Last year I experienced a great personal tragedy while in my second year of grad school. I subsequently took the rest of the year off and didn't re enroll this past fall while still trying to rebuild my entire life. I've always kept my loan in mind, however was still under the impression that it was deferred until 2014. That was my booboo, I just learned that it went back into repayment last summer so now its showing 90+ as of 11/12 
Is this Default status, and will Direct Loans remove the 90+ bc I begin repaying?
Sorry to hear of your troubles...but welcome to the forums 
No, you are not quite in default yet, just very delinquent. Repayment will not remove the 90+ days late remarks on your reports.