William's morning had gone fairly well, and he was pleased to see that Nate and Eric were both in relatively good spirits when they got up and made it out the door to their ride to school on time. That was something that was becoming fairly routine for the Anderson household, Nate and Eric would go next door and get a ride with Ben to the high school. Occasionally Eric took the bus and rode with Julie to school, but that had also seemed to depend on whether or not Julie's parents were able to drive her to school on that morning. All of that was relatively normal, and if one didn't know that most of Moon Lake's population were were-beasts of some kind, one might think it just a typical morning routine in a small town.
The bigger thing was that Martha had seemed fairly calm that morning, which was a good thing. He knew that both of them had been worrying over Eric and what might be "wrong" with him based on some of his more jealous reactions over Julie's friend Arthur and what was the true cause for them. Some of it sat in William's mind and made him wonder if some of his own infidelity to Martha in the past had been the real cause for some of Eric's issues, that he'd not only hurt his wife emotionally but hurt his son as well. That was something that worried him, but at the same time, he did feel better in the fact that Eric was doing much better socially at Moon Lake than he'd ever been in Minnesota. The biggest thing that worried William on that issue at the moment was how much Martha had clearly worried over it.
He caught on to some of that the previous afternoon/evening when they were waiting for Eric and wondering where he and Julie could be. He was just as worried as Martha was that Eric might have run off, though he also had the sense that Martha might have gotten a bit too aggressive with regard to Nate and Alex's comment that things might have been quite innocent and fine, which turned out to be the case. He chalked that up to nerves, but still, it wasn't as though either Nate or Alex had endorsed Eric and Julie doing anything truly deviant, and thus Martha might have overreacted. His evening after dinner was spent giving her a calm back massage, which she seemed to respond well to and she did feel better in the morning, and that was a good thing, and left William in fairly good spirits when he left for the college that morning.
His Tuesday/Thursday schedule didn't have an early class, and in theory that meant he didn't have to be in early, but there were plenty of times where William had found that coming in early was beneficial, as if he came in later to arrive before his first class of the day only, that would likely also mean he'd have to stay late to handle things like grading and other pieces of organization that would be needed. Today, he figured it best to handle what he needed to do fairly early and be ready for the end of the day, especially as he'd already taken some time in the afternoon off to be there for Eric's afternoon appointment with Frances. His arrival though soon lead to him overhearing a few things from some of the college students as they conversed while waiting for their early classes to start.
"Didn't you get anything more out of your dad on it?" William heard as he walked along and his ears couldn't help but focus on it, "surprise special meetings like this aren't normal..."
"They aren't... but he only overheard it through the door while waiting to do the nighttime cleaning for the room," came the answer, "and while the room isn't soundproofed... it's not like he could focus on it."
"Maybe it's just a new business coming to town," a third commented, "my mom says that's usually what creates these sorts of meetings."
"They didn't have a special meeting for "Moe's Pizza" you know," said the first voice.
"They all moved to Moon Lake," the third voice argued, "that's different."
By that point, William had made it to the doorway that lead toward where the offices were in the English Department. The student debate soon became faint as he made his way to his office, though his mind did pick up on it for a moment. It wasn't as big as Eric's session on his mind, but it was something that h had noticed a bit of going back to the day before. It sounded like there was some sort of city council meeting that was planned that appeared to attract a lot of attention, and likely came from the children of members of the city council.
As William settled into the chair at his desk in his office he figured that this was pretty normal on certain levels, and with the fact that his family had really only just moved to Moon Lake and they hadn't been able to attend their regular meetings, he really wasn't fully aware of just all that Moon Lake's city council would handle. He figured this meeting would be "normal" and the only thing that actually puzzled him was that so many people were talking about it. After all, while college students might tend to be more civic minded than high school students, usually because they were old enough to vote by their Freshman year in college. But this often referred to the bigger issues. He remembered seeing some college students in Minnesota have some interest in national politics and elections, but they'd never had the same level of interest in local politics or issues.
He went through his papers, schedules, and other work while figuring that the rumors were something that related to something that would be fairly normal. For the moment, William didn't have much that he could really do in that regard, and so he focused on the work he could handle. His emails were of low importance and weren't much more than the updates on school events and schedules, most of these though related to the art and music departments and other events. Some could be interesting to check out when he had a free hour, but other than that he had his papers to grade and Tuesday/Thursday class schedule to prepare for.
Eventually he did have to make his way to his first class of the day, and he found that even with a different class of students, those rumors that he'd overheard when he first made it to the campus had not gone way. He came to the room that his scheduled class was to be in for the day and there was a small number of students waiting outside the door. William could see through a glass window that there was a class already in session there, but it wouldn't be too long before that class ended and his scheduled class started. As he arrived sounds of the discussion of those rumors came into play and one of the waiting students actually came forward on it.
"Mr. Anderson! Have YOU heard?" the student, a normal male human, asked.
"Heard of what?" William answered calmly.
"This thing with the city council!" another student came up a werecheetah, though William could only tell that by scent as she was in her human form at the moment. "Things have been going all around school about it."
"I'm sure it's probably nothing," William commented trying to offer some assurance to them.
"But I heard something about a secret being part of the meeting!" the first student spoke, "you know..."
"Everything that keeps the town safe!" the second student added in.
"My little brother heard something about it at school yesterday," a third student spoke up as he approached, "he commented that he heard it that the city council is tired of the secret and intends to go to war on everyone for it."
"That'd mean going after Moon Lake normals too," the first student shot that down, "what your brother heard can't be right."
"Even if it isn't," the third student spoke, "if it relates to the were secret, all of us are at risk..."
William gave a sigh, particularly as he really didn't know for sure what this meeting was about. He'd seen a mention of the meeting being scheduled in Moon Lake's local paper, but beyond that he really didn't know much. He'd heard some things the previous day and mentioned it to his department heads, but even they didn't know for sure. They'd heard some of the mentions of the were secret in some of them too, but a few of them had been in Moon Lake for much longer than William and mentioned that it often became an issue when new businesses, particularly those that might have large national workforces and might have some potential issues that would need to be discussed in order to make sure the were secret wasn't revealed. But, William was also told that for the most part these conversations turned out to be nothing major.
"I'm sure this is likely to be something minor and not worth worrying about at the present time," William spoke, "particularly when it could become a distraction from your studied."
"But aren't you concerned?" the first student asked.
"Yeah... most new weres actually tend to be the most concerned with protecting the were secret," the second student commented, "as they find their condition to be wonderful and don't want to find it... well... wasted is the only word I can think of."
"I may be more curious about this meeting than anything else," William answered, "but given all this about hearing it from other people... I'm not sure it's quite the threat you think it is at the moment. It's like the game of telephone... what is said at the start will surely be different when it gets to the last person."
"What's that game?" the second student tilted her head, "this "telephone" game? Is it an app?"
William groaned at that, "Let's just say that for the moment what you're worrying about may not be as big as you think it is... and even if there is the potential for it to be big, there is a lot that we don't know right now for sure. It would best to put aside what you can't control and focus on what you can control. For if you worry yourselves over nothing... it will not make you look good."
"What if it is big and negative?" the first student asked, "I have friends that are weres... my parents became weres when we moved here and my baby brother was born a were."
"We'll just have to have confidence and trust that things will be handled well at this meeting," William answered, "besides, there is nothing that can be done about that right now."