Ava's morning was rather calm, she rode the bus with her brother, though he went and sat with Ryan for much of the ride to school. Despite the overhanging tension related to the big reveal, the bus ride had been quiet and she'd been able to ride quietly and with some degree of confidence that things would be fine regardless of what may happen. And for the Ross family, there had been plenty to be concerned over, though Moon Lake and its were population seemed to be among the smaller problems. Particularly when Ava had overheard about Conner possibly struggling with his sexuality. Looking up to her older brother, Ava had been surprised to overhear that and had wanted to help and get the truth out of Conner in the only way she knew how.
And from Ava's point of view, she felt that her method had worked in a way in that Conner did open up in a way that would help him come to grips with things in a way that he'd been rejecting... at least according to what Ava had overheard. And their parents did accept Conner, which was to be expected, and Ava still couldn't figure out why her brother might have thought that their parents would reject him, but that issue appeared to be solved and as she watched Conner chat with Ryan on the bus, a part of her got the sensation that the two would be something of an item and even closer than the friendship Conner had with Tad. If so, Ava knew that it would likely mean that Conner would become either gay or bisexual if Ryan turned him, but then, given that it was quite possible that Conner was already bisexual, it would be likely that being with Ryan wouldn't change Conner's sexuality. After all, her friend Ashley had said some things along those lines.
As they got off the bus, Ava made her way in and put away her book bag and collected the things she needed from her locker before turning to head to her first class of the day. She'd just reached the doorway to it when she came up on Ashley, a werecat she'd made friends with, and had introduced her to a few other freshman at Moon Lake High that she was happy to meet. Ashley smiled as they met up.
"Hey Ava... how are things going?" Ashley asked as she pulled the door open for Ava.
"Things are going pretty good... quiet at home and it would seem like my brother's figured things out," Ava answered, "which is good."
"So... he's recognized what his sexuality is?" Ashley asked softly.
"I'm not sure if he's totally recognized what it is," Ava answered, "but he has seemed to grow close to someone that lives on our street... his name is Ryan, but I can't remember what his last name is at the moment. But that'd have to mean that he's at least bisexual and is recognizing that much."
"Seems awfully quick..." Ashley commented and gave a shrug, "but then... love does some to flow fast here... it may not always last, but that's likely a different issue."
Ava could accept that. She would have wanted to talk more, but the bell to start the day rang and the teacher steadily moved to make sure the door to the hallway was shut and began to start the day's lecture. Ava and Ashley sat together as they went through their first period class calmly and without any trouble. After the class period ended, the two headed out into the hallway and came up on a spot that would let them look toward the more southern end of the hallway where Ava thought she could see Conner coming out of his first period class. She could see Ryan with him and they walked in step for a bit, moving around other students in the hall as they went. Though Ava noted that her brother's eyes were either distant or vacant in that he wasn't fully focused on something. That was only confirmed when Ryan paused, stopped, and turned to go up another hall that would lead upstairs while Conner continued to go forward. Eventually Ryan seemed to call after him and that got Conner to shake his head and then turn to follow Ryan.
"Well... if it's real... it would look like he's got it bad," Ashley commented, "though... hopefully he'll pay attention through the day... or at least try to."
"Try to...?" Ava wondered.
"Weres can be a bit more... active... shall we say, and especially so for teenagers where everything is kicking in," Ashley answered, "the school generally has rules against PDA on school grounds and during the school day. Largely as a means to make sure that we don't end up with a bunch of horny weres in the school..."
"Well... Conner is older... he should be paying attention," Ava managed, though the sight of him seeming to forget as to where he was going for second period seemed to leave her wondering. But given her place in the Freshman class and Conner's place in the Senior class, it was unlikely that she could keep tabs on him during the day. Her only chance of that would be after school.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tad's morning had also been fairly calm and he was glad that the morning had been free of argument over the reveal. There was some underlying tension that was in relation to the issue, but that was all to be expected, and for the most part when discussions on it, things remained peaceful. That was something that Tad breathed a great sigh of relief at, as he knew that for the moment the more that that tension threatened into violence, the more his mom's job hunt could hurt or the more her new lover, Claire, could be threatened. That's where a lot of the police responses to the turmoil had already had to deal with. Tad hoped some of it was a result of the first planning meeting from the previous night, but he couldn't quite be sure on that, as those meetings were supposedly closed to the public.
The "morning's" trouble was more in response to some things that Tad had noticed with Conner. Some of it he might have originally put up to Conner getting used to Moon Lake being a were sanctuary and that Tad had been a werewolf all his life. To some extent, Tad had gone through the same thing when he and Jen first arrived. After all, he'd grown up on or near various Marine Corps bases and thus had to do more than most other weres to stay hidden and didn't have the sort of experiences that Moon Lake's weres had all their lives. Meeting Amy had given Tad a shot at all that sort of thing, and he was glad for that, as she taught him more about Moon Lake and Tad liked that.
However, there was also some concern that Tad had with Conner, partially after Amy had pointed somethings out to him. He and Conner had always been friends and had always shared in some discussion on girls and the like, it had left him fairly confident that Conner was straight. However, Amy had noticed that that while Conner did look to some of the girls in the class he shared with her, Conner hadn't looked with the same sort of "interest" that Amy said a lot of the boys looked to the girls with in Moon Lake. Which was a hint that Conner might not be straight. It caught Tad by surprise and he was initially resistant, but he'd gained enough trust in Amy to give her suspicions some credit and enlisted Ryan's help in confirming some of Amy's suspicions and then turning to the direct confrontation with Conner.
That ultimately worked out and Conner did admit to Ryan and Tad that he'd been conflicted on the subject of his sexuality. The openness of the admission was surprising and it did shock Tad to learn that Conner had been questioning things for quite awhile. What Conner described was more like he was finding out he was bisexual and wasn't adapting well to it, and while that could be troubling, from what Tad knew about the Ross family, Tad was sure Conner's parents wouldn't be judgmental about it. After all the Ross family had taken Moon Lakes were secret, and even the Mandatory Were Law, far easier than what would be expected and as such being bisexual shouldn't be a problem. That was confirmed when Conner reported that he had admitted things to his parents at Tad and Ryan's urging, and that was a good thing.
Tad would have liked to talk for a bit with Conner before school, the bus that Amy and Tad rode on and the bus that Conner and Ryan rode on arrived only just before the school day started. As such they had to split up and didn't get that much chance to talk before school. Though that didn't mean the morning was without some issues and Tad saw it through what morning classes he shared with Conner, though this time it was more like Conner was distracted or daydreaming about something in which he'd jumped once when a teacher asked him a question and gotten some giggles when he recognized that he'd been caught. Tad couldn't get any deeper into that and thus had to wait until lunch, which was his only chance.
Tad arrived in the lunch line to find Conner sitting down with Ryan at one table and that Amy was ahead of him in the lunch line. He waved to Conner and Ryan and then pointed to them when Amy glanced back over her shoulder to him. She shrugged and nodded. From there, Tad was left to go through the lunch line and get what he needed before joining Conner, Ryan, and Amy at the table.
"Hey there, Conner, doing okay?" Tad asked as he came up and sat down by Amy and looked across the table to his old friend.
"I'm okay..." Conner managed, "or at least as okay as a guy with his mind wandering could be..."
"Yeah... I was kind of wondering what happened earlier," Tad commented, "but once the laughter calmed down the teacher got everyone focused on the assignment as it were..."
"What was this?" Amy asked as she swallowed a bit of the food she'd been eating.
"You had to have heard about it," Conner gave a small blush, "I kinda spaced out a bit during second hour, the teacher asked me a question and my response was more of a "huh" than anything else, and revealed how little attention I'd been paying. It got everyone to laugh and got me a reminder to pay attention."
"And I was wondering on that... was something wrong?" Tad asked.
Conner flashed a small smile and took one bite of the spaghetti that the school had served. He chewed quickly and then swallowed before he answered, "nothing was... is... wrong. I suppose I'd just let my mind wander and was thinking on things to come."
"The reveal?" Amy wondered.
"No... Ryan," Conner answered.
"Ryan? So..." Tad began.
"Well... you and Ryan talking to me about things helped me a bit in rationalizing on things going on..." Conner answered, "why my attention has sort of fluttered here to there, as it were. Making me think I'm probably bi... but couldn't be sure."
"Nothing wrong with that," Amy told him, "all of Moon Lake's werecats and werewildcats... or male werecats, depending on how you want to term it... are at least bisexual, if not homosexual. And they've been in Moon Lake long enough that the town has been more accepting of homosexuality than other places."
"Yeah... Tad and Ryan have already gone over that with me," Conner answered, "and it's kind of explained how I'd see some women and find them attractive... then look some other woman and night find her attractive but finding the man she's with attractive. It was something I found confusing. And... well... Ryan's been especially helpful."
"So... you're gonna hook up?" Amy asked with a forward smile.
"It's at least a date for right now," Ryan answered with a gulp after swallowing some of the milk from the carton, "it won't be right after school... but around six or seven... I'd walk over to Conner's house, walk him down to the Local Diner, and then have dinner. We'd goo through the park too..."
"Might see some weres in their nighttime fun..." Amy chuckled.
"Well... if things go well... we could end up being the weres having nighttime fun," Conner said weakly, "I mean it's not like some of the girls here are ugly or that I'd never have some interest... but... I don't know how to put it... but Ryan's just seem to hit all the right notes with me, as it were. I can't really put it any other way..."
"My mom was the same way with my dad," Tad spoke to him, "as a werecat she was bi and thus why she had the willingness to be with my dad... and she loved him very much. But because werecats are at least bi... she also had some interest in women. Though I don't think my parents ever came across another werecat or female were that shared my mom's interests that often... if ever... and that in turn left their relationship pretty monogamous. Though that may ultimately change now that my mom's really started recovering from my dad's murder."
"What would that mean?" Conner wondered.
"It would mean that if you're bisexual now, you would stay bisexual after your transformation because your sexuality would already meet the criteria for the sexuality of werewildcats, or werecats if you were female," Ryan explained, "thus you'd still have some attraction to women... And it could mean that from time to time... I'd need to share you with a female were from time to time as the female would fill the need for something softer than what I could provide. And that'd be acceptable, as it'd just be sex... and purely casual... unless of course... we don't work out, but that's something still to discover going forward."
Conner slowly nodded.
"In the meantime... don't let your mind wander too much because of this," Tad warned, "for there are bigger things out there and while some things have quieted down regard the reveal... I wouldn't think the tension has gone down any."
Conner nodded and they all resumed eating.