Cody was more than ready to set sail on the adventure of a lifetime, he and his twin brother Zack were going to be attending Seven Seas High aboard the S.S. Tipton. He couldn't wait to study oceanography on the ocean and travel the world. Even though he was pretty sure Zack and London's idea of a high school on a cruise ship would be an endless vacation, he knew they were in for a reckoning on Monday morning.
Cody was willing to admit he'd miss his mom, Maddie, and everyone else back home at the Tipton, which was a lot more than Zack was willing to admit, even though he was the twin who had to be pried off Mom when she had to head back to shore. Cody knew it may be hard living somewhat independently with Zack, London, and Mr. Mosby being the only people he knew, but he knew he would adjust, and of course, keep his streak at being top of the class.
But now that he and his brother had their room assignments, and thankfully after fifteen years of sharing a room, both were finally getting new roommates. Cody just prayed that his now roommate had better cleanliness habits than Zack did, not that that would be difficult for most people to achieve. Following the ship's map, Cody led Zack down to the hallway with all the other student cabins.
They both scanned the room numbers for a few moments until they each found theirs.
"Well, this is my room," Zack reported.
"I guess this is it." Cody nodded along, finding his as well.
"After fifteen years of sharing a room, we're finally going our separate ways."
"I'll miss ya," Cody said, extending his hand for a handshake.
"I'll miss you too," Zack replied and shook his hand.
Then they each turned around and entered their new rooms, Cody on the right side, Zack on the left their doors right across from each other on either side of the hallway.
Cody looked around his new room. Light blue walls, grey carpet. A little bit bigger than the room he had shared with Zack the last few years, plus perfectly clean. It didn't look like his roommate had moved in yet, but both his trunk and whoever his roommate's was had already been delivered by the porters. Cody checked the bathroom, again it was small, but thankfully perfectly clean. Cody promised himself that no matter who his roommate was, he would make sure it stayed that way.
So, Cody broke open his trunk and the suitcases and other bags he had brought with him and started putting all his stuff away in one of the closets and dressers, being careful to keep everything wrinkle-free as he did so.
It wasn't until about ten minutes later that he heard the door open again, so he turned around to see a guy clad in a green hoodie and wearing a baseball cap walk in.
"Yo, I'm Bailey Pickett, what's up?" The guy asked.
"Hey, I'm Cody Martin," Cody said and raised his fist for a fist bump.
"Ah!" Bailey let out a shrill scream and jumped back from him like he was avoiding a punch.
"Um…are you ok?"
"Oh no, right fist pound," Bailey said, clearly trying to act like nothing weird had just happened as he bumped Cody's fist.
"So, looks like we're going to be roommates huh? Have any experience with that before?" Cody asked.
"Oh definitely, I have nine sisters back home in Kansas, so I've always shared a room."
"Nine sisters. I can't even imagine that. Trust me I have enough trouble with one brother. He lives right across the hall from us, but I'll take any space I can get from him. Are any of your sisters on deck with us?"
"Oh no, I'm sure a few of them would have loved to come with me, but I barely got in, when I applied all the girls' spots were already full." Bailey sighed.
"That's too bad. You said you were from Kansas? What's that like?" Cody asked.
"Oh, Kettlecorn is a town so small if you blink, you'll miss it. It's so amazing, but when I heard about this place, I couldn't write my admissions essay fast enough. I mean just imagine, getting to study oceanography on the ocean!" Bailey said excitedly.
"That's what I said! And studying ancient Greece and Rome from the Acropolis and Coliseum is going to be so much fun, and that's just the top of the list of places we're visiting." Cody said, smiling excitedly and Bailey was beaming right back at him.
"I know right? I'm so excited. And I heard that this school is state of the art, in my hometown, we have just one big classroom for high school, and we only got internet like five years ago."
"If there's one thing I know about Wilfred Tipton, it's that he never spares any expense. I'm so lucky my mom could afford it with her employee discount." Cody replied.
"Oh, I know, if I didn't get the scholarship for writing the best admissions essay, I don't know what I would have done. Sorry, I don't mean to brag."
"You had the best essay? What was yours about? I was told I got second place so I would love to read it."
"Oh, mine is about the reproduction of chickens, what was yours?"
"Barnacle reproduction."
"Woah, that sounds fascinating."
"I would say the same thing about yours, especially if you could beat me. Don't worry no hard feelings, even if that's never happened to me before, academically at least."
"So, I take it you're a straight-A student?"
"Yep, 10 years and counting. How about you?" Cody nodded his head.
"Yep, I'm afraid you have some competition for the valedictorian position in three years." Bailey grinned at him teasingly.
"Bring it on, I'm not afraid of a little competition." Cody shot back with a grin. "So, I take it you won't mind being quiet during the evenings when I'm working on homework?"
"Of course not, I would never try to disrupt someone doing homework. I guess I was a little worried that my roommate would be some gross party animal who thinks this school is a floating vacation."
"Well, it's a good thing you have me for a roommate instead of my brother, because I think you just described him to a T." Cody laughed. "But don't worry, this bag right here is all my cleaning supplies, and I'll be happy to share them with you," Cody said, patting a large backpack that looked stuffed to the brim.
"Oh of course I will. In fact, looking around here, and considering this is a cruise ship we should probably disinfect everything before we go to bed tonight."
"Of course, I just wanted to start unpacking first." Cody nodded his head. "You know Bailey, I have a feeling this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship."
"Yeah, I think so too Cody." Bailey smiled back at him. "And while I'm glad we appear to be on the same page when it comes to studying and cleaning, do you mind if I put up a rope and a sheet dividing the room into our two sides at night at least…? I'm a pretty private person."
"Oh, sure thing Bailey," Cody said, not mentioning how even to him, that sounded a little weird. "But I thought you said you always shared a room with your sisters?"
"Oh, I did but I always had a sheet at least, I mean even though that's how I've always lived, you know a boy and a girl sleeping in the same room would be a little awkward if we couldn't have some privacy, am I right?" Bailey said, forcing laughter into his voice.
"Oh yeah…I guess that makes sense." Cody nodded, "I'll admit even with Zack I've tried different things to give me some space from him. One time I even lived in a maid's closet for a few days."
"A maid's closet. Do you have a maid? Are you rich or something?"
"Oh no." Cody shook his head, "for the last three years, my brother and I lived in the Boston Tipton Hotel."
"You lived in a hotel? How did that happen?"
"My mom is the cabaret singer at the hotel and the three of us lived together in one of the suites. It was a suite life." Cody joked.
Bailey couldn't help laughing at that, and something about his laugh sent a chill down Cody's spine, but in a good way that he couldn't describe.
"Oh my gosh, I'm from Kettlecorn and I don't think even I've heard a joke that corny before. But anyway, are you cool with the dividing sheet? Or just for while we sleep at night?"
"Sure, whatever you need to feel comfortable." Cody nodded, and Bailey headed to the wall to tie up his rope. "Oh, and before I forget, here's the bathroom schedule I wrote up." Bailey pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it over to Cody.
"Bathroom schedule huh?" Cody asked as he looked down at it.
"Yeah, it helps if you eat bran."
"Oh, trust me I know, I never go a day without it." Cody smiled, "I can work with this, it might take me a day or two to adjust but I can make this work, I'm typically pretty regular."
"Thanks for being so understanding, I know I probably sound a little pedantic." Bailey apologized.
"Hey, you're talking to a guy who once emailed my school's math book publisher for having the wrong answer in an example." Cody joked.
"Oh my gosh. I did that too with my science textbook!" Bailey and Cody both laughed loudly as they talked about the corrections they had made.
Cody and Bailey kept unpacking everything and as they did, they slowly got to know each other better and better, and the more they learned, the more they felt like they could be great friends on this adventure of a lifetime.
But unbeknownst to Cody, there was one very important thing Bailey wasn't sharing with him. The fact that he was she. Everything she had told him about wanting to go on the adventure of a lifetime was true except that when she applied all the girls' spots in the class had already been filled. So, to get on the boat, she lied and said she was a boy. Thankfully it worked since her name was Bailey, and she had even played on Kettlecorn's boys' baseball team in the past.
Now that she was onboard though, she knew she couldn't ever let anyone find out about the real her, so she had prepared a very simple plan. Instead of packing her real clothes, she had instead brought a bunch of baggy hoodies, jeans, and baseball caps to hopefully hide her more feminine features, including her long dirty blonde hair. Plus, she intentionally disguised her voice by training herself to speak deeper than normal and had even spent the last month of her summer vacation reading everything she could find about how teenage boys acted.
She had known from the start that the biggest potential problem was going to be her roommate, hence why she had set up the rope and sheet and the bathroom schedule, but as she got to know Cody, she started thinking it wouldn't be as much of a problem as she originally thought. As they kept talking, Bailey couldn't help but think about how similar they both were. Beyond just being focused on their studies and cleanliness, to Bailey it sounded like Cody was just as excited to learn and experience new things as she was.
That may have been the greatest thing about him so far. Cody wasn't like the boys back home. He was so scrawny, and by his admission terrible at doing anything that required a toolbox, but Bailey was more than willing to look past that because just like her, he seemed to value his mind above all else. Even just discussing their respective admissions papers was amazing, because for the first time it felt like Bailey had finally found someone who could speak her language and not just look at her with glazed-over eyes as she told him all about chicken genetics, and he of course easily taught her more than she had ever wanted to know about barnacles.
About an hour later they were both unpacked and had worked together to clean and disinfect the room to both of their satisfaction. Both looked around the room, proud of what they had accomplished together already.
"So, what do you want to do now?" Bailey asked.
"Well, considering school doesn't start until tomorrow, that means we don't have any homework yet. Which means still have a day to have some fun." Cody suggested.
"Yeah?" Bailey asked.
"What do you say we go through the Seven Seas High Student Handbook? So that way we're prepared anything the teachers throw at us."
"Oh definitely, you just read my mind." Bailey grabbed her own handbook and they each sat down at their desks to start reading. "How about we make this fun? Let's read for half an hour and then we can quiz each other?"
"Now you're the one reading my mind." Cody smiled back at him, and then both were intensely focused as they hurriedly, yet carefully began scanning the pages as fast as they could go. Both made it through about half the book in the half hour and then they both did their best to stump the other, but even in their rush both were too well prepared for any tricks the other tried to pull.
By the end, they were both having way too much fun with it and both were laughing.
"OK, and what's located in the emergency kit on every lifeboat?" Cody asked.
"Oh, that's an easy one, enough emergency rations to last a dozen people a week at sea, a dozen emergency blankets, flashlights, a signal flare, a radio, a compass, extra batteries for everything, a first aid kit, and 10 gallons of freshwater."
"Correct. You got everything." Cody nodded in appreciation.
"You think that's impressive? Ask me to name every chicken on our farm." Bailey laughed, and again, unbeknownst to Bailey, her laugh sent that tingly feeling down Cody's spine once again, but he managed to shake it off.
"OK, I think that's as far as I got. But as much fun as that's been now that we've studied the map are you ready to explore the ship?"
"Yeah, I think that sounds like fun. Let's go, Cody." Bailey nodded and off they went. The first thing they both did was locate the school deck with all the classrooms, they were all locked unfortunately so they had to move on, but both were impressed with all the fancy amenities they could see inside.
They eventually found their way back to the Skydeck, and Cody noticed his brother sitting at the smoothie counter with a big, curly-haired boy beside him.
"Not to scare you or anything, but are you ready to meet my evil twin?" Cody joked as they walked closer to the smoothie counter.
"Oh, with all the stories you've told about him already, I almost think you have to be exaggerating."
"Unfortunately, I'm not, as you'll soon see." Cody joked again. "Hey Zack, this is my roommate Bailey, and Bailey, this is my twin brother Zack."
"What's up Broseph?" Zack asked, "This is Woody, my roommate, and Woody this is my geeky twin brother I told you about. And Cody I've got to say, this guy is awesome!" Zack patted Woody on the back. "He can fart Stairway to Heaven!"
"I can also do an owl," Woody added.
"This guy is a mess. I love him. I wish he could have been my roommate for the past fifteen years instead of you."
Cody just smirked back at him, "Well, good for you Zack. I have a pretty good roommate too. We've already disinfected our room, and we're about halfway through reading the student handbook." Cody reported proudly.
"Oh my gosh, dude I am so sorry. Trust me, I am nowhere near as boring as my little brother." Zack apologized to Bailey.
"Little brother? Aren't you twins?" Bailey asked.
"He's ten minutes older than me and he never lets me forget it," Cody explained with an eye roll.
"Well, yeah, until I met Woodchuck here that was the best ten minutes of my life." Zack joked.
"Well Zack, don't worry about me. It was my idea to disinfect our room, and Cody had the super fun idea of studying the handbook since we don't have homework yet. I can't wait to finish tonight."
"Oh my God, there's two of them." Zack groaned and banged his head on the counter.
"Wait, I thought you were the two of them?" Woody asked, scratching his head, and looking confused, sending a few corn chips flying out of his hair.
"Well, Zack I must agree. Ten minutes of having Bailey as my roommate has already been better than the last fifteen years with you." Cody shot back.
"OK as long as we agree then." Zack nodded and they shared a high-five. "Now who wants some smoothies? It's no Mexican buffet but I hear these are pretty good, and the best part, we don't even have to make em, just put them on our student cards."
"Sure thing. That Banana Fofana looks delicious." Cody agreed.
"Oh, and I want to try a Mango Fandango," Bailey added.
So, they all got their smoothies, and the group of four got to know each other even more. Both twins were more than happy to try to share the most embarrassing and funny stories about each other living in the Tipton Hotel, and Bailey shared more about his life on the farm. Woody talked about growing up in Cleveland and coming on the boat to get away from his awful stepdad Steve. And as much as all of them were slowly becoming friends, everyone was more than grateful they had ended up with the roommate pairings they had. Bailey for one didn't even want to think about what living with Zack or Woody would have been like. While Cody was thanking his lucky stars, he gave it about a week before the smell of Zack and Woody's room would seep out into the hallway.
The four of them kept hanging out together most of the day, and eventually, they ran into London who joined them for dinner at the Mexican buffet, watching Woody eat, and hearing the rumbles in his stomach only reinforced how grateful Cody and Bailey were that they would have each other to live with instead.
And meeting London was quite the experience for Bailey, despite how much Cody reassured her that London had a heart of gold inside to match all her sparkly jewelry, Bailey couldn't see it, and that wasn't even counting the fact that she broke down exactly how hideous all their clothing was, and apparently Bailey was the worst offender in that regard. She did agree with that, she wished she didn't have to wear what she was wearing, but she wasn't going to give up this opportunity for anything.
And eventually later that night, Cody and Bailey did return to their cabin and finished studying and quizzing each other over the handbook. And then following Bailey's schedule they both took turns in the bathroom and when they shut out the lights, Bailey pulled the sheet across the room so she could have the privacy she wanted.
"Goodnight Bailey," Cody called out. "Are you excited for the first day of school tomorrow?"
"Of course I am, it's only the most exciting day of the year," Bailey said back with a smile.
"I'm pretty sure Zack said this about Woody plenty of times, but seriously where have you been all my life?" Cody sighed in happiness.
"In Kansas, but I have the same feeling. I wish there were more guys like you back in Kettlecorn, but I'm happy to have met you now."
"Me too. Goodnight."
"Goodnight Cody," Bailey replied, and now that she was alone, she finally took off the hoodie and baseball cap. The main reason she wanted to sleep with the sheet between them, was so she could at least have a few hours without having to wear that hot, heavy hoodie. The only things going through her head as she drifted off to sleep were her excitement for tomorrow, some of the anxiety she was still feeling over her plan, and how wonderful it was to get to know Cody today. She couldn't wait to see what tomorrow had in store.
The first day of school the next morning started bright and early. But Cody woke up extremely confused, he and Bailey had agreed that Bailey would wake up at six to take his shower so Cody could get in his bathroom time by 6:30, but instead of Cody's alarm clock beeping annoyingly to wake him up, his sleep was shattered by a loud Cock-a-doodle-doo!
In his confusion, Cody promptly rolled out of bed and fell straight to the floor. "Ow." Cody groaned slightly.
The squawking abruptly cut itself off a few moments later and Bailey pulled back the sheet separating their beds, in his dazed state Cody briefly wondered why he still had his hoodie on over his head.
"Oh my gosh, Cody are you ok?" Bailey asked, and something about his voice sounded different like it was a much higher pitch.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but what in the world was that noise? It sounded like an angry bird in here."
"Oh sorry, that's my chicken alarm clock." Bailey pulled back the sheet so Cody could see it better. "I brought it with me to remind me of home on the farm, and I guess I forgot to show it to you yesterday. Sorry, I scared you."
"Scared me? No, I was just…surprised is all." Cody did his best to play it cool and picked himself up off the floor.
"Well, is the chicken alarm clock okay with you? I bet you never had anything like that at the Tipton."
"Well, I did once raise a baby hawk named Bubba." Cody said, "But you're right, this is a first for me. But if it reminds you of home, I don't want to take it away from you. The chicken clock can stay."
"Oh, thank you, Cody." Bailey had to stop herself from hugging him in gratitude, that was something guys didn't do with each other. "Well anyway, I'm going to go take my shower and you can sleep some more if you need to."
"Oh, no way that's happening. After being woken up by Foghorn I feel like bailing some hay and milking some cows." Cody joked.
"We'll see about that." Bailey laughed and walked off to the bathroom.
Once both finished freshening up for the day and heading off to grab a delicious and healthy breakfast from the breakfast buffet, they walked into their first class of the day at 7:45, they were so early that the room was still dark and empty, but that just meant Cody and Bailey could choose desks side by side one another in the front row. They were so early in fact that Ms. Tutwiler dropped her coffee in surprise when she finally arrived at class.
But soon most of the class filed in, although both noticed how Zack, Woody, and London seemed to be dragging themselves in at the very last minute. To begin with, they all shared introductions so everyone could start to know their new classmates and then Ms. Tutwiler led them on a tour of all the ship's educational facilities.
Eventually, they came to the Marine Biology Lab, and Cody and Bailey were equally fascinated by everything inside.
"Moving on, this is the state-of-the-art Marine Biology Lab." Ms. Tutwiler announced to the class.
"Which my daddy paid for!" London chimed in and then turned to Ms. Tutwiler. "Can I go now?"
"No. Now if you will all follow me will go up one deck to the planetarium." Ms. Tutwiler began leading the class out the door.
"I don't know what that is, but my daddy paid for it!" London added as she followed her. The rest of the class filed out as well, but Cody and Bailey hung back to check out the octopus.
"That's one good-looking cephalopod," Cody said appreciatively.
"Yeah, and you know they're highly intelligent. They can be taught to open jars." Bailey added.
"Oh yeah, and I've read stories where in aquariums they crawl out of their tanks to go eat the other fish," Cody added.
Woody then walked over and pulled the octopus out of the tank. "Ooh, it's squishy."
"And delicate. Woody be careful." Bailey warned him.
As Woody kept playing with it, the octopus wasn't very happy, it made its displeasure known by spraying Woody in the face with its ink. Which made everyone else laugh at him until Woody threw it to Zack, who also got sprayed, who threw it to Cody, who also got a face full of ink, who threw it to Bailey, and when she got sprayed, she accidently tossed the octopus out the window.
Cody ran to the porthole and stuck his head through to look around.
"Can you see it?" Bailey asked.
"Yeah, it's stuck to the side of the boat, someone grab my legs and lower me down," Cody called out. He pulled himself further outside the porthole while Zack, Woody, and Bailey all worked together to hold his legs, but when Zack started to pull him back in, he accidentally pulled down Cody's shorts instead, revealing his blue boxers.
"Are those share bears?" Woody asked with a grin.
"This is the worst day of my life!" Cody groaned.
"It's not looking very pretty back here either." Zack joked.
At that comment, Bailey couldn't help herself but laugh, and she also felt her cheeks reddening in both humor and embarrassment, so she looked away until Zack and Woody managed to pull Cody and the octopus back inside, just in time for Ms. Tutwiler to come back in the classroom and see all of them covered in ink, and Cody still with his shorts around his ankles.
"You know, I was sure Mr. Mosby had to be exaggerating the two Hooligans. I see now I should have listened to him. Now come along to the planetarium, you can get cleaned up later." Ms. Tutwiler led them up to the planetarium and watched their group of four much more carefully for the rest of the tour until she dismissed them for lunch a few hours later.
Cody and Bailey of course decided their best course of action was to get cleaned up first and hopefully grab something quick to eat before their afternoon classes during their lunch hour both quickly rinsed off the ink from their skin, and when that was done, Cody began soaking both of their shirts in the bathroom sink, and promised Bailey he could get any stains out when he did his laundry that evening.
Bailey was agreeable for the special reason to break the bathroom schedule, but she still had no trouble hiding her real self from Cody.
After all their classes were finished for the day Cody and Bailey studied in their room together, even though after the tour was finished all the classes they did had were pretty much just syllabus day, the only thing they could do was begin reading their textbooks which they did, and both were excited to find a partner who was happy to start working ahead on their homework as soon as possible. And once again after they finished reading each section of the first chapters in their books, they took time to quiz each other over the material.
They were interrupted by an emergency drill unfortunately, so they ran to the Skydeck with lifejackets on to join the rest of their classmates, except for Woody, Zack, and London, who for some reason thought the ship was really sinking and all ended up falling in the hot tub with life jackets on.
After that momentary chaos was over, both Cody and Bailey returned to their room to keep studying, and afterward they grabbed dinner together and talked about what they thought about their first day of school some more, but even with how exciting today had been just being in a new place, both were secretly both excited at finding a new best friend they both knew they could rely on the ship. Bailey's only regret was that she had to hide the real her. She liked Cody already, but she knew she couldn't tell him the truth. No matter how much she kind of wanted to already.