Regarding Justin/Alex relationship, it's only a brother/sister interaction. I want to stay faithful to the relationship that we see on the show. I'm not sure how successfully I am on that front though. What aspects do you think work/don't work?

Chapter 3: Pizza

"Mom got the Stone of Dreams back and I wished everything went back to normal and it did…two years ago," finished Justin.

He took a long drink of his orange juice his dry mouth. His voice was croaky from talking flat out the last twenty minutes. He didn't risk stopping and giving Alex an opportunity to de-rail the story. He paused now though, scrutinizing her reaction.

"Isn't it a bit early to psych me out about the wizard contest? Dad said it wouldn't be for years," said Alex. She examined her fingernails with purposeful disinterest.

Justin could practically see cogs and wheels turning in her head as processed the story. A quest, a competition, an all-powerful stone...it was a bit much. Combined with reality bending spells and wishes it was over-the-top. Unfortunately, it was his life.

"Elemental spells is such a lame concept, couldn't you have thought of something more creative?" she continued.

"I'm from the future," said Justin. He punctuated each word with a sharp wave of his juice bottle.

"Yeah and I'm Hannah Montana."

"What?"

"I thought we were playing let's say things we are not game," said Alex with a sarcastic smile.

"Let's play a different game: Lies Alex's told that I shouldn't know about but I do because I'm from the future," said Justin, adopting her mocking tone.

"I know the pizza guy wasn't responsible for letting Willie escape. It was little 5 year old Alex who wanted to take him for a little walk and he wanted to run."

Alex's eyes widened. "I thought you were from the future not the past? Ancient history. Pfft! Let it go."

"I didn't eat pizza until you told me a few weeks from now. I got bullied in the 6th grade for being the weird kid who didn't eat pizza!"

"I remember that," said Alex with a laugh and a distant look in her eyes. "And then for your birthday, everyone chipped in to fill your locker with pizza."

Justin scrunched his nose, remembering the stale cheese-y, pizza odour lingering in his locker for a good year. His books smelled of pizza for quite some time. On one of his slower mornings, Max confused Justin's English paper for leftover pizza and took a bite out of it. Justin had to hand it in like that since he didn't have time to rewrite it. He only got a B on that assignment.

"We should order pizza."

Justin would kill for a locker full of pizza now. Hot sizzling cheese, topped with mushroom and pepperoni. His mouth watered, just thinking about it. He couldn't remember being this hungry before (admittedly, he didn't usually go on extended hikes or duels either!). Justin grabbed a hotdog on his way home from school, but he was still starving. He would gnaw his own arm off or eat his homework if he didn't get real food before dinner.

Alex's mouth dropped open. Justin could have sworn there was even a click as her two jaws unhinged. "Really?"

Justin narrowed his eyes. He was a reasonable guy; he could admit the pizza ban was irrational, but not if Alex gloated about it (it was annoying enough first time around, a replay was unnecessary). It was all Alex's fault anyway.

Hah. Story of his life. He really ought to be used to it by now. Seriously. He couldn't think of a single bad thing that happened that Alex's didn't play a role in. Justin voiced this thought, racking his brains for a single incident that Alex didn't instigate or exasperate. It wasn't fair, he knew, but it was probably true.

"What do you want me to say Justin? I'm sorry for wishing Mom and Dad never met? I haven't done that yet. I don't even apologise for stuff I have done."

That was also very true too.

"Sorry, it's just been a stressful few days." Justin rubbed a hand across his face. His tiredness was even greater than his hunger. This is probably what being 16 should have felt like first time around. Justin could have lived without this exhaustion and resentment. It was draining. Or maybe that was just time lag. Either way, he had no intention of hanging out in 2007 long enough to find out.

"You'll figure it out, Justin. You loved the Back to the Future movies. You know loads about time travel junk."

"But this is magic. Not science," Justin muttered.

Sometimes Justin felt like magic was the only thing he was good at. Lately, he just felt usurped by Alex in that arena. He would never have found the stone by himself. No wonder his wish didn't work; his mind wasn't pure enough, he wasn't clever enough, he wasn't good enough. It really should have been Alex who won the competition and wished on the stone.

Imagine if it had: the spell reversed to moments before Alex uttered her fateful words. Alex would insist on covering it up (and maybe she would convince Justin) and play happy families for the rest of the holidays. He might have even worked courage to order lobster. There was a little seafood restaurant down the bock where you could pick out one from the tank. He really regretted not getting the chance.

Alex blew out a heavy breath-hiss through her teeth. "Order that pizza. I do my best thinking on the sofa eating pizza and watch bad soap operas. I'll figure something out then."

Justin raised a skeptical eyebrow. Alex seemed to be confusing thinking with frying her brains and turning into a mindless zombie. He was desperate though and would try any option. And he did want pizza. It couldn't hurt.

"Deal," he said, standing up. "I'm not ordering pineapple on it though."

"It's one of my five fruit a day. I'll develop scurvy. Do you want that on your consciousness? Do you?"

"Fine. I'll order it with tomato if you are so concerned," said Justin, rolling his eyes and heading into the kitchen to find the menu and phone. This was the problem with pizza. Alex liked horrible combinations. Justin was a plain cheese kind of guy.

"Tomato is a vegetable not fruit," Alex called after his retreating back,

"Your face is a vegetable," Justin replied, not missing a beat.

Alex flung a cushion at Justin, hitting him right in the centre of his head. It bounced off and landed on the floor with a pathetic thunk. "Next time it will be a piano and your brain will be a vegetable," she threatened.

Justin couldn't let that slide. He picked up the cushion and tossed it back. Throwing things was never one of his strong suits and being off-kilter did nothing to improve matters. The cushion wasn't even in mid-arc and Justin could see it going horribly wrong (and nowhere near Alex's head!)

It was like slow-mo; he reached out as if he could stop the cushion. It continued on its destructive path towards a lamp, which fell to the floor and shattered. Justin flinched and lowered his arm awkwardly to his side.

"Oops."

"I can't believe that was you," said Alex. And not her or Max, went unspoken. Justin was supposed to be the good one.

Justin inspected the damage. With glue and time he could fix it. Honestly though, it was an ugly lamp. He really wasn't that bothered. Max would just break in within the next few weeks. Such a waste of effort.

"You know what you gotta do," said Alex.

"I do?" questioned Justin. He didn't like where this was going. Whenever Alex got that look in her eyes it meant trouble.

"Do over," said Alex simply.

"No. No. Noooo!" said Justin. He said it once more for good measure. He bent time and space enough for the rest of his life, thank you very much.

Alex hopped to her feet, raised her arms over her head and chanted: "Yes. McReary Time-Reary."

Time zipped backwards 5 minutes. Justin was back on the sofa; Alex perched on the arm of the far end clutching the pillow that caused the destruction.

"That was fun!"

"Emergency use only!"

Alex shrugged. "Honestly, Justin that's the least of your worries. Go order that pizza, quicker it gets here, the quicker my brain fixes your problems."

"There's a first time for everything!"

Alex threw the cushion at Justin's head. He managed to catch it and pointedly placed in on the sofa. It was physically impossible to kill the lamp with these angles, but he wasn't taking any chances.

Justin could learn from his mistakes.

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