William was fairly calm as he arrived on campus, though there was some underpinned concern and worry over what might happen during the day. A lot of this related the rumors that had been flying around campus over this supposed special City Council Meeting that was planned for the evening. It wasn't something that was necessarily a bad thing, as being knowledgeable and involved in things generally made for a better informed populace, but to William some of the rumors that had been flying around were borderline absurd, and he wasn't completely sure on how they'd started. He'd talked with the Dean, and he said that some of this sort of thing was the result of things like new businesses coming to Moon Lake and things like that. William tended to believe the Dean, but that didn't change his questions with regard to what brought the rumors on and what was keeping them going.
The fact that Martha had apparently also gotten a call from someone urging her attendance to the meeting was something that also floated around the back of William's mind as he made his way to his office in the English Department building. It was something that raised some curiosity, though much of the reasoning that William might accept for going to the meeting would largely just to see what this meeting was actually about. Because the rumors that he had were at times off the wall and too ridiculous to believe, even man who'd become a werefox after moving to Moon Lake from Minnesota. Though as he finished putting things down in his office and then collected what he needed for his first class and made his way toward his assigned classroom for the morning, he'd found that the rumor mill continued to run.
"Halloween is over," William heard Harry's voice speak from around a corner, "the Skulk wouldn't pull some prank regarding the were secret."
"But what if it is about the secret... and is serious!" came the counter.
"Then I'm sure there has to be a good reason for it," Harry answered, "it could be a revision of contingency plans or some other quite mundane type of thing."
"You're only saying that because you've only JUST become a were!" came another voice, "the rest of us have lived in fear of being dissected for hundreds of years."
This made William sigh heavily as he approached. All of this represented some of the absurd rumors that went around and that he had overheard before. To a certain extent, because he trusted what the Dean had told him, he had reservations about going to meeting to find out all this panic was over nothing. And some of the rumors were indeed ridiculous. Some of them about Moon Lake waging war against Washington State went totally off the wall. There might be some legitimate worries about the were secret that were there, but with the way these rumors had seemed to fly, William also wondered if some of these rumors only served to enrage people to a point that civil debate on the matter wouldn't be possible.
"If you've been around for hundreds of years and have only gotten to be college Freshmen," William spoke as he came around the corner, "then the school system truly is failing..."
"Professor Anderson! We were..." said a young wererat, though in her human form, as she gave a bit of a jump.
"Just repeating the same old rumors that have been going around for much of the week?" William answered, "Best to focus on your studies. For this meeting could be very minor. And even if not... it will be better to keep your mind clear and focused, not jumping to conclusions over stuff you heard."
"But what if it is something dangerous?" the student asked while William moved to unlock the door.
"Then you must be focused on the proper counter and understand the opponent's argument," William answered, "otherwise, you'll come off as any of Shakespeare's characters that went mad in the course of the play they were in... In the meantime, our focus should be on what is immediately before us. And that will be with English Literature."
Once the door was unlocked the students began to file in. Harry and Jenny gave a small smile and nod as they went in. William nodded back, though he also knew that there had to be real fear in some of these rumors. In this, he sincerely hoped that it was nothing and that things could move to what would be considered "normal" for Moon Lake soon.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And the college wasn't the only place where these rumors continued to fly around and weren't still absurd in many ways. Ben noted that heavily as he went through his morning. Much of it was rather random, and he did try to trace things backwards with regard to who had heard what and from whom they had heard the rumor from, but even that didn't help. It further didn't help when some students came to him with questions regarding these rumors. Ben understood the reasoning, as one of the few things that united all of these rumors was some interpretation on the were secret, and his mother, Samantha, was directly responsible for helping new residents to Moon Lake adapt and adjust to Moon Lake's secrets, including the fact that it was a were sanctuary and that the town mandated at least one member of a family join were society to protect that secret.
And this soon came into play when he went to handle the issue related to his permission slip for the Thanksgiving Football game. He had to do it on his free hour, but he knew he could handle that quickly while other classes cycled between them. The "coach" was just finishing one PE class in the gym as Ben approached him while the students for the next class hadn't arrived yet.
"Do you have a moment, sir?" Ben asked him as he came up.
The coach looked up from his clipboard for a moment and saw Ben approaching with a slip of paper in one hand, "You got your permission slip signed?"
"Yes, sir," Ben nodded and held up the paper, "I'd hoped to have been able to deliver it before school started... but traffic was a little hectic today."
"Probably all the hubbub over all these rumors," the coach answered, "seems like half of every class has some theory about what this meeting is about."
Ben nodded as he handed the signed permission slip to the coach. He looked at it and then placed it underneath the other papers on the clipboard with a small nod of approval to Ben. However, with the next class still getting ready, the coach then looked to Ben with a look that told the High School Junior that the coach had his own questions that related to these rumors. To some extent it was to be expected given Samantha Twist's role as Town Chancellor.
"You wouldn't happen to have any inside information on what this is all about?" the coach asked, "I mean all of these rumors relate to the were secret in some way shape or form... It'd be nice if there was some way to get these rumors to stop and let students focus on their class work... regardless of what the class is."
"I'm sure, sir," Ben agreed, "but my mom's position really doesn't require her interaction with the City Council. That's more the Deputy Mayor's role. If they change something with regard to how the were secret is protected she may have meet those requirements, but she doesn't play any direct part in the creation of the policy."
"So she wouldn't even know what's on the meeting's agenda?" the coach asked.
"That she might know... but if she does, she hasn't told me," Ben answered, "for the moment... I'd wager that this is probably just something that Moon Lake has seen plenty of times before."
"Still doesn't explain on how much these rumors have been sticking," the coach gave a shrug, "anyway... my next class will be starting shortly. Do you need a pass?"
"It's my free hour this period," Ben answered.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Eric and Julie ran into similar issues through the course of the morning, and it wasn't something that let up even at lunch. Normally, lunch had been something where Eric could sit and talk with Julie during the day, as their schedules were such that they didn't share a class together and their free periods were at different times of the day. Thus they could only meet and talk during lunch, however, with the sea of rumors going around, Eric found that while Julie was able to save him a seat, she was not able to get away from the rumors.
"So what do you think, Eric?" said a girl who was seated to Julie's left as he sat down opposite his fiancée as far as weremers would be concerned.
"What do I think of what?" Eric asked back with a glance to Julie and noting the look of frustration on Julie's face. It gave him a hint on what the conversation was, but he didn't want play into anything.
"All that this meeting is supposed to be about, duh," the girl rolled her eyes, "I mean... you're a new were, right?"
"Well compared to those who were born weres, sure," Eric said slowly, "though... I'm not sure on how that matters as to the validity of some of these rumors."
"Not what makes them valid," the girl answered, "what you think this meeting is actually about. I mean I've heard some things of Moon Lake rebelling against the state of Washington to expanding the city limits and new construction, or changing the mandatory were law to take it back to were every member of a family had to join were society, not just one member. Stuff like that. What do you think?"
"Well..." Eric said slowly, "I don't think the town will go to war with the state its in. That would only mean violence, and I'm sure the state's governor would be within his rights to launch a crackdown on the entire operation... which would also then lead to the possibility of secrets being exposed in a bad way."
"What if the meeting is about the were secret?" a male freshman asked from a spot next to Eric.
"That would be controversial," the girl next to Julie admitted, "but... Moon Lake's stuck to it for so long..."
Eric sat quietly and ate a little bit as he watched Julie give a sigh while the other two began to debate on the issue on their own. Eric could hear them, and the fact that it continued was enough to make it likely that lunch that day probably wasn't going to be what it normally was for Julie and himself. He wanted to reach out and comfort Julie by taking her hand in his, but the ongoing debate soon came back to him.
"So what do you think, Eric?" the boy beside him asked, "if this meeting is about doing away with the were secret... what do you think will happen?"
"Well..." Eric said slowly, "assuming weres are accepted... I'd think that some of the rules that Moon Lake has to protect the were secret would go away as they'd no longer be needed... If not, then that would then depend on what is said in this revelation. If all it is is the secret... I'd guess that many of Moon Lake's rules might either become stricter to protect Moon Lake or would at least stay as they are."
"But should they do it?" the boy asked, "Josie here thinks it'd be okay..."
"It'd be nice to be ME all the time," the girl, Josie, answered, "or at least more than at night or inside my own home."
Eric sympathized with that part. As a good part of him loved being in one of the three stages weremers had aside from his base human form, but then he also remembered the bullying he'd taken in Minnesota just for having in interests that went outside of baseball. If that was all some people needed to become bullies, revealing to the world that he'd become something totally different from what he was when his family first moved to Moon Lake would be very different.
"Personally... I'd think we'd need to know more to be sure any sort of reveal wouldn't lead to negative consequences," Eric said slowly, "but then we don't know what the meeting is about, yet, so all the rumors may simply be avoiding what the meeting actually is about..."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
But the school wasn't the only place where these sorts of rumors were spreading. Martha found that out as carried out a few small errands in town. She checked the mail at Moon Lake's very modest post office, there wasn't too much there, which Martha took as a good thing. From there she then walked down to the Safeway on the west end of town. There wasn't too much on her list that they would need, but it presently represented some of the hoops that the Anderson family had often had.
When she and William married, she'd had her own vehicle, but with Nate soon on the way and Eric being born about two years after his older brother, they hadn't been able to afford insurance on two vehicles. She'd kept her driver's license and she and William often traded off on who had the family SUV. They'd also try to pre-plan major shopping trips in case there was a lot to buy or the items on the list were too big and bulky to buy by hand. A part of her mind recognized that she and William might need to consider buying a second vehicle eventually, once she got her certification to teach updated for Washington State. With both of them working they could afford the insurance, and if need be, it could be a car they hand down to Nate or Eric when they grow up.
But all of that wasn't a major issue as Martha picked up a handful of things. Some were planned to go into the dinner for the night and some was planned to be put in the freezer to save for a later date. And for the most part things went fairly well as she made her way through the various aisles. It was only when she got to the cashier line that she came onto anything. There was someone already there checking out, and Martha's ears soon picked up on the woman's conversation with the cashier.
"I'm sure it can't be as bad as that," the cashier said with some disbelief in his voice.
"I'm only saying what my son heard at school," the woman answered, "that this whole meeting was about some sort of super breeding program. That we'd all be turned into baby machines to raise an army."
Martha blinked hard at that. Granted she didn't ask Nate or Eric about the rumors, but she didn't think that Moon Lake would seriously consider that sort of thing. Samantha and Frances had both procured for her the prescription for werecat birth control pills when it came to her joining were society and placed a great importance on taking them if she and William stayed together. For, while female weres had the ability to apparently sense when they were coming into heat, that couldn't be completely predicted far enough in advance that dealing with that situation would be difficult to manage or handle. And with the higher fertility weres had, that could easily mean that the were population could easily explode given how active weres were.
That was something that made Martha feel what was said to be ridiculous. If raising an army of weres was ever a goal, the were birth control pill never would have been invented. More active hunting and conflict with mundane wildlife and participation in humanity's past wars might have had enough of a negative affect on the were population in the past that "population control" wouldn't be a thing. However, things had changed greatly, as major human wars in the conventional sense had gone down and in many places conflict with nature wasn't as big as medical practices had improved. Which made it ridiculous to Martha that there would be such a shift in policy and it only made her wonder what this meeting actually was about given apparent nature of these rumors, though she did her best to stay quiet as she set the items she was to purchase down and set down the plastic separator to keep her purchases separate from the woman in front of her in line.
"Well, I'd still say this meeting isn't about that," the cashier commented, "Moon Lake has been pretty quiet for years. It'd make no sense to put in place a city ordinance that would only put strain on our resources."
"Maybe," the woman in front of her said with a sigh, "Only makes me wish that whatever this special meeting was about. Because that was only ONE of the rumors."
Martha didn't say anything to that and waited patiently. She was curious on it all to a degree, but at the same time she didn't want to gossip. She merely waited her turn in line and hoped that whatever was circulating in these rumors would prove to be nothing.