Chapter 201: 155. A Busy Weekend

"Now that the food's here how about we start the meeting?" Cerys asked, while the rest of us were helping ourselves to the wings and potato wedges and onion rings we'd set up on the coffee table.

Willow nodded as she loaded a couple of wings onto her plate, "Sounds good to me."

The blonde werewolf smiled as she grabbed some food too, then sat back on the sofa next to her girlfriend. She quickly munched on a wedge before announcing, "Welcome everyone to our October club meeting. I've got a few things on the agenda for tonight so let's just dive right in."

It was the second Friday of October and the full moon would be happening on Sunday, which meant it was time for another official club meeting. And luckily we hadn't had any crises lately, nothing that demanded an emergency meeting. In fact things had been relatively quiet in the month since our trip to Island Lake, which was kind of nice. It meant we could all focus on classes and schoolwork and stuff.

"First up," Cerys said as she got on with the meeting, "Let's all officially welcome our newest club member to the group."

Our purple-haired neighbour blushed and smiled as everyone greeted her and welcomed her to the club.

She was halfway through eating a wing, but gave us all an awkward wave as she quickly swallowed her food. Then she responded, "Hey everyone. Thanks again for inviting me to join you. It's all really cool and I'm glad to be here. And I'm looking forward to doing more cool supernatural stuff with you all too."

Cerys nodded, "Same, we're all happy to have you. Just a reminder though, ok? The stuff we discuss in our meetings, and anything that happens on an actual investigation is all supposed to be kept secret, all right? So please don't go sharing stuff with your girlfriends."

"Sorry," Violet apologized as she cringed slightly. "I totally get it, but you have to know it's hard keeping secrets from my girlfriends. Especially when they already know about the club."

Melanie responded, "We get that. It's for their safety though, right? Some of this stuff can be dangerous, and they're both just humans. Or catgirl and human, but you know what I mean."

The plant nymph grimaced, "Yeah I get it. And don't worry, I'll keep all this stuff secret."

"Thanks Violet," Cerys stated. Then she looked over at me and asked, "Cass? It's been about a month now, are you any closer to going back to that cave again? Whoever sent that message might start getting impatient if you ignore them for too long."

I grimaced and shook my head, "Not really?"

"Cass and Cassandra and I have been trying to research the cave," my girlfriend added. "We were hoping to get a better idea of what we might be dealing with, but we've come up with nothing. It's almost like any info that may have existed has been deliberately concealed, deleted, or covered up."

Willow asked, "What makes you think it's a cover-up? Maybe folks just don't know about it, so there's nothing to find."

Kaylee shook her head, "This area's been settled for over a hundred and fifty years. Plus there's probably been a Native American population here for a few thousand more. Granted the cave's in a relatively untouched nature preserve, but untouched doesn't mean ignored. There's been geological studies, wildlife studies, the terrain has been mapped, and there's been people living around it for over a century. It seems completely implausible that nobody's ever found and examined that cave before."

"All right Kaylee, Cass," our club leader stated. "Please keep the rest of us in the loop if anything changes. Like if you decide to head out there after all, or if you get any more cryptic messages or whatever? I know there's not a lot the rest of us can do compared to what you and Cassandra are capable of, but we're your friends and we worry about you."

I nodded, "We'll let you know Cerys, I promise."

"Thanks," she smiled. Then her expression got serious again as she asked, "Next question, have you had anything else turn up regarding Alison Sinclair or the Council?"

That made me grimace slightly. I shook my head, "Cassandra's still keeping an eye on things, but she says it's been pretty quiet over the last few weeks. And since she did the protective wards on the house and fried all the listening devices, there's no way for them to spy on us in here anymore."

Melanie added, "I haven't picked up any more shape-shifter scents around the high school lately. Not since last month, when Alison disguised herself as some old guy from the school district and got the principal to give her a tour of the place."

"I haven't seen or detected any shape-shifting spies around university," Kaylee chimed in. She frowned as she added, "But Alison still works with my dad, and I know the two talk a lot. So I've been really careful about what I tell my parents, since anything they know might find it's way to Alison and the council."

"As far as I'm aware we haven't seen her around college either," Sasha added. She looked to me and said, "I've been keeping an eye out for any sign of shape-shifting magic, and I assume you've been doing the same?"

I nodded, "Me and Cassandra are both watching for her. I can't actually see her magic unless she's in the process of changing though? Maybe my goddess half has another way of sensing her."

"Maybe the council's finally decided to leave us alone?" Nina asked quietly. "Maybe they're finally taking Cassandra's warning seriously."

Melanie made a face, "Something tells me they're not smart enough to back off. Honestly this feels like the calm before the storm to me? Alison's laying low because they're up to something."

"Maybe," Cerys shrugged. "Or maybe not? This might be related, but today in History class Ms. Hughes let us all know she's going to be taking four weeks off for a big vacation, starting at the end of next week. She sounded pretty excited about it, she said she's going to New Zealand. And we all know Ms. Hughes and Alison are together, right? Or they used to be. So maybe Alison is going with her?"

My little sister looked worried, "I hope they're not going to the other side of the world because they're worried the council is planning something awful here."

"Way to jinx things there Nina," Willow teased her. "Now we're all going to be worrying about that possibility."

Our club leader rolled her eyes, then looked back at me again and asked "Speaking of school stuff, do you know if Cassandra did something to Mr. Sanderson? I know she refused to bunnify the guy when we were all asking for that a few weeks back, but something's definitely changed."

"Good point," the cute sorceress nodded. "It was sort of gradual though? But he's definitely a lot less nasty than he was at the start of the school year."

At that point my other self asked, "Mind if I take over to answer this myself?"

"Ok," I nodded. Then I told the others, "Cassandra's going to answer that in person."

A moment later that sense of calm confidence came over me. Then she addressed our friends, "The answer to your question is yes, I did 'mess' with Mr. Sanderson."

"What did you do to him?" Nina asked quietly.

Willow added, "You didn't mind control the guy, did you?"

"No," Cassandra shook her head. "Not as such. I gave him a curse which manifested with some very specific dreams."

She went on to explain, "Every time he shouts at or is otherwise abusive towards someone, or looks the other way when there's bullying going on around him, he will relive that moment in his sleep at night. But every time it happens in his dreams he becomes a little smaller, and grows a little more bun-like. It would have been imperceptible at first, but it's cumulative so the changes from one dream carry over to the next. By now, his dream-self is a very small bunny-kin about the same size as Kaylee. Now when he shouts at students in his dreams, they just laugh and give him pets. Then they play with his long floppy ears before offering him carrots."

Our friends all stared wide-eyed at us after hearing that. There were quite a few smiles around the room though, so they weren't all horrified or anything.

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"I guess that's better than doing it for real," Cerys finally responded. "At least it's less likely to get the council's attention."

Cassandra just smiled as she calmly stated, "After the full moon on Sunday it will start happening for real. Just like in the dreams it will be imperceptible at first, but any time he's abusive he will shrink a little, while gradually becoming more bun-like. I imagine now that he's gone through it once in his dreams, the moment he notices it happening for real will the end of his abusive nature once and for all."

"Dang," Willow commented. "That's kind of nasty, but fair. Like he's had a full month of warnings in his dreams, if he keeps it up then it's not like anyone can say you didn't give him all the chances in the world."

"Yeah true enough," our club leader agreed.

Then Melanie shrugged, "Not gonna lie, I'd kinda like to see him get bunnified all the same. He doesn't even pick on me and Cerys half as much as Willow and Steph, but I really hate bullies. And Sanderson's definitely a bully."

My other self had a little smile on our face as she replied, "You may well get your wish Melanie, all it takes is for Mr. Sanderson to continue acting abusively towards people. Not that I'm encouraging you to go out of your way to antagonize the man or anything like that of course. I'm just saying what the result would be if you or any other students should happen to annoy him on a regular basis."

By that point Melanie was smiling, and so was Sasha. Kaylee was grinning too, while her tails swished around happily. And Cerys looked like she was trying to hold back a smile. Even Nina and Willow seemed to be amused while they tried to keep their expressions more serious.

Our club leader finally spoke up, "I think that's just about everything for the agenda right now. Unless anyone else has something they want to add to the meeting?"

"I have something," my girlfriend announced.

Cerys nodded, "Ok Kaylee, what's up?"

The tiny kitsune was all business as she told the rest of us, "I got an email today from Paige, with some info she wanted to pass on to the club. Remember those internet podcast guys from a few months back? Apparently they're doing a special live-stream episode tonight at ten o'clock, and according to the hype they've been posting on social media it might have something to do with us. Or at least, it might be about their investigation when they were here."

She paused for a gulp of her orange soda before adding, "Paige was worried they might be planning to reveal some sensitive information or something? We know they held back when they posted their big exposé at the start of summer, and the fact that this is going to be a live-stream means they might be planning to do something that can't be redacted or edited out later. So I was thinking at least some of us should probably tune in and watch it?"

"The only problem is it's for subscribers only," she added. "So one of us will have to pay for a subscription to access it."

Cassandra was still in charge of our body, she responded calmly "I'll sign up for a subscription as soon as the meeting's over. Then the three of us can watch it together if you like?"

"Thanks Cassandra," our girlfriend smiled at us.

Then my other self glanced around the room and added, "Or we can stream it to the living-room TV if anyone else wants to watch it as well?"

"I think I'd rather play video games," Melanie replied. "If they're going to out me and Cerys or dox us or whatever I don't want to see it happen. But I'm glad y'all are going to watch it, just in case."

Cerys nodded, "I'm with Mel on this. I'm glad you'll be keeping an eye on it, but I'd rather not see it myself."

"Maybe you can record it?" Violet suggested. "I have no idea who these people are or what they're going to expose, but if you record the live-stream then you can share any incriminating evidence that might come up?"

Cassandra nodded, "An excellent idea, we'll do just that."

"Is that it then?" the blonde wolfgirl asked as she looked around the room.

Violet spoke up again, "Actually I have a question? Um, it relates to what you were saying at the start of the meeting, about my girlfriends being normal and all that stuff. Specifically about Jade? She's been thinking about something Sasha mentioned at college a few weeks back."

The plant nymph hesitated a moment then stated, "So um, she's wondering if it's possible for her to become a werewolf? Or a wolf-girl. Sasha kind of mentioned both of those possibilities, like obviously Cerys and Melanie are werewolves and Cassandra has wolfy plush toys that could do the trick?"

By the time our neighbour finished talking the two wolfgirls were giving Sasha an unhappy look.

My cousin cringed, "I wasn't offering your services, I specifically told her that you wouldn't be interested in turning her."

"That's true," Violet added as she came to Sasha's defence. "The thing with Jade is she can be pretty stubborn, and she seems to have decided she doesn't like being the only human in the group."

The purple-haired girl grimaced as she continued, "And uh, she seems to like the werewolf idea better than a wolf plushie? Since you have the option of being human, wolfgirl, or wolf. With a plushie it's just wolfgirl or wolf, no human option."

"Being human is definitely overrated," Kaylee commented. "Tell her to go with the plushie, so she'll always have a fluffy tail when she needs it."

Melanie still looked grumpy as she finally spoke up, "If y'all think Jade's going to cause trouble over this then me and Cerys will have a talk with her, maybe we can talk some sense into her. I know being a wolf might seem cool or glamorous or whatever, but believe me it's not. You folks didn't see what it was like for us before, so she doesn't know the downsides."

"That would probably be a good idea," Violet nodded. "Thanks Melanie. I'd appreciate it if you two did talk to her about it."

Cerys pointed out, "That might have to wait until next week. I know it's a long weekend, but it's a busy one for most of us right? With the full moon reaching its peak Sunday me and Melanie are going to be wolfing out tomorrow night. But before that, we've got the Club Luna thanksgiving party happening here, starting about three in the afternoon?"

Kaylee nodded, "Yeah! Me and Cass and Sasha will be busy in the kitchen starting first thing in the morning. And dinner will probably be around five tomorrow night? A bit early, but there'll be loads of food so don't fill up too much during the day."

"You and your girlfriends are all invited too by the way," she added as she looked at Violet. Then she told my sister, "And you'll be here too, right Nina?"

My sister nodded, "For sure!"

"It's going to be a big weekend for food," Willow grimaced. "Between the Club Luna thanksgiving feast here tomorrow and the one my family are doing on Sunday, I probably won't want to eat for a week after all that."

My girlfriend laughed, "Same! We've got the Luna feast tomorrow, then me and Cass and Cassandra have to go to thanksgiving at my parents' house on Sunday, then we're going to do a third one on Monday with Cass and Nina's moms."

"Me and my girlfriends are all going down to my folks' place on Sunday," Violet chimed in. "Jade's mom and dad are going to be there too, so it'll be a busy day but at least it means we don't have to do a third one with Mr. and Mrs. Weber on Monday."

Cerys finally spoke up again, "All right it sounds like we've moved on from club business to social stuff. So I'm officially calling the meeting closed. Thanks everyone for coming out, now let's enjoy the rest of these wings and things before it all gets cold."