Tommy Johnstone made it through a relatively routine day, or at least as routine as a High School that was mostly populated by weres and with multiple odd rumors floating about could. On some levels he was curious about the meeting, but his parents had assured him that these sorts of meetings were pretty common when new businesses came to town or thought about coming to town, especially if they were large enough to have major offices outside of Moon Lake that could mean they'd hire outside of Moon Lake. Tommy ultimately accepted that, as his dads seemed to make sense when they explained it to him. In that, as he left his last class of the day and made his way to his locker, he was relatively calm on that front.
However, there were of course other things on his mind. Namely the image of the teen that he'd seen with Henry Jenkins that morning before his father drove him to school. The boy wasn't as fit or robust as most males that he knew in Moon Lake, but Tommy also knew that most of them were all weres and that even male werefoxes, werewildcats, and wererats would excellent muscle tone, and all without the intense exercise that most normal humans would need to attain that muscle tone. With young John Harper still being a normal human being, it'd then make sense that he'd be on the lighter side of things. But there was something about John's blonde hair and his eyes that Tommy found quite captivating. His thoughts on that kept him at his locker for a few moments until a voice to his left snapped him back to reality.
"Tommy! It's the end of the day," came a male voice making Tommy turn to see a young werewildcat standing beside him with a small smile, "You can open your locker and head home."
"Yeah, I know, Reggie," Tommy nodded and then reached forward to lift the latch, "I was just thinking on something."
"This supposed meeting?" Reggie asked.
"No, not that," Tommy answered, "I kinda met someone today before school..."
"A new friend?" Reggie asked with a hopeful grin.
"Maybe," Tommy admitted as he collected his backpack and began placing the things he'd need for his homework in it, "though... it was only briefly, so I can't say for certain. But he was kinda cute..."
"So... you have a crush," Reggie asked, "Who is it?"
"I was told his name is John Harper," Tommy answered with a glance to Reggie as he shut his locker door and then zipped up his backpack.
"Any relation to Jennifer Harper?" Reggie asked, "my mom says that the whole Skulk was on alert over first her getting clawed by the rogue and then her unbelievable parents."
"Yes, her younger brother," Tommy answered as the two began to make their way to a nearby flight of stairs that would take them down to the ground floor of the high school.
"Is he cute?" Reggie asked.
"I think he is," Tommy answered, "but he's a normal and he might not be into me... or you, for that matter."
"Yeah... but then if he's new to town, he might be as well," Reggie answered, "we could all have fun together."
Tommy gave a semi hard sigh at that. For a town of its size, Moon Lake had a larger homosexual and bisexual population than most others in America. They weren't exactly a majority of the town's population, but given that werecats and werewildcats were exclusively gay or at least bi, that was enough for Moon Lake to have a higher population density of these groups than other parts of the country. However, the vast majority of those in Moon Lake that were gay or bi were either werecats or werewildcats. When new people came to Moon Lake, it seemed like those that were gay or bi were steered towards the werecats or werewildcats, since their sexualities already matched the were they would become and thus wouldn't have to worry about becoming a were changing their sexuality.
But unlike his friend, Reggie McCall the son a werefox vixen, Professor Joan McCall, and a male werecat, Timothy McCall, Tommy was one of the minority of those weres who were gay or bi that weren't werecats or werewildcats. Tommy was a young weretiger and that often brought different issues that at times were frustrating. Because Tommy was a larger and predatory were, there were often grumblings and nervousness. Not out of prejudice that he was gay, but that when compared to even Reggie, that because he was bigger that there was the potential for an accident. Tommy worked hard to show that he could be gentle, and it had won him Reggie's friendship and a handful of "secret" meetings out in the woods, Tommy had noted that the fear was still there, simply for the fact that there weren't enough gay weres from some of the other larger were species.
In this, while Tommy had no intent of forcing things on anyone, that didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't interested in seeing if a new family might be "interested." It would provide something that would be ultimately free of some of the fears that smaller weres had of large weres. He'd remembered when the Anderson family moved to Moon Lake, and he'd thought that Eric Anderson had looked rather cute. And at that time, the youngest Anderson had been rather quiet and reserved, and Tommy had tried some attempts at interaction in the classes that they shared, but Eric had seemed a bit nervous over things. When Eric did seem to open up more, though, it'd become pretty clear that his interest was in Julie Stovall, and he'd since become a weremer to be with her. In this, Tommy knew not to claw the wrong tree.
"We?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah, we," Reggie answered, "we could show him around, skip stones into the lake, and do stuff that will let him know that Moon Lake isn't so bad and that we're all friendly. That way you'd get to know him BEFORE getting eager or hopeful that he's gay."
Tommy gave a more defeated sigh as they made it to the ground floor and then turned to head out the front doors. In a way Reggie had repeated what his father had sad on the ride into school that morning, and it was something that made sense. Wanting a companion was fine and desirable, but that wouldn't justify wanting to force anything on John Harper. In that it would make sense to make friends first before getting to any point where finding out what John's sexuality was, let alone seeing if he wanted to be a were.
"Right..." Tommy sighed as they made their way out, "Thanks Reggie. You're a good friend."
"Always will be," Reggie smiled and playfully punched Tommy in shoulder.
It did little and when Tommy returned it, Reggie was forced to stagger sideways a bit. The two laughed and walked along quietly for a way. Neither Tommy nor Reggie owned cars of their own, and Tommy's parents weren't going to let him borrow one of their cars, but with no need to get anywhere before a specific time at the end of the day and with the weekend coming up, they were free to walk home. It was something that was fairly easy, though Reggie would have to turn onto a different street after a short way, as while they lived near each other, they weren't on the same street. Still, Tommy was thankful to have Reggie's friendship and he waved to the young werewildcat when they had to part ways.
Though... he still wondered and perhaps hoped that Henry Jenkins and John Harper would still be working when he got home. It would give him a chance to at least say hi and make friends. Which in the general sense was probably something John could use. For if the stories were true that the Harper family's patriarch was abusive, the thing that John would need most was a friend. How things progressed from there would be up in the air. Tommy hoped things would go well...