Chapter 9 - Still not following the rules
A/N: Please, hold back from looking at the phrase in all-caps.
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New day comes and Justin has a lot of work to do, mostly updating some of the school's administrative business. He has some meetings with teachers; he calls some of the school's suppliers after lunch; then he makes inspections around the building, especially things related to the hippogriff attack, such as preparing the school for more events like that. Other than that, the day goes on pretty smoothly. He is happy that he has been having a productive day so far, without losing time with distractions or incidents and…
WHERE THE HELL IS ALEX?!
Only now comes to him that he has not seen Alex yet today. Probably it was his desire to have some peace that kept his mind from noticing it, the wish that he didn't have to deal with her mischiefs every ten minutes.
Where is she? He covered the entire school during his round of inspections, and she just weren't anywhere. Now he is worried. Arriving back to his office, his breathing is starting to get deeper. Anxiety attack coming up.
He could call her through the speaker system… Unless it is a prank for him to use it, then something happens when he touches the microphone. Fine, maybe not! See, he is not only getting worried, but also paranoid.
"Okay! Just breathe. Calm down. You are a wizard, you can use magic! Yes, magic."
Justin pulls his wand and stares at it. And stares at it. More staring. Damn, he can't even think of anything to do.
Teleport! He can flash Alex right in his office. Yeah!… Uhm!… What if she is in the bathroom or something? … Whatever, he is getting desperate. He lifts his wand. Well, better with eyes closed, just to be sure. So he waves his wand to bring her in. … Nothing!
He grunts! Alex is under some kind of protective spell. It really annoys Justin that she learned how to use protection spells.
He at least has to find out where she is. But spells are not going to work, obviously. …The crystal balls! He looks around. Dammit! He lent the one he kept in the office to Professor Stumbler after his went missing. And then he forgot to take it back because 'someone' kept him busy and worried the entire time.
He is so out of ideas! How can he find Alex, now?!
Yeah, about her! During those last two days before the beginning of classes, Justin tried to teach Alex, among other things, what she isn't allowed to do… Like taking the kids outside of the castle without permission… Just like she is doing… Right NOW.
Alex comes in through the giant front doors of the entrance hall believing that the darkness of the night would hide their sneaky comeback. She and the kids step in, as silent and careful as they can, until the doors close behind them. No, they shouldn't do that. They have just been caught.
Justin steps out from the hallway with a very mad face. He shoots a scolding glare straight at Alex the entire time as he walks toward her.
He stops in front of Alex "You kids go to your dorms." Justin tells the students. "I need to talk to your professor."
"Oooooo!" The students choir the shame chant.
"HEY! Hey!" Alex yells at them, making them stop. "Remember that I'm the one who writes down your grades."
All the students go silent and lower their heads. Yeah, they know by now that Alex would probably carry out her threats. So, they start walking away.
"Let's go to my office, Professor Russo!" He tells her, gritting his teeth, then turns around and walks back to where he came from.
"Yup! Professor Russo is not a good call." Alex tells herself and starts following her brother. Well, that if he doesn't fire her from the "sister" position as well after firing her from the school.
Justin doesn't look back a single time until he gets to his office. He holds the door open waiting for Alex to get in.
"What were you thinking?" He yells even before the door shuts completely. "You can't take kids outside without permission."
"Oh, come on, Justin! We were in the village, in the wizard amusement park. It was a great practice for them."
"It doesn't matter. I told you. We have rules here. You can't just go and do what you want whenever you want. What if something happened to one of the kids? What if you missed one?"
"I counted all nineteen of them before we came back!" Alex replies.
Justin looks at her with dread in his face. "You have twenty students in that class!" He yells at her.
"I know." She clarifies with a smile. "One kid is as nerdy as you and didn't wanna go without your permission. I just wanted to see you sweat." Alex laughs.
Justin takes in one big gulp of air, and lets it out very slowly. He rubs his forehead. "This is not funny, Alex." He takes a moment in silence, walking away from her, to the couch. "One of the reasons this school exists is to teach kids to be responsible while using magic. I don't even know what you're trying to teach them."
"I'm just showing them that they are not gonna learn everything only in the school. That there are a lot of things to learn out there."
"But, at the same time, you are showing them exactly the opposite of responsibility when you go around doing whatever you want." He takes a big breath and looks straight at her.
"Justin, they are kids. They learn a lot more when they're having fun than when they're stuck in a classroom listening to someone babbling a bunch of 'not-to's'."
"And having fun means being irresponsible?"Justin tries, though losing some of his resolution.
"It means trying out things and seeing what happens!" She explains her view.
"And how is that supposed to teach anything? What is going to happen when things get beyond their knowledge?"
"Come on! Tell me you didn't learn anything with all the times things went haywire when we were kids?" She points out.
"Yeah! How to live in fear and deal with panic attacks!?" Justin shoots.
"You know what I mean!" Alex answers.
"Just wanted to make a point." He replies, taking a long frustrated sigh. "You're never gonna do things my way, are you?" Justin asks with a whining tone.
"Nope!"
"Then why did you come here, anyway? To make my life miserable?" Justin asks.
"No!… Because my dumb older brother was too afraid that I would never stop pranking him. So he stopped visiting me and stopped butting in on everything I do because he thinks it's wrong, and wasn't there to fix things when I screwed up and I missed it." She tells in one single breath, then stares at him for a couple seconds as her expression softens. "And I missed you."
Justin looks up at her with a kind smile that lasts only a couple of seconds. "And you missed pranking me?!" He completes, losing his soft expression.
"And I missed pranking you!" She gives him a kind, childish, worm smile and he replies with the same, even if shaking his head.
"Alex, we are adults now."
"So what? Does that mean we cannot have fun anymore?"
"It's not fun for me!" He exclaims.
"Well, your idea of fun is spending a day doing boring stuff… like reading those stupid books that have no pictures …with a cup of tea. I had to do something that was fun for me."
"As long as you keep your 'fun' away from the students." Justin implies. "I have other things to worry about."
"Ugh! Why are you so worried, anyway?" She asks, annoyed by his constant pointless preoccupation.
"I'm worried because something could've happened to the kids outside the protection of the castle!" He tells her trying to make it sound obvious.
"Like what? One of them fall on his face, lose a tooth, try to put it back on with magic and end up with a frozen face?" Well, that feels very specific!
"No, I don't think they would beat Max on that one." Oh!
"Then, what?" She still wants to understand.
Justin takes a deep breath. Then, silence. Whatever is bothering him, he obviously doesn't feel comfortable with sharing. "Look, there's a reason why I didn't show up back at home so often, okay!" He starts.
"Why, then?"
Justin hesitates for a moment. "We… We had an old power transfer machine stored here in the school. It was a relic, a hundred years old, used here before this place was turned into a school, it wasn't even working anymore. We had it locked in a room inside the dungeon. One day it simply disappeared." Justin explains.
"What happened to it?"
"I don't know. I investigated for weeks. I used all the free time I had. Even Juliet came over to help, for days in a role. But in the end all I could do was to report that it was missing and move on." He tells in a sad confession.
"So you just gave up? That doesn't sound like you!"
"I haven't. Juliet and I kept investigating in any time we had… But I still have nothing." He looks up at her, sad and concerned at the same time. "See? The person who did this is still out there. Maybe it was a parent who had access to the school, or maybe any staff who was overlooked by the council, but I don't know. And he may still be around, waiting to do something."
"So you think that person's going to attack here, the school?"
"That's the thing. I don't know. He might." Justin answers with a clear worried tone.
Alex thinks for a moment."Okay!" She looks at him with a tender glance. "I'm not going outside anymore." Alex agrees. She doesn't really like it, but she also doesn't want to put anyone in danger.
"Thank you."
"Can I go now? Taking care of those kids is really tiring. I'm totally beat. I wanna go to bed." She whines.
"Okay! And no more going outside! You promised!" He insists.
"Fine" Alex complies and turns to the door.
"Wait! Just one more thing." Justin calls and Alex turns back to him. "What protection spell did you use to hide yourself? Your tracking signal was so weak that I had to bunch up most of the crystal balls we had to track you. It took me the whole evening running after them."
"Oh!" Alex exclaims. She lifts her foot and pulls her wand from her boot to show him the hot cheetos bag, as it seems, wrapped around the handle.
"Are you kidding me!?"
"Uncle Kelbo taught me this. Turns out this is aluminum and plastic in one thing." She laughs. "So great when people already invented exactly what you need!" She turns around and exits the office, leaving Justin completely baffled. And also worried about how many other people know about this, especially students. Worries just never end!
Alex is finally heading to her room, exhausted and longing for her bed. However, before she gets there, she hears steps. It's so late, no one else should be out right now. Sure, not even her, but, whatever. Alex hides behind a corner and tries to take a peek of the delinquent who is breaking the rules.
"Hey! That's Professor Fiendl!" Again! She just sees him rubbing his hands clean and looking around in a very suspicious manner. Hmmm… Carrying something dirty? Fiendl slinks away, his steps still noisy enough to hear.
No one knows it like her, you only act this sneaky when you are doing something wrong. Alex walks to where Fiendl was and takes a good look around, but there is nothing. Walls, ceiling, floor… and a lot of dust… all of it normal, and nothing stands out. What was he doing?
Since she can't find anything, Alex goes back to her room. She takes a quick shower and gets ready for bed. She lies down trying to imagine what Fiendl was doing but can't get anywhere. Justin is definitely gonna hear about this tomorrow.