Nora was nine when she first met Thad. He was sixteen, and had recently started attending Dalton Academy. Her mother was their principal, and sometimes when the Dalton Academy Warblers performed, she tagged along. When Jeff fell backstage at regionals and injured his leg, her mother took it upon herself to drive him to the hospital, leaving Nora in the care of the remaining Warblers and Mr. Harvey, the French teacher. Thad took it upon himself to sit next to the young girl throughout the rest of the show and the bus ride home. When Mr. Harvey proposed he drive her home, she demanded Thad drove with them. Kids always seemed to like him.
The day Nora turns ten is an open day at Dalton Academy. Her mother has explained to her fifteen times before that they will throw her a birthday party the weekend after, but the girl stills sits in her chair pouting. Until the lights in the auditorium dim and she sees them come onstage – and Thad.
She sees him perform from time to time afterwards, and he always makes a point of coming up to talk to her when they're done. He graduates when she's twelve, and he is eighteen. At his very last performance as a Dalton Academy Warbler, she sits in the front row, and he winks – winks – at her. Her mother simply rolls her eyes and smiles at the goofy grin on her face throughout the rest of the evening.
By the time she is sixteen, she's completely forgotten Thad. She has started attending Crawford Country Day, and she meets Nathan at a Crawford/Dalton mixer. He is only the first in a long series of boys she has a note-worthy crush on.
Somewhere near the end of her last year at Crawford Country Day, she attends a Dalton Academy Warblers showcase with some friends. She is dumbfounded when she recognises their new 25-year-old supervisor as him. Her friends all blush and start giggling when he walks up to her afterwards and kindly asks her how she's been doing and compliments her on how good she looks. She can barely answer his question.
Three years later, she starts teaching French at Dalton Academy. He is still there, teaching history and supervising the Warblers. It takes Thad two more days to muster up the courage – and get over the fact that she's no longer that nine-year-old girl – and ask her out.
In the summer of the year she turns 24, she marries him. All the old Dalton Academy Warblers are there, and they hold a speech that contains exactly one word: 'Finally.'
Right, so, I'm not actually completely satisfied with this, so I think I might need some feedback.