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In the Fifties, the Waverly Subway Shop had been a hamburger place owned and run by Henry Russo. It was located in a five-story brownstone on Waverly Place next to an alley walkway separating it from the hardware and fix-it shop. Rumors were it was located on a mystical Native American site where spirits came and departed from other dimensions. Today, Henry's son, Jerry Russo, owned and ran the sandwich shop that operated there today. The small family business had enough seats for twenty-five customers, but it rarely had more than ten at any given time. His family lived in the second floor loft and hid their mystical secrets in the fourth floor attic accessed by a secret portal in the back of the shop's freezer. Reached by the spiral staircase in the alcove of the shop, the loft had its own stairwell next door to the shop that they shared with the apartment building over the coffee store and video rental place next door. On the third floor, each of the kids had their own bedroom and shared a bathroom while Jerry and his wife, Theresa, had their own bedroom and bathroom overlooking the street. Harper stayed in the basement-converted apartment reached from the stairwell behind the second-floor spiral staircase. It was an unconventional set-up for an unconventional family. Jerry and Theresa may not have been good parents, but they worked hard to keep it going. Jerry focused on the shop, and Theresa focused on the home and family, but she was not crazy about her husband's mystical legacy. Every time she turned around, something was getting levitated, someone had a spell on them or she had lost a few hours because Alex had cast a spell on her. Through it all, she tried to live with it. She loved her husband, she adored her children and she tried to make her mark in the local community every which way she could.

"Mom, you want me to take care of the dishes?" Justin came up to her.

"Why, thank you, Justin!" Theresa reacted surprised and pulled his head close to kiss his cheek. Trying to get her kids to help her was like trying to pull teeth. Alex never helped, and Max was always so distracted that he never knew what day of the week it was. She was more than willing to take it. The occasion, however, irked Max. One second, he was watching a cartoon platypus beating the heck out of a mad scientist on television; next, he was realizing his older brother was making him look bad by unloading the clean dishes from the dishwasher and then filling it with the dirty dishes without being asked to do it. A slight irritated twist of his head, he finally rose and headed over to Justin being the good son.

"I know what you're doing…" He looked briefly to his mother setting the table for dinner then back over the kitchen counter to Justin. "So stop it!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Justin reacted complacently oblivious.

"You're making me look bad by… helping!"

"I was just looking for something to do." Justin confessed.

"Why?"

"Virtue is it's own reward."

"Who are you?" Max reacted as if he didn't know this side of his brother then noticed his mother coming over to pull her Mexican chicken and rice dish from the oven. "Oh, look, mom… I'm helping Justin empty the dishwasher!"

"That's nice, sweetie." Theresa noticed and turned to the table with her steamed broccoli as Max waited for his kiss to the cheek and missed it. He just glared annoyingly to Justin and reached to the glass platter in the washer to put it in its place safely in the cabinet, but a few seconds later, it was slipping, bouncing off the edge of the counter and shattering on the linoleum floor. It was now Justin's chance to make a face as his mother whirled around to the sound.

"Max!" She was upset. "Your grandmother gave me that!"

"Sorry, mom…." Max felt bad. All he wanted was his mother's approval, and now he had broken her heart. Justin looked somewhat apologetic as they all looked at the sparkles of shattered glass on the floor.

"I got it, mom…" The big brother wanted to help his little brother. Justin held his hand out palm down over the area it had fallen and acted as if he was pulling on an invisible string. He tugged once and the tiny shards that had scattered a bit further away had started rolling back, a second tug and they all started dancing and jumping around on the floor. On the third tug, they all jumped up and started fusing back together at the molecular level to be joined again as one glass crystal platter once more leaping into Justin's fingers. Theresa was beaming ear to ear at that trick.

"Justin, wow…." She came over and looked it over and took the platter examining it for herself. "It looks perfect! Even that little chip from last Thanksgiving is gone!" She giggled lightly and turned to put it away again. Max couldn't stand it. He watched his brother put the clean silverware away then start filling the dirty dishes into the dishwasher.

"How did you do that without your wand?" Max asked him.

Justin paused and closed the dishwasher.

"I don't understand the question." Justin looked at him, toward the dinner table then back to Max. Theresa set out the last of the vegetables then turned to get the cups out of the cabinet. There were four kids and two adults; in all, six people at the dinner table on the landing under the big windows.

"Jerry…" She called down the stairs to the shop. "Dinner!"

"Just a minute…." Her husband called back from the shop. He had two customers, and one was getting ready to leave. Coming to clean the table, he said goodbye to the customer as Alex and Harper checked their watches from the both in the subway car where they did their homework together. Actually, Harper did her homework and Alex copied her answers, leaving a few blanks and wrong answers to throw off their teachers. Flipping the sign on the door to "Be Back Later" and lock it, he turned to the other customer rising and sipping his drink. It wasn't often he could get the shop empty at dinnertime.

"Why don't we go see that new Robert Pattinson movie tomorrow?" Harper carried her bottle of Pepsi with her and talked to Alex on the staircase.

"Not interested."

"Zac Efron?"

"Seen it…."

"Michayla?"

Alex made a long annoyed look at her.

"Oh, yeah… what was I thinking?" Harper quickly remembered Alex didn't care for female pop stars… especially brunette ones from Texas that hated Hannah Montana and starred in teen horror movies with Ashley Tisdale and Chad Dylan Cooper. On the second floor landing, they headed straight for the dinner table with Alex's father coming up behind them. Max was already in his seat against the windows, and Theresa was scooping spoonfuls of her cooking on to the plates. Justin poured himself tea, and Alex headed to the refrigerator to get a soda to drink at the table.

"It looks good, honey…" Jerry kissed his wife then reached past his daughter to take the pitcher of tea Justin was trying to return to the refrigerator. "So…" He sat down before the door to the patio. "Here's the part of the day Alex hates… what's going on in the lives of my kids."

"I discovered I can get my underwear to last another few days if I flip them inside out and wear the outside in." Max spoke up just as Justin tried to open his mouth. Harper looked up from sitting next to him and tried to squeeze her plate and chair between Alex and her father to get rid away from the Underwear Kid.

"Max, I don't want you doing that." Jerry blew on his rice to cool it before putting it his mouth. "Theresa, did you buy him more underwear?"

"Yes, but he still hasn't opened the pack I got him at Christmas." She looked to her youngest son.

"I'm going to…" Max was mixing his dinner together. "But I'm still a few Christmases behind…"

"Guess what I discovered?" Justin grinned a bit. "Did you know that Tribeca Prep was built atop another house?"

"Really?" Theresa offered Harper more rice.

"Who cares?" Alex mumbled as she scooped a spoonful of chicken to her lips.

"No, this is actually very interesting." Justin rested his arm against the table edge and postured with his fork as he talked. "It seems the school was built on a much older structure from the Civil War. It was used as an old hospital for soldiers, and according to legend, an old cache of forgotten gold and silver was left hidden in the basement."

"Justin, I wouldn't believe those old stories if I was you." Jerry ate dinner quickly to get back to the shop. "There have always been stories around here of something left behind from sometime, but when you go looking for it, some else already beat you to it."

"That's what I thought…." Justin swallowed what he had in his mouth and picked up where he had left off. "I asked Freddie about it, and he said the old owner purposely kept the house locked up so no one else could look for it, and he died penniless so he couldn't possibly have found it."

"Justin…" Max scoffed after mixing his rice, chicken, peas, carrots and broccoli into one integrated pile on his plate. "If there was anything like that in the underground rooms of the school basement, I would have found it by now."

"What are you doing in the underground rooms of the school?" Theresa looked at her son.

"Who said anything about me being down there?" Max had froze up and tried to cover up his hobbies.

"Wait, are you talking about Freddie the old janitor?" Harper made a face of confused disbelief. "Justin, that guy is weird! He also claimed that Mrs. Brunner the lab teacher ate a kid just because she was seven months pregnant!"

"I loved that story!" Alex began laughing. "Remember when he told us that the mystery meat was made from the missing band members." She started laughing.

"You mean it wasn't?" Max looked up. "I skipped eating spaghetti in the cafeteria for three months because of that story!" He remembered another story from the lying janitor. "So, what about the Janitors Hall of Fame in Utah? What about Janitor's Day? I already wrapped his gift!"

"Max, stay away from that janitor." Jerry shook his head in disbelief.

"Maybe he lied about everything else…" Justin looked up to his mother than looked around back to Alex. "But I checked on this… Part of the school basement was added on to another much older basement, but it's a lot to check out. Alex, I was wondering if you'd like to help me check it out."

"Uhhhh… no…." Alex looked as if she was considering it for a second than made a face. "I ain't going in that dark, dingy basement." She looked to her best friend. "Take Harper!"

"Oh, yeah, sure…" Harper dropped her fork upset. "Ask the girl who lives in the basement. Sure – she doesn't mind going underground!"

"Alex…" Justin looked at her. "Aren't you the least but curious…" He watched her sipping her root beer. He listened to her gulping her drink three times then lower her can, pat her lips and burp at the table. Her parents stopped eating to send looks of disapproval as Max started laughing.

"Nope." Alex announced.

"Theresa…" Jerry looked around and spooned more rice as he pushed it together on his plate with a roll. "What was that crash up here earlier? I thought I heard glass breaking."

"Oh…" Theresa sipped her tea. "Max accidentally dropped that crystal platter your mother gave me when we got married, but, luckily, Justin knew a spell that put it back together."

"Good work, Justin…" Jerry nodded proudly and reached behind Theresa to pat his son on the back. "Which spell did you use? The Crystal Transformus spell or the Rictus Restorum spell?"

"Spell?" Justin reacted from getting put on the spot.

"I wish I was a wizard." Harper spoke up. "I dropped and broke my music box a few days ago. Justin, do you think you could fix that for me?"

"He didn't use a spell." Max spoke up. "He just did this over it." Max imitated what he had seen Justin do. He gestured as if he was bobbing an invisible object on a string over the oven tray with the chicken and rice. Jerry didn't recognize that spell. He had taught the kids all the spells he knew from his days as a wizard and that was not one of them.

"What spell is that, Justin?"

"Why are we talking about spells here?" Justin made a face of embarrassment and chortled under his breath. It wasn't much of a chortle, it was more of a awkward snicker as if he was nervous or secretive. "Look, mom made us a really good dinner here, and I don't think we should offend her by not eating or forgetting to thank her for making it." He kissed his mother. "Thanks, mom."

"You're welcome, Justin…" Theresa enjoyed the loving attention and looked to Jerry a bit confused.

"Please tell me it's not one of those British spells you learned from your friends at Hogwarts!" Alex was so tired of hearing about Justin talking about them.

"Okay…" Justin slowly relaxed and reached to sip his tea. "I won't tell you." Whether she knew it or not, Alex had just given him a nice cover for the incident….