As they began to leave the lunchroom, Nate quietly approached Ben with a question weighing heavily on his mind.
"Say... Ben... what about this supposed new werewolf that moved to town?" Nate wondered to him. He was still highly curious about and what had brought a were from outside Moon Lake to the town. A part of him had figured that all the weres around lived in Moon Lake because they had found a place where they could be safe and have a society that wasn't mixed with or controlled by those who had hunted were-beasts in the past.
"Well... if you and Alex want to go meet him AFTER we get home... that's fine," Ben answered, "but I'd prefer to let them get settled in before anything else. And since he's supposed to already be a werewolf, while the fact that most of us are weres of some kind may be a surprise to him... it's more of a nice surprise... not to mention that there is no need for introductions and formal reading of Moon Lake's rules to the new family, as they already meet the one family member MUST be a were requirement."
"I'm sure... but isn't it a little odd that a werewolf is moving TOO Moon Lake?" Nate wondered, "I thought..."
"That only Normals move to Moon Lake and become weres?" Ben chuckled, "remember that Ms. Tachibana... the Skulk's leader... and her family moved here from Japan after World War II. There were werefoxes here before she arrived. Having weres move TOO Moon Lake isn't common... but it does happen from time to time."
"How...?" Nate began to ask only to see Ben raise an eyebrow, which made him remember who Ben's mother was. He'd probably heard some things from time to time from Samantha regarding her job of welcoming new residents to Moon Lake. At the end he apologized, "Sorry."
"It's okay," Ben shrugged with a friendly smile, "besides... if the kid is a high school student... he'll surely be enrolled here sooner or later and we can meet him then. Maybe even offer to let him and his parents join Austin's pack..."
"And if his parents make the request to join on their own..." Alex commented, "we'd probably get calls from Austin for a slightly different ceremony from the one you were in, stud."
Nate nodded and the three broke up for a moment to head to their next classes, with each wishing the other a good day.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Martha's day, meanwhile had been rather quiet. After waving goodbye to William as headed out toward the college, Martha returned inside her home and resumed studying through the study guides that William had picked up. It kept her busy for much of her morning, though she also figured to start making some flash cards to help her practice for whenever the tests could be arranged for the first time through the tests. She also checked Amazon and ordered the latest guidebook for the teaching PRAXIS for elementary teachers. It all worked out well, though by lunch time she knew she needed a break, and so she called William at the college while fixing herself a sandwich. She would have liked to talk longer, but he had to be at lunch, himself, and needed to be able to get back to his classroom before his afternoon classes started. He couldn't be on the phone talking.
After lunch, she took a nice hot shower before truly dressing herself for the day. It felt good and the soap lathered easily and the shampoo did well to keep her hair looking good. As she dressed herself thoughts on Eric's future and her own enjoyment of her shower fluttered through her mind. If Eric did become a weremer, he might need a pool or something like that to let him swim. The Stovall's had a pool, sure, but they surely wouldn't want Eric coming over every day just to swim. Even if they got along well, such frequent visits just to swim might come off as if Eric would be taking advantage of them. Of course, if he agreed to wait until he was at least sixteen, by that time she should be teaching again and she and William could afford to put in a pool for him.
With that she'd then wonder how would a pool affect her, William, or Nate. House cats were well known for NOT liking water and doing everything they could not to get wet. Martha had never had a pet, but she had known that cats didn't like getting wet. She hadn't minded showering, but a part of her wondered if her new werecat instincts wouldn't want to be in a pool. She didn't know if that would change and a part of her was a bit embarrassed over it to actually ask Samantha or Frances on it. She also didn't know how well foxes or wolves dealt with water.
"Well," Martha mused to herself as she pulled a pair of jeans up to finish dressing after her shower, "I suppose that'll simply be something to find out when it comes... because Eric is most important with regard to this."
With that, Martha collected her purse, went downstairs, locked the front door, got into the Anderson family car, and was soon driving toward Moon Lake's downtown. In a way, it struck Martha that the town was laid out like a wagon wheel with a central downtown area and several spokes branching off from it. In between the spokes, Martha could easily see the forest that made up the area around Moon Lake. It raised some curiosity on Martha's part and figured some night, she and William could transform and go exploring just to see what was out there. But for the moment, she had some errands to run to make sure that Eric's Halloween costume would be ready.
She had a good idea on how to put together a costume for Eric to be Jacques Cousteau. William had an old orange colored stocking cap that her father had given him earlier in their marriage for a Christmas present with the promise that they go hunting sometime. William had never been much of a hunter, and Martha remembered that he tended to be busy during the hunting season and the number of times he'd gone hunting with her parents was rather limited. The hat would do well for a Jacques Cousteau costume. William also had an old pair of navy blue slacks that would work, and Eric did have a black belt that he could wear with it, and Martha could roll up the bottom of the pants to keep them from being drug over the floor. Nate also had a sky blue long sleeved shirt that was actually getting too small on him already and was ready to be a hand-me-down to Eric. It would essentially complete the outfit for the costume and would allow Eric to dress as the French oceanographer.
The only things that Martha felt was needed was some wire to twist together for a set of fake glasses for Eric to wear and a cloth name-tag that Martha intended to sew onto the shirt with the name SS Calypso on it. She'd found no photo of Cousteau wearing anything with such a name-tag, but figured it would be the only thing that might help people figure out who Eric was dressed as. She hoped that the local thrift shop would have what she needed. After parking her car and making her way to the store, Martha calmly walked in and made her way around.
She found a host of various products that could be used for various arts and crafts projects. There were fabrics, yarns, fake flowers, and other such things that one would find in a thrift store. Martha slowly began to browse when she heard a voice speak from a side to her.
"Excuse me, do you need any help?" came a woman's voice.
Martha turned to see a woman about her age in a pair of gray/beige slacks and a forest green polo shirt. She had a short white apron that hung from her wide hips, and Martha's nose easily picked up the woman's werefox scent.
"I suppose, I'm looking for some things that I might be able to use for my son's Halloween costume," Martha answered, "I need some wire that won't be too sharp and can be easily twisted so that they look like glasses if bent right and cloth fabric name-tag, preferably of a light blue color... something I can write on but still strong enough that it won't come apart."
"Well... we can help," the woman answered, "now... are these glasses to be for any purpose besides a costume?"
"No," Martha answered and then brought her hands up to draw an outline of the sort of frames that would be needed to complete the costume with her pointer fingers, "but they are needed to complete the costume."
The woman then turned around and walked over the counter that she had walked out from and came to a small plastic rotary display case on which several glasses hung from. She picked out one that looked pretty close to the frame design that Martha felt would be needed for the costume. She then handed them to Martha and gave a soft smile.
"Wire could be painful to wear and difficult to keep from irritating the wearer," the woman explained, "we carry various reading glasses that can be bought cheaply and used for anyone that needs them. They'd be far more comfortable than wire... and they won't affect your son's vision too much. If he needs an actual prescription... he'd need to go to an optometrist..."
"You carry reading glasses?" Martha said in surprise as she took the lenses, "I had good vision before... but since I became a werecat... it's..."
"Improved?" the woman chuckled, "I know it seems odd... but there are normals that may need them in Moon Lake... and it's possible that when you get older a few centuries from now... old age might require you to need them. That's why we keep them."
"I see," Martha shrugged, "Well... they look pretty much like what will be needed for the costume, if it's no..."
"We have plenty, don't worry," the woman chuckled again.
"And about the name-tag?" Martha asked.
"That'll be a two parter," the woman answered and lead Martha deeper into the shop. She stopped by a set of shelves near where they had various rolls of fabrics for sale. She then pulled a lone black marker from a plastic cup. "This is a fabric marker. A regular marker might worker... but washable markers may run and permanent markers might not be easily applied. This marker is designed to work on fabrics and apply well on them. That will help make whatever name you wish to write in look real..."
"It's not too expensive, is it?" Martha asked.
"Oh no," the woman answered, "and it'll last for quite awhile in case you don't have another such project in the near future."
Martha took the marker and checked the written price on it, and it didn't look too bad for a specialist marker. In the meantime, the woman then lead Martha around a corner to a small cutting table with many of the rolls of fabric.
"The other part would take a bit of work... as we don't carry cloth name-tags," she spoke, "but I can cut out a name tag for you. Is there any specific kind of fabric you'd like it made of?"
"Well... the shirt it'll be sewn too is a cotton/polyester mix," Martha answered, "what would work best? The fabric itself isn't too important so long as it's light blue."
The woman nodded and turned and began going to several of the rolls of fabric that were on shelves until she found a light blue colored roll. She then rolled it out for Martha to feel. It felt soft and not unlike most cotton tee-shirts that Martha had bought for her sons or for herself over the years.
"This is cotton and it will work with the fabric marker," the woman explained, "though... I will warn you that it probably won't last long if it goes in the wash if you don't make sure the edges that I cut aren't fold in..."
"It's okay," Martha spoke, "As I said... this is only to be for a Halloween costume. I don't think it's going to be intended to last that long beyond the town's Halloween dance."
"I see," the woman commented and began rolling out the fabric, "and this needs to be the size of a normal name-tag?"
Martha nodded and stood by as the woman cut the fabric to produce a scrap that looked small but would fit above the breast pockets on the shirt that Eric would wear as part of his costume.This would get all the things that would be needed to complete Eric's costume. With the fabric cut for the tag, the two returned to the front area and the woman rang up the purchases and placed them in a small bag. As she handed them to Martha she gave a polite and friendly smile.
"If you ever need anything for a costume for yourself... don't hesitate to come by," the spoke, "we may not be a fancy costume store like Party City... nor will we carry generic costumes... but we do allow for everyone to let their creative side come out. And THAT is all the real fun with Halloween."
"If I need to... I will," Martha smiled back, "thank you for your help."
Martha felt pleased with her success, and even confident that Eric's costume would be even better than what she had originally planned. With that, she went about her other errands for the day, which was mostly to pick up a few groceries that they would need. She, Nate, and William had all picked up rather healthy appetites since their transformations and they were running a little low on a few things that would need to be restocked. Martha figured it had to be a metabolism change in the three of them after their transformations. While she'd never been overweight by any means, she had never lost all of her pregnancy weight when she had carried Eric, but now, not only was that gone but Martha could also find the outline of her abdominal muscles as well. Martha never remembered having that level of muscle definition even before she was pregnant with Nate. She didn't have the body of a bodybuilder by any means, but Martha had found that like her husband, her muscles had much better tone now.
The mission to the grocery went quietly and easily. Martha was greeted warmly and a few even came up to and congratulated her on becoming a werecat and joining were society. It made her smile and she enjoyed the welcome to the local community.