Melissa nodded as she thought over the things that her father and Virginia had just said. It was something of a variation on things she'd remembered talking with her father about before, back before they moved to Moon Lake and before her mother died. In that, her father hadn't changed all that much and becoming a were would only extend the pride he'd feel at having successful students. That was something that probably would be good for him, not to mention finding love again with Virginia McCoy. Melissa was looking forward to the wedding on Saturday for them, not just for seeing her father happy, but also for possibly having Trevor Tyson there as a date and guest. It made her heart flutter with excitement.
But the excitement at the future for herself and Trevor, there were still other things that were on Melissa's mind that hadn't come up in conversation, yet. That largely related to her worries on her friend, Rachel Van Direstag. They had been best friends in Michigan, and their good bye before Melissa and her father moved to Moon Lake was a sort of typical good friends saying "goodbye," and seemingly thinking it'd be forever. But then, it turned out that Van Direstag family moved to Moon Lake after Melissa and her father and were delayed by some funding or business issue that they had to finish in Michigan. Melissa was happy at the reunion and glad that Rachel didn't totally freak out about Moon Lake's secrets, or that Melissa had since become a werecow to be with Trevor.
But Rachel had mentioned that her father didn't seem to take to the Mandatory Were Law well and Rachel had been having some nightmares about being forced to become a werewolf, which she didn't want. Rachel described the dreams as vivid, which based on what Melissa had learned struck Melissa as "prophecy dreams" that some weres had over questions for the future or warnings of it. What Melissa had learned was a bit hazy, but she thought that only weres could have them, and if it weren't for her "mirror friend" that had visited her own dreams before Halloween and even appeared in the day just before the Halloween dance, Melissa might have simply insisted it was just Rachel's mind processing new information that went beyond the norm. But Melissa had had some of those warnings, and that made her wonder if there was something more to Moon Lake than just its were population...
And if that was the case... the back of her mind worried about her best friend...
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Meanwhile, Rachel Van Direstag was nervously going about some of her own personal business while her mind worried over many of the things that had been there since arriving in Moon Lake. Much of that related to her immediate future and what might happen. The fact that Moon Lake was mostly populated by weres was a surprise, but the fact that it was Melissa Jenkins, an old friend, who told her that helped her get around it. It helped explain how her friend from Michigan had grown so healthy in about a week's worth of time, and in that she ultimately accepted that. The part of her that actually liked attention and "stardom" gave her some interest in joining in... and she had a pair of choices she had interest in, werefoxes and werebears.
As she entered her bedroom, she looked to her bed where one old sort of beige colored teddy bear with a red bow tied around its neck. The bear had originally been white when she'd first gotten it, but after years of washing, cuddles, and other adventures over the years the white fluff had dulled into a more beige color. The other teddy bears that she'd had over the years were in better condition and they presently lined the top of one dresser and on a shelf in her closet. Next to the bear that was on her bed was the guidebook on Moon Lake that had been found in the house when the Van Direstags moved in. That left her with a sigh, as while she'd gotten some information on werefoxes, thanks to a new friend she'd made at school, Megumi Tachibana and her cousin, Aaron, but she hadn't yet gotten a chance to get similar information werebears.
"And dad is actively planning some kind of escape plan," Rachel sighed heavily, ignoring that some of the roars and other noises from the woods seemed to have stopped and that she thought she heard sirens go past the house and toward the outer edge of town.
That was the thing that worried her the most, largely stemming to some nightmares in which she was forced to become a werewolf, with the second being the result of an escape plan put together by her father. It wasn't as though she had anything against wolves as animals, but she'd seen enough movies and stories that treated werewolves as monsters and the Gray Wolf as a predator of man and livestock that being a werewolf wasn't really an option for her. It wasn't that she hated wolves, and with the interactions with weres that she had had, even if they were in their human form, she didn't think that werewolves were monsters. It was that the decision would be forced on her, and if her father pushed on that escape plan, that force could come. She would have preferred werefoxes, because foxes were sleek and in their own way beautiful and werebears because of her childhood collection.
But now that choice seemed to be on edge thanks to her father's apparent escape plan. The only thing that didn't have her in full panic mode was that her mother had apparently argued with her father over the plan, according to what Frank told her when she came home, and that the two had gone off into the woods together. That largely left Rachel sitting on her hands to see what happened with regard to all of that and hope that her mother talked some sense into her father. With her homework presently done, that left Rachel without much to do while waiting to see on how that went. So, while Frank was working on dinner, Rachel went upstairs to her room and her desk where desk was, and on it was her computer.
She turned from her head and pulled out her desk chair to set about powering up her computer. She'd gotten all the equipment set up when they moved in, largely in the hopes of being able to work with her YouTube channel. She really didn't post much more than what was essentially a video diary in which she told people what had been up with her and what was going on. Occasionally when she'd had friends over, like Melissa, they'd sort of do a group chat on what the latest "thing" was. But while she'd gotten the tower, monitor, keyboard, and mouse all set up, the spotty reception she'd gotten on her cellphone on the drive into Moon Lake was enough to keep her from checking on her channel. Then some of the issues related to Moon Lake set in and she was a bit distracted, but since Frank said his laptop was able to get an internet connection, she figured she'd be able to log in and check and see what was going on.
"Hopefully I didn't lose too many subscribers," Rachel mused to herself as she pulled the keyboard back so that it was easier to use and began powering up her computer, "and that no one left nasty comments..."
The last part was the thing that often worried her the most with regards to her channel, because while she had turned off all the ad options that the site allowed for, mostly at her father's demand, she couldn't make money of her videos and thus didn't pay super close attention to comments or the like. More often than not, that wasn't a problem, as many of her videos didn't necessarily get too many comments. Often because most people didn't feel super inclined to comment on video diary entries that much. Most of the comments that did come in were often short entries of "cool" or made some relation in their own lives as well to things that Rachel had mentioned in the video. But every once and awhile some troll would post something weird and one video, in which she'd talked about her parents work, had lead to a rather toxic argument about sports in the Big Ten Conference. Rachel had to manage those in order to keep her channel clean and avoid issues with YouTube's own censors.
Once powered up, Rachel could see that her computer connected to the broadband connection that Frank's laptop was connected to. It wasn't at full capacity, but it was well within acceptable ranges and thus she clicked on the Google Chrome icon and set about logging in. It didn't take too long and she went into her email, where most comments and replies went. She figured some replies would be enough of a distraction from some of the stuff going on regarding her father. There weren't too many that came in to her email, and these would be the ones that she'd marked as those from friends she knew, or were comments that were long and sent to her email directly through the "community" tab. Most of the subject lines were short and related to "good luck on the move" sort of messages. They were all pretty good, though one stood out.
The comment came from someone that was identified as "StaceLow099" living in Missouri. It read: "So... you're moving to Moon Lake. I grew up there. Full of very interesting and friendly people. Don't be bummed about being "out of the way" as it were. It's a great place to get back to nature and the people there a friendly... like a big fuzzy teddy. People will like their privacy, but I'm sure you'll make friends." Rachel didn't quite know who "StaceLow099" was, but a part of her message did ring home, in that she could make friends. Melissa had introduced her to the friends she'd made in Moon Lake, and a part of her was a bit smitten with Megumi's cousin, but that might just be a crush for the moment. As such Rachel did understand the concept of making friends as she typed up a reply.
"Yeah... we made it in this past Sunday, and the best part was that my best friend from Michigan already moved here, so I won't be without my best friend. She's made friends and they're all quite nice... and I suppose having the woods nearby will be good for "nature." Hopefully I'll be able to get a new video up in a few days." The last part of the reply only came after a few moments of looking to see that the camera she used to film her video diaries wasn't set up, mostly because of the questions on any possible internet connection. As she thought that over there were some other things that she had to consider as she finished typing the reply. "Mostly a run down on a flat tire, arriving in the rain, and finding an old friend already moved here. Nothing to worry about."
As she finished and hit send on the reply, though, a part of Rachel's mind thought back on things that she was worried over. The "Mandatory Were Law" and its parameters had to mean that Moon Lake wanted the were secret to be kept a secret for fear of someone attacking them. And on a certain level, some of that could make sense the more Rachel thought on it. For when she first arrived at Moon Lake High, she hadn't met with the Town Chancellor, yet, and thus didn't know about weres or what was required, but ran into at atmosphere where most of the student body fit what could be described as top tier voluptuous models, athletes, or body builders. If it were one or two, that might be normal, but by the number that fit that base description, Rachel knew that wasn't normal, and her first meeting in Moon Lake with Melissa confirmed that.
For before Moon Lake, Rachel and Melissa were built in much the same way. Average height, modest B cups and would likely get no bigger than a modest C cup chest, and trim but not super well defined. Yet when Melissa became a werecow, she gained a few inches in height, much wider shoulders, far better defined muscles, had grown to a large C and borderline D cup chest... and being a werecow based off a diary breed would grow into J cup by the time Melissa would be done growing. In that, becoming a were made Melissa very different from who she was physically. And while every other were would be smaller than a werecow when it came to their chest size, they were still larger than what the average woman's size was. In this, Rachel also had the sense that if and when she became a were, SHE would be bigger than she was in some ways.
Based on what the guidebook depicted with werefoxes and werebears not as big as Melissa, but still bigger than she was now. That would then make her different and the people that watched her videos would notice. Maybe she could write it off as a growth spurt, that might still require some time of not posting videos to make that believable, and that was something to worry about... and all that assumed that her father backed out of whatever escape plan he had set up. In that Rachel had plenty to worry about at the moment, though that wasn't the only thing she had to do for the moment.
With her email checked, Rachel then turned directly to her YouTube page and the management tools the website gave. It was a means to help her further track subscribers, videos, comments, and even how much attention her videos got. Generally her videos didn't get a huge number of views, largely as they weren't much more than a video diary, but Rachel had liked the attention that came with them. And checking to see if she'd lost any subscribers due to the move and the poor cellphone reception that Moon Lake seemed to get was one of the things that had been one of the things that Rachel had worried about. It was presently less important than what might happen with regard to her father's escape plan and how she would explain how she would be different after becoming a were, but for the moment checking on her subscriber numbers was about the only thing she could check on at the moment. Rachel bit her lip as she waited for that page to load up...
"Phew," Rachel breathed as the page loaded and it was revealed that while her gains in viewers wasn't too high, she hadn't lost any subscribers.