"Alright everyone, into the living room. Time for a family meeting," Roger called out. Jon and his mother entered, but Zoe lingered for a moment at the window.
"Come on honey, you heard your father," Linda said.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, joining the rest of her family.
"Now, I know this is all highly unusual. I'm going to be taking this issue to the city, but in the mean time we need to set some ground rules."
Ground rules? Jon was still trying to figure out how his wish caused this in the first place. Nobody in their right mind would put a rowdy frat house in a neighborhood like his. Roger looked at his son and daughter.
"You two are to stay away from that house. Under no circumstances are you to engage with those guys. Understand?"
Jon nodded. It seemed a bit harsh, they seemed friendly enough. Zoe was less agreeable.
"Ugh. Seriously? Hot guys move in next door and you expect me to just ignore them? Jeeze!" That wasn't like Zoe at all. She was hardly boy crazy, and the ones she usually went after were more dark and mysterious types.
"Young lady," their mother chimed in, "You need to have some standards."
"That's right. You can't just hook up with any random guy, even if he is in a frat. We raised you to be classier than that."
Boy, that didn't sound like something Jon's parents would normally say. Sure, they were protective, but never in such a harshly judgmental way.
"And while we're at it, I think we should talk about how we're presenting ourselves."
"Huh?" Jon and Zoe both asked.
"Zoe, honey," their dad continued, "the goth look is totally inappropriate for this house. Some nice pastels would look wonderful with your skin tone. Think 'country club chic.'"
Zoe nodded reluctantly.
"And Jon, I'm really glad you're finally growing your hair out. But you need to keep it neat. The shaggy look isn't going to do you any good when formal season rolls around."
This conversation was getting weirder and weirder. It was almost sounding like... like something you'd hear in a sorority. And Jon couldn't help but notice something looked a bit different about his dad, but he couldn't quite figure out what.
