THE ELVES DID IT

A/N: Small little one-shot for Suite Life about Zack's lying, and the infamous elves. Takes place shortly after What the Hey.

Zack and Cody were driving home with their mom after getting caught at the mall.

"I can't believe you two deliberately disobeyed me." Carrie was saying to the boys.

"You're right, mom. We shouldn't have done it. But it wasn't our faults." Zach said.

"It wasn't?" Carrie asked.

"It wasn't?" Cody asked.

"No… it wasn't." Zach gritted his teeth, talking to Cody. Cody got the hint to play along.

"Oh yeah. It wasn't." Cody said with a sense of unsureness in his voice.

"So who's fault was it?" Carrie asked suspiciously.

"The evil monkeys." Cody said. Zach looked at him incredulously and banged his head against the back of the seat.

"The evil monkeys?" Carrie asked.

"Yes. I mean, no. Well, sort of." Cody stuttered.

"Explain." His mom requested.

"Well… I can't explain." Cody said.

"Because you're lying." Carrie finished.

"Yes, we are." Zach said, acting ashamed of himself.

"Zach? You're telling the truth?" She asked, surprised.

"Yes. I cannot tell a lie." Zach said, putting on an act.

"So, what really happened?" his mom asked.

"The elves did it." Zach said. Cody put his hands to his mouth and had to use every ounce of self-discipline in him to keep from laughing.

"Elves?" Carrie asked.

"Yes. Elves. You see, as we were walking to school, Cody ran over an elf on his bike." Zach lied. "As it turned out, he was the leader of the elves. The elves were ready to kill Cody, but I told them not to."

"So why were you at the mall?" Carrie asked, as they pulled into the Tipton parking lot.

"It's really a funny story, and if you keep interrupting, I'll never get to say why." Zach said.

"Go on." Carrie sighed.

"As I was saying, the elves were ready to kill Cody with their little pitchforks, but I said not to. As it turned out, the elves love the band Everything Stinks. So we made a deal that we'd go to the mall and get them an autographed poster. And we decided to do that by going in the contest. And we gave them the poster, but those rascally elves just weren't satisfied and they declared revenge on us. So you never know where the elves will strike next." Zach said.

"After hearing that nice story, I now know that you two are definitely grounded." Carrie said. They got out of the car and went into the lobby, and Mr. Moseby approached Zach.

"Why is the wedding cake for this afternoon's wedding reception missing a slice?" Mr. Moseby asked.

"Those rascally elves," Zach muttered loudly enough for Moseby and Carrie to hear.

A/N: Yeah, it's kind of short and a little weird, but it was just a spur-of-the-moment idea. No flames, please!