While his older brother and his friends made their way to the gym for the meeting that would set the rules for the Thanksgiving Football Game, Eric had a similar meeting that was scheduled with the High School's guidance councilor in the library. Here though, the meeting was in relation to some after school clubs that he and Julie came up with. One was to be a chess club and the other was to be something of a book club, with a lot of the ideas being to help Eric get more involved socially at school. It related to healing from things that had hurt Eric going back to Minnesota.
Meeting Julie and becoming her weremerman helped, but there were still things to get a start on it, but there were still things to do more in that regard and his parents and Julie had both helped with ideas on that. Now, all they had to do was get their ideas through the school's guidance councilor. They'd put together some ideas at lunch, and gotten some help from another male weremer, Arthur Curtis, as well. Eric looked at it as a workable framework, and now all he and Julie had to do was convince the school's guidance councilor on what the groups would provide for. For so long as the reveal remained something that Moon Lake's weres were tense over rules for the proposed chess and book club would have to meet things that the school would expect.
Getting through the hallways was a bit tricky as most of the people were trying to make their way out of the school while Eric was dodging people to go the other way. As he got closer to the library, the path of people heading out began to get smaller and Eric could find the one he was looking for, Julie Stovall. She was dressed as she normally was and had her backpack hanging from one shoulder, but she practically glowed with the same light that he'd seen since becoming a weremer that told him that she was his one true love and that it was something she'd seen in him since the day she'd first seen him when the Andersons moved to town just as the school year started. It made him smile and he was quick to approach her.
"Hey," Eric said to her, catching her attention, "you ready?"
"Yeah... I don't think this will be too long," Julie commented, "and talking over our plan helped at lunch. It'll give us at least an idea for a schedule... much of the rest... I'd think that was stuff we could already agree on."
"Hopefully the school agrees too," Eric nodded and they turned and slowly walked into the school's library.
The library was fairly quiet as they entered with only the librarian organizing a few things behind the main desk at the moment. There were no other students there as they looked around for the moment. That puzzled Eric a little, as the morning announcement had made mention of things that would sound like this was to be more than just his and Julie's petition. But there was no one else there, and while something like the Thanksgiving Football Game might be reason for the moment for students not to be there, Eric also knew that not every student was involved in that. A part of him also figured that some might still had a passing interest if it was to be for something that might still go on after Thanksgiving. But with no one there...there wasn't much for Eric to go on.
"Good... you're both here," came a soft voice making both Eric and Julie turn to see the guidance councilor come in through the doors to the library holding a notebook under her arm, "Sorry I'm late... a couple of Seniors with their free period being the last period of the day came in with questions on college applications and they kept me busy..."
"It's okay... we'd only just arrived ourselves," Julie answered, "though we thought there might have been other petitions or things that you might be looking over..."
"No... most other things would be things the student council may want to do... but they rescheduled their meeting, likely letting things from Halloween and then this reveal blow over," the guidance councilor commented, "though I've been surprised you've never shown an interest... Ms. Stovall."
"Just because my dad is mayor doesn't mean I'm political," Julie answered, "the club ideas is just something to help give weres something to do after school than just homework or waiting until the sun goes down."
"Giving people a chance to meet people beyond just their respective pack, pride, herd, or... whatever group's meetings," Eric added.
The guidance councilor nodded and then extended one hand to one of the rectangular tables that made up some of the more open areas of the library. They weren't huge, but given the fact that the present conference was one staff member and two students, they were probably more than large enough. Eric and Julie walked over to the one that the guidance councilor had gestured to and pulled out the plastic chairs on one side in order to sit down and look to the guidance councilor as she joined them.
"Now... I don't think a chess club or a book club are necessarily bad ideas," the guidance councilor spoke, "though with some I would have some suggestions... but those can wait for the moment. Right now... there are other concerns."
"This reveal," Eric gave a slow and steady sigh.
"And the school will have some minimum guidelines we'd like followed," the guidance councilor spoke, "though... given that we're a small group... why don't you run by me some ideas on what you would think is appropriate?"
Eric and Julie then took turns explaining what they'd discussed at lunch. That they wouldn't talk politics at all when either club met and that the book club would try to steer clear of topics that might touch on any contemporary political issue. As they gave this run down, the guidance councilor checked down a few things and nodded. When they finished, she looked up from her notepad and addressed them.
"Well... I think you might have gone a bit too far with the restrictions... as this will be something on people's minds," the guidance councilor spoke, "and when it is... people WILL talk about it. It's pretty hard to avoid that. And a warning sign may discourage it, but may not necessarily prevent it."
"We didn't want a fight..." Eric commented with Julie nodding.
"And I applaud that," the guidance councilor answered, "though I'd urge a modest restriction. Let anyone that joins either club know that they must keep all things civil... particularly with anything related to the reveal. Now... there may be a short leash, and whichever teacher is assigned to supervise either club will likely have the freedom to remove those that can't follow that policy... and how that will work specifically will depend on the teacher... Though, obviously, if someone looks like they're going out of their way to start trouble... then things would be shut down and their participation could be prohibited, but that would be something that's part of the staff has agreed on with regard to its policies. And some may take these policies a bit further than others."
Julie and Eric nodded as the guidance councilor checked her notepad again.
"In the meantime... we've also looked over what has been proposed... and while the chess club is fine," the guidance councilor spoke, "we would suggest that this book club widen its interested genres a bit. Not everyone is going to read fantasy or science fiction exclusively... and if you're trying to attract new people beyond a select group of friends... it would be better to let the book title or genre be open for selection to anything that is available here, in the public library, or anywhere else in town. Members can then vote on what they'd want to read. You may get some fantasy or science fiction in that way... but by leaving the genre open, you'll interact with more people and will get a better understanding on how they view literature."
"Okay..." Eric said slowly. He'd been a bit more hesitant on the book club idea and had gone with it as a compromise to get Julie into chess, and he hoped that the suggestion didn't hurt her feelings to much at the suggested change with regard to the plan. A glance over to her showed her slowly nodding but not revealing too much.
"In the meantime... what were you looking at for a schedule for these groups?" the guidance councilor asked.
"Well... we'd talked a bit about this at lunch," Eric said slowly, "and we'd originally come up with a Tuesday, Thursday schedule for the chess and a Wednesday for the book club. That way there is time to read between meetings and it shouldn't interfere too much with homework assignments while the chess club would be more a way to unwind."
"That sounds practical," the guidance councilor commented.
"The only thing we hadn't figured out would be how to handle things like holiday shortened weeks," Julie added.
"I'm afraid things like that may just come up," the guidance councilor spoke, "and there are times where we have to react to surprises too... like the rare occasion we get a snow day."
"My family moved here from Minnesota... we're fairly used to those," Eric commented while getting a good chuckle.
"Otherwise... I think things are in order, and based on what we've reached, I believe both clubs will have the school's approval," the guidance councilor spoke, and then produced a pair of papers and handed them to Eric and Julie, "these contain what the staff has agreed on for base guidelines regarding the reveal and what will be enforced on the issue. If you want to type out the formal rules based on them and what we've discussed here, that would help you manage both clubs. Once we can assign the teacher that will look over both clubs... we can then let you know when you can put your sign up sheets up."