start the fire! /shi's students/

[Professor Shiloh Malixi]

SHILOH
_{we didn't start the fire
it was always burning
since the world's
been turning}

'Sit on your desk, Shiloh. Please?'
'I am not sitting on my desk. That's foolish.'
'Come on, you can survive a fall from that height. Promise.'
'That's irrelevant, Kade.'
~~~

Well. Here he was, sitting on his desk, waiting for the U.S. Studies students to arrive. Kinkade would be thrilled, but he was feeling a bit uncomfortable. He grasped the edge of the desk and tried to sit straight up, as any proper adult should. It felt awkward atop the desk; Kinkade was so very wrong about this.

Shiloh sighed softly, lifting one hand to rub his cheek, his eyes darting over to the white board. Already there were words written there in the green marker;

Today's Discussion
Constitutional Convention of 1783
The Revolutionary War

[/font]

Such broad and interesting topics which Shiloh devoted a lot of his time to study, but the majority of the students didn't seem to care about their country's fascinating history. That was why he wasn't going to skip all those theories he knew of how the Native Americans came to the body of land and how Christopher Columbus wasn't the first man (he didn't even reach what is modern day America), but about how Vikings had reached the land so much earlier. No, he would start with what they expected to learn from him. Things were easier that way. After all, who would expect the Scottish native to know more than most Americans about their own country? The answer was, not many would. Now, where were those kids?

[Lillian Alexis Keller]

Lily Keller
I will rain down silver and gold for you.
I will shatter the black night, and pour out a million stars.
Turn away from the darkness, the madness, the pain.
Open your eyes. And know that I am here.
That I remember and hope.
Open your eyes and look to the light.

Lily was walking into the class when she noticed something odd. Shiloh was on top of his desk. Not at his desk, on it. Kade must have put him up to it. "Kade put you up to that Shi-er, Professor Malixi?" She smiled at Kade's father. He was strict, but he loved Kins, and Lily respected Shiloh. Squinting her eyes slightly to focus on the board, she smiled a bit. It would be fun to see other kids' reactions to the topic. Usually they were suprised at how much the Scottish man knew about U.S. History.

Claiming a spot near the window, Lily waited for Kins to show up and class to start. Lily couldn't wait until they got into the more interesting topics, like who actually dicovered North America. Staring out of the window, Lily began thinking of the new room she'd found earlier in the day. Lily had found interesting things, Pre-Revolution artifacts, a diary, a ring, and a guitar. "Hey Professor, what would you do if I told you I had found Pre-Revolution artifacts?"

[/color][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote][/left]

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{talk, talk is cheap
give me a word you can keep
'cause i'm halfway gone
and i'm on my way.}

Oh, yes, Kinkade was certainly to blame for Shiloh's actions. He took pride in it, too, as he proved when he entered the room.

"Ah! See, that isn't so bad, is it? Makes you seem cool.

[/color]"Kinkade's tone was excited. Leave it to Shiloh to sit there patiently, waiting for his students. Knowing Shiloh, he'd probably been there a while already. When he looked away from Shiloh, he noticed Lily. Perfect! He grinned, walking and taking the desk beside her. Better to sit beside her than be compelled to hide in the very back of the room, obscured by all the other kids. It was tempting though, and he considered it.

"Hey, Lily. How are you?[/color]"Kins greeted cheerfully. He was a bit nervous to have a class with his dad, but having Lily there made him feel a lot better so he maintained his sunny disposition well. To his credit, it was something of a miracle that he wasn't late to class. It was luck that Kinkade had woken up on time and that he'd showered before class, that was. Kinkade was not one for schedules, much less schedules that had to do with Shiloh.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Professor Shiloh Malixi]

SHILOH
_{in 1812, madison was mad
he was the president, you know.
well, he thought he'd tell the british
where they ought to go.}

A student! Shiloh looked to Lily. A very, very familiar student. Lily was the student he knew best, second only to Kinkade. It seemed to be proved as she struggled with calling him Shi or Professor Malixi; he didn't care either way. At her assessment, his grin became sheepish. Yes, of course. Kinkade's fault entirely. Perhaps it was a little silly to listen to his son.

"One of his many ideas on how to make me the most popular teacher on campus.

[/color]"Shiloh explained. He didn't believe he needed to be the most popular teacher, nor did he really want to be, but Kinkade derived great pleasure from the task so Shiloh humored him. That was all he could do at times.

"Pre-Revolution?[/color]"Shi questioned curiously, before glancing at the whiteboard. Artifacts from before the convention, articles from the era of legends... He turned his gaze back to Lily. "You've told your grandfather, haven't you?[/color]" Better to ensure she did that before anything was damaged or lost. He knew Lily and didn't really anticipate her harming artifacts, but they were delicate things. A little piece of history had no place in a teenager's hands, even a teenager like the Founder's granddaughter.

Anything he would have added seemed to stay on the tip of his tongue when Kinkade appeared. The excitement in his son's voice made Shiloh Malixi smile. Sitting atop his desk was well worth it to hear that emotion in his son's voice.

"Yes, Kade. You were right.[/color]"Shiloh relented. As his son walked over to Lily, he watched quietly. The friendship between the two of them was such a relief to him. If it weren't for Lily for all those years, Shiloh wasn't sure how Kinkade would have gotten through the summers.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[River Tam]

**give me the wings to fly**

River arrives in her usual way-- quiet. Indiscreet. Her boots make small thuds on the floor, but not too bad. She drops into the first available desk, back corner, and crosses her ankles under her seat. She props her chin up on one hand and sets in for what would most assuredly be another lecture about how great America is, how America won the War of Independence, blah, blah, blah. It’s not that she doesn’t like learning-- no, that’s not it at all-- but she just gets tired of hearing the same things over and over again. It’s why she dropped out of third grade in the first place.

Anyway. She glances at the board. Oh, lookee here. She’s right. Revolutionary War. They never asked to get a Brit’s opinion on it. History is written by the winners, after all. And the Constitutional Convention of 1783. Whoopee. In for a real treat today, they are.

**and the courage to fall**