Chapter Three – Sneaking Out Brings Trouble

Author's Notes: Please review!! This has a lot of hits, but hardly any reviews. I don't know if I'm doing a good job or not.

Alex let go of her brother albeit somewhat reluctantly. "Feel better Justin," she whispered in his ear, as she did so. She noticed that Justin was a bit reluctant to let go as well. He leaned back into the pillows and closed his eyes. All of a sudden he was feeling very tired. But he was reluctant to go to sleep. He wanted to sneak out and go to that concert.

Justin gave a fake yawn. He looked at Alex. "I'm going to that concert. And you're going to help me sneak out."

Alex looked at him. "If you're going, then I'm going too. Or I will tell mom and dad." Justin's eyes got bigger.

"You wouldn't dare," Justin said.

"Oh I would," Alex replied. "Besides you need to recast that spell. Over and over." Justin groaned. He did not want his sister tagging along on his date. But he knew she was right.

"Okay, fine. But how are we going to sneak out without Max noticing?" Justin asked.

"We'll just take him with us," Alex replied. "There. Problem solved." She looked down at her brother, feeling extremely superior to him in that moment. But Justin had thought of something else that needed to be solved first.

"No, not problem solved," Justin croaked. "I only have two tickets to Tears of Blood." Alex looked at him.

"Are you a wizard or not?" Alex said. "We'll just sneak in. We're wizards," Alex replied emphasizing the word wizard. "You're such a wiz-idiot!" Alex had come up with the new nickname for him only recently. But, the words barely left her mouth when Justin started coughing again, and Alex regretted them slightly. But only slightly.

"Oh." Justin said. He looked blank for a second before realization hit him hard. "Right!" Justin said loudly, but not as loudly as he normally would say such a thing. His voice wasn't up to much at the moment. Certainly it was not up to shouting. He nearly jumped as Alex grabbed his hand to pull him up to his feet. Then she pulled out her wand and waved it towards her brother.

"Coloporous symptonous vanish now and be banished!" This time Justin knew the spell had worked properly. He could feel it. His normal strength was returning to him, and he had energy. In fact, Justin was well enough to feel up to eating something. He had not eaten anything all day. Alex's spell was definitely stronger than his had been, because he was sick, and didn't have the same level of energy to make the spell as powerful as it should have been. But this one would last a good three or four hours.

"Let's get Max, and get out of here. Before mom and dad change their minds or something and come back. I can't believe they left us on our own," Justin said. Normally, they only left when they could count on Justin to be in charge. But surely, they could not have expected Alex to keep order over everything? Justin rationalized that maybe, since he was sick, Alex would tone down her normal antics. But in fact, all three of them were about to sneak out.

It actually felt good to Justin. He took Alex by the arm and dragged her out of the room.

"Max!" Alex yelled. "Where are you?"

"Oh now you guys want to fill me in," Max said, his hands on his hips. "Okay, what is it this time?" He about expected Alex to have some sort of plan.

"We're sneaking out. All of us. To Justin's Tears of Blood concert," Alex explained. Max's eyes lit up with excitement.

"ALL RIGHT!" he exclaimed pumping his fist in the air. " My first concert! This is going to be awesome!"

Alex just grinned. "Yes it is," she replied. Justin leaned on her arm. Alex shivered slightly at her brother's presence so close to her. In fact, her stomach was flittering with a mixture of butterflies, and a sense of peace at the same time. Alex felt safe with her brother around.

It was time for a spell improvisation. Justin raised his wand. "If our parents come home there will be a flood, so take us to see Tears of Blood." All three of them vanished from the house and appeared inside the Tears of Blood concert, where the warm-up act was just getting started. The concert hall was loud and crowded. Someone shoved into Alex.

"Hey watch it!" she snapped. It was kind of amazing how they had just popped in without anyone noticing. Alex hoped no one came around asking to see tickets. But luckily, there was a mosh pit, so Alex figured that they could just always blend in with the crowd.

Meanwhile, Justin was grinning. He had managed to get them to the right spot. He pushed up his sleeves. It was time for him to find his girlfriend. He did so almost immediately, much to Alex's annoyance. They gave a long hug to each other, which for some reason annoyed Alex. She rolled her eyes behind her brother's back.

The concert was loud and it was good, but Alex was barely paying attention to it. About an hour into the concert, Alex was getting annoyed by the whole plan. Justin was preoccupied and Max was just annoying.

"What does Justin see in her anyways?" Alex finally muttered to no one in particular.

"What was that?" Max said. Alex looked around, startled. She had not realized that Max was within earshot of her. He must have finished doing whatever he was doing.

"Nothing," Alex replied, in a fake innocent tone. "I didn't say anything." She pretended to be nonchalant about it all.

"Yes you did," Max said. "I heard you say something about a sea way?" Max asked. "That sounds so totally awesome, by the way, just saying." Alex stared at him. Was her little brother serious? God.

"Max, really?" Alex said. "A sea way? There's no such thing as a sea way!"

"Yes there is!" Max replied. "Remember that underwater seahorse camp that you were going to send me on? The Wiz Site talked about how their sea ways are just like freeways!"

"Oh, my gosh," Alex replied. She looked over at Justin. "Help me!" She mouthed.

"I can't hear you," Justin mouthed back at her.

"I can hear you," Alex mouthed once again. Justin just gave her a confused stare. "Oh forget it!" she said, annoyed. This whole concert was not as much fun as she thought that it was going to be. Justin was drooling over Kristie as usual. So gross. But as she continued watching them, she noticed something odd. They weren't standing very close at all. In fact, they were barely speaking. What is up with that? Alex thought to herself. She went over, and grabbed Justin's arm.

"What's going on?" she whispered In Justin's ear.

"Huh?" Justin replied. "What do you mean, Alex?"

"Well, Kristie looks like she's about to cry, and you guys aren't hugging, or kissing or anything." Unlike how they normally were.

"Yeah, about that," Justin replied. "We broke up. Kristie told me that she kissed another guy. So I dumped her." Alex looked at him.

"You're not devastated?" Alex said. "I thought I would have to stand here and carry the pieces of your heart by now."

"Well, you don't," Justin replied. "My heart is fine." Justin had realized that he did not really like Kristie anymore. First of all, she was not Juliet, nor was she even Alex for that matter. Alex and Justin had a very complicated relationship. Justin gave a long sigh, and yawned. He was feeling very sleepy at this point, a sure sign that the spell was about to fade. Alex knew Justin was probably upset by what happened, he was just trying not to admit it.

"Come on," Alex said, grabbing her brother's hand. "Let's find Max and get out of here, okay?" Justin nodded. All of a sudden he was not feeling the greatest, but it was not the sickness. The spell was still working. Even though he no longer loved Kristie, it was still hard, especially knowing that she had cheated on him. It hurt his pride. In fact, that was what was wounded the most. His pride. Tears were starting to well up in his eyes.

"Allergies," he insisted to Alex when he caught her looking at him.

"I know," was all Alex said. She tapped Max on the shoulder. "Max, we're going. Quick! Before mom and dad come back! Maybe they'll never know that we snuck out."

Max looked at them. "Oh they'll know all right. I'm going to tell them that you two snuck me out. I had nothing to do with it."

"You wouldn't," Alex replied.

"Oh, I would," Max said.

"Yeah, he would," Alex said turning her back away from her younger brother. "Let's buy some time with this rhyme, and send us back, before we all break our sack!" However, as soon as they landed back at home, Alex and Justin saw Professor Crumbs standing there, waiting for them. Justin gulped, and Alex looked at her brother, scared.

"It will be all right," Justin mouthed.

"Justin. Alex. Why am I not surprised?" Professor Crumbs replied. "You're lucky they sent me and not the wizard police."

"You're not going to take our powers away are you?" Justin asked, his voice cracking every so slightly. He felt dizzy. Alex's spell to go back in time had made her earlier spell wear off. He was sweating, and felt rather faint. He felt his fingers dig deeper into Alex's shoulder.

"Ouch!" she said. "Justin!" She turned and looked at him and not Professor Crumbs. "Justin! Are you okay?"

"No," he managed to say, "I…." he could not complete the thought. Then Professor Crumbs interjected into their conversation.

"Justin," Professor Crumbs said, choosing to ignore the Russo family's reckless behavior for now, "When you are well, you will be punished." He looked significantly at both Alex and Justin. Then he vanished. Justin moaned, and looked at Alex.

"What are we going to do?" he asked her. "We're in so much trouble." He was leaning against her, but she couldn't fully support his weight.

"Justin," Alex said, "Put your arm around my should…" but Alex stopped short because the door had just opened and their parents were standing right there. She gulped.

"Professor Crumbs informed us that you all SNEAKED out to that concert," Jerry explained. He looked at all three of them, but his eyes kept flickering towards his oldest, who was struggling to stand up right. "YOU THREE ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE! ALEX! MAX! I'm grounding you both for a week. No hanging out with friends, nothing. You come home and do your homework."

"Aww, but dad!" Alex started to complain. Jerry held up a finger.

"Ahh..ahh," he said, "NO BUTS."

"What about Justin?" Alex asked. Justin glared at her.

"I think he's being punished enough," Jerry said. "But I can't believe that you went to the concert, Justin, when you're this sick." When Justin got sick, he hated missing school, but loved his mother's attention. He would never sneak out either. When Justin got sick, he got sick. Alex glanced over at her older brother, privately thinking her dad was right. She had never been more worried about Justin until that moment. Her heart ached for him.

"Justin, sweetheart," Theresa said, "You go upstairs and rest, okay? I'll bring you up something later.

"Me too mom," Alex replied quickly. "Come on, Justin." She supported him up the stairs as Justin was wobbly. He felt extremely warm next to her, and Alex could tell that the fever her brother had earlier had spiked considerably. This only made her concern for him grow deeper.

"Thanks," Justin told Alex tiredly when they finally made it up the stairs. He was breathing heavily, and Justin was a bit unnerved that such a little task could make him so tired.

He stumbled over and collapsed onto his bed. Alex pointed her wand at Justin's bedside and a glass of water appeared. She smiled down at him. He looked so cute lying against the pillows with the covers pulled all the way up to his chin. Justin's eyes were closed. He was already asleep, having been extremely exhausted.

"Good night, Justin," Alex whispered quietly, and sadly. Her brother had to be okay. She had something important to tell him…she thought that she was falling in love with him. As more than just a sister.