People, Smells, and Sounds

Before leaving her room, Apryl tied her hair back like Lydia had taught her how to do. Getting her fingers to move the way she wanted to was still a struggle. Wolfs after all were not used to having thumbs thus it took longer to get their mind to figure out how to get them to move along with the rest of their fingers.

She checked herself in the mirror one more time to make sure that everything looked like it was in order before she left her room. She knew that it was early enough that Beyond her mother and Lydia, most everyone else was likely to be asleep still.

While her mother should've been resting after all the stress she had been under, she had insisted on taking at least part of the day to have her cousin help to teach her simple things such as cooking, cleaning, as well as furthering her ability to read and write. Without her mate around, she needed something to keep her preoccupied when she wasn't busy with the pups.

Apryl took the stairs slowly and carefully, one because didn't want to make too much noise and wake anyone up, but also because she still felt unsteady on her human feet. Walking on them was vastly different to her than walking in her wolf form. Walking on the sole of the foot instead of just the toes required more concentration as her human feet took up more space than her wolf feet did. Thus it was easy to underestimate the distance they would cover and she had no intentions on falling down the stairs, it didn't seem like it would be much fun to her.

Once she had reached the end of the stairs she could relax a bit more knowing that walking on the solid floor was much easier and required less mental attention.

"You're up early today." Her mother commented as she came over to give the other a huge as she sat peeling potatoes for what she guessed would be for breakfast. Apryl had already decided she was going to skip food this morning as she was still struggling to adjust to the different tastes and smells. There was no comparison to her between the raw meat she ate in the wild and the cooked food she was having to get accustomed to eating that her aunt prepared.

"Yeah, because Lydia told me that today was the last day if I planned on getting into college. Supposedly there's still time for me to enroll in eight week courses, whatever those are. But she said I needed to go today as she asked a favor from someone she knows at the college and if I don't go today, I will miss my chance." Apryl replied as she went over to the fridge and pulled out a single serve vanilla milk. It was one of the few things that she enjoyed drinking aside from water that didn't make her sick.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay? You haven't been here that long yet and there are going to be so many people and unfamiliar things that you won't be used to. You could always wait for the summer." Apryl smiled at her mother, she really appreciated the way that she worried about her so much.

"I know that I could wait a few more months to better adjust to everything, but by then my younger siblings will be here and everything will end up being a lot more busy around here than it is now. I want to be here to help as much as possible, but if I don't get started now, it's not likely that I will before the fall." Apryl replied in an attempt to reassure her. "It's not like I'm exactly thrilled over the idea to be around so many people on my own, but I also know that Lydia can't keep taking care of us like this. She's very generous, but I know what a tax it must be to feed so many extra mouths. Until everyone else adjusts and feels comfortable figuring out what they want do here, I need to do this. Plus, I have that phone thing that Lydia gave me I contact you with if I need anything." Apryl had just remembered that part.

She needed to remember where she put it though before she left otherwise she wouldn't be able to call her mom and let her know how everything was going. Her one grumble at the phone was the fact that there was no real smell to it that would help her to be able to locate it. She finding out that a lot of things didn't have smells like they did in the wild. It made her wonder how people were able to so easily keep track of items they needed in everyday life if they couldn't rely on smells to help them find them when they needed them.

"It's in the end table in the living room, you forget to take it with you last night before you went up to your room so I put it there to keep it safe." Lydia told her niece as she came from the mudroom, a basket of laundry in her hands. Apryl grimaced at the smell of the detergent. Just one of more thing that she was struggle to adjust with.

"Thank you, I will go fetch it right now." Apryl thanked her aunt as she headed into the living room. There was one such table in the room and that made it easier for her to know where to find the phone.

Lydia's house was huge yet minimally furnished despite the size. Her and her mate had never felt the need to fill it with too much once their pups had left and it was just the two of them. They liked having the extra space, plus it would cost a lot of money to buy furniture and other accoutrements that one would normally find in a well furnished house.

Getting the phone out, it took her a second to remember how Lydia had showed her to turn it on. She hadn't like the cold way it felt on her hands so her aunt had kindly gotten her a case partly for that reason and also because she figured she would need the protection incase of she ended up dropping the device. Apparently they could be easily harmed if they hit the floor too hard.

Her aunt had made using the phone easy for her until she was able to adjust to doing more than using for calling and texting. Her mom was her emergency contact so supposedly all she had to do was press one button to be taken to her mom's contact info and another to call her, not to difficult. Lydia had put her phone number in there as well in case there were times she needed something but didn't want to bother her about it.

Once the phone had been secured into her pants pocket and she was certain she wouldn't drop it, She gave her mom one more hug before she got ready to leave the house. She braced herself for all the sounds and smell was going to have to get used to once she opened the door.

Her aunt and mate lived a little ways out from where the college was located, but it was within a ten minute walking distance. She had insisted in walking rather than being taken there in the car as she wanted a chance to get familiar with her surroundings as she knew once she had successfully gotten enrolled in college, she would walking there most days anyways.

Getting enrolled in college was only one of the many things that she still had on her list of things to do that Lydia had told her about. Being 'over eighteen' meant that she needed to get proper ID card. The favor she had pulled allowed her to enroll in college with the fake birth certificate that she had made. She werewolf friend who had learned how to do such things once more of them had come to live along humans. It was quick one to two day process and because of how official it looked, so far no one had doubted any of the thousands he had made for them.

The sun was particularly bright on this day but it wasn't miserably hot as there was a gentle western wind that was blowing just enough to make the weather feel bearable rather than horrible humid after all the rain that had just come through.

She knew to steer clear of the road because she wasn't accustomed to the speed at which cars would be zooming past at. She would follow it, but further inwards where there was a well treaded path made most likely from the countless times her aunt and mate and used it to head into the city. No people were around yet which helped Apryl to relax as she headed in the direction that her Aunt told her would lead her towards the city and college. She had given her hand-drawn map to use as reference, but it wasn't going to do her much good until she actually got to the city as that was where all the land marks on the map were located.

She could feel her anxiety rise the further away from the house she walked, but she just kept reminding herself that she was doing this for her mom since her dad wasn't there to watch out for her and the soon to be pups. Someone needed to step up to fill that place, and the only one who was together enough from their leftover pack was her. She could get used to all the different places, people, and smells if she remembered that she was doing it for her family. She could convince herself to do anything if it was for her family.