A/N: Thanks for all the reviews so far, gang! I'm glad for the new readers, but I wish you'd start reviewing from the first chapter. XD But any review is better than none, so I really appreciate every single one I receive. :D By the way, there's a note on my profile, as usual. Please enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Nope, can't say I own WOWP.


Justin's proud of himself. He manages to pay attention to all of his morning classes, so he feels better by the time lunch rolls around. At his locker, he's practically jumped by Harper, who tries her best to catch him off guard in a hug, but he's gotten good at evading her advances.

"Whoa, Harper! What're you doing?" he asks, keeping her arms from encircling him by continually sidestepping and holding out his textbook as if it were an adequate shield.

"I'm just trying to thank you for saving my best friend's life! Justin, come here!" Harper tries her best to wrangle him in, but he manages to get a trashcan between them.

"Harper, why don't you go hug Alex?" He can see his sister across the hall, laughing at them, before she notices him looking and quickly disappears out of sight.

"I did, but she said I was suffocating her, and then she told me you're the one who saved her life. You're even more amazing than I thought!" Harper's voice rises in pitch, making the hair on the back of Justin's neck stand up.

"It's not that big of a deal, and I'm sure Alex is waiting for you in the cafeteria," he says, wishing one of the other students would rescue him. "You should go keep her company."

Harper seems reluctant to leave, but she finally complies, figuring he's right. Justin breathes a sigh of relief, watching her walk away as Zeke comes over with his lunch bag.

"Heard you saved your sister's life, man," he says. "That's so cool! I've only gotten to use the Heimlich on a dummy during training."

"How did you find out?" Justin asks.

"Oh, everyone's talking about it. You're like our school's personal hero. I bet it's exciting, right?"

He stares at his best friend. "No, Zeke, no. It wasn't exciting, it was terrifying! I don't ever want to do something like that again!"

"Okay, man, sorry," Zeke says, raising his hands in defense.

Justin wipes his hand across his face. "No, I'm sorry. I've been on edge since yesterday."

"No kidding. I bet this morning just made everything worse. So what's happening with the mystery girl you don't want to be attracted to?"

He bites back a groan and leans against the wall of lockers. He doesn't even know what to say. "Nothing's happening. I'm not planning on doing anything about it, but I do have an appointment with a therapist on Friday."

"You sound skeptical about finding help that way. You know, if you don't want therapy to work, it won't do you any good. You really want the attraction you're complaining about to end, right?"

The question jolts Justin's heart into overdrive. Yes, of course, he doesn't want to be attracted to Alex. But part of him -- obviously, the irrational part -- maybe enjoys the feeling. He loves Alex, and he knows practically everything about her, and when he can be normal around her, it feels nice. They've always had good chemistry together, even when fighting, so deep inside, he knows they'd go well with each other. And thinking like that is exactly what's going to get him into trouble.

"Earth to Justin. We have an urgent transmission for you." Zeke's waving his hand in front of Justin's face. "Dude, are you all right?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to keep my mind wide open in therapy, like you said. Thanks for the advice, now let's go eat."

While in the cafeteria, Justin manages not to look at Alex for most of the time, but apparently he can't avoid his problem so simply.

"Your sister's coming over here," Zeke says, and Justin almost panics. He doesn't move when Alex sits beside him, and Harper takes the seat next to Zeke.

"Hey, guys," Alex says, like this is an everyday occurrence. "What's up?"

"What's up with you?" Justin asks, never taking his eyes from his sandwich. He wants to scoot away from her, but that would bring him unnecessary attention.

"I can't sit with my brother at lunch?" she asks.

"You never have before."

"Are you saying you don't want me here?"

Justin finally looks at Alex, to find she's staring at his pudding cup. "I didn't say that. And you can't have my pudding."

Her dark eyes slide up to his. "I didn't say I want it."

"Yeah, well, I know you, so don't even think about it. Besides, I'm sure you don't want to hear Zeke and me discuss the Science Expo next month."

Alex says, "Ch. No, not really," at the same time that Harper says, "I think it'd be interesting."

Zeke and Justin exchange glances before they laugh. As two best friends go, those girls couldn't be more different.

"Alex, you should be a little nicer to your brother after he saved your life," Harper says, admonishing her with only a slight frown.

Justin wishes everyone would stop talking about it, because really, it's nobody's business. It's nobody's business how he tried not to revel in the feeling of Alex's trim stomach beneath his hands, with her body pressed against him in a way that would have been inappropriate under any other circumstance.

"You're right," Alex says. "Justin, you can talk about all your dorky stuff today."

"Like I need your permission," he says, finding it easier to be normal around Alex with other people present.

"Hey, how about we have a movie night?" Zeke suggests. "I'm thinking a Star Wars marathon."

"Oh, I love Star Wars!" Justin responds without thinking. "But it's a school night, I have stuff to do after school, and I have to work tonight."

"Then how about Saturday?"

"Sounds good."

"Can I come?" Alex asks, making both Justin, Zeke, and Harper stare at her. Justin's tempted to ask What is wrong with you? along with What have you done with the real Alex? before he realizes she's actually trying to be nice.

Alex is trying to be nice. Probably because she feels like she owes Justin, so he should just enjoy it while he can, right? But it kind of freaks him out, for her to even pretend to like the same stuff as him.

"You. . .don't know the first thing about Star Wars," Justin finally says.

"So? I can watch it and learn. Unless you don't want me to be there?"

His brain is in overdrive because it all sounds too much like a date for his sanity. And as much as he might like the idea, he really wants to avoid spending so much time with her. "I thought we already went through this, Alex. You can't just hang out with us because you have nothing better to do. My friends aren't your friends."

"It's not about your friends." Alex's gaze falls to her empty lunch bag. Justin's heart stops as his mind speeds up, trying to analyze exactly what she meant. He doesn't want to find any hidden meaning in her words, but part of him wants to think something entirely unacceptable.

"Alex, I -- " Justin is interrupted by the bell signaling the end of lunch.

She quickly jumps up, snatching Justin's pudding cup from the table as she leaves. Harper follows, and Zeke is left staring at Justin, which makes him uncomfortable. Justin doesn't even know what he was about to say before, but the heavy feeling in his chest makes him think he would have regretted it.

"Dude," Zeke says, gathering his food and empty wrappers. "What's up with you two?"

"Nothing," Justin says, maybe a little too quickly, but Zeke doesn't seem to notice. He sighs and says, "I'll go fix it."

He doesn't wait for a response before going out into the hall to find his sister. He knows she wouldn't go straight to class, so he finds her at her locker, staring into it as if she can't remember what her next class is or what books she needs. Justin hesitates long enough for her to catch him in the small mirror hanging on the door. She turns around to face him, directly holding his gaze, which makes him nervous. He swallows the frog in his throat that's begging him to run away.

"Alex, I'm confused," he finally says.

"You and me both."

He skips over the feeling of déjà vu, like they've had an eerily similar conversation, in favor of continuing before he loses his courage. "You don't owe me anything, Alex."

"But I do, Justin. You saved my life, and I want to make it up to you."

"You don't have to! You're my sister! Did you expect me to just let you choke to death? It doesn't mean you have to repay me."

"I just want to, okay?"

"And you want to do that by watching Star Wars? You think it's going to make me happy for you to be miserable, sitting through something you hate?" Justin's not even paying attention to what he's saying -- instead, only acting on his feelings, which is probably why he's stepping closer to Alex, unconcerned with personal space.

"Maybe I just want to spend time with you." She crosses her arms, defiantly staring up at him, and Justin wishes his hormones would quit trying to find double meanings in her words. But then she's rolling her eyes, opening Justin's stolen pudding cup, and saying, "Even if I have to watch something dorky to do it."

Why now? Why does Alex have to choose now to be nice, wanting to spend time with him, and at least trying to be accepting of his hobbies? She has the worst possible timing because the part of him that he's been trying to ignore would love to do all that with Alex, but his rational mind knows it wouldn't be a good idea.

"So can I go with you on Saturday?" Alex asks.

It still sounds like a date to him, even though she's inviting herself along and Zeke will be there, and because he shouldn't be thinking like that, he wants to refuse her. But he doesn't, because it's Alex, and he can never refuse her anything for long.

"Fine," he says. "But Zeke can come over to our place."

Our place sounds so wrong, yet so right to Justin's ears that he doesn't know what to make of it. Alex nods and smiles, making him feel both better and worse at the same time because he knows he's happy for all the wrong reasons.

Alex eats a large spoonful of chocolate pudding, and there's a bit in the corner of her mouth that Justin wants to clean with his tongue. He forces himself to look away, and he realizes the hall is empty, and that the bell for class must have rang a while ago. He doesn't wonder why he didn't hear it, because he knows he was too caught up in Alex. He's late for Chemistry, and he almost doesn't care, so he grabs his pudding from her hand and escapes the scene as quickly as possible.