The ride from the Barr's house back to Wood Street and the Anderson home was relatively quiet, and ended up having a surprise that no one really expected. Spencer noted a rather large gathering on the edge of the driveway of the house next to the Anderson home. There was a young African American woman, three teenage boys who Spencer remembered seeing at school in the hallway, though from some things she heard was that two were gay. There was an adult woman with blonde hair, not too different from Julie's standing beside a car parked on the street. There was a brown haired woman who seemed to be leaning against a brown haired man, almost for some sort of emotional comfort. There were then two more adult women, one with more reddish hair, Spencer thought it was an auburn shade, with another woman standing by her.
"Seems to be quite a congregation today," Spencer commented as she pulled her Bronco up to parallel park it in front of the Anderson home, and going bay the crowd of people, noting that all eyes were focused on her and her arrival.
"I think everyone was worried," Eric commented as he looked out the window, noting that both his parents were out, along with Mrs. Stovall, the Twists, as his brother and friends, and a young woman he didn't recognize.
His mind briefly flashed over how he'd acted when he thought that Arthur was not only making the moves on Julie but that Julie was returning the other weremer's moves. He'd made a lot of progress in coming out of his shell after meeting Julie, and he remembered seeing both his parents being happy about that. He then began to slide back into how he'd acted in Minnesota when he thought he was losing Julie to Arthur, and didn't fully recognize it until after Arthur explained that he didn't know that he and Julie were engaged by weremer standards and that Julie hadn't been aware of Arthur's romantic hopes in her. It was something he regretted, and particularly the angry explosion he'd had at his father at that time.
"Don't worry, you weren't doing anything wrong," Spencer assured him as she got out of the Bronco and then walked along its front, noting the gathering slowly moving toward them as she opened the passenger door on the Bronco, since it didn't have rear doors, "You were hanging out with friends while doing homework."
Eric managed a nod as he climbed out and then helped Julie out. They didn't get much of a chance to hug as their appearance raised some calls from the others, who'd probably been wondering where they were, which hadn't been helped by the fact that both Eric and Julie had forgotten to call and let their parents know what was going on, and even if they had remembered, if the phone service wasn't working they still wouldn't have been able to make contact.
"Eric! Where have you been?!" Martha gave a gasp as she saw her youngest climb out of the SUV and help Julie out. For the moment her own worries overpowering the odd scent about the driver of the vehicle, who carried parts of a werecat's scent, like her and the Twists, part of a werewolf's scent, like Nate, Ben, and Alex, and part of another feline, though Martha couldn't fully say which. She thought it carried a scent similar to Kenya's.
Melissa slowly walked along and was pleased to see that no one was hurt and that they looked well. The fact that all of them had returned before dinner time officially started was also a good indicator that there was no intent on doing anything wrong, and that the only thing that there had really been to worry about was the phone service.
"We were just helping a friend," Eric answered as Spencer stepped forward and essentially intercepted the approaching Anderson parents. Spencer noted a look of concern, but no hostility, though given that the male was a werefox and the female a werecat, she privately figured that if it did come to a fight she could hold her own... but she didn't expect one. Technically they hadn't done anything wrong.
"Hi..." Spencer said slowly, figuring it best to be a bit cautious with regards to the introduction, as she didn't want to create anything that would raise tensions, "I'm Spencer Lawson... and well... there really isn't anything to worry about. I'd asked for some help with Eric and Julie with another friend that I'd made recently... A Morgan Barr."
"Spencer Lawson," William said slowly as he looked her over, remembering something about Eric saying that the girl's "hello" was extremely friendly, but said nothing about that for the moment.
"Yeah... my dad retired from the Navy," Spencer answered, "He was a SEAL team leader and with that my family moved back here. So... I'm kinda new to Moon Lake and have been very intrigued with how open things are here for weres."
"It can be something for weres that have never been here before," Samantha said slowly, "Similar to humans finding out that weres exist and then learning that we aren't like the movies."
Spencer nodded, "yeah... I met your children, Eric and Julie at school and made friends with a Morgan Barr the other night while exploring the woods."
She decided to keep the fact that she was dealing with being in heat at the time secret. That really wasn't an issue. William and Martha really didn't respond to Morgan's name, though Samantha and Melissa half recognized the Barr family name. Nate didn't recognize the name at all, but he glanced over to see that both Ben and Alex were scratching at their chins, as if they were trying to remember something.
"Barr..." Melissa said slowly, "I know I've heard that name somewhere..."
"That might have something to do with his parents being against the idea of vaccinations, since in pure theory weres are at least highly resistant to the diseases that those vaccinations are for," Spencer answered, "which has meant that their son, Morgan, has sorta grown up without much in the way of friends. He told me outside of pack meetings and the summer... he really doesn't get much of a chance to meet and interact with people. It's left him kinda shy..."
"I think I've seen him before," Ben said after a moment, "With some pack meetings... though he's always been on the edge and once the main activity gets started... I think he's actually retreated and left..."
"I don't recall him..." Nate commented.
"Of course," Alex said with a grin and wrapped an arm around Nate's shoulder, "the only pack meeting you were at was your induction... and you were with me. Once it got to the point where we could get going, he likely left..."
"And if he was on the edge, you might not have noticed him," Ben added.
"And I think he wants friends," Spencer explained, "but doesn't really know how... with limited contact, shyness, and stuff like that... I think he's been afraid on some levels. So, I figured it'd be a great idea to introduce him to friends I'd made at school and hopefully progress from there. I met with Eric and Julie as they came out from school and we went over there and did our homework."
"So this was all just to help someone?" Martha wondered.
"Well... Morgan did seem friendly when I first met him," Spencer answered, "so I figured it'd be worth it."
"Well that was nice of you," Melissa commented, "and I'm sure we'll all be glad that you brought Eric and Julie home before dinner..."
"Yeah... sorry about the phones," Spencer interrupted, "that kinda slipped my mind at the time..."
"And when we did remember, they didn't seem to be working," Julie spoke up, "I couldn't even call Eric and we were standing next to each other."
"And everything's okay?" Martha asked.
"Yeah, mom, we got our homework done and Morgan seemed like a good person," Eric answered, "Sorry about not being able to contact you."
"Well, all's well that ends well," Frances commented as the group began to break apart.
"Though it is close to dinner time," Melissa commented as she placed a hand on Julie's shoulder.
"Right, mom," Julie answered her mother, blew Eric a kiss and began to follow her mother back to her car. The route back to the Stovall home may not have been that far, but then when she'd set out to look for Julie, she didn't know where she'd need to go. Melissa was just grateful that things went well with Julie coming back and Spencer Lawson's explanation seemed reasonable.
Eric watched and waved to Julie as she left with her mother, while Nate came over the grass to join him on the sidewalk, though as Nate got closer, Eric thought he heard Nate sniffing at something, likely puzzled at Spencer's scent.
"Um... Spencer... if..." Nate began, as he was curious by Spencer's scent. It wasn't like she had had contact with other weres, but it was like she was a mixture of several weres.
"You're curious on my scent, right?" Spencer raised an eyebrow, which earned a few nods from the others there.
"I don't mean to pry," Nate answered and gestured to Eric and his parents, "but we're also pretty new to Moon Lake..."
"It's okay," Spencer answered, "as I'm actually something that's rather rare to Moon Lake... I'm actually a hybrid were, part werewolf, part werepanther, part werecat. My mom is half werecat half werepanther and when I was born I gained that half from her and then had it hybridize with my dad's werewolf genetics. It's not something you see a lot of."
"A werewolf and werecat were able to hybridize?" Samantha blinked, thinking back on some of the jokes that Frances had often made as to what might have happened between them if their first time together hadn't given Frances her doses of werecat and her parents went through with having Frances become a weredog.
Frances had made the line more in jest, but Samantha was fairly certain that while the hybridization of genetic lines among weres, while rare, would only happen with closely related groups. It would mean that if hybridization were to happen, it would mostly be with weres that were based on animals that were closely related, like lions and tigers, or dogs and wolves. But from what Spencer had said, there wasn't a close relation between werecats and werepanthers, both feline, with werewolves, which were canine.
"My mom guessed that because she is a hybrid were, that made it easier for me to become a hybrid were," Spencer answered, "though I can't give you the full science about it."
"Well... that is interesting," Frances commented.
"And we do thank you for bringing Eric back," Martha spoke from beside William.
"Yeah... and again, I'm sorry about not getting any contact out," Spencer answered, "that all slipped my mind."
"Well... you did bring him home before dinner time," William said slowly, "for that we thank you."
"Yeah... in the meantime, I'll need to get going myself," Spencer answered, "before I miss my own dinner."
"See you around," Eric gave a polite wave as Spencer went around to the driver's side of her Bronco and soon pulled forward, turned into the Anderson's driveway, backed out and then drove back up the street toward the center of town.
With that covered and handled the group began to break up and head inside or head home. Alex and Nate gave a brief hug with the promise of possibly meeting up again after dinner while Eric made his way up toward the Anderson home with William and Martha close behind with William softly rubbing Martha's shoulder with one hand. As they went in, that left Samantha and Frances headed up the driveway with Ben and Kenya slowly following.