When Jon shuffled into the so-called Empathetics class, he was struck by a couple of things. Firstly, he wasn't just with other juniors. There was a mix of freshmen, sophmores, and seniors as well among the 33 students apparently taking the class. He also didn't recognize the teacher, and he felt he definitely would have remembered her. Sonia Esposito was a very attractive Latina in her late 20s or early 30s, wearing a striking red blouse and black pencil skirt that did little to hide her generous breasts and round ass. Honestly, it was a good thing this class was supposed to be an easy A, because he was probably going to be a little distracted throughout the course. The final thing he noticed was a large something hidden under a sheet on the far side of the room; it seemed to be vaguely symmetrical and very large but he couldn't figure anything out beyond that.
"Ahem, your attention, please," Ms. Esposito said after the bell, with a hint of a Spanish accent. She smiled out at the room full of students, "Welcome to Empathetics, or to give it the proper title, Swap Class." The classroom tittered a bit at that, but few of them seemed as confused as Jon was. Why would the class have a different name. Ms. Esposito chuckled, "Yes, some of you may have heard rumors of this course, but I must remind you that it is top secret. In order for this class to accomplish its goal, no one outside of it can know its exact nature," she explained with a slightly rolled R. "Now, to begin, everyone please pull out the notebooks you prepared over break."
Jon had a moment of panic, apparently having had over the break homework he didn't know about, but looked in his bag anyway. He remembered what Karyn had said about reality having changed to reflect her new appearance, even if she didn't remember it, and sure enough, there was a small composition book he didn't recognize sitting among his things. He pulled it out and quickly thumbed through it, startled to find what basically amounted to a primer on his life/diary of the last several months. It wasn't quite a full expose, there was no mention of the Stone, thank god, but there was a lot of information nonetheless. Had everyone put one of these together!?
"Now, to explain what is going to happen," Ms. Esposito explained as she walked around picking up the notebooks. "We are going to use this device," she declared while dramatically removing the sheet, "to switch your bodies for the next semester." The device consisted of two large human sized white pods, connected by what looked like a server rack or old style computer, beeping and booping away. Jon was instantly on edge at the appearance of what was clearly Stone created sci fi technology, but there was little he could do in the moment. After the accidental wish, he'd locked the stone away in an old shoebox to keep it safe and avoid making accidental wishes or losing the stone by taking it around with him.
Ms. Espoito continued explaining to the class, "once in your partner's body, you will live their life for the semester. You'll be expected to complete their courses, participate in their extracurricular activities, hangout with their friends, date their partners should they have them, spend time with their families and so on. The notebooks you provided will be your guides for your partner's life, and should have all the information you need, provided everyone completed them properly." There were a few nervous chuckles at that. "Now before we go any further, I'm sure some of you have questions?"
One student, a somewhat nerdy boy called Leonard Drullers, raised a hand and asked, "What if they mess up our other classes?" It was a fair question considering Leonard was in the running to be valedictorian.
"Everyone is expected to complete all the duties that come with their new lives to the best of their ability," Ms. Esposito answered. "Anyone found to be shirking, or indeed, refusing to embrace their new life will be penalized. This is all about building empathy between students by taking a walk in each other's shoes, and you need to take it seriously. That said, as long as everyone is making an honest effort, the school is dedicated to assisting you in keeping up to your new life's standards." She didn't explain exactly what she meant by that, but it seemed to mollify Leonard.
"Uh like, do we get to pick our partners?" Sarah McMillan asked without raising her hand. The head cheerleader cast a furtive glance over towards a few of the other students, clearly less keen on becoming some of them than others.
"No," Ms. Esposito said plainly, "the whole point is to get you out of your comfort zones and interacting with people you otherwise might not. Not only will you be living your partner's life, but you'll be working with them on several projects in this class throughout the year and coaching them through living yours. Just working with your friends would hardly accomplish the same goal." She then nodded at another student who had their hand up, Freshman Alexis Starr, who was captain of the JV Volleyball squad and Jon's sister Zoe's personal nemesis.
"So we just do whatever the book tells us to do? Isn't that a little boring?" She asked.
"Not at all," Ms. Esposito responded, "the books are just the foundation. You're going to be living these lives, making decisions as your partner, and trying to truly inhabit their headspace. Of course you'll bring your own perspective into it, but you will need to avoid acting suddenly out of character. That means no hanging out with your own friends if your body doesn't know them, no ignoring the things your host life cares about and so on. However, even within those constraints I think you'll find there's a lot of wiggle room, and room to discover new things about your partner as you live their life. Don't forget you'll be meeting in this course every weekday to compare notes, and help each other. That reminds me, I must stress that this period is the only time you will be allowed to refer to the fact that you've switched lives and bodies with someone, outside of this room, you are your partner."
This was bad, this was really bad. If Jon wasn't Jon, he'd lose access to the stone and then who knew what might happen? On the one hand, the person in Jon's body wouldn't know it was in the shoebox in the back of his closet, so they shouldn't be making wishes, but on the other, how would he be able to wish this away?
Wait, can I wish this away? Jon suddenly realized. All the other wishes had been unreversable; if this was the Something Interesting, and he thought it was, then the stone wouldn't be able to undo it. He had a sinking feeling that he might just have to ride this whole Swap Class thing out to it's conclusion. Still, it was worth asking, so he tentatively raised his hand.
"Yes, Mr. Gibson?" Ms. Esposito called on him
"Uh, when do we switch and when do we switch back?" Maybe he could hide the stone better before this thing happened, or find a clever way out of it.
"Well you'll be swapping back at the beginning of summer break, and we'll begin the swapping in just a few minutes, after partners have been assigned."
