Amy could not keep her eyes off of the back of Alex’s neck. She felt her own skin tingle with anticipation as she nervously peered over the pages of the book that was shielding her face. With her back hunched over her desk, Amy did her best to pretend to be listening to her instructor. Despite her best efforts she could not hide the fact that she was smitten.
     Amy had arrived at the Australian University from her home in New York a few weeks ago. Feeling alienated, she kept mostly to herself and focused on her studies. That is until the day she first laid eyes on Alex. It began as a simple attraction when she noticed his smile one day while sitting behind him in class. He had turned his head to see who was behind him and found Amy, nose in book. Normally she would not have noticed, but some invisible force pulled her attention from the words on the page long enough to be caught Alex’s stare. For a moment all was still, and then he grinned. That was that, from that day onward Amy grew more and more infatuated with the handsome young man. Every day she longed to see him, and eagerly awaited him to notice her.
     Today he did not turn around, and it had been days since he had spoken to her. Amy was growing impatient, she had to get Alex to notice her somehow. As the droning sound of the teacher’s voice carried on, Amy began to plot ways to get Alex to notice her. She was only going to be in Australia for a semester and did not want to miss her opportunity.
     After class Alex got up from his desk and hurried to the door. In desperation Amy followed, but was unnoticed. Her mind raced for something to say to him, some kind of conversation starter. She had to break the silence between them somehow. It was then that she noticed the book Alex was clutching to his chest.
     “Hey, Hey Alex!” She called. He spun around with a baffled look on his face.
     “Oh, hey… Amy is it? How are you?” Entranced by his dreamy smile and slightly curly red hair Amy made a strong effort not to swoon too much as she spoke.
     “Oh I’m doing well! I couldn’t help but notice that book you have there…” Alex questioningly held the book up to his face. It was a book about sheep herding with a picture of a Border Collie on the cover.
     “Oh yeah, I’m actually on my way back to my farm, my family has been herding sheep for generations.”
     With a slight tone of flirtation in her voice Amy replied, “Well it just so happens that my family was involved in sheep herding as well!”
     “Really? You’re one of the only other people I’ve ever met from a herding family. What kind of farm do you work on?”
     “Well you see, it’s mostly my grandparents, they own the farm. I’ve been so busy with my studies I have not had a whole lot of time to help out.” Fearing she might have lost his attention she added, “But I absolutely love it! I miss it so much you have no idea!” Alex laughed a bit behind his smile.
     “I know what you mean about school, I wish I could be there for the family more too.” They both smiled sheepishly at each other, and a moment of romantic silence passed between them. “Say Amy would you like to come see our farm sometime? It could make you less home sick.”
Amy’s heart skipped a beat as the words sunk into her ears. She felt her cheeks flash bright red and her hair stand on end.
     “Of course! I’d love to! Wow thanks Alex, thanks a lot!” She realized how jittery she sounded and tried to calm herself down so as to not appear too desperate. “Will we get to brush the dogs?”
     “You like doing that? I hate it, but it would be a lot more fun if I had someone to keep me company!”
     “Oh well, we don’t have to do that…we could…” A strange panic raced through Amy’s veins. She felt so foolish for mentioning brushing and struggled to change the subject. She did not want him to lose interest already.
     “No we can.” Alex replied, “I have to do it anyway, might as well do it while you visit. We can chat, get to know each other better.” Those words melted the fear right out of Amy. She nodded in the cutest fashion she could muster as Alex grinned back.
     “Sounds like fun Alex!”
     “Great!” Suddenly Alex was blushing too. “Well how about I meet up with you later and we can head over to my farm after school.”
     “That’s perfect!” Amy replied, “I’ll be in the library doing research for a project, you can meet me there if you like.” The two youngsters exchanged grins and nods and then went their separate ways, both with heart fluttering wildly.
     Amy struggled to concentrate on her Latin book, but her eyes were constantly being pulled to the clock on the wall. She had purposefully angled her chair away from it several times, but her subconscious was getting the better of her. The words on the page no longer had meaning as she skimmed them with her eyes, all the while wondering when Alex was going to show up.
     “He should have been here by now…” She thought when the clock struck 2:30pm.
     “Maybe he is running late…” Twenty more minutes passed and Amy was going crazy. She was convinced he had stood her up. In an effort to get her mind off of him she decided to really focus on the Latin book.
     She happened to turn the page at that moment to an arcane formula. With a big sigh she reluctantly began to recite the words in very broken Latin. The words were much more difficult to translate and she barely understood what she was saying. All she knew was that it had something to do with an “unrivaled shepherd”. Amy was making a valiant effort to decipher the words when her eyes accidentally slipped to the clock again. It read 2:55pm. Amy let her head flop onto the pages of the book as her nerves took over her.
     “This is pointless!” She thought, “I can’t focus on this now, I’m far too upset. I might as well go home and sulk where I won’t embarrass myself…” Amy began to gather her books and started to pack them all into her backpack. She glanced at the clock one last time and headed for the door.
     As Amy was about to pass the reception’s desk she felt something itchy on her face. On an impulse she raised her hand to scratch it. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed something black and furry on her hand. In a panic she jumped back and squealed, grabbing the attention of everybody in the library. All the heads turned to see Amy frozen mid step staring at her hand, but it wasn’t a hand anymore. One of the librarians chirped,
     “No shrieking in the libra- good lord child, what’s that on your hand?!”
     “It’s not on her hand,” someone else chimed in, “it IS her hand!” Amy was panic struck. She had to think of something, but she could not stop staring at her hand which had suddenly morphed into a paw covered in black dog hair. She was more embarrassed than afraid of what was happening to her.
     “Oh this? It’s just an early Halloween costume… Nothing to stare at here!” Amy announced. She then nervously dodged away from sight behind a book shelf. The librarian shook her head disapprovingly.
     “Kids today… when will they take their studies seriously?”
     Behind the book shelf a trembling Amy sat curled up in a ball, eyes glued to her paw, while she waited for everyone to leave.
     “How did this happen? What’s going on? Am I turning into an animal?” Amy’s heart stopped when she noticed that the hair was spreading down her arm, and she could feel more growing all over her body. The hairs on her legs were sprouting anew even though she had shaved that morning. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out how this had happened.
     “The Latin!” she barked to herself, “That Latin I read must have been a spell or something. An unrivaled shepherd, that means shepherd dog!” Her newly budding tail sadly slid between her legs. She knew she had to break the spell but how?
      Amy realized that most of the people had left the library. Keeping low to the ground, the poor girl crept over to her desk. It was very difficult to sit in the chair with a tail in the way. When she finally managed to sit upright over the book she noticed that her clothes had tufts of black and white hair poking through the seams.
     “At least Border Collies are my favorite dog,” She thought. Looking at the spell she saw that it continued onto the next page. Amy hoped that a reversal spell would follow so she tried to turn the page with her paw. Unfortunately she ended up scratching the page with her claws. Next she tried prodding it with her nose. Not only did this tickle, but the pages were getting wet. Amy’s eyes began to well up with tears. Without a second thought she threw her head back and sang a mournful howl.
     Alex rushed down the hallway tightly holding two brand new dog brushes. He gasped for air as he sprinted down the empty corridor.
     “I can’t believe I am late!” he thought regrettably, “who knew picking up a few new brushes would take so long! She’s gonna think that I’m the biggest jerk on the planet!” Alex gracefully slid on the tile floor into the library and managed to collect himself in an instant. He quickly glanced around to see if the beautiful young girl was still there waiting. He knew this would happen, Alex had a habit of fumbling opportunities.
     Alex was normally quite charming and calm by nature, but whenever a pretty girl crossed his path he was done for. He would always try extra hard to impress the girl and usually mess it all up somehow. Just like now, he was too ashamed to have Amy brush his dogs with his old brushes, so he decided it would be nice to fetch some brand new ones. Little did he know it was going to be a much longer trip than intended. The old man at the pet supply shop always took forever and insisted on telling wild stories to Alex while he helped him. He was too polite to tell the old man he was in a rush and didn’t really care about the stories. They were probably made up anyway. Alex sighed woefully when he did not see Amy sitting nearby.
     “There you go again Alex,” he thought, “scarred another one off.” Just as he was about to walk out of the doorway he heard a whimpering sound behind him. Alex spun his head around but saw nothing. He shrugged to himself and turned back to the door. This time he heard a bark and felt a tug on his pant leg. He was shocked to see a female Border Collie tugging at the cuff of his pant with shiny white teeth. He jumped back in surprise, nearly dropping the brushes.
     “Hey! How did you get in here? Let go girl, let go.” He carefully slipped his fingers in the dog’s mouth and gently pried its jaws open. The dog sat back with its tail between its legs, looking up with big soulful eyes. Alex took a moment to really look the dog over. He realized that she was wearing Amy’s clothes and had a coifed hairdo, just like Amy. As he looked deep into her eyes he realized that this dog was in fact Amy.
     “Amy?” he asked, unsure of what kind of response to expect.
     “Bark! Bark!” The dog barked happily to him, and her tail started wagging. Alex was frozen, trying to process what was going on in his head. His eyes were locked with hers, and he realized what was going on.
     Amy was full of hope when Alex said her name. She could still understand everything he said to her, even though she could only respond like a dog. She proceeded to carefully pull on his sleeve with her teeth until he followed her over to the desk where the Latin book was sitting. Alex slumped into the chair and squinted at the book.
     “Oh it’s a Latin text. I guess you were studying for the test next week huh?” Alex continued to read, it look a little while because he was not very good with Latin either. Finally the words all started to come together. Amy watched intently as the look of astonishment swept over Alex’s face.
     “So, this transformed you? That’s remarkable, but we have to change you back! How?” Amy whimpered sadly. How was she going to tell him to find a reverse spell? With a last attempt Amy leapt onto Alex’s lap and tried to turn the page again with her paw. This time it worked and only scratched up the pages a little. Looking down at the page Alex began to understand.
     “Oh I see, you think I should keep reading? Then we will find the answer?!” Happily barking Amy hopped back down onto the floor so she would not get into Alex’s way.
     “Ok, just stay…staaaaay… Just stay still while I read this. This might take a while Amy, I’m not all that good at Latin. If we can ever change you back we should have a study group for this or something…” Amy anxiously sat on the hard wood floor. She wagged her tail nervously as Alex slowly read the text to himself. Amy tried her best to keep still, but she was eager to change back into a human.
     A few hours later Alex was still trying to decipher the reverse spell. All the excitement had left Amy as she sat on the floor bored to tears. She longed to play with Alex, but she also knew she could not afford to distract him now. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a black figure crawling across the floor under the desk. It was a tiny little ant, watching it scamper around amused Amy. She was so entranced by it that she did not even notice that she had stood up. Alex didn’t notice either, he was far too engrossed in the Latin book. Careful to be light on her paws, Amy crept up behind the ant. She kept creeping closer until her long wet black nose was barely an inch away from it. The ant kept marching as if nothing unusual was going on. Amy’s eyes were locked, and her tail stiffened as her instincts started to kick in.
     Alex didn’t see any of this happening under his feet because he was just about to figure out how to read the reverse spell. With a few last peeks at his Latin dictionary he was ready to read the spell. Overcome by grinning, Alex leapt from his chair to where Amy had been sitting.
     “I got it Amy, I got the reverse spell!” But Amy was not sitting where she had been. Alex looked around the room for a moment and then spotted her under the table. The precocious girl was happily poking an ant with her snout. The ant kept trying to go towards a corner in the wall, however Amy was relentless on herding him somewhere else. Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
     Just then Alex took a closer look at the ant. He noticed that it was no ordinary ant, but a rather angry red ant, the kind that bite! Alex tried to pull Amy back but it was too late, the ant had had enough. With a rumbling bark and shrieking whimpers, Amy dashed out from under the table. Her nose had turned bright red where the ant had bit her and was swelling with pain. Alex couldn’t grab her fast enough before she ran out of the room in fright.
     Alex sprung out of the library into the hallway only a moment after Amy. He clung tightly to the book as he pounded his legs into the floor trying his best to keep up with the quick canine. Amy would not stop yelping and whimpering no matter how much Alex called her.
     “Amy! Amy stop you’re gonna be ok! Stop Amy I need to read you the spell!”
     “Bark bark bark! Hoooowwwwwl!”
     They both raced down the empty hallway at break neck speed. The chase took a turn for the worst when Amy managed to slip out the front door of the school and into the grassy field outside.  Alex burst through the doors panting uncontrollably. He couldn’t believe Amy was still running. His blood went cold when he saw her running towards the road ahead.
     “Stop Amy! Please Stop!”
     He fumbled with the book to find the page with the reverse spell and started to chant it out loudly. He could still hear Amy’s barking in the air as he yelled the words out as loud as his tired lungs would let him. He desperately wanted to look up to see if it was working, but if he did he would lose his place. He read the words as quickly as he could, and with the last sentence slammed the book shut. When he looked up Amy was nowhere to be seen. Heartbroken, Alex fell to his knees, letting the soft grass break his fall.
     “Is that your dog boy?” Alex looked up, it was the old man from the supply shop.
     “My what? Say what are you even doing here?” The old man didn’t answer his question. He simply said again,
     “Is that your dog? It was headed for the road but then dashed off that way into the bushes. You better go get it.”
***************************************************************
Alex remained frozen for a moment as he stared at the old man. He then quickly bolted towards the bushes by the road. Alex’s heart was beating hard in his chest as his sneakers pounded into the soft grass. The whole time he ran he kept praying that Amy was alright. He skidded to a halt when he made his way to the bushes and immediately started to toss branches aside. It did not take long for him to spot Amy curled up in a ball deep under the leaves. Alex let out a massive sigh of relief as he watched Amy shiver in fear. The loud noises of the road had stunned her and so she had taken refuge in the bush rather than run out into traffic. Alex carefully reached his hand down between the leaves to coax her out, but the moment Amy felt fingers on her fur she leapt up in fright.
     A burst of leaves sprung into Alex’s face as Amy dashed out of the bush back onto the grass. She was about to run away again but then looked back and saw Alex standing by the bush with a smile. Amy’s soft tail tucked between her back legs and her ears fell back in embarrassment. Alex calmly approached her and began to pet her muzzle.
     “So, I guess the spell didn’t work then… I’m really sorry Amy.” Alex could see the tears welling up in Amy’s eyes. He couldn’t bear to see her like that, but wasn’t sure what to do.
     After sitting on the grass with Amy for a while he decided to take her home with him and figure out what to do from there. At least there she would be safe and he could feed her if she got hungry. Amy was happy to be carried in Alex’s arms to his bright blue truck. She hopped from his embrace onto the leather seat and slightly wagged her tail. Alex was glad that she was feeling better. No dog could resist a ride in his manly truck, and no girl for that matter. He even opened the window for her so that she could stick her head out of the window. At first Amy was insulted by the suggestion that she should behave like a dog, she growled a little at Alex.
     “Hey I’m still a lady you know!” she thought angrily to herself.
     “Oh common, I don’t mean anything by it. Just thought you might want to give it a go since you have the opportunity.” Amy pinned her ears back in protest, but then she felt the cool breeze brush her fur. She reluctantly decided she might as well give it a try. Soon enough Amy was wagging her tail with delight as her beautiful fur was tossed in the wind. Half her body hung out the window in the traditional canine fashion, with her paws perched on the window’s edge. She smiled widely with sharp white teeth. She even let her tongue hang out the side of her mouth. Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
     Within the hour they arrived at Alex’s family farm. Amy bashfully crept out of the truck. She had been looking forward to meeting Alex’s family, but not looking the way she did. Alex had to put a leash on her, so as to convince his parents that he had found her wandering around town. Alex’s mother stood at the entrance to their cozy looking cottage. Amy could feel chills rushing through her skin as Alex led her to the stout woman. She had her arms crossed and a piece of hay hung from her bottom lip, typical farmer type. Amy was surprised Alex wasn’t clad in overalls and sprinkled with hay.
     “He must be the oddball in the family…” she thought. Soon Amy was face to face with Alex’s mom, who stared down at her from the top step of the stoop. It was a funny sight since Alex is much taller than his mother, so from his perspective they were now at eye level.
     “How come you’re so late Alex?”
     “Sorry Mom, I had some extra work to do at school today and then I found this dog on my way home.” Alex’s mom eyed them up suspiciously.
     “You sure you didn’t just buy another dog? She looks very clean and well bread for a stray.”
     “I think she’s from another farm and just lost her collar or something…”
     “Alright alright, put her in the barn and then come in for dinner, you’re father has been waiting for you to come home.”
     Amy hated being tied up in the barn. Alex put some food down for her in a bowl, but it was dog food! She cringed at the awful smell while the other Collies panted in hunger around her. She felt so out of place, and yet, so at home. One of the Collies got bold enough to rush up and snatch her bowl from her. Amy yelped in fright, but really didn’t care that her food was gone. She decided to nap while she waited for Alex to get back.
     Alex felt bad that he had to give Amy dog food, so he snuck some chicken from dinner into the barn. He smiled when he saw Amy curled up in a ball sleeping soundly with the other Collies snuggled around her. When Alex walked towards them only Amy’s ears twitched. Then they swiveled towards him as her eyes lazily opened. She was surprised to see all the dogs huddled around her, but overjoyed when she smelled the chicken.
     “Be quiet Amy, or the others will take this from you.” Amy happily and quickly inhaled the chicken. She licked her fangs with glee as Alex pet her head.
     “Ok Amy, I’m gonna take another look at this spell, while I’m doing that why don’t you take a look at the farm? I’m sure you don’t want to sit there staring at me all night.” Actually, she would love to stare at him all night, but she nodded in agreement anyway. It would probably be better if she was not in his way. “Ok then! I’ll come find you when I’m all done, just don’t wander off the farm alright?” Amy wagged her tail and barked before she scampered out the barn.
     The fresh air filled Amy’s lungs as she took a deep breath. The sun was starting to set off in the distance. She admired the sun as it ducked down behind a hill that the horses grazed on. Amy visited them for a while and had a great game of tag with some of the colts. They whinnied and trotted with amusement as Amy darted in-between their long spindly legs. She tried kicking her back legs up high in the air like them, and they had jumping competitions over logs and fences.
     Next Amy decided to explore the chicken coop, but that was a short visit. As soon as she popped her head in the chickens went frantic, sending feathers and hay flying all over the place. Amy quickly escaped without causing too much damage. But Alex’s mom did come at her with a rolling pin.
     Amy loved skipping through the apple trees and smelling the fresh vegetables growing in the garden. She saw some naughty bunnies nibbling on the carrots. Amy snarled and barked at them. She felt good about saving the carrots, it almost made up for the chicken incident. She also found time to visit the sheep, who were already huddled together in their pens. As she proudly looked at them she began to think that it might not be so bad to be stuck as a Border Collie. But then she remembered Alex, and how handsome he was. She remembered school and all of her friends. She also thought about how much work she had put into her studies and how she might never be able to finish school.
     “Amy! Hey Amy! I think I got it all worked out now!” Amy’s tail wagged with delight when she heard Alex’s voice. Filled with excitement, she rushed out of the sheep’s pens to meet Alex in the barn with the other Collies.
     Amy felt like she was in the midst of an ancient ceremony. Alex stood before her with the Latin book spread open in his hands. The Border Collies were circling her with anticipation and wagging tails. She sat nervously still as she waited for Alex to start the chant.
     “Ok Amy, I hope this works… Please forgive me if it doesn’t…” With wide eyes Amy quietly trotted over to him. He knelt down so that they would be face to face. His eyes filled with tears as Amy lightly licked his cheek, and then took her place again a few feet away. As Alex rose up Amy sat down, and the spell began.
     The words came shakily out of his mouth at first, with a tone of nervousness. Amy’s eyes remained fixed on Alex as she waited for some kind of feeling to come over her. The other dogs began to get even more excited and started to bark loudly. Alex glanced at Amy for a moment and saw that she was glowing brightly. He thought that the spell must be working this time and so he began chanting the spell louder and with more power. The dogs went from barking to howling, with their heads thrown back and their eyes shut tight. Amy shut her eyes too as the glow covered her whole body and got so bright that Alex could no longer see her in the midst of it.
     As Alex got to the last sentence of the chant the glow around Amy expanded and let out a vibration of power that quickly vanished like a gust of wind. When the last word was uttered the glow dissolved around Amy and the dogs were suddenly silent.
     Alex’s heart stopped when he saw Amy standing there surrounded by the dogs. Amy instinctively touched her face with her delicate fingers. Her face lit up with delight as she felt skin on her face instead of fur and a nose instead of a snout. A tear trickled from her eye as she began to laugh and look at her human body, still dressed in her outfit from earlier that day. The Collies barked happily as Alex rushed to embrace her. They clung to each other in utter bliss, the spell had worked! Both of them cried with joy as the jumped up and down celebrating their success.
    “Who is that?” They froze as they heard Alex’s mother’s voice. The dogs vanished into the shadows of the hay stacks and left the two of them standing alone in the middle of the barn. Alex and Amy nervously pulled away from each other and quickly wiped the tears from their eyes.
     “Oh Mom, sorry about all this. I forgot that I promised Amy that she could come see the dogs today.” Amy smiled politely hoping she would not be scolded for being there so late.
     “Oh Amy? Well is this is girl you keep talking about?” Alex blushed as he nodded. The once stern mother now merrily took Amy’s hand in hers.
     “So it is you! So I heard you like Border Collies?”