Ground Rules (Pt. 1) - TG Caption

    “You might want to brace yourself before I get home.” It was custom for a teacher to take place in their own swap class should the amount of students be uneven. Normally it shouldn’t happen, it isn’t as if they don’t plan ahead, but extenuating circumstances can sometimes cause certain students to not be in the right place to undertake the massive life change that comes with body swapping and swap class’ various eccentricities. All of this led to Mr. Luce - Anthony - being forced to take place in this semester of class. And so now here he was, getting ready to head home in the body of a teen girl and break the news to his wife that he would be this way for nearly six months.

    “Why, did you have to participate this year? Oh! I can’t wait to see what you’re like as a teen boy.” Well, it made sense that she wouldn’t immediately think he could end up in a young woman’s body… so Anthony snapped a picture with the glittery phone he had been given and queued it up to be sent to her. He walked through the halls and tried to smile and wave to each of the students who seemed to recognize him as he passed. Swap class students were supposed to act as a substitute for the person they became. It wasn’t possible to fully enforce this rule of course, depending on their preference they could go stay at their old place, and of course, they were prone to tell their friends about their swap. But it did help to mark off their grade if it made it back to the teacher that they had broken their “facade.” After all, the point of this class was to understand one another. Amber was the name of the girl Anthony now “was.” The poor girl was going to have to run the class, she would be compensated in a way that the other students normally wouldn’t of course. She opted to go stay with her parents… Anthony wasn’t going to raise any complaints about that, he couldn’t imagine going and pretending to be their daughter.

    “Do you happen to have some clothes that I could wear?”

…

    “Amber, huh?” Anthony completely broke the news to his wife Clara as he got home. And now she was processing it all. So here her husband with, not just swapped with someone because of his teaching job, but swapped with someone younger, a teen girl? Clara couldn’t help but think about how she was at that age… what was she going to do? “So what, you have to pretend to be my daughter then?”

    “Well, yeah, technically. You don’t actually have to do anything though, I’ll just go to school, get this over with, and we’ll be back to normal. I’m still getting paid. We’ll be fine.” Anthony casually leaned back, letting the stress he had built up go. That was that. They were done. Maybe he would go take a nap… but before that, he did need to get tomorrow figured out. Wardrobe, appearance, he would have to emulate Amber to the best of his ability.

    “No, I think we should set some ground rules.” That caused Anthony to look up to his wife. What could she possibly have in mind? What rules could they need to lay out beforehand? But, of course, he agreed with a nod. “For starters, you aren’t going to dress like that, especially not in public. What if some guy creeps on you?!” Something deep inside Anthony was bothered by that. Why couldn’t he dress this way? And it was the way Amber dressed anyway, shouldn’t that be a reason to do so? But whatever. “And there’s no way you’re driving yourself anywhere… you don’t even have a license! You can’t be going anywhere without checking with me.” Anthony’s jaw dropped. She wouldn’t let him drive anywhere? Was she going to take him to school? “And no, you aren’t wearing my clothes, we’re going to have to get you your own.” Get his own clothes, how would he even begin? Anthony looked down at his chest and thought about how hard it would be to shop for girl’s clothing… what would Amber wear? What would look good on him? And oh god, makeup. Would he get made fun of if he didn’t do it himself? “Oh, and last of all? I know what it’s like to be a young lady… no dating, and absolutely no boys in the house alone with you, got it?” No boys… seriously?

    “That’s crazy Clara, you can’t just treat me like a teenage girl!” Clara put down her foot and smiled a beaming smile. She had a daughter and she was going to get all the fun out of it that she could. She unmovingly stared down the defiant girl in front of her until “she” gave in. Anthony couldn’t defy her… he felt like he wasn’t in any position to, looking up at Clara the way he was now, it was a completely different dynamic. He wasn’t her husband, just a girl… “I know you want to try dating, but you don’t know how boys your age can be, Amber.” That wasn’t what he was mad about… she didn’t even understand. Clara took Anthony’s keys and put them up high where he couldn’t reach. Clara was in control, and she was going to be a responsible mother to Amber. “Now, go put something on over those shoulders, we should go get you something to wear. Then we can talk about how you’re going to do in school!”