Alex Russo is a wizard in training along with her older brother Justin, and younger brother Max. Today, she is determined to take a break from her lessons and go shopping with her best friend Harper.
Alex uses a spell to reverse time so Justin's first kiss is not a disaster. The voice of the NY Mets wants to use Max's sandwich for the official Met sandwich, unfortunately he cannot remember how he made it.
To spend more time with Harper, Alex coerces her parents to hire her as an extra waitress at the Waverly Sub-Station. But when she finds out how poorly her best friend does on the job, she puts an ancient spell on her that transforms her into a superior serving wench, and ends up making her too good. Meanwhile Justin's tutoring is interrupted by a young extortionist.
Alex is mad she cannot use magic anytime. She finds out one of her classmates is a wizard and has no restrictions on his use of magic. She invites him and his parents over to convince hers, but learns he has a secret.
Alex is suspicious when Gigi invites Harper to a tea party. When she learns it is a trick she must use magic to save her. Justin and Max play a prank with wizard mail that is taken seriously.
When Alex learns Justin's new friends are cool she wants to hang out with them, must to Justin's dismay. Alex's attempt at getting into an R rated move puts her into the horror flick with only Justin to rescue her
When Alex is caught using magic to clean her room she is forced to go to wizard school with Justin. Max and Jerry camp out on the terrace to prove their manhood.
Justin uses magic on himself to impress a girl, which lands him a spot on his school's baseball team. Alex tries to use the situation to her advantage.
Alex convinces her parents to let her Uncle teach her magic, since he was the one who won the wizard's contest in the family. But things do not go as well as she hoped. A family secret is revealed.
It's wizard report card time, and Alex isn't doing at all well and needs to have her card signed by her parents. She tries to hide it from them, but when she can no longer hide it, she panics and transforms her parents into guinea pigs and loses them. Worst of all, the Russo siblings' Wizarding Professor is on his way to talk to her parents.
The young wizards learn a body-switching spell; Alex turns 15 and it's time for a big celebration that brings her non-magical maternal grandmother to join in the festivities. Alex is not interested in the party and doesn't understand why it is such a big deal; after a talk with her abuela, she goes on to use the body-switch on her mother.
Alex wants to do well in art history without any work, so on a school trip to the art museum she brings historical paintings to life to help her. Meanwhile Jerry and Max find a way to play football in the house which doesn't turn out well.
