Claire slammed the door, and ran into her loving husband's arms, sobbing hysterically.
"Claire, what?"
"Tell me I'm pretty!" Claire said. "Tell me that age hasn't turned me into a hag!"
"Okay… You're beautiful, and you're also thirty-five," Jim said. "You make women ten years younger jealous of you…"
Well, he didn't know about that last, but hey, his wife was easily the prettiest woman in the whole world, so that had to be true.
"You're saying it to make me happy," Claire sniffled.
"Okay…" Jim gestured to the sofa. "Claire, what happened?"
"I-it was today," she hiccuped. "I caught Jake, Denise and Wendy talking about why they were absent from class so much."
"Gaming, oversleeping, or they decided to run away from home and form a comm—oof."
That was from Claire's punch. She looked up at him, her eyes red with weeping.
"None of that! There's an ancient Aztec Sorcerer prophesied to bring the end times, and they've been called by the Garou nation to fight him on behalf of Gaia."
"Wow, sounds dangerous what—"
"I gave them detention! Jim. I took their sacred tools away and told them they needed to let someone older and more responsible handle it! I beat up their werewolf mentor and locked him in a closet!"
"I…"
"And then they looked at me and told me I didn't get it, and I… I… Told them they'd understand when they were older!"
"Oh…" Jim took his wife and let her have a good cry, which ended up soaking his shirt. "It's not so bad. We can…"
"And I don't feel bad about it…" she sniffled. "Jim, Mom sai—you're mom sai…That one day, I'd become just like them, that'd I'd become some nasty teacher who gives pop quizzes and doesn't understand… and I did…" More waterworks.
"There there…" Jim said. "You may be old now, but you're still beautiful."
"Are you sure?"
"Certain." They stayed that way in comfortable silence until Jim had a sudden thought.
"Claire?"
"Yes?"
"Did you ever let the werewolf out of the closet?"