During the entire first year of school, I was on the lower part of the hierarchy list. Anywhere I went, students from my class-group were teasing me about my height, my elvish-looking ears, and about the fact that both of my parents probably ended as goulash. I could hear them from far away so I did not run into other students if I did not want to meet them, but any time I came a few minutes early for class, the bullying was unavoidable. 

"My parents ate your parents for lunch.", Jiraiya said. He was surrounded by some other classmates. They looked at him any time they wanted to say something to make sure it was ok. "Even as lunch, my parents would have been way too expensive for yours.", I responded sharply. He tried to punch me but I evaded him, only to be captured by one of the kids and thrown onto the floor. Mr. Donovan arrived and everyone made their way into the class. Ribbit helped me get up, an apologetic look on his face.

For the most part, I did not care about being bullied. I spend most of my time in the library studying information technology, types of hacking, cyber-protection... When I was not in the library I was with my friends. With them, I did not feel like I was at the bottom of the hierarchy. We had no hierarchy. Cat showed me how to make money by "finding" things. We snuck outside of school late at night and climbed inside of people's homes. Every house was equipped with a security system, of course. But for every lock, there is a key. And for every key, there is a sneaky orphan with a plan. Sneaking back into the school was trickier than sneaking into some houses, but we never got caught.

In order to pass the second year, we had to acquire a gun. Zookie was working at a nearby gladiator pit. Being a Zorbian, she had a special connection to the gladiator ring in Chaus. For now, she just worked there as a cleaner but her supervisor said to her that she could make a career in the gladiator ring once she was a bit older. She got me a proper plasma gun from one of the dead fighters, and I paid her some money for it. In addition to making money off items, I found inside of people's homes, I also upgraded other student's techdevices. For breaking open doors I now used e-blocks, disabling the flow of electrons that kept the lock intact. It worked on most security systems too and it was much safer than just breaking the security box into pieces. I was picked on less now because most of the students wanted me to do something on their techdevice for them, and the demand for my skills never ceased. 

At the beginning of the third year, about three-quarters of my class group were still alive. Mr. Donovan actually congratulated us on being a particularly resilient bunch. The task for passing the third year was different for every student. Mr. Donovan asked me to write an essay about why the species of elves had almost died out. I was still quite far at the bottom of the hierarchy list, mostly because I kept out of fights whenever I could. 

The twins tried to ambush me when I was returning from a casual visit to my tech-dealer, a guy at the mall. I heard them from far away thanks to my elvish ears. I shot them in what could be called self-defense but probably wasn't. They never even had the time to aim at me. 

Cat gave me my first cigarette the morning after I killed the twins: "Now you're just as lost as the rest of us.", she laughed. Mr. Donovan moved me up on the hierarchy list the same day. I am not entirely sure how Mr. Donovan knew what had happened. I suspected that he had sent them to come after me.

Being higher up on the hierarchy list came with more attention than I wanted. The other students in my class-group looked at me fearfully sometimes. The kids that I had found tolerable started avoiding me, but the insufferable ones seemed to be more drawn to me than they were before. It was good for business though because the other students no longer refused to be seen with me.

Jiraiya approached me one day after class and asked me to come to his room with him. We had never really talked much, mostly because I was avoiding him. I felt uncomfortable he would even ask something like that from me. When I said no he tried to pull out his gun, but I was quicker. The plasma burned into his chest. I pushed him to the floor and disarmed him. I picked up his gun from the floor and kept it as a souvenir. Jiraiya's usual flock of followers did not dare defend him, avoiding to look at me or him. Mr. Donovan went back into the classroom to move my name up to the first place of the hierarchy list. After this, I was never harassed by another boy, unlike most other girls in the school.

Cat and Ethyl started being more physically intimate with each other at the beginning of my fourth year. It was very annoying to me. Sometimes they were kissing, which I found gross. Other times they were fighting, pushing each other around the hall and screaming swearing words at each other as loud as they could. Ethyl would give us Hibiscus, weed, and tobacco for free while he and Cat were getting along, but when they were fighting the drug prices went up.