Soren sits across from Rocky at their kitchen table and stares down at the checkered tablecloth. 

His mom had a thing for cute country things like chickens and cows, but his dad was more of a flower child, so they'd both carefully blended their preferences together. Rocky referred to it as "The Stoner Farm" every time he walked into the kitchen and saw a new cow decoration sitting on the counter. 

"We shouldn't have to punish you like this!" Soren's mom exclaims as she sits next to his very disappointed father. "You're both old enough to know better. Rocklin, for God's sake, you're even in college! Shouldn't that mean something?" She asks him, her hands resting flat on the table. 

"I don't know," Rocky replies, turned away from her, "I felt like I've learned nothing since going away, my dearest mother. Your son is a disappointment, let's just say that and call it a night."

Their father tilts his head back and groans, combing his fingers through his hair. He and Soren shared plenty of features, a straight nose, blue eyes, and long blonde hair—and they were also both barn owls. But Soren thought he looked like his mom sometimes when the light caught him at a certain angle. 

"Aren't you going to ask us what happened?" Soren questions, the mud stuck to his skin, making him itchy all over. Once his parents let them go, he was definitely going to jump in the shower and spend an hour scrubbing himself free of cow shit. "You don't even know if this was our fault!" He exclaims, "We just got chased into a cow pasture by some psycho kids in a truck!"

"Please, stop, Soren." His dad says his voice quiet, which was even more alarming than him yelling. Bad things tended to happen when his father got quiet, but he never reacted with violence towards his children or his wife. Instead, he would fix his victims with the most disappointing stare known to man and lock down, giving them the cold shoulder. 

His mother, though, was an entirely different story.

"If you were both still children, I would ground you until next year!" She exclaims, her arms crossed as she fixes them with an owl-like stare. "You're lucky that both of you are adults and can deal with the consequences of your actions by yourself. You missed our family meeting, and the van's still missing, along with your little brother."

"Cee-Cee?" Rocky questions, looking surprised, "We haven't seen him since this morning."

Soren realizes that he's right. The last time he'd seen Quince, he'd left him standing in the forest and went to go find Rocky. Of course, Quince could handle himself just fine, so he wasn't that worried about him. But it was getting late, and the boy mysteriously hadn't shown up for supper.

"Wonderful!" Their father sighs, "That's something else for us to deal with."

"Oh, man!" Rowan sighs, and Soren hears the fridge open when the younger boy comes down and starts rooting around for leftovers. Freshly clean in boxers and a white tank top, even Rowan's bald head was shiny. "I'm starving! Did we have any leftovers?" He asks jovially, "You make the best mouse pie, Ma."

Soren glares, but the effect is lost. Fortunately, his mother catches on relatively quick. 

"I expect all of you to leave the house tomorrow morning as soon as the sun is up," she tells them sharply. "For the next week, you'll all be confined to your owl forms, and your father and I will be patrolling the area, making sure you don't leave our territory. Perhaps this will keep you all out of trouble."

"What?" Rowan demands, and he drops a container of mouse pie on the floor with a smack. "That's not fair! I'm not even the one who sent the stupid cows after those guys!"

"The horror!" Rocky lets out a loud sigh as he lays himself across Soren's shoulder. "Hold me, Soren! Confined to the body of a mere bird!"

Soren doesn't even hear the rest of the conversation or the rest of his father's lecture about being cautious and making sure that the humans didn't catch on to what they were. All he could think about was how Lydia had basically forced him to come to her party and how she was holding his secret over his head, threatening to reveal it—whatever it was—to the town. And now that he was going to be an owl for a week? He was going to completely miss the whole thing, prompting her to backstab him as soon as she got a chance.

The front door creaks open, and a shadowy figure tip-toes into the hallway, directly in view of the kitchen, unaware of all eyes on him as he slinks past. His clothes were askew and he looked suspiciously flushed. 

"Quince Rolando!" Soren's mother shrieks.