"Do we need to be there for this session that Mom and Rachel will be setting up with that therapist?" Michelle asked to Jasmine.
"I don't think we need to be there for the call to make an appointment," Jasmine commented, "as these kinds of clinics are like hospitals... if it's "by appointment," it's not going to be on the same day unless it's an emergency."
"And Rachel would be past the point of emergency," Michelle said slowly, "I'm going to go... and Hank only said he'd be out there for an hour. So, I assume most of this is just to talk or work out. A little workout couldn't hurt, and an hour would only mean I'd be heading home around four thirty something rather than three thirty something."
"That's the spirit," Jasmine cheered, "you go get yourself a boyfriend!"
"It's not a boyfriend!" Michelle hissed back and sighed.
Michelle then made her way through the school and to the gym and the doors that lead to the area behind the high school. It led to a football field that had a simple dirt track that ran around it. Behind it were the woods that seemed to form the interior of the ground between the various streets in Moon Lake. The fact that the town was shaped like a wagon wheel was odd to Michelle, even with the knowledge that Rachel was a werecat and that Moon Lake was a were sanctuary when they moved to Moon Lake, as she didn't think that would make for easy navigation. But in looking at the woods that grew up between the houses on one street and the houses on the next street, Michelle figured some of that was some kind of attempt to be close to nature, and she could accept that.
The thing that Michelle didn't like was the lack of any sports teams in Moon Lake. She liked sports, as it was part of how she'd done well in Florida, participating in soccer, volleyball, girls' basketball, and track and field. Her activity had made her a bit less voluptuous than her mother or her sisters. Charlene Covaks wore a large D cup and possibly even an E cup, depending on who made the bra, though much of that was also the result of two pregnancies. Rachel fit into a modest D by the time she graduated from high school in Florida and grew into a solid E cup after becoming a werecat, and Jasmine was already growing into Rachel's old bras. Michelle, with all her activities and sports interests didn't fill out as much as she often burned off a lot of fat, though even that only kept her in the C range, and to some degree, Michelle didn't mind that. It allowed her to compete and run and that was what she liked but couldn't do in Moon Lake.
At first, things like the gym and the football field gave Michelle the idea that they did have school sports and that she could try out for one of the girls' teams. Though, that was soon shot down when she'd asked around yesterday and got the answer that those things were more for health and fitness related to gym classes than actual sports programs in the state of Washington. Jasmine had apparently learned more, and Michelle ultimately accepted the idea that Moon Lake did this to protect the town. Which made sports teams in Moon Lake impossible. And as she came out, she found Hank Gentry jogging around the dirt track. He was wearing sports shorts and a tee-shirt, with his backpack sitting in the grass of the field as he ran around the track. His pace wasn't too hard, as Michelle could note that his stride was at a rate to indicate that he was only jogging, but she could also tell that he was jogging at a pace that some of the boys that she knew in Florida could only reach in a dead sprint. Though most of them weren't the athletic type... that still didn't mean Hank Gentry's leisurely jog wasn't something that went beyond what most normal humans could reach. It reminded Michelle of what she'd been told last night, that if weres pushed it they would probably start breaking records that trained athletes spent years training for and didn't always break. Which would draw attention to Moon Lake.
"So... you came," Hank gave a fairly warm smile.
"Mostly to see on what you had to say," Michelle commented, "I'm not exactly looking to become a were right now."
"And unless you have the appropriate birth control pills, we couldn't arrange that if you were," Hank commented as Michelle put her backpack down next to Hank's.
"Birth control pills?" Michelle asked.
"Yeah... weres are HIGHLY fertile," Hank commented, "and my dad says that going back before the ability to map hormones and all that, weres controlled their birth rates by trying to keep in mind when female weres would come into season each month and try to avoid contact during that week. But once the were birth control pill was developed... that helped. But it's also were specific. So, if you wanted to become a werewolf... you'd need the werewolf birth control pill, not werehorse. And if you wanted to become a werehorse, you couldn't take the werewolf birth control pill. It's all complicated..."
"What about werecats?" Michelle wondered.
"There is a werecat birth control pill," Hank nodded, "and those that are bi do take it, as they could have boyfriends. I don't know if the werecats that are lesbians do or not... that'd be something to ask them about."
"Which isn't why I'm here," Michelle nodded.
"Yeah, looking for competition, which I get," Hank nodded, "want to jog? It'd be a good workout and all that... and I'll let you set the pace."
Michelle looked down to her jeans and noted they weren't exactly the best for working out, but she shrugged that off. At times she'd done some things like that in Florida. She then shrugged and nodded to him. She then began to jog forward along the track, feeling the dirt/gravel sort of crunch under her shoes as she jogged along and with Hank easily keeping pace with her.
"And the competition thing... that's often rough for those coming from athletic backgrounds," Hank commented as they went, "they live for that thrill of competition and testing their mettle. But we as weres really can't do that. Not without breaking a whole bunch of records that would draw a lot of attention to Moon Lake and either A) expose weres in general and/or B) expose Moon Lake as a were sanctuary, which everyone wants to hide."
"Yeah... I could see that on how there was a lot of secrecy in how the bouncer of the club where my sister... well, where she became a werecat... was with things relating to Moon Lake," Michelle nodded as they jogged along, "And that's why we're here... to get her help."
"But you want something more than that... something to strive for," Hank surmised.
"Yeah... how do you know?" Michelle asked.
"I think I have your twin sister in one of my classes... and she's a bit flirty for my tastes," Hank answered, "but she mentioned that you liked sports and were good at it where you were... in..."
"We're from Florida, originally," Michelle answered as they rounded the curve on the other side of the football field and getting ready to head down the track's other straightaway.
"And... I don't know, but that kind mentality struck me," Hank answered, "as to a degree, like any good werehorse, I like sport and the challenge that comes with it. Win or lose."
"So... how do you live with it?" Michelle asked, "a town where you can't have school sports or anything close to that because it'll attract too much attention?"
"As I said earlier, it's mostly going to be competition within the town and within the school," Hank commented, "In November, the boys have football, and even some of the normal human students play and do fairly well... all things considered. And that can be quite fun. In March we have our version of "March Madness." Occasionally even the college grades come here to the high school to create a larger bracket. And that goes for both boys and girls, and again, normal human students play and do okay. And you sorta look the time that could do well at basketball. Probably run rings around any of the werecows that may sign up."
Michelle chuckled a bit at that. She'd found that weres often had some variation on what would be considered "attractive" builds and it wasn't all the same build. The Covaks didn't get a book on weres that most new residents got to serve as a guide to weres, and this lead to some awkward questions at times on the specific builds that various weres had. Werecattle tended to be the most muscular, regardless of male or female, and apparently had some size variation depending on what breed of cattle their were form was based on. Females also appeared to have the biggest breasts of any were. Which Michelle found as surprising given that the smallest cup size a female were had was a D cup, but Michelle also felt that the werecattle were a bit too bulky. They weren't fat or lazy and had a lot of muscle, but they wouldn't be as quick or limber as other weres. Something that told Michelle that "great strength" did not equal "great athleticism."
On the other side, from what Michelle had noted with Rachel, while werecats were probably very limber and could be highly flexible, they didn't have as much bulk muscle as many of the other weres. Hank seemed to be in a sort of happy middle. He had a large amount of bulk muscle that would make him strong but was limber enough that he wasn't impeded by that muscle. It would in theory let him run and move in ways that made for a great athlete. Which again set things up for what Michelle wondered and worried over. And some of the things that Hank said here, and what had been discussed the previous night at home really worked. After all, how would these weres compete outside of this.
"Some of that doesn't sit right to me," Michelle pointed out, "how would you compete otherwise? I mean... practicing for one football game on Thanksgiving... or one month of basketball, or one month of wrestling if one is a werelion or weretiger doesn't seem to go for everyone and doesn't necessarily go for long."
"To a degree... that's true," Hank nodded, "but we have all sorts of other ways to compete. The predatory weres. Werewolves, werelions, weretigers, and to a degree even werecats and werefoxes will engage in some measure of hunting. I mean, your older sister in her werecat form, would probably be physically big enough to take on full grown deer. That's where predatory weres can get their chances to compete. Now, not all predatory weres do this. Werecats and werefoxes may hunt, but they often don't often go after large game... it's more like they see small game that could outmaneuver them if they fled and so on. But that's still something that pulls onto their means of competition."
They kept jogging for a bit and covered the other side of the track and it wasn't until they hit the other end that Hank began to speak again.
"Many of the rest of us find other ways to compete, often with each other," Hank continued, "for some, and particularly the werecattle, it'll be contests of strength. For many of us werehorses, it'll be races. Who can be the fastest in a sprint. Who can have the best at maintaining top seed for the longest. Which often makes us the best at track and field sorts of events, which often has werehorses come here during the summer for races and all that. We take it as fun, and to a degree... that's all how we compete. More a measurement against each other than trying to go out and compete across the state, when we know the playing field isn't even. It'd be like trying to have a B-17 Flying Fortress fly faster than an F-15 Eagle."
"So, you all get super competitive with each other?" Michelle asked, "wouldn't that hurt you with regard to getting along?"
"It can... and sometimes it does," Hank admitted, "but that's part of what makes us all human. Sure, we weres can do things that go beyond the human norm. And we're built in ways that few normal humans are built... but then normal humans can be competitive, and this gives them trouble at times. They can be predatory in ways that isn't always good. They can be confrontational and territorial in ways that aren't always healthy. All of those things are things that makes them human and ultimately makes us weres no different from them. And from what your twin told me about what happened to your older sister... it's where I'd like to corner this Leslie in the woods around here at night, when we can be in our were forms, and give her a good kick. Because what she did is closer to all the stereotypes of weres that we really don't want to be. Competition is all well and good but should be kept in control to where things like "fun" aren't lost, either."
Michelle was happy to hear things like that in many ways. It wasn't quite answering everything on how to compete and all that, but it betrayed some measure of humanity that further showed connections and partnerships that Michelle felt might help Rachel in many ways, even if Hank wasn't a werecat. It also helped her in some ways, as while he didn't fully answer everything regarding competing and things like that, it was enough that made her like him. Jasmine might have been the Covaks' family "flirt," but that didn't mean that she or Rachel couldn't have romantic interests of their own. And Hank being polite and friendly was enough to garner some attention, particularly where he did have some interest in competition, even if he hadn't answered all of Michelle's questions.
"Well... I thank you for sharing things with me," Michelle commented.
"Hey, if it helps and allows for some answers, I'm all for it," Hank smiled, "and maybe... if you're willing... we could go out some time."