Ben arrived home to find that Samantha was home, which made sense, as he had gotten a phone call from her with regard to her plans for the evening and getting things in order for an evening with Kenya. He wasn't opposed to that, as the werepanther female was both smart and fun, though he did have the permission slip that related to the Thanksgiving Day football game that Moon Lake High did. The form wasn't too different from the standard forms that other students would sign with regard to sports participation and was done as a safety and permission measure, just to make sure no unnecessary accidents occurred. Or at least to minimize them.
As he pulled into the Twist's driveway, he watched as Nate and Alex climbed out of the car as well as they had also been at the after school meeting with regard to the game and had similar permission slips with them. They wished him fun before Nate headed toward the Anderson home and Alex dashed off between the Anderson and Twist homes and likely headed for his own home. Ben nodded and made his way in. He figured he'd leave the permission slip with Samantha and collect what things he'd need to pack before heading to Kenya's.
"Frances?" he heard Samantha call from the kitchen as he came in.
"No, mom, it's me," Ben answered as he came in, "I had a few things to take care of before going over to Kenya's."
He then walked down the hallway and turned into the kitchen where he found Samantha fiddling around with something on the stove. He thought he could also catch the scent of flowers from somewhere, sorta like when his mother's "prepared" things for turning Martha Anderson into the werecat that she now was, but he didn't see any flowers. However, he didn't want to get in the way of his mother's romance, as he knew they loved each other very much and he always wanted them happy. In this he set his backpack on the table and then held up the permission form.
"The only thing that I'll need from you and mom that I'll need is your signatures for this," Ben spoke as he held up the permission slip.
"For the Thanksgiving game?" Samantha asked.
"Yeah... it'll be flag football this year, but they still have the permission form," Ben answered, "I figured I'd drop it off here before heading over to Kenya's... And I have a few things to pack before heading over."
Samantha nodded as she noticed the permission form and nodded. The game being flag football this year was something she knew, as the game, while it typically attracted only Moon Lake's weres, that didn't mean that Moon Lake normals didn't also play. That of course served as a reminder of the accident that happened the previous year, thankfully the Moon Lake normal had been looking into joining were society, so there was no problem, but the city government and the city's school board agreed to make some changes to prevent any further accidents from happening.
Ben set the form down on the table beside his backpack and then turned to head toward his bedroom.
"Frances and I may not get to signing it until tomorrow morning," Samantha spoke.
"That's okay, I'll probably need to come back in the morning to pick up Nate for school, anyway," Ben answered and then moved on. He returned a few minutes later with a duffel bag and smiled to Samantha. "Have fun, Mom... And be happy... both of you."
"We will," Samantha smiled back as she looked to Ben, though as she looked to him, the memory of when he was younger seemed to flash before her eyes and a part of her mind tried to process that his seventeenth birthday wasn't too far way.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
William Anderson quietly returned home to find Nate coming across the front lawn with a piece of paper in his hand. He could hear it crackling slightly as Nate walked and he followed go back and forth as Nate swung his arms forward and back. The two met essentially right outside the door to the Anderson home.
"Hey there, son, what's that you got?" William asked curiously as he opened the door and Nate came up to him.
"It's a permission slip... that you and mom will need to sign," Nate answered simply and hesitantly handed it toward his father.
William took it as they came in and began to slowly read the form. It was a pretty standard permission slip that he'd seen plenty of times before, though more often with regard to dealing with his own students with regard to college activities than with his sons. Eric had had to get them signed when he was younger and had been on various summer baseball teams in Minnesota, but after the incident with teammates and Eric withdrawing within himself, William didn't think that these sorts of forms ever crossed the Anderson family's threshold, unless it was in relation to field trips and things like that.
"Going out for football?" William asked.
"For their Thanksgiving Day game," Nate answered, "Alex was really excited about it... so... I figured... why not?"
Nate gave a small grin at the end, to which William nodded. Nate typically wasn't the one that he expected to be that interested in sports. He might watch some games on television every now and then, but a lot of Nate's interest had been in sci-fi and werewolf movies. In this he figured that maybe being a werewolf know he'd start to develop some other interests, and that was something he had no trouble with.
"They need this back tomorrow?" William asked.
"Pretty much," Nate nodded and looked up to see William nod.
"Okay... I'll make sure that your mother and I sign this," William told him, "how are you on homework?"
"I still hate it," Nate grumbled, in what was a pretty typical student's response, "that's one thing I'll cut down on as a teacher. No more homework."
"You'll have to get students to work on the tasks and subjects they need to learn," came Martha's voice as she came through the dining room to join them in the entryway, and having heard the conversation, "and working with it DOES help students learn and catch up on things."
Nate looked down and scuffed one foot for a moment, "Yeah... but it's the fact that the subjects that I have the most trouble in are the ones that often give the most homework."
William calmly patted Nate's head before Nate began to make his way up toward his own room. He knew Nate was a smart kind and did well enough in school. Nate was better with English and creative writing than he was with science and math, but that was something that both William and Martha felt could give their oldest son opportunities for success, though they would support Nate regardless of what he did in life. He watched for a few moments as Nate went upstairs before looking to Martha, who he found looking rather worried.
"Is everything okay?" William asked her, reaching to touch her bicep.
"With me... I'm fine," Martha answered, "with Eric... I'm not sure on..."
William frowned at that. Before moving to Moon Lake, their younger son had been deeply withdrawn and they were about the only ones that he talked to. In this, his finding love with Julie Stovall had been something that they openly welcomed as it seemed to get Eric out of his shell and willing to trust others again. In fact that had been working out so well that the two of them were worried that Eric might be rushing things in that regard, as they could pick up Julie's scent on him and in a sense sense that he was being far more active than they would prefer. Sure, Moon Lake was different from other cities and its were population had different "standards" that they tolerated, but Eric was still only fourteen and that didn't mean they really wanted him being "active."
On some level, the issues that related to Eric's and Julie's courtship that lead to his happily joining were society to be with her is one thing, as from what the Stovalls had told them that that situation was such that it could get to a point where pressure between Eric and Julie would continue to build until it became irresistible. That would be something that would relate to weremers specifically and how their instincts functioned. But true love was more than just sex, and both of them did agree Eric and Julie needed to be patient and focus on the non-sexual aspects of their relationship, as that would assure their bond together and how well a weremer's "true love vision" actually worked.
However, if something was wrong with Eric, William was sure to be nervous. He was the youngest Anderson and had seemed the most affected by things in Minnesota, be it bullying or William's past infidelity. The former was enough to get William to take a day off from his professorship at the University of Minnesota at the time to talk directly with Eric's principal and teachers on protecting his son, as for all William's faults, he was never a bad parent. Eric and Nate both grew up with the knowledge that their father had their back. The later was something that William genuinely felt ashamed for, as he'd let his own libido get him into trouble. With learning that Martha was bisexual, it also made him feel further ashamed that he didn't notice it earlier and try to assure Martha that it was okay. However, he knew that both had an effect on the Anderson children.
"I was on the couch reading through my study guides," Martha explained referring to William had gotten her to help her retake the PRAXIS for Washington State and get her certification updated, "when he came home... he rushed upstairs. He didn't even say hello."
"He might have just been busy," William said slowly.
"But to not say hello?" Martha asked back, "Even in Minnesota he'd at least say hi when he got home from school."
"Did you talk to him?" William asked.
"I checked on him, but he seemed focused on his homework," Martha answered, "so I didn't think anything was truly wrong... but..."
"Something is up?" William surmised, to which Martha nodded. He sighed when she did so, and then pulled her into a hug, "we'll ask him about it after dinner when we talk with him. Make sure that everything is okay."
Martha nodded and found her self cuddling into his arms as she did so. William's muscles as a werefox might not be as big as some of the other male weres in Moon Lake, but they had become very well toned, and she couldn't help but purr at the feel of them through his shirt. She worried about Eric, and always would, and right now her worry was in preserving the progress Eric had made with Julie and that Eric didn't regress into being withdrawn from the world around him or rush into anything where mistakes could or would be made. William hugged her back.
"Hopefully all you noticed was just some frustration with homework or something," William said to her, "and isn't something too serious."
Martha nodded.
"In the meantime we'll have Nate's permission slip to sign," William finished, to which Martha again nodded.