Author's note: No actual nudity but parts are mentioned...
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Martha and William both stood by as Eric and Nate left to catch the buss. For them the day was really moving toward their full integration into Moon Lake. They had become weres and Nate had gotten his dream to be a werewolf. And what they had seen of Eric's interaction with Julie, both parents felt that Eric was adapting well to their new home. It made them both happy that they were truly moving toward the new start that Moon Lake was to be for their family. The only thing that was left was Yvette, and her hearing. William and the Dean were expected to be there in case the prosecution wanted to use them in their opening statements, and the Dean was even on his way to pick him up for the hearing.
A lot of this wasn't that unfamiliar to William, as he remembered how his career in Minnesota ended with his stupidity in letting himself be lead by his penis too often. For, while the sex had been consensual, that didn't mean what he had done was right and that the coed's family didn't want satisfaction of some sort. And all of that had meant extensive legal proceedings of their own. The only difference between what had happened at Moon Lake and in Minnesota was that William was no on the prosecution's side of the proceedings rather than the defense. He had rejected Yvette's initial advances and was nearly raped in the college parking lot, and while the Dean had pulled her off of him, he wasn't able to prevent her from clawing him in the struggle. Now, he had come to enjoy being a werefox, but that didn't change the fact that what Yvette did was wrong, and now they were moving toward justice.
"Well..." Martha spoke up as the front door shut, "I'd best get dressed... as I don't think they'll want to interview or talk with a woman in her nightgown... were or not."
"Oh I don't know," William teased, "I'd interview you like that."
"Yeah... but I know what sort of questions that you'd ask," Martha teased back, "and Samantha and Frances would probably ask similar questions... which isn't the purpose of getting a job."
"I suppose," William shrugged and let Martha move toward the stairs.
"And besides I'll need to call the Twists to let them know that you left the car with me," Martha answered.
William nodded. The Twists' offer to help Martha get around was generous and made some sense given that the Andersons only had one car, but they had their own jobs too. Samantha was the Town Chancellor and William figured she might be required to be at the hearing in that capacity. Frances ran her own psychiatrist's clinic and as such she couldn't just keep taking days off, as even if her schedule depended on pre-set appointments, that didn't mean that emergencies couldn't pop up or that someone could make requests of Frances to provide help or evaluations that didn't go along with the appointments. He had figured that letting Martha have their vehicle while he walked would be beneficial for all of them as the Twists could attend to their own jobs and Martha would be able to get around and attend or her errands for the day.
And it wasn't as if they didn't know where the school buildings were. After all, Martha had handled registering Eric and Nate into Moon Lake's high school. So she knew where the high school was and at least new the addresses of the elementary school, middle school, and their main administrative office. The only thing that might not know was the exact directions, but knowing the address was a decent start to finding out how to get the appropriate buildings, and since Martha was only checking to see if there were possible future openings and offering her services as a substitute for the remainder of the present school year it wasn't as if she was having to be meeting at a specific time.
William's eyes followed Martha as she climbed up the stairs and he did smile. He had always felt she did a good job with regards to working with little goods, and his fox presently wondered why they had even agreed that Martha had to stay home with Nate and Eric when they were born. He soon heard Martha speaking into her phone, and figured that she had picked up her cellphone to let the Twists know about the change of plans while she got dressed. He listened in a little before seeing the Dean's car pull up to the curb outside the Anderson home. With that he then turned back to the stairs.
"Martha, the Dean is here and I'm headed out," William called up the stairs, "Good luck. Hopefully they make the right decision and hire you!"
He then collected his briefcase and made his way out the front door. The walk across the lawn was quiet and William was quick to climb into the passenger side of the Dean's car.
"Thanks for all this," William said to him as he buckled his seat belt and putting the Dean's tiger scent out aside.
In a way, the Dean's scent wasn't that different from Martha, Frances, and Samantha's werecat scent with the obvious difference in that the Dean's scent smelled like he was bigger than the werecats he knew. He guessed that made sense, since tigers were the largest cats in the world. A part of him also wondered if his fox scent smelled similar to Nate's werewolf scent. After all, if the Dean as a weretiger had a similar scent to Martha, a werecat, as tigers and house cats were both felines, wouldn't a werefox and a werewolf's scent also be similar since they were both canines? If Eric was there, he'd probably say there were still other differences, as tigers, while cats were of the genus Panthera while house cats were of the genus Felis, and wolves were of the genus Canis while the Red Fox was of the genus Vulpes. But Eric wasn't there, and William was left only to guess.
"It's no problem," the Dean answered, "They could need us both for this and your house was on the way to the Court House for me. Makes no sense for you to get lost figuring your away around Moon Lake to a specific building to deal with rogue that forced herself on you."
William detected some residual anger in the Dean's voice over what Yvette had done.
"Still... you have my thanks," William answered.
"Hopefully she hasn't put yourself off of Moon Lake because of all of this," the Dean answered.
"No..." William actually laughed, "I'm actually quite fine with Moon Lake... it's like what you said to me when the school year began... that I'm still in control... I'm still me... just a bit furrier at times. The only thing that I honestly don't like is that I didn't get the chance to make an actual choice."
The Dean nodded and pulled out back into the road to head to continue on to the court house.
"Well... it's good that you're getting used to things," the Dean answered, "and hopefully the hearing and the trial will make sure that that rogue will pay for what she's done."
William nodded as they rode along. After a moment he decided get on to the other mission for the day.
"Sir, I don't suppose I could ask for a favor?" William asked.
"A favor?" the Dean asked.
"Yes, my wife, Martha used to teach elementary school when we first met and were dating," William began, "but we agreed that she'd be at home full time when we had Nate and Eric... and well, her certification did expire as a result. However, with Nate being a Junior and Eric being a Freshman in High School... she's looking to go back to work."
"And she's in need of something to renew her certification?" the Dean asked.
"Yes," William nodded, "and I wondered if there was anything that could be done to let her take tests..."
"Well... I'm afraid there is nothing I can do with regard to the PRAXIS," the Dean answered, "about the only thing that will vary from state to state is what scores are considered passing... and not every state uses it. So she will need to follow the standard procedure for registering for that specific test next spring. Though, depending on how long her certification is out of date, that could be a good thing in giving her time to study the material needed. With some of the Washington State tests I might be able to pull a few strings to get a proctor to provide the test... though she will still be responsible to study the material for those tests as they are."
"Is there anything I can pick up for her with regard to that?" William asked.
"Talk with the education department," the Dean offered, "they might have some material left over from last year that you can pass on to your wife. I don't think things from last year will have changed too terribly much. Though... she'll have to buckle down with regard to studying. As while I might be able to get a proctor to come down special... they will get to pick the time and date."
William nodded, "Okay... and I'm sure Martha can manage it... she was a great teacher before motherhood brought about different priorities. She can handle it..."
"Well... that's good to hear," the Dean answered, "and I will do what I can. Just make sure that she does understand what she will have to do to meet what will be required of her."
William nodded, feeling grateful that Martha would get a shot a renewing her certification. She'd have some work to pass the tests, true, but at least with regard to Washington State's tests, she would be able to get a chance to take them without having to re-enroll in college. He'd do whatever he could to help Martha, asking questions and quizzing her as she prepared. And while her only work was limited to substitute teaching, she'd have plenty of time work on these things.