Match Made in Virginia [s. reid]

one

CHAPTER ONE
"IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU,
AGENT HOTCHNER."
( A LONG MORNING )

TEACHING WAS SOMETHING THAT Natalie Dolan loved. The thirty year old absolutely loved being able to share knowledge with the kids in her classroom. The idea of helping them learn and possibly grow as people filled her with joy. She loved being able to share ideas and communicate with the students as well as the other teachers at the school. Still, though, there were hard days where the students were getting on her last nerve, or there were days when it was tough to correctly explain whatever it was she was teaching that day. But then there days where she got to see excitement grow in a few students when they understood things, and days where not only she enjoyed it, but the students as well. Those were the days she loved the most when teaching.

Natalie sat at her desk at the front of the classroom, near a corner so it wasn't blocking some of the student's views of the board on the wall. Various stacks of papers – graded, not yet graded, study guides she needed to hand out and others – sat on the surface, as well as a few pens and pencils and the remote to the smart board. As one of the English teachers for tenth and eleventh grade, and the World History for eleventh grade, and the teacher for the elective Psychology for all grades, she constantly had stacks of papers everywhere. On her desk at school and various spots at home. Not only stacks, but large binders to keep organized and notebooks filled with her own notes to help herself when making PowerPoints for the students to take notes from.

The woman stuck the red pen in her mouth as she reached over to one side of her desk, grabbing the planner with the list of students in each class period. She then carefully moved away the stack of Psychology tests she was grading to a free spot, and marked who was in class as the students did their morning work. Once that was done, she rolled herself in the chair to her computer (more like a slight roll and a turn) and went to mark them as present on the computer.

"Ms. Dolan?"

Natalie hummed. "Yes, Nathan?" She questioned without turning around.

"How do islands not float away?"

She stopped what she was doing, and slowly turned to look at the junior. The teen clearly asked that question to get a reaction from her; he was trying to hide a smile as he acted serious and his friends around him were quietly and not so subtly laughing. A few other students, mostly girls, groaned in annoyance and a few even asked him if he was serious, claiming he couldn't be.

"Nathan," she began, "It's only the start of the day."

"I'm being serious," he tried. "How do islands not float away?"

Sam Ross, who sat in the front row and a best friend of Holly, rolled her eyes in pure annoyance at the boy. "I really hate you today, Nathan."

Nathan glared at Sam from his desk and made a face. "I wasn't talking to you, Sam."

Sam mocked him in a deep voice, making most of the class laugh as Nathan frowned and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he leaned back in his seat.

Natalie kept herself from laughing. "Alright, everyone stay calm. Sam, don't tell others you hate them, it's rude. Nathan, I know you're not being serious, so I won't answer your question. Now, get ready, we're about to take notes on a few Chinese dynasties." She then turned back around and submitted in the roll of who was there and who wasn't on PowerTeacher, listening as she heard the students pull out binders, notebooks and pens to take notes. Then, she pulled up the correct saved PowerPoint from her plugged in hard drive and got it ready before turning on the smart board.