Oh. My. Gods. - Weebly

“No worries,” Nicole says. “I’ll get you through. Science is my
thing and Mrs. Otis gives all As for art appreciation.” She frowns at
the schedule. “We’ll just have to suffer through Dorcas together—
no one gets out of here without Philosophy.”
She shrugs and hands me back the schedule, as if she can’t
do anything more about it. Should I be upset? Should I go have
Damian change my schedule back?
Or should I be thankful that someone seems happy to have me
here and that maybe, just maybe, I’ve actually made a friend?
Folding the schedule, I stuff it in my pocket.
“Wow,” I say. “How’d you do that?”
Nicole looks at me like I’d said the dumbest thing on the planet.
“You really are neo, aren’t you?”
“If that means out of my league, then yes.”
“Don’t sweat it, you’ve got me.” Nicole takes my hand and pulls
me over to a bare section of wall, out of the crowd’s path. “I didn’t
start at the Academy until Level 9. It’s pretty rough if you don’t have
help, and most kids here aren’t into going out of their way to help
a nothos—or, as some will call you, a kako. There are some basic rules
you need to know.”
This morning, Damian had seemed single-mindedly focused on
gushing about the school’s impressive history, leaving me to figure
out the social stuff on my own. The only help he had offered me
was having Stella as a guide. Not that I don’t think she knows every
last in and out, but spending all day trailing after her is not my idea
of a good time. I had respectfully turned him down.
If Nicole had to go through this just a few years ago, then she
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