Disclaimer: I do not own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody or The Suite Life on Deck. But, you don't either. :P

~The Thing About Twins~

Chapter 1: The Lesson

Ms. Tutweiller rapped her metal pointer on the chalkboard and smiled at her class. As usual, only Bailey, her top student, smiled back at her. It was near the end of the day on a hot Wednesday afternoon in January (they were off the coast of Argentina), so most of Ms. Tutweiller's class was zoned out or asleep.

She examined them with a critical eye. Bailey Pickett, by far the best student in the class, was sitting up straight, her pencil in her hand, prepared to take notes on a new subject.

Behind Bailey was New-Yorker Maya Bennett, who was quietly sitting, casting glances at the other students while she waited for the new period to start.

On Maya's left, Woody Fink was supporting his head with his hands, trying to keep himself from falling asleep.

Diagonally behind Woody (directly behind Maya), the heiress London Tipton was filing her nails, not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything going on around her.

Next to London, former pop star Marcus Little was torn between paying attention to Tutweiller and staring at London, who he had a major crush on.

Finally, in front of Marcus was his best friend and former roommate, Zack Martin. Zack's head was on top of his desk and he was snoring, as he had been since math ended ten minutes previously.

Ms. Tutweiller sighed in disappointment. She wished that some of her students… okay, almost all of her students… would take school more seriously and realize that education was not a joke.

Accepting that nothing of that sort was going to happen any time soon- definitely not within the next class period- Ms. Tutweiller clapped her hands, instantly bring all eyes to her, except for Zack, who was still asleep.

"All right, class," she said in a perky voice. "In science today, we will be starting a new unit!"

"Ooh!" Bailey exclaimed, wiggling around in excitement. "Is it about chemical bonding in space? Because I went online and found some amazing pictures of-"

Ms. Tutweiller quickly cut her off before she could go into a full rant, knowing that, once she got started, she could literally go on for hours.

"No, no, no, Bailey," she said, waving her arms in a stop gesture. Bailey nodded sheepishly and sank back into her seat.

Ms. Tutweiller continued. "As you know," she said. "We have been recently studying DNA, RNA, and genetics. To relate to that, we will be discussing special cases in these fields. Our new unit is going to be on twins." She watched as the class looked at each other, before Woody raised his hand.

"Yes, Woody?" she asked.

Woody put his hand down. "But I thought that aliens cloned people, then decided to call them twins so the people didn't get all scared and destroy the aliens!" he said.

Ms. Tutweiller sighed internally. How could he be in high school and be that stupid? "No, Woody," she said. "Twins are two people who develop inside the womb simultaneously, and, in some cases, have virtually the same genetic code."

Woody looked confused. Ms. Tutweiller shook her head and said, "Never mind. Anyway, there are two different types of twins. Can anyone tell me what they are and how they are different from each other?"

She turned to face the class. As usual, Bailey's hand shot up and started wriggling around in her desire to be picked, while most of the other students just gave her blank looks. Well, save for one. Zack Martin was still snoring away.

Ms. Tutweiller marched back to his desk and rapped her knuckles on his desk, shouting his name.

Zack snapped up and ended up falling out of his chair onto the floor, causing most of the students to burst out laughing. Red-faced, Zack climbed back into his chair and yawned.

"Yes, Ms. Tutweiller?" he asked in a half-asleep tone.

She sighed. "Can you tell me the two types of twins and how they are different?"

At this, Zack looked noticeably less asleep, and, unless she was seeing things, his face had turned very, very, white. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw London shoot Zack a concerned look, which didn't make sense at all, seeing that London hadn't been paying attention just two seconds ago, and Ms. Tutweiller had never seen the brunette heiress look sympathetic.

She turned her attention back to Zack. His face was still white, and but now his eyes were squeezed as tightly closed as they could be, and he had a death grip on his desk.

Ms. Tutweiller started to get concerned. "Zack?" she asked. He didn't respond, so she continued. "Zack? Zack, are you okay?"

He continued to ignore her, and she was walking back to the front of the classroom to call for help, when suddenly, he said, "Fraternal and i-identical." He remained in the same position, and his voice shook when he spoke.

Ms. Tutweiller turned around in confusion. Zack's strange behavior had caused her to forget about her question. "What?" she asked.

"Fraternal and identical," Zack repeated. Those are the two different types of t-twins." He gradually opened his eyes and unclenched his hands, but his face was still deathly pale.

Ms. Tutweiller was shocked. "Correct," she said disbelievingly. She couldn't remember a time-ever- when Zack Martin had correctly answered a question she had asked him.

After hearing her answer, Zack sighed and sat back against his chair. To his left, Maya leaned over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Zack, baby, are you okay?" she asked, rubbing her hand up and down his arm, trying to console him.

Zack pulled away from her hand and turned to face her with an angry look on his face. "Fine," he spat.

They continued to stare at each other with narrowed eyes for a few seconds, until London caught Zack's eye from behind Maya, and he turned his attention to her. She shot the blonde boy a look Ms. Tutweiller couldn't explain, and after a few seconds, Zack's face sagged. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them and nodded at London. She gave him a soft smile and returned to filing her nails. Zack faced front again, missing the upset and slightly jealous look Maya shot him.

Ms. Tutweiller was completely bewildered. What was wrong with Zack? Why was he acting so weird about the subject of twins? Why was London able to comfort him? Did she and Zack have some secret no one else knew about?

Shaking her head to clear it, she decided to go out on a limb and ask Zack some more questions about twins. She found it a bit strange that he was knowledgeable about that particular subject, and wanted to see the extent of what he knew. She just hoped he didn't have the same reaction as when she asked him the first question.

"So, Zack," she started cautiously. "Do you know the difference between identical and fraternal twins?"

Zack looked down at his desk and closed his eyes before speaking. "Fraternal twins come from two eggs that are stuck together, and share half of their DNA, like normal siblings. I-identical twins come from one egg that split in two and have almost the exact same DNA."

Ms. Tutweiller was stunned. Before class had started that day, she thought she would be spending the lesson time explaining to Zack what a twin was, not listening to him answer her questions as well as Bailey would.

"Exactly," she said. Zack then buried his head in his arms and stopped paying attention. Since he seemed so emotionally unstable at the moment, she decided to let him be, and continued on with the lesson like normal.

About twenty minutes later, Ms. Tutweiller moved on to discuss more emotional matters. She asked the class (read: Bailey) if they thought that twins were, relationship-wise, closer than regular siblings.

Bailey raised her hand yet again. Ms. Tutweiller called on her.

"Well," she said. "I don't think twins are closer than regular siblings. I mean, sure, they are the same age and everything, but that doesn't mean that they fight less."

Ms. Tutweiller opened her mouth to comment, but Zack beat her to the punch.

"You don't think twins are closer than regular siblings?!" he exploded. Ms. Tutweiller was, yet again, bewildered, this time by the angry passion in his voice.

Evidently, she wasn't the only one, since Bailey turned around and stared at Zack, as did everyone else in the class.

"Um, no," Bailey answered.

Zack scowled at her. "Well, you're wrong. Twins are a lot closer than normal siblings."

Bailey narrowed her eyes at Zack. "What makes you say that?"

Zack opened his mouth to answer. London shot him a warning look, but he didn't see it.

"Well Einstein," he said bitingly. "Twins have really special bonds with each other, like twin telepathy. They understand each other way better than regular siblings do, because they spend so much time together."

Bailey was clearly shocked, but it didn't stop her from trying to defend her pride. "Twins don't necessarily spend all their time together! And even if they did, it doesn't mean they're closer than normal siblings!"

Zack clenched his teeth. "Yes it does," he said. "They're always together at s-school, and they hang out after, since they have the same friends!"

By now, Bailey was furious. She wasn't used to anyone telling her she was wrong, especially lazy slacker Zack Martin.

"That's not true! Besides, what do you know about twins, huh?! I happen to have older sisters that are twins, and they don't spend more time together then normal! You don't have any experience with twins, Zack Martin! You're an only child!"

Zack looked as if he had been slapped in the face-twice- then had his heart ripped out. Ms. Tutweiller even thought his eyes looked shiner than normal. He opened his mouth to yell at Bailey, but just then the bell rang, and London quickly jumped up out of her seat, said "Well, bye," and dragged Zack out the door.

The rest of the class just stared after them in shock. Maya stood up to go follow her boyfriend, but Marcus grabbed her arm, shaking his head, and Maya sat back down.

Bailey turned to the other students. "What just happened?" she asked. Everybody just shrugged.

Ms. Tutweiller shook her head. "He's probably just in a bad mood. I'm sure it's fine. Just let him cool down for a little while, then you can go talk to him."

The rest of the class nodded, although Maya still looked upset, then gathered their things and walked out the door.

After everyone had left, Ms. Tutweiller left the classroom and went down to the Sky Deck to get a smoothie, where she saw Mr. Moseby sitting at the juice bar, drinking a Banana Fofana. As she approached him, it occurred to her that Mr. Moseby might know what was wrong with Zack, since he had known him when he lived in the Tipton Hotel as a kid. She hoped he knew the answer, since she was pretty sure Zack wasn't just in a bad mood.

"Hello, Mr. Moseby," she said as she approached him.

He put down his smoothie and gave her a smile. "Hello Emma. Care to join me for a smoothie?"

She smiled and accepted, sitting down and ordering a Prune Whiz. Once it had been delivered, she turned to Mr. Moseby.

"Marion, I need to talk to you," she said, taking a sip of her smoothie then setting it down on the counter.

He set his down as well and turned to face her with a concerned look. "What about?"

Ms. Tutweiller flashed back to Zack's outburst in class earlier that day. "Zack," she answered.

Predictably, he groaned and said "What did he do now?"

"Nothing… for once. I'm actually worried about him. He was acting strange in class today."

Curious, Mr. Moseby leaned forward on his knees and said, "Oh? How so?"

"Well," she said. "Today in science, we started a new unit about twins. First, I asked Zack a few questions about twins and he answered them all correctly. He also got really pale and upset. Later, I asked the class if twins were closer than regular siblings, and Bailey said no. Zack heard and was furious for some reason, and he started arguing with her. Then, Bailey said that, since Zack is an only child, he had no experience with twins. When she said that, Zack got even more upset. He was about to say something back to her, but then the bell rang and London dragged him outside. She had also been giving him looks like she knew what was going on. She was even able to calm him down after he snapped at Maya!"

After Ms. Tutweiller finished her story, she looked back at Mr. Moseby. His eyes were closed and he had a grimace on his face. For the second time that day, she grew seriously concerned.

"Marion? Marion!" she shouted. Luckily, he snapped back to his senses quicker than Zack had. He opened his eyes and turned to her. She saw that tears were starting to form in his eyes.

She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, when suddenly Bailey, Maya, Woody, and Marcus came running over.

"Mr. Moseby? Ms. Tutweiller? Is everything okay?" Bailey asked.

Maya looked at Mr. Moseby. "Mr. Moseby? Are you crying?" she asked.

Ms. Tutweiller stood up. "Everything's fine," she assured. "I was just asking Mr. Moseby a few questions."

"Oh," Maya said. She then shook herself and turned back to Mr. Moseby. "Mr. Moseby? You knew Zack when he was a kid. Do you know why he hates twins so much?"

Mr. Moseby stood up and took a deep breath. "He does not hate twins. He just doesn't like seeing or hearing about them because of… something that happened five years ago."

Marcus spoke. "What happened? It was pretty bad, right?"

The short man looked at him curiously. "Yes," he said. "Why?"

Marcus shrugged. "Well, back when I roomed with Zack, I often was woken up in the middle of the night by him screaming and crying in his sleep. He had this nightmare pretty often and, judging by his reaction, I'm pretty sure it was the same nightmare that he had over and over. I've also heard him talking in his sleep, but I wasn't sure what he was saying. Sometimes, he'd wake up, and grab this thing- it looked like a little blue blanket- and fall back asleep holding it. It apparently made the nightmares go away. Anyway, it's partly why I started rooming with Woody. I could never get any sleep. Believe me Ms. Tutweiller; I never intended to fall asleep in your classes."

Woody looked at Marcus, hurt. "I thought you started rooming with me because you liked me better than Zack!"

"That too," Marcus quickly lied, trying to appease the curly-haired boy. It worked, and Woody grinned at him before turning back to Mr. Moseby. He was staring intently at Marcus.

"Marcus," he said slowly. "Did you say a little blue blanket?" Marcus nodded.

Mr. Moseby's eyes widened and he sat down. He murmured something to himself. It was too quiet for them to hear, and Ms. Tutweiller thought it sounded like "Odie's ankey."

He suddenly looked up at the sky. "I didn't know this was affecting him so much!" he moaned.

Ms. Tutweiller- along with everyone else- was confused. "Mr. Moseby," she said nervously. "What are you talking about? What's so important about Zack sleeping with a blanket? I mean, it doesn't seem like something he would do, but…" she trailed off, looking at him.

He looked back at her, then at Bailey, Maya, Woody, and Marcus in turn. "It's a very long story."

Maya shrugged. "We've got time."

Mr. Moseby hesitated. "Do you really want to know?"

Everybody nodded.

He then stood and started walking towards his cabin. "All right. Come with me. It's too hard to explain. I'll have to show you what happened. But, before I do, I want you to be aware that I'm about to reveal to you Zack's biggest secret. It's something he's kept closely guarded for years, and there are only two people on this boat that know it. You have to promise that you'll never tell him about what I'm going to show you."

Hey everyone! Welcome to my newest story! This is my first time writing for Suite Life, so any feedback would be really helpful! (hint hint wink wink)

So, I bet you guys have a bunch of questions after reading this chapter, but I will not answer any here. But, if you're confused, feel free to send me a review or a PM and I'll explain things but, WARNING: I will not (repeat: not) answer any questions about why Zack was upset or anything about Cody. Those questions will be answered in later chapters. Oh, and I know Zack seems OOC, but I did that on purpose.

Who can guess what Mr. Moseby was saying? I know it's pretty obvious, I'm just curious.

Please review!