Joli is the main teacher at the school Nona works at on New Rho.
Biography[]
Background[]
After seeing Nona lingering outside the schoolyard, Joli asks why she isn’t in school herself. When Nona says she does lessons at home, Joli seems displeased and asks for Nona’s address. If she is surprised to learn that Nona lives in the Building with its shady reputation, she doesn’t show it. Joli braves the Building to talk to Camilla Hect and Pyrrha Dve about enrolling Nona in school. After explaining that the school provides important opportunities and structure for children in the refuges, she is surprised to learn that Nona is nearly nineteen. She remarks that Nona is very small for her age, and she obviously didn’t get her build from her father. Nona laughs and incredulously exclaims that Pyrrha isn’t her father. Joli grows suspicious, assuming that Pyrrha is Cam and Nona’s pimp. She quickly offers Nona the position of Teacher’s Aide, undeterred even when she learns that Nona cannot read or write. She only leaves after Pyrrha flirts with her outrageously.
When Nona begins attending school, Joli is impressed by her ability to speak and understand so many different languages. At first, she tries to teach Nona, but Nona is largely uninterested in learning, so Joli comes to treat her “like a good, simple colleague who could be relied upon to clean whiteboards and look after extraneous dogs and explain to the littlest children, in a variety of languages, where the bathroom was.”[1]
References[]
- ↑ Nona the Ninth Day 1, Ch. 3