Tad's afternoon walk home was relatively calm and interesting, and he'd found he enjoyed it, particularly when he could walk home with Amy. It made for a rather pleasant walk and since there was no "time limit" when it came to walking home, the pace could be rather relaxed rather than the more hectic pace some had when it came to getting too school. Thus why the morning buses often had more people on them than the afternoon buses. Of course, Conner and Ryan following along after school came off as a bit odd, but that had more to do with Moon Lake's geography than anything else.
In most other cities, the town was made out in grids, which then set up blocks that houses and residences could be packed onto. And only space or the terrain would limit that, and this meant that unless someone lived on the opposite side of town from someone else, it was fairly easy to take alternative routes between certain points and not have to double back. Thus one could always be going in the general direction of their end destination. Moon Lake, with its wagon wheel layout, didn't really have that. There were a couple of "blocks" in the center most point of town, and much of this seemed to include the oldest parts of Moon Lake when it came to what was built in the town. But the further one got from the center of town on the straight streets that made up the "spokes" of the wagon wheel, it would mean that there really weren't the streets available to then turn from Tad's home and then move directly toward where Ryan and Conner lived, on a different "spoke."
This was especially true when the Decker house was about halfway toward the outer edge of town and the Howlers were a couple houses down on the opposite side of the street. While Ryan and Conner lived on the same street, it was a different street than Tad and Amy's homes, and the Ross family had bought a home that was closer to the edge of town than either Tad or Amy on that street. Now this wasn't necessarily a problem, as from what Amy had told him, Moon Lake was generally pretty tolerant of people cutting across lawns to go through the woods that were in the areas between "spokes" that made up Moon Lake's straight roads... but if one were to stay on the sidewalk, they would have to double back toward the center of town before moving to the appropriate "spoke" when it came to moving from Tad's home to the Ross's.
Cutting through the woods wasn't a "bad" option, normally, but Tad did worry a bit for Conner. Some of it was the reveal which had so many people seemingly on edge. Things seemed to have quieted down a bit at school, but Tad still had the impression that that had more to do with the fact that the school had come down firmly in response to the fist-fight that had broken out at the start of the school week that just ended. At the same time, there was also the potential for wildlife to come into the forested areas that "grew wild" around Moon Lake and leading to some potential conflict. And from what Amy had told him, normal animals did not respond well to weres... at least not wild animals. Pets and livestock might do well around weres, but that was more due to their domestication, wild animals seemed to either be more willing to fight if attacked or would openly confront what they thought was a were. Tad knew he could be strong enough and fast enough to deal with most animals that were in Washington State, for he was a werewolf. Ryan could probably handle one or two mundane wolves if there was an encounter and could scale a tree to escape from larger predators.
But Conner was still a normal human. And as a normal human, he would carry all of humanity's weaknesses when it came to dealing large predators, like Mountain Lions or Black Bears. Conner couldn't outrun them and couldn't fight them and win. That was something that Tad remembered a couple of the rumors that went around in the week before the reveal had happened. It wasn't super big at the time and didn't relate to him, so he put it out of his mind, but according to the rumor, a different family had just moved to Moon Lake shortly after Halloween. According to what Tad had heard, the mother and father had wandered out into the woods, which lead to the father becoming a werelion and the mother getting attacked by a Mountain Lion... but Tad didn't have enough information on that to know for sure and decided to not get involved. But if it was true, there was the fact that Conner could be in danger if he and Ryan ran into anything on the way.
"Hopefully they'll be fine," Tad said aloud.
"I'm sure they will be," Amy answered and gave Tad a pat on the shoulder, "Ryan wouldn't walk anyone into a trap and thus, even in his human form... he'll probably be alert to things... and the sun hasn't gone down yet, so it isn't like he'd be wrestling with transformed weres."
"One can never know though..." Tad shrugged, "and I suppose finding out about some of the struggles that Conner's had... I suppose a part of me is both excited and worried at the same time. I mean... Conner and I were friends for ages... and I was astonishingly lucky when it came to things like my dad's deployments and finding that the Ross family hadn't moved when we came back to Quantico..."
"That just shows you care," Amy gave a smile and then kissed Tad's cheek, "which is something I like... but remember... you trust Ryan, right?" She paused as Tad nodded in response before continuing, "And you did note that getting Conner to actually TALK about these things has gotten him to recognize that he's likely bisexual to begin with... like your mom." Again Tad nodded. "Then you should have no worries regarding Conner and Ryan. Don't worry yourself over nothing. Besides... you and I will have our own dates to prepare for."
"You're right..." Tad commented, "so... we start with a movie?"
"That'll depend on what's on the rotation at the theater to night," Amy answered, "but it could be fun... I'll see you at six."
With that, Amy then moved off toward her own home, swaying her hips and waving one hand over her shoulder as she looked over it. Tad could only smile back as he followed her movement. His pants felt a bit tight as he focused on Amy's jeans covered butt for a moment, but as she crossed the street back toward her home, he managed to get control of himself and moved to head in the front door. With a long weekend, homework wouldn't be as big of an issue and there was some time before he and Amy would meet up again for their date, which might well include some of its own fun after the movie, particularly while things seemed "quieter" for the moment. With that knowledge, Tad turned to head into the Decker house.
Tad entered to hear two female voices coming from the living room, both sounding calm and relaxed. They were clearly Tad's mother Jen and her new lover, Claire, and Tad could hear some tone of confidence and happiness in their voices as they conversed with each other.
"See... I told you you could do it," Claire said to Jen as Tad came in the door. He couldn't see them, but Claire did sound rather happy.
"Yes... but it may take awhile before I get any response," Jen responded, "Mrs. Tachibana said she would get back to me... and the intent was "by the end of the week," which could mean either tomorrow or by Saturday or Sunday, depending on how you define the week and when it ends, though even that could be delayed given some of the other stuff going on."
"At least it's better than what you've had with the first job interview you've had here," Claire answered as Tad moved to shut the door behind him, "you told me they haven't even called you to say whether or not they'd hire you...?"
"They hadn't," Jen answered as Tad pushed the door shut. This created a pause, and Tad was sure that both Jen and Claire had heard him come in the house, but Jen did continue, "but some of that is expected. I've had a fair number of jobs as Jeff and I moved about the country as I followed his military career and began raising Tad and so on. And while the people I worked for were quite pleased with my work... because of circumstances where Jeff would be transferred after a short period... I wasn't able to hold these jobs for long. And many of the bigger companies would tend to look more at employees they can expect stability from their employees... And groups like Wells Fargo... even IF the staff here are all from Moon Lake, they're going to take that stability thing into account first."
By that point, Tad crossed the small entry area just inside the front door and came in to find Jen and Claire seated on the couch together for the moment. Both were dressed and seated together fairly calmly, a bit different from the previous afternoon when Tad and Amy had come in from school to find that the two werecats decided to spend the afternoon getting some sexual delights in, but Tad couldn't complain about either. A part of him would have wished that his father was still alive and could still be there... but that wasn't possible and Tad did want his mother to be happy. Since Claire seemed to make his mother happy, he wasn't going to put up any fuss over the issue. So long as Jen was fine with things, he was fine with things. And Jen gave him a rather warm smile as he came in through the doorway to the living room.
"Hello, Tad, have a good day?" Jen asked him as Claire also turned to look to the eighteen year old werewolf.
"Pretty much... things have been quiet at school, Conner's doing okay and Amy and I have some plans for the evening," Tad answered, "how about you... I heard something about a job interview when I came in."
"Yes... I had my second interview with Tachibana Enterprises today," Jen answered to her son, "I think it went reasonably well... but we may not hear back from them for awhile... The earliest would be tomorrow at the absolute earliest."
"And what would you be doing?" Tad wondered.
"I would be Akane no Tachibana's personal secretary," Jen answered, "not the most glamorous job or the most high paying... but it would mean that I wouldn't be living solely off your father's pension."
"And it wouldn't be a bad job, either," Claire commented, "I may not have been here that long... and granted, cleaning and fixing things at the college means I don't get a lot of time to listen to gossip... but it would appear that there is quite a lot that goes on with Tachibana Enterprises and its CEO... you'd get some prestige just being close to her..."
"Some of that is probably just werefoxes respecting the Skulk's leadership," Jen told her, "most were groups are often compartmentalized into various small groups. Serving like social clubs and things like that. Even the werewolf packs. Each pack would have its own rules and thus there is the potential some werewolves might meet on different nights of the year if they belong to different packs. My pride... and the one you've joined to be with me, Claire, is a small one including three other werecats and two pairs of werewildcats who are married to each other. My mothers are in a different pride... and so on. The weretigers, wereleopards, weremountainlions tend to be "individualists" who will only come together to chat and compete but would have no core "leadership," and werebears are probably the same. But werefoxes are sort of hyper organized in a way that would follow a sort of royal or corporate court. They have smaller units within the Moon Lake Skulk, but they're more administrative than anything else, and the head of the Skulk could potentially overrule all the den leaders on specific circumstances. The closest thing to them is how the werelions have their prides organized and with their "king," that is ultimately complicated... and something that often leaves local werelion pride leaders or coalitions a great deal more independence than what goes on within the werefoxes's "club" within Moon Lake society."
"But it wouldn't necessarily be a bad job," Tad commented, to which his mother nodded.
"So what plans do you and Amy have?" Jen asked Tad, changing the subject.
"I was thinking we start with a movie... or at least see if anything good is showing tonight and go from there," Tad answered, "and with it being a long weekend this weekend... there would be plenty of time for other kinds of fun..."
"I'm sure," Jen said slowly, "though given everything... I would suggest that you still keep to curfew... You don't have to be back super early, but I wouldn't want you or Amy caught out in the middle of anything. Things may be quieting down... but that won't mean that the tension has gone away."
"Right, mom," Tad nodded.