The weeks were starting to fly by. As much as she hated to admit it, Justin's tutoring was really helping Alex. He knew the right ways to motivate her, and never gave up. Gradually, her skills at magic were getting better and better. Not as good as Justin, (he wouldn't let her forget that either, and neither would her dad) but still good enough that she was definitely no longer in danger of losing her powers at any time. One session, Justin said the words that both excited and disappointed Alex: "I think I've done all I can for now. You'll be on your own with studying magic, except for class of course." "Good, because I was getting tired of having to listen to you so much" said Alex. But what she was thinking was a bit different....I think I'm-dare I say-sad? Justin is a good tutor. And I guess, when you're good, you don't need to stick around for long. What am I getting so sad about? It's not like I won't still be seeing him. Yet....something is changed now. We're closer than we used to be. And as she stood watching him put the magic books away, she noticed something else. He's like....really in shape. I need to start paying attention. First he's taller than I realized, and now this? I wonder why he doesn't have a girlfriend, though. Probably because he's only friends with dorks......what the heck am I doing?! Am I seriously checking out my best friend?! Get your head in the game, Alex! She looked back over at Justin, and he had the strangest smirk on his face. "What?" said Alex defensively. "Oh nothing.....I just noticed you checking out my well-developed muscles. No wonder you wanted to spy on me at my house" he said, still smirking and looking self-satisfied. "What!" exclaimed Alex, trying her hardest not to blush. "I was not. Fyi, I've seen much better-developed muscles before. You're only so-so." So-so not true she thought. But he can NOT know I was actually checking him out....I don't even like him like that! Justin folded his arms. "All right, if you want to lie to yourself, go right ahead" he replied.
"You have a tremendously inflated head if you think that, Justin" said Alex. "Anway, I guess this means that I have to....study now? Like, all on my own and everything? Ick." She shuddered. "Way to change the subject. But yes, you'll have to STUDY." When he said study, he mimicked Alex's shudder, exaggerating it so that it looked like he was having a seizure. "Jerk." Alex slapped him to get him to stop. He did, and said, "Ok, time for a celebratory outing. What do you want to do?" Rolling her eyes, she said, "Only you would call having fun a 'celebratory outing.' I don't know....let's just go get a coffee or something. And maybe prank people?" "Coffee, yes. Pranking, no. We shouldn't be getting into trouble while celebrating you being good!" Alex pouted at this. Justin ignored her and asked, "Do you wanna invite Harper?" Alex thought for a minute. "Nah" she said. "Harper isn't much of a coffee person." And I can't stand being around her anymore when she's with Justin. She's all over him, and then she pesters me later about how he's hers Alex added silently to herself. "Ok" said Justin. "Let's go." They went to a nearby coffee shop. Alex ordered some frozen drink that probably had more sugar in it than should be consumed in a week, while Justin got a simple iced coffee. "You aren't going to put artificial sweetener in it, are you?" Alex asked Justin, horrified. Justin looked equally horrified at the suggestion. "No WAY" he said. "They have aspartame and other bad chemicals that actually kill people. A little known fact." (A/N: It's true!) "Wow. I've never been gladder to like regular sugar" said Alex. "You know that too much regular sugar can kill you too, don't you?" Justin asked her. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But I still enjoy it from time to time." "Good" said Justin, a little too forcefully. Then he looked a little embarrassed. "Justin Thomas! You weren't worried about me, were you?" Alex laughed, but inside she was feeling good about this. It meant he cared, and she was going to make him admit it. "Ah....no....I just...diabetes, terrible thing..." Justin stuttered, blushing furiously. "It's ok, Justin. I know you care" she told him. "It's kind of nice to know not everyone hates me." "Alex, I could never hate you" he said intensely, looking her straight in the eye. Alex was speechless, locked in his gaze. She looked away, and so did he; he looked even more embarrassed than before. Needing to set things straight, she put her hand on his arm. "Thank you, Justin" she said quietly. Then, more loudly: "And now, for being a sap, you are about to get ASPARTAMED." When she said this, she poured several packets of artificial sweetener on him.
"ALEX!" he said, jumping up and trying to brush the granules off of himself. "Nuh-uh, can't catch me!" she said, racing away from their table and out of the coffee shop. She ran all the way back to the sub station and waited for Justin to catch up. This gave her time to think. Could it be that Harper is RIGHT about something? Not that she's stupid. But this is kind of a weird thing to be right about. Is there something going on between me and Justin? There can't be! But the way he was looking at me when he said that....ugh I have no idea, and I can't ask Harper outright...except. I'm pretty good at getting information out of people. I bet I can get her to tell me what she suspects without her realizing what I'm doing. Wait, what AM I doing? Just because he's kind of, ok really, cute, and smart, and nice, and....OMG this can't be happening to me. Before Alex could reach her conclusion, though, Justin came puffing around the corner. "Alex-*puff*-Russo, you are-*pant*-in trouble" he said, out of breath. "I think you're the one in trouble, Justin. How can you not be failing gym with such terrible endurance?" she said, trying to make a joke out of it as always. "Not-funny-Alex" he said, sitting down at a table in the sub station. "You poured POISON on me, and then ran away. Far away. The least you could do is get me a water!" "Fine, fine, Mr. Killjoy. One water coming up." While she was getting it, Justin was trying to sort out his own thoughts. All he had thought about on his run there had been "why?" She broke the moment...was she saving me from embarrassment? Our friendship from getting ruined? Herself from feeling the same...of course that's not it, stupid he berated himself. And now, she knows I care to some degree. What if she's assuming the worst and things are going to get really awkward now? I refuse to let that happen! I need her to be at least my friend. I can't lose her completely because of one stupid mistake! Just then, Alex came back to the table holding a large glass of water. "One water for a Mr. Killjoy" she announced. She seemed perfectly unbothered, like nothing had happened. Of course, he couldn't know that was because she had resolved to wait and freak out later by herself. She was fine on the outside; she'd always been a good actress.
I guess I must have imagined her having a bad reaction Justin thought somewhat doubtfully. Everything seems like normal. He too made a resolution; that he would not let himself slip again like he had in the coffee shop. From then on, it had to be friend stuff, not couple stuff. The last little bit of time they spent together that night was in the sandwich shop. When they parted ways, they said an awkward goodbye. "Thanks again for tutoring me" said Alex. "Sure. Your dad wanted me to" Justin said back. "Well....goodnight, I guess." "Yeah...goodnight, Justin." She watched his back as he left the shop. Ok....I've just gotta make it to my room, and then I can FREAK OUT she thought. Then again, maybe it would be better if she just didn't think about it all....After all, once we got here, things seemed like they always are. Why freak out for no good reason? I'm not Harper. It's probably better to forget anything happened. Nothing really happened, anyway. She had never much been one to lie to herself, but Alex didn't know what else to do in this strange situation. Confronting feelings and getting into a big mess was NOT at the top of her to-do list.
A very good thing for Alex, or a very bad thing, depending on how she looked at it, was that wizarding class was canceled for the next day. Jerry had to go to a sandwich convention, and Justin had another school thingy. This meant when Alex saw Justin in the hallway at school Monday, she hadn't seen him since the night when...when nothing happened she scolded herself. She stayed close to Harper just in case. She noticed he stayed close to his nerd-buddy Zeke. Together, Zeke and Justin were co-king of the nerds. All the smart people looked up to them. The populars, not so much. They mostly ignored the two, a kind of you-have-your-territory-I-have-mine deal. Alex didn't usually socialize with them while at school, so it was no surprise that Harper shook her arm and said "Alex? Why are you staring at my man and his cuteish friend?" Thinking quickly, Alex said "Uh....well, first I was just zoning out; you know, when you can't really see what you're staring at? Then I noticed that they have really dorky outfits on." "That's not very nice, Alex. I think they dress cute. Preppy is just as in as anything I wear!" Harper exclaimed. Yeah, key words there are 'what I wear' Alex couldn't help but think. "Ok Harper, if you like preppy, whatever. I like more of a cool, bad boy look." "Like...Dean?" Harper said, her eyes following Dean walk by as she spoke. It was no secret that Harper was terrified of Dean. "Yeah....exactly like Dean" said Alex. She'd had a bit of a thing for him in the past, and no one said she wasn't allowed to like him all over again. "Watch this!" she told Harper. "Hey Dean" she called, walking over to him. "Wassup, Russo?" he said, eyeing her approvingly. "Well....I thought you might be interested to know that I don't have a date to the Spring Formal" she hinted. "Oh, is that so? I could fix that, you know" he said. "I know you could" she said flirtily. "So....we goin' together, or what?" he asked. "You bet we are" she giggled. "Ok, I'll call ya later with the deets" he said, winking at her and walking away. "ALEX!" Harper hissed, rushing over to where her friend stood. "What did you just do? You can't go with Dean! He's scary!" "Let it go Harper. You have no reason to be scared of him, he's perfectly nice. And I'm going to the Spring Formal with him!"
"What's this I hear about you and Dean?" said Justin, striding over. "He doesn't have a very good reputation, Alex." "I know" she said, annoyed. What did he care? "I happen to like guys with reputations. It adds something to their character." Justin looked seriously bugged by this, but said nothing more to Alex. Instead, he turned to Harper. "Hey Harper...I don't have a date to the Spring Formal, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in going with me?" He had to mentally prepare himself for her reaction. It still wasn't enough. "OH JUSTIN! I KNEW IT! I KNEW YOU FELT THE SPARKS! OF COURSE I'LL GO WITH YOU! I NEED TO START MAKING MY DRESS!" Harper threw her arms around him for a quick hug, then ran off to the sewing club room. Justin stood there blinking, dazed. "Now you've done it" smirked Alex. "Wow....that girl is CRAZY! You are one lucky man, Justin" remarked Zeke with an appreciative twinkle in his eyes. Alex and Justin stared at Zeke like he'd lost his mind, then turned back to each other. "I know it was probably not the best idea, but I thought it might make her back off a little if I did something in return. It might work" Justin added defensively. "Who knows, I might even like it." "I sure would" interrupted Zeke, still staring after where Harper had been. "Right Justin. I'm sure your little date with Harper will go sooooo well, you'll end up married like in all her scrapbooks" said Alex sarcastically. "At least I know I'll be having fun with Dean." At that, she turned and left. What neither Alex nor Justin knew was that they'd both asked out their dates to make each other jealous. However, neither of them had realized it for themselves yet. Alex thought she liked Dean, and Justin thought he was being nice to Harper. Things were about to get interesting.
(A/N: Dean with Alex? Justin with Harper?! Zeke LONGING for Harper?! Oh no! How long will it take everyone to find their right match? I didn't entirely want to update, because my sisters found out I was writing this and I was a little embarrassed, but I want to keep writing and I want people to keep reading! So never mind you, sisters :P )