2

An hour after Alex had departed with Harper and her mother, Connie Evans, phoned Theresa Russo to report that Alex had wandered off and to see if Alex had headed home. She hadn't. The girl had vanished from the mall. Theresa first mumbled about Alex being irresponsible, but then Connie added that Alex was acting a bit out of it. Alex had said she thought she had to get back to her concert.

What concert?

A few confusing questions related to Jerry, and Justin finally confessed. Alex was still stuck in Hannah mode, but where? Somewhere in New York City, the brunette Hannah impersonator was probably trying to convince people she really was Hannah Montana or trying to get to Malibu, California. Jerry screeched first and sent his boys to search for their sister without any results. There was no telling how long the Hannah spell would last, but they had to find Alex. Theresa became consumed with panic and worry. Her beautiful daughter was somewhere in the city, but where? Sometime before nine o'clock, Jerry returned home without results and Justin and Max returned as well without their sister. Their next choice was to use a locator spell from the magic book, but it might not lock on to Alex. It could lock on to the real Hannah Montana.

"This is the worst thing you guys have ever done to your sister." Jerry fumed angry and upset over his sons. They had collapsed tiredly into one of the empty tables of the shop filled with regret and stressed anxiety toward their punishments.

"She's done much worse to us." Justin looked to Max and back to his father. "May I remind you of the time she turned us into Oompah-Loompahs!" He and Max still recalled that incident with hard feelings.

"That wasn't so bad." Theresa paced back and forth upset and worried. "That Halloween you didn't have to get costumes, and you got so much more candy!"

"What about the time Alex shrunk us down to action figures and locked us in her underwear drawer!" Max recalled another spell in their on-going feuds. "I myself was traumatized for weeks after that! I still can't go near the laundry if she has dirty clothes on top!"

"Yeah…" Justin debated the argument further. "And what about when Alex caused me to turn into a werewolf! I smelled like flea dip for weeks!"

"That was your fault!" Jerry pointed his finger at Justin. "I told you to beware of those people in Wizard MySpace!" He turned round trying to think through his worried anxiety. "The truth is you guys lost your sister! You let her wander off without her identity!"

"Technically, dad…" Max nervously palmed the table as he looked up. "That was your fault. We had Alex under control until you dragged us down into the basement to clean it."

"Jerry!!" Theresa smacked her husband.

"That's right, dad." Justin spoke up. "We tried to tell you several times, but you just told us to shut-up and clean the basement."

"Well, um… well, I mean… uh…" Jerry fretted over the turn of events. Stunned into hostile anger, Theresa was getting mad at him too. "I was angry because you guys didn't do the work, and besides, Alex should not have had a spell on her in the first place!" He fumed and paced again. "You guys are in so much trouble!"

"My baby somewhere out there not knowing who she is…" Theresa stopped and peered out the entrance of the shop. "I want her home." She paced worriedly back to her husband. Jerry and Max remained sitting at the table. A lot of fun had turned into a lot of grief they felt responsible for, but what could they do? They said they were sorry. Their heads turned to the sound at the door as someone entered the shop. By his side, he was leading a young girl. It was Alex!

"Excuse me, but does this girl belong to you?" He turned to Jerry. Theresa shrieked for joy and rushed to hug her daughter. Alex seemed a bit confused. A few minutes ago, she was looking for her journal upstairs, and now, it was nighttime and she was being lead home by the cowboy in the mustache. What had happened to her in the last few hours?! Justin breathed a bit of relief, and Max rose from the table. Alex seemed a bit out of it… dazed, confused and delirious as if she'd been asleep a long time. She looked at her mother bewilderedly confused and slowly recognized her. Jerry made a brief look at the man who had brought his daughter home and started shaking his hand before recognizing him.

"Thank you… Thank you, so much…wait, you're Robby Ray…" He took the former singer's hand and shook it. "I remember you from your records. You found my daughter?"

"Robby Ray found my daughter?" Theresa started falling into a bit of idol worship once her concern for her daughter was off her mind. "Oh, I had a big crush on you when I was eighteen!"

"Thank you very much…" Robby reached up to tip his hat to them. "I found your girl sleeping in the back of Hannah Montana's tour bus over at the mall. You better talk to her about that." Max and Justin were watching silently from the back of the shop.

"Hey, Robby…" Jerry rushed to his sandwich counter. "Would you like a free pastrami for the road?"

"No, that's okay." He waved back to them as he turned his way out of the room. "Have a good night and tell your daughter not to go sneaking into tour buses." He turned to return to his manager duty as road manager to Hannah Montana. In his shirt pocket, he heard his cell phone ringing as he stepped out onto the front sidewalk. Lifting it up, he recognized his daughter's cell number.

"Hello… What?" He answered it. "I'm on my way back now… No, Miley, I swear…" He rolled his eyes. "I was not hanging out with Mikayla!"

"What happened to me?" Alex looked around confusingly. "I had the weirdest dream." She ambled a bit out of it toward the counter. "I dreamt I was singing on a stage with Madonna, Britney Spears, Hannah Montana and Christina Aguilera, and they were wizards who kept jumping into my body." She looked around the shop trying to sleepily recall where she was. She looked at Max and Justin. "You creeps put a spell on me, didn't you?"

"Spell?" Max tried to act innocent. "Where would you get…"

"Yeah, it was a spell." Justin just wanted to face the music.

"Thanks for backing me up!"

"You know I'm going to have to get even with you guys for this." Alex felt her mother stroking her shoulder happy to have you back.

"Oh no you're not." Jerry motioned over to her. "I'm tired of this war of magic between you guys. We're dangerously close to revealing magic to the real world, and I'm not putting up with it from now on. The next time any of you use magic as mischief on the others, someone is going to lose their powers for a week."

"How can you do that if you don't have any powers, dad?" Justin pointed out the flaw in his logic.

"I've still got friends and contacts at Wiz Tech…" Jerry beamed to Justin as he brought up their school where they were secretly taught in the practice of their magic. He turned toward the front entrance of the shop. "From now on, no more magic used against your brothers and sister. I'm laying down the law now." He looked up to a young beauty outside the shop. She was tall and statuesque and stunningly beautiful with long dark hair and round emotive brown eyes, like a very young Salma Hayek or Penelope Cruz. She could have been a model or an actress, but she locked eyes with Jerry as he reached to pull the doors shut to lock up the shop.

"Excuse me…" Jerry tapped the shop hours by the entrance. "We're closed."

"No, dad, please don't!!!" The young woman pounded at the door. "It's me, Alex! Your daughter! I'm trapped in this time from the future without my powers! I don't have a place to go! You've got to help me!!!"

Everyone leaned back in shock.

"I knew you'd never be able to hold on to your powers." Justin whispered to Alex.