The morning hadn't gone too bad for the Anderson sons at the high school as they went through their mornings. There hadn't been too much in the way of conflict that related to the big events from the day before in that there hadn't been too many issues related to the events that related to fight that had related to threat that went on as a result of Dieter Wilhelm or his agents that had been sent. With things quiet on that front, the students were fee to look toward other issues that were enough to think to other issues that had gone on from the previous day and from who was involved.
For Eric, that ultimately meant one thing, or rather one person, Julie Stovall. He had actually made a few friends with some of the other students in his classes, one was a male werecat who he learned turned into a Ocelot, one was a werefox, one was a weredog, and so on. A couple of his his friends were actually normal humans who weren't weres. The only other weremer that he knew was his one true love, and that was Julie, and he didn't have a class with her. So, when it came for freshman lunch, he was quick to make his way toward the high school cafeteria with the intention of getting there and meeting with Julie.
"Like a man on a mission," he heard someone say as he made his way down the hall.
"No, a mer on a mission," another said, "he joined to be with his one true love..."
"They don't share a class, do they?" the first voice asked.
"Not this semester and they haven't issued the exact schedules for next semester yet," the second answered.
Eric simply ignored that conversation. It was friendly and from what he could hear, they weren't making fun of him, but he really wasn't interested in that. The only thing on his mind was gazing lovingly into Julie's eyes as they ate lunch together, as they always did. As such, he made his way to the cafeteria and went through the lunch line for the day's specialty, soup. He found that he arrived before Julie did, but let that pass. He sat down at "their" spot and blew on the soup for a few moments and simply waited. He didn't have to wait for too long as Julie soon arrived and sat down across from him. Just seeing her made him smile.
"Hey," Eric smiled to her as Julie sat down, "have a good morning?"
"Yeah," Julie smiled back, "aside from hearing about some fight yesterday..."
"Fight?" Eric wondered and found himself looking down Julie's arms and on her neck and face. He saw no bruises or red marks or anything that would indicate that she'd been in a fight. His mind conveniently forgot Julie's use of the word "yesterday," as the word "fight" seemed more important.
"It happened after school," Julie nodded, "apparently a teacher got into a fight with a neighbor leading to some guy getting clawed..."
Eric felt a few memories that went back what had happened with his own father. He thought he might have overheard some rumors that sounded like that, but he'd largely ignored that. Now, he wished he did.
"A teacher clawed someone?" Eric gasped.
"From what I've heard it was an accident based on the fight between the teacher and the neighbor," Julie answered, "both combatants were already weres but had interest in the guy who got clawed and he was only clawed because he tried to break up the fight."
"Ouch..." Eric said slowly, "I take it... that that will take some time to sort out?"
Julie nodded, "Though it'd mean some rumors may keep going around over things over the issue... those who don't like the neighbor and those who don't like the teacher."
Eric gave a sigh, "So much for a quiet day..."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Later came the Junior class launch. Moon Lake High ran on a schedule that allowed for each class to cycle through the lunch periods. All the classes got out of class together before Freshman launch. While the Freshmen went to their half hour for lunch, Sophomores had a special enrichment period while Juniors and Seniors went to their next class, and they were classes available only to Juniors and Seniors. When Freshmen lunch ended, Freshmen went into their own half hour enrichment period and Sophomores went to lunch. When the Sophomore lunch period ended, Freshmen and Sophomores went to their next class while Juniors went to Lunch and Seniors had their enrichment period, and the Juniors and Seniors would then flip flop between lunch and enrichment.
For Nate the morning had been fairly calm, though, like everyone else, he heard the occasional rumors over the fight between Virginia McCoy and Alice Decrux. While Nate didn't like the reports that a normal had been clawed any more than Eric did and for the same reasons in that it provided reminders of Yvette Smith's attack on their father and later going after Jennifer Harper, he really didn't think any judgement should be given until after ALL the information came to light. The rumors were all contradictory. One claimed that Virginia had attacked to maul the man while Alice tried to save his life, while another claimed that Alice tried to rape the man, just as Yvette had initially tried to rape his father, but was clawed by Virginia to make him undesirable to Alice. There were too many things in that were contradictory that would take time to sort out, and would be a distraction from things that were bigger at the present time.
The bigger thing that continued to play over and over again in the back of Nate's mind was offering something to try and help regarding the coming wedding. He'd seen his parents both worry over Jennifer Harper's safety and the only place where any Anderson really knew Jennifer Harper was at the college where she was one of his father's students. Yet, his parents seemed to care and worry for her like she was a daughter and from what he'd heard from classmates that the Skulk as a whole cared for her her safety deeply. In a way it marked a fairly communal loyalty that Nate figured went throughout Moon Lake. It was why he had asked Ben if there was some way they could offer any sort of help, either from their pack specifically or urge something where all of Moon Lake would unite behind Jenny to protect her. As he sipped his soup, his thoughts remained on this to a point that he never noticed Ben or Alex coming to join him at the table.
"Hey there, stud," Alex said to him as he sat down, actually making Nate jump slightly in surprise.
"Easy there guy... no reason to panic," said Ben as joined Alex and Nate at the table.
"Sorry," Nate shrugged with a weak smile, "I was a bit distracted..."
"We could see that," Alex commented, "still thinking over things to help with keeping the wedding safe?"
Nate nodded. He ultimately had to explain the base idea to Alex when Alex joined them in the morning and generally Alex did agree with it. Nate never really knew for sure if Alex agreed because it was Nate's idea or because he truly agreed with it. As far as Nate knew, the Ramsey family hadn't invited to the wedding.
"Yeah," Nate admitted, "as I suppose it is the biggest thing coming up in town... unless you're wanting count the Halloween dance."
"Given the attention the Skulk is giving the wedding, I'd say the wedding beats the Halloween Dance," Ben answered, "though, if you're looking for good news, Nate, I might have that for you..."
Nate gave a hasty and almost sloppy slurp of his soup as he looked up to Ben with a great deal of interest.
"Good news?" Nate wondered.
Ben nodded, "Yeah, I managed to get a hold of AJ between fist and second hour and mentioned the idea you had to him and asked him to pass it along to his father."
Nate nodded. Austin Perry was his pack Alpha, and Nate would forever grateful to both Nate and Austin for allowing for his own ultimate welcome into were society, but had soon found that Austin had a son who was a Senior and who everyone called AJ, for Austin Junior. Nate didn't get to meet with AJ when he met Austin and his wife at their home, but he figured that the son had his own business to attend to that day.
"So what did he say?" Nate asked.
"I think AJ agreed... he's always wanted to be a cop and saw that as an option to show how well the pack could help out with regard to the rule of law in Moon Lake," Ben answered.
"Makes sense," Alex commented, being a bit more familiar with AJ than Nate was.
"Did you hear anything back?" Nate wondered.
"He did manage to get hold of Austin who seemed very supportive, or so AJ told me," Ben answered.
"That would mean we'd get to actually help," Nate said eagerly. If he was in his wolven form, his tail would be wagging.
"Perhaps, but we'd need to wait on that," Ben warned, "as while Austin may wish to go along with it... he'd still need the permission from the police or from the city government to do so... and even there, that would take some time to figure things out."
Nate sighed and nodded, "So long as we all stand together."