Nate and Alex did fairly well with their homework. There were plenty of parts that were harder to figure out than others, but that was mostly in areas where Nate generally struggled. A lot of times in the past, he often had Eric help check his work with regard to math and science, though with some it often included Nate trying to go over what his teachers had presented with regard to lecture of the day, but it was something that did work. In this, Nate was always grateful for Eric's help, regardless of the fact that he often had to hide the fact that he got help from his younger brother at times, though Moon Lake had presented its own changes, and for Nate Anderson that was no exception.
Before moving to the town, about all Nate would have done with regard to football would have been to go the school's home games to watch and not much more than that. His fandom for werewolf movies and the fact that he'd been in the closet with regard to his sexuality, had meant that he wasn't in that great of shape before the family had moved to the Washington State town. Now, after moving to Moon Lake, he'd found that not only were were-beasts real, but that he'd become one and had other revelations that came with it. His parents became weres before he did and soon found out he was gay by essentially picking up the scent of sex on him and going into a pretty standard protective parent mode, worried about him getting a girl pregnant, not knowing that the were he'd been seeing was Alex. They accepted his relationship, though, and that had let him come out of the proverbial closet, which in a way felt rather good.
He'd made good friends with Ben Twist, the adopted son of his neighbors, who had shared much about what being a werewolf was actually like and seemed comfortable with the fact that Nate was gay, which had soon brought Alex into his life. Nate thought he liked that most as not only did Alex turn him, but the two had struck up a growing relationship that Nate figured would do well. The fact that the two were presently laying across the floor of Nate's room to work on their homework was proof enough of that. Though, there was also slight scent of sweat in the air that Nate picked up, which half drew his thoughts toward Alex as the two had returned home after football practice for Moon Lake High's Thanksgiving football game.
"I think we got it..." Nate said with some sense of triumph in his voice as they got to the end of their homework and with a small smile on his face.
"And in record time today," Alex agreed with a smile, "must have been a light load with regard to homework."
"Hopefully it stays that way through to Thanksgiving," Nate answered, "all the practice... and running around... that takes time..."
"You're not having second thoughts about being in the game, are you?" Alex asked.
Alex had always found the game fun as it was a means to exercise and get into some of the things that weres often did want to do, but because of the fact that weres, regardless of their specific were-species, were stronger than humans and often seemed to develop faster than humans, though that was often more due to the fact that their mature size would be much larger than that, had reached a point where weres couldn't put together a school team to compete against other schools of comparable size in Washington State. While Alex was sure that Moon Lake's coaches and teachers would make sure that were students retained the self discipline to keep from transforming under stress, there was the fact that those strength issues would mean that Moon Lake would be producing Olympic level athletes without major training which would lead to greater curiosity. This meant that outside of these special events that were special within the course of the school year, Moon Lake couldn't compete at sports, which many weres often felt they were missing out on. Alex had noted this was especially true of families that had moved to Moon Lake and their child became the family were and had enjoyed being on teams at their old school.
Alex really didn't have a comparable experience of loss, as he'd grown up in Moon Lake all his life, but he did like the Thanksgiving football game and enjoyed the competition that came with it. Having Nate join would make it even more fun, especially as there were some times where some misinterpreted a joke and thought that Alex had made a pass at them. No fights had broken out, but Alex had often had to explain the joke... and often times these had actually been with some of the werewildcats, who Alex knew were at least bisexual, but often got nervous that Alex as a werewolf would be too rough with them. Having Nate there would help keep some of those tension issues at bay, as while Moon Lake was openly accepting of same sex couples, that didn't always mean there weren't tension issues that were there. And so far, Alex's idea had worked, especially as pretty much everyone knew that he and Nate were an item.
"No..." Nate said slowly, "not being used to all the running, formations, positions, and plays is one thing... but it's not something I want to give up on. Being able to do something that's new and different is surprisingly fun. Different but fun..."
Alex smiled at that and shut his own book with the pages of homework protruding through the outside of the pages. He was glad enough at that that he kept a small smile as he set about to also put the last book back in his backpack. It'd leave them ready for the next day and any other thing that might be on their agenda for the evening.
"That's good," Alex eventually said as he watched Nate climb up to his feet to place the last of his books on his desk.
"The good thing is that Eric seems to be better," Nate answered, "quicker than what I would have expected... but then if it was just simple jealousy born out of a misunderstanding, I suppose that makes sense."
Alex nodded. He'd known a little about what had been going on with Nate's younger brother, and Nate had done the best to at least catch a glance to Eric when he could between classes, which Alex agreed to help with. Nate's care for his brother was pretty obvious, and Alex couldn't help but help his boyfriend try to look out for Eric. And from what they could see by the end of the day and when they were dropped off at the Anderson home by Ben after football, it was pretty clear that Eric was doing better, which they accepted. After all, neither of them had been told about Martha's activities earlier in the day and neither of them had any skill with psychology. They just knew that Eric did seem better and that was good enough for them.
"Yeah... and off with the Stovalls to go to dinner," Alex commented.
Nate nodded as he looked over to Alex, just as an idea came to mind. If Eric was going out to dinner, there would be an empty seat at the Anderson's dinner table.
"Say... Alex," Nate commented as he voiced his idea, "would you like to stay for dinner? It's out of the blue, sure... but... with Eric going out..."
"Sure," Alex answered. He was more than glad to spend more time with Nate, and while he'd need to let his parents know, he couldn't see any problem with that. However, before anything more could be done, Alex's cellphone began ringing it his backpack. Alex quickly reached for it and found that it was from the Alpha of the specific pack that both he and Nate belonged to, Austin Perry.
"Hey, Alex, is Nate with you?" Austin asked over the phone shortly after Alex answered.
"Yeah, we've been working on our homework for school, what's up?" Alex spoke into the phone and looked over to a puzzled looking Nate and mouthed the words, "it's Austin" slowly.
"I was just checking," Austin answered, "Junior's told me you two have been quite close... so I figured I might be able to get a hold of both of you at the same time."
That actually left Alex a little confused and he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, even though Austin couldn't see him do that. Nate, however, could see Alex's eyebrow raise and he looked over to Alex with some interest and curiosity. From what he'd learned from Alex and Ben, it wasn't too out of the ordinary for Pack Alphas, male or female, to contact pack members on various business. Usually it related to regular meetings or with initiation meetings with new families coming into Moon Lake, but as far as Nate knew there hadn't been any new families that had moved in since Halloween. And the pack that Nate had joined also seemed to schedule its regular meetings for the nights of the full moon.
"Okay..." Alex replied slowly, "I can tell Nate... what's up?"
"Mostly trying to set up a meeting," Austin spoke.
"Someone new move to town?" Alex wondered after a moment of silence came from the other end.
"May be new to you and Nate," Austin spoke, "this guy was actually a classmate of mine... and didn't leave Moon Lake until just after I became Alpha. He recently moved back and I'd hoped to be able to get a meeting scheduled so that he can introduce himself and his daughter to the pack and let him see all that has changed in the time since he left Moon Lake."
"That sounds nice," Alex commented.
"Yeah... but it's tougher than expected," Austin sighed, "apparently his daughter is in heat and NEEDS that sort of special attention right now, so... I've been having to make some calls in that regard... add in figuring out schedules... I can't even be sure on when that welcome meeting will be right now. It could be this Friday or it could be later. It's all going to depend on some of the work schedules for some of us. This is just to let you and Nate know that we're trying to get a meeting scheduled... just to make sure that things are clear on your end."
"Well... I might need to talk with my folks... but I'd think that Nate's and my schedule is pretty clear," Alex answered, "though hopefully this meeting would allow us time to shower after football practice."
"We can do that," Austin chuckled, "I'll get in touch with you when we have more certainty on when we can schedule this meeting."