Chapter One: A Surprise Encounter
Zack's car pulled to a stop outside of Michelle's apartment. He flipped down his sun visor and swooped his hair to the side of his face before pulling out a bottle of breath spray to do a quick freshen up.
He had a good feeling about this evening with Michelle. He had been eyeing her ever since they had sat next to each other in their intro to communications class. There was something so special about her, and he had always had a soft spot for sorority girls. Okay, so their dates hadn't gone exactly according to plan. But he couldn't deny the spark that he felt for her, something that he hadn't felt in a good, long while. She was so pretty, and smart, and always smelled really nice. He hadn't even minded when she tricked him into donating to the Ronald McDonald House, the philanthropy for her sorority. If anything, her commitment to a good cause just made him like her more.
He hopped out of the car and walked up to her apartment. Zack knocked on the door and waited. At long last, a face peered out at him from behind the curtains in the window beside the closed door. Michelle. He smiled at her and gave a small wave before the face disappeared again. He could hear the door unlock right before it swung open.
There she was. She was just as pretty as ever, even in her cropped sweatpants and tank top, her hair unkempt. Zack tried to ignore the wide eyed, almost horrorstruck look she was giving him. He must have been disturbing something.
"Hey, Michelle," he said, smiling despite this setback. "Long time, no see, huh?"
"Yep," she said, nodding. "Well, it was great to see you."
She started to shut the door in his face. Zack kept talking, forcing her to open it again. "So, I was thinking, if you weren't busy tonight, maybe we could do some catching up? I have some movie passes and a coupon for a free dinner for two at Lulu's."
"Sorry, I'm actually already booked for the rest of the day."
Zack tried to hide his disappointment. "Oh," he said, then continued, thinking on his feet, "well, how about tomorrow? The coupon expires tonight, but we could maybe go to Chinatown. I know how much you love egg rolls, and I've always wanted to share some lo mein a la Lady and the Tramp."
"Gosh, I wish I could, but I've given up Chinese food for Lent."
Zack frowned. "It's the end of May."
An uncomfortable smile crossed Michelle's face. "Oh, is it? Man, that month just flew by." She awkwardly chuckled.
"Alright, so no Chinese. What about pizza?"
Michelle put a hand up to stop him. "Okay, Zack, fine, you know what? Make me say it: I'm just not interested in dating you. Alright?"
Zack felt his heart sink into his stomach, only able to stammer out, "W-what?"
Michelle sighed, crumpling slightly against the doorframe. "Look, Zack, you are so sweet, and funny, but…I just really don't see this working out long term. You're childish, you're selfish, you're lazy—"
"Can we go back to the sweet and funny part?" He smiled at her, hoping that maybe if he tried to be his charming self, she would see the error of her ways.
"I'd love to start over with you, but I'm just…exhausted. I care about you, Zack, a lot, but let's be real here. You never take accountability for anything. You're completely irresponsible."
"When have I ever been irresponsible?"
"Are you owning up to anything I'm saying now?" Zack couldn't offer a rebuttal, not able to argue with what she had to say. After a long silence, Michelle sighed. "Listen, Zack. You're a great guy, but…we're on two completely different pages here. Sometimes we're not even in the same book. And I don't want to date someone who I have to nag and harp on and make excuses for all the time. I'm sorry."
"Oh, Michelle, come on. Don't do this. Please."
"I'm sorry, Zack."
She shut the door.
Zack stared at the door for a minute before making any attempt to move. This was not the way he had planned things. From the day he met Michelle, he had had a good feeling about his relationship with her. He hadn't been so serious about a girl since Maya, his only real long-term girlfriend. And he really, truly thought she felt the same about him. She had been known to bring him Pedialyte and zinc pills to nurse a hangover after frat parties. She had come over to his apartment and cooked him breakfast every once in a while. She had even helped him pass some of his hardest classes that he needed to finish his degree. It was only in that moment, standing on her doorstep, that he wondered whether she had done those things because she cared, or if she had just thought he wasn't responsible enough to do them himself.
With a sullen sigh, he walked back down the path to his car. He got in, stared at himself in the mirror on his visor, and finally buckled his seatbelt before taking off slowly down the road. He couldn't go straight home; he had to go for a drive to clear his head.
Before long, he found himself driving down the streets of Boston, but not any that he knew well. He didn't think he had ever been in this part of town before. The little college town had disappeared in his rearview mirror, and now he was in the suburbs just outside of the city proper. The apartments that lined the streets looked more like small houses, but the awkward addresses plastered on the walls and the miniscule sizes betrayed what kind of dwelling they really were. This was where the picture perfect, happy little families lived. It made him sick.
Zack gripped the steering wheel tight as he drove down the street, his knuckles white, thinking of everything and nothing all at once. Michelle thought he was irresponsible? He let out a huff. If he was so irresponsible and lazy, would he have ever gotten into college without help? And be only two semesters away from graduating? Sure, it had taken him a lot longer to get his bachelor's than it should have, but he still was making strides towards finishing school without too much pestering from his parents, advisors, and professors.
Michelle was just like everyone else in his life. Nobody could ever believe that Zack Martin could be conscientious and responsible. He was always seen as the troublemaker, the one who just couldn't abide by the rules even if he tried, the one who struggled to get good grades and maintain jobs and relationships. And every time someone expressed their doubts, it reminded him so much of the conversations he used to have with his parents: "Why can't you be more like Cody?"
Cody. That was someone he hadn't thought of in months, maybe even over a year. Zack and his twin brother had been inseparable as kids. They'd find themselves in all sorts of shenanigans, though Zack admittedly was often the ringleader. He used to think fondly of the times they had spent causing mayhem at the Boston Tipton when they had lived there. Even when they had first set sail for their school at sea, their bond was strong as ever.
That all changed their junior year, when Cody had started dating Victoria Baker. She, too, was an identical twin, and acted as the twin boys' complete opposite, alongside her sister Angelique. They were always polite, never defied authority, and never got into any trouble. It wasn't as though the girls could get away with that, anyway. After the boys' tumultuous initial cruise with their mother, Ms. Klotz had vanished (Zack suspected she might be in prison if those four ex-husbands of hers were any indication), and Ms. Baker had stepped up as the manager and cruise director of the S.S. Tipton. Unlike the boys, who had gotten onboard the cruise ship alone, Mrs. Baker was always present to watch over her daughters like a hawk.
Sure, Victoria was just as much of a nerd as Cody could be. But Zack had never imagined that the two of them would become a couple. He always thought Cody would have been more interested in Bailey Pickett, the farm girl from Kansas. Victoria and her sister both just seemed too…sweet. Too much of rule followers to ever catch the brothers' attention.
But it was when Cody had started dating Victoria that Zack's brother had started acting oddly. The two were always sneaking around, wanting very little to do with their respective twins. Then, suddenly, they both disappeared.
At first, Cody had sent out updates. He had instructed his family not to look for him, assuring them that he was safe. Every so often, Zack would receive an email or text from his twin, various signs of life that came just often enough to remember that he had a brother. Eventually, though, these infrequent communications stopped altogether.
Zack wondered if Victoria was with Cody, wherever he was. Angelique never told him anything. In fact, while Zack felt lost at first without his brother, Angelique seemed to thrive on her own. She had always been kind of strange, Zack thought. Sweet, and pretty, but strange. Once Victoria had vanished, Angelique blossomed into a headstrong young woman, almost as though living in Victoria's shadow had been the reason she was so odd.
Though Mrs. Baker undoubtedly knew something, she refused to talk about her daughter. With time, Zack took a page out of Angelique's book and forgot all about reconnecting with his twin. After years of wondering, he just assumed Cody had gotten some prestigious admissions offer from some bigwig university and took off, leaving his past behind him as he went.
The worst part of that assumption, though, was the fact that, if it was true, Cody was still better than him. And if Victoria was with them, that was the final nail in the coffin. Cody, the ever-responsible twin, with his longtime partner, living the life of his dream. As for Zack, on the other hand…
It seemed like he would never find a steady girlfriend. All because he couldn't be responsible.
He gritted his teeth, slammed one hand against the steering wheel, and screamed. Just as he was thinking about how good it was to let that out—
A kid ran in front of his car.
He screamed again as he slammed on the breaks, his car skidding to a stop. Breathing deeply, he looked all around for the kid. There she was, a little blonde girl who had just run across the street after a ball. Zack scoffed, parking his car on the side of the road. He got out and slammed the door shut, storming up towards the kid who had successfully retrieved her ball. It was time to show Michelle just how responsible he could be.
"Hey, kid!" he shouted. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
The little girl looked up at him in surprise. "Daddy?"
"Oh, no, your daddy's not going to help you now," he said, grabbing the kid by the arm. "I'm going to give him a piece of my mind about letting his kid play in traffic. Where do you live?"
The little girl tried to tug her way out of Zack's arm, but was powerless against him. Finally, she showed him which apartment she lived at. Zack stormed up the steps and started knocking on the door. He could hear loud rock music coming from inside the home. When there was no response, he started pounding harder. No wonder this kid got out, he thought to himself.
At long last, a teenage girl with obviously dyed black hair opened the door, a cell phone in one hand. "What?" she asked, clearly annoyed to have been disturbed.
"You live here?" Zack asked, shouting to be heard above the noise.
"No, I'm the babysitter."
"Well, you're doing a hell of a job sitting on this baby," he said, dragging the little girl out from behind him. "You just let her play in the streets?"
The girl's mouth dropped open in shock. She pressed the cell phone against her ear and said, "I gotta go." Then she shoved the phone back in a pocket and took the little girl from Zack. "Where did you find her?"
"In the road, after I almost hit her with my car. You should be a lot more careful about the kids you're watching."
"Listen, I turned my back for thirty seconds—"
"Uh, huh. I'm sure." Zack folded his arms across his chest and scoffed. The music was up so loud that he was almost starting to understand why the kid had gone to play in the street in the first place. "When are the parents getting home? I'd like to have a word with them."
"They should be here in a few minutes," the babysitter said, standing aside, still looking completely dumbfounded.
"Perfect," Zack said, annoyed. "Then you better get your act together before you lose a job. And you," he continued, looking at the little girl, "you better have a good excuse to win daddy over when he gets home."
Zack walked into the apartment. The babysitter followed him, the little girl hot on her heels, as he walked to the table and sat down. "I'm not supposed to have anyone over while they're gone—" she started.
Zack chuckled. "And now you care about being responsible?" A chill went through him as he asked this, thinking about his conversation from earlier with Michelle. "For Christ's sake, can you turn that music off?" he asked, still shouting.
"What a buzzkill."
Zack struggled to make out what she had said over the noise, but the babysitter went into the other room regardless. There was a pause, then the music abruptly stopped moments before she returned.
Zack looked up to see that the little girl was standing by the table, staring at him with wide eyes. "What?" he snapped at her.
The girl jumped and said in a scared voice, "I'll be good, I swear."
"Tell that to your daddy, not me."
The little girl looked confused. "But you're my—"
"You really should leave," the babysitter interrupted.
Zack looked up and put up a finger to stop her. "I'm not leaving until I've talked to this guy and taught him a thing or two about parenting. What's his name?"
The babysitter shrugged. "I've never met him. I've only been working for them for a week. The mom always gets home first. I think her name is Veronica, or something like that?"
"You don't even know their names?"
He knew he didn't have much room to talk, but he couldn't help but think this family had to be desperate to have hired this girl as their babysitter. More than ever, he wanted to give one of the parents a piece of his mind—and the phone number for a nanny service.
Zack needn't wait long. Soon he heard a car slow to a stop outside, followed closely by a second one. From there, the doors to the two cars opened and shut before being locked. Zack could hear two distant voices talking to one another as the door swung open down the hall.
"Daddy!" the little girl said, running to go meet her parents.
This ought to be good, Zack thought, straightening as she left the room.
"There's my little monkey," a voice said in the hallway. He could hear the little girl laughing, then the footsteps continued. He looked up as the family entered the room, his heart stopping as he locked eyes with the dad.
The same face was staring back at him, holding the little girl on his hip. Behind him was the mom, a face that Zack had also seen before. The two men stared at one another in a stunned silence, before finally Zack spoke in a shaky voice.
"Cody?"
AN: Hey guys! I've been watching the Suite Life of Zack and Cody recently (especially in light of the anniversary of Cody's dinner reservation) and decided to revisit this story idea. I've had this idea for a very long time. It was actually something that came to me around the time that Suite Life on Deck was announced. If there are any characters you don't recognize in this story, they're probably mine. Zack is primarily the main character. This takes some inspiration from various sources, such as Glee, Big Daddy, and The Game Plan. I've also tried to write a lot of this in advance, so I'm hoping to put out semi regular updates. Let me know your thoughts and reactions!