Jane, Frost and Korsak entered the hallway after history and made their way to the cafeteria.
"Crap," Jane remarked a little annoyed. "Did you guys get the homework?"
"Yeah, it was to read pages 147-152 and make relevant notes," Korsak said.
"Thank you! You're a life saver." Jane said, shooting a smile his way.

As they sat down, Frost couldn't help but ask, "so why'd you miss it?" He knew the potential for repercussions, but figured he'd ask anyway.
"Hm?" She idly replied as she bit into her sandwich.
"The homework? You were writing notes." His words were suggestive of a boy in Jane's life. "Don't tell me you were too busy thinking about a certain someone..." He winked, with an unmistakeable smirk on his face.
"What? No?" She feigned outrage. "I just forgot to write it down. Gees, mom." She lightly mocked. The truth is that she was just distracted, but she hoped that the boys didn't see through her obvious ploy to turn the conversation around. "And since when are you so interested anyway? Scared you won't have me all to yourself, Frost?" She laughed.
"Oh, ha ha Rizzoli." His eyes narrowed a little in denial. "You wish."
They both looked to Korsak in search of who was right.
"Hey, I'm staying out of it," Vince said as he looked back to his food, no interest in fuelling either of them at this point.
"Anyway," Jane proceeded, "What do you guys think of the new teacher?"
"Yeah, she seems nice." Korsak said honestly, but it didn't really affect him either way.
"Yeah, she's cool. Especially when she started talking about the artillery in WWII." There was a little glean in his eyes.
Jane rolled her eyes at the typical boy response. She thought they were cool too, but that wasn't the answer she was looking for. She just nodded in agreement.
Shortly after the conversation turned to all the usual things; baseball, basketball, family, school, and ways they were going to survive all of them.

•••

"Okay, so, who can tell me what the cause of death was for Napoleon Bonaparte?" Miss Isles asked from next to the whiteboard.

"Bonaparte was blown apart," Jimmy remarked from the back end of classroom, quite pleased with himself.

She simply pursed her lips a little before quickly moving on as to not give him the satisfaction of a response. Instead, she searched the room for any relevant responses. "Yes," she said gesturing toward Jane who had her hand up in a slightly shy manner..

There was a slight lack of confidence to her words as she spoke, "I don't know if this is right, but I think it was stomach cancer."

Miss Isles was impressed, however went to interject with a 'but' but was stopped as Jane continued talking.

"Some people though, think it might have been arsenic poisoning." As she spoke she didn't make a large amount of eye contact with the teach, but disguised it by looking at her book or the board so as not to seem rude.

A sincere smile with a hint of surprise crept across her face. "Very good, Jane right?"

She nodded politely and looked back to her book.

"This is indeed correct and..." She continued teaching but Jane's focus trailed off despite trying to remain attentive.

"Now that we have discussed the facts, I want to see how you go with a little revision. Please turn to page 150 at complete questions 1, and 2 as well as 4 to 7." She stood affront the class with hands clasped in front of her and, even as she issued instructions, seem to have a sense of care about not only the work but the students who produced it. After waiting a few moments for the students to find the page and settle into their work, she sat down behind her desk and looked over some work of her own.

Why was Napoleon exiled and to where was he banished? She thought hard as she read the question. She liked questions like this because they were specific. As much as she disliked being wrong, she knew there was a right and a wrong answer which meant a fifty-fifty chance... sort of. She knew the second part but could remember the first part. After repeating the question to herself in hopes that the answer would come, she left some room and moved on to return to it later.

•••

It was about 4:15 and Jane had found herself in the staff building after studying in the library that afternoon. The young girl took a deep breath in. It was a few moments later that her eyes welled up a little and she realised that she had to then breathe out. She was standing at the door to an office trying to raise the courage to knock. Taking a step back she sighed. C'mon man, what're you doing? The truth was that she didn't really know. She felt like she should be there but struggled to find any reason why that she actually liked. Instead she fixed her backpack which had be sliding down her shoulder and walked away.

Moments later Miss Isles opened the door only to find nobody there. She could have sworn she had heard someone.

•••

"What was that Rizzoli?" She said to herself. What were you gonna do? What'd you think was going to happen?

She didn't know the answer, and that bothered her. Jane was well aware that what happened around her was essentially out of her control, but she had prided herself upon her sense of privacy and the fact that usually she maintained control of at least her own actions and thinking.

Hello lovely readers,

Firstly, thank you so much for reading!

This is the first chapter of a story for which I have had the idea for a while now. What I would like to know is, would you like to read more?
Is it a story that interests you? What do you expect this is about? What would you like to read about?

I'd really love to know any thoughts you may have on the story.
Please feel free to leave feedback, messages and prompts.

Yours always,

CC