The Love of a Brother. The Love of a Triplet

Summary: My name is Maxine Martin. Daughter to Carey Martin, sister and fellow triplet to Zack and Cody Martin. Or at least I was. Yeah, being a triplet was annoying, and sometimes they really annoyed me in our squished hotel suite. But I could never imagine a world without Zack. He just…disappeared.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, I am just a huge fan that refuses to believe it's gone.

"Max! Wake up," Cody yelled in my ear, sitting on the edge of our bed. "I need your help to get Zack up so we're not late for school,"

"We're never late," I mumbled, turning over. "You always get us there half an hour early,"

"You know what they say," Cody said, standing on my bed as if about to make a speech, "The early bird catches the word!"

"Well make Zack the early bird next time," I said, defeat, starting to sit up. I looked round our stupid cramped room. Cody hidden away on his bottom bunk with a towel, whilst Zack snored above. There was a desk next to my bed, but it was so badly cluttered with old school assignments there was no point. Zack's was pretty similar, except cluttered with food, mostly. Then Cody's desk was perfect as a pin, obviously. Our closets pretty much worked the same way. My clothes were all shoved in, (Not that I wore most of them), Zack had food and other junk in his, and Cody's was pristine and perfect. Zack and I found Cody's perfection annoying.

I got up and went over to the bunk bed, grabbing Zack's ankles and pulling him off the bed. "I fricking hate you sometimes, Maxine," he said, turning to me.

"I hate you to, Zackary," I teased back with a smile.

"Zack, language," Cody huffed.

"American," Zack replied with a smile, thinking he was clever.

"You mean English, dufus," I said, slapping him playfully round the head. As much as we teased each other, I loved Zack. He was the only one who knew my insecurities with being a girl, and why I always wore my cap. It was my identity. And although he called me Maxine, he knew how much it hurt me when other people did it.

I started to get ready, looking in the mirror at my shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. How could I look like this when my fellow triplets had matching blond hair and blue-green eyes? I thought I took after my father, Kurt Martin, but I wasn't too sure. I quickly ran a brush through it, then tied it into plates and carefully placed it in my cap. Then I pulled my stupid bangs up a bit too so I could hardly be mistaken for a girl. Yeah, there were days I wore my hair down and my girly clothes, but that was very rarely.

Grabbing some jeans and a t-shirt, I darted into the bathroom to get changed. I used to get changed in front of the boys no problem. But I was twelve, things were changing. Maybe not for them, but I needed my space.

.

When we'd forced down mom's terrible cooking we went to school. We didn't really have many friends. We'd moved to the area when we were 10 and just stuck together, really. I liked it that way, but I could tell Zack was getting sick of it. As I'd told Cody, we were half an hour early.

"Aw, man!" Zack moaned, "Max this is all your fault. I could've slept for another half hour,"

"Don't blame me," I said defensively holding my arms up, "Cody got me up,"

Cody smiled.

"Shut up," Zack snapped at him.

"I didn't even say anything!" Cody wined.

"Well, I know what you were thinking, we're twins,"

"You're not twins," I yelled. I hated it when people called them that. "You are two identical triplets," that's what mom had told me.

"Yeah, yeah," Zack dismissed my point. "What are we fighting for anyway?"

"We are not fighting," Cody argued. "We're having a creative discussion."

"Shut up," I snapped. "Hey, Zack, you wanna shoot some hoops?"

"Sure!" Zack replied happily.

"Guys, can I play?" Cody asked.

"Oh, you see, this is more of a one-on-one drill," I smiled at Zack, "And Zack's better than you,"

Zack and I ran off happily as Cody followed. I never felt mean because of the amount of stuff I get excluded from for being a girl.

I beat Zack (obviously), but if there's one thing I know about Zack Martin, is that he can't stand losing to a girl.

"I let you win," he argued.

"Just like you let me win last time, and the time before, and the time before…" I trailed off.

"Shut up,"

"Hey," I voice said from behind us. We all turned to see Tapeworm, our friend, stood behind us.

"Hey," I replied, as the twins rolled their eyes. They thought I liked Tapeworm, as if?! Zack didn't really like Tapeworm, he thought he was weird. Cody liked him. I'll admit, he was all right. And he'd been quiet nice to me in the two years we'd been in Boston. At least, when he realized I was a girl. Before that, it was just awkward.

"Can I play?" he asked, smiling slightly while he towered above me.

"Sure!" Zack said. I turned, and saw Cody's sad face.

"Zack," I hissed.

"What? I thought you liked Tapeworm?"

"Yeah, but this is a one-on-one drill,"

"Well, we'll change it," he shrugged. "I don't get what the problem is,"
"You wanna know what the problem is?" I challenged. "You are constantly a dick to Cody. If he can't play, why can Tapeworm?"

Zack shrugged. "I dunno, why don't you stop playing?"

"Me?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah, you are the girl."

Tears were in my eyes by now. "I. Hate. You." I stuttered, running away.

"What's up with her," I heard Zack ask behind me. I hate it when people mistake me for a boy, but I hate it more when I'm excluded from things for being a girl. Especially when Zack did it.

I ran home to the Tipton. I didn't care about missing school. That was probably the main thing Zack and I had in common. Whenever Cody was ill or on a school trip, we'd ditch together. But he was too mean to Cody. Okay, maybe I was over-reacting to that, but he called me a girl. I know I am a girl…urge! Why's everything so complicated?

As I walked into the lobby, unfortunately for me, mom was there talking to Mr. Mosby about a raise.

"Max!" she said surprised as I walked in, and I paused wide-eyed staring in shock.

"You want Max pay?" Mr. Mosby replied in shock. "Carey! You do know that will never happen.

"No, sorry, I mean that's Max over there. Never mind, Mr. Mosby," she came over to me and scowled down at me. "Explain,"

"I left," I said simply, "Zack pissed me off,"

"Language!" She scolded.

"English," I replied cheekily, copying Zack.

"Maxine, you're grounded for a very long time,"

"When you say grounded, does that include the pool?"

"Yes,"

"What about dance lessons,"

She sighed, knowing they were the most important things to me. "Maybe, but for now, up to our room. I don't want to be the bad person whose child ran away from school and went back. You're ill."

.

"Hi, this is she," Mom answered the phone as I miserably sat on the couch. "Really? Oh," I could see tears rubbing down her cheeks. "I'll be there right away,"

"What's happened?" I asked suddenly really worried.

"Z-Zack," she stuttered. "We're going to the school, now!"

"Okay," I replied, starting to cry. I didn't know what it was, but knew it was serious. Mom hailed a cab and we were over there immediately. Everyone was crowding round the tallest school building. A police car had just pulled up, and were starting to question Tapeworm and his parents. Cody ran up to us, sobbing.

"What happened?" I asked frantically.

"It's Zack," he cried. "He's-he's dead! Tapeworm pushed him," he started downright crying on his knees. I was sad, it felt like a part of me had gone. But I couldn't cry. Why couldn't I cry? Drew and his crew came over to me, and they actually looked sincere. Unlike most new kids, Drew was nice to me at first. He called the boys clones, but liked me. Well, till he realized I was a girl.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said to all of us. I actually saw tears in his eyes, "If there's anything I can do," he pulled me into a hug and started sobbing.

Why couldn't I cry? Mom was beside herself with tears, as she ran to see the body, now being taken away by an ambulance. A camera crew was starting to film the scene, whilst a news reporter talked. He started to come over to Cody and I, obviously recognising Cody.

"Are you the other two triplets?" he checked as we nodded. He turned to me as I was more pulled together than my remaining other third. "How did this happen?"

I shrugged, "I was h-home s-s-sick," I stuttered.

"Ah, and what's your name then, sir,"
"Maxine," I replied coldly, but I couldn't believe that was bothering me more.

"So sorry," the man replied. "Are you in any way related to the deceased?"

"I'm his sister," I replied, thankfully feeling a tear on my cheek. "I was,"

"Ah, it's hard," he put an arm round me. "I'm sorry for your loss," he started to walk away and talk to the camera. Why did everyone keep saying that? 'I'm sorry for your loss'. It wasn't exactly their fault. And they were making it worse, they kept reminding us Zack was gone. But it just didn't feel real. How could Zack be gone just like that, it felt like he's just…disappeared.

And it was all Tapeworm's fault.

A/N So…this is my new story that came to me in a dream last night. It was originally gonna be an OC for the third triplet, but as I wrote, Max just seemed better. I might not be able to update for a while, it depends if I get Wi-Fi on holiday x.

Anyway, please tell me what you think! And I'll put a question at the end of each chapter.

Question: Who's your favourite Suite Life character and why?

My Answer: Max. Because I love her tomboy-ness and her relationship with Zack, even though I was jealous when I was like, five. I also really like Alyson Stoner and with she was in season 3 and On Deck.

Thanks for reading! Now let me know what you think x.