First credit score smackdown

[quixxotic]

Everything's been going well; good job, good money, everything! I'm actually moving across the country for a job in a couple of weeks, so I came home today to say bye to my father. And also noticed the stack of unopened DIRECT LOAN envelopes that he'd been getting and not informing me about. Yeah. I thought after 6 months the paybacks began, but I went from about having to pay to deference due to more classes, not knowing they immediately start when the deference is over.

 

So. Late 5 months or so. Not defaulted yet, but it annihilated my still-young credit score. Best course of action? Call them up? Repay immediately? How fast can my score recover to a reasonable number? I saw on the stickie that they can't drop, and that blows. It just sucks because potential rentors are looking at my report, and now it's been scarred.