Chapter 6: Better Than Expected


A few days had passed and now it was one sunny, peaceful morning at the Way residence. Sadly ruined by Kat coming down to the kitchen, hysterically crying her eyes out. Stephen, Leonard and Lexi were both seated at the counter, eating cereal when they looked up at her.

“Uncle Tyler...” she sniffed and rubbed her eyes. Tyler looked up from his newspaper, arching an eyebrow. “The other day at the mall, some boy told me I looked like a parking ticket. Does that mean I’m flat?!”

“Oh my god,” Lucy whispered, trying to hold back a laugh. But Stephen couldn’t control himself. He spit out his cereal and began to laugh. Lexi hid her face behind her hands and giggled away. Tyler, on the other hand, along with Leonard, were laughing so hard, they began to cry.

“It’s not funny! That hurt my feelings!” Kat cried.

“It was kind of a compliment. But since you don’t have enough smarts, you took it the wrong way,” Stephen finally said, once his laughing fit had toned down. “But if you don’t mind, I’m going to get ready to head out today,” he added, placing his dish in the sink and heading towards the stairs. Quickly changing into day clothes, Stephen decided to lie down on his bed, thinking about how today was going to turn out.

“Are you going to visit that address today?” Lexi asked, lying down next to Stephen. “I want to come with you. So far, this summer has been quite exciting,”

“Obviously for you it’s exciting,” he laughed. “For me, it’s been a whirlpool of mixed emotions. I’m always paranoid going to these addresses we’ve gotten so far,”

“I think it’s normal. Anyone would be nervous looking for their birth parents and having to go to many different places and not knowing what to expect. Life’s full of the unexpected,” Lexi said, fiddling with her fingers in front of her face. Stephen just gave her a weird look for the words that just came out her mouth.

“Alexis De Luca, the world’s newest philosopher,” he joked, sitting back up and sighing. “Do you think they would accept me?”

“Dunno. Your aunt seemed pretty happy when she saw you. Maybe they will, I guess it all depends on what they know and what you tell them,” Lexi answered, getting to her feet and heading towards the door. “Well come on now. We can’t be here forever if you want to meet them,” she smiled and headed back downstairs. Stephen nodded, following behind her as well.

“Now be careful, no talking to strangers and all that stuff,” Tyler laughed, handing Lexi the car keys and address.

“Wow, not the best parent out there,” Stephen joked, making Tyler shrugged and pushing him and Lexi out the door. “We should make sure Kat isn’t in the trunk again,” Laughing, Lexi searched and gave a thumbs up, letting Stephen know Kat wasn’t here. “Okay good,” Getting into the car, Stephen turned it on while Lexi put the address into the GPS thing.

“The things muggles come up with these days,” she huffed, sticking it onto the window.

“They’re just too lazy to use maps anymore. It’s making their IQ drop so much,” Stephen laughed, driving off into the busy streets of London. Chatting about the most random things they could think of, Lexi was distracted when they entered a shopping district. Making a pouty face to Stephen, he just shook his head and kept driving. Lexi then proceeded to poke Stephen until he stopped the car. “Would you stop?” She didn’t answer, but began to punch him instead. After a few more seconds of this, he lost his patience and parked the car. “I hate you,”

“Oh please, if you hated me, you wouldn’t have stopped the car,” she smiled, hurrying out and into a store.

“I stopped because I think my ribs are now bruised,” he whispered, following behind his obsessed friend. As soon as Stephen stepped in, he saw Lexi swooning over a pair of glittery shoes. “You always seize to amaze me,”

“Oh, shut up. But aren’t they the most gorgeous shoes you’ve ever seen!?” she asked, clapping her hands together like a little kid how got exactly what they wanted for Christmas.

“Yeah, sure, very gorgeous,” he said, sarcastically. His eyes began to gaze around when he noticed a girl with brown hair and hazel eyes, staring at him. Arching an eyebrow and turning back to Lexi, he decided to ignore the girl. He followed behind Lexi as she headed to the clothing section of the store. “Are you window shopping or are you actually going to buy something?”

“A bit of both,” Lexi giggled, grabbing a purple dress and heading in another direction. Sighing, Stephen followed behind again and noticed the same girl still staring at him. “You seem distracted,”

“There’s a girl over there that keeps looking at me. It’s a bit awkward,” he answered, rubbing the back of his head.

“Well, it’s not every day a girl sees a pretty Italian boy with light green eyes, dark hair, glasses, in a white V-neck with jeans, sneakers and a beanie around here. Not to mention an adorable accent,” Lex laughed, picking out a pair of shoes to go with her new dress.

“Did you just call me pretty?” Stephen said, giving her another weird look. Lexi was about to answer until Stephen felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. Oh great. It was that weird girl that kept staring at him.

“Hi, I’m Bethany and I couldn’t help but find you to be very attractive. Not many London boys look like you, so I’m guessing you’re not from here?” she asked, touching Stephen’s arm.

Trying hard to restrain himself from laughing, he nodded. “I’m from Italy and thank you,” he said, eyeing Lexi, who was hiding a smile behind her hand. Shoving the Bethany girl’s hand away from his arm, Stephen stepped back a bit, knowing she was trying a bit too hard.

“Maybe we can get to know each other more while you’re in London,” Bethany suggested, batting her eyelashes and trying to grad his hand.

“No thanks, I’m not interested,” he said, walking away and back to Lexi.

“Playing hard to get, huh?” the girl called out to Stephen, following behind him.

“Actually no, he’s just being faithful to me,” someone spoke up. Stephen and Lexi turned around to see Aimee standing in front of the girl.

“Why do people always pop out of nowhere?” Lexi asked into Stephen’s ear, which he responded with a shrug. The look on the girl’s face hinted that she was most likely annoyed that Aimee was there. Fuming, the girl stormed off in the other direction and was now out of sight.

Aimee then turned towards the pair, walking over to hug Lexi and slapping Stephen on his arm. “How dare you flirt with her?” she said, a bit too loud that the people around them turned their heads.

“What? I wasn’t flirting with her,” he said, rubbing his arm. Aimee laughed, reaching up to kiss Stephen and place another slap on his arm. “Alright, that’s it. I’m wearing padded clothing around you two,”

“Might as well,” Lexi said, walking to the line to pay. “So what brings you here, Aimee?”

“Dress shopping. My dad’s aunt is turning sixty in about two weeks and she’s having this big party and I’m forced to go. There’s going to be plenty of old people and relatives there so I’m not really looking forward to it,” she spoke, leaning on her left leg and sighing. “I’m sadly not allowed to bring any guests. I would’ve invited you two to keep me company,”

“Well that’s rubbish. Is it more of a family only event?” Stephen asked, fixing his glasses from sliding down his nose again.

“Yeah, but here’s the date and address to the place, in case you guys want to crash it,” she smirked, handing Stephen an invitation and watched as Lexi joined them again.

“Who knew clothes were a lot less expensive here?” she said, tucking away the receipt and looking over at the invitation.

“I’ll see you guys then,” Aimee said, kissing Stephen goodbye and hugging Lexi before heading another way. The duo left the store and continued on their way to their designated destination. Picking up on their strange conversation, Lexi and Stephen began to plan for the party.

“What if we use polyjuice potion to disguise ourselves as someone in her family?” Lexi asked, jotting down some ideas.

Stopping the car and parking in front of a house, Stephen thought about Polyjuice potion for the party. “That’s a bit too risky. I’m sure we’ll think of something soon,” he answered, getting out of the car and knocking on the door.

A woman with short brown hair opened the door and greeted them. “Hello, how may I help you?”

“Cristina Marino sent us to this address,” Stephen answered.

“Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Ricci’s youngest daughter. Do come in,” she smiled and let them in. She let them in a living room, where everything was mostly colored red and gold, reminding Lexi and Stephen of Gryffindor. “Please sit here while I get the mister and misses,” the lady smiled again, nodding her head and headed out.

“Do you think they know who you are?” Lex asked sitting down with Stephen on the scarlet fancy couch. Shrugging, Stephen leaned his chin onto his hand and began to fiddle around with his fingers. Hearing footsteps, Stephen turned his head to see both and older man and woman entering the living room. They both had the same green eyes and hair color as him. But they both stopped in their tracks once they laid eyes on Stephen.

“Look, Charles! He looks just like his father!” The woman pulled Stephen to his feet and hugged him tight. The man then proceeded to shake Stephen’s hand firmly and gestured him to sit down again. “I’m sure you have many questions. But first, what did your parents name you?”

“My parents named me Stephen, I prefer to go by that name,” he explained, hoping it wasn’t sounding rude in any way.

“No problem. So Leslie told us that Cristina sent you here. How did you manage to find her?” the man asked. “Oh, please excuse me. My name is Luke and this is Susan, my wife. We’re your father’s parents,”

“I’m Stephen Fanelli, now,” Stephen chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “This is Alexis De Luca, my best friend from home. I took the birth certificate my parents had and made my way to a Roman hospital where I was born and they gave us her address,”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Last we heard from your parents, they were in the United States. Your father became a doctor and I hear your mother models for a clothing line named Last Spare,” Luke said. Lexi and Stephen just looked at each other and nodded. “But maybe you should visit your mother’s grandparents first to get their side of the story,”

“So then what’s your side?” Lexi asked.

“Stephen’s parents were very young when they had him. They were terrified about having a child at their age and were confused on what to do. We always told them that no matter what happened, we will always help them. But I guess they were just too scared and left you in front of your parents’ home. Neither of us knew who the Fanellis were but we’re glad they took you in,” Susan said, smiling.

“Do you know what my mother’s parents are like?” Stephen asked, taking a cup of tea Leslie was now serving.

“Well, when we first met them, they weren’t such nice people. They were very strict on your mother, from what Raul told us. We never really spoke to them much. They invited us over to dinner once and it wasn’t very pleasant,” Luke mentioned, taking a sip from his tea and setting it down. Luke then noticed something brown sticking out from Stephen’s pocket. “So Stephen, are you a wizard?” he asked, pointing to his pocket. Lex and Stephen froze, as if they saw a ghost pass right in front of them.

“It’s alright, you two. We’ve met lovely witches and wizards before. We know not all are kind as others, but we only communicate with the ‘good’ ones,” Susan smiled. “Even though we’re non-magical people, we hold no prejudice to the magical kind,”

Looking at his phone, Stephen saw it was time to go. “We’re sorry but we have to head back now. I really hope you don’t mind,”

“No, no, you go. We really hope we helped you in finding your parents,” Luke spoke, hugging them both before heading into his office.

“Please, don’t become strangers now,” Susan laughing, kissing Lexi and Stephen on the cheek and showing them the door.

“That went pretty well,” Lexi said, as they got in and began heading back to Tyler’s house.

“Better than I expected. Now, we have to figure out how we’re going to attend that party in two weeks,” the best friends started plotting again, wondering how they could crash the party without using magic.