4

In the foyer, Justin found notepaper by the phone stenciled with the address: Maison Troia, P.O. Box 3624, Collinwood, Maine, 36246. His bedroom was in the South Wing of the hundred and fifty room house with his mother, Gwen, Lizzie and Tricia in a portion of those ten bedrooms and the upstairs library. The North Wing with the erratic fuse box was housed with the rest of the psycho sisters; it had access to the in-door swimming pool and a rear stairway linked to the attic and cellar. The west wing linked both those parts of the house, but it was mostly unused except for use as a short cut from wing to wing and storage of furniture. The interior was decorated in Eighteenth Century Europe; the furnishings were French, German, English and Spanish. Telephones rested at the end of each upstairs hallway, the entryway, the study, the kitchen and the stables on the property with three separate phone lines. Justin explored narrow circular stairways, winding stairways, balconies, forgotten chambers and long galleries of artwork. The castle-like structure was like a museum with sculptures, paintings, portraits and historical pieces ranging from Civil War rifles to French swords to Chinese samurai armor. The estate was in the middle of a set of rolling hills surrounded by woodland, paths, gardens and elaborate patios and porticos. He could see himself living here, but he also could not get over the feeling he did not belong here. Where he tried calling home, the phone back home on Waverly Place either rang and rang and rang, or came up busy. What was going on back there? Didn't anyone miss him? What was going on? At lunch, it was just himself, his mother and Alicia for tomato soup. For dinner, it was himself again, his mother, Jessica, Tricia and Gwen. He tried calling home again after dinner and got a busy signal. Retiring to his room after another attempted phone call home at midnight, he also woke at 5AM, used the upper south wing phone to try and call home and let it ring seventeen times before giving up. He should have been happy. He was a rich heir with eight beautiful sisters, an ageless widowed clothing designer as his mother and a huge estate with everything in the world, but as he trudged back to his room in his robe and slippers, he felt himself missing his life back on Waverly Place. The following morning, he hurried to the far wing to attempt another call after breakfast. After thirty-one attempts, it was another busy signal.

"Alex!" Justin screamed through the phone. "Get off the stinking line!"

Jessica crossed behind him from the ascending oak staircase. She stopped, looked back at her brother, grinned curiously and tossed her hair back.

"Who's Alex?"

"Alex?" Justin hemmed and hedged a bit. "Alex… Um, she's… just a… really annoying girl!"

"Ally's going to be upset if you're cheating on her."

"Trust me…" Justin fretted a bit and started to turn to the study. "Alex means nothing to me. Nothing at all!"

Rounding her eyes a bit, Jessica nodded her head a bit and turned hastening her steps to the entry way and foyer. Several of her sisters were sporting purses and designer jackets. They were going somewhere. Lizzie had confirmed the limo and the plane.

"New York City…." Alicia was dancing. "Shopping spree…"

Justin popped to attention.

"Fine dining…." Lizzie announced her preference.

"Guys on every corner…." Jessica hiked up her boobs by her bra straps under her t-shirt.

"Wait…" Justin overheard and came running from the hallway to the main study and came to a sudden stop, his feet sliding on the black and white parquet floor near his new sisters. "Hey…" He caught up with them. "You're going to New York City? Manhattan?"

"That's…" Sara looked around her sisters. "Where it is…"

"Can I go with you?" Justin needed the way to get back to Waverly Place. "I need to… get… things…"

His sisters looked at each other hesitantly.

"Didn't you say after the last time you'd never go to Manhattan with one of us ever again?" Jessica reminded him.

"What?" Justin had no idea what the basis for that decision was. "Did I say that? No… I don't recall… I mean, whatever you did, I can forgive you…"

"Oh…." Sarah walked up to Justin and peered into his eyes. "So, if a creepy guy comes up to me, you'll pretend to be my boyfriend and at least try to defend my honor…. Maybe give me a little kiss…" She clicked her tongue.

Justin swallowed something in his throat the size of a golf ball.

"I think I could manage that."

"Ground rules…" Lizzie spoke up opening the main doors leading outside. "No spells, no hexes, no enchantments… Alicia, if a guy turns you down, no turning him into a woman. Jessica, we are using real money so don't be flashing any gold or silver ingots or doubloons. William, if trouble breaks out, no turning yourself into Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or anyone from your comic books to deal with it…"

Justin stopped and stood in the sunlight on the front portico to realize what she had said. Hesitating to dismiss that, he just hastened his way down the fifteen steps ascending down over bushes and a surrounding coy pond flowing under the walk to a circular driveway at the bottom. A mix of oak and maple trees with a heavy canopy surrounded the center yard of the driveway over a large round marble gazebo. Parked at the base was a long black stretch limousine with a grinning chauffeur. He was dressed as a driver in a black suit and bright blue shirt with a red tie. Each of the girls called him Bruce in their own way and was responded to as "lady" and "madam" with Justin referred to as "master." The five siblings crowded into the back on to leather seats and made their plans and arrangements, but Justin was more interested in the ride and the scenery. Perched silently in the side seat by a mini-fridge with bottled water, he watched as the drive out from Maison Troia included an acre and a half of woodland out through gilded gates on to a two-lane highway. The small hamlet of Collinwood seemed to be a village of maybe two thousand people surrounded by woodland. Drivers and motorists tried to look into the windows from their vehicles, pedestrians stopped and watched as the limo passed by homes, the courthouse, businesses and a city hall toward the town square and the baseball fields beyond the local school. On the other side of town heading westerly toward Bangor was Andrew Hancock Airfield, named for a local World War Two hero. The limo stopped at a gate and rolled right out on to the tarmac for a small Cessna N23, the family plane. Feeling the austere presence of the young heir he was supposed to be, Justin joined his sisters on board the plane and again took a quiet sitting spot at a window to sit in silence. Jessica got into the sherry on board, and Sara pulled out the ear phones to listen to music. As the plane taxied out and took flight, Justin was starting to like this life. Of course, he had a grand life in this one with opulence and wealth, but it also came with crazy sisters and a family history he knew nothing about, but there was also something pulling him back to Waverly Place, his wizard training and, yes, even he realized it, the worst sister on the face of the planet.

"William…"

Listening to headphones on the advance to La Guardia Airport, Justin turned to Sara leaning toward him from her seat. Lizzie, Jessica and Alicia were listening.

"Yes…"

"Who's Alex?" She looked back to him. "Are you dating another girl after Ally shot down your wedding proposal?"

"I'm not dating anyone named Alex." Justin swayed his arm dramatically. "And that is the truth!"

"Is she cute?"

"Does she have a brother?"

"Does she have money?"

"Please tell me she's got a brain…"

"No, yes, no and God no!" Justin answered their questions. "Look, she's just a girl I know… a really annoying girl I know…"

"Then why did you call her in the middle of the night?" Sara looked over. She'd been practicing her Ninja arts last night and was hanging off the ceiling eavesdropping around 5AM.

"Because…." Justin wasn't sure how to tell them the truth without confusing them or getting hit with more questions he couldn't answer. "Because… she's evil."

His four sisters looked at him for several seconds then turned back to themselves.

"He thinks girls are evil again…." Jessica claimed and picked up another celebrity magazine with Hannah Montana on the cover. Another few minutes and the pilot announced the plane was on ascent. Alicia downed her sherry in one gulp, Sara clipped her belt and Lizzie tidied up the table between the seats before flipping it back down. Justin looked out the window grinning to see the New York skyline. He was home or at least part of the way there. Checking his watch, he realized he just might make his first class at Tribeca Prep. All he had to do was pretend to drift apart from his sisters… casually drift back to get fifty bucks for a cab ride and then lose them again in the terminal to race out an entrance to grab a cab. He couldn't scream Waverly Place fast enough to the driver as his destination. It was then a long drive home where he and the Jamaican driver talked everything from sports to recipes until he was dropped off in front of Chang's Thai Restaurant five blocks from his house. His heart was pounding as he raced the rest of the way on foot. Looking ahead, the Waverly Station Subway Shop reared up on the corner up ahead. Coming out the front exit was a familiar face. Alex did not look as if she missed her brother. She hoisted her pack with her schoolbooks over her shoulder, rolled her eyes tiredly and started down the sidewalk coming into a collision with her long lost older brother.

"Alex!" Justin skidded to a stop dressed as a young heir in tan pants, white shirt and blue blazer. "Alex, it's me, you've got to help me!"

"Excuse me?" Alex backed from him distressed and annoyed to be bothered by him. "Do I know you?"

"Alex, I'm your brother!" Justin tried to convince her. "It's me Justin! The other night I wished you weren't my sister, and it came true! You've got to take me back!"

Alex barely responded to him. Her brown eyes lightly moved nervously afraid as she realized what he was saying.

"Alex," Justin held her by her arms. "I know you know what I'm talking about because you're a wizard. I know that because I'm one too! I want you back as my sister. You've got to take me back! I just can't live in another family! Those girls are crazy!"

"Let me get this straight…" Alex lightly stepped back with a devious grin. "You're Justin, and you're my brother?"

"Yes, thank you!" Justin thought everything was going to be all right. "You've got to tell mom and dad so we can fix things."

"Huh…" Alex rolled her eyes thinking. "This is all very interesting… except for one little thing."

"What little thing?"

"Alex…" Another Justin Russo came hurrying down the street from the corner and caught up with Alex in front of the coffee shop. "Mom wanted me to remind you to be right home after school for your shift in the store. No exceptions." He looked up to Justin but didn't recognize him. "And this is…?"

"Oh, Justin…" Alex turned to her brother. "You ought to know this person. He says he's you." She smirked matter-of-factly as if she was trying not to laugh.

"Wow…" The other Justin responded unimpressed. "And here I was thinking I was Justin Russo…"

"No…" Justin backed from his sister and himself feeling as if he was losing his mind. "No… This isn't possible! This just isn't possible!" He backed away from them unsure what to believe. Alex and himself stared at him as if he was crazy. "What did I do? Who am I? Who am I?" He shook his head and tripped backward into a newspaper machine, turned round stumbling over his feet and vaulted around the car parked at the curb to hasten across the street and down toward the way toward the old theater on the corner. Left behind, Alex and her brother looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and continued onward for school.

"Gee, I hope he figures out who he is." She responded almost concerned.

"Yeah," Justin reared his backpack with his books over his shoulder. "Can you imagine going through life not knowing who you were?" He took his sister's left hand in his right. When he squeezed it, she looked up to him with a light smile. Passing the coffee shop and coming up on the following movie rental place, she dropped her book bag, turned her head up and started kissing him. His hand tilted up her chin as she kissed him back.

"I wish you could keep Justin away forever!" She gasped between giggling breaths of kissing her brother's imposter.