Disclaimer: I do not own the show named WOWP that made me ship Dalena and then broke my heart.

Prologue

Alex Russo tiptoed down the stairs, taking careful steps to avoid making any noise. She slowly reached the living room, and just as she was about to get out of it-

"Alex! Where do you think you are going?" her mother demanded, walking up and standing behind her, arms crossed in front of her to emphasize her annoyance.

Alex muttered a curse under her breath. Her mother finding her sneaking out wasn't part of her plan! Taking a deep breath, and smiling sheepishly, she turned around to face her mother, "Hey…mom…. I was just going outside to see how lovely the weather is…."

Her mother simply glared at her. "I saw your report card."

"Which one? Wizard or mortal?" Alex asked immediately.

"Does it even matter? They are both equally horrible." Her mother frowned, and then sighed.

"On my defense, I and Max don't have a wizard teacher like Justin does, we study on our own." Alex said defiantly, hoping her mother would buy that.

"You're right." Her mother said, and she was about to jump up in victory when-"and that's why I've decided to get you a tutor."

"Tutor?" Alex asked, stepping back. "Mom. You can't make me study during summer!"

"Looking at your grades honey, I think I can." Theresa shot back, smiling mockingly.

"What about Max? Why aren't you getting him a tutor? This is totally unfair." She protested, stomping her feet on the ground.

Her mother glared at her. "I have asked Justin to stay with us during summer and tutor you." She announced.

"WHAT!" Alex shrieked, jumping back in surprise. "You asked JUSTIN to come HERE? And you asked HIM to tutor ME? You can't do that mom! We haven't even talked properly every since you and dad divorced. I can't just stay with him!"

"Oh, you will get used to it." Her mother shot back. "Now call up Justin and ask when he's coming here."

"I'm not calling Justin." Alex said with a tone of finality.

Theresa glared at her again.

"Fine!" Alex yelled, storming up the stairs to her room and slamming the door shut- a not-so-silent way to let her mother know that this wasn't going to be easy.

Grabbing her cell phone and lying down on her bed, she scrolled through her contacts to find Justin's number. She didn't even understand why she had to store his number in her cell phone. It wasn't like they had a brother-sister bond- they didn't have any kind of bond at all. They met only once a year, during their seven-day long family vacation. During that time, he either interacted with his mother, or locked himself in his room and read fat, boring books. She had tried talking to him once or twice, but it had ended in a horrible quarrel. She maintained a distance with him after that, and didn't talk to him unless it was absolutely necessary. He was just her nominal brother- in reality, he was just a stranger. The last memory she had of him was when she was three and he was five. Their parents had divorced and her mother was moving to another state with her and Max. The image of Justin crying bitterly still appeared in her mind sometimes, but she quickly brushed that thought away. Why should she care about a stranger?

Sighing in frustration, she dialed his number and pressed her cell phone lightly to her left ear. A gibberish noise echoed in her ears and she winced in annoyance. "Alien language league rocks!" a voice said, before the gibberish noise restarted. Alex's eyes widened in surprise. So, that was his caller tune? Could he be more of a geek?

She finally understood that he wouldn't answer her call, and hung up. If he didn't want to talk to her, she wasn't going to call him up again. Not that she called him up willingly the first time.

Alex closed her eyes tightly and tried to remember their childhood. Memories fade so easily, so quickly! How can the moments that are so cherished just vanish from people's minds? She couldn't remember anything about her days with Justin, no matter how hard she tried. She remembered calling him up and talking to him for the first few years, but after that, they just drifted apart. If anyone asked her about her older brother, she wouldn't be able to say anything at all, besides the things that her mother told her, that is.

Yet, when she saw her mother's old photo album, she could see how close they were when they were kids. She still couldn't figure out how they went from being best-friends to complete strangers.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the ringing of her phone. Noticing Justin's number, she snorted in annoyance before answering the call.

"Why didn't you answer my call?" she demanded, skipping all introductions. If he was going to be rude to her, he better have a good reason for that.

"Sorry, my phone was on vibrate, and I was studying, I didn't notice…" he apologized quickly.

Alex's heart skipped a beat. She had heard him talk before, during their joint family vacations, but they had never talked to each other- they preferred using hand gestures when they needed something. She had never noticed how his voice sounded so manly, so grown-up.

"So…. Why did you call me again?" he asked, breaking her out of her trance.

"Oh, right. Mom wants to know when you are coming here." She said, her tone sounding more irritated than she intended it to.

"I'd be there on Monday morning." Justin announced.

Alex gasped. Why did he have to come so soon? Couldn't he just give her a few more days-weeks-months of freedom?

"You do know I'd be tutoring you, right?" he inquired.

"And you do know that I would be scheming and getting out of your tutoring, right?" she shot back. True, they never talked. But she was snarky to everyone else- why shouldn't she be snarky to him?

"I'm looking forward to seeing you again." He said calmly.

"Oh you shouldn't be." She snapped. There was no reason why she shouldn't be honest to him!

"I'd be tutoring you on science, math, history and magic." Justin announced smugly, changing the topic. "Keep your books ready for me."

Alex scoffed. "Since when did you learn to talk to me for this long?"

"Well, I figured a basic introduction was necessary, since we'd be spending a whole month together."

Alex finally let out a groan. Spending a whole month with him! This was her worst nightmare. And now she had to spend her weekend thinking of ways to get rid of him. Boo.

"Umm…I got to get back to studying, so…." He said awkwardly.

"Yeah, bye." Alex said quickly, hanging up the call.

He was such a study-freak! Was he going to make her study like that?

Alex chuckled. Making her study wasn't that easy. People had been trying and failing for so many years.

Taking in a deep breath, Alex closed her eyes, the prank-plots already forming in her mind...

(And now when she thinks about it, she finally has the perfect word to describe their first phone conversation: awkward)

(A/N: that's the prologue. I have the rest planned out, but not written down yet. Based on YOUR feedback I will proceed with this story in July. So please leave a review and let me know if I could get your interest. BTW, sorry to all the people who have me on alerts! I must have cluttered up your inbox. Sorry, guys! But since my results come out tomorrow, I'd be offline for sometime, so I figured I should update.)