Thanks to all of you who are following the story.

For the last few hours, Alex had been doing more thinking then she was comfortable admitting and she was starting to get a headache. First she had thought about the last few years, only now seeing how she had been getting closer and closer to her brother. She still couldn't quite place when she'd crossed the line between brotherly love to a crush.

It didn't take her long to come to the conclusion it didn't matter though. As far as Alex was concerned the only important part of her situation was how to end it. She couldn't like her brother, no matter how cute she currently thought the dork was. Everyone would be against, especially Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes.

It didn't take her long to decide her course, after all she was Alex. It was very simple in fact; she would ask harper how to get over Justin. Harper did it once, so maybe she would have some tips on the subject. Now all she had to do was do it in such a way that didn't give her true purpose away.

That could all wait till later though; right now she was coming up with some type of plausible excuse as to why she skipped all of her classes. She had already thought up her excuse that they would all see through, now she just needed one they would actually buy. Fortunately her parents had to be at some official business thingy this morning, so she still had a bit of time.

At that moment she heard the door rattling, giving her the two seconds it took for her to come up with another half-baked plan. Before her parents noticed any of her stuff lying around the house, she quickly recited "Exorior Egro".

By the time her parents had gotten to her room, looking raving mad, Alex was in bed and looked sick as a dog. Her parent's expression immediately went from raving mad to cautious worry. "Mija, how are you feeling," asked Teresa. Alex could tell they weren't yet ready to completely believe that she was sick yet.

Luckily for her the spell decided to really kick in at that moment and she went into a coughing fit. After that Alex fed them some story about puking when she got to school, and immediately teleporting home. For once they bought her sick story, and Alex couldn't help but to give thanks to that spell book of forbidden spells once again.

For the first time in a long time Alex remembered the downside of playing sick. Every other few minutes her mother would pop in and fret over her. Besides that she was stuck in her bed until the sick spell wore off. Around lunch time Teresa had stuffed grandma's yucky herbal tea down her throat along with chicken soup. At least by that point she could walk around without aching.

Teresa took this as her cue to sit Alex down in the living room, and forcing her to watch chick flick after chick flick with her. She was on the third… or was it the fourth, one when Max and Justin came home. She figured she only had a couple of hours of sickness left, but was worried by Justin's suspicious glance when her mother was explaining the situation.

She waited till her mother went to investigate a loud crashing coming from Max's general vicinity to confront him. She quickly disappeared up the stairs and slipped quietly into Justin's room. He was at his desk, facing the opposite wall, and studying. Alex could just make out some headphones in his ears, explaining why he hadn't heard her come in. She took the opportunity to look at her brother, really look at him.

His hard work had pay off, and while not super buff, she could make out the curves of his muscles. He had been paying more attention to his appearance lately too. His hair was up in a way she found quite attractive. He still dressed the same however. Though she'd never admit it she thought he was kind of cute when he acted like a dork.

Her stupid sick spell acted up again causing her to sneeze, which he must have heard or sensed. When he spun around to be met by the sight of Alex, with a slight blush, he was surprised to say the least. She quickly hid her blush, and caught him in her questioning glance. When he still didn't say anything she took it into her own hands. "So what was with earlier," she asked.

"Oh, you mean when I didn't tell on you for both faking being sick and using magic irresponsibly," Justin stated, throwing in an accusing glare in for good measure.

"I am too sick, and I could barely get out of bed you egg-head," protested Alex. She could already tell he knew though.

"How long have you been holding out on the sick spell? After all that book of forbidden spells is probably the only one you know from front to back," he accused. Alex did her best to look surprised, but could tell it wasn't working.

"Okay, okay. Will you please just not tell mom please," asked Alex. She pulled off her best pouty face, and could see him waver for a second. Then his face hardened again.

"Of course I'm going to tell, I was just giving you a chance to come clean yourself. I know why you skipped Alex," stated Justin. Alex felt her body go cold, could he possibly know that she was actually Christi. He couldn't, not with the way he had been acting. Could he? She felt herself blush at the thought, something Justin didn't really notice. "Just because you don't want to take your Spanish 2 final isn't reason enough to go skipping school and tricking mom and dad. Dad had to work the shop all by himself till I came home. Then I had to cover for your shift. Of course I'm telling," Justin snapped, obviously irritated.

Alex felt both relieved and disappointed. She did her best to avoid the nagging disappointment, and instead put on a mischievous smile. "Justin really, does that sound like me," she asked, put on her cute and innocent act.

"Yes," he deadpanned. Alex could tell he was still upset, and he couldn't tell their parents. The whole point of this whole mess was to go to the concert. That would go down the drain if her parents thought she had skipped out on a final.

She grabbed onto his arm, getting his full attention. "Justin listen to me, please. You don't know what's going on here. I promise you, the reason I skipped school was very important. And no, I will not tell you right now. Just please, don't tell mom and dad," she asked sincerely.

She wasn't sure what did it. Whether it was a look in her eye or just her sincerity, but it did its trick. His eyes softened and he conceded. Then it hit Alex that she was pretty much hanging onto his side. She could feel his body heat through all their clothing. They were still looking into each other's eyes; his holding concern and some other emotion she didn't quite recognize.

Justin gently coughed, breaking both out of their trance. Alex couldn't quite hide her blush, and could make out confusion on his face. "Well I better go get ready for dinner," she mumbled. She got out of his room quickly, before she made a bigger fool of herself. She really needed to talk to Harper soon.

Realizing Harper was probably home by then she rushed down stairs but just as she made it down the stairs she heard," Mija's come and sit down. Dinner's on the table."

Alex didn't have to try too hard to act slightly sick. Her spell still hadn't worn off completely and she really wanted to talk to harper alone. When her sullen steps did finally get her to the table she sat down next to harper. She did get a slight pick me up when she saw Justin give her a secretive smile. She couldn't help the slightly girly glee, even if he only did it because he thought he was being secretive.

Alex waited till Dinner conversation was in full mode to quickly ask Harper to come to her room after dinner. No importance put to it, nothing suspicious in how she asked. Everyone thought nothing of it, except for Alex. It was all she could think of, finally getting rid of this damned attraction. I believe it's fair to say it was one of the longest family dinners ever, as far as Alex was concerned.

Thank you for reviewing Aemeth! I really appreciate the support.