The first few weeks of school at WSA was mainly about trying to find where their new classes were, as well as where certain extracurricular school clubs were. But there was a few new things going on.
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What was a bit of a surprise was the fact that Betti, from the infamous "Seven on Four Night", was a confirmed high school dropout who had "returned" to complete her education. But the thing that was the most surprising was the fact that no one thought any worse of her. If anything the original students were more than willing to help her out with learning about the school's technology that weren't around when Betti was originally in school.
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Eliza had originally met with Betti before she began coming to school, but Betti turned out to be a rather nice person, as long as she took her medication as well as her heat suppressants. According to her, her mental problems were the reason she left school at the time.
After her meeting/interview with Betti, Eliza got a bit of a surprise when a member of the PR-MD paid her a visit.
"First of all," he said, "Wally, who is the Wel's catfish that attacked a teenaged girl on Dorian's land and was uplifted for an apology, is going to be at this school since there isn't really a WSA in Britain."
"Understandable." said Eliza.
"Second of all," continued the agent, "Animalia's seemingly going to get a large number of members who were part of the same generation of Lily's parents."
"I've heard that the expensive price for conversions dramatically dropped not too long ago." said Eliza, familiar with how normal conversion prices rose to a level that only relatively wealthy people could afford. But due to "recession rumors", the price went down enough to allow working class members.
"But apparently these newest members are part of the generation that was famously, or infamously, told by Timothy Leary to 'Tune in, turn on, and drop out.'." said the agent.
"While hippies and popular culture were media 'darlings' at the time," said Eliza, remembering well, "It wasn't really true across the nation."
"Also," said the agent, "These survivors of that generation are having second thoughts about following such a way of life at the time. Also, since high school dropouts are on the 'low end' of requirements for employment in this day and age, they are planning to return to high school and/or college to get the job skills they need."
"We can call that part of an '18+ school program'." said Eliza "My old school had something similar for high school students with special needs, mainly those that were mental."
"Yes," confirmed the agent, "these are also those that know that make love, not war is more like a way of life rather than an excuse to spend the next few decades higher than the moon."
"Good to know," said Eliza, remembering when D.A.R.E. classes became mandatory for elementary school children at least.
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"So this 'Angie' is part of your online gaming group?" asked Andre, as Melissa was finishing up skyping with the newest member of their gaming group.
"Yes," confirmed Melissa, "She liked to play Elder Scrolls: Online before her accident caused her to be a quadriplegic amputee.
"What happened to her?" asked Andre, not really wanting to know.
"She was in a very bad car accident." said Melissa, also hating the memory, "She was just minding her own business when drug dealers fleeing from police crashed into her own car. She barely escaped with her life since she was wearing her seatbelt, but the car she was driving took the worst of it, being totaled. But the worst of it came from her parents, since it was her mom's car she was driving, and her dad wasn't too thrilled about her becoming an internet meme involving negative stereotypes about women drivers."
"But she still wants to be a four-armed Naga?" asked Andre.
"Yes, even though the price of conversions and/or uplifting is now affordable, custom gene 'molds' like polymedia are expensive enough to keep them out of standard pay rates.
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Ella, Simone, and Annie were waiting for Oka to come out of her conversion room. They already knew that the FBI had fully hidden her old identity and were looking for her father, since his flight landed the case in FBI territory. After Oka came out, they welcomed her into their combined family. After some introductions and socializing, Ella asked the question that she wanted answers for right away.
"How did your brother take your changing?" asked Ella, since she was skyping with her brother seemingly during her change and their sensitive hearing picked up a lot of swear words from the computer.
"The same way he took my 'showing off' fifteen years ago." answered Oka, "He cussed me out, then forgot about it."
"Does he always do that?" asked Simone.
"Yes," confirmed Oka, "Damian doesn't have good control over his anger, but we don't have an available ocean for him to yell at." At that, everyone laughed, highly amused.