him wearily, her blue eyes running over his face. She let out a quick breath, before crossing her arms over her chest. "Not that I'm not happy for you, Zack, but I don't think that's what you really need to worry about right now."
Zack gave her a critical gaze. "You're not going to harp on me about my grades too, are you?"
Crystal shook her head. "No, I'm more concerned about the fact that you look like a zombie, but you're talking about a hundred miles a minute and are almost bouncing off the walls." She held up a hand. "Not that I'm not used to it, but still, coming from you, you're nearly getting to Aaron and Sydney status when they're on a bunch of sugar and that's not good."
"Take a number," Zack smiled weakly. "I seem to have everyone worried about me lately."
"Doesn't that tell you something?"
"Yeah, that more people need to mind their own business." Zack grabbed his backpack off the floor and moved to the table behind her, his usual seat. He pulled out his notebook and started to flip through the pages of his notebook. He hadn't realized how many times he had ended up writing in it whether it was his workout routines, notes to remind himself of what to do if he missed a day of workouts, what food he ate for that day, motivators to keep him from eating and to keep up in his workouts in general. He passed over his notebooks.
He flipped to a clean page and started to doodle on the sides. His hand shook. Was it really so bad that he decided to have two Monsters for breakfast that day? Yeah, his heart was starting to race and, yeah, he was a little shaky, but that was bound to happen if you missed breakfast to work out and you were exhausted. How was he going to keep his grades up and work in the Tipton and go through practice if he didn't have any energy? Apparently people didn't understand him very much if they thought he couldn't handle everything that was thrown his way.
He looked up, blowing his hair out of his face as the rest of his friends trooped into the room, taking up their seats around the table as well. Their classmates filled the room, though the teacher was still absent. Zack rested his chin in his hand, watching as Max and Tapeworm sat at their end of the table and opened a book, both leaning over it. His eyes then moved over to Bailey, who had taken her seat next to Rhuben and the two were looking at pictures that she moved through her hands. Moose was at her side, an arm around her shoulders, but Bailey didn't seem to notice. Riley opened her own textbook and let out a sound of frustration, leaning forward, resting her chin in her hands as she poured over the book, her eyes moving rapidly over the pages.
"Don't hurt yourself," he teased. His eyes moved over her still damp hair. He drummed her fingertips on the table, knowing he was opening himself up for scrutiny. Once again he refused to get into the pool for her practice and she had pushed harder this time, practically cornering him at the edge of the pool, demanding to know why. He had managed to fake sick, producing a really bad sounding cough along with amping up his fatigue before she had finally backed off. "I think all of that chlorine may have pickled your brain."
"Not that you'd know," She said. Zack winced. Of course she didn't forget she didn't seem to forget anything he did to or around her. Especially not the amount of times she had punched or slapped him, finding some sick sense of entertainment in it. He could tell because she hit progressively grew harder over the years, eventually leaving prints. He looked down at his notebook, briefly wondering if that was really her fault or if she couldn't help it. "The only thing that can hurt me at this point is if I don't bring up my grade in this class," Riley murmured. She sat up and pressed a hand to her chest. "I think a 'C' is fine, but Uncle Christian doesn't have the same mindset." She shook he head. "Having scientists run in the family really sucks sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if Dad thought we were all going to be born with little protective goggles on our faces," she said then tilted her chin up, grabbing her twin's attention. "How do you get all of the science brains?"
"Because I'm smarter than you," Rhuben replied, causing Riley to stick out her tongue. "Which I have proven many times before." She tossed a pen at her sister and Riley caught it in the air, throwing it back. It smacked her on the side of the head.
"Yeah, and I can think of at least one time when you were wrong," Riley shot back, lowering her chin and fixing her twin sister with a pointed stare. Rhuben rolled her eyes then leaned over to her backpack and pulled out a packed of Reese's. She opened the package and shoved one into her mouth before turning back to Bailey. "And anyway, I was born first so that means I'm smarter than you by five minutes! So, ha!" She pointed a finger at her twin, causing her to laugh, then went back to her book.
Zack smiled as he watched the exchange. It was always funny to see how other twins interacted with each other. He and Cody were so used to it that it wasn't a big deal to him, it was just normal and the way other people asked a bunch of questions, he didn't understand it. However watching Riley and Rhuben tease each other or Patrick and Noah become competitive over video games, he could understand where the entertaining and fascinating aspect of it as well. Two differing yet similar personalities mixed along with similar mannerisms and vocal patterns were enough to make anyone around them laugh if they were in a bad mood.
Zack let a sigh out through his nose, closing the front of his notebook and pushing it away from him. He focused on his body, trying to suppress the tremors. He could feel everything starting to push down on him once more, the exhaustion falling back in. He shivered horribly, leaning forward and hugging himself tighter in his sweatshirt. Why was he always so cold? He was never cold in Boston, he had been there long enough to get used to it. He laughed at the tourists that complained and those that slipped and slid all over the place, even having made his own patches of ice, along with Cody, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, right out of the Tipton hotel, to sit on a balcony and watch their master plan play out in front of them.
Shaking his head like a wet dog, Zack fought off the wave of fatigue that washed over his body. He looked back at his friends. He must have zoned out for a moment, they were having a different conversation now. How much had he missed zoning out like that? He hoped it wasn't starting to become a regular thing. Even when he had been working out at the gym he felt like he had missed more moments than he would have liked. One minute he was running on the treadmill, next thing he knew he was walking into the shower at the locker room, starting by the water suddenly hitting him in the face. Hopefully he'd get over it soon or else the next thing he knew he'd be knocked out with a concussion from a wayward basketball.
"This is a good picture, Bailey," Rhuben said, breaking Zack out of his thoughts, as she picked one up and looked it over. She turned it around to reveal a picture of her and Moose. "You two look like you'd make such a great couple," she added teasingly. She smirked as Bailey shot her an annoyed glance.
"Why thank you kindly," Moose said with an air of pride, his chest even swelled. "Everyone back in Kettlecorn said the same thing." He nodded his head, throwing a wink her way as well. "We even got named the Harvest King and Queen two years running."
"That was just a silly festival that the town held every year," Bailey dismissed.
"It sounds fun though," Max said, turning around in her seat. She pushed her braided ponytail over her ear and leaned forward to look at the picture as well. She smiled warmly at the two of them. "Maybe we should try and have that as our theme for prom."
Tapeworm snorted loudly. "Don't even think about it," he said. He ran a hand over his short hair. "You can't even pay me to get into a pair of overalls. I finally got over the puffy hair that I had so now I'm focusing on the fact that I am, in fact, a string bean."
"You're forgetting that you're a math nerd, too," Zack pointed out.
Tapeworm gave him the finger, causing the two to laugh and Cody to say, "As long as I don't have that nickname anymore, you can have it, Tape."
"Don't jump for joy," Crystal warned him. "God knows he's going to find another one for you."
"You know me too well," Zack remarked.
Riley made a face. "What's there to know? You like girls, you like sports, and you like girls," She counted them all off on her fingers, finishing by reaching out and poked him in the center of his chest. "Not much to go off there, mate."
Zack smirked pushing her hand away. "If that's your way of saying you want to be my Valentine, then you may as well come out and ask me."
Riley's upper lip curled. She lowered her voice. "Last thing I want is to go out with you, Zack, so you may as well give up at some point."
Zack ran his hands over his face before giving her a peaceful smile. He was used to it. Maybe too used to it. Maddie had done that to him, Max had done that to him before she agreed to finally go out with him, and Riley had done it as well. Everyone around him made fun of how much he liked to go out with girls to and flirt and like he had said to Max before, it was just the way he operated, the way he made girls feel better. That's what he told himself anyway.
What if I do it to make myself fell better? Zack was struck with the sudden though, his eyes widening.
"This is a good picture of you, Zack," Max said. He looked up at his ex-girlfriend and found her smiling at a picture. That was strange to him, they had broken up on bad terms, he and Tapeworm were still friends, but he and Max rarely talked to each other. Now here she was, smiling, acting as if nothing had happened. "Really, Bailey got a good shot." Zack reached out to take the picture and as he did so, his fingers brushed hers. She gave him another hesitant smile before dropping her eyes away from his, taking in another picture.
Zack looked over the photo, one from one of the first games they had, before he had really gotten into his diet. He rested his mouth in his hand, studying the picture, looking at the bulge around his stomach, the pudge in his face. Zack closed his eyes and pushed the picture away from him. Cody took it and looked it over; he glanced at his brother, then at the picture once more.
"Wow," he murmured.
Crystal leaned over and looked at the picture. "That diet must really be working."
"Diet?" Moose repeated. He raised an eyebrow. The small movement of his facial feature made Zack's blood pressure rise. He could see the disapproval and judgment in his eyes. "Isn't that sort of a girl thing?" He asked. He looked at Bailey who brought a hand up and started to rub her temples. "The guys where we're from, if they want to lose weight, they do it through a lot of hard work."
Zack opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by Bailey. She reached up and grabbed onto Moose's hand, though she didn't pull his off his shoulder. "This is the city, Moose; some people do different things around here. It's their choice, not yours." Moose immediately gave her a reassuring smile and Zack suddenly understood.
Moose wasn't used to being in the city and seeing that his ex-girlfriend had changed from the 'country girl' that she used to be. She wasn't the same girl that she had been when he first met her, that was for sure, she dressed trendier and was even starting to slowly lose her accent. Moose had been excited to go up and see her and now that he was in Boston for a while-Zack had no idea how much longer he was going to be there—Zack could see why they may have broken up. He seemed to try and turn Bailey back to the way she was before…if not try to get her attention any way he could. Which would explain why he was currently trying to get Crystal to teach him what they were currently studying.
"I've been working hard to make sure my game is better than ever," Zack finally said. "For basketball, I mean."
"Well that's easy," Moose said, a mega watt smile sliding on his face. "A couple of hours of loading hay bales and you'd be as tough as the next guy in Kettlecorn."
"Would I have all my teeth?" Zack couldn't stop the question before it flew out of his mouth.
If it offended him, Moose didn't show it. He laughed heartily and reached over, slapping Zack on the shoulder. "I like you, Zack; you have a good sense of humor." Zack found himself laughing along. He couldn't help it; there was something about Moose that was friendly. He may not have been showing it well, but he didn't seem like the guy that would purposefully make someone feel bad, just that he was trying to fit in.
Trying a little too hard, maybe, but trying.
Zack sat up straight as their teacher, Mr. Anderson, walked into the room. He dropped his books onto the desk and picked up the remote for the projector that was connected to the ceiling. A green light shone and the projector turned on, an image appearing on the white board behind him. "Alright guys, today we're going to watch a bit of National Geographic to go along with what we've been studying." He turned off the lights and pulled down the projection screen before sitting in his chair, rolling to the far side of the room. "I want you all to take notes and pay close attention to the information that you deem the most important about Gravity in proportion to mass."
Zack picked up his pen and continued his doodle, a futuristic looking alien that was eating the ray from a plasma gun that an astronaut was firing on it. He barely paid attention to the video; the sound of the narrator's droning voice was doing nothing to keep his attention. He frowned as the voice of the narrator suddenly turned fuzzy, as if he had large noise cancelling headphones over his ears. Zack looked around, wondering if anyone else seemed to have the same sort of trouble, but they were all paying attention to what was being shown to them. All of a sudden he felt clammy all over, his hands tingling. Zack moved to stand up, his knees buckled and he crashed to the floor.
He wasn't sure how long he was out, but when the darkness finally started to lift, he could make out faces hovering above his own. He blinked a few times, focusing on Cody's face, studying the fear in his baby blues, and struggled to sit up. The lights suddenly turned on and Zack brought an arm up over his face to shield his now burning eyes. He put his arm down to push himself up, but he felt Moose's strong grip on his shoulder, holding him down.
"Y'all might not want to move," he advised him. "You hit your head on the down."
"Zack's always had a thick skull, Moose," Max joked lightly. "I think he'll be fine." Still, Zack could see how pale her face was. Her hazel eyes stood out against her skin. For the first time in a while, Zack found himself lost in her eyes as he was forced up into a sitting position.
Finally, he shook out his head, feeling embarrassment wash over him. "I'm fine," he murmured, moving to stand up. "I just got dizzy for moment."
"Did you eat breakfast?" Mr. Anderson asked. He was kneeling by Zack's side, watching his face.
"Yeah," Zack said. He tried to make the conversation lighter, despite the guilt that he felt. He was getting used to it at that point. Angry and gnawing like the constant sense of hunger he was getting used to as well. "And if you know my Mom's cooking, you'll understand why it's not as good as eating something."
"Zack—"Cody started.
"I'm fine, Codes." Zack gave him a smile. "Don't worry about me, Buddy."
Mr. Anderson shook his head. "Be that as it may, Zack, it's probably best that we get you checked out with the school nurse." He turned to Crystal. "Miss. Manning, would you mind walking him over to the nurse?" Crystal shook her head and took a step back as Mr. Anderson hauled Zack to his feet. Once he was off the floor Zack felt a little bit, his stomach was cramping and he couldn't pinpoint the reason for it. She patted his shoulder as he slowly walked out of the room.
The two walked along quietly as they headed to the nurse's office. Zack concentrated on his footsteps as he went, Crystal continued to saunter alongside him, every now and then glancing at him, checking to see if he was about to keel over again. "Hey Crys?"
"What?"
"How come you never get upset about your mother's death?"
Crystal looked at him curiously for a moment, her eyebrows flying upwards. She then chewed her bottom lip before shaking her head. "I do," she said. "All the time. It's hard not to think about her when the weather gets like this, or whenever I see a woman out shopping and she looks like my Mom or even when I'm cooking in the kitchen or taking care of Aaron or just looking at my Dad." She sucked her teeth for a moment. "Just because I don't show it a lot doesn't mean I don't. Sometimes I spend my nights crying because I can't stop thinking about her and how angry I am; that she was the one that didn't make it through the car accident." She absentmindedly reached up and ran her fingers on a spot by her temple. "I get angry that I have to go through the rest of my life without a Mom. Don't get me wrong, I love my Dad, but he can't take her place. No one can."
Zack nodded.
"And when it all comes down to it, I have to remember that my Dad is here for me as much as he can be. Sure, there are going to be times where he's gone to do some lectures or work on some project, but I know that if he ever needed to, he would jump on the next plane and come back to help me out." Crystal moved in front of Zack and started walking backwards. "I think I know what you're getting at though. How is it that I came out well adjusted when my cousins are…who they are?" Zack didn't respond, but she continued. "You have to remember that I still had my Dad around to take care of me, they didn't. Even when I felt alone, I know I really wasn't, because my Dad was doing what he thought was best to raise me." She tilted her head to the side, suddenly resembling Riley. "Did you know that when we were younger, before all of that went down, we would visit each other all the time? Birthdays, holidays, Christmas was tricky though, we'd always go see each other as often as possible. Then what happened happened and we didn't see each other for a long time until Dad and I came here.
"And as you've seen there are times where we're not on great terms, we're jealous of what each other have or had. Me, I wanted siblings, someone to be with, and they just wanted parents, someone to love them. The thing that we needed to realize and I'm glad we finally did was that we weren't alone in our situation." She looked hard at Zack. "No one ever really is."
And with that, she moved out of Zack's way and the two continued to the nurse's office.
Riley closed her notebook as Mr. Anderson ended their physics class. He shouted over the hustle and bustle of the students as they rushed to get to their next class. Riley quickly wrote down the homework and gathered her things together before jumping off her stool and heading towards the door. If she moved quickly she'd be able to get to stop at the cafeteria to get a snack before her next class started. While school wasn't her favorite thing in the world she was punctual and worked hard to get her grades, choosing to get most of her work done during the school day so she had her nights free.
"Hey, Ri." Riley turned around as Cody gathered his things and moved over to her. He gently motioned her aside and the two moved out of the way as their classmates hurried out of the room to get to their next class. "Can I ask you something?"
"That's usually not anything that I like to hear first thing in the morning," Riley said with a slight sigh. She then gave him a teasing smile. "Then again, I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything that could be used against me yet, so why not?" Cody smiled a little, shaking his head. Riley smiled sweetly at him. "Yes, I do get bored that easily."
"I can tell," Cody said, crossing his arms over his chest. He leaned towards her. "Considering it as your idea I enter that beauty pageant way back when in the first place." He reached out and lightly tweaked her on the nose.
Riley pushed his hand away. "You didn't have to do it, Codes," she reminded him. "But remember that I, inadvertently, got you and that Rebecca chick together so you owe me a wedding invitation." She dropped her hand, placing her free one on her hip. "What is it?"
"I was just wondering…" Cody looked her in the eye. "How come you haven't told Zack how you felt about him?" Riley's eye twitched for a moment, suddenly remembering the time that Zack and Cody had been at their father's house for the weekend and Sydney had, in a way, asked the same question. It really annoyed her how smart he could be sometimes. Especially when it came to her complicated friendship with Zack. Her eye stopped twitching and she set her jaw, crossing her arms over her chest. Cody instantly recognized it as her stubborn look, knowing it was going to be hard to get her to talk. "I mean, yeah, I promised that I'd keep it a secret when you told me, but—"
"Is there any particular reason why you're bringing that up now?" Riley's voice held a bit of a cool edge, slightly threatening. "Cause I'm not sure if you remember, but you agreed to the fact that if you brought it up again, I'd make it possible to sneeze out of your bellybutton for mentioning it, yeah?"
"Relax," Cody said. He looked away for a moment. "I was just wondering, what with Valentine's Day coming up and everything-" Riley gave a loud, obnoxious laugh. "Ok, I know you're a cynic about Valentine's Day, but I'm being serious."
"I'm not a cynic," Riley defended herself. "I just believe that Valentine's Day should be more about your family and friends not just that one person that you may or may not particularly like, there's a difference." She reached up her hands and grabbed onto the straps of her backpacks starting to swing herself back and forth. "You never answered my question, why did you want to bring it up now?" Her eyebrows rose and she nodded slowly for a moment. "This has to do with that meeting that you were trying to work out isn't it?"
Cody nodded.
Riley then nodded and sucked her lips into her mouth for a moment. "I really don't mean to offend you when I ask you this, Codes, but are you sure that there's nothing wrong? Or is it that you're scared about there being something wrong with your brother and he's not letting you in?" She reached out a hand and placed it on Cody's shoulder, gently shaking him. "Trust me, I get how that feels." She shrugged then turned her eyes downcast. "I mean Rhu and I, we did it for completely different reasons, but still, I know how you feel."
"Does it bother you?" Cody asked his voice barely above a whisper.
"Sometimes," Riley admitted. "But that's only because I'm such a worrywart in the first place."
"You hide it well," Cody noted.
Riley smirked. "I kind of have to," she said. She closed her eyes briefly, wondering what she was going to say. No, not what she was going to say, she knew what it was, it was just getting it out that was the problem, especially considering she wasn't sure how either of the twins was going to react. Zack would get angry and Cody would probably become depressed. In her experience, it was better to wait of the evidence to present itself rather than confront the person unless it was absolutely needed.
Zack…
She shook her head. No matter how many times she tried to get away from him he always managed to break into her everyday life. No matter how much she didn't want it and how many times she tried to talk herself into believing that. "I'll keep an eye out if that's what you want to hear." She gave him a long look, as if looking right through him, which Cody noticed she did a lot, before leaving the room.
He followed behind her, turning off down another hallway to go to his AP History class. He suddenly stopped short, noticing that she had managed to change the subject without answering his question. Cody chuckled, shaking his head as he continued. Very sneaky, Riles. He didn't hear Rhuben call his name until her hand landed on his arm.
"So are you ignoring me now or are you just trying to block out what happened in the classroom?" She asked, tucking her hair behind her ears. Cody rolled his eyes, suddenly annoyed. "Don't write me off, Codes, we need to talk about this."
"Talk about what?" Cody dismissed the conversation. He didn't want to have it at that moment, there was too much to think about. "Your overactive imagination? I told you before, nothing's wrong with Zack."
"So him toppling backwards over his stool and onto the floor makes you think nothing's wrong?" Rhuben practically spat the words at him. "Especially considering he nearly face planted at Max's and Crys' basketball game that one time before. He hasn't been playing as well as he used to at your guys' games, like he's out of it or something."
"And he's managed to increase his career points by…who can count?" Cody countered. He spun around to face her. She came up to his chin, stopping short so she didn't crash into him. Blinking rapidly, she backed up a few steps so she could look up at him. He could see the hurt in her eyes and swallowed thickly. He didn't want to hurt her, it wasn't his intention. But this…everything that was going on…he didn't need to hear it from someone else, as if they knew his own brother better than him. "Are you trying to get attention or something?" Now Rhuben's eyes flashed. "Or are you just trying to push me away again, just so you know, its working well."
"That's not what I'm trying to do and you know it, Cody," Rhuben said. She reached out and grabbed onto his wrist. "You know that I wouldn't want to hurt you."
"You did before," he reminded her.
"So did you."
"That's different," Cody defended himself. "You wouldn't talk to me, no matter how hard I tried." He shook his head. This wasn't the time for that conversation. They needed to have it, but now wasn't the time, not when there were too many feelings that could get in the way and things that weren't meant to be said could come out. "So you're either trying to get attention or you're finding things to freak out about because god forbid that, for once, something in your life goes right."
"No! Cody! God!" Rhuben threw her hands into the air. "I think he's anorexic!"
Cody frowned. "That's not funny, Rhu."
"Who's joking?" Rhuben replied. "I'm being completely serious, mate. I'm pretty sure he's anorexic." She waved a hand around, counting on her fingers. "He's showing all the classic signs; not eating as much, irritable, working out a lot, excusing himself to go to the bathroom-"
"Just shut up, Rhu!" Cody snapped. "Don't act like you know what you're talking about when you don't. Nothing's wrong with Zack!" He started to walk away from Rhuben, throwing his backpack up over his shoulder.
Rhuben's eyes flashed as she stalked after him. "Excuse me, Cody, but I know a lot more about this than you do!"
Cody whirled around, his face thunderous. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"How do you know?"
Rhuben ran a hand through her hair then looked away from him. She seemed torn for a moment and Cody turned to start walking away again. Rhuben let out a loud sound of frustration, slapping her hands to the side. Her next words made Cody stop in his tracks, turning back to her with an expression of complete disbelief, "Because I'm anorexic, too!"