Full moon

"Have you been scaring me on purpose the whole time?" I ask.

"Yeeeaaaa." She she does the caught in the act smile.

"Why?" I demand with my hands in the counter top.

"Watching you jump is fun. Reminds me of scaring my grandmother."

"Your poor grandmother."

"Eh. She plays favorites." She shrugs and goes to the fridge.

"Passive aggressive much?" I ask.

"Probably. Now we don't have any left overs but I have the squash going in the oven. Do you want me to fry up some steaks?" She asks.

"Ain't the steaks frozen?" I ask.

"Yea but if you cook them right you can cook them from frozen. Just takes a little longer." She talks like its common knowledge.

Oh this girl and her iron stomach.

"Alright steaks sound fine." I tell her.

I help her get the right pan out and add some water to the skillet to help thaw the meat while it cooks. She seems good enough to leave alone for a minute. I go take care of my things into my bedroom and double check on an outfit.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The smoke alarms are going off.

Again.

I go out and Samantha is calmly pouring some baking soda on the flame in the oven. And the fire goes out.

"You know you're supposed to keep the oven shut when food catches fire right?" I inform her.

"Oh. Well the squash juice ran off the side and caught fire. It's out now though." She explains.

Oh this girl.

"I will clean up the mess. I got the steaks done too." She says.

We sat down for a slightly burnt dinner. She burnt the steaks too. She tries. I will give her that.

"I have a thing tonight so I will be heading out around 10pm. It should only be a few hour project." I let Samantha know so she knows she will be home alone for a bit.

"Alright. I will be heading to bed soon anyway." She says crunching on some charcoal. Stomach of iron I'm telling you.

We talked about her training exercises. Samantha says she thinks she scared some of the girls because she moved a tree the guys were struggling with moving. Then they stopped talking to her and were whispering to one another. I reassured her that they will come around if she keeps going to the classes. 

I help with dishes while she scrubs the oven out. And she gets ready for bed while I read on the couch. I don't do much reading but more of a mental debate on if I should wear the make up tonight.

After Samantha is in bed I do end up putting on the make up. I'm dressed in my dark long sleeve shirt and my work leather pants. These ones are covering in scraps and have had some patches sewn on the inside. They are so broke in and comfortable. And I slip on and lace up my combat boots. I get my ears and tail put on and charge the illusion spell up with some mana.

Now I look somewhat like a Meif'wa. I throw my cloak on and head out the door making sure Samantha isn't in the kitchen.

Coast is clear. I take off into the night under the full moon.

.............................................................................

I make it to the training grounds and see James leaning against the door to the place.

"Hey." He says meeting me part way up the walk.

"Hey." I reply.

"The place is filled with werewolves tonight thanks to the full moon. Soooo." He pauses unsure what to say.

"So we can't use the place?" I ask.

"Yea not sure how releasing a cat into there would end well." He scratches the back of his head.

"Fair point." I say.

"So would you want... to... head to... my place?" He stammers a little.

I look at him concerningly.

"I have a room just for training! We can use that to you know... train."

"Real smooth." I tell him.

"What? No! I had no idea the werewolves would be using the training grounds tonight. We can come back another night. You don't have to come over."

I turn on my heel. I'm going to make him squirm. How many times has he made me squirm in the last few days?

"H-hazel?" He trots after me.

"You going to walk me to your house? I know where it is and avoid it often but I'm already dressed for the night. Might as well." I look over my shoulder at him.

He smiles. "Alright."

We get to his place and sure enough he turned the one bedroom into a training room. One wall with mirrors, the floor is padded, weights in the corner. And it's a bigger room too so there is room to move. He lives alone so we don't necessarily need to stay quiet either.

I had taken my cloak, bag and shoes off at the door.

"I'm sorry the place is a mess. I don't ever have anyone over." James apologizes.

The rest of the house was a little messy but to be honest I was expecting worse.

"We should probably start training." I say to break the awkwardness.

"Right!" He says.

We go over the basic blocks and arm locks we worked on yesterday. He taught me a few different moves and we practiced them all for a few hours. We took breaks often and poked fun at each other.

We end up sprawled out on the mats. Both out of breath from the vigorous blocks and counters we were doing to not let the other get advantage of us. He did end up winning at the end.

He props himself up on his left elbow looking over at me on my back breathing heavily.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing. I just enjoyed tonight is all." He smiles.

"Creep." I wrap my arms around my chest and roll over and sit up.

"Not like that.... I enjoy your company." He says in a kind voice.

"You're not so bad to be around either." I smile at him over my shoulder.

"I already asked but.... will you go to the Halloween festival with me?" He almost searches my eyes for an answer.

"I'm going to be going with my trainee. She doesn't get out much so the festival might be a bit much for her." I pause. "Along with she is having a hard time making friends."

"Sounds like someone I know. She isn't beating everyone up is she?" James chuckles.

"Hey!" I shove him with my foot even though he doesn't budge much. "She has a lot of brute strength from farm work. So she is able to out work a lot of the boys and it sounds like they are scared of that."

"Girls are strange. I bet the guys are trying to bulk up while we speak." James ponders.

"I can't imagine being a guy and being shown up by a girl." I ponder with him.

"Oh that would crush an ego or two." James commented.

"That's what I figured." I sigh.

"I'm sure if she keeps at it things will work out. Just look at you. You have a few friends."

I raise my eyebrows for second. He isn't wrong I do have some friends I will randomly talk with at length about random things.

"I told her to stick it out too. Hopefully things will smooth out. Doesn't help she is probably the only one from another realm while the others were born here." I sigh again.

"Ah yes. That's probably factoring in too. Anyways what are you two dressing up as for the festival?" He changes the topic.

"We are both going as Meif'wa. You dressing up?" I ask.

"Ah mines a surprise." He chuckles.

"Really? Pulling that are we?"

"Yep. Just know I paid Sally to go all out on the costume and it looks wonderful. Better than I imagined." He sits up very happily.

"Oh the suspense is killing me." I say sarcastically.

"Don't worry I will be knocking your socks off when you see me at the festival."

"When? Not if? Confident tonight are we?" I poke some fun at him.

"Oh don't worry I will find you." He winks.

"Do I need to add stalker to the word creep?" I giggle.

He laughs. We both hear the clock bell toll once.

"I should be heading home." I tell James.

"I will walk you home." He gets up with me and I get my things while he laces up some boots.

On the way home he asks if I wanted to train at his place a few more times. I did agree, more to get the chance to snoop to see what he is going to be dressed up as at the festival though.

Again I find myself on my porch and James at the steps.

"Good night. You look good tonight." James smiles.

"Thank you. Good night." I smile at him before opening the door and scanning for my trainee.

"You good?" Asks James.

"Yea just don't want to be scared again. Good night." I say hopping into my house and closing the door.

I get ready for bed and flop onto my bed and quickly fall asleep.