The flow of rumors wasn't the only thing that went on with Eric as he went through his day. They were a frustrating thing, particularly as he could see that some of the inquiries made on these rumors to Julie frustrated her, but they weren't the only thing that Eric had on his mind as went through the day. There was also the advice to build up more social relationships which Doctor Frances Twist had advised the previous day, and something that Eric knew he had to do. He knew and recognized that a lot of social interactions were hard for him, mostly as a result of the bullying in Minnesota. His parents and brother defended him then and stood with him, but they were also a bit of a safety zone for him.
The surprise that most of Moon Lake's population were were-beasts of some kind had been a great surprise and made Eric a bit concerned on opening up on the subject in town. Partially out of some fear on what he'd known of weres at the time, which admittedly was based on Nate's movies, and it was only after meeting Julie that things began to get more comfortable on that front. Julie had been calm and friendly with him, and that made him more comfortable in general. Even learning that Julie was a weremer didn't make him feel uncomfortable on the subject. Some of that, though, was more that Eric had found himself falling in love with Julie, which in turn lead to him becoming a weremer, himself. That growing comfort helped him a bit at school, as it got him over the jitters that he'd had around some of his classmates, but while several had turned out to be fairly friendly, much of his attention was focused on Julie. In a way, his safety net had expanded to include her.
But the recent issue with jealousy that he'd had over a misunderstanding had helped Eric realize that he'd need to develop more of those social skills. His session with Frances merely confirmed it, and part of Eric's mission for the day was to try and socialize a bit more and make some friends. In this, he'd started the day asking around with some of the kids that he'd often had next to him in classes for just some small talk and see what they were interested. He'd learned some of their names as he'd gotten more comfortable with Moon Lake, but even after becoming a weremer, he'd left a lot of the conversation to school matters. Now though, with the realization that he needed social interactions that went beyond just his "safety net," he had to engage in some of it.
He'd started with asking around to see if there were an others that had some interest in things like science fiction or chess. He'd found that while there was some science fiction interest, from those he got to ask in the morning, it was more a general interest. And the series of books that actually had the greatest interest in was actually a series that were apparently written by someone from Moon Lake about a planet that had four moons and rotated at a rate that would make every night a full moon. Eric wondered though if that was more of a fantasy type genre based around Moon Lake in space rather than true science fiction. He did get a few tips here and there on some people to talk to, and as Eric made his way out of the cafeteria after Freshman lunch he thought over the one conversation he was able to have that met some of both his interests and the suggestions of things to try during his study hall period...
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Eric found her seated in the library at a table that was next to some of the rows of reference books. He had some assignments to finish, which he felt would be enough of an excuse to sit down and try and make a new friend. He was a bit hesitant as he could catch the scent of weretiger on her.
"Uh..." Eric began slowly, seeing her look up as he spoke, "could I sit down?"
"Sure," the teen girl answered, "it's Eric... Anderson, right?"
"Yes," Eric gave a nod.
"Ginger O'Toole," the other girl answered and reached forward to shake Eric's hand, "So... what brings you to sit with me? Things between you and Julie Stovall not working out?"
"No... they're working fine," Eric answered, "Just a bit tired of sitting alone, that's all."
Eric set his papers down to get started on some of the work while Ginger nodded in reply.
"So, how are you liking being a new were?" Ginger asked.
"Well... it's brought Julie into my life and I hope to have a very happy life with her," Eric answered with a smile, glad that the discussion wasn't turning to all the rumors and being able to talk about Julie, "I'm happy for that..." He paused when he noticed Ginger sigh.
"I'm not boring you, am I?" Eric asked.
"No," Ginger answered with a weak smile, "Just thinking over a few things..." For her, those things related to John Harper. She wasn't sure if it was true love or anything like that, but she did want to see John happy. She did want to be his friend. Though she did recognize that there was a part of her that was at least hopeful for something more with John, and listening to Eric go on about how happy he was to be with Julie sort of made her jealous. There was a certainty in the way that weremers seemed to address issues in relation to love. It was similar in a way to a werefox's bond, but not quite. As far as Ginger knew, a werefox would only feel that bond be present AFTER they'd had sex with the one they were bonded with. There could be exceptions, particularly when normals joined werefoxes, but often in those cases, the new werefox had likely mated with his "true" love at least once before joining were society.
From what Ginger had observed with Moon Lake's modest weremer population, while they could be certain with who their true love was, it was a certainty that seemed to happen before any sort of physical contact was made. She'd heard a story or two that gave an indication that weremers felt this way even before actually meeting their "one true love." And here was a young freshman, who'd only fairly recently become a weremer, judging by the fact that he wore no cologne, talking with her in much the same way she'd seen weremers who were born weremers talk about love.
"It's not something major?" Eric asked a bit nervously, noting that Ginger's voice fell off toward the end.
"Nothing too much beyond typical teenage stuff," Ginger answered, "So... what's got you curious in little ol' me?"
Some of Eric's nervousness came back at that. It wasn't similar to his interactions with Spencer, where there had been some confusion to whether or not Spencer had romantic interests in him AND Julie, which to a degree was comforting, but there was a degree of suspicion there that also let Eric know that Ginger wasn't going to just entertain him. Some of that made sense, given how much he'd often come into the library and selected a more isolated spot, particularly when the Andersons had first moved to Moon Lake. In this, despite the fact that he and Ginger shared a study hall period, that didn't mean he'd actually talked much with her before today.
"Well... as I said... I've been getting more comfortable with things in Moon Lake, thanks to Julie," Eric answered, "and so I've figured to try and find some friends that I could just hang out with from time to time. I'd thought on the idea to find some people who were interested chess and who had an interest in science fiction. And well... your name came up more than anything else."
"A good many weres will have some interest in strategy games," Ginger commented, "some of it may be a replacement for hunting... Some of it may be that a fair number of weres are probably older than they look. Thus they grew up at a time when games like chess were more popular or at least considered more "upscale" as it were and thus passed it on. Though, much of it has been rather informal and has usually gone between friends."
"And on science fiction?" Eric wondered.
"I'm no super fan, by any means," Ginger answered, "but my folks do have DVDs for nearly all of Star Trek, episodes, movies, and so on. The thing I've been amazed on is how much the show has actually developed technology in the real world. Things like flip phones, iPad devices probably weren't imagined before science fiction made it up as future tech."
"It's amazing, yeah," Eric agreed, "anyway... with chess... have you ever thought of a club or something like that. Get a group that have some interest and play together? I've played against my parents and the computer... but my parents say I'm a better player than them, and to a certain extent the computer's moves can be more easily predicted than a person's moves. As the computer will always take what is the most "logical" strategy. A club could hone skills and help teach those that are interested in learning the game learn and develop their skills."
Ginger raised her hand for a moment, but then paused and scratched her chin. She'd been introducing John to the game, and he did seem fairly interested in the game. Though in some of their practice games that they'd had, it was also pretty clear that while John had learned the rules and how the pieces moved, his anticipation and strategy on things she might do weren't quite as sharp. Telling him what her strategy was wouldn't help him with that, though at the same time she didn't want to put John in a position where he'd be facing someone who was dead serious about winning. Losing and losing badly generally wasn't something that would help someone get better at a game.
"I'd suppose that could work... though, you'd need to make sure that this club isn't organizing tournaments that would include those that are just learning the game," Ginger commented.
"I was thinking more just for fun," Eric answered, "the club could meet once a week, play a few games, chat, and so on. And for those that are interested in the game, it'd be a fun way to hang out. Getting into more competitive tournaments would be something that the club would vote on so that way the decisions are in a general agreement and that those that do compete do so willingly... Sort of like Moon Lake's laws regarding who joins were society."
"You are new..." Ginger only gave a chuckle.
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And much Eric's attempts went that way. He couldn't always talk long, as the teachers still had their classes to teach, and while the continually flying rumors might have delayed somethings for the teachers, they did ultimately get their classes going. When things did get away from the rumors, Eric found a few that were willing to think about a sort of club, since it had turned out that Moon Lake didn't have a competitive chess team. The closest thing to that was an academic team that apparently had its roster full for the school year and by some fluke, the team were all Sophomores.
This of course meant that it might take some time to get things fully organized, but it was also something that helped Eric get to know some of his classmates a bit more than he did already. For the most part he knew at least their first names, given that many of the teachers took attendance before each class, but he now also learned a few small things here and there. A lot of it confirmed things that Julie had told him when they'd first met and hung out in that many of the things that were issues for teenage weres weren't to terribly different from teenage normals. All to some degree wanted acceptance among their piers and so on. All of this was fairly normal for teenagers. The only thing that made most of Moon Lake's teenagers different was that either they or some other member of their family was a were of some kind.
Much of the rest let Eric learn things and actually share things, if only briefly with classmates while he was trying to figure out who had some interest in chess and might have willingness to be in a sort of club. Many of the students that were greatly interested had parents that were close to his grandparent's age, and some were even over one hundred, but because they were weres they didn't look as old as they were. They enjoyed various board games and other computer games as well, which Eric was curious in, which gave him some other things to inquire into later. In this, it was something that was a bit of success even if it wasn't a complete one. It worked well enough and as the day came toward the end of the school day, Eric was eager to catch up with Julie on his day and some of the plans that he'd worked on for opening up socially.