32)

When I had last gone to school, all the green colored chalkboards had been replaced with whiteboards, even the other classrooms in this school at least had the green colored ones as well.

This class had a black one with white chalk dust in the corners.

It also had a very old man who wrote his name on the board and introduced himself. "Today we will be covering Introduction to Biology. Which is what I am calling your Life Science class. My name is Mr. Monteray, and I've worked at this school longer than anyone else, so I get to do things my way in my class. I taught most of the other staff here, and I can take them in a fight."

The almost entirely bald little man flexed his wiry left arm. “Nothing but muscle and bone left on the arm, nothing to slow me down.”

He proceeded to cover the syllabus, noting the things he planned to cover that would not be on the test since he wasn't supposed to be covering them, but was going to do so anyways. All of which added up to twice as much work to do as any of my other classes.

"You're in High School now boys and girls. This isn't a place for wimps."

I wrote at the corner of the page I had opened in my notebook. [Is this guy crazy?]

Austin checked to make sure Monteray was ranting in the far corner from us, then noted on his notebook. [Bark at the moon insane.]

Which I took to mean the old guy was a Werewolf as well.

And I had more homework, as I had a chapter to read that night with a quiz tomorrow.

So he was evil as well.

As I slipped out of the large boy's way he grunted and spoke up when I turned to look. "Some people swing by the old gym after school until the second round of buses go out."

He began heading out behind the first people out the door without a further word.

“Thanks for the invitation Austin, but I got to call my parents first, I may need to get home to chew them out.” He grunted again in return.

I made my way back to my locker, repacked my book bag with what I needed that night, and made my way outside.

My mom answered after the third ring. “Let me guess, you’re upset about our dinner guests?”

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"Yeah Mom. First, you tell me that Werewolves and Vampires aren't real, now there’s a society of monster hunters. Are we on their list?”

She sighed. "I've mostly worked with humans, and I ignored anything that didn't make sense to me. Your father worked with a more, varied, clientele working for his Grandmother, Endora. And it's more like an alliance, some of them used to have problems with the people in this town, and some of them are people like us."

I could hear a door close behind her as she stepped outside. “But mainly they just keep an eye on everyone who is supernatural with an agreement that we have a window to take care of the worst types of people, the ones who are too much of a danger to others, human or otherwise.”

“Either we take care of them or the Associates step in and hunt them down like their ancestors did.”

I turned to wave at Nate as he came bounding down the steps behind me, pointing at my phone. “And these people coming to dinner.”

My Mom sighed. “Baseline humans, at least they won’t eat so much.”

I pulled the phone away from my head long enough to give it a shape look. "No Mom, are they here for someone, are we in danger, is Grandpa?”

She was quick to reply this time. “No, no. Henry and his wife are retired from that sort of thing. They got assigned here as an early retirement keeping an eye on the locals. Keeping track of who is coming and going, they even provide new papers for anyone who has aged out of their identities. Sheriff Adora even knows about them, she’s coming to dinner too by the way."

I looked up at Neal who had wandered in close enough that he must have heard part of that, when I looked at him he nodded in return. I'm not sure what that nod meant, so I moved on to my question. "They have a sports meet after school until four thirty, and the buses go out again to get people home, is it alright if I stay."

My Mom gave me a cheery. “Sure, make some friends. Just call if you’re running late or getting a ride. And get home right afterwards, even if you have to run. Bye.”

I got out a "Bye" of my own before she hung up, and then I looked at Neal. "Do you know anything about people watching you and yours?”

My friend who was a boy looked concerned. “I was told if we caused trouble outside of town. Biting people, going wolf in front of them, we might not come back. I always thought they meant the Vampires would come after us.”

I looked up into his deep brown eyes which were looking back at me still looking concerned. “Ah, yeah. I’ll guess I’ll find out more tonight, and fill you in.”

He nodded back at me, “So, you got a gym full of Werewolves waiting for you to show up and talk about the other Olympics and your Dad’s Dojo. And they are going to come looking for you if you don’t head over there soon.”

Oh yeah, that. I didn't think I was going to get to play much today. Instead, I had to face down a pack of magically enhanced teenagers who had grown up being frustrated about not getting to play sports.

I’m sure it will be delightful.

Walking over to the Gym, I dialed my Dad's number. To my surprise, my Uncle Dave answered.

In Japanese, which would cut Neal out of the conversation.

“Your father is busy tossing your Grandfather around number one student.”

My eyes went wide. “What, why? He can heal but getting hurt still hurts.”

There was a long pause… “Yes, that would be true…”

"No, I mean, even if he can heal from an injury, getting injured still hurts, and he's really old, even as a Werewolf it's easier for him to get hurt."

I could hear him as my Uncle called out to someone else in English. “Sara is worried about you and your weak decrepit bones Mr. Larch.”

My Grandfather called back. “Tell her I’m winning, her Dad’s too afraid to fight like a real man.”

Uncle Dave came back on the line and switched back to Japanese. "They are just practicing taking falls and getting back to their feet. What do you need?”

“I have a gym full of werewolves who want to hear about the games and Dad’s Dojo.”

There was another pause. "Tell them about the games. There is a tournament coming up that you are old enough to take part in while they can attend in the audience as part of your father’s Dojo.”

“I will be there in an hour with your father to tell them what they can expect.”

Then he hung up on me without another word.

Neal was giving me another concerned look. “Who was that? He sounded angry.”

I dropped my phone back into my bag. “That was my Uncle Dave, he’s always angry.” Then I smiled at him. "I'll introduce you to him in an hour, it will be fun."

Neal looked a little unsure about that.