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CYOTF (Animal)

Morning, Noon and Night (Earth-2)

added 7 years ago O

Spencer wanders in and out of the woods behind her aunt and uncle’s house. There isn’t much to look at, aside from typical forest foliage. So Spencer drifts out onto the street. She’s been walking for a good ten minutes, so the adults must have left by now. And hopefully they wouldn't discover she’d escaped out the bathroom window.

It wasn’t too hard. The window in her room was too small for her to fit through it. But the bathroom window was perfect, seeing at was fitted with tiny french doors. Even when in her were form, she could slip through.

And despite her fear of heights, Spencer worked up enough courage to throw her shoes and backpack out the window, then follow them down. The landing was a bit hard, but was made less uncomfortable by the grass. She stowed her sneakers in her backpack and went on a run, something she hadn’t been able to do in months.

It was rather freeing, running through the open forest without worrying about getting caught by a normal. Even if they did, she doubted they would be able to see much. Her clothes were loose enough that shifting in them posed no problem, aside from the fact that her tail got stuck inside her jeans.

Spencer made her way through the thick brush until she found herself in a residential area. After catching several teenagers walking nearby, she quickly changed back. And once her sneakers were back on her feet, she too walked along the sidewalk.

The morning was quiet. Families heading off to work or school, plenty of kids her age running across the street to catch buses or meet friends. A few she recognized from her brief trip to school yesterday. All the different scents assaulting her nose were a bit much to take in. In all her life, Spencer had only ever known a handful of weres. Aside from her immediate family, there was her ex boyfriend Jeremy, his family, and her former neighbor, something of a spinster, Loretta. And then, most of the were she encountered were feline or canine.

Turning a sharp, reasonably well hidden corner, someone else nearly rammed into Spencer, head first. Having decent reflexes, Spencer managed to stop before colliding. But the young man she nearly bashed heads with wasn’t so lucky. He stumbled backwards, dropping his partially open backpack. It appeared that he was running late and was sprinting to school while simultaneously putting his books away.

“Sorry,” he said quickly, bending over to pick his things up. His dark brown hair falls into his face, covering his brown eyes. Spencer took a quick sniff, which confirmed her suspicions that the boy was normal. No were could have ever been that uncoordinated.

“It’s alright. Need a hand?” Spencer asks. The boy nods and the two start collecting the paper’s and folders strewn about the sidewalk. One stray paper catches the wind, and nearly flutters away. Spencer is quick to chase after it and grab it just before it floats out of reach.

“Impressive, I take it you’re a were.” he says stuffing the paper back into his bag. His face is somewhat flushed, embarrassed by the situation.

“And you’re normal.” Spencer said.

“Well, as normal as one can be.” he replied, awkwardly shifting this backpack on his shoulder.

“Are you new? I don’t think I’ve seen you at school before.”

“Yes. Still in the process of moving, but I’ll start next Tuesday.”

“Why not today?”

“It’s complicated.” Spencer says. That’s the universal “get-out-of-jail-free” card. All you have to do is say, “it’s complicated” and someone drops the subject. Even Eric, who is usually pretty sharp about these things.

“I’m Eric.” he offered Spencer his hand, hoping she wouldn’t notice how sweaty it was.

“Spencer.” she accepts Eric’s extended hand.

“Spencer? I didn’t know that was a girls’ name.” Eric says.

“It’s not. But my parents had already filled out the name on my birth certificate by the time I was born. And it’s rather pointless to change it now.”

“Were they hoping for a boy?”

“Yes and no. They wanted to name me after my father’s brother, he died while serving in the Marine Corps. And when it came time to pick a name, his middle name, Spencer, fit better than his first, Roderick”

Eric laughs until a bus passing by reminds him that he’s late.

“I should get going.” he says.

“Oh right, sorry. Hope you don’t get into too much trouble on my account.” Spencer blushes.

“It’s fine. It’s not even your fault. My brother decided to drive to school without me,” Eric said, still a bit angry at Nate for ditching him. All he said was that Nate should spend less time with his nose in the underwear drawer of the opposite sex, and more time with it in a book. It was the truth. Nate was more interested in finding out if Rebecca Wilson really did have a thong that said, “Enter here” than finishing high school.

And so, in response, Nate stormed out of the house and drove off leaving Eric behind. And as punishment for his remarks, his parents told him to walk to school. Ben showed up and offered to drive him, but Martha made it very clear she wanted Eric to “get some exercise”, so here he was.

“I’ll let you go then.” Spencer turns and starts walking down the street again. After a few feet Eric calls out her name.

“Where do you live, or where are you going to live?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Spencer calls back playfully. The rest of the day she has a certain bounce in her step. That night at dinner her mom is quick to ask why Spencer is grinning like she just won a Nobel prize.

“No reason…” Spencer said, affecting her usual expressionless face. But it didn’t fool Maggie. Something was up, and she was glad it was the sort of something that made Spencer happy. Lord knows she’s had plenty of misery in recent weeks.

--------

“Did you boys have a good day at school? You weren’t too late were you Eric?” Martha asked over the dinner table. The Andersons and Twists were having their weekly meal together, this being the only day Francis could get off work early. Ben, Nate and William sat on one side of the table, while Eric, Martha and Samantha on the other. And while today Francis was positioned at the head of the table, they alternating the spot between the adults. And on occasion Ben, when he cooked the meal.

“Not really, it all worked out in the end.” Eric said, remembering his encounter with Spencer. He was surprised at how eager he was to see her again. But then everyone in school seemed to be eager. Apparently she was something… special, even to the weres.

“Ya, got to meet that new girl from down the street.” Nate chuckles. Eric glares at his brother from across the table, while the adults suddenly look at him with newfound interest.

“Really? What was she like?” William asked.

“Uh, nice. Her name’s Spencer…”

“Spencer?” Ben repeated. He shrank back into his chair when his mothers gave him one of those “mom” looks, though they were all thinking something along the lines of what Ben had just said.

“Ya. Didn’t ask her last name. We just talked for like five minutes.” Eric said, his face starting to burn red.

“She seems nice though. She’s going to start school next Tuesday.”

“Interesting, I wonder why the wait.” Martha said.

“Well I imagine it has something to do with her father’s job.” Samantha says.

“What’s that?” Ben asked.

“I can’t say for the specifics, but I believe he’s a Navy SEAL. He’s stationed at the Everett, so one would assume he’s planning to commute.”

“And he’s a were? How does that work? I mean, they test people and stuff before letting them into the military right?” Nate asked.

“I’ve never known anyone personally who went into the armed forces, but it’s my understanding they have special divisions and squads that are ‘were’ friendly. And then, they have the whole ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy regarding one’s species too.” Francis said, her voice just a bit resentful. More at the “don’t ask, don’t tell” bit. Being a were, and a lesbian made life challenging to say the least. Sure the people of Moon Lake, and most other weres kept open minds. But Francis had encountered a lot of people in the “outside world” who did no approve of her life choices. She went away to get her PhD, and the experience was quite the culture shock, for lack of a better word.

“I’m sure Evan can explain it better than either of us could.” Samantha added. A few puzzled look reminded her that of everyone here, she was the only one who grew up in the town (Ben the obvious exception).

“His wife used to live here with her family. Maggie Carson. We went to school together, she was a grade or two below me I think. Elle, Maggie’s older sister who was in my class, lives in the next town over with her husband, Jonathan. We went to their wedding remember?” Samantha turns to Francis, who is bobbing her head while finishing the piece of food she had been working on.

“I remember. It’s hard to forget a wedding like that. That was a night to remember,” Francis sighed.

“What happened?” Martha asked.

“They held the reception here. Since everyone present was either a were, or were-friendly, caution was thrown to the wind. It was like a zoo, literally. We so rarely get to see our neighbors and coworkers in their other forms. But that night, it was quite the scene. I still can’t believe how many exotics were there.” Samantha laughed.

“Exotics?” Nate asked.

“Species that you don’t typically see around here. Some very rare actually. Maggie and her sister are a subspecies of Asian leopard, and their parents are some South American cat. An oscar?”

“Ocelot, dear. They’re ocelots.” Francis corrects Samantha. Everyone has a good laugh, even Samantha who jokes that her memory isn’t what it used to be. Which leads Ben to remark that maybe her age is finally catching up to her.

“While we’re on the subject, I have been curious about that. Weres do live long lives, and age is not reflected by appearance. How old are you two?” Williams asked. Curiosity hadn’t gotten the best of the cat, it had snared a fox.

“Oh, I don’t know. Somewhere between fifty and sixty I think.” Samantha said casually. Nate dropped his fork and Eric’s mouth hung wide open until Ben reached over and shut it for him.

The only thing any of the Andersons could say was “wow”.


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