Horace walked high above the other students, in his head at least. In his mind, he was below a lot of them. Sure he was the epitome of what a normal golly should look like, well except for the height issue, but still. There were plenty of students way better looking than him and plenty of smarter students too. He only excelled to the point of recognition in four subjects. Static, Music, Physical, and now History. History was the class he was heading to at the moment. The class had really gotten him excited this year. The professor had gotten him excited about History.

He turned the corner, entering the lecture hall. He took his regular seat, all the way in the front. He was early, like usual. he took out the notes from the last class and waited. He was hoping this class would be the highlight of his day, It usually was.

Three days post-date. After she'd even realized it was one. Did he know? Did he care? She'd mistaken this class for another history-like class with a P-named professor she'd taken sixth year, as it happened. She did in fact have at least one class with Horace. Oh, bother. Well, she could at least go sit with him instead of her usual spot in the very, very back.
"Erm, hello. Class should be starting soon. Do you mind if I sit here?"
She hovered around him expectantly, holding quite a few books in addition to a schoolbag that looked far too large for her. Not that everything didn't look far too large for her unless it was specially made. (The Almonds historically kept the best tailors in Vienda from going under in bad times simply because everything had to be fixed if they didn't make it themselves.) Did Horace have to have things specially made?

Horace was surprised to see Laur in the history class. She said she had Prichard in her sixth form, guess not. "Oh hello Laur, I wasn't excepting you." He chuckled, hinting at what she has said three days before. "yes, yes, take a seat. Let me take your books, they look like they are about to crush you and we don't want that." He grabbed the books from Laur and smiled. He he;d them until she sat down. "Are you ready for class?" he grunted a little after, the books were heavy.

(( SFSR ))

"I mixed up this class with another one very like it from sixth year, yes. I had a rare memory lapse."
She sat, trying to arrange her skirt in some sort of pleasing manner that wasn't rumpled and didn't expose anything indecent. Skirts above the ankles were so impractical. Always moving around when you sat.
"Oh, I suppose so. Give those to me, you're going to hurt yourself. Chivalry is mostly dead; it's impractical to snatch my books from me only to have me take them back in a minute when you can't carry them. I'm nearly a professional book-carrier. If people would pay someone to carry books, that is. Anyway, yes, I believe I've done what reading was assigned before the sixteenth. I don't believe there can be too much more work; would you fill me in? Please don't tell me Prichard took the opportunity while I was gone to assign us some sort of large term paper. That'd be pure evil unlike most teachers I've had here. I don't expect it of him. Goodness, I'm rambling; I'm sorry. Thank you for the 20th, by the way." Her voice was much quieter on the last part, almost inaudible. Her small pale hands went to her skirt. Hopefully her first class sitting with someone she knew wouldn't be too strange.

"Pritchard won't be coming, you'll be loath to discover, I'm sure."

Crius played a game. From a scan of their eyes, he guessed how many had not done their homework.

"But, you'll be delighted to learn that in his place I am more than capable of collecting his assignment due today."

One, two, three, fourfive....and....six.

The faces he'd mentally marked fell, sighed and scowled like asphyxiating birds in a smoke stack, held surprised and hopeful a moment before. Teenagers were such open books.

"So, in his place, I will be taking you for history today. Some of you may know me, but for the benefit of everyone else, I am Professor Levent. Heh, and if any of you have been paying the slightest bit of attention in class, it'll be a name you've heard before. Can anyone tell me where in history the name Levent appears? Anyone?"

Horace could barely here what Laur had said about the twentieth, but when it registed, it was too late. Professor Levent had entered the room. Horace was surprised not to see Professor Prichard, but last class he did sound like he was coming down with something.

Professor Levent had a sense of sarcasm around him, Horace actually liked it. He seemed quite charismatic, a good quality in any professor.

Professor Levent had asked one of the easiest questions in the course. Horace had tried to memorize all of the past headmasters. It was something of a challenge for him, and Horace liked challenges. Horace shot up from his seat, to signal he knew the answer.

"I believe I know it professor. The name Levent appears in the annals of Brunnhold history. He arguably was one of our greatest headmasters." a huge grin was on his face.

"Ah, flattery, the language of Brunnhold. Yes, you are indeed correct, not many years after the mist settled around Anhau an ancestor of mine held the lofty position of headmaster. May I ask your family name?"

Crius looked back up to address the entire lecture theater.

"Today's class will deviate from the syllabus for today. Instead of your planned session, we will be doing some genealogy. It's important as aspiring young men and women to be aware of what your name says about you, and more importantly, what your associate's names say about you."

He let the suggestion hang in the air for a moment, then set the assignment.

"First I want you to draw out as much of your family tree as you can from memory, in ten minutes. Then we'll go round and see who can go back farthest."

"Aquila, sir. My family name is Aquila." Horace smirked at his family name. It was known for it's great musicians. Hopefully Professor Levent knew of his family; it would be a striking blow if they didn't.

Horace's eyes brightened when the professor told the of the assignment. It must have been fate. Horace had been tracing his family tree ever since he received the letter from his father; He knew all the way back to his closest Hoxian ancestor, Tover Agvil.

Horace grabbed a piece of parchment from his bag and grinned ferociously. He glanced over at Laur; he wondered if she new as much about her family history. He had never heard of her family before meeting her.

When Horace glanced over at Laur, she was already copying down names quickly on a large piece of paper, working frantically. She'd memorized most of her family tree on a rainy day some years ago, back several generations. The first names got lost after too long, although she could remember a mention of a few Levents on her mother's side by marriage. 6th great-grandparents, as a matter of fact. She'd go back to them on that side, to her Hoxian fourth-greats on her father's side, and then through the Almond side of her father's side to Diana Maureen Almond, her sixth-great again, who was a slightly prominent writer who used her initials as her byline. Not the best reference for the family, but perhaps someone would recognize the name. It was a good thing she wrote quickly and eliminated extraneous siblings (her father had two sisters and a brother--the brother had produced her hateful little cousin Lucy Ann, while one sister had died as a child and the other had married a woman from another prominent family and so far adopted no children--in other words, pointless) as otherwise she'd never get through all these people. Bernard and Cerise, Eustace and Agatha, Ernest and Vonelle, Abraham and Gardenia, Mermon and Adeline, Vernon and Chicory, Perrault and Margaret. And that's just the chain up to Arthur and Diana Maureen. She worked fast to get the chain from her mother's side up to the Levent connection. It never hurt to be distantly related to the substitute, right? The Hoxians were a branch off Grandma Agatha, through Erin Brimstone; the Levents linked up through the Walnuts and Rhiannons down to the Burgundies (her mother's family.) Gods, but there were a lot of people. Hopefully, ten minutes would be enough to get them all linked. I don't need Gerald and Eugene Brimstone; the line ends with them. Darn these people, being so far back. If Crius walked by any time during the allotted, he would see her hunched over her paper, scrawling names. Today was Laur's lucky day in that she remembered rather pointlessitems in the scope of things--geneaologies back to one's sixth-greats were not as important as remembering what one's current professor was named.

((if you were curious as to how this looks family-tree style, I actually did one--found here http://www.geni.com/share?t=6000000006569013492))

Crius smiled privately at Aquila's eagerness to impress. They were a fantastic resource, those that could be bought without money, merely with attention, or the illusion of it. He merely made a positive hum sound, like the name meant something good, but left it for now at that.

They took to their tasks, some with more vigour than others. One girl in particular seemed to already be tracing to the fourth order and further. Curiosity drew him to an awkward hovering distance, where he could crane over and inspect the roots.

"What have we here then?"

"Oh, hello, Professor. This is just my answer to your assignment. I know a bit more, but my knowledge of it's fuzzy. I hope this is far enough back."

She moved her arm off the Levent end of the paper so he could see. The Levent branch was so far back first names got lost in translation, but it was there.

((sfsr ;))