Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place. No profit is being made from releasing this fiction.
Author's Note: So? How was the last chapter? Likes? Dislikes? Sorry, it took a while to put it up. The chapters are getting kinda insanely long, aren't they? I wish they were shorter but there's just so much to cover in the story so I just couldn't do that.
So if anyone hasn't figured it out, this is basically what I'm trying to do... I'm trying to give WOWP an ending. Because, and please don't kill me for mentioning this, I really think that the show is coming to an end and I highly doubt that Disney will give us the epic ending that the show deserves. Sad, right? I figured it was coming to a close because the show seems to be progressing too fast, and it's on its 4th season, right? I'm old enough to say that from my experience, Disney only keeps a show going for a certain amount of seasons (or years) and there are some subtle hints that they show when they're about to end the show. One obvious sign would be the actual number of seasons or years the show has been on. Another is if there is a character in the show who has graduated high school and is moving towards college *cough* Justin *cough*. Another is if they make a movie. That's how Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire came to an end, and other shows that I can't seem to remember the titles of (which makes me sad...).
So here's to hoping that Wizards of Waverly Place will be around for the whole duration of 2011 before they finally pull the plug. Cheers!
I'd also like to give a shoutout to raksha2010. You're awesome! Thank you for mentioning me in your fic. I hope we can inspire other authors to write more Jarper stories.
A Familiar Pattern 14
by genielou
Alex opened the box, enabling the thousands upon thousands of bubbles to come bursting out. The multicolored lights that shown from each one shone brightly and reflected beautifully on her skin. She basked in the supernatural feel of the atmosphere for a few seconds more before slightly nudging the lid of the chestbox, wherein the bubbles came pouring back into the box before she could close it completely.
And then she opened it again, and the bubbles bursted out once more. She chuckled before closing it. After merely a few seconds more, she opened it again.
"I can't believe it actually worked," she uttered as her eyes remain wide with amazement.
Harper turned towards her. "What did you say?"
"Oh, nothing," Alex said in a fake nonchalance.
Harper leaned back onto the pillows of Alex's bed, hugging one in her arms. During the previous night, after examining the very last bubble that contained Justin's confession of his 'almost-attraction' towards Harper, she quickly closed the box and burried it under a pile of her pillows. She hid it as if the thing contained some sort of disease that would infect the environment if it was exposed. Harper didn't quite know what else to do with it. She had thought seriously about opening it again to reexamine its contents, thinking that maybe she had made a mistake in reading that bubble. But everytime she was about to reach for the chest box, she would nervously withdraw her hand in the recognition of her desire to preserve that confession in her head. If it really was a mistake, she didn't want to know it quite yet.
And so, unable to sleep in her bed knowing that the chest box was under her pillows, she decided to stay up all night to set up and test out her new sewing machine. In her insomnia, she was able to finish design and finish the inner lining of a purse, create a rough prototype of a dress, and restitch a torn sleeve on a jacket that Alex had been bugging her to fix. As soon as the sun started peaking through the horizon, she dug the chest box out of the pile of pillows, gathered Alex's jacket in her arms, and headed up to Alex's room. It took a bit of effort to wake up the young Wizard but when she finally did, the curiosity of the chest box's secrets peaked her curiosity enough that she actually rose out of her bed on her own.
Harper sighed loudly. "I'm guessing this is why he's been locked up in his room this entire time?" she asked. "To work on this?"
"Probably. Most likely." Alex shrugged. "Man, there's something written on all of them. This must have taken forever."
"Yeah, that crossed my mind already." Harper stood from her perch and started pacing the room. Whenever Alex opened the box and a bubble disrupted her pace, she would simply bat it away with a hand and kept walking. "I'm not really sure what to think of this, Alex. Is this like a 'sorry' or something?"
"My answer to that would be 'ah, duh'!" said Alex, sarcasm evident in her tone. She opened the box again, her eyes wide with delight as she gazed and giggled at the dazzling colors above her. "This is so frickin' cool! Count on Justin to make something like this."
Harper rolled her eyes at her. "I guess the bigger question would be what exactly is he apologizing for?" she muttered. She paced around the room and stopped in front of a very significant bubble, which is the last one that she viewed the previous night. The text at the bottom, 'The first time I realized that I don't not-love Harper', felt bigger and louder than before.
Alex set the open box on the bed as she stood up, both hands propped on her waist. "Well, he has a lot to apologize for. Maybe he's just apologizing in general."
Harper tried to touch the words, but as soon as her finger tips reached the words, they broke apart into a white mist, only to reform themselves once she withdrew her hand. "If only it were that simple. But this is Justin we're talking about here." She stared harder at the text, frowning. "Just when I was finally starting to get over it, you suck me back in. You- JERK! Ngargh!" she exclaimed as she flailed her hands repeatedly over the text. The words reformed without malice when she withdrew her hands.
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "Harper. Down." She said sternly with a pointed finger. She walked round and about, skimming through the bubbles just as Harper had done the first time she opened the box. With the dim lighting and the different shades of color that danced around, it was hard not to feel the gift's romantic nature.
With this in mind, Alex quickly announced, "Maybe he's still interested in you."
Harper turned a curious eye to her.
"Come on, Harper. Don't tell me you haven't thought of that," said Alex. "He left school in the middle of the Fall term, came home and locked himself up in his room to work on- this," she emphasized by gesturing towards the entire room. "Even with magic, doing something like this is not easy."
Alex started reading text after text, not even paying attention to the pictures. And then, she read a text that looked familiar to her, more of association than it was from actually witnessing the particular event that it displayed on the bubble.
"Interesting," she said to herself.
She held out both hands and tried to grab the bubble; but just as it did to Harper, the entire bubble broke apart into a mist when she touched it. Walking back to her bed, she took her wand out from under her pillow, and then walked back to that bubble; this took a while longer than it should have because all of the bubbles looked the same from afar. When she finally found it, she jabbed her wand into it.
"Take that!" she said.
Not surprising to her, the bubble remained intact. She chuckled to herself and smiled victoriously. She then took it with her as she walked towards Harper, with the wand (and the bubble stuck onto it) held tightly in one hand.
Alex held it up for her to see. "I think I've found what he's apologizing for."
Harper looked at Alex, then at the bubble. She had to walk closer because, for some reason, Alex's wand was keeping the bubble from growing bigger in a way it should have.
"- allergic to?" she heard herself say from within the bubble. Her voice tinier. "My- my birthday?"
She had to frown, not really understanding what was happening. The entire scene finally replayed when the scene froze upon reaching a close-up of Justin's grim expression, allowing Harper to watch the entire thing.
"I bet you don't know anything about me," she heard herself say again. "My favorite color? What I'm allergic to? My- my birthday?"
Harper cringed everytime she asked a question, knowing fully well that none of them were answered. She saw Justin's grim expression again, aware of the shame in his frown.
Her own eyes travelled down to the text and what she saw was unexpectedly short and vague.
"I'm sorry."
Alex grinned knowingly at her. "I guess he knows a lot about you now."
Unbeknowest to Harper, Alex was well aware of what was really happening, but felt it inappropriate to intervene. Not inappropriate in a sense that she thought it more noble to simply stay out of the situation, but inappropriate in that she wanted her older brother to suffer before being rewarded forgiveness. In a twisted sort of way, it was all still properly Alex-like of her to stay out of it. So far so good, Harper was on the way to doing exactly that.
Although, much to Alex's disappointment, Harper was much slower at realizing her own feelings than Alex would've preferred; for on the day of the New Year's Eve, Harper announced that she would rather spend the night with Alex. So, on that night, while Justin was still relatively unheard of to the outside world, Harper tagged along with Alex and her entire family to Times Square where probably the entire city was gathered. Even Mason was present for the occasion, deciding to spend the time away from his clan.
"You look very beautiful, Harper," Mason told her; his accent still quite enchanting even after over four years of countenance. He bent down and kissed her cheek. "Your ensemble befits you very well."
Harper blushed. "You think so?" She looked down onto herself. Her brown coat covered most of her, seeming as it reached all the way down to her knees, but what was visible of her dress showed off the subtlety of her style. The white sleeveless, lace dress that she wore flowed freely with her every movement, converting into complicatedly curved frillies as they reached halfway down her thighs. Underneath the opaque dress was another dress, only more skin-tight and almost obviously revealing. The black, form-fitting dress was patterned heavily with different sized butterflies, unseen to the rest unless one comes close and stares at the dress. And underneath the dress, for the sake of the cold weather, Harper wore dark leggings that covered the entirety of her legs; reaching all the way to her ankles but covered from above her calves by high boots. She thought much of how she would present herself that night, even though it was for no one else in particular.
"Yeah, yeah, we all know Harper's all pretty and whatnot," Alex commented. "Now talk about me," she beckoned of her boyfriend.
Mason turned to her and smiled. "Dear, you know I always think you're the most beautiful girl in the world. But perhaps just for tonight, we should be more attentive to our Harper here." He leaned down and, with a hand to his mouth, whispered loudly, "It must be terribly lonely to spend the Eve without a date."
Harper glared at him. "Mason. I can hear you." She gestured at herself. "I'm right here."
Mason just looked sheepishly at her. Although, his declaration was nothing but the truth. Mr. and Mrs. Russo had each other, Alex was obviously with Mason, and even Max was supposed to meet his date somewhere in Times Square (count on Max to unexpectedly have a partner for New Year's Eve). Harper was the only one that didn't have a significant other to kiss when the clock strikes midnight.
"Excuse me."
She turned to the owner of the voice. A smile escaped from her lips when she saw a very handsome man before her. "Hi," she squeaked as her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her chest.
"Hi," he said in return. He smiled widely at her as he held out a hand to her. "The name's Daryn."
"Hi, Daryn," she took his hand in hers and squeezed lightly. "I'm Hot- Harper! Har- Per." She mentally knocked a fist to her head.
"Hi, Harper." His smile didn't falter. And for a short moment, Harper felt hopeful of the situation. That was, until his other hand slowly went up. Her eyes casted down and she saw a tiny digital camera in his hand. "Would you mind taking a picture of us?"
"Eh?" was the only sound that came out of her. It was only then that she was able to look past his shoulder and see that there was a short girl standing behind him, smiling shyly. Harper blinked at her, unbelieving of what was happening before her. "Um, sure. I guess so."
She held her hand out to the camera, but before she could reach it, another hand intercepted hers and took the camera from him.
"I'd be more than happy to," Mason said. He gently nudged Harper aside as he got into position to take the photograph. "Say cheese!"
Harper strayed away from the scene, a bit embarassed at what had just transpired. She didn't even turn when Alex stepped closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Alex heaved a deep sigh. "You okay, Harper?"
Harper pouted her lips and frowned. "I hate New Year's Eve. It sucks when you're single."
"Yup, yup," said Alex. "Boy, am I lucky I don't have to worry about that anymore."
Harper glared at her.
"Okay, woman, you need to relax," she told her. "You know very well where you can go if you want someone to kiss tonight."
Harper's head slowly turned towards where Max stood waiting for his date.
"No, no. No! He's younger than you. And it's Max. That's just weird," Alex scolded. "I'm talking about Justin."
Harper sighed loudly.
"Oh, Honey! Twenty minutes to go!" Theresa exclaimed as she clung to her husband's arm. "Should we call Justin? He should be awake by now, shouldn't he?"
"I don't know, Theresa. He was pretty drugged up when we left him," Jerry glanced at the giant digital clock that flashed menacingly throughout the entire Times Square area. "Why don't we just let him sleep a while longer?"
"But it's almost New Year's Eve and I want to be able to talk to my son before the ball drops." She rummaged through her bag for her cellphone. "Everyone come closer. I'm gonna call your brother and wish him a Happy New Year's."
"Oh, sweet. She's here!" Max jumped giddily as he stared onto the space where a tiny blonde stood looking about. "Mom, hurry up. I gotta go."
Theresa held the phone up to her ear and waited as the tone emitted a ringing sound. After less than a minute, she frowned and pushed buttons on her phone again. She replaced it back to her ear. "He must still be fast asleep," she muttered
Harper stood still, her eyes wandering from each family member. Theresa was concentrating with a frown as she dialed on her phone again; all the while with her other hand still clung firmly on Jerry's arm and his hand placed on top of hers. Alex jittered about as she waited to greet her older brother over the phone; she giggled aloud when Mason leaned close to her ear with a smile. Max waved about in the direction of the blonde that stood from afar as she looked around aimlessly, trying to catch her attention. When her eyes reached the rest of the street's occupants, she saw the same thing; couples all around were clinging to each other, giggling and laughing. Harper's mood would've been even more down if there had been kissing; luckily that wouldn't happen for another fifteen minutes.
Fifteen minutes, she thought to herself. In fifteen minutes, I'll be the only one here with no one to kiss.
That single thought was enough to lift her from her deep mood, but not towards enlightenment. On the contrary, it seemed to lift her mood into a stronger one; irritation, maybe. Annoyed, possibly.
Defiant, definitely.
She heaved a huge breath before suddenly declaring with a huge frown, "I have to go."
Mason was quick to notice her declaration. "Go? What do you mean go?"
"I mean, I have to go. Like, right now," she said as she scanned the crowd, looking for the quickest route to go through.
Alex smiled affectionately at her. "Got lonely, did ya?"
Harper glared at her. "No, just a little pissed." And with those last words, she stepped away from her family and ran head on into the busy streetway. It didn't take long for her form to disappear into the thick crowd.
Theresa and Jerry seemed too preoccupied with fidgetting with her phone while Max was still distracted with trying to catch his date's attention. Mason, not completely unaware of the situation, huggged Alex and kissed her brow.
"Hello?" Theresa said. "Hello? Justin, speak up, sweetie! It's getting kinda loud out here!"