Nate was a bit surprised when Ben drove past the Twist and Anderson houses and continued up the road, but once he pulled into the driveway a few houses up the street he soon figured what was up. Eric and Julie were quick to hop out and looked to each other just outside Ben's car. This had to be Julie's house, as Nate hadn't been invited to it and thus he wasn't familiar with it. He supposed it made sense for Eric to want to spend time with her, as ever since they'd moved to Moon Lake and started school, Julie Stovall in some way, shape, or form was something that Eric had mentioned at family dinners. Usually as a friend at first and repeating some witty joke that was made, but even Nate had noticed a more romantic tone in Eric's references to her, even if at first Eric didn't know it. Now, though, he did seemed to have eyes for Julie and Julie alone. However, there were a couple of things to take care of before Ben backed away.
"Hey, Eric, you got a minute?" Nate asked to his brother as he shut the car door and pulled the lever to let his seat go back to a position where he wasn't bending so far forward that he'd be kissing the dashboard.
Eric looked to Julie and then back to Nate and came over to the rolled down window.
"Yeah?" Eric asked as he looked down to his brother.
"I don't know if Mom sent this to you, but she did text me during lunch," Nate started, "and I think she's wanting everyone home for a family dinner tonight. So, I can't say there's anything wrong with having an afternoon with your girlfriend/fiance... but remember to be home by the time we normally have dinner. Okay?"
Eric blinked and then nodded, "Okay."
With that, Nate sat back while Eric walked with Julie up the rest of the driveway and toward a gate in the Stovall's privacy fence and toward the pool in the backyard. While they did that, Ben reversed and then made his way back toward his own home, from which Nate and Alex could then walk over to the Anderson home.
"Can I stay over for dinner?" Alex asked, "Or is this something...?"
"I don't know," Nate said to Alex, looking back to his boyfriend in the backseat, "there is just something in that text message that seemed odd that I can't place... I know she and dad are moving into a more open marriage now and they're doing well since becoming weres... maybe she wants to make sure Eric and I are fine with it... or at least that we understand that there is nothing wrong. Or maybe something went on that scared her... like that thing where we couldn't go outside for PE."
"Do you know anything about that, Ben?" Alex asked to Ben as the third werewolf in the car pulled into the Twist's driveway and pulled enough to a side that there would be plenty of room for his mothers to come home later, "Your mom slip you any city secrets?"
"If anything happened that would be big that mom would have felt the need to tell me..." Ben commented, "it'd also include: "don't tell anyone" with it."
"Nuts," Nate grumbled. He wondered what that was, as the day had looked good, but ultimately there'd been nothing he could do over the course of the day and by now there was a lot of homework that needed to be done, "So... you want to join the homework party or...?"
"So long as you two don't get distracted," Ben teased with glares to Nate and Alex who only responded with sheepish grins that said, "who me?"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While all this went on, Martha continued on her walk home from the Middle School. A part of her would have liked a little bit of fun, as it was a way for her to express on who she was with regard to her being bi, but she also knew that couldn't be all to her life and that Eric had already been a bit unsettled by her bringing Kat home the day before which raised the concern that Nate might not be as accepting of how things had progressed between her and William. William's past indiscretions had hurt, especially when Martha knew that he never stopped loving her by many of his actions, and that surely also had to go toward Nate and Eric, and she and William hadn't talked with Eric or Nate over the changes to a more open marriage in any real way before the previous day. That had been the chief reason to simply head home and not bring Kat home again. She was nice and would certainly be a good person to be "friends with benefits" with, but she still had her family to protect and consider.
The other thing that she dwelt on was the lock-down that the Middle School had that morning. She'd never learned what had caused it exactly, as the principal never told her or Kat on what had caused the lock-down. She'd never had anything like that happen in Minnesota, and while she tried to put on a brave face for the students, Martha had to privately admit to herself that she'd only just held it together. She needed some time to herself to take a deep breath and get things back together. So, when the school day ended she wished Kat a good evening and even gave her some encouragement in the sense of find a woman that would not only hold Kat's fancy but also was interested in Kat and wasn't already married, and headed out.
The walk was calm and peaceful, though Martha did find herself looking over her shoulder and even wondering about could have caused that lock-down. She'd noticed nothing abnormal, or at least abnormal for Moon Lake, and that let her breathe a sigh of relief. That let her wonder over what happened. She thought she'd heard sirens when the lock-down began, but that didn't necessarily tell her what that meant. Only that there was police activity in the area. However, Martha could only guess at that. She hadn't reasoned out her guesses by the time that she made it home.
She made her way up to the door and figured relax for a little bit before turning to anything that might need doing regarding dinner and the like. She entered to hear muffled talks over something coming from Nate's room upstairs. One voice sounded like Nate, another like Ben, and Alex. She figured they were working on their homework, which was fine and she made her way upstairs. As she made her way up the stairs, she managed to hear a bit more on what they were working on.
"No... you divide by six," she heard Ben say, "you've got the whole thing operationally backward..."
"But isn't it inside parentheses?" came Nate's voice, "that means multiplication, right?"
"If you're following the equation to solve for y, but we're solving for x," Alex commented, "in this case, we actually have the number for y."
"I hate algebra," Nate declared.
Martha made her way to the door to Nate's room before she interjected, "Just remember son, that it's still something you'll need to know and you'll be surprised by when and where you have to use them."
The three werewolves looked up from where they were as they worked on their homework. Nate was at his desk chair while Alex was on Nate's bed. Ben was laying out across the floor in front of Alex. The three were facing each other and were close enough together that it wouldn't take much for them to check each other's work. There was no startled jump from them, as Martha figured they either caught her scent or heard her footsteps, as she wasn't trying to stalk anything. Nate was the one who responded.
"Hey mom, how was your day?" Nate asked.
"It went fairly well," Martha answered, "had something of a mystery this morning, but for the most part things went well. You're all working on homework?"
"Get as much as we can done before dinner," Nate answered.
"Good... keep at it and do your best," Martha spoke, "I'd like to get my shoes off first, but will you three need anything? And do I need to notify anyone?"
"I think we're good," Nate answered.
"And my parents know I'd like to spend my time with Nate," Alex said with a smile, "all they require is that if I do something like stay over for dinner... that I call them before dinner."
"And my moms aren't home yet,"Ben asked, "I just need to be home for dinner."
"Okay," Martha said with a nod, "Let me know if you need anything."
"I have one thing," Nate brought up, "Do you know what the mystery was? We all had to have PE inside because of something that we never heard the "why" about."
"Was that this morning?" Martha asked.
"Yeah..." Nate nodded.
"We didn't know what it was," Ben added.
"I'm afraid I really don't know," Martha then sighed, "it had to be close to the Middle Schools, as I heard the sirens, but we never knew what it was. Sorry..."
"Oh... man, I wish someone had an answer as to exactly what that was," Nate grumbled and then looked down at his homework, "anyway, Mom, we're good... other than a ton of homework."
"Good to see the teachers are still doing their work," Martha smiled, "again, let me know if you need anything."