DISCLAIMER: I do not anything except (maybe) for the brain I used to write this piece. All rights to the rightful owners.

Chapter 1

"Good night, girls! Don't stay up too long now, remember you've got work in the morning," Mrs Rocca called out as she passed the doors to her daughters' bedrooms on the way to her own.

"Good night, mom!" came the reply, two voices merged into one. It was as if the girls had communicated with each other telepathically to answer so coherently. Mrs Rocca guessed it was a twin-thing.

"I promise I'll turn off the light before midnight," the elder of the two girls added.

Mrs Rocca sighed and shook her head as she continued down the hallway. Turning of the light did not necessarily mean go to sleep for the aspiring DJ. Too many times while her third child, and only son, still fed from a bottle; Mrs Rocca had caught Vida sitting in the dark of her room with no track of time, listening to music in her headphones at 3 am in the morning on a school night. She would only fool herself if she thought that it didn't happen still. Vida had never obeyed by her rules, not when there was music involved. And since then Vida's wild side had only flourished too. It was amazing it hadn't got her into more trouble than it had done. Of course, perhaps Vida didn't tell her mother everything either.

Mrs Rocca sighed again.

Aaron was almost ten years old now and her twin-daughters were turning eighteen in less than a month. When had time passed by so quickly? She remembered it like it was yesterday when she drove Vida and Madison to their first day of school. She remembered she'd been anxious of how things would turn out for Madison. Despite being twins, her girls were nothing alike. While Vida was tough, outgoing and sometimes a bit of a rebel, Madison was shy and innocent. Mrs Rocca had been so scared during the girls' first day at school that the other kids would pick on Madison, but thankfully Vida had soon scared off anyone who dared to try.

Mrs Rocca entered the bedroom she shared with her husband and reached for a tube of moisturizing lotion on the bedside table. Her husband was already in bed, reading a book. Sitting down on the bed, pressing out some lotion in her hand, a puzzled wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

Of late, something had started to change. Madison had begun coming out of her shell and Vida seemed to have finally found a way to let off some steam. Mrs Rocca couldn't explain this change of behavior other than that her little girls were turning into young women. She'd known it would happen sooner or later, but it still came as a surprise. It all seemed to happen so quickly and it had come so suddenly.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one noticing her girls turning into women. Just this Sunday, on their family dinner at a fancy restaurant down town, she had caught more than one young man eyeing her girls like they were something to eat. One of them had thrown so longing looks after Madison that Mrs Rocca had felt it necessary to mark territory by giving him her evil eye. The young fellow had been so scared he had tumbled over a news paper stand, causing a huge scene on the other side of the street. Mrs Rocca had felt very pleased with herself.

She did not feel as pleased tonight, though. Now she had begun to fear that her motherly instinct might have scared off a potential suitor. As her girls turned older, she was getting closer to fulfilling her dream of seeing her girls wed to handsome young men. Or at least, Madison. Who knew what plans Vida had in mind!

"Is everything alright, dear?"

Mrs Rocca wasn't aware of the deeply troubled sigh she had let out until her husband spoke. He was peering at her over the book cover.

"I was just thinking of our daughters, love," she replied and started massaging the lotion into her hands.

Mr Rocca raised an eyebrow.

"Is there anything I should know about?"

It was so typical of her husband to get suspicious whenever she mentioned the girls. That too had become more frequent as the girls grew older. She rubbed in the last of the lotion before climbing in under duvet beside him.

"Yes, dear, they're growing up. That's what's happening. Soon they'll be out of the house."

Mr Rocca grunted.

"You don't say. I've noticed how the boys are flocking around them like flies to a corpse! Like vultures, I dare say!"

"But you like Chip!" Mrs Rocca protested, thinking it was their sweet neighbors' boy, who had been hanging out with the girls during the day, that bugged her husband.

"Chip's a sweet boy. The Thorne's are good people. It's that other boy the girls hang out with that I don't like. That Aussie... what's his name again? Bly? I don't trust him. He is the nervous kind."

"Xander is charming," Mrs Rocca said. "He is just nervous because you are giving him a hard time. Not all of us are comfortable being questioned like we've been charged for murder. Give the poor boy a break and you'll see that you'll come to like him."

Mr Rocca huffed.

"No one is that charming for no reason. Now, I know what he is after. He wants the girls. I know his kind. They're like foxes in a chicken coop, just waiting to strike."

"Apparently there is a new boy in town," Mrs Rocca said, interrupting her husband's speech. She had heard it all before. And frankly, she did not care two pennies about what her husband thought of the young Casanova. Xander was all sweet and charm, a pure delight to talk to. She would never trust him to be alone with her either of her girls, but then again the only boy she would ever trust around her girls was Chip.

She smiled to herself when she remembered the day the girls had met Chip for the first. After Vida had chased him around the yard like a madman for sitting on her swing, it had been Madison who had patched his bleeding knee together after Vida had wrestled him to the ground and negotiated truce. They had been best friends ever since.

"Apparently his name is Nick."

"Nick?" Mr Rocca repeated as if he tried to remember where he had heard the name before. "Last name?"

Mrs Rocca shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't know, but it doesn't matter. We wouldn't know his folks anyway. He recently arrived to town. The girls seem to really like him. I heard them talking about him before.

"I bet they do," Mr Rocca growled. "He is probably all talk and no work, that one. Kids usually are these days."

"Oh, hush, love!" Mrs Rocca snarled. "You haven't even met him. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?"

"It doesn't apply when it comes to my girls. Now can we go to sleep? I have a busy day tomorrow."

Mrs Rocca wasn't about to give up just yet.

"Remember what Sun-tzu said: Keep you friends close and your enemies closer."

Mr Rocca only grunted and shook his head in reply. A long moment of silence followed during which Mrs Rocca thought of the best way to get to know the boys without raising her daughters' suspicion. Then it hit her.

"Why don't we invite them over for dinner some time? That would be an excellent way to get to know them."

"Who?" Mr Rocca asked, who had already closed the conversation in his mind and rolled over to his side to sleep.

"The boys our girls hang out with, of course."

"Why?"

"To get to know them! To see what kind of boys they are."

"I already know what kind of boy the only one of them I would approve of is and he may have both of the girls if he wishes."

Mrs Rocca glared at her husband.

"Remember what San-tzu said. Keep you friends close..."

"... and your enemies closer." Mr Rocca rolled back to face his wife again and sat up with a sigh, knowing there would be no sleep until he had heard her out.

"A dinner you say?"