Warning: Spoilers are unmarked on these pages. You Have Been Warned.
Yes, even a game as offensively hilarious as Class of '09 has moments where someone shows something resembling a heart.
- If there is one bright spot in the overall story, it's that, no matter the route taken, Nicole and Jecka will always end up being friends. Depending on the stimuli, Jecka could end up saving Nicole from being victimized by Kylar, invite Nicole into her friend circle even after seeing Nicole with Jeffrey, and just generally give Nicole kind, helpful advice about surviving at the school. Given how the Re-Up scenarios take place after the original stories and that Nicole outright confirms (and the image given for him shows) that she knows Mr. White is a white nationalist, and the fact Jecka isn't in jail, the more or less confirmed path through the initial scenarios seems to be the one where Nicole saves Jecka from becoming a white nationalist like Mr. White. Though their relationship can become rocky in some scenarios of Re-Up, more often than not, the two remain friends (for as much as an admitted sociopath can consider someone a friend) and help each other out when possible.
- It's pretty awesome in its own right, but it is good to know the system works well enough that some of the monsters at the school can face comeuppance for their actions. Even if Nicole is speaking out of her ass about Mr. White being a pedophile in the court route, she still manages to get a white nationalist arrested and raises awareness of just how brazen the rest of the faculty is in their illegal activities.
- While sad and especially scary, in the ending where Nicole is murdered by Coach Colby, Nicole in her posthumous message asks whoever she's addressing to tell Jecka on her behalf that she's cool. Considering this ending is one of the earliest you can get, meaning Nicole hasn't been in school long, the fact that Nicole already had a positive impression of Jecka is worth noting.
- After Nicole exposes Jeffery's fetishes, he reveals to Nicole his plans to commit suicide after becoming a laughing stock. In a rare moment of empathy, Nicole can talk him out of it by pointing out his strange kinks aren't that big of a deal, that his life isn't all that different to what it was before, and that he really shouldn't let other people's opinions bother him. Granted, Nicole does regret being nice to Jeffery when he calls her a "good friend" after coming out of his depressive state, but given that this is Nicole we're talking about, it definitely counts.
- Ari's Coming-Out Story. Though the nature of the school means it can either end up with Ari roping Nicole into a 'hostage relationship' or far, far worse, most of the school is accepting of Ari's orientation, and Ari even gets to feel empowered talking to Kelly, a bisexual woman who helps Ari work out her feelings. As she tells it, coming out and being accepted was one of the most glorious moments of her life.
- Ari's genuine affection for Nicole is pretty heartwarming too, even if her girlfriend is a horribly, hilariously, abusive sociopath. Even in their interactions in routes where they don't have a relationship, we see that Ari thinks highly of her. Like when she steps in-between Nicole and Coach Colby in the girl's locker room after racing to help.
- If Nicole socially sacrifices Jecka to get her brother off her back, she makes up for the action later by bullying Jeffrey in front of the Counselor so that the Counselor, who otherwise would have spent 9 AM hounding Jecka while she smoked, notices and punishes Nicole by forcing her into mandatory meetings with him every morning. Jecka takes a moment to realize Nicole literally drew away a pedophile sexual predator for her, and is the most grateful she can ever be in the entire series. Any lingering resentment between the two is resolved, just like that.Jecka: "Um... what did Jeffrey do?"Nicole: (Beat) "Nothing."Jecka: "Wait, then why did you—..." (Realization starts to dawn on her.)Nicole: "You can smoke by yourself again, right?"Jecka: "... That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."
- The actual route ends with Jecka cutting Nicole out of her life, but the entire Prison route has Nicole being at her most charitable with Jecka. Nicole cuts Jecka in on the cocaine she stole with no prompting, respects (though doesn't understand) Jecka's refusal to deal with her or even drive Nicole to PG County to sell the baggies, and even admits she'd planned to cut Jecka into the profits she was making. It's absolutely a case of Nicole being a bad influence on Jecka, but from Nicole's own perspective she's honestly trying to be nice. The ending is even more heartwarming, because it's the only time in the series Nicole admits to being wrong and tries to clean up her act, and she cites the last thing Jecka told her as being the impetus for her change - even if the effect is muted by Nicole admitting she plans to kill Principal Lynn when she gets out.
- In the route where Nicole gets indefinite suspension and her mom kicks her out of the house, she meets with Emily after her first night as homeless to figure out how to survive in the streets. Emily, being quite familiar with street rules from her own lifestyle, helps Nicole out more than once to get her rolling. Even with Nicole facing the prospect of having to do prostitution to make ends meet, Emily voices her support and that "she wouldn't think less of her" for doing it to make do, which can be quite touching considering that Emily doesn't know Nicole on the same level as in the remedial class routes, yet recognizes and provides support to a girl in need. Nicole in return trusts Emily enough to rope her into her blackmail plan against one of her suitors.
