Other than seeing the security guard outside the front door, Eric's morning had been quite calm and even normal. He still missed and longed to be with Julie, though he knew she had arrived at school, but he felt in control of himself at the present time. There was still a fair amount of friendly greetings as met with other freshmen who congratulated him on joining were society and there were plenty of other things that he'd discovered since becoming a weremer. He knew that while most of the people in Moon Lake were weres of some kind there were a fair number of normal humans that were there as well. However, sight wasn't the way to tell which was which, which Eric remembered from when he was still a normal human, himself. Scents were far more important, as weres had a slightly different scent from normals and even in their human form, each were carried a scent that his mind seemed to identify as some were species. Most times it was with an animal that he knew of an recognized, though there was an odd occasion when the scent was one that he didn't know of right away.
That lead him to curiously inquire into some things to figure things out. The responses he got were polite, but Eric also noticed an odd twitch to their noses as they talked to him. At first, he was a bit confused, but then he remembered that Julie and her mother both wore perfume that carried a floral scent to it and Martin wore cologne, and all of that mixed with a rather fish-like scent. As he made his way toward the lunchroom he realized that HE was carrying the same fish-like scent that any weremer would and that scent was either irritating others or creating some other response.
"I'll need to do something about that," Eric thought to himself and he walked into the lunchroom and looked to see if Julie was in line to get her lunch. He didn't see her there, so he moved to stand by a small pillar and waited for her. It didn't take her long to arrive and she came in talking with an auburn haired girl and stroking the pearl on the necklace she wore.
"Hi, Eric," Julie said with a smile as she and her friend approached and Eric caught a familiar fish and perfume mixed scent to Julie's. This girl was another weremer, "this is a friend of mine. Her name is Florence."
"Hello," Eric said politely.
"He hasn't figured out masking yet," the girl, Florence commented to Julie.
"Masking?" Eric blinked as the three of them moved into the line for lunch.
"It's a term we use to refer to the fact that our were scent has a fishy scent to it," Julie explained, "and with weres who all have a good sense of smell, that fishy scent that we carry is either disliked and turns off other weres... or it makes them hungry for fish. It depends on the specific were. It's why weremers wear perfume or cologne. That scent is stronger and doesn't irritate other weres..."
"I think I've figured that the need for that already," Eric commented, "though, I'd think I'd need to talk to my dad on how to put it on..."
"Just make sure it isn't too heavy, either," Florence commented, "as too much cologne could probably overpower your were scent and become irritating in their own right."
Eric nodded and they walked along through the line and collected their lunch. Today's lunch proved to be fish sticks, hash-browns, and assorted fruit. As they made their way from the line to the sitting area, Eric and Julie moved to what was fast becoming "their spot" while Florence moved on. She waived to Julie and shook her head with a small smile. Eric followed her as she walked to another table and sat down with a small group of freshmen girls at that table.
"I'm not pulling you away from your friends, am I?" Eric asked.
"No... and I see a lot of them during my courses during the day," Julie answered and reached out and touched Eric's hand with her own, "but I only see my one true love once during the school day."
Eric felt himself smile at the line that both of them had commented on, even BEFORE Eric became a weremer. It felt more urgent now that he knew that Julie was the one for him. They both took a few bites before moving on to their next piece of conversation. It was Julie who spoke first.
"So... how was your day, so far?" Julie asked him.
"Pretty good," Eric said slowly, "no problems... at least no personal problems."
Julie raised one eyebrow and looked to him with some concern.
"No personal problems?" Julie asked.
"It's really something that I noticed earlier this morning and leaves me curious about," Eric answered, "I saw a policeman... or a security guard... or someone in uniform standing on alert in the main entryway. It was like he was waiting for something."
"Really?" Julie said with surprise.
Eric nodded, "Yeah... I was wondering if you knew anything?"
"Me... why me?" Julie asked, "I never saw any guards..."
"Wouldn't your dad call you to make sure your safe?" Eric asked.
"The school doesn't let us use cellphones while on campus," Julie answered, "and just because something is potentially dangerous in the area doesn't necessarily mean that it is dangerous to me. When that rogue was running around, while my parents urged me to be careful outside the house... it wasn't as if dad had half the police surrounding me whenever I left the house."
"Man... I was really hoping there'd be some clue as to what was going on," Eric commented.
"I'm sure it was nothing," Julie answered, "Just about anything can happen in this world and can raise issues that increase security measures. Mom and Dad both said that Moon Lake was on full alert after Nine-Eleven for fear that something might come through us to attack Seattle or something like that."
Eric slowly nodded. Being fourteen, he was too young to have even been around 9/11/2000. Nate, who was sixteen was only an infant when all that happened.
"And at the same time... it could only be a drill, which is no problem at all," Julie commented, "Just keeping everyone in shape."
"Hopefully it's that then," Eric commented, "After everything, Moon Lake deserves some peace and quiet."