Alex Russo was bored. She'd only been home for 53 minutes but already she wished she was somewhere else. Harper had…something after school. She honestly couldn't remember what. She knew it wasn't cheerleading, because she would have been forced to go. Scrapbooking? Some sort of studying and/or project that Alex probably should be doing but wasn't?

It didn't matter where she was, Alex decided, rubbing her forehead. Thinking actually did hurt sometimes. The point was, Harper wasn't there to entertain her, so she'd been left to her own devices for 53 – no, 54 – whole minutes.

Half a sugar container later, Alex Russo was wired. So, when Harper did enter the Sub Station, exactly 1 hour and 13 minutes after Alex did, the young wizard jumped to her feet.

"Harper! Thank God!"

Harper's eyes widened, hands gripping her backpack straps as she took a step backward. Sugar or magic? Her eyes quickly surveyed the area before landing on sugar. "Oh, Alex," she replied, picking up the half-empty (or half-full, for the optimists) container. "You know, I don't understand why you even have sugar here. What on the menu, besides coffee or tea, would you need sugar for?"

The question had plagued her for as long as she could remember, but asking Alex was probably not the way to find out the answer.

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, eyebrows rising in amusement. "Sugar can go on everything. And you're supposed to be smart, pfft."

Harper just laughed, placing the sugar back onto the table. "What was I thinking?" she asked, rolling her eyes and walking through the restaurant to go to her basement room.

Alex's eyes had followed the sugar the entire time, and she poured and devoured another handful before following her best friend. When she reached Harper's room, Harper had already sat down at her craft table.

Zeke had approached her asking for help, and of course she was going to assist him in whatever way she could. She thought, of course, he would be around more, but so far it had been a solo project.

The senior duo was starting a new Dungeons and Gargoyles campaign, Zeke had explained. While they had plenty of miniatures, Zeke thought it'd be neat to give Justin a custom-painted one to accurately depict the character. He'd given Harper all of the necessary information, but really, Harper knew what she needed to do. She had Justin Russo's face memorized.

"C'mon, Harper!" Alex shouted, fingers picking at pieces of fabric in an effort to keep her entertained. "Let's go do something! Let's go place fake bids on Justin's auctions so he'll get all excited then be crushed when no one sends him money for his lame dolls."

"We did that last week," Harper replied, eyes scanning over the character sheet in front of her. "By 'we' I mean 'you,' of course."

"Yeah, that was pretty funny." Alex giggled, picking up a random hat and placing it on top of her dark curly hair. It was surprisingly normal and totally something she'd wear, so she chose to leave it on as she continued to poke around at Harper's belongings. It was like shoplifting, but from a basement and also a friend so not technically illegal. "You totally ruined it, though, by paying for it and having it shipped to Nellie. What are you going to do with it?"

Harper shrugged. She didn't want to kick Justin when he was down, so she felt morally obligated to purchase what Alex bid on. "I don't know. We could leave it somewhere so he thinks it came back to him on his own."

"Not devious, but it might confuse him for a while which could be fun. Sounds like a plan. Let's do it. Not now, though. Tomorrow. Now we should go somewhere. Let's go to the movies just to get popcorn, then come back here and watch a movie on TV instead."

The sugar had fully kicked in, and Alex was itching to do something. Anything. Standing in Harper's basement with food-dresses and headless mannequins for too long was creeping her out, and her interest in what Harper was working on was low-to-moderate at best.

Harper shook her head, motioning to the table of crafts ready for her to play with. "I'm busy, Alex. I need to work on this."

Alex groaned, stomping her sneakers on the ground. "Again? Ugh, c'mon! You've been working on that stupid thing for, like, three weeks! How are you not finished yet?"

"It's been four days," Harper answered quickly, eyes wide. "Alex, seriously, I am making you a calendar."

Alex waved her arm at the idea, and then picked up an apple sitting on the table, throwing it into the air and catching it as it fell. "Don't bother," she said, frowning when she missed and the apple fell to the ground. She kicked it to the side, focusing on Harper once again. "I still have the one you made me last week."

Harper didn't even bother looking up from her paper as she corrected Alex's timeline.

"That was two years ago for your birthday."

Alex wasn't listening; she now started picking up the actual crafts on the table, finding Justin's miniature. It did look a lot like him – if he was some adventurer, of course, and not a dorky mathlete or whatever he was into this week.

"Harper, this is done! Why are we even here and not gallivanting around town causing mischief and mayhem if you've finished the mini-dweeb?"

"Gallivanting? Mischief and mayhem?" Harper repeated. Alex was in fine form today, Harper realized, and that meant there was no shaking her. She put the character sheet down, taking the mini-Justin from her best friend. "I finished his yesterday. I kind of started working on one for Zeke. I stole his character sheet from Justin's room so I could make it. It's a surprise."

It was such a cute and romantic gesture that it almost made Alex want to vomit. Luckily, Harper had mentioned her favorite pastime, and that had pushed away all puke-urges.

"You stole from Justin's room? Aww, Harper! Why didn't you invite me?" Alex sat down in the chair next to Harper's, pulling her friend into a tight hug. "I'm so proud of you."

"Technically I made a copy, and then returned it to the exact location with no visible changes."

Harper Finkle didn't have the devious tendencies that she had, but Alex was still proud of what she'd confessed.

"Baby steps! Next time you'll leave a fingerprint on whatever you take, then soon after you won't return it at all," Alex explained.

Harper didn't really want to discuss her thievery, so she quickly changed the subject. She lifted the miniature she'd been working from its spot on the table, showing it to Alex. She didn't hand it to her, of course. She was protective of the tiny figurine. "Do you think he'll like it?"

Alex shrugged. "Sure, why not? I mean, compared to 'hair sweater' it's totally normal."

"Why does everyone bring that up?" Harper still didn't understand what was so weird about making a sweater from her hair. It was soft, it was a nice color and it kept Justin warm – it was everything a sweater should be.

"Dude, it was a sweater made out of your hair. You can't do stuff like that and expect people to not talk about it." Alex waved her hand before pushing herself up from the table. "C'mon, let's go do stuff. Finish his figure-ma-jig later. We can go bug Justin. You used to jump at the chance to talk to Justin. You're so weird now that you don't like my brother."

Harper knew she had to give in. As much as she wanted to continue perfecting the figure – and talking to the mini-Zeke was good practice for the real one – she knew Alex wouldn't leave her alone, and working with the Russo in the room meant destruction or mistakes. It'd have to be a 'later' project, when Alex had wizard stuff or crashed from the sugar. Then she could give Zeke the attention he deserved, even if he didn't know it yet.