The Next Morning

The smell of pancakes and eggs woke me up.

I sat up in my bed, smoothed my hair and headed downstairs.

Mom was behind the island, fixing breakfast, dad was scarfing down the pancakes, Max was, well I don't know what he's doing but it looks like he's trying to figure out how to use a fork. Justin caught my attention, he was serving himself some orange juice and fixed a strand of hair into place then cut up his pancakes, mom caught me off guard.

"Good morning Alex. Come, I made pancakes." She took a seat next to dad.

I walked down the flight of stairs and sat in the only empty seat, the one next to Justin.

He scooted over a little bit. He probably felt as awkward as I did.

"Dig in you two." Mom stared at the both of us.

Justin and I both reached for the syrup, our hands touched then fell instinctively to our sides.

Justin reached back for the syrup and handed it to me. "Here. Girls first."

Now I'm a girl. "Thanks." I took it and drizzled it on my pancakes.

Mom stared at us suspiciously.

I tried to act normal and served myself a glass of milk then took a bite of my pancakes.

Justin scooted his chair over a little more, towards max.

"Dude I need space." Max said.

Justin scooted over a little.

Mom set down her fork. "Okay what is going on between you two?"

"Nothing." Justin and I said in unison.

She wasn't buying it.

She raised her eyebrow. "You two are acting very strange. You won't go anywhere nears your sister and you keep glaring at him like your shy. What did you two do that you're trying to cover up?"

"Nothing." We said again.

She gave us a motherly look. "Tell me or you two will be grounded for two months."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Justin and I got together while you were gone and now we're finding it awkward. Happy?"

She and dad started laughing.

Dad spoke after he regained himself. "That's a nice one, Alex. You and Justin. You two can't even stand each other."

Justin and I stared at each other then back at them.

Mom started smiling. "That was a nice laugh. Back to reality, what really happened?"

I looked down at the table then at her shyly. Justin looked at her with apologizing eyes.

Mom's face turned serious. "Oh my god." She whispered, then louder. "You two didn't."

I nodded. "Yeah."

Dad stood up, making his chair fall back. "No! You can't, you're related."

I sulked down further in my seat. "You want to get us checked? We did and it's too late to take it back."

A few tears escaped mom's eyes. "When did you two find out?" She asked.

Justin and I stared at each other then back at her, we obviously had no idea what she's saying.

"Know what?" Max asked.

Mom stood up. "Alex. She's adopted."

My body froze. "What?" my voice went up an octave.

Dad answered this time. "Alex you're adopted, always have, always will."

Suddenly I finally understood everything.

Why Justin, Max and I looked nothing alike, why mom and dad always treat me a little better then them, and why I fell for Justin.

The truth is I'm adopted, but from where? Why do I have wizard powers? Am I really a wizard? Or is these someone else's power?

Mom and dad, if that's their real name, headed downstairs. "Justin, Alex the lair, now. We have to tell you something."

Justin stood up. "Come on."

But I couldn't move, my body was in shock from the news.

Finally I was able to feel my legs and headed downstairs to face the dreaded music.

"Now Alex." Mom called.

I stood up and made my way slowly to the lair.