This chapter kinda skips through Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday, but that's becasue I needed to focus on only a few things. I hope you enjoy this chapter. :) More to come soon! :D :)

Chapter 2

Bryan Bartlett was home by 10. When he walked in, Jasper was doing orintology homework at the kitchen table and Henry was doing some sort of meditation thing on the floor. He looked at Jasper and commented slyly:

"I see you're up early."

Henry tried to hide a laugh while Jasper just glared at them both.

"How'd the interview go?" Jasper asked as he put his book down.

"Good." his father replied. "You will have a new teacher on Monday."

"Really?" Henry asked, not opening his eyes or moving from his meditation pose. "What does he teach?"

"Miss Hazel will be teaching ancient civilizations for a short while until Mr. Hendricks gets back from a well deserved vacation." Mr. Bartlett emphasized the word "Miss".

"Mr. Hendricks is leaving?" Henry asked. He opened his eyes, stood up, and waled over to the table where his homework sat untouched beside Jasper's.

"Only for two months." Mr. Bartlett replied.

"What's this Miss Hazel like?" Jasper asked.

"You can find out on Monday." his father replied as he headed for the stairs. "I have some paperwork to do, so I will be in my office if you need anything."

With that, he headed up the stairs leaving the two boys in the kitchen. Jasper immediatly began to start on his homework again, while Henry looked at his homework and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Jasper asked.

Henry shrugged. "Finish meditating."

"What about your homework?" Jasper asked incredioubsly.

"I'll do it later." Henry replied.

"No!" Jasper got up and blocked Henry's way. "Now."

Henry just rolled his eyes and walked back to the kitchen table and opened his orinthology book.

"Happy?" he asked sarcastically.

Jasper just rolled his eyes and sat down and started answering the questions in his own orinthology book. Henry skipped through the part he had already read, and the part he hadn't, and started on the questions.

"Did you already read the whole chapter?" Jasper asked.

"Yes." Henry replied, not looking up.

Jasper just shook his head and started working on his own.

"Hey Jasper," Henry said after a few moments. "What's the answer to number 10?"

Jasper looked at Henry before reading the question: What is the United States of America's national bird?

"Seriosuly, Henry?" Jasper asked. He sighed when Henry shook his head yes. "It's the bald eagle."

"Thank you." Henry said as he quickly wrote the answer down.

The rest of the weekened went by quickly and Monday was soon on them. Both boys remembered that the new teacher, Mrs. Hazel, was suppose to be starting today. Unfortuantly, they had to wait till the end of the day to meet her.

"Hey guys!" there friend, Maggie Winnock, called as they walked into the school.

"Hey Maggie!" Jasper greeted her with a smile.

"Hey." Henry said.

"Have you all heard about Mr. Hendricks?" She asked as they all walked to their first class.

"That he is going on a two month vacation." Jasper began.

"And Miss Hazel is going to be our teacher till he returns." Henry finished.

"Your Dad told you all, didn't he." Maggie said, clearly unimpressed.

"Yep." Jasper grinned. "On Saturday."

Maggie rolled her eyes.

"Come on smart alacks," she said, "or we're gooing to be late for orinthology."

The rest of the day went by with kids talking in excited voices about the new teacher. Some said she was the best, but most said she was off her rocker. By the time it was finally Ancient Civilizations, the three friends, as well as the rest of their class, were greatly anticipating meeting Miss Hazel.

Not one kid was late and everyone was in there seats as the bell rang. The entire class was quiet as they sat there waiting for the new teacher. Five minutes passed, yet no one was there. Whispers started.

"Where do you think she is?" Maggie whispered.

"Maybe she's napping in the teachers lounge." Jasper suggested.

The words were barely out of his mouth when a young lady came stumbling into the room.

"Sorry I'm late!" she panted as she pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes. "Got caught up talking."

The class stared surpised at there new teacher. She couldn't have been more twenty-five, if that. She was relativly short with short blonde hair that she stuffed behind her ears. In her hands, she carried a briefcase with papers sticking out the sides. She placed the briefcase on her desk and fixed her hair before addressing the class.

"As I'm sure you are aware, I am Miss Hazel. I will be your teacher for the next two months while Mr. Hendricks is on vacation." she paused and glanced down at a piece of paper that was on her desk. "I see you have been studing the conquistadors and the empires they conquered. This is good, as that is one of my favorite subjects."

The class was dead silent, curious as to how this teacher would teach.

"But, before I begin this class," she changed the subject. "I want to get to know all of you. When I call out your name, say here and I will ask you one question for you to answer."

The class mumbled slightly at the oddity of this, but were quiet as soon as the first name was announced.

"Mary Anderson."

A brown haired girl squeaked out "Here" nervously.

"Hello Mary." Miss Hazel smiled at her before asking the question. "Where are you originaly from?"

"P..Pennsylvania." Mary replied, obviously still nervous.

"Lovely place this time of the year." the teacher commented before calling out the next name.

"Jasper Bartlett."

"Here." Jasper called, sounding a little uncofortable.

"Jasper, have you ever been outside of Washington D.C.?"

"Yeah, a couple of times to visit my grandparents." Jasper sounded relieved.

And so it went. Miss Hazel would call out a kids name, ask them a simple question, then move on. Despite the fact that the questions weren't embarassing or anything, every person seemed nervous.

"Henry Griffin."

"Here." Henry said calmly.

"Is it true that your parents sent you to live with your uncle and cousin because you were to much trouble and kept getting into mischief?"

"No!" Henry replied quickly, before continued. "Well yes. Uh sorta."

Miss Hazel's eybrows went up in question at that. Henry could feel the entire class's eyes on him and it made him slightly uncomfortable. He squirmed slightly in his seat.

"Care to explain, Henry?" Miss Hazel asked.

"Well, I did get in trouble some, but that's not why I was sent here!" Henry defended himself, blushing slightly. "They sent me here because they wanted me to live in the one place I've never been."

The class seemed to instantly break out in whisperes and Henry leaned back in his seat, embrassed.

"Jessica Kimble." Miss Hazel continued, hushing the class for now.

Finally, Miss Hazel got down to the last name on the list.

"Margaret Winnock."

"Here." Maggie replied with a smile.

"Is it true that your father is in the Air Force?"

"Yes. Stationed here in D.C." Maggie replied. It was common knowledge.

Miss Hazel nodded and put the roll call down.

"Now, as I was saying before," she started. "We will be continuing with teh Spanish conquistoadors. Now, who will summarize what your last lesson was on?"

Maggie's hand shot up into the air.

"Margaret." Miss Hazel said. Unusual, because most teachers called them by their last names, not first.

"Mr. Hendricks had just reached the topic of El Dorado and the Seven Cities of Gold. But we had not gone into depth yet, just mentioned the name and what they are rumered to be."

"Thank you Margaret." Miss Hazel walked in front of her desk and folded her hands in front of her. "Now, who can tell me where the famed city of El Dorado is supposedly located?"

Again, Maggie's hand shot up, but Henry's hand was up as well.

"Henry."

"It's suposodly to be found in the America's." Henry said, remembering the rumers he had heard from when he had lived in the Amazon. "But most suspect that it is somewhere in South America around the Amazon River."

"Very good!" Miss Hazel smiled at him, making Henry feel slightly uncomfortable. "Now, conquistoadors never found the famed City of Gold, of course, but many still believe that the city does exist. T hey eblieve that it is hidden in the vastness of the Amazon jungle. Many have even brought gold out of the jungle, claiming that they got into from the natives who got it from El Dorado."

She paused and walked over to her briefcase. She opened it, papers spilling to the floor. Ignoring the paper, she dug around in the briefcase till she found what she was looking for. She lifted her hands out of the briefcase and showed the class what she had found. In her hand was a small golden statue.

"This," she said dramatically. "Is one of those pieces rumered to have come from El Dorado."

The class all leaned forward in their seats, trying to get a better look.

"I'm going to pass this around." Miss Hazel announced as she handed it to Maggie who sat in the front row. "Please study the artwork on it and try and see if you can place where in the Amazon it came from."

Maggie looked at it, but she had no clue where it had come from. She passed it to Jasper, who pratically drooled as he attempt to calculate how much money he held in his hand. He almost didn't pass it to Henry he was so busy calculating.

When Henry did get the coin,he instanty recognized it.

"It's from Columbia." he said allowed, forgetting to raise his hand.

Miss Hazel was clearly surpised. Appearently, she had not expected anyone to recognize it.
"That... that is correct, Henry." she said. "But how did you know?"

"I saw lots of these when I lived with the Yukpa tribe." Henry explained, handing the coin to the boy next to him. "Many claimed that these pieces came from El Dorado, but most just came from trade with other tribes who had them from when the conquistadors were there."

Miss Hazel was clearly upset about that. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a hand go up.

"Yes Robert." she called on the boy.
"How did you get this gold piece?" he asked.

"I went to Colombia recently," she explained, "And while there, I was given this coin by a friend who said her great grandfather had gone to El Dorado once and brought back lots of gold pieces, before he died of unnatural causes."

"What kind of unnatural causes?" A girl in the back asked.

"He fell into the Amazon and was eaten by piranah." Miss Hazel said matter-of-factly. "Every year, my friend's family makes a generous donation to their gods in an attempt to ward off any curse that her great grandfather might have brought upon them." she laughed. "Of course, all of that is just silly nonsence. There are no such things as curses that haunt families for decades."

Henry opened his mouth to argue, but he wisely shut it when Jasper elbowed him none to gently in the ribs. A girl in the back raised her hand.
"What was the curse said to do?" she asked.

"Good question." Miss Hazel, said enthusiastically. "My friend said that when her great grandfather returned from El Dorado, he was weak, injured, and dehydrated. While she was not born at the time, her grandfather has passed this story on to her and her siblings. Her father was another witness, though he was just a boy at the time. Anyways, when her great grandfatehr was well enough to talk, he told his family that he had been to El Dorado and battled with the protectors* of the city. Although he escaped with his life and some of the gold, he told his family that the protectors had placed a curse on him and his family, that all the firstborn males in his family would die of unnatural causes before their thirtieth birthday. Her great grandfather was the exception, as he died at an old age. Two years after her great grandfather's death, my friend's uncle was burned to death, and a year after that her cousin died by being bit by a poisiouness snake. Both were the firstborn males and both had not reached there thirtieth birthdays. It was then that the males in her family got together and came up with this idea to ward off the curse. By offering sacrafices of gold in the area around where her great grandfather said El Dorado could be found, no more of there men have died." She laughed. "Of course, all that is just supersticous nonsence."

The entire class was silent as she finished her story. Clearly in awe of there teachers expertise, not one word was said. Then the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" Miss Hazel called cheerfully. "No homework for tonite, but be ready to begin serious work tomorrow."

The class filed out of the room, cahttering about the new teacher.

"I like her." Maggie commented as they all walked outside. "She has real experiance and knows what she's talking about."

"And she's totally hot." Jasper added.
Maggie shook her head in annoyance.

"I don't like her." Henry said.

"What?" Jasper and Maggie asked in unision. "Why not?"

"I don't trust her." Henry shrugged. "Just a feeling. I mean, what kind of teacher is late on her first day of class?"
"She said she was talking." Maggie argued. "Maybe she was talking to another teacher."
Henry shook his head. "In that case she would have been a little late, but not by five minutes."

"Come on Henry," Jasper said harshly. "Don't turn every little thing into a mystery. She's a good teacher, and that's that."

"I still don't trust her." Henry said firmly.

Maggie and Jasper shook there heads in annoyance.

"I better hurry," Henry said. "I'm gonna be late for my shift."

He left to go to the D.O.U.M. rooms without another word or a look back.

"How can he not trust her?" he heard Jasper ask Maggie. "He just met her! It's not like she's a criminal mastermind."

Henry couldn't hear Maggie's response, but he quickened his pace. He couldn't explain why he didn't trust Miss Hazel, he just didn't. He shook his head to clear all thoughts of the new teacher and got ready to scan files in the D.O.U.M. rooms.

*I kinda made the part about the protectors of El Dorado up. In all honesty, I do not know if there is any part i nteh legend of El Dorado that mentions "protectors of the city", but it sounded cool and made the story more interesting I think. :) Hope you liked it! :)