Breakfast came as it always did in the morning at the Anderson house, though with all parties enjoying larger portions that what they had had before moving to Moon Lake. In that they were all adjusting and accepting a higher metabolic rate that ultimately demanded a greater food intake to feed it. Nate and Eric talked briefly on Eric's after school dance lessons with Julie, which amounted to saying that he couldn't promise much if at all because he didn't fully know what Alex had planned for their date that night.
"It's okay," Eric commented, "I'd suppose that if you're unavailable, Julie and I could always practice with mom or with Julie's mom..."
"Hmmm?" Martha managed to ask with a mouth full of scrambled eggs.
"Julie and I still have to practice at dancing," Eric explained, "and since we can't do so at school... we have to wait until AFTER school to practice."
Martha swallowed her eggs so that when she answered her son she didn't spit out bits of chewed egg. After quickly dabbing her mouth with a napkin, she did answer.
"Well, I'd love to help, though you may have to wait a little bit after school," Martha commented, "With you and Nate being old enough that you can start to look after yourselves, I've begun taking steps to return to teaching. Now, for the moment it'll be awhile before I can get my certification updated so that it is current and relevant for the state of Washington, I can work as a substitute teacher until my certification is updated. And this week, I will be subbing."
"For who?" Eric asked.
"With the Middle School and the for their gym classes," Martha answered with a smile, eager to get back in the swing of things, "It's a bit outside my training, but I'm not in a position to complain. That said, it will mean that I may not be home when you and Julie get here."
"We can wait," Eric answered, "and if Nate can at least get us started, that'd at least give us a starting point."
"You could take the car, dear, and then you'd be able to get home quicker," William offered to Martha, "and since Eric has been walking Julie home, you'd be able to beat them... or potentially pick them up on the way home."
Martha looked over to William who only shrugged.
"Remember on Tuesdays and Thursdays my first class isn't until later in the morning," William answered, "at least this semester. Not being in at eight only means that I'm missing prep time. On Wednesday and Friday, I may need you to drop me off, but that's a topic for later."
"We ought to get a new car," Nate commented, "if everyone's going to be out and about... it's going to be rough with just one car..."
Martha and William glanced to each other and nodded. That was something they both agreed on, and were closer to doing earlier before the coed in Minnesota ended up pregnant, threatened criminal action, and brought a civil suit against William. The fact that the coupling between them had been consensual ended up absolving William from any criminal punishment, but it did violate the school's code and cost him his job at the University of Minnesota. He was lucky to get his position at Moon Lake College, but its salary was lower due to the fact that it was a smaller school and simply didn't have the money to equal what he'd been earning in Minnesota. Then in addition to that came the issue of child support. William may have avoided criminal issues, but the civil suit still went through and the ruling had been in the coed's favor, as such, any sort of benefit's package that William still got from the University of Minnesota after he was fired went directly to the coed to pay for pre-natal care and William would be required to pay child support for the next eighteen years. The only way William would get out of that would be if the coed contacted them and handed over the child to the Anderson family. If she handed it over to anyone else, be it an adoption agency or anything related, the civil case still held William as financially responsible for the child. And with his lower salary at Moon Lake College, there was the concern that William would not be able to afford payments on a new car and child support. The only thing that would change that financial calculation would be Martha returning to work and letting their combined efforts work in that regard, but neither William nor Martha had made much progress in that regard.
"We'll look into that," Martha commented, "but for the moment we haven't had the time for that... between rogue weres going after your father... and all of us becoming weres... things have been hectic."
Nate and Eric nodded and breakfast resumed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Martha did take the car and made it to the Moon Lake Middle School on time, and by that by the time that the teachers were expected to arrive. The Middle School was built fairly similarly to the high school with a large attached gym next to the main parking lot, which was already beginning to fill up with cars as the local teachers arrived and began to make their way into the building. Martha nervously began to follow one group as they walked toward the closest doors, which was near the gym. As she approached she found a lone woman with dark hair standing by the doors and was dressed a bit less formally than some of the other teachers. This woman looked to Martha directly and Martha heard her give a short sniff, which she sort of expected.
Even in her human form, Martha had found her sense of smell and hearing greatly enhanced and that whenever she ran into something that was surprising, she found herself turning to those senses to help gauge things. In fact, Martha had even given a few tentative sniffs herself as she approached. The woman was a were, like her, but in other ways not like her. Her scent was that of a were-feline, but not a werecat's scent. This woman smelled like she became something bigger, Martha guessed a lion or a tiger.
"Hello... are you new?" the woman spoke slowly, "or are you a parent?"
"More that I'm new," Martha answered, "and a sub. My name is Martha Anderson, I was told to report to a Coach Katherine Johnson to take over for her assistant coach."
"Ah, punctual, I like that," the woman gave a warm and almost playful smile, "and call me Kat. Everyone does."
"Wow," was all Martha could manage as she looked over the woman before her.
Katherine Johnson was taller than Martha by a bit and was obviously more muscled than Martha. She wasn't built like a body builder, but there was definitely greater tone to Katherine Johnson's musculature than Martha's. Martha found her thoughts comparing some other things, including that Martha had a slightly bigger bust line than Katherine Johnson, but she figured that that probably served as a difference between werecats, female weres based off the domestic house cat, and weretigers, weres based on the largest and most powerful hunters in the cat family.
"Yeah... I do look toned," Kat smiled, "though even there... I pale before some of the werehorses and werecows..."
"Huh?" Martha asked.
"They're positively ripped," Kat explained, "werehorses are built like the perfect athlete in that everything works together... and even a female's breasts are firm enough that they don't get in the way. Werecows, while they may have over-sized breasts, they are also far more heavily muscled... A female werecow could probably pass for a body builder in most respects... And I, a weretigress, am still small compared to them."
"You're not competing with them... are you?" Martha wondered.
"Nah... but you looked a little amazed at things, so I thought I'd give you something to think on," Kat answered and then paused, "You okay?"
"Just a bit nervous," Martha admitted, "I've never been a sub before and my past as a teacher was actually at the elementary level."
"Well, I think you'll do fine," Kat commented, "Go on in and go up the hall to the main office. They should have a paper that you'd sign in on for subs and then come back here, and we'll get started on our day and I'll walk you through everything that we do here in the gym."
"Thanks," Martha answered, feeling a bit comforted by that interaction.