Sadly, lowering the times needed to unlock stories would require a complete revamp of each story and point system. However, I am working on changing the day and night cycle making it so you can do more each day. So you can do some parts twice which will let you speed along the story faster.
As for the other thing, does it mean you've already gone into the school, made it toward the class area, and then returned to the hallway? Because that's what starts the cutscene with Fiona.
I have talked with every NPC I was presented, including non main ones and every location. And couldn't do anything new. And yes, I did watch the tutorial, but not everything happened as in the tutorial. That may also be an issue on my end, but it's a first among the Ren'py games i have played.
I forgot how Ren'py works. But if you could, id recommend having some variables in which you store data. Data which allows you to modify in the future instead of hardcoding everything. I think Ren'py has a flag approach.
Im a new at coding, so I could be wrong.
With my coding I rely on the If and Elif system for my games since they're easier then the flag in terms of set up and Act 3 goes through a massive overhaul to clean things up. But as for your current situation, I'm a bit stumped and all I can really say is find a previous save where the game isn't soft locked and use the tutorial from there while using the skip button.
