Dinner had gone fairly well with the Jenkins, and Jenny was pleased to hear that John had an opportunity to see more of Moon Lake. With the assurances that John and Janice would be legally cleared to stay under supervision, Jenny was glad that that legal battle was essentially resolved, but with her father's health issues, her mother needing to find work, all of the legal mess that surrounded Dieter Wilhelm's running of the electric company in the part of Alabama where the Harpers had lived, and add in the issues with turning in the school books and materials that John and Janice had, not to mention getting their personal papers, materials, and supplies being added in were such that things would be difficult for John and Janice going forward. John finding a friend in Ginger O'Toole seemed like a good thing let John get some time out of the Jenkins home and see more of Moon Lake.
As the family settled into the living room with Henry settling in to read in one corner chair and Lisa sat with John and Janice on the couch as they settled in to watch some television, Jenny and Harry stood by the entryway into the small dining area tat was part of the kitchen and thought over what had been discussed at dinner. John getting a tour gave Jenny an idea, which she figured she'd share before things moved any further forward for the evening.
"So what are you thinking on?" Harry asked to her softly, getting the sense that the gears in his mate's head were turning.
"Just some things that relate to John's coming tour over the weekend," Jenny commented, "Maybe we could do the same for Janice."
"You'd find a weremer to give me a tour?" Janice said looking up.
"I was thinking that Harry and I could give you the tour," Jenny commented, "show you where some of the sights to see are, the Middle School, and some of the spots on the College campus where you could find Harry or I should you need to come to the college while we have classes for some reason."
"So... I can't meet a weremer?" Janice asked sounding disappointed.
Jenny cringed to Harry, knowing that Janice had seemed to have something of a fascination with mermaids, especially since learning weremers were real. However, because Janice was a year younger than John, she wasn't old enough to qualify for the minimum age that Moon Lake would accept for a normal human becoming a were. For Jenny there was also the acknowledgement that once the transformation occurred, there were no take backs. Jenny accepted being a werefox, and to a great extent she loved it, particularly when Harry seemed to find the way to get the most pleasure out of every encounter for both of them, but much of that was more getting used to what had happened. She didn't want Janice to rush into anything and then either change her mind or get "buyer's remorse" on the issue.
"It's not that you can't meet a weremer..." Harry said slowly, looking for a way to comfort Jenny's nerves and not antagonize Janice who was looking up to him and Jenny from her spot next to Lisa Jenkins, "and in fact Jenny and I would know of one who is about your age... a year older... but close..."
"That'd be fun!" Janice spoke, "John gets to meet and make friends! And hopefully it'll be a happy ever after for him and Ginger! I want that too!"
John blushed a little as his mind though on Ginger O'Toole, though he also noticed that Harry and Jenny were also fairly nervous over things. That likely meant that things wouldn't be easy.
"But they have their lives to live too," Jenny warned, "we don't want barge in on them..."
"Particularly while you're too young to meet Moon Lake's requirements," Harry commented, "besides... it won't be too long before you'll be able to start school again here... You could find someone here who you fall in love with that isn't a weremer. Shoot, they may not even be a were at all."
"And it wouldn't be as if you can't make friends with a weremer," Jenny nodded in agreement, "but we'd want your friendships to form naturally. Being friends with someone because you like them, not because they fit a role you want."
"And that could still happen," Lisa spoke up, "especially if you go up by the lake... weremers can tolerate colder water better than others, I'd bet. So some might still be there before it officially closes for the winter. Of course... during the day, they'd probably be in human form."
"I'd still like to meet one," Janice spoke, pretty much sticking to her guns on the issue, but she did look forward to the idea of getting out of the house for a bit of an adventure.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On the college campus, Karen Yuletide was working on some of her "homework" with regard to some of her classes. While her focus was in art, which for the moment had focused more on hand drawing, which was actually a medium she preferred, there were other classes she had to take and these often included assignments that were different from what she preferred. This meant essays and so on, and while she loved her time with Peter, she did have to put some effort into the work on these projects. In this, by the late evening and Peter had returned home, Karen found herself in the dorm's computer lab and typing away at trying to get her school work done.
She barely heard the door open behind her when there was a small call of excitement from behind her, which made her jump. She turned to find a couple of other students coming in. Some were from the floor of the dorm that she was on and some were simply others that lived on campus. She couldn't tell for sure if they were weres or not, some had the physical build that would hint at it, but given that it was possible that there could be a normal woman with that sort of build and Karen didn't yet have the sense of smell to know for sure. Peter had described that weres often had a scent that was different from a normal human's scent. It helped serve to not only help weres identify other weres but also what kind of weres they'd met while in human form. Since Karen wouldn't gain that until after joining were society with Peter, she couldn't say for sure. She could guess, but wasn't going to do anything like that.
"Here she is!" one spoke and urged the others in and the group funneled their way into the room and soon took some of the other chairs near Karen. Some logged onto the other computers while Karen turned to them.
"Is something up?" Karen asked to one of the students that also had rooms on the floor she was on.
"Mostly just catching up on some of the excitement," she said, "I mean... you and the Lion Prince..."
"You must be excited!" another soon blurted.
"I am..." Karen admitted, "I've always had something of a soft spot for anthropomorphic animals... which in a way raises my interest in Moon Lake's local population."
"You don't have to worry," the girl from Karen's floor assured her, "we're all either weres or Moon Lake Normals, here."
"And Peter Talbot has always been a hunk!" a third commented, "you're so lucky."
"Yeah... a lot of us were either at the Halloween dance or heard about it," a fourth added, "you'll get to be the Lion Princess... Won't that be exciting?"
Karen gave a small and semi nervous smile at that. Her courtship had been rapid, and a part of her still couldn't believe it was actually happening, but she loved it. Learning that his father filled the role as "King" over Moon Lake's werelions did represent that Peter was fairly important among the werelion community in Moon Lake. However, Peter had also explained that much of Leon Talbot's role as "King" was to break ties within some of the smaller prides when they had disagreements and thus saving werelions from going to war with each other in much the same way that mundane male lions formed coalitions and took over prides. It was something that was far more complex than in nature, and to some extent than what other weres had.
Peter seemed to reinforce that in the sense that he wasn't that interested in being the next "king." And to some extent, Karen really didn't care about becoming Peter's "princess." Her heart and mind was on Peter as a person, and not his rank in Moon Lake's were community. About the only one that Karen knew that seemed to really focus on that was Liz Brookshire, who had already engaged in some behind the scenes games to try and bully Karen into backing out of Peter's wedding proposition. It was something that seemed to keep some of the conversation on her engagement to Peter on people's minds that there were times that that discussion overtook the rumors about this city council meeting.
"Being with Peter will be exciting," Karen said after a moment, "his rank really isn't that important..."
"Not important?" the fourth girl asked with some surprise both plastered on her face and evident in her voice, "you could be in line to be Queen."
"It's not important to me," Karen explained, "I'm just happy to have Peter's love. I'd love him if he were the Lion Prince or not. And I think he feels the same way."
"So... when do you two plan to have your big night?" the girl from Karen's floor asked.
"Tomorrow night... which I'm eager for and can't wait," Karen admitted, "which was why I'd come down here to catch up on some homework... too excited to sleep."
"Well... do try to get some sleep," the second girl commented, "Once you're a were... you'll find that your energy will replenish faster and easier... that you won't feel as much need for sleep, but the first transformation will be a bit different... and still, congratulations."