Copy the first 2 lines from a file and then remove the lines

I need to process a file using a shell script. The file arrives with the data as well as some embedded information releavant to how it is processed. The file is in the following format;

• email_address


• system_area


• item_number


• item_number


• item_number


• item_number


• and so on ...

The email_address is required to notify the user submitting the file that it has completed and the system_area indicates to the loading process where the file should be loaded. Therefore I am taking both these values into variables for use in the script. I am currently using 3 sed commands to get the info and then remove the lines;

var1=$(sed -n '1p' infile) var2=$(sed -n '1p' infile) sed -i '1,2d' infile

The above code works but I feel it is 'clumsy' and probably inefficient. Does anyone know of a way to achieve the same ends more elegantly/efficiently ?