Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place. No profit is being made from releasing this fiction.
Author's Note: It's not over yet! Lol. I told you guys I was going to give WOWP an ending, didn't I? It can't end that simply.
And I'm so so sorry that it took a while for me to update the story. I took part in an exchange program in France so that's where I've been for these past few months. But I'm back now!
Also, thank you so very much for the reviews. We actually reached over 100 reviews! Let's celebrate! Woot Woot! Wow. I never would've imagined that any of my stories could reach that many reviews. You're all very incredibly awesome.
Let's read on!
A Familiar Pattern 16
by genielou
Justin slowly awoke to the tiny sound of birds chirping. The light that emanated from the balcony windows indicated the morning time. He groaned at the growing ache on his neck and shoulders; and with a slight turn of his head, he realized that he was still on the couch. And sitting right next to him, with her head leaned against his shoulder, was a dozing redhead.
"Hmm..." she moaned.
He smiled as his eyes softened at the sight of her. Her sleep must be closing to an end.
The events of the previous night quickly returned to him. The shouting, the fighting, the throwing of multiple pillows, and… the kiss. Oh, the kiss. It was overwhelming, but in an incredibly great way. In a matter of a few hours, he and Harper evolved from being childhood friends to being boyfriend and girlfriend.
Wait, are we boyfriend and girlfriend already? Can I say that? Or are we in a 'dating' stage? Maybe I should ask her, he thought to himself.
He turned his head towards her, and watched with bliss as her body moved in unison to her breathing. Orange light began to invade the room through the windows and bounced off of her red hair, seeming to blend and shine into a fiery glow. If he squint his eyes, she would almost look other-worldly.
Justin lifted his other hand and stroked her cheek with it. She moaned softly.
"Hey, you," he whispered when the slit of her eyes opened momentarily. "Good morning."
"Hi," she replied, her voice a bit hoarse. "Is it morning already?"
He smiled as he cupped her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Yeah. Unfortunately. We're gonna have to get up soon."
"Hmm, no. I don't want to yet," she said as she let her eyelids droopily close. "I wanna sleep a bit longer."
Justin's arms instinctively acted on their own, both claiming her upper body and pulling her closer to him. "Ditto," he expressed.
They both closed their eyes as their minds slowly relaxed to an encompassing slumber, only to be interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing. Justin momentarily frowned but decided to ignore it. The second time, however, and the speech right after it was not as easy to ignore.
"You two have a lot of explaining to do."
The stern, accented tone of his mother was unmistakable. Both Justin and Harper quickly reacted by opening their eyes and jumping up from the couch, instantly creating a considerable amount of distance between them. They both straightened themselves and, upon concentrating on their audience, realized that the rest of the Russo family, and Mason, were all sitting comfortably on the other seats of the living room; all of them staring at the couple with curious expressions.
Max rose from his seat and started to slowly clap his hands. "Woo-hoo! Yeah! Come on, everyone. Join in!" he said towards the others. His words were met with raised eyebrows. "Oh come now, don't tell me you guys aren't happy for these two. It's about effin time, right? Am I right?" He continued clapping with a big smile.
"Oh, yes! Definitely!" Mason exclaimed as he rose from his seat and started clapping as well.
Alex rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, we're all very happy that these two are together. I guess. Whatever," she said as she, herself, rose from her seat. "But what I want to know is why they're all cuddly and sweet on the couch. Alone. All night long. If I'm not allowed to be alone with Mason in the house, neither should Justin." She stepped towards Justin. "And look here, Justin's not even appropriately dressed. Something very rated R happened here. And I bet it came very close to rated X!"
"Alex!" Harper exclaimed. "Ew."
Justin frowned at Harper.
"No! I mean," Harper blushed. "I didn't mean it that way. It's just—"
"Rated X!"
"Alex." Jerry said, eyeing her sternly. Alex matched his stare with her own; but eventually surrendered with a wide smirk.
"Okay, you got me. I was just kidding," Alex chuckled. She turned to Justin and clapped his back loudly. "Way to go, Justin. As Max said, it's about effin' time."
"Oh no, no, no. You're not getting off that easily," Theresa said as she wagged a finger at him. She turned momentarily to Harper, "dear, I am very happy for you. It really is about time." She turned back towards Justin. "Young man, you know better than to be alone with a girl in the house. Even if that girl is Harper, you should know better. You're grounded."
"Theresa, he's twenty years old," Jerry said, still calmly seated in his seat. "He's too old to be grounded."
"He's still living here, isn't he? He's grounded," she said with finality. "I don't want to hear any buts. You're grounded for a week."
"But, Mom," Justin pleaded. "Harper and I just got together. I was hoping to take her out to a nice dinner tonight."
Harper looked at him with a quizzical expression.
"Well," Justin started, stepping towards Harper and taking a hand in his. "I was gonna ask you later, but I guess now is just as good a time as any."
Harper smiled, and nodded. She turned her attention to Theresa. "Mrs. Russo, this was all my fault. I was the one who came rushing in here in the middle of the night. I knew the rule but I guess I didn't really consider me being alone with Justin to be a violation of that." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "until—I guess, last night?"
She involuntarily giggled, and Justin concurrently turned beet red. Alex rolled her eyes while Mason and Max let out a loud, "awww."
"I'm really sorry, Mom," Justin started. "But can't you just let us go out tonight? I promise I'll stay home and clean the house for the rest of the week. But tonight, I'd really like to take Harper out. Please?" He looked at his father. "Dad, help me out here."
Jerry nodded and furrowed his eyebrows at Theresa. "He's an adult, Honey. And today is the first day of the new year." He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we should start afresh and just let him off the hook. Just this one time?"
Jerry proceeding to pouting his lips, and Justin and Harper followed suit soonafter. With three puppy-dog expressions, Theresa was outnumbered and became overwhelmed with the sincerity. Finally, she rolled her eyes, shrugged her shoulders, and shook her head in defeat. The others cheered in glee.
"Yay! Thanks, Mom!" Justin cheered as he gave her a big hug.
Alex clapped her hands loudly. "Okay, okay. Now that we have that settled, let's dispurse! Move along, please. Move along," she said as she shooed her parents away with her hands. She gestured at Max as well, but he merely crossed his arms and plopped himself back onto the couch.
"Fine, whatever," she said nonchalantly. "Okay, first thing's first, congrats you two," she gestured at them. "Second, let's double date. I think this is the safest way to keep you two from doing anything stupid and breaking up again, and then taking an entire year to get back together. It's just so tiring so let's do whatever we can to avoid that."
"Alex, this is our first date," Justin protested. "I think both Harper and I will prefer to be alone on this first one. Right, Harper?"
Harper quickly averted her eyes and looked elsewhere. Justin frowned at her.
"Harper," he hissed. "You actually want to double date with them?"
Harper bit her lip. "Um, yes?" she asked. She cringed when Justin rolled his eyes. "I mean, not that I don't think it'd be more special if we were to go on our first date alone. But Alex has a point. Last time we hung out, you ended up calling me fat."
"I didn't call you fat! I didn't even say the word 'fat'."
"Well, the night still ended very awkwardly," said Harper. "It's just one date, Justin. Let's just play safe for this first one? And then the next one will be just the two of us. What do you say?"
Justin furrowed his eyebrows so much that they almost met in the middle. At last, he took a huge breath and smiled at her. "Okay. We'll do it however you want. But."
"But what?" Alex asked sternly.
"I. Get. To plan it."
"Lame!" Alex exclaimed. "Knowing you, you'll have us all spending the night at some boring event like going to a poetry club or playing Bingo."
"I kinda like Bingo."
"Hush, Sweetie. Don't make this worse," she shushed at Mason.
Justin grinned at her. "Relax, Alex. I'll actually pick something that we'll all enjoy. So how about we all get cleaned up for now, since I'm sure none of us have taken a shower yet since yesterday—"
They all automatically lifted their arms and tried to smell their own armpits.
"—and then let's meet back here sometime in the afternoon. How about around 3 o'clock?"
They nodded their approval (Alex nodded with a scowl), and started parting. Mason and Alex started for the door while holding hands, and Max headed towards the kitchen area and straight for the refrigerator.
"I guess I'll be going too," said Harper as she shyly backed her way towards the door. "Bye."
Justin waved a hand at her with a foolish grin, and stared until she was clear out of the door. When he turned around, he was met by the Max's disapproving gaze.
"Dude, you're her guy now," he said as he opened a canned of soda with a loud hiss. "At least give her a hug or something."
Justin mentally scolded himself before running out the door. "I suck at this!" He turned every which way and saw her just a few steps descended from the top of the staircase.
"Harper! Wait!"
Harper stopped and turned. She stared at him curiously. "Is something wrong?"
Justin descended the stairs until he was a mere step above her, extended a hand to her shoulder, and bent down. She stayed absolutely still as he tilted to her right and brushed his lips against her cheek. When he lifted himself away from her, a small smile was gleaming on her face.
"I'll see later," he said.
Harper sighed. "Ye—yeah. Okay."
When Justin returned to the apartment, Max grinned at him and tossed him an orange juice box.
"So big date tonight, eh?" said Max. "What's your plan?"
"Good question." Justin punctured the box with his straw and took a sip. "Whatever it is, I have to make sure that we're always doing something; that there won't be any time in between for any awkward moments between me and Harper."
Max began to peel a banana. "Are worried about that? You guys have known each other forever. It's impossible for there to be any awkward moment."
"Yeah, but it's different now," Justin emphasized. "I'm not sure if I can be the same if I'm alone with her. I'd get so nervous about messing up that I might actually mess something up. I just wanna play it safe. That, and I want to make sure that she sees a different Justin tonight. A sophisticated, yet slightly lose and very fun, but mature and ready-for-a-relationship Justin."
"Riiiiggghhhttt," Max pondered as he took a bite of his banana. "Can I come?"
"If you can bring a date with you, I don't see why not. Would you be able to find a date by tonight?"
"Uh, I'm not sure."
"Then no, you can't come."
Max glared at him as he walked away.
Much later in the afternoon, Harper fidgeted nervously with her dress as she waited in the Wizards' Lair.
"Maybe I should've worn the other dress. This one makes me look fat," she said.
"You look fine, Harper," Alex replied. She propped up her sandaled feet on the coffee table and placed both hands behind her head. "I still don't know why we had to get all dressed up. I only dress up once a month and last night was it for this month."
"Technically, darling, last night was part of December so your attire for today would still be valid for your 'once a month' in January." Mason paced across the room and settled himself on the couch next to her. "Either way, you look very lovely. I rather enjoy it when you make an extensive effort on yourself. I look forward to it every once a month, you know, and I'm lucky to see it twice in a row this time."
Alex grinned. "Aww. You say such mushy things without cracking. That's why I love you." She kissed his cheek and at this, he blushed.
Harper observed the display of affections and smiled as well. She wondered when she will be confident enough to behave the same way with Justin.
Just as the thought hit her, the heavy door to the lair opened and Justin walked in with a big smile on his face.
"Hey guys," he greeted them. "Sorry I'm late. Had to get last minute things ready." He clapped his hands together as his eyes quickly gandered through his audience. "Wow, you guys are dressed very nicely. It's a good thing I planned something—uh—some… thing…"
Justin's mouth hung open as his eyes settled on Harper, who had stopped abruptly by the counter full of Wizards items. He examined her with her eyes, causing her to stay absolutely still. His gaze moved up and down, and then up and down again, taking in the entirety of her simple red dress. She stiffened so much from nervousness that the jar of thumb-sized cockroaches very nearby sat unnoticed.
"Um, hi," she was able to get out.
"Hi," repeated Justin. "You look… uh- good. Very—uh… good."
"Thanks," she blushed. Harper quickly gestured to Justin's attire. "You too. You look very nice."
"Yeah, I kno—I mean, thanks!" he blurted out. With a button-up shirt, a brown suit-jacket, and a pair of jeans, Justin was fairly dressed while maintaining a business-casual feel. The rest of his party, however, was dressed as if they were about to attend a high-end play. Harper wore a very classy knee-length red dress, Alex wore a similar dress in black without the usual clutter of jewelry, and Mason wore a suit. Justin immediately began to worry about his plan. "Okay, well, if I consider the way you guys dressed, I'm guessing that you guys definitely assumed our plans wrong. Which is good for me, I guess, because that means that I just proved Alex wrong."
Alex scrunched her nose at him.
"But it's okay. What you guys have on is still appropriate. Somewhat," Justin added. "If you guys are ready, we can go now."
The other three gathered their coats and started heading towards the giant, metal door, but stopped when Justin didn't move from his spot.
"Actually, we're using the portal for today," he told them. Alex was the first to raise her eyebrow at him. "Shall we?"
They didn't have to travel too far, for as soon as they all settled right outside the portal door, the spell that Justin had arranged triggered with a bright, blinding flash of light. Alex cursed loudly as they all had to cover their eyes shut.
"You couldn't have warned us about that?" Alex complained as soon as the light subsided. She glared momentarily at her brother, but her mood suddenly changed as she noticed her surroundings. The smoggy, white smoke that usually surrounded the portal realm is gone, and in its place is a field of very fine, white sand. She looked up and her eyes widened at the sight. Right above them, in a distance that couldn't be more than a few yards up, is what looked like an ocean filled with swimming figures.
"Blimey," Mason whispered in awe.
"Ditto," Harper agreed. She stared with eyes as wide as Alex's. It was absolutely incredible; she had never seen anything like it in her life before. The water seemed to stay hovered as a mass above them, but continuously moved as waves would. People swam here and there, seeming to dance and laugh with no care of the abnormality of their placement in the atmosphere. A young girl swam so low that she was able to stick her hand through to the non-water area. She waved her hand vigorously with a grin on her face, before taking it back in and swimming away.
"Amazing," Harper said repeatedly. She turned when a hand took hers and started pulling her along.
"Come on. You haven't seen anything yet," said Justin.
Justin walked on with Harper in tow as he led them towards what looked like an old, almost-deteriorating shack. A group of teenagers came walking out of the shack caught Harper's attention. She stared curiously as they laughed and teased each other.
"Did you see? That mer was totally into me."
"Yeah, I saw. She was totally into laughing at you!"
Harper raised a brow. "Justin," she whispered cautiously as she pulled on his hand. "I'm kinda nervous about this. Wizards are not supposed to know about me, remember? Where are we? And what's a mer?"
Justin smiled reassuringly to her. "Don't worry. Old wizards don't come here often so there's no need to watch out for them." He took both of her hands in his. "And mer is short for mermaid. You'll see."
The four of them proceeded towards the shack. Justin went in first while pulling Harper alone, and Alex and Mason followed them in. Justin and Alex approached the place with a blasé expression while both Mason and Harper expressed their ooh's and ah's rather loudly, for as soon as they entered the shack, its size seemed to multiply so much that it became the size of their high school's gym. The polished, marbled surface of the floor completed the high byzantine-styled pillars that looked to be finished with gold and bronze leafing, arranged intricately in floral designs. A blue theme filled the entire area; from blue vases, blue flowers, numerous attendants in blue uniform, and other various blue items that were displayed in what looked like a gift shop.
They approached a counter by the far side of the wall as such, with Alex and Justin nonchalantly admiring their environment, and Harper and Mason looking like obvious tourists.
"Where's the attendant?" Justin wondered outloud as he leaned over the counter and tried to look through the door that led to the backroom.
Alex eyeing a thick rope that hung from a gigantic bell above the counter. She grinned knowingly as she noticed a tiny engraving on its inside that read "ring for service."
"Awesome," she said to herself. She reached out, grabbed the rope enthusiastically, and pulled with all of her might. The bell rocked back and forth and the metal ball within it hit its sides repeatedly with a thunderous kling and klang. The ear-splitting sound caught everyone by surprised; the entire occupancy of the area screamed and yelled as they all covered their ears with both hands and winced. Even Alex did the same.
As soon as the bell calmed, wizards and other creatures that were once walking peacefully around the room glared daggers at the suspect of their misery.
Alex merely shrugged her shoulders and smiled menacingly.
"Welcome to The Blue Lagoon Water Adventure. How may I be of service?"
Justin and Alex stiffened as they both recognized the monotone speech that greeted them.
"You've gotta be kidding me." Alex turned and confirmed her suspicion. "You? You work here?"
"I'm sorry?" The tall, blonde attendant looked at her with uninterested eyes.
"Don't you recognize us?" Justin asked her. "Wizarding School? You gave me information that kept me from getting my powers sucked at Volcano Land."
The attendant's eyes mometarily widened with surprise. "Oh, yes, I remember now," she said while maintaining her monotone speech. "The kids who made me leave work but didn't even buy the t-shirt that I brought."
"Yeeaaahhh, that's us, all right," said Alex. She propped an elbow on the counter and raised an eyebrow. "So whatcha doin' here? Did you finally get canned at Volcano Land? Thought maybe a contrasting job would be more exciting?"
"Yeah, exactly. They said I didn't have good customer service," she leaned forward and widened her eyes. "Can you believe it?"
Alex grimaced.
"But it's okay." The attendant's lip curled to a slight smile, and a feeling of awkwardness began to seep from her. "This is a much cooler job, anyway."
Justin frowned when the attendant repeatedly raised both eyebrows.
"Get it?" she asked, the optimistic in her mood barely penetrating the monotone droll of her voice. "Cooler? The current was just right so I just jumped right in and found myself immersed. Get it? Eh? Immersed?"
"Kill me," Alex said as she rolled her eyes.
Justin pushed her aside. "Listen, um," he squinted at her name tag. "Jeannine, is it? There's four of us and we would like the generic package."
"Okay, then," Jeannine answered. She turned towards a heavy-looking typewriter that sat relatively unnoticed on the counter. Her fingers worked busily as Justin turned to the rest of his party, smiling at them to assure his control. "Did you make a reservation?"
"Uh, yes. Under Justin. Russo."
"Spell your last name, please."
"R-U-S-S-O."
"Spell your first name, please."
Justin frowned at her. "Uh, okay. J-U-S-T-I-N."
Jeannine typed busily again. With a sudden ding from the typewriter, she lowered her face towards the paper that it held and squinted her eyes. "Mr. Justin. Russo. You have a reservation for this afternoon at 4:00 pm."
"Yes, and we are now here," Justin grinned towards the others.
"Hmm, I see," she replied. Boredom could be mistaken from her tone, but Justin knew otherwise. "I regret to tell you that, unfortunately, you are too early for your reservation. You are free to wait in our lovely Sea-themed lounge- " at this she gestured at a pair of chairs propped against a wall decorated with Little Mermaid characters, "—until the time of your reservation arrives."
Justin glanced at his wrist watch. "It's 3:59. That's one minute away from 4."
"Hence, your earliness. Sir," she told him. "Would you prefer to stay standing."
Alex threw her hands in the air in exasperation.
"Um, Jeannine," Justin started, in an attempt to save the situation. "If you don't mind, why don't we just stand here quietly for, I don't know, thirty seconds? Let's just stand here quietly for thirty seconds."
"As you wish, sir."
A moment of awkward silence commenced as they all waited for the suggested thirty seconds to pass by. Harper dwindled her fingers together as her eyes darted here and there; Mason placed both hands in his pockets and started rocking his feet back and forth; and Alex tapped her shoe loudly onto the marbled floor. Justin sighed loudly as he tried to sing a song in his head to make the time pass. Jeannine, strangely enough, just stared at him; he quickly looked away when he made the mistake of looking her way and unexpectedly caught her eye.
Justin focused his attention on his wristwatch and glared at the skinny hand as it slowly ticked the seconds away. His eyes moved in synchronized unison with it as it passed nine, then ten, then eleven. As soon as it hit the number twelve, Justin looked up and smiled triumphantly.
"Four o'clock," he emphasized. "Justin Russo for four, please."
Jeannine nodded and bent down to retrieve something from behind the counter. She re-emerged with four pairs of rubber flippers and a can of sanitizing spray. Setting them onto the counter top, she then proceeded spraying its insides, with no regard as to the amount of sanitizer that strayed onto her customers.
"Would you like to have floaters too?" she asked Justin.
Justin turned towards the rest of his party, and when no one acknowledged the question, he turned back and shook his head.
"Very well," Jeannine said. She pushed the flippers towards Justin and gestured to her right. "Please make sure to keep your arms to your sides when waiting to ascend. Do not feed the fishes or the mermaids. Do not interact with the sharks or the octopi, and please avoid the sea urchins. They tend to bite."
Justin handed out the flippers to the rest and then they all turned towards where the current of the crowd seemed to be walking towards. With a determined look, Justin proceeded ahead of the others, with Harper in hand.
"Justin, I'm getting really nervous," she whispered to him. Her eyes were darting every which way as she paid close attention to the type of people that cluttered the area. It was only when she looked above that she was able to unconsciously put aside her anxiousness and revel in her awe instead.
The ceiling aggressively rounded towards a centered oculus where the ocean that they saw before was very visible; and from it emanated a blue light that extended all the way down to the ground, continuously moving in conjunction to the ocean's own movements. Its shade shifted every time it moved, sometimes becoming almost solid, but mostly remaining transparent and clear.
Harper vaguely heard Alex's and Mason's expressed excitement towards the thing. Once they reached the line of people that led to the blue light, Harper began to take off her shoes.
Justin smiled at her. "No, Harper. You don't need to do that."
Harper stopped and eyed him curiously. "Um, well, we need to put the flippers on, don't we?"
Justin grinned at her. "You'll see."
The line moved fairly fast, with each group of people seeming to disappear as they step into the light. When there were only a few people left in front of them, Mason took Alex's hand in his and their excitement became more vocal. Justin followed suit as he stretched an arm and wrapped it around Harper's shoulders.
His heart beat loudly as anticipation began to take over. He looked down at the fidgeting redhead in his arm. "Here we go, Harper. Are you ready?"