Tricks of the Trade
by DC male@heterosexual.com
A close friend of mine has always been involved in spiritual things. He got me interested in soul travel. I had tried it many times and it never worked for me. He was a master of it. He would sit down in a chair for about five minutes and get a blank expression on his face. A few minutes later, he would come to and tell me everything I did while he was out. He would tell me about things he couldn't possibly know about. One day, while he was visiting my dorm room, he came out of it and told me about a pair of kids vandalizing cars in the lot behind. The next day, there were reports about damaged cars in that lot. The only problem was that, no matter how hard I tried, I could never get it to work.
I wished I could do it as well as him because I thought it would be fun to use it to watch the cheerleaders get ready before the games. Now I got to see more than the average guy since I was a stuntman for the squad, but I missed out on all the conversations in the bathrooms and locker rooms. I wanted to know what the girls really thought of me. To be perfectly honest, I would have dated any one of them, but Jenny was the most beautiful. Sarah was the second most attractive, but neither one of the two had a very good personality. There problems were that they were incredibly beautiful, but they knew it, which made them best of friends. Yep, you know the type. I was too much of a "quiet guy" to ever have a shot with either of them, but that didn't stop me from dreaming.
It was Saturday and time for the weekly game. At half-time, I was supposed to put Jenny up on my shoulders for a cheer. I didn't really feel like doing any lifting because I just got done resting before the game and was still a little too relaxed. My "soul travel buddy" (whose name I'll keep private) had told me before the game that I got the relaxing part down, but I'm not really concentrating enough. I tried to memorize all of his instructions. Anyway, Sarah was going to be the spotter for Jenny's shoulder stand on me. Her shoes were brand new and good for stunting. They were extra light weight with a groove just for grasping during stunts. It helped that Sarah was spotting us because she would be there in case Jenny fell. I really focused because I hadn't been getting the stunt just right during practice and didn't want to screw it up during the game. Jenny shot right up and went on my shoulders. I was holding her up perfectly.
All of a sudden, I felt myself getting lifted. I looked down and saw myself holding Jenny on my shoulders. My face had that blank expression I had seen repeatedly on my friend's face. Almost instantly, I thought of Jenny's safety. What if I dropped her? I shot down to reunite with my body. It was strange. It was a struggle to reenter my body. I had to attempt it a few times as if I was being pushed out. Then I felt like I was suddenly popped in. The first thing I noticed was that I wasn't holding any weight. I instinctively waved my arms around to try to catch Jenny, but she wasn't there! I felt myself go off balance and fall. I fell a lot further than I expected to and was caught by Sarah. She had a shocked look on her face.
"Sarah?" she whispered.
I looked at her confused. "You're Sarah."
"No, I'm Jenny!"
We both stared at each other for a second and then looked to the side. There was my body with a shocked look on his face. Then it hit me. Jenny is in Sarah's body, but I see my own body in front of both of us. I looked down. Jenny's body. I slowly looked myself over. The little socks scrunched around my ankles and on my size five feet. And there they were, her new cheerleading shoes on my tiny little feet. My legs were not only smooth, but seemed to shine in the sunlight reminding me of watching her apply lotion before the game. The bright colors of my pleated skirt flapped in the wind. I felt her sports bra hugging my new breasts inside the uniform shell. My shoulders were now exposed unlike the shortsleeve shirt I wore moments ago. I felt the tightness of my hair having been pulled back into a pony tail. The school colors on the streamers flapping in the wind like the other girls. My ears felt strange because Jenny had pierced them several times, but she couldn't wear jewelry during stunts.
Sarah, in my body, came walking up to me. "Jenny, it's me Sarah!" she said in shock at her new voice.
"Sarah," I didn't know what to say. "Jenny's in your body."
Jenny went over and told the other girls that the three of us had to leave for the rest of the game. They didn't really understand, but we thought it would be best not to tell anyone what just happened.
Sarah seemed a little disappointed that she got the worst end of the deal. After all, she was miss popular in high school and life was easy for her since she went to college. Now she was a guy. She was glad Jenny had her body instead of me, but she felt that I would make Jenny look foolish since she now had my male personality. The funny thing was that I naturally walked very girlishly as I picked up my poms and bag and swayed off toward the locker rooms.
Jenny, since she was still a girl in a girl's body, went into the locker room first to see if it was empty. Then she motioned for us to follow her. Once inside, we decided not to change our clothes completely. We were already in shock and I wasn't ready to see my new body naked. Besides, Jenny didn't look like she wanted me to see her body naked, even though it was now mine. Jenny did change into sweat pants and a T-shirt because she was comfortable enough in Sarah's body. She also opened her bag and pulled out a pair of canvas tennis shoes for me to wear. I pulled off the new cheerleading shoes and slid off my socks. I was amazed at my red toenails, but even more shocking was the size of my tiny feet. I wiggled my little toes around and noticed how my foot had a totally different arch. I went from a size ten in men's shoes to a size five in women's shoes--a difference of seven sizes! My feet were less than half their old size. As I slipped on a clean pair of socks, I admired my soft, smooth legs. Then I put on the canvas shoes and was amazed at how comfortable they were. I stood up and took a few steps. As I looked down at myself, I felt like a high school cheerleader with the cheerleading uniform and the canvas shoes. In college, we wear shoes specifically designed for cheerleading.
Sarah asked us how this all happened and if we even knew. I hesitated, felling a little guilty, and explained about the soul traveling I had been dabbling with. Jenny explained how she felt like she was pushed out of her body. The next thing she knew, she was looking up at her body reaching around for something to hold onto. She automatically jumped into Sarah's body in order to catch her own body and keep it from falling. This must have been when she pushed Sarah out of her body and right into mine.
At this point Sarah really felt that she got the short end of the stick. I felt really sorry for her, having just lost her beautiful body, but she got really upset at me. She accused me of plotting the whole thing and attempting to steal Jenny's body, only the plan slipped up a little and Jenny went into her body. She demanded that I return her to her own body. I tried to explain to her that we might be able to switch back, but it would take a lot of learning about soul travel.
About this time, I saw Jenny glance toward the mirror. Then she looked back and became fixed on her reflection. A look of astonishment swept over her new face. I lightly walked over by her and looked in the mirror also. Sarah ran to the mirror and almost instantly began to cry, but I was barely aware of her since I was so taken by the reflection in the mirror. I had Jenny's beautiful face. I saw this cute girl in her cheerleading uniform all the time, but now I was her. The pretty girl in the mirror was me! I had a few strands of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail playing across the sides of my soft cheeks. A subtle bit of make-up added just the right amount of color to my face. My thin, elegant fingers with their red nails felt my smooth face from the thin eyebrows, along the little button nose and round cheeks, to my soft little chin. Being so used to stubble making my face rough, I couldn't believe how smooth and soft my skin was. I guess it was all the moisturizers that Jenny had been using. I was a lot shorter than I used to be, which made it seem like I had to walk a lot further to get to the mirror. Just inches away, I admired my pure blue eyes and my light brown hair. I smiled and couldn't help but giggle a feminine little laugh, which made Jenny laugh a little, too. Then we both noticed how Sarah had been crying in the corner the whole time we were staring in the mirror. Sarah stood up in his tall new body and awkwardly stormed out, leaving my bag behind. Jenny and I looked at each other for a minute, very concerned about Sarah. Then another shock hit Jenny as she saw her own body before her. I suddenly felt weird knowing that this girl in front of me had the soul that was in this body since birth. I did start to feel like I had taken it from her, like it was her property, her body. I felt guilty knowing that she was a little girl in this body, that she learned how to ride a bike in this body, that she had her first high school love in this body, and went to prom in this body. Even more, I thought about how she had planned her whole life in this body and was now just thrown into a different body. Yet, her life wouldn't have to be very different. She was still a girl, she didn't even have a boyfriend. But then it hit me. Sarah did. And there was no way he would be interested in her now. She was, after all, me. Poor Sarah. Jenny and I felt that we could go on just fine, but now Sarah is out there, very upset and depressed, in my body.
We decided to try to find her in my car. The keys were in the pants in my bag, so I got them out and Jenny and I looked for her. We stopped at the nearest bar. We guessed that Sarah would be there since she couldn't have gotten far, leaving her keys with Jenny. As soon as we walked in, we saw Kevin, Sarah's boyfriend. He came right over and started talking to Jenny, not realizing that it wasn't his girlfriend. He told us about a guy that came in and said that he was really Sarah.
"Where did he go?" asked Jenny.
"Well, he stormed out," Kevin answered. "The crazy lunatic was mad I didn't believe his stupid story."
Jenny took right off and I followed. I felt a hand grab my arm as we stepped out of the bar. Kevin had followed us out.
He looked concerned and full of questions. "Hey, what is going on here? Who was that guy?" He looked at me, "Jenny, why are you still wearing your uniform? Shouldn't you girls be at the game yet?"
I decided to make a typical smart comment, typical for me that is, not Jenny. I pointed at Jenny (in Sarah's body) "She didn't want me to see myself naked, that's why I'm still in this uniform." I looked at Jenny, who seemed a little mad about my remark, "I don't know why you complain about these uniforms, I think they're comfortable."
Kevin looked really confused. So I told him, "Come along, I'll explain on the way."
I let Jenny drive and Kevin kept asking more and more questions about whose car this was and why we needed to find this guy. He even asked Jenny, who he still thought was Sarah, if she was cheating on him with this guy. Finally, he calmed down enough and looked at me. "Jenny," he whispered quietly enough for Jenny not to hear. "Be perfectly honest. Is Sarah cheating on me."
I looked him in the eye and said, "Do you remember that guy in the bar?" He nodded. "Well, that was Sarah. And the body she was in belongs to me." I pointed to Jenny and said, "That's Jenny. I'm actually a stuntman with the squad."
He looked shocked and still didn't fully believe it. "How did it happen?" he asked.
"Well," I said, "we had a little accident in a stunt and our souls kind of flipped around."
Surprisingly, he lost interest in his girlfriend's predicament. He leaned in for a closer look at me. "What's it like?" he asked.
I was taken back by the question. "Well...it's a lot like getting new glasses, because your vision changes. And also you feel like you've been shot with a shrinking ray. The uniform feels a lot cooler than men's clothing, but I do have to admit that I'm a little self-conscious in it. But I know how good Jenny.....I mean, how good I look, so I kind of like being the center of attention. I felt like everyone paid attention to me the second I walked into the bar. It was kind of nice."
Kevin thought for a minute. "I didn't know that was possible. I'd like to try it," he said.
Jenny turned in her seat and looked back at Kevin in amazement at what she just heard. I thought about how much of a mess Sarah was in now and how much worse it would be if Kevin were put into the equation. I also remembered how much of a jerk Kevin was. I didn't see him very often, but I never felt that he respected Sarah enough. I suddenly felt like he was lusting after my new body, like he wanted it from me. I wanted to protect myself, so I instinctively crossed my legs. Once again, I shocked myself. It suddenly occurred to me that I was stuck in Jenny's body, riding in my own car with my legs crossed, wearing her cheer uniform. It was also strange how big the interior of my car seemed. There would have been no way I could have crossed my legs in this car before.
I was looking out at the sidewalk when I suddenly saw my body storming along. I pointed toward him and shouted, "Hey, there he...I mean there's..uh...Sarah."
Kevin seemed really upset that his girlfriend was suddenly trapped in my body. Jenny stopped the car on the side of the road and we all ran out towards Sarah. Kevin grabbed her and explained, "They told me the story. I'm sorry I didn't believe you, but don't run away. We'll find a way to switch you back."
Sarah finally seemed content. She smiled a little and thanked us all for not giving up on her.
We went to Jenny's dorm room and she pulled out a Ouija board. Right away, I told her I wouldn't go near the thing. They begged and pleaded, but Kevin just became irate. He grabbed me by the hands and forced me to put my hands on the board. "We're going to straighten this out, now!" he demanded. That's one of the things I hated about Kevin. He got so mad all the time and didn't respect women. I knew that now more than ever, since I had become one of those women he disrespected.
I stood up and twirled in a half circle. I marched to the other side of the room and plopped myself down Jenny's bed. I realized how feminine I had become in the three and a half hours I'd spent as Jenny because I felt just how girls always looked when they were mad. They never became nearly as hostile as men, but that had always been part of my personality. Kevin began to stand up, but Sarah firmly grabbed his wrist. It seemed that her new male body was making her more aggressive. "We don't need her for this," she explained.
They started the whole routine with the Ouija board. It was really interesting. I had never seen it before, but I was always told to avoid those things at all costs. They asked it questions about all our names and it got them all right, even though we had been placed in different bodies.
Jenny asked it why we had been forced to swap bodies. It slowly spelled out, "Y-O-U B-E-L-O-N-G T-H-E-R-E."
Then she asked it why we were supposed to trade places. It spelled out, "M-I-S-T-A-K-E I-N B-I-R-T-H."
"What mistake?" I shouted out without thinking.
"W-R-O-N-G G-E-N-D-E-R."
At this point, Kevin couldn't take it. He slammed his hand down on the board and violently ran out of the dorm room. Sarah started to get up and Jenny put her hand on Sarah's shoulder to stop her.
Jenny looked deep in thought. "Did you see that?" she said. "What if we were born in the wrong bodies. What if I really am supposed to be Sarah? I've been living Jenny's life for her all this time while the poor girl has been stuck in a boy's body."
The idea hit me hard. What if she was right? Maybe this is how it was meant to be. I was supposed to be Jenny all along. That would explain why I had such a fixation with her. That would explain how I managed to slide into her body during that stunt. That's why she had always complained about wearing the uniform while I thought it felt just right. But what about Sarah? Was she supposed to be me? Was Jenny supposed to have taken her body?
For a full two minutes the room was silent. The only sounds were some other girls giggling down the hall and talking with some guys. Sarah broke the silence with a smirk and then some laughter. Jenny and I were a little confused. She stopped laughing and became really serious. She looked right at me and said, "Do you girls remember when I started crying in the locker room?"
I was a little surprised she referred to both of us as "girls."
"Well," she went on, "it wasn't because I was upset. Sure I was surprised, but those were tears of joy and farewell to my old body. I always hated being forced to act gentle and sensitive. I wanted to be strong, aggressive and in control. That's why I stormed out. I loved being in charge. All those years of being miss soft-hearted are finally over." She stared intently at me for a moment. "Can I keep your body?"
My mouth went dry. I was stunned that she wanted to be me. I had been miserable in high school. I always kept to myself and felt like a social misfit, now I might be able to be a popular girl and express all of my emotions openly, but... I looked over toward Jenny. "Jenny," I said kind of nervously, "can I keep your body?"
She smiled a huge smile. "I've always wanted to be prettier," she said. I thought this was weird since I thought Jenny was the prettiest girl I had seen in a long time. Then a voice in my head reminded me, "That's why you got this body." Jenny continued, "One of the reasons I became friends with you, Sarah, was that I was jealous that you were prettier. Now I can hang around with..." She looked at me and nodded a little, "...Jenny over here. We can still be friends, right.....Jenny?"
I couldn't believe it. Jenny was calling me "Jenny." I giggled a little, "That sounds great, Sarah." We all chuckled a little.
Needless to say, Sarah dumped Kevin and started dating girls. We thought it would be cool if she dated one of us two girls, but it just didn't seem right. I thought a lot about how Jenny used to make me feel when I was a guy and I tried to be a lot nicer. The new Sarah and I got along great. She introduced me to fashion, shopping, and girl talk. I let her know how she had unknowingly treated nice guys before the exchange and she started treating men a lot nicer. I kept in touch with my old body to see what was going on with him. It seems he went on to become an accountant, a job I would never have done. I became a freelance artist, which the old Jenny would never have done. The new Sarah became an EMT with the hospital in my new hometown, we've been rooming together since the trade. The two of us remained best of friends ever since and kept in touch with the old Sarah at all the games. After all, you don't think we would give up cheerleading do you? That's where it all got started!