"Catherine, wake up" said Juliet shaking me.
"No, I'm sleepy" I said trying to wave her away.
"Juliet Cathy! Guess who's here?" I heard Justin shout.
"Who?" Juliet yelled.
"Max" Justin yelled back.
The minute I heard that I was out of my bed and throwing whatever I could find on. When I was finished I ran downstairs with Juliet following me laughing all the way. "Uncle Max!" I yelled giving him a hug.
"Hey kid, how are ya?" Max asked as I let go of him.
"Good, what did you bring me?" I asked.
"Catherine!" Juliet exclaimed.
"Sorry" I said.
"Its ok" said Max he then pulled something out of the bag he was holding "I bought some beef Jerky"
"Thanks" I said grabbing the bag and eating the strips of beef jerky that was in it.
"Sometimes I think you are around too much" said Justin.
"Why?" Max asked.
"Because, Cathy is just like you, she eats whatever there is whether it is weird or not" said Justin.
All the adults then started talking about random stuff and after I had finished my beef jerky mum decided we would go shopping. "Come on Cathy, time to go shopping" said Juliet, we then walked out of the door leaving Max and Justin talking.
When we got to the shops it was busier than usual, after a bit of shopping we went to the park, I sat on the bench finishing off my smoothie. When I had finished I ran over to the play equipment to play.
"Hello, I'm Emily" said a girl about my age, she reminded me of someone.
"Hi, I'm Cathy" I said smiling "Are you new here?"
"Sort of" Emily replied.
"Sort of?" I asked.
"Well, I was born here, but we moved away for a bit then we came back" said Emily.
"Oh ok" I said. We then started chatting until her mum and dad came over.
"Come on Emily, time to go" said her mum.
"You look like my Aunt Alex" I said.
She froze "Aunt Alex?" she said turning around.
"Yeah, my dad's sister. Though, no one has seen her since the family competition, we Russo's have a family competition to see who is the best family member to know the Russo secret, but, dad and his brother were very upset when she had run away with her boyfriend" I said, I had twisted the truth in case she was a Mortal.
"You're a good liar" said her mum.
"I learnt from my Uncle Max, though dad says it is bad to lie" I said.
"Uncle?" said her dad.
"Max?" said her mum.
"Cathy!" Juliet yelled.
"Coming!" I yelled back.
"Come on time to go home" said Juliet when she found me.
"Hello Juliet" said Emily's parents.
"Alex? Mason?" said Juliet.
"Hello" said Alex.
"Justin will be very happy to see you, why don't you come over for dinner tomorrow?" Juliet asked.
"Sure" said Mason as they hurried off into the car park.
"What's wrong with them?" I asked.
"I don't know, but, you will not speak of any of this to your dad or Max, ok?" Juliet asked.
"Ok" I replied.
"Hey dad! Guess what?" I said walking into the living room I got a look from my mum to stop talking.
"Yes Cathy?" Justin asked.
"I…" I said looking around for something I then remembered the smoothie in my bag "Bought you a smoothie!"
"What flavour?" Justin asked.
"The best one…"
"Orange?"
"No"
"Blueberry?"
"No…"
"Strawberry?"
"Yes!"
Justin smiled, "So, did you have fun in the park? Make any new friends?"
"Yes, I had fun in the park, and I made one new friend, Emily" I said.
"Emily, what she like?" Justin asked.
"She's nice, very funny and sh-"
"What do you want for dinner?" Juliet asked interrupting me.
"Pizza!" I said.
"Pizza sounds good" said Justin.
"Justin, can you please ring Max and ask him if he can come over tomorrow night for dinner?" Juliet asked.
"Ok" said dad picking up his cell phone and he rang Max.
"He said that he can come" said Justin.
"Cool, Pizza is ready" said Juliet passing us our Pizza.
"What happened then?" I asked. Max was telling me the story of when he had turned into a girl, while we waited for Alex, Mason and Emily to arrive. Only mum and I knew they were coming.
"Well, I flashed myself to the Family Wizard Competition Commissioner's Office and found myself already there. Which I soon found out was Alex and Justin. We then had a fight of sorts and I won, they then both said different spells and I turned into a little girl. They tried to turn me back but failed. When I got home, we did a test to see how long I would be trapped in the little girl's body; the result came back as indefinitely" said Max "Though, I still have no idea what indefinitely means"
We then heard the doorbell "I'll get it" said Justin opening the door.
"Hello" said Alex and Mason.
"Alex? Mason? What are you doing here?" Justin asked in disbelief.
"We decided to visit" said Alex giving Justin a hug "Is Max here?"
"Yeah, come in" said Justin letting them in.
"Max!" said Alex rushing to her younger brother and giving him a hug.
"Hey" said Max returning the hug "Who's the little girl?" Max was the first person other than Catherine to notice Emily.
"Emily, mine and Mason's daughter" said Alex smiling "So, how many new family members are there?"
"Pardon?" we all asked together.
"How many more nieces and nephews do we have?" Mason asked.
"Just me" I said.
"And one on the way" said Juliet.
"Gratz" said Alex.
"Thank you" said Juliet "Who wants Pizza?"
"Me!" said Emily, Alex, Max and I.
Justin laughed, "Yeah, I'll have some too"
"I'll try Pizza" said Mason.
"You've lived with Alex for ten years and you still haven't eaten Pizza? Wow." said Justin.
Mason shrugged Juliet then passed us our plates of Pizza and we all dug in and talked about what had happened to us in the ten years Alex had been gone.
Alex and dad then went to have a talk and I followed quietly sitting at the front of the study door. "Justin, what has happened to you? Juliet has changed you so much" Alex asked.
"Changes can be good"
"Not this change, you're completely different since the Wizard competition and marrying Juliet"
"Maybe I'm different because I don't have any powers and because Max has them"
"Max didn't win the competition, you did. But, you gave them to him because he couldn't live without them. And I don't think you can either"
Dad won the competition? But, dad had always said that Max had won it. Because no one noticed him like usual. I quietly got up and went to my room and sat on my bed thinking.
"Hey kiddo, what flavour ice cream?" Max asked opening the door to my bedroom.
"Chocolate" I said.
"Ok" said Max closing the door.
"Wait" I said and he opened the door again.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Did dad really win the Wizard competition?" I asked.
"What makes you ask that?" Max asked sitting on the bed.
"I heard dad and Aunt Alex talking, about the Wizard competition and how dad had won not you and about changes" I said.
"What sort of changes?" Max asked now interested.
"I don't really know" I lied.
"Ok, well I think you need to get your mum and dad to explain about the Wizard competition" said Max.
"Why can't you tell me?" I asked.
"Because your dad told me not to tell you if you found out" said Max.
"Please?" I asked giving him the pout he had taught me to do.
I saw him bite his lip "Fine" he said after a moment's thought.
"Thank you!" I said giving him a hug.
"Well, full story or just the part where your dad wins?" he asked.
"The winning part" I answered.
"Ok, it was a sunny day-"
"Can we skip the weather?"
"Fine, now hush. Your dad was getting annoyed at Alex because she kept doing mud spells. So he summoned a whirlwind and Alex couldn't get out of it, so it was just your dad and I, we raced to the power ball and I was about to touch it when I slipped in some mud that Alex had put there for Justin earlier. So Justin beat me, when we had got summoned back to the Wizard council room, Justin decided to give his powers to me. And that's how I became the Russo family Wizard" said Max.
"And Alex?" I asked.
"She ran away with Mason right after the competition and no one has seen her since" said Max.
"Until now" I said.
"Can we have a dramatic ending?"
"No." I said.
"I told you not to tell her" said Justin standing in the doorway, he shook his head and walked away.
