"It's finally starting to look like home, right, dad?" Melissa asked to her father as they stood together after Trevor and Virginia left.
"Yes," Harold answered, "and for a new start I suppose, that's a good thing."
"Even with everything that isn't "normal" here?" Melissa prodded.
Harold slowly nodded. The mandatory were law still didn't sit right with him, but he could understand it. From what he'd read the previous day, he'd figured that weres had put up with a lot of attacks from normal humans in a way that far exceeded the stories of rogue weres hunting humans. What he'd read had admitted that there were the odd occasions when a rogue were attacked and killed a normal human, but it was never to the degree that folklore claimed. And more often than not, weres were often trying to hunt down those rogues just as often as humanity did. But when humanity did it, it often carried an almost fanatical hatred that often saw not only the guilty were killed but nearly the entire community of weres killed as well. That gave weres good reason to hide and conceal who they were. The deals that regarded Moon Lake's creation reflected with that. The book made mention of deals with Washington and a group of weres, but it also mentioned that the deal was so vague that Washington didn't know he'd made a deal with weres. He'd thought he made a deal with a group of frontiersmen who took on the wolf as their symbol, and that vagueness and later combined with what would become "Manifest Destiny" in America saw them ultimately come west to what was now Moon Lake in Washington State to protect themselves. From there, the population tried to keep itself safe.
"I suppose," Harold commented, "There are things that I'd disagree with... but I suppose I can understand the reasoning."
They stood silently for a few moments before moving on. Harold moved toward the kitchen to start getting dinner ready. Their house was starting look a bit more like a home now with all their books, furniture, and things put in place, but that didn't mean they couldn't quite ignore getting something to eat and at the moment there wasn't much else to turn to.
"So... how was your day?" Harold asked as they made their way into the kitchen.
"Pretty good," Melissa answered, "Trevor's been a very good friend..."
"I think he wants to turn you," Harold commented.
"Well... if I become a werecow, I'd want HIM to turn me," Melissa answered, "he's a nice guy and has been very friendly to me and helpful. Wouldn't that be something you'd want to see in a potential boyfriend?"
"I suppose," Harold said slowly as he began looking through the refrigerator to find some things he could cook quickly, "and he was quite helpful with the moving and placing of furniture and polite to me. So what were you two up to before you came home?"
"Mostly just some research into what kind of were to be," Melissa answered, "and a part of me is quite willing to be werecow... to be strong and loving, just as Trevor is as a werebull, and we met with his mother to get some more information. Which was helpful."
Melissa watched as her father raised an eyebrow while holding a bag of hot-dogs and moving toward the stove. Eventually Melissa decided she might as well continue.
"It'd mean a lot of physical changes," Melissa commented, "obviously, but it wouldn't change WHO I am and there would be a sort of softness and kindness in it that is very attractive."
She didn't mention what Erma had said regarding "control over the animal side." Trevor told her that his mother was talking more on the defense of the animals his family raised and was wanting to make sure that her becoming were was not be an excuse to mess with the Tyson family's livestock. There apparently had been some high schoolers that spooked the dairy cattle the Tyson family raised one year which cost time and money to find the animals and repair the damage done. Trevor had also admitted that it was possible for weres to go "rogue," but those instances were extremely rare and most of the times when a were was arrested for a crime, the motivation for committing the crime was no different from any normal human criminal. Melissa felt she understood that and didn't want to worry her father with that sort of thing, especially that if he'd researched Moon Lake's history, he likely already knew that.
"Well, that's good," Harold said after a moment or two.
"So what about you?" Melissa asked, "how was your day? What were you up to before I got home and found you cuddled up with Virginia."
"Melissa," Harold answered.
"Come on, dad, you were cuddled up with her," Melissa answered, "nothing wrong with that. She's beautiful... as seems to be the rule here... and you both seem to have a fair amount in common, and she does like you. What's wrong with being happy?"
"There is nothing wrong with that, I suppose," Harold answered, "but there was nothing going on with Virginia and I. She was just one of several people that had come by today. First was Ms. Decrux, who offered to help with some of the move in... though she looked more like she was looking for a night on the town than anything else."
"You seem to be attracting all the beautiful women," Melissa teased slightly, hoping to get her father to smile or make a joke.
"Now isn't the time to be going out," Harold said sternly, "and I don't think she really had that understanding. She made some comment that reminded me of your mother... and then realized that wasn't looking to go out and become a raccoon. Then she left."
Melissa nodded. Alice Decrux and Virginia McCoy had both showed interest in her father, but how they went about it was different. Virginia seemed to be moving more like a friend. She might want romance, but she wasn't pushing it and that would likely give them both a chance to learn about each other and let romance develop if it was to come. Alice Decrux seemed more pushy, as though she wanted satisfaction now, which created tension with Virginia that Melissa had noticed the night before. It might not mean that Alice Decrux was a bad person, but it was certain that was being rather pushy with what she wanted.
"After she left the dean came by to catch up and see on how things were going regarding the decision we have," Harold continued, "which I suppose is just to see on what I'd figured out after I'd voiced my points to the dean yesterday. And he seemed relieved that things look to work out... even if it means that you won't be human by the end of the week that we were given to make a choice."
"I'll still be me, dad," Melissa commented, "and as I said, Virginia seems to like you and you two looked quite good together. You'd become a were yourself if you two..."
"MELISSA!" Harold gasped.
"Dad, mom isn't going to hate you for finding someone new," Melissa said to him, "Mom is dead. It's sad. I know. I cried just as hard at the funeral as you did and you know that... but I'd think she'd want you to be happy. She wouldn't want you to just wallow in your grief... and if Virginia makes you happy, there is nothing wrong with that."
"I loved your mother," Harold said simply as he set the pan down on the stove to begin cooking the hot dogs.
"I know," Melissa nodded.
"I don't want to lose myself or anything that we've had," Harold spoke.
"And you wouldn't," Melissa told him, "I'll still be me when I become a were. And if you find happiness with Virginia... and become her big strong and dashing tiger... or whatever were you want to be... You would still be you. You wouldn't lose anything that makes you you. You'd only gain the ability to turn into an anthropomorphic animal."
"You're really coming to like this place," Harold stated.
"Yeah, I suppose I am," Melissa answered, "I mean sure... the whole were thing is weird and not what anyone would expect, but in many ways dealing with it works best in many of the same ways getting used to a new place even if it was a normal place. You get to know them and find that they aren't too bad. That where it matters... you find that there isn't any real difference. The friends I've made have been friendly and not out to eat anyone and Alice and Trevor become animals that are herbivores."
"I thought Ms. Decrux was a wereraccoon?" Harold wondered.
"Different Alice," Melissa answered, "the student is a wererabbit."
"I see," Harold said slowly.
"The point is that while things are certainly odd by normal standards, they aren't bad," Melissa stated, "We came for a new start, and that should be the both of us, dad. I'll be the family were... and we should still have a few days for me to make the choice on what were I'd like to be, though right now it's between a werefox and a werecow... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make friends. Even if you decide not date again... at least get to know some people and make friends. Virginia might be a good start."
"I'll think about it," Harold replied and focused on his cooking so that he didn't burn the hot dogs. Though a part of him found himself silently thinking about Virginia and her offers to help and that she came with pondering over textbooks to use in her class, which were more academic in nature. It was a shared interest and while she may have never experienced anything like what he had lost with his wife dying of cancer, she did seem to be very understanding and showed a level of compassion that he hadn't expected from someone who'd never met his wife. That part of him was wrestling with whether or not it was okay to be attracted to Virginia. So far, he remained firm in being loyal to his wife, but Virginia's friendly nature, shared interests, and the fact that Melissa continued to insist that it would be okay were starting to chip away at that.