After Marie got her laptop set up, we went looking online for those appliances we were recommended to get. Since it's a college town, it wasn't hard to find where they sold them locally, but their prices were a bit outrageous. After comparing around for awhile, we finally settled, bought, and got things in motion for delivery.

It's a lot more stressful shopping with money that isn't yours than one might think.

We were barely finished with that when she turned to me and asked if I knew of any other local stores to shop at. I couldn't help but smile, telling her I could do her one better in that there was a mall a few miles away we could walk to. Her face lit up and we were out of there in two seconds flat. I barely had time to give her her key to the room.

We got hung up in the dorms as she looked around inside and made nice with the people who approached us. Some knew me by sight but up until then I never really approached anyone unless I had questions. Marie on the other hand is pretty social, and makes a few more friends in no time.

Once finally out of the building, it takes us longer to get to the mall than what it took me the first time as she acts like the proverbial tourist, having to gawk at everything and explore off the beaten path at random. I don't mind, as she makes things entertaining and finds some interesting things. Only downside is we end up showing up to the mall with purchases that we have to tie off so we can't be accused of stealing while inside.

After a few hours, we find ourselves in an even bigger predicament; how to get everything back to the dorm. While I had been thinking ahead in the carrying of everything back, my friend, not so much. The two of us are in the food court eating and trying to figure something out when my name is called.

"Wynter! Hey!"

Looking over, Sasha is waving with a couple bags of her own. Smiling at the woman, she makes her way over in seeing her welcome. When she plops down in the seat next to me, she groans and leans her head onto my shoulder. Chuckling at her, I make introductions.

"Marie, this is Sasha, Sasha, this is Marie. She arrived today."

Sitting upright, the redhead looks over to my human friend with a smile and offers her hand. Marie does the same, her smile wide as her blue eyes take in the wolf next to me.

"Hey, thanks for looking after Wynter. You're the artist, right?"

Sasha chuckles and nods while I scrunch my nose. She's making it sound like she was babysitting me or something.

"That's me, and no worries. Think I may have made a bad impression at first, but I think we got that all cleared up."

When she looks over at me I smile and nod, letting her know it's all good. Glancing at her bags, I ask what brought her here today. She groans again and rubs a hand across her face, which has me looking over at Marie in confusion.

"I needed to get some special mediums for a project I'm working on, but the craft store closer to campus didn't have any. So I had to come here. I hate coming here. People are rude and there are too many offensive smells."

I shouldn't have grabbed my drink. In the process of taking a sip and I almost spit it out when she gets to that last part. Overcompensating in efforts not to spit everywhere, I inhale instead, sending the cold liquid down the wrong tube. Getting sent into a coughing fit has them both looking at me as if I'm queer, but then I start laughing.

Sasha looks over to the other woman as if for help then back to me, frowning slightly then her mouth quirks before joining me. Marie however just looks all sorts of perplexed but smiles anyway at the way we're laughing. People around us are starting to stare, so I cover my mouth in efforts to stifle myself, but it really doesn't help. I end up resorting to covering my eyes.

"Wynter? You good?"

Marie's question almost sends me into another fit, but I'm able to quell it before it swings out of control. Setting back in my chair and fanning my face, tears fall from laughing so hard. My cheeks hot to the touch.

"You must have really needed that."

Quirking my lips up and cocking my head to the side, I lift a shoulder in a half shrug to Sasha's observation. I excuse myself to the restroom to splash some cold water on my face, feeling much better once the cool liquid touches my skin. I take the chance to use the facilities while there and really notice what Sasha means by offensive smells. To be expected in a bathroom I suppose, but even amongst the main areas, in the crowds of people, the cloying overlays of perfumes, colognes, body odors, floor cleaners, air sprays... It's impossible not to be nose blind here.

After washing my hands, I head back out to join my friends. I'm pretty much done with my food. Looks like what I didn't finish, Sasha had snagged anyway. They're in the middle of a conversation when I return, doesn't register at first, then I'm interested.

"So you have room?"

"I should. Not like I've done much shopping today. Are you guys done or still have more to do?"

Marie looks over to me and grins slowly, which has me swallowing with a near audible gulp.

"We'll want to drop off what we have in the car, but there's a few more things I'd like to grab if possible. I didn't think about them until we got here and saw them in one of the stores. They're a must have in any dorm, so we must get 'em."

Looking at them both in question, I'm slightly nervous now.

"What's going on now?"

"Sasha has a car. She said she'd give us a ride back since we have so much. And now that we can, we can grab a few bigger things that we couldn't before."

I stifle my groan but look over to Sasha, wondering if it really is okay and we aren't overstepping. The woman is fairly cheesing at me so I take it she's fine with it all. Would be a safe bet she knows what items Marie is on about as well.

~*~

Two hours later we're finally back at the dorms. Not because the shopping took that long, but because wrangling it all was a chore and a half. I can carry more than your average human, sure, but I only have so much arm space before things start smashing themselves. When we pulled up, I'd caught sight of my two stalkers that we could have roped in to help, but I don't want to put us in their debt. Not over something like this.

We should have been able to use the elevator, but just like I'd seen on multiple occasions, there's a group who hangs out around it that prevents most people from using it unless favors are traded or a 'tax' is given. No thanks, we'll use the stairs. Though I think on the second trip up Marie is about to start a fight.

Sasha helps us...sort of. She more supervises from the car, making sure no one 'takes off with anything' while we take loads up. Before we take the second trip though, we're sure to go through bags to combine what we can, as the people who bagged some of the stuff...so fail. You'd swear there was a quota of bags they had to be rid of in a day or something and they were nowhere near reaching it so had to give us as many as possible.

After everything was unloaded Sasha was going to join us, but after catching the time, she had to drop by work real quick but said she'd be back, so we got started without her. On our last trip up we have assorted looks shot our way as well as various offers to help with our room. Oh, now they want to help. Marie waves them all off while I concentrate on not hitting anything or anyone with the rolled up rug I'm carting. Though I do think about it.

Once everything is in the room, we both kind of collapse on our beds to wait for our hearts to get back to a regular rhythm. I'm not out of shape, but going up and down stairs is a whole lot different than running on flat ground, which is exactly what I tell my friend when she remarks about it.

"If you're in shape and on your ass, then how am I still alive?"

Laughing at her, I sit up and look around our very crowded floor. Bags galore. Plastic and annoyingly, paper, which has a hassle to carry. Many are tied closed as a way to show we weren't shoplifting, but we still got stopped a few times.

"Alright, where do we start?"

Marie smiles and sits up, looking giddy as she looks out over her assorted horde of goodies.

"Well, first off, have you decided on how you want the room to look?"

We'd talked over a few different designs while walking through the mall, even looking up inspiration on her phone to combine what we liked with what looked good while staying in our budget. Well, I think that was more me wrangling her in a few times, but other than that she wasn't too outrageous.

"Not really. How about we get everything out and separate it and go from there? Get the things we know we need out as opposed to the decor stuff?"

"Deal."

So then we both lose ourselves in delving into the temporary containers to pull out the items we know for sure we'll need. Most things got doubled up, only thing that would change would be the color or design. Mesh clothing hampers were simple and easy, though she did warn me when we got them that she has a bad habit of leaving her clothes on the floor.

School supplies, desk organizers and speakers, alarm clocks, study lamps, calendars, floor rugs, towels, washcloths and more bathing soaps and supplies, even a couple bean bag chairs. One of those 'must have' items, according to both Marie and Sasha. Never had one before so I took their word on it. I got told they're for relaxing in, though they don't look all that comfortable to me.

Only one printer though. Didn't think we needed more than one. We were going to stock up on ink too, but they dry out quicker than one thinks, even when they aren't opened, so we just got a couple to start. What we do stock up on is paper to go in it.

Once the essentials are out of the way, we're left with all the décor items, plenty of which involve wolf themed items. Not my idea. Marie has never seen my wolf form and when asked what color my form is, she went nuts buying stuff with white wolves on them. While a little weird, I let her have her fun. So now one whole wall section is covered with a giant forest and wolf scene tapestry.

I couldn't really find a theme I was interested in, so I'd just settled on colors instead of images. I've always leaned towards blues, silver and grays while hers are black, hot pink and neon green. She'd bought some new jewelry to go in her piercings as well that fit that exact scheme, able to really go all out since her mom and grandmother aren't here to gripe at her. Eyebrow, belly button, and most of each ear are all decked out in her new bling. She'd even mentioned wanting to get her tongue done again while we were at the mall.

Looking around, most of the stuff has been put up, or at least out in some fashion, so I stretch.

"Hey, wanna go outside for a bit?"

"Yeah. Wonder what's holding up Sasha? Thought she'd have been here by now."

Shoving one of the luggage totes into a larger one, it gets zipped then shoved into her closet.

"You can put the others in my closet, I'll have plenty of room. You have way more clothes than I do."

Chuckling at her, she shoots me a smile.

"Oh, we'll be getting you new clothes, don't worry."

Making a face at her, I get the rest of the suitcases stacked into my closet then we head out. It's getting pretty dark out now, but thanks to all the lighting around, no one's at risk of going blind. Well, aside from the predators, anyway. Marie and I walk the grounds where people are still advertising their various clubs, different ones that're seen during the day. These ones do seem to be more 'dark' in theme or nature so I guess it fits.

One we walked by was talking to some girl about the benefits of the religion they were starting. Sounded way too cultish to me and was surprising they were even allowed to do it, but guess it falls under the whole freedom to practice law, or whatever. It was one of the quotes they had made sure to have visible to everyone, as quite a few glares were getting shot their way. We were sure to steer clear.

Most of the others revolve around art styles, a book club with a midnight reading group, and one that had something to do with cinema. Students taking cinematography classes are looking for volunteers willing to aid them with their visual studies, even offering to pay them if they do well. Marie listened to them all, giving each their chance, but I'm not sure what she has planned. I just know I have no interest. I'm going to be too busy.

"Have you found where you can go during the full moon?"

She asks me when we walk away, her arm hooked around mine as we head towards the courtyard. I catch a few others glancing our way, both human and non, and while the humans will look curious, the wolves just raise their noses. Ignoring them all, I smile at my friend who doesn't see any of it as she's focused on me and my answer. Shaking my head, I answer honestly.

"Not quite yet. That was something I wanted to ask Sasha. I know there's a local Pack, but I don't want to step on any toes, so I want to avoid any of their stomping grounds."

She nods while looking out and around. Plopping down in the grass, she'd found a spot near a tree, so I lean against it. The next few minutes are spent with her trying to point out and guess who're wolves and who isn't. She even lays out their whole personality type and talking style, which has us both laughing and getting looked at. Not like she was being quiet about it so I'm sure some of the actual wolves heard her, but thankfully none approach.

Then one does.

Marie had fingered him out to be a wolf and she's correct, but words seem to get caught in her throat when seeing him walk towards us. As with all wolves, he's very tall, probably around six foot six, and very lean. Little hard to tell with the suit he's wearing, but it's very well tailored. My friend fairly squeaks as he gets closer and I can feel my own heart race as my eyes drop, standing more upright.

"Good evening ladies, and welcome. My name is Professor Trance, I'll be your teacher in Applied Mathematics."

He'd stopped several steps away, and when he'd mentioned being a teacher, I'd started to look up, but my eyes stopped before actually rising to his face. I can see him in my purview, the short and styled, sandy-colored hair fitting the image of a college professor. His voice is deeper, which could possibly mean age, but his hands look strong and sure. The scent of his wolf is strong too, so I take it he'd shifted recently.

When he takes a step closer to me, my heart nearly stops and I take a step back automatically, without even thinking. My eyes drop further and my shoulders slightly hunch, before a spurt of anger colors my fear. Not so much at him as much as at myself. My shoulder blades itch and my face feels hot as my arms wrap around my middle. I'm free damnit, I will not let my fear rule me!

"Wynter? Are you alright?"

Blinking up to Marie who'd stood up and came to stand next to me, she's looking at me with worried eyes.

"Apologies if I've made you uncomfortable. The Sandal Grove Pack does its best to be accommodating to all who wish to further themselves, with a caution not to bring unwanted attention."

"Wynter would never cause any trouble, you don't have anything to worry about!"

My best friend's heated words have me raising my face towards the man, her strength giving me some of my own. If she can stand up to an unknown wolf as a human, then I sure as hell can. My dark blue eyes rise to meet with his gold and I'm startled by just how handsome he is, but I guess I really shouldn't be. His brows raise as I meet my gaze with his, but he doesn't give any dirty or disapproving looks, which is a start I guess.

"I'm not usually one to cause any problems, sir. If any arise, it won't be me starting it, but I'll be finishing it."

He just blinks at me. Hands in his pockets don't even move as he stands there and stares for a good minute.

"Be that as it may, there are rules here. You can shift whenever you wish but you may not flaunt yourself in front of the humans. There are parks spread throughout the city that you can go to. During the full moon you're welcome to join us with the other Loners."

I give him a nod and thank him, but I don't have any interest in joining any of them. Not sure if he sees that or not and I don't care. Nodding to us both and letting us know he'll see us in a couple of weeks, he goes on his way.

The first contact I've made with the local Pack, and while I won't say it went perfect by any means, it sure went a whole lot better than what I'd imagined. Never thought I'd have a werewolf teacher, it's always been humans up to this point. While I doubt there's a difference, it sure makes that list of jobs all the more obvious on how unfair it seemed.

Speaking of jobs...

"Hey, Marie? Have you decided what you want your job to be yet...?" 

🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔

✰ \(‾▿‾\) 𝔇𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔤𝔢𝔱 𝔱𝔬 𝔳𝔬𝔱𝔢 (/‾▿‾)/ ✰

Whew, this was a longer one (for this story). Was debating on even putting this chapter in as obviously, it's mostly filler details. More or less wanted to get across how the girls are doing before the next events, as there's going to be a bit of a time skip ahead soon. Stay tuned :D