I originally set the font at 14 which looked a lot similar to 12 than 16 does and I loved it so I agree that 12 looks better. I am keeping 16 up because that's what I entered it as but I hear the small text mode love which is why I made it and kept it.
I tried about 4 times but couldn't replicate the teacher pop on day 2 English. The reason I left it black on that screenshot was so I could remember when designing it that everything hid itself as a scene so it wouldn't do exactly what you are saying. The only thing I can think of is a weird delay with computer processing it or the base Renpy loading it slow (which is why it actually popped) because it should definitely be hidden before the question is even asked. What platform are you working with? I'm running windows so I have no idea if that's the cause.
As for the S L etc... It would have helped if I included the Help.txt file I created 3 weeks ago to put in to the folder when I made the distributions, wouldn't it? Thanks for reminding me to throw that in there. I've updated the game files with the help file that I should have remembered to put in there. I had a tricky time making the UI buttons the way I wanted them to look (the Options gear really does look like a snowflake) with the pixel style. I'll need to work more on making a better button configuration on the next game.
Thanks for the feedback.