Journalists?

Question

does a lead sentence have to be in it's own paragraph? my story flows so much better if i put it with another sentence.

ex.1
Senior Eve Grelle sits in front of her computer screen struggling to think of a way to calm a group of concerned Hispanic students.
As editor of the North Star, one of her jobs is to respond to mail from unhappy readers.
Although some of their duties aren’t easy, the staff feels that they will be beneficial in the long run.

ex. 2
Senior Eve Grelle sits in front of her computer screen struggling to think of a way to calm a group of concerned Hispanic students. As editor of the North Star, one of her jobs is to respond to mail from unhappy readers.
Although some of their duties aren’t easy, the staff feels that they will be beneficial in the long run.

yeah, I know its a boring story...and its not perfect either...i'm in 9th grade!

Answer 1

No, it doesn't. Sometimes you want to set a mood by running two of three sentences together. Or even two or three paragraphs. You could even combine paragraphs 2 and 3 and leave 1 alone, and it would work in this case.