When Nate walked into his science class that morning he was surprised to find that is usual teacher, Mrs. Pogatchnik was not there, but instead Kathryn was occupying the chair behind the desk. He stood there frozen not sure what to do. Kathryn smiled at him and gestured for him to take his seat, which he did on the far left row of desks, second desk back. He pulled out his notebook and note cards from his backpack and anxiously waited for class to start. After all the students filed in, Kathryn walked over to the door and closed it behind her.
"Good morning, class." Kathryn walked to the front of the class. "Unfortunately, your regular teacher was unavoidably detained today so I will be taking her classes for the day. I understand you all were going to start giving your group presentations today. We will still be doing that. I have a camera set up in back for her to view and grade them later."
Nate looked back and sure enough saw a digital camera set up on a tripod at the back of the class ready to go. He started to feel even more nervous, with Kathryn here making him even more uncertain what was going to happen. Sure enough, she looked over a sheet of paper and then announced, "Can we have group 1 start us off. That would be Nate, Jamie, Marcus and Mackenzie."
Nate took a deep breath and walked to the front of the classroom with his three classmates. Of the group, he was friendliest with Jamie. The two had hit it off well as they had prepared their presentation together, with the other two barely pulling their own weight. Jamie went first as she stepped up to the podium at the front of the class and pulled up the Power Point on the computer on the table next to it. She took a deep breath and started her presentation.
"Good morning. I, along with my group mates Nate, Marcus, and Mackenzie, chose the subject of Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis occurs among many species known today, including..." Jamie droned on as Nate began to feel funny...and itchy. His heart sank. He knew this was going to happen. He looked down at his hands and could already see the white hairs starting to grow over them. He was trapped with nowhere to go. He looked over to Kathryn, pleading with his eyes but it was fruitless. She just smiled and nodded. He quickly his his furry hands behind his back and silently pleaded for the transformation to stop.
Sniggers from certain students started to come as Nate felt even more exposed. He could feel the same shaggy fur growing all over his body as it slowly started to reform into a more canine form. He reached up and felt the fur growing over his face and felt his ears growing long and floppy. He let out a low whimper as he looked at a number of his classmates pointing at him, either in shock or laughter. Jamie turned around and smiled at Nate.
"As you can see, even we humans are capable of transformation as my good friend Nate was so kind to demonstrate. Here he is transforming from an average schoolboy into a lumbering Old English Sheepdog."
Nate looked at Jamie confused wondering why she didn't seem the least bit phased by this. He didn't have much time to ponder this as he felt himself pitching forward, his feet having finished changing into hind paws. He landed on his hands, nay his forepaws as his transformation from boy to dog completed.
Nate propped himself up on the table and looked over the class, wondering what all they must be thinking. He looked over the class trying to think what to do now. He didn't have to wait long as his saw obnoxious classmate Justin raise his hand.
"Yes, Justin," said Jamie.
"Yeah, does Natey want a Milk Bone? Huh? Does he want a treat treat?" said Justin in the most condescending way possible.
Nate looked up to Jamie with a look that could only read as, Is he serious. Jamie looked down at Nate and gave him a wink.
"I don't know, Justin. Do you want a Milk Bone? Do you want a treat treat?" she said.
Justin looked at her confused as he started scratching all over himself. He cried out as he saw black fur growing all over himself. He cried out and stood up as he tried to run but tripped over himself and fell to the ground. His cries turned to whimpers as he shifted from a boy into a Black Labrador dog. He watched his hands shift into paws as his body reformed into a canine form. His ears grew out and flopped over as his face pushed out into a canine snout.
Jamie walked over to the transforming boy and looked down at him. "Nate is my friend. Yes, he's a shapeshifter and is sometimes a dog. But that doesn't give you the right to treat him like one. You'll turn back into a boy when you learn some manners."
Jamie walked to the front of the class, feeling rather proud of herself. Nate looked to her dumbfounded, all this time and he had no idea she was a witch too. He looked back over to his classmates in front of him unsure what was going to happen next.
"In fact, you're all dogs. Every last one of you in this room." Jamie smiled as she surveyed the room watching all her classmates begin their own transformations into various species of dogs. Nate turned around and even Marcus and Mackenzie were beginning to change. Marcus was grinning from ear to ear as his greyish fur grew in.
"Jamie, we'll turn back at some point, right?" he asked.
"Of course, Marcus." Jamie gave him a reassuring smile.
"This is so cool," he replied.
"In that case," said Kathryn, with a wave of her hand, "Going forward you'll be able to shapeshift into your canine form whenever you please."
"Awesome. Thank youuuuuu..." said Marcus as his transformation completed, completely becoming a German Shepherd dog.
Kathryn walked over to the door leading to the outside and opened it, letting all his classmates out to run around in their dog forms, laughing as the they passed by.
She walked back in, where only she, Nate and Jamie remained. She walked over to Nate and ran her hand through his shaggy white fur.
"As for you Nate, you showed great courage and resolve standing in front of the class as you changed this morning so I remove the spell I made the other day. You will no longer transform randomly into a dog. Going forward, we shall have to find a new reward for you. A new form for you to take. Perhaps my niece can help you with that..."
Nate let out a small groan as he slowly shifted back to his human form. He stood up fully once he was mostly changed back and looked from Jamie to Kathryn.
"Jamie is your niece?" he asked.
"Why yes. She's the reason why I moved here, so I could be closer to her. She's such a promising young witch too, wouldn't you say?"
Nate nodded. He turned to Jamie, smiling. "I can't believe you didn't tell me anything about this."
"Well, magic is supposed to remain a secret, Nate. All those folks will forget any of this happened after they turn back. Besides, you never told me you fantasized about turning into a dog, you weirdo."
“Yeah, well, it was a fantasy I’d had since I was little. You see…” Nate started to explain.
“I know, I know. Kathryn filled me in. Come by her house after school. I need to practice my transformation spells and you seem like you would be a willing subject to help me with that.”
“Heh, yeah, I would.” Nate couldn’t help by blush a little.
“We’ll just have to see if we can’t find a more worthy form for you than a simple dog,” she responded.