"And no matter what happens," Ginger promised him, "I will ALWAYS be your friend."
"I'd like that. Very much," admitted John, more than he realized as he said the words, "and I will ALWAYS be your friend too," he promised her.
The red haired girl just smiled, which seemed to make everything right for both of them.
Despite the potential dark cloud that hung over them since the Moon Lake Town Council voted to reveal the existence of were society (but not of the town as a were sanctuary) once a plan to do so was created and approved, normal human being John Harper walked with his friend, the weretigress Ginger O'Toole, although she was not displaying her fursona since they were in public during the day.
Leaving the Jenkins house after their brief discussion on current events*, Ginger walked with her arm draped around John as they headed toward Moon Lake High School.
John had mixed feelings about Ginger's gesture. On one hand, the expression felt far better than he thought it would.
On the other, John was still uncertain about his own gender identity (Am I gay? Straight? Bi?), let alone how Ginger fit into his life. Yet he vowed not to let anything spoil today for either of them.
But as the young couple walked, neither noticed a car passing them.
The driver only maintained surveillance of the clear road ahead of him, but the passenger in the back seat did notice John Harper.
"Err Dad..." began Tommy Johnstone, watching the figures recede in the distance.
"What is it son?" asked the driver, one of the boy's two werewildcat fathers. "You know we have to be in Seattle within the hour," as his husband was busy going over data on his smart phone in the passenger seat next to him.
"You already answered my question. Thanks," said Tommy, not wanting to press the issue. The adopted weretiger knew his other dad was hoping to accomplish some important business there before the three of them caught a touring production company's performance of Cats that evening.
As the car continued on its way, Tommy considered what he saw. He knew the red haired girl was Ginger O'Toole, but from his position in the back seat, he didn't see her arm around the boy he was interested in too.
I guess Monday at school I better ask Ginger what she knows about John Harper before I try to introduce myself to him, thought Tommy, wondering about his interest (and hers) in the Harper lad.
"You walk this way every day?" John wondered, not knowing there was someone else in Moon Lake interested in him.
"Usually I don't have such wonderful company," admitted Ginger, as the red haired girl smiled at him, "but this is my normal route." Ginger had a developing and deep affection for John, perhaps even real love. Yet she also knew that, given his family background and current problems, not to push the issue until he was ready to talk about it.
"We weren't as far away from the school as I thought, if that's it up ahead," John said, noting a large building on the horizon.
"Yep. If you haven't seen a map of Moon Lake yet, the town is laid out in a wagon wheel format to give us weres plenty of open space to commune with nature, so to speak. The downtown area is the central hub, and everything stretches outward from there," explained Ginger. "Luckily we're on one of the 'spokes', so we have a straight path to the school, compared to some students, but that's good ol' MLHS. Not the original though. This one was built in the late 1980s when the town realized the previous school was on its last legs, repair and maintenance wise," she revealed. "Before that, the town was small enough that kindergarten through sixth grade could fit in one school and the rest in another, according to my folks. But when this one and the new elementary school were opened, the original was torn down to have someplace to put the current junior high."
"Is Moon Lake really that small?" wondered John, as they started along the sidewalk in front of the school.
"Sometimes it does seem like it, with just a couple of grocery stores, one movie theater, and not as much of a few other things that I'm sure a former big city dweller like you might take for granted," Ginger said, as she removed her arm from him to make a sweeping gesture of their surroundings. "From what I hear, when the town was first settled, everything school wise fit into just one building. Except for the college, which didn't even exist back then. We're definitely not quite as small as we used to be. Yet almost everybody knows everyone else. It's cozy, and more importantly, it's home."
"Which is why some people might be upset about how that town council vote turned out," realized John.
"True. Yet we've had scares before and weathered those storms. It obviously will take time, but we'll get through this one as well, whether or not the world does discover were beings are real," replied Ginger. "Now then, let me tell you a few things about high school life. First, never have the fish on the lunch menu. I hear the cardboard box the frozen filets come in tastes much better," which made John chuckle.
Ginger went on for a good 20 minutes about the ins and outs of being a high school Freshman in Moon Lake.
John listened intently to her every word, only interrupting to ask a question when absolutely necessary.
When Ginger finished, she asked if he had any further questions.
John thought about that before saying, "Even without weres being involved and the problems my folks created for us kids, my neck of the woods in Alabama wasn't like this," he admitted, staring at his future high school, that is: once all the legalities and red tape of his older sister Jenny officially being declared his legal guardian was finalized and he was actually registered in the Moon Lake school system.
"How so?"
"For one thing, there was a security fence around the entire school property."
"Really?" said Ginger in disbelief.
"Yeah, and metal detectors at the entrances so hopefully no one would sneak in a weapon. Drug sniffing dogs walked the corridors at least once a week, and you saw security guards stationed in the hallways during class changes."
"I've heard stories on the news about such situations, but I've never heard anything about them first hand. All we have are a couple of security guards here(*2), but that's more because of a state mandate than anything else. Thankfully they're fellow weres, so they're cool. Or at least, I think so. Anyway, was it as bad as I think it would be for you there?" asked Ginger.
"Considering I have nothing to compare it to, I can't say. Other than the lack of dogs, even the elementary school had its security personnel and precautions. Walking to and from school, I always avoided the local gang members and drug dealers. I heard there was a suspected pedophile hanging out near the junior high once, but the local police ran him off before he might of done anything."
Ginger just stared at her friend in disbelief as John continued talking. "Dad always talked about the 'godless heathens running amok' and how society was allegedly degrading to the point of no return with all the undesirables in the world, but I never figured out why things were that way myself. Other than having to be cautious every day, it was a relatively nice neighborhood, if you didn't mind the graffiti displays. Some of them got pretty explicit, if you know what I mean. Just life in the big city, I guess," added John, as he shrugged his shoulders.
"You... That is, I–," began Ginger, uncertain of what to actually say to him. And on top of everything else he's had to deal with, thinking of his family problems which was why he and his younger sister Janice were now living in Moon Lake.
Not knowing what was going through her mind at that moment, John feared something might be wrong as Ginger just stared at him.
Then, before he could actually say something to her, Ginger surprised John by hugging him!
"You never have to worry about any of that ever again," she promised, holding him close.
John was totally speechless at that moment, but the hug felt really good.
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*At the end of our previous episode.
*2) As seen in the recent Moon Lake Tad episode "On Edge".—tmw.