"I hope you all had a good first night in your partner's bodies," Jon said as he clacked across the front of the classroom. He absently readjusted the simple silver pendant necklace he'd worn that morning as he did so. He'd decided to be a bit daring with his outfit, choosing a dress that showed off his new curves and was undeniably feminine. Part of it was due to his desire to show the original Sonia that he was taking the class seriously, but there was another element at play. As himself Jon had never really felt good about how he looked, never felt attractive and it was a bit of a thrill being a body that was. Was it the end of the world if he wanted to show off a little?
"Why do you have Ms. Esposito's accent, Jon?" Sarah asked snottily from Larry's body. The former head cheerleader was wearing a sweater vest and tan slacks, kind of making Larry look like he was dressed up for picture day. It was evident the popular girl had tried to find the nicest clothes in her host's closet that morning. Larry on the other hand was lucky Sarah had a beautiful body and a wardrobe full of fashionable clothes; even not really knowing what he was doing, he still looked great in a tie front green blouse and skinny jeans. He'd neglected makeup, accessories, and his shoes didn't match, but it was hard to make Sarah look truly bad.
"A good question, Mr. Louver," Jon drawled in said accent, "although I must remind you to refer to me as Ms. Esposito. To answer, I practiced last night as part of getting ready to live Ms. Esposito's life. It wasn't as difficult as you might think, our bodies have both a host of muscle memory and preexisting neural pathways that you'll find makes it easy to learn things your partner already learned, and to pick up their mannerisms if you put some effort in." Jon was essentially repeating what Sonia had told him yesterday, but said it with his new authoritative dulcet tones. He was pleased to see several students starting to take notes.
Jon walked over to the whiteboard and began writing as he continued to lecture, "That's going to be our major goal this first week, inhabiting the physicality of our partners. I want all of you to practice walking, moving and emoting like your partner's normally would until you get it down. Those of you who are in bodies participating in sports will need to put in an extra effort here; you have the bodies of athletes but you need to work on your skills. Don't worry too much though, your bodies know what to do so if you put the work in, you'll be where you should be in no time." Jon was working from the detailed lesson plans the real Ms. Esposito had made, and he could see, as he turned around, that the students were accepting him as the teacher. He'd worried about that a bit, since the Swap Class students knew who he was previously; he didn't want to have to struggle to maintain order in class. It seemed the practice he'd done last night to get a few of Ms. Esposito's mannerisms, and preparing to teach the material had helped here, making the students unconsciously associate him with who he appeared to be and the authority that came along with it.
He hadn't had to worry about it in his earlier Spanish classes, since almost all of his students there had no clue he was an imposter. The trial there had been his growing, but still shaky command of the language in question. If he had to guess, he was only about as good as the top students in his second year course at the moment. To that end, he'd not really lectured today, instead just passing out worksheets and assigning reading. However, now, in Swap Class, he was lecturing for the first time and really enjoying it. He'd noticed the moment he first heard it that Ms. Esposito had a beautiful voice, and hearing it come out of his throat was almost mesmerizing.
Today's lecture focused on discussing how to move with different body types, a refresher on gender differences and hygiene for those who'd swapped across those lines, and a bit about how best to practice their new physicalities. Around half way through class, Jon said, "Now, for the latter half of the class we're going to split into pairs and have an opportunity to ask each other any questions that came up on your first nights. Remember to be respectful, and take notes on anything important. Tomorrow we'll be critiquing our partner's movements, so remember to practice tonight. Everybody find your partner, and we'll get started."
