Wizards vs. Timekeepers (Put A Spell On Me)

Chapter One: Serving the Community

Alex

"Alex, stop just sitting there!" Justin yelled loudly. Too loudly, if you ask me. We were both on a small stretch of road in the wizard world. Tiny potato chip crumbs covered the chest of this ugly blue jumpsuit. This whole thing was ridiculous. Especially the part where Justin and I match.

Ever since Justin had tutored the class of delinquents, we were still a little behind in the competition. We needed to do one day of community service - and the only thing available was disgusting.

I rolled my eyes. Justin's not my boss. To prove it, I stretched my legs out and grabbed one more Cheesy Puff from the bad. I looked right at Justin as I chewed.

I was sitting on the one small patch of green on the roadside, letting the tree I was leaning on protect me from the sun.

Max stretched his little girl arm across my torso to reach the bag. I slapped it.

"Ow!" he complained, his voice too cute for his own good.

I ignored him, and so did Justin. I shoved a handful of Cheesy Puffs into my mouth. "We have to get this road clean by the end of the day if we want to catch up with Maxine. I can't do it by myself."

"I'm taking a break." I grumbled with a full mouth.

"If you don't help me, then you'll lose. You'll just be a regular, easily digested mortal."

We both knew what he was getting at.

Mason's strikingly handsome face flashed in my mind. My heart gave a little throb.

I was on my feet before I'd even made a conscious decision. I couldn't be without Mason. I had to win.

"Fine," I said. "I'll help. But I'm not carrying the bag."

"Deal,"

His smile was too smug.

I yanked the pointy stick thing off the ground and walked to the other side of the street, keeping under the shade of a building. This jumpsuit was really hot.

I poked a water bottle and a candy wrapper, when I heard Maxine yell, "You know, I don't think this competition thing is fair."

"Me either," I yelled across. "They should just name me winner and be done with it."

"Very funny." Justin answered, squinting his blue eyes a little in the glare of the sun.

"I mean," Maxine continued, "you guys are so much older then me. I think we should wait until I can catch up."

Justin and I looked at him at the exact same moment.

"What?" Maxine asked innocently, pushing a strand of brown hair from out of his eyes. I'm still confused whether I should be referring to her as a girl or boy. She was the size of a little girl, with a round face small, elfin features. But it was still Max's damaged brain in that girly little head.

A breeze picked up, and my wavy black hair lifted.

I stabbed one more piece of-something. Something gross, and I think I could see just something alive on the tip. "Okay, ew."

I walked back over to Justin and thrust the pointy stick into his palm. "I think I've done my fair share."

If looks could kill.

I can't take it anymore. I'm cracking up. I've been at it too long. I might die. "Justin," I whine to my brother. "How long have we been doing this?" I sat down and shoved the pointy stick away from me, and began eating some chocolate bar I got from an unofficial-looking vending machine.

He glanced at his watch. "About six minutes now. I can imagine why you're so distressed."

"It's even worse for me then you guys." Maxine commented, shoving a Cheesy Puff into his mouth.

"Gosh, some people are so lazy." I scolded, and took a bite of the chocolate.

Justin looked at me. "Will you get back to work?"

"I am working!" I demanded. "Right after I finish this candy bar, I'm gonna give it to Maxine to throw away."

"You're such a humanitarian." He replied sarcastically.

"I'm feeling pretty unappreciated around here."

Justin glared. "And I'd appreciate it if you actually did something."

"Get ready to eat those words." I challenged. Then I called, "Max, get over here!"

He hobbled obediently over to me.

"Hold out your hand."

He did, but also closed his green eyes. "What is it, a present?"

I shoved the wrapper in his hand and said, "Happy birthday."

He opened his eyes and gazed at it. Then he looked at me and a smile spread over the disgustingly adorable face. "Thanks, Alex. Me and Mom have a collection of these things. She keeps them."

I felt a shadow of a smile on my face. "Where does she keep them?"

"Oh, in a bucket shaped thing."

"What does she call the bucket shaped thing?"

"The trash can." His voice was full of pride.

I just looked at him, waiting for recognition to dawn on his features. It didn't. "You can have all the trash on this, too." I handed him the pointy thing. "And just because I'm feeling extra generous, I'll tell you about all the trash on this road. And this pokey thing" I gestured to the stick in his hand "can pick up all of it. And tell you what, we don't even have to tell anyone you took it. I'll say it was me."

The smile on his face grew. "Thanks, Alex, you're the best." And he walked away, squinting at the ground.

Justin jogged over and gave me one of his disapproving looks. "Oh, save it." I said. "You're just mad you didn't think of it first."

"That is completely untrue." He defended. Then he turned away from me and said, "Hey Max," when he looked up, Justin continued, "There's even more on the other side of the road. And here's another trash picker-upper."

Max jogged over and retrieved it, but didn't gave us another sickeningly sweet smile. "Why are you guys being so nice to me?"

Justin looked at me. Guess I was taking this one. "Well, you see, Max, we thought that we should be extra nice to you in case you win the wizard competition next month."

Justin's gaze turned to a glare.

"If you win, I still want you to do magic for me." I smiled.

"Oh, that makes sense."

He trotted away.

We watched him for a few minutes. Every time he picked up a piece of garbage, he happily shoved it into the big, black garbage bag. Saving them for later, I'd guess.

And then everything froze.

The breeze was gone, the grass leaning as if it were still caught in it. Max was stuck mid-stride, a piece of trash he'd dropped floating by his knee. Justin's hand was outstretched and his eyelids weren't quite closed, stuck in an unfinished blink.

I wondered if I was frozen. I wondered if the others were thinking the same thing.

I felt my fingers twitch. I lifted my arm, and stared at it. I stood up. I wasn't frozen.

Justin looked completely ridiculous. He would look much better with a mustache.

I reached for the felt-tip pen in my back pocket, and scratched a curling line on my brother's upper lip. I rocked back on my heels to admire my work, and laughed. It didn't make him look better at all.

Just because I'm a fair person, I was about to go do my makes. I spun around, not worrying about where I was going, and I ran right into someone.

"You weren't here a minute ago." I stated, and stepped back so I could see who I was looking at.

He was standing perfectly still. His hair was blonde-the kind of blonde only a surfer could have, and a killer tan to go with it. His blue/grey eyes looked like dried ice, and they were it was like they were staring straight through me. His jaw was firm, his expression tight. His long-sleeve shirt couldn't hide his arms very well. They were slim but muscular, not bulging but strong.

I wondered if he was frozen. Then I smiled, shrugged, and went after him with my pen raised.

Before I could draw any facial hair, he caught my wrist. His grip was tight and his hands were warm.

"Hands to yourself." I hissed.

He put my arm securely at my side and took a step back. "Alex Russo?"

"Depends. Who wants to know?" I glanced at frozen Maxine and looked back at the guy. "If you're the wizard police, Max took those things out of my hand. I was just sitting there, an innocent bystander, and he rushed out of nowhere and grabbed them. It was robbery. So, if you're gonna get anyone in trouble, I think it should be-"

"I'm not the wizard police." His voice was smooth, and somehow hypnotic. He walked to my backside, and circled again.

"Then who are you?" He tried to circle again, but I held him in place, aggravated. "You're making me dizzy."

"Much remorse," he said. He saw my look, and he smiled. "I don't want to offend the Alex Russo. You're very talked about, where I come from."

I smiled, and pushed a strand of black hair out of my eyes confidently. "At first I thought you were a little weird, but now I'm starting to come around. Keep going. Flattery is great for the skin."

But he didn't speak. Gosh, this guy was vague. "Who are you?" I repeated.

"Ace." He replied. His stony eyes focused on mine, and for a second I stopped breathing. "The Timekeeper. I'll see you later, Alex Russo."

And then he was gone.

The breeze picked up again. Maxine picked up the piece of garbage he'd dropped. Justin blinked, then said, "You were right here-how are you over there now?"

I looked at him. "You don't remember?"

"Me neither," Maxine piped in. "I don't remember half the things that happen to me, though."

Justin looked at me, and I burst out laughing. The mustache looked even more absurd when he was frowning. His glare reminded me of what was happening.

"Oh, right," I said. I told them everything that happened.

When I was done, my mouth was dry. Justin just looked at me.

"Do you need a camera?" I snapped.

He ignored me. "You met a Timekeeper? This is so cool! What did he want from you?"

"I don't know." I answered. "Maybe we should go back to the lair and do some reading."

Justin raised his eyebrows. "You want to read?"

"Actually, I thought I'd be lookout." I smiled.

"Mom threw away my collection, didn't she?" Maxine burst out. We barely heard him, because we were on our way to the lair.s