Melissa was a little worried as she and Rachel departed. It was likely that telling Rachel went against some of Moon Lake's protocols, but she couldn't just lie to her friend that she'd known for years, particularly when Melissa also knew that she was very different now from where she was in Michigan. Rachel was smart and would notice and in fact DID notice. Being vague or lying would only make things worse when Rachel learned of Moon Lake's secrets in the official way in Melissa's opinion, which Melissa was certain that Rachel would probably get that welcome eventually, not knowing what had gone on at the Van Direstag home earlier in the day. She hoped that her explanation helped Rachel and would at least present the same friendly conversation that her own friends in Moon Lake had given her. Though, her thoughts were focused on this to a point where she wasn't fully aware on some of the background actions going on as she made her way down the stairs.
"Hey... Mel..." a voice spoke to her, which Melissa didn't immediately respond to as she reached the bottom of the stairs leading to the call to be repeated, "Mel!"
Mel shook her head and then looked over to see Alice Wiess standing nearby with a small smile, "You okay?"
"Yeah... I'm fine... just a bit distracted on something," Melissa admitted.
"The stuff from the dance?" Alice wondered.
"No... more an old friend of mine from Michigan who apparently just moved in over the weekend," Melissa answered, "and one I can't just lie to."
"Worried on how this friend will respond to everything?" Alice commented as they walked along to where Melissa's locker was.
"Pretty much... I mean my dad and I were pretty nervous over things when we first got here and it was really Trever, you, and the others that let me see Moon Lake in a new way," Melissa commented.
"Well... I'm sure she'll come around," Alice patted Melissa's shoulder, "you did, after all. It might take a little bit of time... though for right now, if you want to sit in on the academic team practice, we'll need to get going."
Melissa nodded. She had agreed to sit in on the practice, mostly as a means to spend more time with Trever and actually see how this team functioned. She'd remembered her school in Michigan had some programs that were like that, but had never had much reason to get too involved with it. It wasn't that she felt that she was dumb, more that she didn't see herself as the sort of academic that would enjoy those sorts of contests. Finding that her friends in Moon Lake, and particularly Trever, were on Moon Lake's team was enough to get her interested in at least sitting in on their practice. They reached her locker and she collected her things that she would need to work on for homework and so on and placed them in her book bag before turning to Alice again, while pushing her locker door shut at the same time.
"Okay... ready," Melissa spoke.
"And on to Ms. McCoy's room," Alice answered.
"Soon to be Mrs. Jenkins," Melissa answered, "she and my dad are engaged."
"Get out..." Alice said with some surprise, "they must be happy... and maybe you'll get a younger sibling."
"Maybe," Melissa answered.
They walked along and found that Roy, Megumi, and Jason were also approaching the door to Ms. McCoy's classroom with Virginia standing at the doorway as the approached. Melissa could look in to see that Trevor was already present and seated in one of the rows desks. Virginia looked to Melissa as she tailed along after Alice.
"Are you interested in the team, Melissa Jenkins?" Virginia asked with a more formal tone to her voice, but then given that they were on school grounds, some of that made sense. "Or are you more interested in one of the team's members?"
"Well... I won't deny that I'm interested in Trevor," Melissa managed as she gave a weak smile, "but a part of me is pretty curious about all this and I kinda wanted to see how it all worked. I promise I won't get in the way or do anything distracting."
"I see..." Virginia said slowly, "well the competition wouldn't be that terribly different from what you might see on Jeopardy. The contest will present academic questions on various fields, math, science, history, the arts, and so on. And the longer the competition goes on, the more difficult the questions get... and since being a were is not something that could affect one's academic abilities or interests, its one of the few things that Moon Lake can compete against other schools in Washington State in."
"But it's done as a team..." Melissa noted as Virginia ushered her in and toward a lone chair that was at the front of the room next to large counter with a built in heater in it. Melissa noted a few source books that were present on the counter, which were probably there for activities that went on in the class and probably weren't too different from what she got in her own class, though Melissa noted that she had one of Moon Lake High's other history/social science teachers than Virginia.
"Yes," Megumi nodded as she went down the row to take a seat next to Trever.
Ms. McCoy's room was laid out like a fair number of standard history classrooms. It was largely rectangular in shape with windows on the east wall that would let in some light from the outside, though for the moment some cream colored blinds were pulled down. The desks were four sided, but not perfect rectangles. In fact if the long sides were placed together they would form a hexagon, however, they were arranged so that they formed several straight lines across the room. This meant that the individual tables were turned around so that the side edges touched but that the tables still lead to a straight line going across the room with blue plastic chairs facing forward. Trevor, Megumi, Alice, Roy, and Jason all sat down in the front row while Virginia moved to the space between that front row and the whiteboard in front of them.
"The system can vary, depending on the nature of the competition," Megumi commented, "in a multi school tournament, questions are answered in rotation. Each team member will get a number and we sit in that order and get a turn as that respective number comes up. It can be fun and tests our minds more as the questions in those tournaments may be more random than in others and thus the question asked might not be a specific strength that each of us has academically."
"Smaller contests that are one on one match-ups will then have some things changed... the questions won't be asked at random and will thus focus on specific subjects and will go through those subjects," Roy commented, "thus each team can plan out how they'll deal with those questions based on the subjects that they do best in."
"And the last question is almost always a group answer question that would need to be explained, regardless of whether its a tournament or an individual school matchup," Trever finished, "they'd give us the question and then about five minutes to discuss and come up with an answer and then explain the reasoning for that answer."
"That sounds sorta like standardized tests," Melissa commented as she turned her head toward Virginia.
"They can be..." Virginia nodded, "but my team has done quite well. They took second in the state last year."
"We'll get first this year," Jason gave a cheer from his seat.
"Assuming everyone stays sharp," Virginia commented as she turned back to her team, "Now... today won't be too much more than a basic run through, so as to catch up and make sure that some things from last week didn't disrupt things too much."
"Decrux's pranks did not affect us that much, however low they may have been," Megumi spoke, "though... it is good that you were not charged."
"That may be... but we'll still have some preparatory work to do," Virginia spoke calmly, "for the next match is scheduled to be here against Spokane this coming Friday," Virginia spoke, "it'll be in the evening... but we still need to make sure that everyone is still in good shape."
Melissa watched and nodded as Virginia moved through various questions that would likely be asked. They were all things to the outside world would be normal. Melissa found that they were quite "normal," and as she watched and listened, the part of her that worried about her friendship with Rachel also figured that these sorts of things might help Rachel adjust to Moon Lake. After all, her friends had helped her adjust to Moon Lake. Though, for the moment, Melissa also had to remember that she couldn't force things on her old friend and could only hope that the Van Direstags would find that the things that made Moon Lake's weres different from the rest of humanity weren't as important as the things that made them similar.