I DO NOT OWN WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE
School was drastically different for the Russo's with Julia around. Max found out quickly that she was basically a social butterfly, she almost never stopped talking and seemed to make fast friends with everyone.
"You're almost like a celebrity here. You're not gonna let it go to your head, are you?" Max asked as they were walking to his locker at the end of the day. "I don't think that's possible." Julia replied. "All they really talk about is my hair." She said, trying not to roll her eyes.
"I told you it was cool." He said, making sure he had everything he needed before slamming his lock shut. She found nothing wrong with that, shrugging at what he told her. It was then that Max realized something. "Do you wear pink and purple every day?".
She had on a pink blouse that tied with a bow at the waist and a purple skirt that went down to her knees. She wore tights that had little letter Js all over them, in different sizes and shades of pink and purple, but the main color of the tights was black. On her feet were chunky pink boots with purple laces in them. On one of the laces was a tiny gold butterfly charm. Her hair was in pigtails, tied back with the same type of ribbon Max saw when he first met her and when she gave him the roses. Her nails were mostly painted purple, but the ring finger on her left hand was light pink.
As usual, Julia answered Max's question in a way he wasn't expecting: with another question, after she laughed a little and they started walking out the door. "Does anyone else?"
She had a good point.
They took the subway home. They both had tons of homework to do, but the first thing they did was sneak into the lair. No one else had figured out that Julia knew the secret, and Max wanted it to stay that way.
Upstairs, Alex was struggling with her homework, but not telling anybody. She groaned in frustration and got up from her desk. "This is hopeless!" It was impossible to concentrate with the headache she had, and it was annoying not knowing where the headache came from. Trying to ignore how much her head ached, she decided to go back to her art project.
She picked such a random time to do so, but inspiration always came spontaneously. Pretty soon her floor was covered with newspaper, and she was hard at work in a much more peaceful state. Alex didn't exactly know what she was painting, since she couldn't stop. All she knew was that art calmed her nerves, and it was ten thousand times easier than homework. She smiled to herself as she painted, a whole world unfolding in front of her. "This is going to be amazing. Too bad no one's ever gonna see it."
While Alex was working on her masterpiece, Justin was just finishing up his homework which he had rushed through, to his own surprise. He wasn't sure why he'd done that, but he felt he'd find out soon. Something in his gut instinct had told him there was something far more interesting to do. The only problem was that he had no idea what that was.
While he thought about, Harper walked into the room, looking around. She said nothing to him as she searched for whatever it was she needed, and he watched as she walked by him several times without saying a word.
"Looking for something?" He asked her, annoyance from being ignored showing in his voice. It dawned on him that that emotion was exactly what she used to feel when it came to him at one point.
"Yeah, have you seen a book?" Harper asked casually, walking by him for the fifth time, and bending down a bit to look under the couch. "What kind of a book?" He asked, staying where he was as she walked in a circle around him, frustrated and confused.
She stopped walking and turned around to look at him when he asked that. "A square one." She said bluntly. Justin opened his mouth to laugh, but stopped when he saw something, out of the corner of his eye. By this point, Harper had walked out onto the terrace.
Quickly, Justin walked to the bookshelf and crouched down to pick up what was underneath it. Of course Harper wouldn't look for a book where there are a bunch of books, it was hidden in plain sight… but this wasn't just any book.
It was much more interesting than that. Her first initial was on the cover, in an elegant script. The cover was soft to touch, he was pretty sure she had made it. He was also pretty sure that her journal was what he was meant to find, what he had been so excited to get to, even if reading it was wrong.
That's why when he heard Harper coming back into the house, he put it behind his back, trying to act natural. He thought he was crazy for doing so, and that she would know exactly what he was doing, but he did it anyway.
"Did you find it?" He asked, mentally cursing at himself for saying something so stupid. Harper just shook her head. She had a smile on her face, which seemed strange to him. "I've got a present for you." She told him.
He backed away a little when she walked up to him, which only made the fact that he was hiding something more obvious. "What is it?" He asked, panicked since he felt like she was onto him.
It was only then that he realized she had her hands behind her back too. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands." She instructed. That was going to be a challenge. Justin tried to come up with a way for that to actually happen without Harper finding out he had her journal.
"Why don't you close your eyes too?" He asked nervously, wishing the his thoughts that followed weren't so angry, and feeling like he needed to wash his mouth out with soap even though he hadn't actually said anything. "Why, do you have a present for me?" Harper asked, laughing at that since it didn't seem likely.
"Well maybe if you'd stop asking questions already and just close your eyes, you'd find out." He said, actually sounding calm, and like he was annoyed. He didn't know how he managed the calm part of his tone, but the annoyance wasn't faked. He wasn't annoyed with her, just with himself since he couldn't figure out what to do.
Luckily, what he said made sense to Harper. "Okay fine, but this better be good, I know you're gonna get excited over what I got you." "Yeah, we'll see about that." He replied, getting better at sounding normal. He even nodded sarcastically.
As soon as they both closed their eyes, Harper started giggling. "What?" Justin asking, having no idea why. "How am I supposed to hand this to you with my eyes closed?" "Try your best." He said simply, making himself and Harper chuckle.
"What are you, my personal motivational speaker?" She asked him. "First you take me into your house and now you're giving me pep talks." Their laughing eyes made them look like they were in REM sleep standing up. Remembering that he had a chance to get rid of Harper's journal, Justin chucked it behind him as fast as he could.
"What was that?!" Harper asked when she heard it hit the door. "Up-up-up, don't open your eyes." He told her. "Stop cheating." Harper laughed. "I wasn't going to." "Oh, don't lie. I know you're trying to peek." "The only way you could see that is if your eyes were open, Justin." "So you admit it!" "Admit what?" She asked.
He didn't answer, opening his eyes and putting her journal back where he found it. "Are your eyes open?" She asked him, suspicious, with her hands on her hips. "No." He lied. "Prove it." As she said these words, Justin tripped over the couch. He wasn't sure if the most embarrassing part about doing that was that his eyes were open, the high-pitched scream that came from him when it happened, or the fact that the trip made him crash into Harper and have them both end up on the floor.
She groaned in pain. "Okay. Yeah… that proves it." She said, trying to get up. She couldn't because Justin was on top of her, and he couldn't get up because he was laughing so hard. Neither of them were really hurt, so she had to laugh too, even though she didn't know his reason.
"What?" She asked under happy laughter. "I'm such a dork." He said, still laughing too. Harper had to open her eyes at that point. He was looking right at her, still sorry about everything. "Did you just realize that now?" She asked him, smiling.
"What do you mean?" He said, quietly and calmly. It took awhile for him to understand. "Wait. That's what you think of me?" It was hard for him not to sound sad when he asked that question. She knew that, because she couldn't hide that emotion, even just nodding. "You've always thought that of me?" He asked her, shocked. She nodded a second time, but smiled.
"Don't be upset." Harper told him. "I mean, how can you take that as a bad thing? I bought you glow-in-the-dark dental floss." She said, handing it to him and watching his eyes light up. He backed up a little so that they were both just sitting on the floor, facing each other. "Now you can have healthy gums in the dark too." Justin shook his head laughing, but he said "Thank you."
Harper shrugged. "That's my way of thanking you, actually. Well, partially anyway." She didn't elaborate on that. Justin sighed and got up. Harper got up after he did, a confused look on her face after realizing something.
"So. Where's my present?"
This chapter is just an introduction to the next one, a lot of stuff is going to happen in that one. Is there anything you'd like to see happen? I'll update soon!
