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Shaking her head, Fran walked out of the audition room, feeling dejected. She'd spent days... no, WEEKS training herself for this audition, and she was sure she'd had it in the bag. She'd gone over the lines in her head about a million times since waking up that morning, practicing reciting them in the car and even while she was waiting for her turn to audition. She'd been so sure that she could pull this one off! But the moment she was in front of the judges, all that confidence she'd felt quickly melted away into fear. Feeling those judging eyes on her made her feel nervous, which made it difficult for her to talk - and by extension, recite her lines. She'd stuttered, fumbled, and flubbed in almost every way she thought possible, and it was all she could do to keep from turning and immediately running out of the room as soon as she was finished. She quickly left as soon as she was dismissed though, her face as red as a beet.

She walked down the hall and into the bathroom, stopping in front of the sink and taking deep breaths to calm herself down. She looked up at the mirror and noticed her reflected face, still red from the humiliation she'd suffered in the audition room. It was all she could do to keep from punching the mirror, so that she wouldn't have to see that face anymore. She hated herself. She loved acting, and she knew that she was good at it - when she was by herself, at least. She'd always dreamed of someday appearing on the TV, acting as someone else entirely. What better way to forget about your own problems than pretending to be someone you aren't after all? It seemed like the perfect job for her in theory, but she was starting to realize it was anything but in practice. She was still herself until she landed a role, which meant she was still susceptible to all the nerves that plagued her being and prevented her from auditioning properly. She didn't want to give up, but... did she really have a choice at this point?

As she exited the bathroom, she suddenly bumped into someone else, causing her to jump back. She was an older woman, with piercing blue eyes and long blonde hair almost down to her waist. "Oh! I'm s-so sorry!" cried Fran, her heart pounding. "A-are you okay?"

The woman smiled. "I'm quite alright, thank you," she said. She looked back down the hallway where the audition room was. "Say... aren't you the girl that I just saw run out of the audition room? The one whose face was bright red?"

"Oh! Um..." Fran swallowed, feeling her face start to redden again. "M-maybe?"

The woman held up her hand. "It's alright, dear. I'm not here to embarrass you." She smiled warmly, making Fran feel a bit less nervous. "I'm guessing the audition didn't go well? You don't have to tell me anything, of course, but perhaps I could help you if I knew a bit more about what happened?"

"W-well..." Fran took a deep breath. "I... kinda flubbed my lines, and... s-stuttered a bit too..."

"I see," said the woman. "And may I assume it was because you were nervous about the whole audition process?"

Fran nodded. "Y-yes, that's right," she said.

The woman nodded. "And would you say this is something that happens often?"

"Er... yes." Fran lowered her head. "Every time I have to audition, I... I get really nervous. I just... don't cope well with the thought of people judging me, I guess. And I really want to get over it, because I've always dreamed of acting in shows and movies and stuff like this, and I know I'm really good at it when I'm by myself. But if I can't even get past this stage..."

"That is quite the predicament," said the woman with another nod. "But would you believe me if I told you I might have a solution to your problem?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a business card. "Here," she said, handing it to Fran. "Read this over."

Fran took the card and immediately scanned the front. "Lucy Jones," she read. "Director of... Project FUR?" She looked up. "What's that?"

"It's an acronym" said the woman, who Fran now assumed to be Lucy. "It stands for Foundations for Unusual Roles. Essentially, what we do is we take aspiring actors who are having trouble making it for one reason or another allow them to break into the scene through other means. Namely, by getting them roles that some people might consider... well, unusual. Hence the name."

"Unusual?" Fran frowned. "Unusual in what way?"

"Just a moment, please." Lucy reached into her pocket again, taking out her phone and scrolling through it. "Ah, here we go! As it just so happens, we need another female role for a basketball movie that's being shot in this area! You'll be a basketball player on a team with three other girls, and you'll be training for a big game where you go up against a rival team to find out which of you is superior. How big your role is will depend on how you perform once we actually start working with you, but... does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

"Um... maybe?" Fran was confused. "That sounds like a pretty standard role to me, though. What's so unusual about it?"

"Well..." Lucy paused for a moment, a quizzical expression on her face. "...It's honestly a bit difficult to explain here. How about this: I give you the address of the studio we're working at, and you agree to meet me there early tomorrow morning... say, around eight. Then, we'll get you situated, you can meet the girls who will be playing your teammates, and from there I'll explain exactly what the role will entail and what you'll be doing." Noticing Fran's worried expression, she chuckled. "Don't worry. If you decide you aren't interested after I show you everything, you'll be allowed to leave and we'll simply find someone else to fill the roll. So, you in?"

Fran thought for a moment, then sighed. She really didn't like how vague Lucy was being about her role, and she honestly found this whole "Project FUR" thing to be pretty suspicious in general. But deep down, she knew that she really didn't have a choice. She knew it was her dream to become an actress, and she was never going to get there if she kept on failing her auditions like this. The role seemed like it was already a given from what Lucy had told her, and even if it wasn't... well, maybe she could get Lucy to help her become less nervous about everything? That seemed like the best bet as far as she was concerned. "...Okay," she finally said. "So... where is this place you want me to meet you?"

"Right here," said Lucy, pulling a flyer out of her pocket and handing it to Fran. "You should be able to find everything you need to know from there." She turned to leave, but just as she was starting to walk away, she suddenly turned around again. "Oh! One more question: how are you around dogs?"

"Dogs? Um..." Fran had grown up with two dogs in her house, so she felt pretty comfortable around them in general. "I guess so. Why? Does my character have a dog or something?"

"Well, no, but..." Lucy paused, another quizzical expression crossing her face. "Dogs... play a fairly important part in this movie. Again, it's a bit difficult for me to explain here, but you'll find out at the studio tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure you're okay with them. Anyway, I need to get going. I'll see you tomorrow, then!"

"Okay... bye, then." As Lucy walked away, Fran stared back down at the flyer she'd just gotten. She was still feeling pretty uneasy about this whole endeavor, especially with the vague answer Lucy had given about the dogs, but she still figured it was in her best interests to give it a try. It wasn't like she had anything to lose, right? With a sigh, she turned and headed towards the building's front door. All she could do now was wait for tomorrow morning to come...

...........................

8:00. Right on time. Fran stood at the entrance to the studio from the flyer, feeling nervous. The studio didn't really look like anything special, with only a few small buildings surrounding one larger building past the front gate, and that made Fran even more uneasy. The fact that she still had almost no information about this whole operation was bad enough, and now she was in a town she wasn't familiar with about to enter a studio that she barely had any information on, all because of a vague promise someone made to improve her acting career. Filled with doubt, she looked back at the road she had just come from. Maybe I should just tap out now while I still have the chance, she thought. I could always find some other way to get over my anxiety... somehow. Or I could just do something else with my life...

"Oh! There you are!" Fran gasped, and turned to see Lucy running towards her from the large building in the center. "Glad to see you decided to come," she said, wearing her warm smile again. "You ready to get started?"

"Um..." Now too nervous to back out, Fran decided that going with Lucy was probably her best bet now. "I g-guess so. So... what exactly are we going to be doing, anyway?"

"Well, I thought that I should get you situated with your teammates first," said Lucy. "After that we can discuss what exactly you'll be doing in the movie. Come on, follow me!" She turned and led fran towards one of the smaller buildings on the left. "Here we are," she said, opening the door. "The others are in here."

Fran entered through the door and found herself in a room filled with cameras and lights. They seemed to be pointed at the room's center, which contained a basketball court where a couple of young women in black and orange jerseys were shooting hoops. One of them was tall and thin, with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and a wide grin showing off a cheery disposition. The other was a bit stockier, with short red hair and eyes that looked like they'd turn you to stone if she glared at you. "Here's your uniform," said Lucy, handing Fran an outfit consisting of a tank top and a pair of short shorts. "There's a bathroom right over there. Get changed and meet me out here as soon as you're done."

Fran nodded and started walking towards the bathroom, looking down at the uniform she'd been given. It was orange and black, just like the uniforms she'd seen on the other girls, and across the front was written the team name: The Tigers. With a shrug, Fran walked into the restroom, but immediately recoiled upon seeing another young woman standing in front of the mirror and wearing the same outfit. Upon noticing Fran, she looked up and smiled, brushing her short curly hair from her forehead. "Hello," she said with a smile. "You must be the fourth member of our team, right?"

"Um, y-yes..." Flustered, Fran quickly tried to find the words to introduce herself. "M-my name is Fran."

"Nice to meet you, Fran! I'm Eve." The girl held out her hand, which Fran tentatively shook. "I assume you're here because of this whole Project FUR thing, right?"

"Y-yeah," said Fran. "So... did you find out about it through Lucy too?"

Eve shook her head. "It was actually through someone else... Brian Jones, I think his name was. Apparently he's Lucy's younger brother, and he's been helping her with this whole organization. He approached Sammy and me after we got rejected during an audition, gave the whole speech about finding actors and helping them get unusual roles or something." She shook her head. "I wasn't sure that I should, but Sammy convinced me to go for it with her, so... here I am."

"Sammy?" said Fran with a frown. "Who's that?"

"Oh, I guess you haven't met her yet. She's one of the other girls on our team, the one with the ponytail." Eve looked back towards the mirror, sighing deeply. "Yeah, we've been friends for a pretty long time. We always dreamed of being actresses as kids... you know, dazzling everyone around us, inspiring other people, that sort of thing. But no matter how hard we've tried, things just haven't worked out for us... we always just get pushed to the side, and the other better looking, more popular people always get in instead of us."

"Wow... that must be tough," said Fran. "At least when I get rejected, I know it's because I messed up."

"Oh, really?" said Eve. "Why's that?"

"Well... I kinda have issues with performing when there are people around judging me. I can do it fine by myself, but the moment a judge enters the scene, I get really nervous, and I end up stuttering and flubbing my lines a lot." Fran sighed. "I guess I'm just lucky that Lucy invited me here, although I still don't know what makes these roles so unusual..."

"Yeah, I don't know either," replied Eve. "That's one of the reasons I was so hesitant to come here. But of course Sammy, being the adventurous one, wanted to join, and she convinced me to come with her too. I still have my suspicions, of course..."

"Yeah, so do I," replied Fran. "All of this vagueness makes me feel like they're up to something, but I'm not really sure what..." Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. "Hey, what about that other girl? The one with the red hair?"

"Oh, you mean Cheryl? Yeah, I have no clue what her story is. She's super intimidating, though. Since Sammy and I got here, pretty much all she's done is glare at us for seemingly no reason. The only reason I even know her name is because Sammy tried talking with her, but that's pretty much all she told us." Eve shuddered. "I don't know what her problem is, but it really seems like she doesn't want to be here."

"Huh. That seems kinda weird," replied Fran. "Why would she be here if she doesn't want to be? It's not like we're being forced to be part of this project."

"Who knows?" said Cheryl with a shrug. "Anyway, we should probably head back to the court. We don't want to keep Lucy and Brian waiting for too long." With that, she turned and walked straight through the door, with Fran following close behind.

"Alright, everyone! Gather around, please!" Fran recognized Lucy's voice coming from the building's entrance. Upon running up to the door with the other girls, she saw Lucy standing next to a man she didn't recognize. His blonde hair was short and neatly kept, and he possessed the same striking blue eyes that Lucy did. "Welcome to Project FUR, everyone!" said Lucy. "For those of you who haven't been properly introduced to us, I am Lucy Jones, the project director. Standing next to me is Brian, my younger brother and assistant director."

"I'm glad to see that you've all decided to join us," said Brian with a grin. "As I'm sure you've all been informed, this project revolves around getting you aspiring actresses into roles that differ from those you may be used to. Now, you've all been selected for roles in an upcoming basketball movie, where you'll be playing on a team together against another group to find out which group has the most superior players. That may seem fairly standard to you all, but there's a bit of a twist to this particular movie... which we'll inform you of shortly."

"Before we do that, though, we have some private matters to attend to in this room," continued Lucy. She motioned to the wall behind them, where a door was positioned. "Through that door is your green room, where you can spend time when you're not working on shooting scenes with us. For now, though, we just need you to stay in there while we work on setting everything up in here. Sound good?"

"Sounds good to me!" said the blonde girl, Sammy. "Come on Eve, let's go!" She quickly grabbed Eve's arm and dragged her into green room, grinning all the while. "Aren't you excited? Isn't this cool? Come on, let's go!"

With the two of them gone, Fran glanced over at her other teammate. Cheryl was staring at the green room, her fists clenched angrily, and Fran immediately felt a chill run down her spine. This girl was clearly doing her best to appear as intimidating as possible, and frankly, it was working. Fran was terrified of her, but at the same time... she felt like she should say something. Cheryl hadn't so much as budged since Sammy and Eve had left, and Fran was starting to worry that something was wrong with her. But she was also worried that Cheryl might snap at her if she tried, and she really didn't want to see that. Perhaps it would be better to just go to the green room and leave her here. Yes, that would be-

"Hey, you two!" Startled, Fran turned to see Lucy standing right behind them. "Please go inside the green room. We really need you to be in there so that-

"Yeah yeah, so that you can set up whatever you have planned for us," said Cheryl, her voice filled with hostility. "No matter how painful or demeaning or whatever it is for us." Upon seeing Lucy's confused expression, she sighed. "Don't play dumb, idiot. I know how this works. You brought us here to do the stuff that nobody else wanted to do, didn't you? Yeah, 'unusual' is just code for 'stuff that we couldn't audition because nobody would try out if we did.' You're just trying to get us into demeaning roles so that you can make easy money off us, aren't you?"

Lucy looked troubled by this outburst. "Cheryl, that isn't true at all," she said. "We can't audition these roles because they would confuse people due to their absurdity, not because they would demean you. Believe me, we're not trying to harm you in any way."

"Oh really? Then what's with all this vagueness about what we're doing? They would confuse people due to their absurdity? Don't make me laugh! If these roles really aren't going to cause us harm, why don't you tell us exactly what they are?" Lucy fell silent, and Cheryl laughed. "See? You can't even come up with a good excuse! You're lucky I need to impress my parents, or I'd be out of here before you could blink!" With one final huff, Cheryl turned and stomped off towards the green room.

Fran must have looked fairly disturbed, because Lucy came up to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Pay no attention to Cheryl," she said. "She's just upset because her parents don't agree with her acting dreams and she couldn't find success anywhere else. She's knows that this is probably her only opportunity to prove herself to them, and she's pretty bitter about it. Now, why don't you go back to the green room with her?" Seeing Fran's worried expression, Lucy smiled. "Don't worry. I can assure you that you won't need to participate in anything harmful during your time here. Strange, yes, but nothing at all demeaning. Okay?"

"Um... okay." Fran wasn't sure if she believed Lucy, but she still didn't think it was worth leaving just yet - if there was a chance this would help her, she knew she wanted to take it. And hey, she could always leave later if she ended up hating it, right? With a sigh, she turned and followed Cheryl into the green room, hoping that she wouldn't end up regretting her decision.

"Hey there!" As soon as Fran walked in, Sammy immediately ran up to her. "We haven't met yet, have we? I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sammy!" She enthusiastically held out her hand. "Nice to meet you! What's your name?"

"Um... Fran." Fran hesitantly held out her hand, which Sammy quickly grabbed hold of and shook. "Ow! Not so hard!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Still grinning, Sammy let go of Fran's hand. "I guess I just get a little too excited when I meet new people. Sorry about that!"

"Yeah, that's Sammy for you," said Eve, walking towards the two of them. "Always excitable around new people... or pretty much anything for that matter." She drank from the cup of water she was holding, turning to her friend. "You really ought to learn to control yourself around people like her, Sammy. You don't want to scare anyone away."

Seeing Eve's water cup made Fran realize just how thirsty she was. The basketball court had seemed unnaturally hot and dry to her, and the green room was no different. She supposed it made sense for the court be hot with all the heat the film equipment was giving off, but was it too much for them to at least turn the AC on in the green room? "Hey Eve, where did you get that water?" she asked. "I could really use some right now."

"Oh, this? I got it from the table." Eve pointed to the rectangular table in the center of the room, where a single plastic cup of water stood. "There were four cups of water there, but we took the other three," she continued. "I'm assuming the other one is for you."

Fran nodded. It was nice of them to provide water, especially giving the buildings conditions, but this seemed like an odd way to do so. Why not just set up a cooler or something so that they could just take however much they wanted? The weirdness made her feel even more suspicious of this whole operation, but it didn't change the fact that she was thirsty and needed water. With a sigh, she picked up the cup from the table and drank from it, the cool water quenching her thirst. "Ah, that's better," she said, crumpling the plastic cup and throwing it towards the trash can.

Cheryl groaned, crumpling her own cup. "Don't know why they couldn't just set up a water cooler in here," she said, her words echoing Fran's thoughts. "It'd be a hell of a lot more efficient than just giving us these small little cups, especially with how hot it is in this damn place."

"It is pretty dry, isn't it?" said Sammy, scratching under her shirt. "I think my skin's starting to dry out too. It's really itchy."

"Yeah, mine too," said Eve, reaching down to scratch her legs. "It doesn't really feel like dry skin, though... but I don't know what else it could be."

Now that they mentioned it, Fran was noticing that her skin was really itchy too, specifically her arms. She began scratching them as well, hoping to relieve the itching somewhat, when she felt her fingers brush through something she didn't recognize. She looked down at her arms, noticing dark brown hairs sprouting from them. That was strange. She couldn't remember ever having arm hair before. Did she need to start shaving her arms, now, too? She swallowed, more anxious thoughts flashing through her mind. What if Lucy and Brian wanted to start shooting scenes with her today? How was she supposed to do anything with all this hair showing?

"Whoa! What the hell?" Eve's surprised voice caused Fran to turn to her, whose jaw immediately dropped. Dark hairs had begun sprouting on Eve's legs, even thicker, darker, and more numerous than those on Fran's arms. "What's going on? I just shaved my legs this morning!" cried Eve, running her hands through the hairs as they spread across her legs. "How am I supposed to go outside like this!" cried Eve, her eyes wide with concern. "What are Brian and Lucy going to say?"

"Wait... if you two are growing hair, then..." Tentatively, Sammy lifted her own shirt revealing even more of the same: golden hairs growing on her stomach and spreading across her torso. These hairs were even thicker and more numerous than Fran's and Eve's though, to the point that it looked more like... fur. "Whoa..." Sammy watched the hairs spread with wonder in her eyes, running her hand through them. "That... actually looks kinda cool!"

"That's easy for you to say!" Eve glared at her friend and scratched at her leg hairs as they too developed a more fur-like quality, becoming longer and thicker. "You can just cover those hairs up with your shirt! What am I supposed to do to cover these?"

A loud scream from Cheryl shocked the three of them into turning to face her. She was staring at a mirror on the far side of the room, and more hairs were sprouting from her body - or really, from her face. Light brown hairs were growing out of every single pore, numerous and thick like the fur on the other three girls. Even her already short hair seemed to be shrinking, changing color to match her face hairs. Her nose looked different, though: like it was shrinking down and becoming flatter, turning more brownish as well. "What's happening to me?" she yelled, nearly making the other girls cover their ears. "I look like a monster! How is this happening? I can't leave like this! What am I goirrrrr... grrrrrowrrrrr..."

As Fran watched in utter astonishment, Cheryl's fur began spreading down her neck as her words became nothing more than growls. Was she somehow losing her ability to speak? But then something even more unbelievable happened: Cheryl's face began extending outward, pushing out of her head and becoming longer like some kind of animal snout. Trembling, she raised her hands and put them on her newly extending muzzle, her open mouth revealing her teeth rearranging themselves and becoming sharper. Her ears suddenly began growing as the brown fur spread across them, becoming larger and larger until they flopped down over the sides of her head. Terrified, Cheryl tried to scream, but all that came out was a series of barks and growls.

The other three girls stared at Cheryl's new dog head in disbelief. "Um... do... do you both see that too?" asked Fran tentatively. "I-I'm not going crazy, right?"

"If you're talking about the fact that Cheryl has a dog head, then yeah, I see it too," said Eve. "Are we all seeing things? What was in that water we drank?"

"What if it's not us seeing things? What if it's actually re- gah!" Before she could finish her sentence, Sammy suddenly doubled over, causing Eve and Fran to turn to her. "S-something's happening to me!" cried Sammy, her eyes wide with fear. "It f-feels like something's pressing against my pants! And it's growing... oh god, it's going to-"

A loud rip interrupted her sentence as the back of her pants suddenly burst open, giving way to a long, fur-covered tail. "Whoa! What the-" She looked back, her mouth hanging open. "Is... is that..." She reached back with a trembling hand, grabbing the new appendage that was whipping back and forth. "Oh my god, that's a tail... I actually grew a tail..."

"Whaaaa!" Fran's head suddenly whipped back over to Eve, who had just fallen forwards to the ground. "Did I just feel... oh no... oh please, no..." Turning herself around, she quickly pulled off her shoes and socks and gasped when she saw her feet. They were already growing black fur and they were slowly starting to lengthen, her toenails sharpening and growing out into sharp claws. As her feet continued to stretch and grow, her smaller two toes started to merge with each other, with all of them suddenly growing larger and thicker. Fran felt her eyes widen even further as large pads grew out from the bottoms of Eve's feet and toes, fur fully covering them as they reached their full length. "P-paws!" cried Eve, turning her feet around to get a look at their bottoms. "I-I have paws!"

Fran could feel her heart pounding as she looked across at the other three girls. Cheryl had a dog head, Sammy had a tail, Eve had paws... was something going to happen to her, too? As soon as the thought occurred, she suddenly felt the muscles in her arms compress, shrinking as her bones twisted and contorted. Her arms became shorter, slightly changing shape and losing flexibility as their range of motion adjusted. But the most shocking change came from her hands: her fingernails sprouted into claws as her fingers shrank, her thumb withering away as the remaining four shortened and thickened much like Eve's toes had. Pads grew on their undersides as well, and Fran quickly realized that her hands were turning into paws, just as Eve's feet had. So they were all transforming... into dogs? But how was that possible? Was this some kind of horrible nightmare?

"Well, well. Looks like things are coming along fairly smoothly, huh?"

With a gasp, Fran turned around to see Lucy and Brian standing behind them. "Looks like my serum was a success!" said Brian with a grin. "Thank goodness, too. I was worried that the first time was just a fluke!"

Serum? So Lucy and Brian were behind this? More barks and growls from behind her caused Fran to look over at Cheryl, whose head still looked like a dog's. She was barking angrily at the two siblings, clearly upset with this sudden revelation. At the same time, her light brown fur was spreading across her arms, which were shrinking and changing position just as Fran's had. Her hands also began changing once the fur reached them, fingers shrinking and claws and pads growing from her fingertips and palms. But it looked like she barely even noticed, as she was too busy barking and growling at Lucy and Brian to pay attention to anything else. If she could still speak, she would probably be screaming at them right now.

Brian held his hand up. "Calm down, er... Cheryl, was it?" He glanced at the other girls before glancing back at her. "Yes, Cheryl. You'll have to forgive me, I'm not very good with names... especially names of people who are mid-transformation."

"Brian, don't patronize her. You know how bad her temper is." Lucy glared at her brother before turning to the girls. "I apologize. My brother's never been great at talking to other people."

"What's happening to us? What are you- ahhhh!" Eve quickly rolled over onto her stomach, just as a long thin tail burst from the back of her pants, covered in black fur. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO US?" she screamed.

"Shh! Not so loud!" said Brian. "Be quiet and let us explain. We told you that Project FUR was about getting aspiring actors into unusual roles, right? Well, this is what the unusual roles are: playing animal parts in movies! The name is quite fitting, isn't it?"

"Are you familiar with the movie Air Bud?" asked Lucy. "If you're not, it's about a dog who joins a school basketball team and helps them win the State Championship. Well, the movie you're acting in is sort of a spiritual successor to that movie. Essentially, it involved two teams of dogs playing basketball against each other to see which one is superior. I'm assisting with the directing of that movie, and at one point the lead director mentioned that he was worried that he wouldn't be able to get enough dogs and train them to be in the movie. It would take a lot of time and resources, and we don't have much of either of those things."

"Luckily for her, I had the perfect solution! Quite literally!" laughed Brian. "See, I'm a scientist and I've been working in a facility that's been doing a lot of experiments with animal DNA. We'd actually been working on a serum to change humans into certain animals, and we'd been making a fair bit of progress. So when Lucy mentioned the issue with her movie to me, I brought it up at the facility, and... well, the rest is history as they say.

"THAT'S why you're changing us?" said Eve. "So that we can play the role of dogs in this stupid movie of yours?"

"Well, you were the ones who agreed to this," said Lucy. "Sorry about being so vague, but if we'd told you what was really going on, you'd probably have thought we were crazy, and then you definitely wouldn't have agreed to help us. I'd also like to remind you that you still have the option to back out if you'd like; we'll give you the antidote to the serum, you'll leave the studio, and we'll all forget this ever happened. I'd prefer if you didn't, of course, but I know I have no right to keep you all here, so-

"I'm in!" Everyone looked towards Sammy, who was currently lying on her back with her feet in the air. Her shoes and socks were lying on the ground, and her feet were undergoing the same transformation Eve's had: golden fur covered them, toenails sprouted into claws, toes merged and thickened, and pads grew from the undersides. As her feet lengthened into proper paws, she looked over at the others. "What? Come on, don't you think this is amazing? How many other actors can say that they got their start in the business as another species? We'll be trailblazers!" She looked back up, giggling as she waved her feetpaws in the air. "Besides, isn't turning into other animals in general just the coolest thing? Especially dogs! I mean, who doesn't love dogs?"

Eve sighed. "I'd say I'm surprised that you're so open to this, but I'm honestly really not," she said. "You've always been like this. Always adventurous, always eager to try new things... honestly, I don't think they could have found a better person for this than you." Black fur was beginning to spread across her arms as they started to shorten as well, her fingers shrinking and hands reshaping into paws like her feet. "I mean, you're already practically a dog on the inside. This is probably just more of the same for you."

"Yeah, but... w-what about the rest of us? Are we going to- Ahh!" Already, Fran could feel her spine extending outwards, growing and pushing against the seat of her pants. She could understand why Sammy and Eve had cried out so suddenly, since it felt so bizarre, like some part of her was trapped and needed to be freed. After a moment, the pressure building up finally released itself, causing her to topple forwards and land on her han- her paws. When she recovered her balance, she looked behind her to see a dark brown tail jutting out from her backside. It felt odd, having a new appendage behind her like that, but she was more concerned about what she was going to do with these changes. She looked over at Eve. "Are we really going to just go along with this?"

The two girls looked at each other, then over at Sammy. "Oh come on!" she cried. "Are you two really just going to walk away from this? From this once in a lifetime opportunity?" She looked over at Eve, pouting as the blonde fur spread up to her face, her ears lengthening and flopping over the sides of her head. "Especially you, Eve! You wouldn't leave me to do this by myself, would you? After all we've been through togetherrrrrrr..." A growl escaped her throat as her face pressed forward into a canine snout, her nose darkening and shrinking into it. Her growling turned into a low whine as she continued looking at Eve, her eyes growing big and sad.

Eve sighed. Even without her ability to speak, Sammy still managed to be pretty damn persuasive. "You know... you have helped me a lot in the past with this kind of thing," said Eve. "With being more outgoing and all. So..." she sighed, shaking her head. "Even though this whole thing is completely insane, I'll do it. But only for you, and only because you want me to!"

"Well, where does that leave me?" cried Fran. She could already feel her feet pressing against her shoes and socks, her lengthening nails punching holes in them. She quickly pulled them off, watching her feet lengthen as dark brown fur spread across them, changing toes and growing pads completing their paw-like appearance. "What am I supposed to do about all this, then?"

"Well... honestly, I kinda agree with Sammy now that I think about it." answered Eve. She'd completely turned into a dog from the neck down, making her resemble a sphinx-like creature. Looking down at her body, Fran realized that she looked the exact same way. She quickly sat up, positioning her hind paws under the rest of her body and placing her front paws on the ground in front of her. "We all came here to help our acting careers, didn't we?" continued Eve as the black fur spread up her neck and face and her ears grew. "And yeah, these roles are pretty unusual, but think about it: can you imagine being one of the first humans to literally act as an animal in a movie? You'd be a legend, wouldn't you? Even if it's not as a human, you'd still be appearing in front of other people on screen. That's good, isn't it?" As the last words left her mouth, it slowly began to push out into a dog muzzle, fully completing her transformation.

"Um..." Fran could feel the fur spreading across her own face as well, her mind racing as to what she should do. Was all of this worth it? She'd be appearing on screen in front of thousands, without having to brave an audition and embarrass herself, but... was it worth losing her humanity for? But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Even if she did somehow make it through an audition as a human, what guarantee did she have that she wouldn't be just as nervous as they were filming? She'd still be judged, so she might still screw everything up. But as a dog... she wouldn't have any lines, would she? So she wouldn't have to worry about flubbing them, right? Maybe it was a side effect of the transformation, but she felt something rising in her... a joyous sort of confidence that she'd never felt before. She could do this. She could do this!

She opened her mouth to confirm her agreement, but all that came out was a loud bark. Her ability to speak had apparently disappeared as well, and she could feel her face pushing out in front of her, becoming a muzzle like the other three girls had. But she noticed something else, too: the smells. New smells bombarded her infinitely sharper nose, from Lucy's faint perfume to the scent of the wooden floorboards of the basketball court outside. As her ears grew larger, she realized that her hearing was improving, too. As she tried to listen for new sounds, though, one in particular stood out to her: the sound of low growling coming from behind her.

Cheryl. Fran had completely forgotten about her. She had fully transformed as well by this point, and was looking at Lucy and Brian with murderous intent. Before Fran could do anything, though, Cheryl suddenly charged at them, her jaws wide open. Fran jumped back, before suddenly realizing that nobody else was looking at Cheryl. Before she knew what was happening, Fran suddenly raced towards Cheryl, tackling her and throwing her off course. But only for a moment. In the next moment, Cheryl turned towards Fran, now growling at her maliciously. But before either of them could do anything, Brian suddenly raced towards Cheryl, grabbing a syringe and injecting it into her back. Cheryl's eyes widened in surprise, before they suddenly closed and she slumped to the ground.

"Whew! Sorry about that," said Brian, picking Cheryl up off the ground. He turned to Fran. "And thanks for doing what you did. I probably would have been fine, but you just spared me a lot of pain. You have my gratitude." With one final grin, he turned and walked out of the room with Cheryl in his arms.

Lucy watched him go before turning to the other girls. "She'll be fine," she said. "We'll administer an antidote to her later, along with a memory-erasing formula. She won't remember a thing about this. We'll have to find another girl later seeing as you're now down a teammate, but... you three are still willing to participate, right?" Sammy and Eve nodded, and after a beat, Fran did the same. "Excellent! Then feel free to follow me out onto the basketball court! You'll spend today getting used to playing in your new bodies, and then we can officially begin training! Come on, Tigers!"

With those words, Lucy turned and walked out onto the field, with the three lab retrievers following close behind. As she walked, Fran sighed to herself. This hadn't been what she was expecting, of course, but she certainly wasn't complaining. If she had enough confidence to tackle Cheryl like that in this new body, she felt like she could do anything! It might take a little while to train and get used to things like this, but she could get there. She knew she could! For once in her life, Fran finally felt confident about herself.