"I am not that gullible." Ben says, still angry at his friends to poking fun at him.
"Oh come on Ben. You have to admit, that rumor was pretty ridiculous." Nate laughed from his seat beside Ben. Alex and Eric were in the backseat, laughing along with him, much to Ben's dismay.
"Is it wrong that I see the glass half full?" Ben asked.
"No, but did you honestly think that Tina Caldwell was telling the truth? The girl who told our entire class that she kissed one of the Jonas Brothers when we were twelve?" Alex said. Ben slides further into his seat, and turns a corner and onto Alex's street.
"I love you man, but try to think realistically. Besides, why be interested in McConaughey when you've got me?" Alex asked after Ben pulled into his driveway. Alex gives Ben a quick kiss goodbye before running into his house. Being Washington, rain had suddenly started to fall.
Ben drove them home fast enough that by the time they got home, the rain had only just started to pick up. Eric has only put on foot in the door when his cell phone starts to ring. It's Julie.
"Hello?" he asks as he sets his backpack down in the kitchen. Nate goes to the refrigerator for a drink, briefly stopping to ask Eric if he wants one.
"Hey, it's raining." Julie says, clearly disappointed at the sudden change in weather.
“Ya, is that bad?” Eric asked, having forgotten about their date scheduled for that night. Julie reminds him, to which Eric mentally kicks himself for having a lapse in memory.
“Sorry, brain-fart. But rain isn’t a problem right? We were going to go to the movies, that’s indoors.” Eric said, confused.
“Well I was kinda hoping you and I could hang out at my place before.” said a wistful Julie.
“Okay?”
“You know, outside.” Julie says, getting a bit frustrated with Eric’s complete ignorance at what she’s getting at. Once again she must bring him to the epiphany, rather than him come to the conclusion on his own.
“If it’s raining then we can’t use the pool,” she said flatly. Eric doesn't respond, so Julie ends their conversation by saying she'll see him later.
“Bye?” Eric said still confused. He puts his phone back into his pocket, and looks up to see his brother staring at him. Nate gave him such a disappointed look.
"How can you be so thick?" Nate asked.
"This coming from the guy who thought the Bay of Pigs was a tourist destination in the Caribbean."
"Dude, she wants to, you know," Nate looks pointedly at his brother's lower extremities. He can almost hear the click in Eric's head as he finally puts two and two together.
"Oh! Gross," is Eric's response. Nate has a good laugh at his brother's expense.
"That's probably NOT what Julie wants to hear," he said.
"Well it is. I mean, we're fourteen. And I seriously doubt her parents want us to have that kind of relationship at our ages." Eric said.
"I'm sure they understand what Julie's going through. Puberty, raging hormones, that stuff," Nate said.
Eric understood better than anyone. He did love Julie, and had every intention of becoming a were for her. But he wanted to finish high school normal. Maybe even college. There were thing he wanted to do before making the change. He knew Julie had... urges to put it lightly. On more than one occasion, Eric had walked in on her satiating those urges. Most of the time while she was in the family pool. Thankfully she mer anatomy kept Eric from seeing anything. Still, he always turned bright red when it happened.
"Do you think I should... you know," Eric asked.
"I'm not telling my little brother to jump into bed, or in this case the pool, with his girlfriend." Nate said firmly. He left Eric downstairs with a puzzled look on his face.
"How the hell did he end up with a girlfriend before me?" Nate thinks aloud.
----------
Eric's brow is still partially furrowed when he meets Julie at the movie theater later that evening. She seems to be in a better mood. If Eric was a were, he would know why. There are plenty of other weres out and about who are pausing to stare at Julie. The smell screams one thing, sex.
"What movie do you wanna see?" Eric asks after giving a Julie a kiss.
"I don't know. How about the new James Bond movie?"
"Sounds good to me, but I thought you'd want to see the new Hunger Games."
"Nah, I never liked the third book. And I hate that they split the movie into two parts. So unnecessary ." Julie shook her head in disapproval.
"Alright then, 007 it is." Eric said, wrapping an arm around Julie.
As the young couple went inside the movie theater, across the street Francis and Samantha Twist were meeting for dinner at the local diner. Ben had made plans with Alex, so the two decided to treat themselves to a night out. And while eating $20 steaks at a diner isn't much of a "wild night" by most standards, to them it was about as wild as life in Moon Lake could get.
"How was you day? Anything interesting happen at City Hall?" Francis asked her wife. Samantha mulled the question over while chewing a bit of meat.
"Not really. I'd say the most interesting thing was when Melissa Stovall stormed into her husband's office." she said, swallowing.
"They're having problems again?"
"It would appear so. Martin's been on edge lately. What with his marital problems and feds poking around the town." Samantha said, careful to keep her voice low so no one would overhear their conversation. The last thing anyone needed was reason to panic. And though there was no eminent threat, the FBI was investigating the disappearance of a convict who escaped from prison. They apparently had reason to believe he would be coming here, all the way from Virginia.
"They haven't found the man then?"
"No. And until they do, I believe they want to keep an agent posted here as a precaution."
"But why on earth would an escaped convict from the other side of the country want to come here of all places? Does he have family around here?" Francis asked.
"I don't know. I overheard the feds talking to the Mayor a few days ago, their voices do carry even when they're trying to be quiet. Martin's pretty frustrated the feds won't give him any more information than that, and they're cross with him because he doesn't want them poking around without warrants, or a an explanation as to why the man would come here." Samantha said. Wanting to change the subject to something cheerier, as Francis could see Sam was getting pretty tense herself, she asked if the new family had moved in yet.
"Not exactly. They're staying with family two or three town over while their stuff is shipped here." she said, popping another cut of steak into her mouth.
"Are they...?"
"Yes."
"That's good, makes your job easier. How many are there?"
"Three, two parents and their daughter. She's about Ben's age I think, maybe a year younger or so." Samantha said, trying to remember what the girl looked like. She'd only seen photographs, stock photos if you will. The kind you'd find on a driver's license. It was hard to discern an age, but the girl had looked high school age.
"Where are they moving in?"
"Opal Street. It's the dead end a few blocks over from our house. To the left," Samantha said.
"Do you know what kind of were they are?"
"I think the father's a wolf. Not sure about the mother and daughter. Guess we'll just have to wait and see."