Justin shook his head for a moment, then blinked, looking at Beth. Damn, she's hot. Why didn't I notice how hot she is before? He started to give her a smile, then looked to his left, noticing Alex there. His little sister was wrapped in the towel he'd teleported her into the room in, and Justin felt his face color a little at her standing there like that with Beth there.

Well, what else is she going to stand in? I've got her clothes. That brought to mind what they'd just been doing, and he felt his face color more as a mixture of guilt and shame flooded through him. Oh Lord. I am the worst brother in the world. Literally. She's my sister. She's sixteen. Mom and Dad wouldn't be happy about her having sex like she is with anybody, and... and especially with me.

He realized, then, that he'd been standing there a good twenty seconds without saying a word, and Beth and Alex were both looking at him curiously as he stood there blushing. "Oh, umm... Beth, Alex. You know each other," he said, stalling, then blushed a little more at the lameness of what he'd just said.

"Yeah," Beth replied, still giving Justin a curious look. "But I came to talk to you. I'm not understanding this problem here..." She lifted up her math book, opening it and pointing, and Justin looked automatically. "Oh, that's simple, you just --"

He cut off then as Alex cleared her throat a little. "Umm... it's not due until Monday, right? I'll come by later and show you, okay?"

"Okay," she said, nodding and snapping the book closed. "I'll see you later. Bye!"

"Bye," he answered, then watched her go for a moment, his eyes automatically flicking to the gentle sway of Beth's butt as she walked away. Then Alex's hand was on his upper arm, pulling him into the room, and he stepped in. She closed the door and immediately turned on him.

"You were checking out her butt!" She looked angry, and Justin knew intellectually that she looked really, really cute like that, but -- there was nothing there but a bit of annoyance and guilt about being caught. Alex looked him upand down, reached and took her clothes from under his arm, then suddenly dropped the towel. Normally she didn't do that, instead letting him order her to get naked, and he wondered exactly what she was doing.

For a long moment, Alex stood there, watching him. Justin looked her up and down, his eyes taking in the curves of her hips and swell of her breasts. Wow. She's grown a lot in the last two years, he thought, but what he felt was a vague sense of embarrassment, both for her, standing naked like that, and at the stirring he felt below. She's my sister. I shouldn't be getting horny looking at my sister!

He turned then, looking away, only to look back a moment later as he heard a sob. "Justin? Don't you want to look at me?"

*

Three hours later, Alex was at home in her room. It hadn't gone well from there, and Alex knew why. My spell worked. Justin's not in love with me now, and that's making him completely weirded out about all the sex we've been having. I can't really blame him for it, though -- it's my fault.

She was in the lair once again, flipping through the magic book, sighing. Nothing of any help so far. Intellectually, she knew this wasn't a good time for this -- she was still too upset from the argument she'd had with Justin, and she wasn't thinking straight. On the other hand, though, mom and dad had taken Max out to a movie, and this was the only chance she would likely have to look through the book unsupervised today.

Yeah. And it's not like I can ask Justin or Dad for help on this. Or even Harper. She stopped, closed the book, sighed, and stood up. "Wow, all this reading is giving me a headache. And it's not getting me any answers yet. There's got to be someone else who could help...."

But who? Professor Crumbs? No -- no way she wanted to try to explain any of this to him, and he was sharp enough to see through any story she might come up with. Hugh Normous? She could get him to help easily enough, but he wasn't really any better at magic than she was... and she didn't have a good way to contact him anyway. Uncle Kelbo would help if she explained it as a prank, but he wasn't really that good either, when it came to fixing things. And he wasn't good at keeping secrets, so Dad would probably find out eventually, and that was one thing that couldn't happen. The last wizard she knew was TJ.

He's good at magic. He might be able to help me with this. But can I trust him? He hates Justin.... Alex stopped, then smiled. I don't have to tell him it's Justin. And he hates my dad too, so he won't go telling him about it. Yes... I think I'm going to have a little talk with TJ at school tomorrow.

*

"Hey, TJ. Come over here and talk to me for a minute."

"What?" The brown-haired boy looked up at Alex, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You want to talk to me?"

"Yes, that's just what I said." Alex gave him a smile -- faking it, of course, but she was good at faking smiles. And I'm really, really cute when I smile, which makes things a lot easier.

"I don't think I want to talk to you." TJ turned away from her, looking back into his locker.

Alex held back a sigh. Of course. Well, that's okay, I figured he'd be like that. "Oh, well... you're probably not good enough at magic to help anyway, so I guess I'll talk to someone else." She turned and started to walk away, smiled at the near-immediate reaction.

"Oh, I'll show you who's good at magic! What do you need help with?"

Dropping the smile, Alex turned back to TJ. "Well, this girl's been chasing my boyfriend, so I cast an anti-love spell on her, but he took a step at the wrong moment, and it hit him. So now I need to remove it."

TJ stared at her for a moment, then blinked. "That's it? Hell, I thought you might want something difficult." He made a sneer of superiority, and Alex suppressed the urge to smack it off his face.

"Okay, then, if it's so easy, how do you do it?"

"I guess your dad must be so caught up in not letting you do any magic that he forgets to teach you any. Two contradictory spells cancel each other -- so all you have to do is cast a love spell on him. It'll cancel the anti-love spell, and he'll be back to his normal feelings for you." He raked her up and down with his eyes, sneered a little more. "Which can't be that great, but maybe you're happy with them."

Oh, he is so looking for a smackdown. "Uh-huh. Well, I'd say it's been nice talking to you, but it really hasn't. Let's not do this again later, okay?" Before he could reply to that, she was around the corner, feeling the best she had all day. Okay... so, I get Justin to drink a love potion, and everything's fixed! This'll be cake!