"So basically instead of a nice quiet birthday I spent two or three hours yesterday alternating between arguing with my parents and trying to educate them," Kaylee stated with an unhappy frown.
She paused for a sip of her drink then added, "And I know I should have talked to them about this sort of thing ages ago, like literally a year or two ago? Although I'm not sure they'd have really listened back then. But having it all blow up on Saturday when Cass was there to take me out for a date was the worst, most awkward timing."
"I'm really sorry you had to be there for that stuff Cass," she added as she leaned closer and gave me a quick hug.
I shook my head, "It's ok Kaylee, it wasn't your fault. I just hope your parents come around. I hope they're not still giving you a hard time or anything?"
"It is totally my fault," she insisted. "I should have told them the truth ages ago. I shouldn't have kept our relationship secret from them."
Paige asked, "So if they're not queermisic, then what's their problem exactly?"
My girlfriend sighed, "My mom thinks if I'm gay that I'll never get married and she'll never get any grandchildren out of me. Which is like, first off I'm not even done high school yet? I might not be ready to think about kids for a decade, if ever. But whether I have kids or not has nothing to do with being married, or being with a guy. Only she's all hung up on that traditional heteronormative family nonsense?"
"As for my dad," she continued after another sip of her drink, "His problem is mostly that he's clueless. Like he tried to quote me these statistics and stuff, about why being gay is 'a bad choice'? When the real problem is bigots and ignorant people who go out of their way to make it hard for anyone who's different. And he's got enough privilege that he can't even see the difference."
She sounded a little exasperated by that point, but she sighed "Anyways for my dad I think the solution is to just keep trying to educate him. I know he's smart, it's just a question of getting through to him. Once that happens I'm sure he'll figure it out. Same with my mom, I think? Once she gets past her hang-ups and accepts that my life's on a different trajectory than hers, she'll come around. I hope. And I'm sure my parents and I are going to have lots more conversations on the topic, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to try and educate them."
"I hope you're right," the tall brunette responded. "Fingers crossed they get themselves sorted out soon. They're not trying to stop you from seeing Cass or anything, are they?"
My girlfriend shook her head, "Not really. They're 'disappointed' and my mom's being a bit bitchy about me making 'bad choices', but neither of them have been mean or nasty about it. They haven't threatened to kick me out or anything."
She grimaced and added, "That's kind of my biggest fear? That they'll kick me out, or refuse to pay my university tuition? I really don't see them doing that, but it's the easiest way they could try and control me."
"Yeah," Paige sighed. "I sure hope it never comes to that."
"Me too," I agreed.
The three of us were all pretty much finished our lunch, but we had another fifteen minutes left before our afternoon classes started. My next class was gym, same as Paige, and I really wasn't looking forward to that. I didn't want to flunk though, so I'd have to put up with Mr. Sanderson until the end of the school year.
I was thinking about that as I finished my drink, while Paige looked over at my girlfriend again and commented "That's a really pretty necklace. I don't think I've seen it before, is it new?"
"Yes!" Kaylee grinned. She pulled me into another side-hug as she told our friend, "Cass gave it to me on Saturday, for my birthday."
The tall brunette grinned, "Nice. The colour suits you Kaylee. I don't think I've ever seen that design before though? Does it have any significance?"
My girlfriend was still grinning as she replied in a quieter voice, "Of course it does. It's the symbol of our new Goddess of Chaos."
"Oh?" Paige's eyebrows shot up and she looked at me. She asked me just as quietly, "You have your own symbol now? Or was that Socha's and you took it for yourself?"
I couldn't help cringing a little into my hoodie from the attention and the topic. I quietly explained, "The eight-pointed arrow-star has been around for a while as a symbol of chaos, but most of the depictions I've seen are symmetrical and straight up and down? I adapted it to make it asymmetrical and off-centre and kind of warped, I didn't want anything straight."
Kaylee looked at me in surprise and asked, "Wait you mean my necklace is your very own design? Like you came up with this yourself? Cass that is so cool! How did you make the necklace, what's it made of?"
"It's real solid gold," I mumbled. "Or an eighteen karat alloy, I mean. Rose gold is three-quarters pure gold, the rest is mostly copper and a bit of silver."
My voice was even quieter as I added, "I made it with magic."
That left both Kaylee and Paige staring at me in surprise, but I wasn't sure which part shocked them the most. Like if it was the necklace being real gold, or the fact that I used magic to create it. Fortunately we were all distracted before either of them could question me any further about it.
My little sister and the two werewolfs had been sitting together a few tables away, but the three of them suddenly pulled up chairs at our table.
"Cerys and Nina think this can't wait for a club meeting," Melanie stated, "They convinced me we should let you three know right now, so y'all can figure out if we need to be worried about it."
Paige frowned as she looked at the brunette wolfgirl, "Worried about what? What are you talking about?"
The werewolf replied bluntly, "A couple reporters showed up at work yesterday, and spent some time talking to Sylvia. The silver tabby catgirl? She still works at the same grocery store as me and Cerys, she was there yesterday same as the two of us. And a couple reporters cornered her in one of the aisles and started questioning her."
"Oh crap," our club leader groaned. "Do you know what kind of reporters? Like were they from our local weekly newspaper? Or..."
Her voice trailed off as Paige cringed slightly, "They weren't from some TV station were they?"
Cerys shook her head, "They're from the States. They had accents, like from the south? And they're not official reporters or news media people. I'm pretty sure they're internet types? Like podcasters or something?"
"One of them had a fancy-looking camera," Melanie added. "Like the kind Melody brought with her when we went back to the cave the second time? The other one was using his phone camera, but he also had a fancy-looking mic and audio recorder."
Paige sighed as she looked at me, "Sylvia doesn't know anything about you does she? She wouldn't have been able to tell them about you, or point them in your direction?"
That was my cue to cringe into my hoodie again, but I shook my head. "I've never met her. She got her plushie from the vending machine, the same one where Kenzie got hers."
"That's a relief," our club leader stated. "So these reporters won't have any connection to lead them to Club Luna."
Now it was Melanie's turn to cringe. The wolfgirl grimaced, "Yeah... About that? This happened at the end of our shift, so me and Cerys left before anyone could try to talk with us. But I heard one of the guys ask Sylvia where they could find the store manager? I'm pretty sure they were going to go talk to Mr. Jacobs after they were done with her."
Paige looked from Melanie to me and asked, "How's the store manager connected to Cass? Does he know you're the one who put the plushies in that machine?"
I shook my head, "Nobody knows that, I did it um, I used magic and nobody saw anything."
"Mr. Jacobs knows I'm a werewolf," Melanie admitted quietly.
Cerys looked at her girlfriend in surprise, "What? How?"
The older wolf was cringing again as she admitted, "I told him. And I showed him, I turned into my wolfgirl form in front of him. I even worked a shift on cash with my ears and tail out."
Kaylee and Cerys both stared at Melanie in shock, while Paige facepalmed and quietly groaned.
"It was last June," the wolfgirl added defensively. "He had me cornered in the staff room. I was in a bad mood and he was being a jerk and I didn't have the patience to put up with him. So I shifted in front of him, then went out through the store and took my shift like that. It was only one time though, I've never done it again. And he's never mentioned it since. Maybe he won't remember?"
"Or maybe he's going to tell these reporters about it, and they'll be looking to interview you next?" Paige sighed.
Cerys commented, "What I don't get is how a couple guys from the states would even hear about this? It's a long way to travel just to get some interviews for a podcast."
Kaylee sighed, "For a small town we have an awful lot of demi-humans walking around. There's three of them attending our school, that's strange enough as it is. All it takes is a few people to post pictures online, that gets shared and forwarded around, and suddenly people all over the world know we have catgirls and bunnygirls in town."
"Cass?" Paige asked as she looked to me. "Do you know how many of your plushie users are here in town?"
I grimaced but nodded, "Yeah. It's um, less than two dozen. About eighteen I guess..."
"Is that all?" the tall brunette replied with some exasperated sarcasm.
Kaylee asked, "Who are they? We know about the Winters family, and Sylvia. That's five, who are the rest?"
"I don't want to out them to anybody," I said softly as I cringed deeper into my hoodie again. "None of them know me anyways. Apart from the Winters nobody knows the plushies came from me. And the Winters can't reveal anything about me or the club, they're all bound by oaths and stuff."
I glanced at Paige and added just as quietly, "And eighteen is nothing, considering the vending machine here in town was stocked with those plushies for six weeks."
"Ok Cass," my girlfriend responded. "You're right, it's none of our business who they are."
Meanwhile Paige sighed, "We're trying to keep a low profile incase the council has taken an interest in us. Having some internet reporters snooping around with cameras and microphones is the last thing we need right now."
"Hold on a sec," Cerys frowned, "What if these guys are from the council? Or what if the council sent them to investigate us?"
Melanie asked, "Then why would they start by talking to Sylvia at work? She's got nothing to do with the club, she's not a student here, and as far as I know nobody else in the club has ever even met her?"
"Oh right," the younger wolf sighed. "Good point."
Paige stated, "Either way we all need to be really careful, ok? No showing off, no magic, nothing supernatural at all. That goes for all of us. I'm going to warn Brooke and Melody right now."
She pulled out her phone and started tapping out a message for the two older club members, while the rest of us just nodded our understanding.
"Good thing the full moon was just a week ago," Cerys commented. "Hopefully those guys will be long gone before the next one comes up in mid-May."
"Yeah let's hope so," Paige agreed after sending off her texts.
Then my little sister looked at me and suggested, "I think we should tell our parents about the reporters. If they're from the council, mom and mum will want to know about that."
"I guess," I frowned. "Do we even know what they wanted from Sylvia? Melanie, did you hear what they were talking to her about?"
The wolfgirl shook her head, "Me and Cerys avoided them, just in case. I don't even think they saw us."
"We'll tell our parents anyways," Nina decided, "Just incase."
By that point it was about time for everyone to head to our afternoon classes. Melanie and Cerys set off together while Nina went to her next class. Kaylee headed off as well, and I followed Paige to the gym.
It was warm enough to go outside but the field was kind of muddy from the spring thaw and rain and stuff, so Mr. Sanderson kept us indoors. After ten minutes of warm-up he divided us into two teams and had us playing indoor soccer.
The teacher was still keeping a close eye on me, even though I hadn't missed a single one of his classes all month. The worst part was the other students all knew he had it in for me, and some of them started taking advantage of that.
Like if we were playing dodge ball, some of the students would single me out every time. A couple even aimed for my head, and Mr. Sanderson never called them out on it. Same with other activities, like I'd get fouled all the time in basketball and the other students would get away with it.
It was the same thing in soccer. If the teacher didn't think I was putting in the effort he'd yell at me, but when I was focused on the game I'd get other kids running into me or tripping me up. It would have been a lot worse if any of that stuff hurt, but thanks to being part demon and part goddess I didn't get bruises or anything. It was still annoying getting tripped or knocked down all the time though.
So I wasn't surprised when it happened again today. One of my teammates passed me the ball and I tried to take it towards the goal, when one of the students on the other team got a foot in and sent me sprawling on the gym floor.
Paige was on the other team but she stopped to help me up and checked that I was ok, while a couple of her teammates took the ball back towards my team's goal for a shot on the net. Meanwhile Mr. Sanderson yelled at both Paige and I to get back in the game and stop wasting time. My friend gave me an apologetic look while I rolled my eyes, then we both returned to the action.
And I just kept reminding myself, it was only till the end of the year. Then I wouldn't have to see or hear Mr. Sanderson ever again.
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"So basically instead of a nice quiet birthday I spent two or three hours yesterday alternating between arguing with my parents and trying to educate them," Kaylee stated with an unhappy frown.
She paused for a sip of her drink then added, "And I know I should have talked to them about this sort of thing ages ago, like literally a year or two ago? Although I'm not sure they'd have really listened back then. But having it all blow up on Saturday when Cass was there to take me out for a date was the worst, most awkward timing."
"I'm really sorry you had to be there for that stuff Cass," she added as she leaned closer and gave me a quick hug.
I shook my head, "It's ok Kaylee, it wasn't your fault. I just hope your parents come around. I hope they're not still giving you a hard time or anything?"
"It is totally my fault," she insisted. "I should have told them the truth ages ago. I shouldn't have kept our relationship secret from them."
Paige asked, "So if they're not queermisic, then what's their problem exactly?"
My girlfriend sighed, "My mom thinks if I'm gay that I'll never get married and she'll never get any grandchildren out of me. Which is like, first off I'm not even done high school yet? I might not be ready to think about kids for a decade, if ever. But whether I have kids or not has nothing to do with being married, or being with a guy. Only she's all hung up on that traditional heteronormative family nonsense?"
"As for my dad," she continued after another sip of her drink, "His problem is mostly that he's clueless. Like he tried to quote me these statistics and stuff, about why being gay is 'a bad choice'? When the real problem is bigots and ignorant people who go out of their way to make it hard for anyone who's different. And he's got enough privilege that he can't even see the difference."
She sounded a little exasperated by that point, but she sighed "Anyways for my dad I think the solution is to just keep trying to educate him. I know he's smart, it's just a question of getting through to him. Once that happens I'm sure he'll figure it out. Same with my mom, I think? Once she gets past her hang-ups and accepts that my life's on a different trajectory than hers, she'll come around. I hope. And I'm sure my parents and I are going to have lots more conversations on the topic, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to try and educate them."
"I hope you're right," the tall brunette responded. "Fingers crossed they get themselves sorted out soon. They're not trying to stop you from seeing Cass or anything, are they?"
My girlfriend shook her head, "Not really. They're 'disappointed' and my mom's being a bit bitchy about me making 'bad choices', but neither of them have been mean or nasty about it. They haven't threatened to kick me out or anything."
She grimaced and added, "That's kind of my biggest fear? That they'll kick me out, or refuse to pay my university tuition? I really don't see them doing that, but it's the easiest way they could try and control me."
"Yeah," Paige sighed. "I sure hope it never comes to that."
"Me too," I agreed.
The three of us were all pretty much finished our lunch, but we had another fifteen minutes left before our afternoon classes started. My next class was gym, same as Paige, and I really wasn't looking forward to that. I didn't want to flunk though, so I'd have to put up with Mr. Sanderson until the end of the school year.
I was thinking about that as I finished my drink, while Paige looked over at my girlfriend again and commented "That's a really pretty necklace. I don't think I've seen it before, is it new?"
"Yes!" Kaylee grinned. She pulled me into another side-hug as she told our friend, "Cass gave it to me on Saturday, for my birthday."
The tall brunette grinned, "Nice. The colour suits you Kaylee. I don't think I've ever seen that design before though? Does it have any significance?"
My girlfriend was still grinning as she replied in a quieter voice, "Of course it does. It's the symbol of our new Goddess of Chaos."
"Oh?" Paige's eyebrows shot up and she looked at me. She asked me just as quietly, "You have your own symbol now? Or was that Socha's and you took it for yourself?"
I couldn't help cringing a little into my hoodie from the attention and the topic. I quietly explained, "The eight-pointed arrow-star has been around for a while as a symbol of chaos, but most of the depictions I've seen are symmetrical and straight up and down? I adapted it to make it asymmetrical and off-centre and kind of warped, I didn't want anything straight."
Kaylee looked at me in surprise and asked, "Wait you mean my necklace is your very own design? Like you came up with this yourself? Cass that is so cool! How did you make the necklace, what's it made of?"
"It's real solid gold," I mumbled. "Or an eighteen karat alloy, I mean. Rose gold is three-quarters pure gold, the rest is mostly copper and a bit of silver."
My voice was even quieter as I added, "I made it with magic."
That left both Kaylee and Paige staring at me in surprise, but I wasn't sure which part shocked them the most. Like if it was the necklace being real gold, or the fact that I used magic to create it. Fortunately we were all distracted before either of them could question me any further about it.
My little sister and the two werewolfs had been sitting together a few tables away, but the three of them suddenly pulled up chairs at our table.
"Cerys and Nina think this can't wait for a club meeting," Melanie stated, "They convinced me we should let you three know right now, so y'all can figure out if we need to be worried about it."
Paige frowned as she looked at the brunette wolfgirl, "Worried about what? What are you talking about?"
The werewolf replied bluntly, "A couple reporters showed up at work yesterday, and spent some time talking to Sylvia. The silver tabby catgirl? She still works at the same grocery store as me and Cerys, she was there yesterday same as the two of us. And a couple reporters cornered her in one of the aisles and started questioning her."
"Oh crap," our club leader groaned. "Do you know what kind of reporters? Like were they from our local weekly newspaper? Or..."
Her voice trailed off as Paige cringed slightly, "They weren't from some TV station were they?"
Cerys shook her head, "They're from the States. They had accents, like from the south? And they're not official reporters or news media people. I'm pretty sure they're internet types? Like podcasters or something?"
"One of them had a fancy-looking camera," Melanie added. "Like the kind Melody brought with her when we went back to the cave the second time? The other one was using his phone camera, but he also had a fancy-looking mic and audio recorder."
Paige sighed as she looked at me, "Sylvia doesn't know anything about you does she? She wouldn't have been able to tell them about you, or point them in your direction?"
That was my cue to cringe into my hoodie again, but I shook my head. "I've never met her. She got her plushie from the vending machine, the same one where Kenzie got hers."
"That's a relief," our club leader stated. "So these reporters won't have any connection to lead them to Club Luna."
Now it was Melanie's turn to cringe. The wolfgirl grimaced, "Yeah... About that? This happened at the end of our shift, so me and Cerys left before anyone could try to talk with us. But I heard one of the guys ask Sylvia where they could find the store manager? I'm pretty sure they were going to go talk to Mr. Jacobs after they were done with her."
Paige looked from Melanie to me and asked, "How's the store manager connected to Cass? Does he know you're the one who put the plushies in that machine?"
I shook my head, "Nobody knows that, I did it um, I used magic and nobody saw anything."
"Mr. Jacobs knows I'm a werewolf," Melanie admitted quietly.
Cerys looked at her girlfriend in surprise, "What? How?"
The older wolf was cringing again as she admitted, "I told him. And I showed him, I turned into my wolfgirl form in front of him. I even worked a shift on cash with my ears and tail out."
Kaylee and Cerys both stared at Melanie in shock, while Paige facepalmed and quietly groaned.
"It was last June," the wolfgirl added defensively. "He had me cornered in the staff room. I was in a bad mood and he was being a jerk and I didn't have the patience to put up with him. So I shifted in front of him, then went out through the store and took my shift like that. It was only one time though, I've never done it again. And he's never mentioned it since. Maybe he won't remember?"
"Or maybe he's going to tell these reporters about it, and they'll be looking to interview you next?" Paige sighed.
Cerys commented, "What I don't get is how a couple guys from the states would even hear about this? It's a long way to travel just to get some interviews for a podcast."
Kaylee sighed, "For a small town we have an awful lot of demi-humans walking around. There's three of them attending our school, that's strange enough as it is. All it takes is a few people to post pictures online, that gets shared and forwarded around, and suddenly people all over the world know we have catgirls and bunnygirls in town."
"Cass?" Paige asked as she looked to me. "Do you know how many of your plushie users are here in town?"
I grimaced but nodded, "Yeah. It's um, less than two dozen. About eighteen I guess..."
"Is that all?" the tall brunette replied with some exasperated sarcasm.
Kaylee asked, "Who are they? We know about the Winters family, and Sylvia. That's five, who are the rest?"
"I don't want to out them to anybody," I said softly as I cringed deeper into my hoodie again. "None of them know me anyways. Apart from the Winters nobody knows the plushies came from me. And the Winters can't reveal anything about me or the club, they're all bound by oaths and stuff."
I glanced at Paige and added just as quietly, "And eighteen is nothing, considering the vending machine here in town was stocked with those plushies for six weeks."
"Ok Cass," my girlfriend responded. "You're right, it's none of our business who they are."
Meanwhile Paige sighed, "We're trying to keep a low profile incase the council has taken an interest in us. Having some internet reporters snooping around with cameras and microphones is the last thing we need right now."
"Hold on a sec," Cerys frowned, "What if these guys are from the council? Or what if the council sent them to investigate us?"
Melanie asked, "Then why would they start by talking to Sylvia at work? She's got nothing to do with the club, she's not a student here, and as far as I know nobody else in the club has ever even met her?"
"Oh right," the younger wolf sighed. "Good point."
Paige stated, "Either way we all need to be really careful, ok? No showing off, no magic, nothing supernatural at all. That goes for all of us. I'm going to warn Brooke and Melody right now."
She pulled out her phone and started tapping out a message for the two older club members, while the rest of us just nodded our understanding.
"Good thing the full moon was just a week ago," Cerys commented. "Hopefully those guys will be long gone before the next one comes up in mid-May."
"Yeah let's hope so," Paige agreed after sending off her texts.
Then my little sister looked at me and suggested, "I think we should tell our parents about the reporters. If they're from the council, mom and mum will want to know about that."
"I guess," I frowned. "Do we even know what they wanted from Sylvia? Melanie, did you hear what they were talking to her about?"
The wolfgirl shook her head, "Me and Cerys avoided them, just in case. I don't even think they saw us."
"We'll tell our parents anyways," Nina decided, "Just incase."
By that point it was about time for everyone to head to our afternoon classes. Melanie and Cerys set off together while Nina went to her next class. Kaylee headed off as well, and I followed Paige to the gym.
It was warm enough to go outside but the field was kind of muddy from the spring thaw and rain and stuff, so Mr. Sanderson kept us indoors. After ten minutes of warm-up he divided us into two teams and had us playing indoor soccer.
The teacher was still keeping a close eye on me, even though I hadn't missed a single one of his classes all month. The worst part was the other students all knew he had it in for me, and some of them started taking advantage of that.
Like if we were playing dodge ball, some of the students would single me out every time. A couple even aimed for my head, and Mr. Sanderson never called them out on it. Same with other activities, like I'd get fouled all the time in basketball and the other students would get away with it.
It was the same thing in soccer. If the teacher didn't think I was putting in the effort he'd yell at me, but when I was focused on the game I'd get other kids running into me or tripping me up. It would have been a lot worse if any of that stuff hurt, but thanks to being part demon and part goddess I didn't get bruises or anything. It was still annoying getting tripped or knocked down all the time though.
So I wasn't surprised when it happened again today. One of my teammates passed me the ball and I tried to take it towards the goal, when one of the students on the other team got a foot in and sent me sprawling on the gym floor.
Paige was on the other team but she stopped to help me up and checked that I was ok, while a couple of her teammates took the ball back towards my team's goal for a shot on the net. Meanwhile Mr. Sanderson yelled at both Paige and I to get back in the game and stop wasting time. My friend gave me an apologetic look while I rolled my eyes, then we both returned to the action.
And I just kept reminding myself, it was only till the end of the year. Then I wouldn't have to see or hear Mr. Sanderson ever again.
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