6)

Before Neal got the call to come help his parents empty out their truck I managed to get the story on why Del’s family issues had made her a social outcast for a while.

My next door neighbor, Dare, The sheriff’s grandson, was also Del’s older brother. Dare had been not only kicked out of her family's home when he came out as gay but got struck by his father before being thrown out.

That was the night everyone in town, including Sheriff Karras, found out she could take on what my Grandpa had taken to calling a War Form.

She had run across town after turning into a half wolf, half human form, kicked down her son’s front door, and picked him off the ground by the neck with one hand to tell him he was disowned the same way he had just disowned his own son.

She had made of point of greeting her daughter in law, the next oldest child, Del, and the younger sister in public to make it clear she still considered them to be family. But up to then, Del had been, "The town princess, and a lot of the girls were more than happy to see her taken down a notch."

I guess either my dad was pretty well informed about the local gossip since he warned me not to embarrass her in our test of strength, or he saw something in her that made it seem like a bad idea.

But then he had grown up in a small town, with just a handful of families or so. So it isn’t too much of a surprise that he knows the rules of a small community better than me.

After that, Neal got a call to help his parents unload their van.

Neal’s family owns the local grocery store, which has a full sized bakery, and sells all sorts of other odds and ends. Which is why Grandpa choose them to order a bunch of biscuits, donuts, pies, cookies, and loaves of bread for the party.

Along with a ton of various deli luncheon meats and cheeses to go with the roasted pig, deep fried turkeys, hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I accused him of planning to put people into a food coma to keep anyone from trying to pick a fight with him to try to prove something. All that did was make him look thoughtful.

The reality is that the old man is just so happy to eat like a pig without it killing him at his age, or making him fat, and that he just really enjoys seeing people eat food that he provided.

Everyone keeps telling me that with the amount of training and exercise that I go through that, I could eat like that too. But just the thought of eating like that all the time just feels wrong.

Maybe it’s because we only ate like that at home when my dad was there. When he was off on a work trip, which was like half my life, we ate more traditional stuff at home. Lots of rice, noodles, fish, and steamed vegetables.

It’s just what’s normal for me.

I had also gotten on a bit of a health food obsession. Maybe just as a form of teenage rebellion, but now I was sort of stuck with it since dropping it entirely would get me teased. Plus some of it I really did like. Whole grain bread had a richer taste to it, while white bread is sweet but kind of flavorless.

At least the store brand stuff. Mrs. Evens, Neal's mom, make some seriously good baked goods, even the not dessert stuff like plain old bread. But at least half of that is the lack of preservatives.

After following Neal out help him and his parents carry in the baked goods, some to the serving tables for the people coming in early enough for a separate lunch, and some into the garage with a few tarps hung up and an old air conditioner making a cold room, I got to play some games.

With people that could play at my level.

Volleyball was a lot more fun with other people who could jump higher than the net, and then I got to play tag with people I had to push myself to get away from or to chase down who weren't related to me.

Between those games, I played a few rounds of Horseshoes and Bocce Ball with some of the older people. Which is when I found out accuracy is not something that came with all the other powers werewolves got.

But it turns out an entire childhood of playing games with my Mom's family that were meant to prepare children for training in martial arts later on in life did give me an edge. Even Ami was better at a lot of the games, she just tired out quicker than the children her age who had been born as werewolves, even if they were too young to turn into wolves yet.

It wasn't until halfway through the afternoon that I noticed that Neal had been carefully making sure that me and Del were always on the same team, or never in direct competition with each other. When I figured it out I gave the taller blond girl a look to which she slowly nodded in return, having figured it out before me.

We agreed without a word that it was probably for the best. I didn't want to challenge her position as a top supernatural girl, and she didn't see a need to try to prove she was better than me.

For now, at least we could both live with that.

My Dad had also spotted this as he whispered, "Clever boy." to Neal from behind while walking pass him with Shadow Steps.

Which made the teenage werewolf visibly nervous.

Good, that means he's smart as well as clever.