7)

Despite having a perfectly good indoor, in ground swimming pool, that wouldn’t leave you smelling like fish afterwards, everyone wanted to swim in the part of the river that ran alongside Grandpa’s house that was wide enough to be a lake.

At least a long somewhat long, narrow lake.

I tried a Google search once, but I couldn’t find a name for anything like it. It wasn’t damned or anything. It had just been widened out to make a real river bank on one side so you could walk along it or have a solid place to dive into it since the other side was all marshy with cat tails and other such plants.

Most people had brought along swimsuits since Grandpa said he had a pool and what he had decided to call a swimming hole, but some people were nervous to go into the river since they had seen a seven foot something vampire jump out of it during what they had been calling the Rescue.

But I was pretty sure that guy was long gone now, and it wasn't like he was going to pop up in daylight.

Even with the protective outfit he had on against what sunlight could reach him during the day.

I put on a sort of sports bra swimsuit top, but I wore one of my jean shorts over the bottoms. Neal just took off his shirt and shoes and jump in the deep water just off the dock, which meant he would be wearing wet underwear and shorts for the rest of the day.

Del had a yellow bikini on. Which was barely on up top.

But I wasn’t going to think about that, I am much happier with my athletic figure.

She grinned at me when she caught up with us from changing in the house and I had climbed out of the water for another dive off the dock. Then gave me a considering look. “It’s okay. You can make a joke about the smell of wet dogs.” Then she nodded slowly at me.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I stared back at her for a moment, and then we exchanged grins. "What about sticking your head out of car windows, or walking around in a circle three times before you can lie down?"

She laughed, I laughed, she pointed over at a nervous looking Neal, and we both laughed some more.

Alright, now I had two people my age I had talked to in this town.

Also, swimming is not an innate talent for Werewolves either, but at least they aren't limited to doggy paddling.

I did get to meet a lot more people who were around my age, as well as some of the younger kids. And not all of them were Werewolves.

While this party was mainly for people in “The Community.” they also had wives and husbands who were just plain old humans. As well as stepkids and some people who just didn't inherit the condition from their parents. My Aunt Rosaria said it was most likely they just didn’t have enough magic in them for the curse to take hold.

Aran got dragged into playing with the littler kids by the little girl from next door, Malinda, while Ami met some of the girls and boys she would be going to school with if her training for the rest of the summer went well.

Which considering that she managed to set fire to a patch of the woods behind the garage showing off her magic to the other children meant her progress wasn’t looking so good.

Grandpa had ordered an entire pallet of fire extinguishers, some extra hoses, and fire blankets once it had been settled that Ami was going to be trained at his house that summer. As well as some tarps.

He had also wanted to get some fireworks for the party. Large, loud fireworks. But his girlfriend, the Sheriff had pointed out that almost everything he was looking at was illegal in Michigan, and loud fireworks didn't go well with Werewolf hearing.

So instead it was fountain fireworks, sparklers, and some of those paper lanterns that float up in the air as a candle heat up the air inside of them at the end of the night before the people with children headed home.

He had planned to set up something to let the kids paint them, but Mon convinced him that half of them would end up getting upset when they didn't get to keep them, so instead he got some Pinatas.

Which Mom again had to have a talk with him about filling up little kids with sugar just before sending them home, so the Pinatas got filled up with some candy, but mostly party treats. A lot of which were noise makers like kazoos which I'm sure sensitive hearing Werewolf parents were just going to love on the ride home, but Mom gave up at that point.

Later that night I got to sit around a campfire with the teens while the adults with designated drivers or those planning on getting home on all fours stayed up finishing off the kegs Grandpa had brought in.

I ended up sitting pretty close to Neal and talking quietly with him for a while before my Dad showed up and said it was getting late.

Me and Dad were going to have to have a conversation pretty soon about setting down some new rules on what I’m allowed to do as a teenager, otherwise, when would I going to know it was worth breaking them?