The remainder of class went by in what felt like a blink of an eye to Jon, who was constantly distracted by the sensations coming from his new body. Hell, even breathing felt different in this body; Sonia must not suffer from the same mild asthma that made gym class awful for Jon. As the bell rang, Jon watched the switched students exit out into the world for the first time in their new bodies, displaying a mixture of excitement, trepidation, sorrow, and elation. Soon, he was left alone in the classroom, with his old body standing in front of the desk. Sonia took a deep breath before turning to him, her tone serious.
"Look, whether it was my plan or not, we're going to be working together for the next six months, so there can be no secrets between us," Ms Esposito said plainly.
Jon offered her a weak smile, "sorry you got stuck switching with me." It wasn't like he planned the switches or anything, but he understood switching with a student and trusting them to run her classes was a uniquely difficult situation.
Sonia sighed, "It's not your fault; all Swap Class teachers act as backups if the class ends up with uneven numbers. It's frustrating, but whether I like it or not, you'll be the one driving home in my Lamborghini."
"You drive a Lambo?" Jon asked in surprise; Lakeview Academy was a fairly nice charter school, but presumably a teacher's salary still wasn't that high.
Sonia seemed to understand what he was implying and replied, "my spouse bought it for me."
Jon looked down at his hand and 'yep, that's definitely an engagement ring.' It had a large beautiful round cut diamond as its main stone, with a ring of smaller stones of many colors surrounding it like a rainbow sunburst. Just under that sat a wedding band. Jon let that wash over him; he was a married woman. Other students might be having to fumble there way through dealing with each others girlfriends and boyfriends tomorrow, but he'd be living out a serious relationship starting tonight. He swallowed heavily, but kept himself from freaking out. 'Stay Calm, panicking won't help anyone'
"Don't worry, they're out of town till the end of the week, so we have some time to get you settled being Sonia Esposito," Sonia explained. "The only major social engagement I had this week was lunch with my sister and niece on Saturday, but, again, we've got nearly the whole week to get you prepared for that." Sonia stepped around and pulled open a drawer on the desk, reaching in to produce a slim leather notebook. "This is my own logbook for you to reference; it's a little out of date since I wrote it when I started teaching this course two years ago, but I'll be here to coach you as well. We don't have too long this afternoon, so we'll just focus on you knowing the lesson plans for this week for all my classes." Sonia held up Jon's own notebook, "don't worry, I texted Ms. Black that Ms. Esposito asked me to stay after and help her with something, so she's not waiting for me to walk home."
That statement put Jon back on his new heels in two ways; first it drove home that while he was living Sonia's life, she'd be living his, including hanging out with Karyn and living in his house, his room, etc. However, it was another detail she brought up that gave him pause, "Wait classes?" He asked, "what do you teach besides Swap Class?" It made sense that she had to teach something else during the other periods of the day, but he hadn't really thought about it. He didn't really recall Ms. Esposito before today, so he didn't know if she'd even taught at Lakeview before his errant wish.
"My other three periods are Spanish classes of various levels," she explained. "I have them in the morning, then planning after lunch and then Swap Class of course. Don't worry, we'll go over those lessons as well."
"But I don't speak Spanish!" Jon protested.
Sonia giggled, which was odd to see his old body doing, "there's no need to panic, look here." She picked up a volume of poetry that was sitting on her desk, written in Spanish and handed it to him. "Try and read this."
Jon was unsure, but did as asked and began reading some passages aloud. He was amazed that he was able to recite the words with what sounded like a flawless pronunciation; he didn't really know what he was saying, but it sounded perfect with Sonia's voice. After a moment he paused, "Okay, so I sound like I speak Spanish, but I still don't know what I'm saying."
Sonia nodded, "that's down to muscle memory. Your tongue knows how to speak the language; if I read it now, I'd still understand it but it would come out sounding like an American trying to work it out phonetically. You'll be able to get my accent I have when speaking English with just a little practice, which I recommend you start tonight so you've got it before school starts tomorrow."
Jon ran his tongue along his new pearly white teeth, taking in the different feel his new mouth had. "But what about actually teaching the language?"
"You won't learn it overnight, but if you study, I think you'll probably be fluent by the end of the week," Sonia explained much to Jon's incredulity. "This is something we'll cover a bit later in class, but, to use a metaphor, we've exchanged software not hardware. You still have Sonia Esposito's brain in there, complete with all its neural pathways and that's a real boon when it comes to impersonating your partner. It's much easier to relearn something your body already learned once, than to learn a totally new skill. You won't suddenly get my memories, but just reading through a Spanish-English dictionary would pretty quickly give you a basic vocabulary that you'll retain."
"Whoa, that's incredible," Jon replied, a little excited to try that out, "I guess that's how Larry won't land on his face when he has to lead the pep rally at the end of the month?"
Sonia nodded, "yes and it goes doubly for muscle memory. You have to try of course, it's not automatic, but you can pick up your body's physical mannerisms really quickly; it's what the body is used to after all. In your case, you'll probably find walking in heels to be easy before long since I like the height they give me, and you should be able to acquire a more feminine way of moving without too much trouble." Jon looked askance, but Sonia plowed on, "and you will want to put in that work Jon. You need to do your best to embody being me, while I do the same as you. You wouldn't want Jon Gibson to suddenly start swaying his hips as he walked, right? Well I expect the same courtesy in the reverse."
Jon held up a placating hand, trying not to stare at the ring on it, "Of course, Ms. Esposito, I'll do my best." He really would; he didn't see a way of getting out of this wish, so just getting to the end of the semester seemed to be the best way forward. (He was also a little clandestinely excited about getting to be in Sonia's beautiful body, and drive her sports car, even if he was anxious over having to share a house with her spouse when the week came to an end.)
Sonia sighed, "You need to get used to calling me Jon, or Mr. Gibson. You're Ms. Esposito, or Sonia to everyone who's not your student. Well, your sister calls you Nia, but, again, we'll prep for her during partner time in class later this week. Look, I'm sorry for being a bit cold on this whole swap. I really do believe in this class, and the benefits we get from experiencing different walks of life through the swaps. This is just a bit of a bad semester for me to be one of the switchers."
"Why?" Jon asked, worried that there was some big event he was going to have to be Sonia for.
"Because, I'm starting IVF in two months, or rather, you will be," she explained, dropping a bombshell on Jon.
