Eric Anderson couldn't wait to get to school that morning.
Sure, some "problems" had arisen after suddenly being promoted from Sophomore to Senior on the first day, a promotion his parents failed to tell him about over the summer that had just ended.
Yet most of that he could adjust to in time.
The algebra teacher that had given him such a hard time (and had even punched him in the nose!) was now history (no pun intended), but there were only two people Eric wanted to see that morning, and both of them were rapidly approaching him as he neared the school from the student parking area.
"ERIC!" shouted Frieda Knight and Spencer Lawson, as they rushed to their mutual boyfriend's side.
"Ladies!" said Eric with a happy smile as the three of them hugged and kissed.
"How's the nose honey?" asked Spencer, as she stood on her boyfriend's right.
"Much better now," replied Eric. "I fully transformed this morning with absolutely no pain," referring to his white furred werepanther fursona, and then he dropped his voice to a lower tone that only they could hear as he added, "and I'm awfully horny too."
"The two of us getting together last night probably didn't help you any," realized Frieda, thinking about her private rendezvous with Spencer that Eric probably sensed over their shared emphatic link. "But we'll definitely make it up to you as soon as we can," she whispered in his left ear, while Spencer subtly blew in Eric's right.
That got the rise from Eric that the ladies expected, but then Spencer said, "Calm down boy. There's nothing we can do about that now, and we've all got to get to class soon," as the early warning bell rang.
As the three of them walked together as far as they could before having to separate to attend their respective first period classes, the trio met Principal Andrews.
"Knight. Lawson. Anderson," the Principal said, by way of polite but formal greeting.
"Sir," they all replied.
"How's the nose Eric?" asked Andrews.
"Much better sir!" Eric said with a smile. But then asked, "Any idea who will be taking over Algebra?"
"Not yet. Still waiting to hear from Administration. I'm covering at least the first couple of classes, until I hear otherwise, but the suddenness of the situation arising probably caught them off guard," surmised the Principal.
"Well, whoever it is, I'm looking forward to a fresh start in that class. See you later sir," said Eric, as the students and the Principal parted company to head off toward their separate destinations.
MEANWHILE...
The nondescript rental car parked in the Visitors section of Moon Lake General Hospital as if its driver was just another concerned family member arriving to check on a patient.
The long haired brunette was attractive enough to turn a head or two, but not in a memorable way, which is just how the lady wanted it.
Her true purpose in coming here today was one no one would approve of if they knew: to kill the mobster Fredrick "The Shark" Parker that was being held in protective custody while he was receiving medical attention for the injuries suffered from the first assassination attempt.
As planned, she walked through the front entrance with only her car keys setting off the metal detector.
She gave a polite smile to the security guard on duty as she went through the sensors again without setting them off.
In the elevator, she pushed the button for every floor, but got off at the second.
Having already cased the joint, the assassin knew the basic layout of the hospital, and the second floor was the best place to switch identities before continuing with her mission.
A quick turn to the right once she got off the elevator took her to a public ladies room.
There, she quickly took off her outer set of clothing, revealing a nurses' uniform underneath. The brunette wig was removed to show a shorter mop of blonde hair underneath.
Stuffing everything into a trash bag she had folded in her purse, she hid it all at the bottom of the restroom's trash can underneath the empty bag that the cleaning service put in place after servicing the room.
Opening the door just enough to make sure the coast was clear, the assassin nonchalantly walked across the hall to the stairwell, and quietly went up to the third level.
Another quick check to make sure no one was nearby, she entered the third floor as if she belonged there.
Passing the elevator, she went down the other end of the T-shaped corridor to a supply closet.
After sneaking in there, she grabbed an empty name tag and pinned it on before attaching a phony card to the alligator clip. As long as nobody flipped the card over or tried to scan the magnetic strip, they wouldn't know the prop wasn't an official hospital ID at first glance.
Next came the more crucial part of her plan.
She went over to the secured storage locker of medical supplies. She tried the handle, but it was locked, as expected.
With that, she walked over to a pile of towels and underneath the bottom one found the lock pick she hid there on her previous visit.
It wasn't long before the lock on the storage cabinet was opened.
She quickly chose the last box in the stack and took out a hypodermic needle before replacing everything as she found it.
Although she had no way of locking it again, she closed the storage cabinet and made sure everything appeared normal. She stuck the lock pick in her hair as if it were a hair pin and secured the syringe within the pocket of her "borrowed" nurse's uniform.
The mission had been planned since the previous attempt to kill The Shark failed.
Two previous visits to the hospital in different disguises gave her both the general layout and the idea for the plan.
She would sneak into Fredrick Parker's room and inject an air bubble into his IV tube.
It would float through his body until reaching his heart, causing the mobster to suffer cardiac arrest.
Old fashioned, but simple.
By the time they failed to revive him and declared Parker dead of natural causes, the assassin would at least be back in her brunette disguise, if not already out of the hospital and on her way to parts unknown.
It was a brilliant plan, considering the short time frame she had to work in. Her superiors wanted Parker dead before he was transferred to Seattle officially in FBI custody, because they didn't want to take the risk of him ratting everybody out.
As she snuck out of the supply room and started to make her way down the corridor to the other end where her target was being kept, she had her mind strictly on the business at hand, running possible emergency situations through her mind and making contingency plans even as she drew closer to her goal.
But the one thing no one in the mob knew about was the existence of weres, let alone that the small town of Moon Lake was a were sanctuary full of the legendary anthropomorphic beings.
Would one of them be the proverbial snafu that blew everything?
Only time would tell...