Nate and Alex quietly made their way out of the administration building and began to quietly walk along the sidewalks that crisscrossed the interior of the campus. In a way it was very interesting with a large central green that was organized something like a city park, and Nate was privately amazed by all the scents that crossed the sidewalk and moved through the areas that made those areas well traveled. He wondered if students that lived on campus had arrangements for special events that used the land or if it became simply another place for weres to enjoy their were form. Though, he also wondered how that would work, as the college would surely have students from outside Moon Lake that might not necessarily wish to stay in Moon Lake. Not knowing about the waivers the college issued to students and faculty from outside Moon Lake, Nate wondered if the college followed the same rules as the town and that new students had to become weres at some point or if they had some other arrangement. And if there was another arrangement, how did the college handle the were population? Moon Lake natives might not need to go to the dorms, but some might if only to "get away" from their folks, and that could very well raise the chance that a normal human student from outside Moon Lake might accidentally discover their roommate was a were.
"So, what do you want to look at first?" Alex asked, "check out their Social Sciences Department or the English Department... or their Education Department."
Nate felt Alex give him a playful bump at the suggestion that Mrs. Johnson had offered to Nate about teaching. Nate looked over to see Alex looking at the campus map that they had been given and paused over it for a few moments. He had honestly never thought of himself as a writer nor a teacher, though up until now, he really hadn't given any thought as to what he would do after high school. Some of what Mrs. Johnson talked about sounded interesting, though he'd have to give a lot of that some serious thought. Though, it certainly couldn't hurt to check out what brochures the various departments had, after all, unless he and Alex suddenly got grades good enough to allow them to skip their Senior Year in High School, both of them would have time to look over the information and think things through.
"Maybe try the English Department," Nate commented, "See if my dad got an answer concerning the Skulk's ceremony tonight... and see what he thinks about teaching..."
"Okay then!" Alex gave a smile and the two of them began to quietly make their way across the campus.
It didn't take them long until they came to the spot that the map identified as the building for the English department, and they walked in. Just as Mrs. Johnson said they found a booth in the entryway that had a couple of brochures and things that talked about the college's English department.
"Sorry I was out!" came a female's voice as Nate and Alex were about to leave.
They both turned to see a young woman in her early twenties come running from a nearby restroom. She was likely a student at the college, but had a sort of intern job for the college to help some things that related to college projects. Nate had remembered his father mentioning some things from time to time about these interns earning some spending money, though it involved a few extra classes and surrendering some free time to run the job back in Minnesota. It made sense that Moon Lake College would run a similar program. Nate could tell by her scent that she was a were, a wereskunk in fact. Though contrary to what people might think, the musk that skunks spray in self-defense WASN'T their base scent. The only reason people smelled it in cases with road killed skunks was that the animal had been frightened by the vehicle and the weight of the car was more than enough to essentially force the skunk to spray everything they had. Their base scent was different from the musk. She had many of the physical forms and traits that typified female weres, though differed from the ones Nate had met. She wore a white golf shirt that had a small decal of a full moon descending into to the waters of a lake, the college's logo, over her right breast, which just as ample as many female weres were, but it was her hips that really stood out. It looked as though her hips were actually slightly wider than her bust, though that really didn't do anything for Nate.
"Thank you for waiting, I had to run to the little girl's room," the woman spoke, "welcome to the college, you're here from the high school?"
"We got a day off, today," Nate spoke, and offered her his hand, "so we're here to see the college and get a good starting point for the future and when we come to college..."
"Not a bad idea," the woman answered. "And you were looking at an English or a Literature major?"
"Maybe," Nate commented, "though... from what I talked with Mrs. Johnson at the Administration Building I got the suggestion for both English and Education based on some answers I'd given on things that I'd had interest in."
"Well... we have a great department here, with regard to the English language, complete with creative writing courses, literature courses on various specific subjects," the woman answered, "and the brochure will cover all the classes we are offering for this year and next year. So, you'll have some idea on the specific courses being offered. You'll need to visit our education department for further information... though it will be a necessity if you want to teach in Moon Lake for our obvious... were related issues regarding child development."
Nate glanced over to Alex with a look of confusion.
"She's referring to those of us who have been born weres," Alex answered, "and as we approach puberty and our first transformation... many aspects of our animal side's instincts begin to emerge. And while we grow up knowing what we are... it can still be something that isn't easily dealt with as we try to think things over and process things."
"Sorry," Nate spoke, realizing that it was something that probably related to keeping Moon Lake operating without trouble.
"Nothing to be sorry for," Alex answered, "it isn't too terribly different from puberty for normals... but there can be issues that relate specific natures of each were-beast, and as someone who came to Moon Lake and joined were society... it isn't a thing that really affects you."
Nate slowly nodded, remembering Ben's review of "American Werewolf In London." That Ben had had nightmares or dreams not too different from those David had. It made a part of him wonder if every were had similar dreams or experiences. He also wondered why any were had those dreams. He could feel the predator within him, and he figured that Ben and Alex and the rest of the pack could feel the same pull as well, but Nate had learned enough to see that weres weren't mindlessly lost to those instincts. That might be something to Alex or Ben or the Twists on later... or maybe Eric, since this seemed to get into the sort of science thing that Eric had a great deal of interest in. And Eric had never had bad theories with regard to scientific facts and study. Even if he wasn't a were, Nate figured that Eric would probably learn the most about weres and their natures from a scientific perspective than Nate ever would, even though Nate had already become a were.
"Thank you for the information," Nate said to the woman who was there with the booth, "we will probably stop by the Education Department before getting to the Social Sciences Department for their Economics courses... though for the moment... could we visit with a professor for a few moments... on a more personal matter?"
"A personal matter?" the young woman asked, "You know one of the professors personally?"
"William Anderson, my father," Nate spoke, "he was hired to teach in this department."
"Oh..." the young woman answered, "well... if he doesn't have a class at this moment... I suppose there is nothing wrong with that.... and the brochure for the English Department will include both the classroom that his classes have been assigned to along with his office number."
"Thank you," Nate spoke and began to make his way toward the stairs with Alex following close behind.
The walked quietly to a nearby flight of stairs. It was quiet, which was actually expected, as by now, Nate expected many of the students would be in class by now. As they began walking up the stairs, Nate remembered something he noticed earlier in the day.
"Say... the other day... you asked me what color Eric's eyes were... right?" Nate asked.
"Yeah," Alex asked, "when we first met with him and Julie outside the library, your brother's eyes were brown... but yesterday... his eyes were blue... the exact same shade of blue as Julie's eyes were."
"I noticed that this morning," Nate said slowly, "they seemed to switch between brown and blue... and they stayed blue for awhile before going back to brown."
There was a silence for a few moments as they reached the first landing and then turned to head up the rest of the stairs to the building's second floor.
"Is that a weremer thing?" Nate wondered, "and if so... how is it affecting Eric? He's still only a normal?"
Technically, since it wouldn't be until a little after ten that Eric Anderson would join were-society in deciding to show Julie Stovall just how much he loved her, Nate was correct that Eric was a normal. However, with it presently being nine fifteen AM to clock was ticking with regard to how much longer that would be. The bigger issue, though, was that neither Nate nor Alex knew that it actually WAS a weremer thing that wasn't too drastically different than the werefox's life mate bonds that William had with Martha or Harry and Jenny's bond with each other. Nate had read Moon Lake's handbook's passages with regards to the rules for being a were thoroughly, but he had only skimmed the sections that were the guide to the specific species that resided in Moon Lake. At the time, that was due to the fact that he knew what were he wanted to be long before moving to Moon Lake and learning that were-beasts were real. The result of that, however, was that he missed the entry on weremers. Though not that the handbook would have been of much help, as while it makes mention of a weremer's "love at first sight" power, it was rather vague and didn't go into any real detail... likely a part of Moon Lake to make sure that if the handbook went beyond Moon Lake that it would be dismissed as a part of the folklore type guidebooks that Nate had followed in his werewolf fandom. In fact, he had a sort of encyclopedia on werewolves at home that demonstrated that, though it didn't help him much with regard to what he had noticed.
"I really don't know," Alex answered, "but I noticed it and thought it rather odd..."
Alex's case was a bit different. Typically natural born weres weren't given the Moon Lake handbook, as much of the handbook's intention was to help normals transition into were society, in accordance with the town's laws. Alex, being born a were, knew he would be a werewolf from the moment he was born, regardless of whether or not he liked some other were-beast species more. As such, the only thing he needed to learn was when he could or could not transform, where transforming was allowed, which is parents taught him. There was also when his Pack had its meetings, which outside of welcoming new members, was generally up to the Alphas. Some Alphas held meetings on the full moon and some didn't, with usually the fact that the full moon went hand in hand with many parts of the werewolf legend playing some role in the Alpha's decision. And since there were no weremers in Alex's family tree, he really didn't know the full ins and outs about weremers and their courtship or how their pod's functioned.
Weremer pods were generally organized around families, though this tended to extend to all members of the family. All of the mers in Moon Lake were related to Martin Stovall by blood or by marriage. Julie and Martin's parents and grandparents were related to him by blood. Melissa Stovall had and Eric Anderson would join the "Stovall Pod" through marriage. The only time when a weremer left the pod they were born into was when a mermaid fell in love with a merman from a different pod. In Eric and Melissa's case, because they were initially born normals and joined weremer society, they didn't effect any change in the pod structure, Melissa from marrying Martin, and Eric from the fact that he was a normal who'd fallen in love with Julie and thus wasn't a member of a pre-existing pod. They tended to be patriarchal, though had some complexities of their own. But neither Nate nor Alex knew this.
In addition, neither knew on the arrangement and plans that Melissa and Julie had put together for the day and for Eric's transformation. They also didn't know about the full complexities that went on with regard to why Martin Stovall had left for California to help his brother with his mother. This related to the patriarchal nature of weremer pods. Martin's parents own a place near the lake where they had raised Martin from the time he was born until shortly after he graduated college and fell madly in love with a beautiful blonde from California. His father tended to be rather relaxed while his mother was highly athletic and adventurous, but both highly committed to each other and deeply committed to "the Stovall pod." When Martin and Melissa married, Melissa's parents had come out from California for the wedding, and had built a very good relationship with Martin's parents.
That friendship grew and shortly before Julie was born, Martin's parents took out a summer home in California near the beach and not too far from where Melissa's parent's lived. During the winter they frequently went south and returned in the summer, though sometimes one or the other remained in California to look after Melissa's parents, as they were still normals and getting on in years, as through marriage, they might as well have been part of the "Stovall Pod." And recently Martin's mother, despite how much she wished to remain by her husband's side, remained in California to be there for Melissa's parents should they need anything, which lead to the unfortunate accident in which Martin's mother broke her leg and needed help of her own...But neither Nate nor Alex knew that, and wouldn't learn about that until later that evening.*
"Hopefully he'll be okay," Nate spoke as they walked along and then came to a classroom door where they found William Anderson sorting some papers at the front of the room and preparing for his next class, which was assigned to the same room as his eight o-clock and nine-thirty classes. Their talks with Mrs. Johnson and the wereskunk at the booth in the English Department building had taken some time, as had their leisurely walk across the campus, but it did thankfully allow them to avoid getting to William Anderson when he was busy with his classes. In fact, most of the college students were on their way out when Nate and Alex arrived. With that, both teens put aside their wonders on Eric's condition, to see if William had gotten any answer on the Skulk's ceremony.
"Nate... if you were going to do a take your child to work day, we could have just carpooled," William spoke with a slightly humorous tone without missing a beat.
Figuring that his father had either heard him or caught his scent, Nate entered with Alex close behind.
"Actually, Alex and I only came by to look at some of the future planning stuff the college is running today," Nate answered, "it's been fairly interesting so far... and while we were here... I figured to stop by and see how things were going."
"They are going good," William answered, "and if I had more time... I'd love to show you two around the department... but my next class is going to start fairly soon, and I need to be ready."
Nate nodded, "It's okay... I just had a question... did you get an answer regarding the ceremony tonight?"
"I did," William smiled, "and provided formal attire is worn and behavior is respectful... you and Eric can bring one date Though you'll need to provide an explanation for your connection to the Skulk and the ceremony. Which shouldn't be too hard. Simply state that you are my son and have invited your beau to join in a family event."
Nate did smile at that.