I’m home, and I’ve got Maggie with me!” Jonathan called into his house. In the time it takes him and Maggie to walk from the front door and down their three foot long hallway, Maggie’s parents are up and hugging their younger daughter.
“Mom, Dad, geez. I’m okay.” Maggie said, buckling a bit under her mother’s weight. Her father piled on, and the two smothered Maggie until Elle finally took pity on her sister and told them to back off.
“I thought you moved out here to avoid trouble?” Tom Carson said.
“Well, to be fair, trouble seems to follow us wherever we go.” Maggie sighed.
“You mean it seems to follow Spencer.” Her mother, Amelia, added.
“Mom, don’t you start on that.”
“Well, it’s a shame she had to inherit your bad streak.” Amelia huffed.
“Oh, just leave well enough alone. I’ve had too stressful of a day to talk about parenting styles.” Maggie groaned. Her parents conceded, and the five adults moved from the hallway into the living room. Elle shut off the TV, and asked how Evan and Spencer were doing.
“Good. They’ve got matching scars now. But otherwise, everything’s back to how they were before all this madness started.” Maggie said.
“Glad to hear it,” Tom nodded. He didn’t not like Evan, but his son-in-laws high risk job was quite the burden. Both his daughters married men who entered hazardous career fields, Evan in the Navy and Jonathan a firefighter.
“Must be that danger factor from their adolescence.” Tom thought. Another thing he knew Spencer inherited from her mother. Her attraction to bad boys.
“Now, what’s this about some other boy in Spencer’s life?” Tom moved onto another subject.
“Elle you didn’t!” Maggie turned on her sister, red in the face.
“What? They asked if anything interesting was going on, and Spencer dating Eric is pretty interesting…” Elle said, holding her hands up in defense. Jonathan laughed as the two start arguing about who being in whose business.
“Makes me glad my brother lives on the other side of the country.” Jonathan thought.
“What’s this Eric like?” Amelia asked, trying to stop her daughter’s from furthering their fight. She wouldn’t put shifting and clawing at each other past the two.
“He’s really sweet. You should have seen what he did at our impromptu dinner.” Maggie said, before telling her parents, Elle and Jonathan about Eric’s romantic gesture.
“Wow, kid knows what he’s doing.” Tom remarked. He was liking the sound of this Eric Anderson more and more. A HUGE improvement over Jeremy Bower for sure.
“What’s his family like? Elle said that everyone EXCEPT Eric had already made the change…?”
“Both his parents are werefoxes. William is an English professor at the college, and Martha is a third grade teacher.” Maggie said. She purposely left out the more intimate bits of her relationship with the adult Andersons. Like Spencer, she did NOT want to discuss her sex life with her parents.
“Both in education, interesting. And they have another son too right?” Amelia said.
“He’s a year older than Spencer, Nate. He’s a werewolf.” Maggie nodded.
“Quite the variety. You know, if I hadn’t picked ocelot, I would have gone with fox. I’ve always liked orange.” Tom remarked.
“Seriously Dad? THAT’S why you’d pick a fox?” Elle giggled.
“You and your sister chose panthers because you both thought, how did you put it? OH that’s right. You said, ‘black goes with everything’.” Her father reminded her. Jonathan tried his best not to start laughing at his wife’s expense. She was giving him on of those, “Don’t even think about it” looks.
“Is Eric going to become a were too?”
“He’s been having some trouble deciding on what kind of were, but yes. At some point in the future.” Maggie said.
“Good. I’m glad my granddaughter has finally found some happiness. Whatever happened to her previous boyfriend? Jerry? Went to Mexico to make Bart Simpson piñatas didn’t he?” Tom asked.
“Dad…” Maggie started.
“Oh I’m just playing with you. I could care less where that scum bag went. Prison, the bottom of the Atlantic, Hell…” Tom laughed.
“Evan was right to stay home.” Maggie thought.
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In the Anderson house, the family unwounded from the extremely stressful day. William and Martha went about readying the kitchen for tomorrow morning’s rush, while Nate packed a bag to meet Kenya in the woods behind his house later that evening.
Eric went back upstairs, and tried not to jump on his bed with glee. He was so happy, that despite the tense afternoon he’d had, the day had gone perfectly. And what’s more, things between him and Spencer were looking up. Now if he could just pick what kind of were he wanted to be.
The big cat options were starting to look the most promising of the bunch. But there was still the problem of not knowing many female weres who could turn him. And it’s not like he could just put up an ad on Craigslist or something. It was weird enough just asking around if there were any straight female werecats willing to sleep with him.
Eric was still lying on his bd, staring at the ceiling when his phone buzzed. He was glad to see it was Spencer calling him.
“Hey, what’s up? Did you get home alright?” Eric asked.
“Ya. Dad went out again, and my mom went to my aunts’.”
“Really, why?”
“My grandparents requested our presence. Dad didn’t want to go, and truthfully I didn’t want to either, so Mom said she’d go to appease them. What’re you up to?”
“Just thinking.”
“Oh about what?” Spencer asked, She was lying on her bed as well, channel flipping since she had nothing better to do. And there were only so many things she could do with one able arm.
“Mostly about making the change. You said before that the werepanthers are really just some off shoot of leopards and jaguars right?”
“In a nutshell, yes. I guess in theory if you chose one of them you could end up as a ‘panther’, since they’re just the melanistic variation.” Spencer said.
“Okay, so maybe I just need to broaden the search perimeters. There aren’t many panthers, but I’m sure there are a few regular colored leopards and jaguars. Your mom and aunt are in an exotic pride, right?”
“Well, ya. But I’m not sure how many of them would be willing to turn a fourteen year old. Or how many of them are straight.” Spencer said.
“Doesn’t hurt to ask. And while we’re on the subject, how come you’re not part of the pride?”
“It’s just not my thing. Besides, I’m half wolf so technically I can’t join a pride. Can’t technically join a pack either, but I don’t want to regardless.”
“Why?”
“I dunno. It never appealed to me. All you do at those kinds of meetings is exchange small talk and have sex. It’s so… boring.” Spencer said. Sure the sex part was fairly enjoyable, but Spencer found that after two meetings with her mom, she’d rather just stay home and play Mario Kart.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t join a pride or pack, depending on what species you go with. I just prefer to do my own thing.”
“And what would that be?” Eric asked.
“It depends, but most of the time I just end up going out on my own. Have fun. Like, you know, regular teenage fun.” Spencer kept it vague. Because her activities, while fun, weren’t always legal. It was a miracle she hadn’t been arrested to breaking and entering back in Virginia.
“I’ve never really done any of the ‘typical’ teenage stuff.” Eric admitted.
“Well, as soon as things quiet down, I’d be more than happy to show you the night life.” Spencer said.
“You just moved out here though.”
“I’m just good at sniffing out fun places. Trust me, if there’s a party going on within a fifty mile radius, I’ll find it one way or another.”