If the "classmates" are not going to be relevant any time soon, these chapters are literally useless, because who the fuck cares about their hardships. Minimal chapters about them has the same effect.
.... ugh the art is pretty damn good at everything... BUT the foreheads. Like jesus, all of them seem to have a beehive under their hair! The forehead should be 1/3 of the face at most, but here its mostly 1/2, way too big.