When Harold waived Melissa off that Monday morning he did so with some inner sense of confidence that things would be fine for the two of them as things moved forward. He felt comfortable with Virginia and despite his own initial nervousness regarding Moon Lake's Mandatory Were Law, he wouldn't give up being a weretiger if he could. It was that confidence that set about his own personal mission for the day. There would of course be some groceries and things to get, but the biggest thing was filing for a marriage license for himself and Virginia and scheduling the ceremony. That was something that the two of them had worked out late the previous evening after he and Melissa had returned home from the Tyson farm...
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"I don't want to keep you too long," Harold said to her as the two stood calmly in their respective were forms on Virginia's back porch, "Seeing that tomorrow is Monday and you'll be going back to work..."
"It's okay... I'm sure you've noticed by now that as a were... you recover energy a lot quicker than you did in the past," Virginia replied, gave a chuffing noise and rubbered her muzzle to his.
Harold nodded and returned to what he'd dropped in on her for, "True... but there will still be the point picking up the marriage license application and so on."
"That may be a bit tricky... as Moon Lake runs a five day school week and between the length of the school day and my working with the school's "knowledge bowl" team... I'm generally pretty busy during the period that the courthouse would be open to get and fill out that paperwork," Virginia said slowly.
"Maybe... I could pick it up and let you fill out the parts that apply to you in the evening," Harold offered, "and then take it back once it's all figured out."
"That could work," Virginia replied with a smile and chuffed again, "I've never heard of them saying both had to come in at the same time... Just remember that we're looking at Saturday if possible."
Harold nodded and hugged Virginia as best he could, returning her chuffs with one of his own.
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"And that will be my big mission for the day," Harold commented as he saw Melissa move off and then shut the door, "Just have to clean up a little after breakfast and then wait for the courthouse to open for the day...
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Virginia's morning started quietly and overhearing some of the same rumors from the Halloween Dance that Melissa heard as she met up with the friends she'd made in Moon Lake. She also got a direct call from the office that reported that a new Normal family had enrolled their children and had not yet gotten Moon Lake's official welcome. Virginia assumed that was like the Van Direstag family that Melissa had said were friends of hers in Michigan. It was one of those things that could be complicated, though, for with Alice Decrux's last actions being to spike the punch at the Halloween Dance and the rumors going on around it, Virginia had some concern that high school gossip might reveal things not knowing who was listening.
But she couldn't dwell on that too much as she had her morning classes to teach and she actually relished the ability to return to the classroom. There was always the occasional prankster or difficult student, given many of the worries Moon Lake had over rogue weres or others outside of Moon Lake learning about weres, she'd found that generally speaking students kept enough discipline to stay focused and that students that didn't necessarily do well at first did get better. Those results was something that Virginia greatly enjoyed and let her go about her morning, including spotting Trevor before fist period and letting him know that the school's knowledge bowl team would be able to meet and have practice after school.
By what was the start of day's fourth period, Virginia got to an open point in her day where she had no classes, as did the other members of the Social Studies teachers that Moon Lake High had as well. It wasn't as expansive a staff as the college did with only four teachers, but it was a pretty close knit group. They gathered quietly in the teacher's lounge to essentially handle the meeting that they were supposed to have the previous week, but couldn't thanks to the fight that lead to Harold becoming a weretiger and her facing suspension and the loss of the job she loved because she was the one who turned a normal without asking.
"It's good to see you back," a male werewolf spoke, though he was in human form with a green sweater vest on along with khaki pants.
"Yes," said the second, a normal human teacher, "they ruled that what happened was an accident, right?"
"What lead to Harold Jenkins being turned was an accident... yes," Virginia asked as she noted the third and last member of the group, a male wererat when in his fursona, "at least as far as can be proved in court."
"Though... I thought I saw you with someone at the Halloween Dance," the fourth member of Moon Lake High's "Social Studies" staff commented. Mostly this member taught geography, sociology, and basic economics, but he also had one period of US history at the end of the day.
"That was Harold Jenkins," Virginia gave a small smile, though she did notice the widening eyes on her peers, "I won't deny that I had some interest in him... at least as a friend. The whole fight was Decrux's fault... and it was her nonsense that didn't respond well to."
"She's been a problem for years," the second commented, "and it wouldn't surprise me if she was connected to what happened at the dance... but you can't let people like her get under your skin."
Virginia nodded, "I know... I'd gone over on that day to get some advice from Harold on what he thought we should use for history textbooks next year. It was from there that things... escalated."
"Though this Mr. Jenkins must have forgiven you..." the first commented as he sat down at one of the folding tables that was set up for the staff to eat in during their lunch breaks, "which is good..."
"Well... it's seemed like he might have had interest in me growing before the fight... so once the investigation proved it was an accident, things sort of... progressed from there, as it were," Virginia explained, "we're engaged."
This earned a few "ohhhs" in response, but the four of them managed to recover enough to get to the business they had at hand. The big thing was to make sure they covered the books that Virginia had finally been able to talk with Harold about, "the American Dream" and "On the Trail of Freedom: American History."
"So what did you think out of the two?" the wererat asked quietly, "I'd tend to lead toward "On the Trail of Freedom," get something that could be inspiring and isn't trying to present Republican talking points for all of history."
"I'm not sure that being vague is that much better," the second commented, "people will see news coming out that will point to things that are certainly troubling. "On the Trail of Freedom" wouldn't present an explanation as to why some things are problematic."
"Not to mention that some of us are already Republicans," the first commented, "and it isn't like we're trying to indoctrinate kids into certain political points of view. And it isn't as though "the American Dream" is THAT biased. I think there's some bias... but it isn't quite to the point where it ignores its solely political propaganda."
That reminded her on the issue that was at hand. Because Moon Lake High only had four teachers that dealt with the Social Sciences, there was the potential that if they could end up with a tie on vote among them over the books to use. It didn't happen often and often assured that the vote was essentially overwhelming in favor of one book or another. If they couldn't reach that and it came to a 2-2 tie, it would either go to Ian Andrews, the school's principal to voice an end decision on the matter within the High School, or would be passed on to the school board and they would make the decision and the staff would have to go with their decision, regardless of their preferences. Virginia had had her leanings, but had wanted to talk with Harold on the matter, since he also taught history and various other social sciences, though at the college level.
"So... what do you think, Virginia?" the wererat asked again.
"Well... some of the interpretations in "the American Dream" don't sit right with me... as while I agree they aren't as biased as a political advertisement they still make it pretty clear who's lens they're viewing history through," Virginia spoke slowly, "and providing balanced instruction will then make that harder..."
For the moment the wererat managed a nervous smile, but Virginia slowly continued.
"But I talked with Harold on this and asked him what he felt... and he made the point that we're also going to have to work with providing information, and we can't go all day trying to provide details that "On the Trail of Freedom: American History" doesn't provide," Virginia finished, "as such... I'd think it might be best to work with "the American Dream." We can handle the vagueness in "On the Trail of Freedom," but we can't do that and work with our lessons at the same time in the same way. We can more easily let students know the bias present in "the American Dream" first and provide the challenge to find reasoning that would either support the book or what could counter it."
"That was Harold's opinion?" the second asked, something of a coy smile forming.
"Yes," Virginia nodded, and wondered what Harold was up to at that very moment...
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At that moment a fully dressed Harold Jenkins was coming into the court area that was on the north-west side of Moon Lake's City Hall/City Court building. The mosaic that showed St. Francis of Assisi was interesting and well done. He marveled at it as he went in toward one of the administrative offices on the first floor which had the sign "Court Office" on the door. The door creaked a little as he came in and alerted a pair of secretaries to his entrance.
"Can I help you, sir?" the first spoke as she looked up to Harold as he came in.
"Actually... yes," Harold smiled, "I am Harold Jenkins... I'd actually like to pick up the paperwork to file for a marriage license."
"Just for you?" the secretary raised an eyebrow, noting that no one came in after him.
"No... the wedding would be between myself and Virginia McCoy," Harold answered, "but with things cleared up... she's presently teaching and thus we couldn't come in together."
"You could do it on Saturday in the morning," the other secretary commented.
The first gave a dismissive wave to her partner, "You and..."
"Virginia McCoy... and we'd actually be looking at having the ceremony on this coming Saturday, if possible," Harold explained.
"Didn't she attack you?" the first secretary asked, "even if the police couldn't prove it... there is nothing in Moon Lake's legal code that says you HAVE to marry the were that turned you."
"She was in a fight with Alice Decrux at the time," Harold said firmly, though knowing that there would be some of the circumstances that followed his first transformation that would be viewed with suspicion, "my getting clawed was an accident trying to break it up... and to be honest... I think I was actually falling for Virginia before I was clawed. She's been helpful and when she came over it was to help... She didn't come over with sex in mind. In a way... it helped my heart in ways I didn't realize until after I became a were."
"I see..." the secretary said slowly and then nodded.
"That's actually quite romantic when you think about it," the second secretary actually smiled.
The first secretary nodded as she swiveled on her chair to a nearby filing cabinet. On the label on the cabinet's drawer, Harold could see the word "licenses" written on it. She opened it and then thumbed through it for a few moments. Eventually she turned with a set of papers and fastened them with a paperclip before handing them to Harold.
"We will need you and Virginia McCoy to fill these out and return them before we can arrange any sort of schedule in advance," the secretary spoke, "right now... Saturday morning would be available for our judges, but we can't say at the moment if anything that would come up regarding court schedules and so on... The sooner you get the paperwork filed, the easier it will be... as it would be preferred that the judges that would be empowered by the city to carry out the wedding know in advance of the intended date so they can keep their schedule clear. Without it... while you might get lucky and one is free... there is no guarantee."
Harold nodded as he accepted the paperwork.
"Also to let you know... that when you get to the wedding, you will need two people over the age of eighteen that can act as formal witnesses for the ceremony," the secretary spoke, "a coworker or some other adult friend that you've made."
Harold again nodded, "thank you."
He then left with the papers with a smile on his face and his thoughts on Virginia. He figured he might be able to ask the dean if he'd wish to attend the ceremony. While he hadn't been as close to the dean as he'd become with Virginia, the dean had provided some help with his understanding the Mandatory Were Law and put him a bit more at ease with those things. He'd also gone out of his way to try and deal with Alice Decrux. That would be enough for at least one witness, and Virginia had already invited the High School principal, which would effectively leave things open.
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Virginia's day after the staff meeting with the other social science teachers went well and at the pace that she normally expected it to. A couple of students looked a bit sour at seeing her, but she made it through the day okay and when members of the academic team had her for history, they did welcome her back, as did a few others. Virginia took that as a point of pride. The one thing that had her a bit curious was in her last period of the day, a Freshman American History class was with one young male, who seemed to have a bit of interest in some of the female classmates around him.
It wasn't something necessarily wrong, as Moon Lake had to deal with some of those hormonal related issues with teenagers, and some of this could even be extended given Moon Lake's were population. Though, from as far as she could tell, the student was a normal and that only brought back some concerns that he might have been one of the new people that came to Moon Lake and enrolled in the morning. She'd had some hope to ask and welcome him to the school, but things were hectic as she caught up with things that had to be left to subs the previous week. By the time that she really started to get through that, the office issued their end of the day announcements and that student left and moderately quickly.
Virginia sighed heavily at that. For while Alice Decrux's prank on Halloween had created its fair share of trouble and that trouble would have to be addressed, even if the fact that the spiked punch ended up in play purely by accident when a delivery man brought back as part of cleaning up after a mess made with the non-spiked punch, that didn't change the nature of the problem that Alice Decrux's actions had caused. And Virginia was also privately certain that those that might have been transformed because of the arousing effects Love Potion Number Nine had on weres and normal humans might not be particularly eager to keep quiet on it because there were people new to Moon Lake who hadn't been officially informed with one member of the family in line to be the family were. Moon Lake tried hard to protect the were secret, but they also tried hard to make sure that Moon Lake normals were not persecuted or threatened in anyway. Thus Alice Decrux's actions put the school in a bit of a pickle... and for the moment, there wasn't too much that Virginia could do directly.
With the end of the announcement and the ringing of the bell ending the day, the student that Virginia thought was new made his way out. She tried to follow, but with other students also filing out, but the time she got to the doorway of her classroom, she'd lost sight of him among the other students. She gave a sigh and flipped down the door-stopper to let her door stay open. Some of the students would be heading off to the meeting that would be setting up the Thanksgiving football game, which was more weres and Moon Lake normals to compete against each other and only happened on Thanksgiving. She meanwhile, had her own after school activity... the academic competition team... or knowledge bowl team, give or take what some people called it... would have its meeting and practice after school...
That would have her waiting for a small group of familiar faces in Trevor Tyson, Megumi no Tachibana, Alice Weiss, Roy Hooper, and Jason Saxon. The session wouldn't take too long, as a lot of the questions were academic base and the game was played a bit like Jeopardy, but for points rather than money, but there would still be some prep work to do and things that would be done to make up for time lost thanks to the fight with Decrux the previous week.