Every step from Julie made Eric wish he could wish he could turn around and move back closer to Julie. However, Eric did his best to remember what Mr. Stovall had told him before the two of them had left the pool to head in for dinner. It helped a little, as he knew he would have a little homework to work on before bed and Skyping with Julie. That felt good, and he did thank Martin Stovall for that help. Eric was also glad that Martin was perfectly fine with his relationship with Julie and that his marriage proposal, by weremer standards, wasn't something that was going to lead to the stereotypical protective father pulverizing the daughter's boyfriend scenario. That was good and Eric let himself drift into some friendly daydreaming as he walked along.
The walk home wasn't far and it didn't take him long to find his home coming into view. It had been a quiet walk with nothing really going on around him, though he thought he might have heard some faint howls and other related animal noises rising from the woods on the other side of the row of houses he was walking by. They were faint enough that Eric couldn't fully identify whether it was a mundane animal or a were, as a weremer's senses, with the exception of smell, wasn't much sharper than a normal's outside of water. It was part of a trade off. He might have as sharp of eyesight or hearing that the rest of his family gained, but they would all drown if they tried to talk underwater. As he came up toward his own home, he came across a bit of a surprise. Parked along the street were two separate vehicles. The first was a pretty standard car, older but super old. The second was a newer minivan.
"I wonder what all this is," Eric wondered as he looked back toward each vehicle, "the Twists live next door... and dad hasn't commented about college staff coming over..."
Thankfully, Eric eventually returned his gaze forward to know where the front door was and he made his way inside. He entered to find an adult woman and man standing together with two young girls between them while his parents and Nate stood opposite them. This served to puzzle Eric a bit more as he caught in at the end of the conversation.
"...to see you again, Nellie," Martha spoke and then blinked at seeing Eric come through the door, "and we have some more good fortune."
This brought the full attention being brought on him and made Eric blush a little bit. The younger girls looked on him with some curiosity though adults looked to him with some familiarity, though also with some distance as well. She eventually smiled to him.
"My he has grown," the woman, Nellie, spoke with a smile, "he was in diapers when we last saw him."
"Though, shouldn't his eyes be brown?" the man asked.
"Uh... hello?" Eric said hesitantly.
Martha made a slow walk forward and moving around the man and woman letting the two girls stand between the two adults. William and Nate remained calm and in the entryway from the Anderson family's entryway to the living room. As Martha approached him, she placed a hand on Eric's shoulder and used that hand to hold Eric to her. He felt her purr slightly, even while in her human form as she did so.
"Eric, this is Nellie and John Lyons, they're old friends from Minnesota," Martha introduced them, "and these are their daughters Marsha and Sally."
"You probably don't remember us," John said to Eric with a polite smile, "You were still pretty young when Nellie and I moved here so I was within commuting distance of my job... became wereminks and had our daughters."
"You're right... my memory IS a bit hazy with that," Eric offered a hand for a handshake, which John and eventually Nellie did return, "but it is nice to meet you."
"He doesn't have a tail," Sally commented, "Everyone said he's a merman. Merman have tails."
"Yeah!" Marsha agreed.
"That's my Stage Three form," Eric answered, "Which is only practical in water. So right now, I'm in my human form."
"Do you know Ariel?" Marsha wondered.
"No... the only young mermaid I know is named Julie," Eric answered, "though I love her very much."
"And from what your parents have told us, love is the best reason to become a were," John told him, "Hopefully the two of you are as happy as I've been with Nellie."
Meeting his parents' old family friends was a bit of a surprise, and he guessed the Lyons owned at least one of the vehicles parked outside, but they did seem friendly and he supposed that with Marsha and Sally that even Moon Lake had its version of what he remembered his grandparents calling, "Kids say the darnedest things."
"I hope so too," Eric answered and added, "but again, it is nice to meet all of you."