Author's Note:
Sorry for another long wait, I'm still struggling with my mental health at the same time a lot of things are going on in my life but I will try to update sooner next time.
As always thanks for all the reviews/follows/favourites it always makes me very happy.
All mistakes are still mine.

I also want to say woah 30 chapters, I never thought that I would write that many chapters or that people would like to read that much.
It's been almost a year since I posted this story and I almost didn't even post it because I was afraid of getting negative comments and people not liking it, but I've gotten nothing but positivity from you so thank you very much and thank you for reading :)

CHAPTER 30

Neal walked into the classroom, trying to appear more confident than he was and just hoped that the insecurities would disappear so that he would be able to relax.
That hope of having a good day was shattered by the first recess when the other kids wouldn't even go near him.
He sat down alone on a swing, believing that his classmates didn't like him, but then towards the end od the recess, a girl sat down on the swing next to him.
The girl was nervous and kept looking over her shoulder as she informed him that they were simply not allowed to play with him, not until he was "approved".
As it turns out there was one kid in their class who saw himself as the leader and everyone else as followers, and if you dared to go against him then you would become a social outcast.
The thought of being left out of the playing seemed to have scared all of his classmates into submissiveness because every single one of them seemed to treat him like a king.
The boy's name was Curtis Hagen, a big, strong kid who was a year older than his classmates.
Neal first spotted him over by the monkey bars, seemingly tormenting a boy who fitted perfectly into the nerd stereotype, with his small, scrawny body and big, bulky glasses.
He felt sorry for the boy and was just thinking about doing something to help him, when a bell rand signaling that recess was over.

Neal got to meet the kid Curtis had been tormenting when they happened to be paired up to solve some math problems together.
The other kid, who's named was Jacob, seemed very smart which Neal guessed was a reason to why the teacher had paired them up together.
Neal quietly admitted to Jacob that he couldn't read or write and that he didn't know much about math either.
He had expected that the smart kid would laugh at him, but instead Jacob just became eager to help him, not only to understand the math but to help him read some of the words.
Neal found that the math was easy, once he got the hang of it, and together the two boys managed to complete their assignment long before the rest of the class which gave them some time to get to know each other.
They talked about their interests and their families, Jacob said that he had 5 siblings which sounded like a lot of siblings, especially to Neal who didn't even have one, while Neal just briefly told him that he lived with foster parents and spent more time talking about Satchmo.
Neal didn't want to go into details about why he was living with foster parents, and luckily Jacob didn't ask either.
Eventually Neal managed to steer their conversation to Curtis Hagen, and as soon as he mentioned the name, Jacob's eyes filled with fear.

"Why don't anyone tell the teacher?"

Neal asked, he was sure that Mrs. Fisher would help put an end to Curtis Hagen's dictatorship and if they all came together, there were no way Curtis could say that he wasn't controlling the other students.
Jacob however didn't like that plan and shook his head.

"He's the principal's son and she would defend him."

Neal frowned, wondering how a principal that was supposed to care about all the students could put their own kid in front of all the other kids.
Although maybe it wasn't that strange, after all Neal was no stranger to adults not doing what was right.

"Our old classmate Caleb told the principal that Curtis was being mean and the principal kicked him out of school!"

Jacob exclaimed, sounding absolutely terrified.
Neal's first thought was that it was a lie that Curtis had told in order to scare the other kids away from telling any adult about what was going on behind their backs.
Even if he did suspect that the story was fake, the thought of getting kicked out of school started to scare him too.
He didn't even want to begin to imagine what Peter and Elizabeth would say, and the more he thought about, the more scared he became about getting kicked out and how his foster parents would react to that.
Curtis Hagen had managed to get into his head and he hadn't even met the kid yet.

Neal got the "pleasure" to meet the bully at lunch when Curtis put his leg out in front of Neal, causing him to trip and spill his glass of milk all over himself.
"Oh, I'm so sorry are you okay?"

The kid asked, sounding so genuine that if Neal hadn't known what a bully he was, then he might have believed his apology.

"You're Neal, right? The stupid kid?"

Neal didn't answer him, instead he just avoided to look at any of the other kids while he tried to not get affected by the bully's words.

"Is that why your real parents didn't want you? Because you're so stupid?"

Neal froze, how did Curtis know about him being a foster kid?
He didn't believe that Mrs. Fisher would have told anyone and no one else knew except for the other staff members and Jacob.
Neal looked around the room and his eyes landed on Jacob, who was sitting at another table and the guilty look on his face confirmed his fear that it was Jacob that had told Curtis both about his struggles with reading and writing, as well as him having foster parents.
The realization really hurt, because Neal had actually started to believe that he and Jacob could be friends, but now the kid had given Curtis reasons to pick on Neal to get the target off his own back.
Jacob had appeared to be Curtis' favourite plaything but now it looked like Neal could be taking over that role.

"I bet your foster parents pity you because you're a stupid, little kid that no one loves."

The other kids at the table laughed loudly and Neal got up from his seat, just at Curtis asked the other kids how long they thought it would take for his foster parents to dump him.
Those last words struck him hard, especially since it was still a very real fear he had.
Neal hurried out of the cafeteria, almost colliding with his teacher.

"Are you alright, Neal?"

Mrs. Fisher asked with a concerned voice and Neal almost caved, he wanted to tell her everything they said to him, he wanted her to fix this but Jacob's words repeated in his head and he didn't dare to be a snitch.

"I'm fine. I just need to go to the bathroom."

He answered before walking to the nearest bathroom, where he sank down to the floor and let the tears fall.
It was in that moment Neal knew that he hated school and that he really hated other children.

By the time school ended, his sadness had turned into pure fury.
He didn't want to be angry, especially not at Peter and Elizabeth, but he had a hard time pushing his anger away.
No matter how hard he tried, the day's events kept repeating in his head.
After lunch, several students had made fun of him by calling him stupid and talk about him being an unwanted child, even Jacob had laughed and called him an idiot when he knew that Curtis could hear him.

"How was your day, bud?"

Peter interrupted his thoughts with a simple, innocent question but no matter how hard he tried to answer in a calm way, the anger was stronger than he could handle.

"I hate school it's stupid and I'm never going back."

He answered and he really meant those words.
There was just no way that he would return tomorrow and put up with his classmates again.
He hated school, he hated that stupid Curtis Hagen, he hated the other kids for being just as mean, but most of all he hated himself for ever getting his hopes up and believing that school could ever be a good thing.
He wished that he could tell Peter and Elizabeth everything but he knew that the other kids would all deny it and defend their leader, not out of loyalty but out of fear, and the principal would defend her son and, in the end, he would just come out looking like a big liar.
The quiet ride home did nothing to calm him down, instead he kept obsessively replaying every single mean word over and over.
As he got inside, he angrily threw his backpack and almost hit Satchmo who had come to greet them.
He didn't regret throwing the backpack but he did regret not looking where he threw it.
Peter grabbed him and started to scold him for throwing his backpack before suggesting that he should do his homework.
That suggestion made Neal even angrier, why didn't they listen to him?
He wasn't going back to that stupid school and he was just about to remind them when Peter managed to press just the right button.
Neal wanted to visit Mozzie and make sure that he was okay, and if that meant doing his homework first then it was a price he had to pay.
So, he grabbed the backpack and walked over to the kitchen table before picking up his homework.
Neal immediately hit a bump when he couldn't read his assignment, he could recognize a few of the words but not enough to understand the big picture.
He could ask one of the adults for help, they wouldn't mind and they wouldn't laugh at him like the kids did.

"I bet your foster parents pity you because you're a stupid, little kid that no one loves."

Curtis Hagen's words repeated in his head and then he could hear the children's laughter.
Tears formed in his eyes while his mind kept replaying the sounds and then all of a sudden, a new voice entered his head.
It was his father telling him how stupid and worthless he was.
He looked down at the assignment again, he couldn't even understand a simple instruction, and he realized that they were all right.
He was stupid.
Neal grabbed his notebook and flung it across the room, hoping that it would make all the voices stop taunting him.

"I told you not to throw things."

Peter suddenly said, startling Neal a little since he had been too occupied with his own thoughts to notice the man's presence.
Neal crossed his arms and pouted, hoping that if he ignored the agent then he would just sigh and walk away, leaving Neal alone but instead things just got worse.

"I think we shouldn't visit Mozzie today after all."

Peter's words broke through the cloud of anger that surrounded him and he immediately flashed his puppy eyes.

"I'm sorry, I wanna visit Mozzie, please."

He pleaded, and he promised himself that he was going to supress his anger and try his best to behave and be happy, he was going to do everything to be able to see Mozzie.

"I'm sorry Neal but I just told you not to throw things, and then you went ahead and did it anyway. There's consequences for your actions, kiddo."

It took a couple of seconds for his words to really sink in, but once it did all his rage found a new target and he just exploded.

"You're stupid!"

Neal said, using the word thrown at him all day long, and pushed Peter as hard as he could.
For a second, he felt good, he felt powerful but those feelings quickly faded as he realized that Peter didn't deserve his rage.
He should show his rage towards to his father, towards Curtis Hagen, and the other kids, they were the ones that deserved it, not Peter.
Neal didn't get a chance to apologize before he was lifted off his chair and placed on another one.

"You're going to sit here and you're not going to move until you're ready to behave, understood?"

The tone of Elizabeth's voice caused chills to go through his body, his own anger was nothing compared to the anger Elizabeth radiated.
Neal didn't dare to even think about what would happen if you defied her when she used that voice, so he just nodded.
He looked back at Peter, just to be sure that he hadn't been hurt by Neal's push, before his gaze went back to the corner, where it stayed for over an hour as Neal battled all of the million thoughts in his head.

The next day, Neal did his very best to avoid going back to school.
He begged them, he tried to bribe them, he tried to play the sick card again and when nothing else worked he threw an epic tantrum.
Despite all of his efforts, he found himself strapped in the car seat, kicking and screaming while Peter, who had gotten the daunting task of driving him to school, looked like he could kill someone.
They stopped outside the school way too soon, and Peter told him that he would drop him off even if he was crying and screaming.
His words made him stop, mainly because things would get so much worse if the other kids saw him throwing a tantrum like a little kid.

"Please Peter, can I go to work with you instead? I will be really good."

He begged for the thousand time that morning but it didn't work this time either, instead the man just sighed heavily.

"You have to go to school, Neal."

Neal looked at the school and nodded solemnly, finally coming to the realization that he had no other choice.

"Is there something wrong, bud?"

Peter asked the same question that they had asked over and over again since yesterday afternoon and Neal answered the same way he had all of the times, with a shake of his head.

"Is someone being mean to you, Neal?"

Peter tried, but yet again Neal shook his head and the agent gave up on trying to understand Neal's hatred of school.
They got out of the car and Peter gave him a quick hug and a kiss on top of his head before he told him to have a good day.
Neal walked towards the school building, but it felt more like he was forced to walk the plank and that he soon would fall into the dark, cold water.
He spotted Curtis Hagen standing by the door, surrounded by some of his minions and as soon as Neal saw his cunning smile, he knew that this day was going to be so much worse than yesterday.

Author's Note 2:
This idea was partly inspired by Hagen and Neal's relationship in season 5 but also from that king Bob character from the Disney channel show Recess.
I didn't come up with any other idea so I went with this and I do hope that it's not too unrealistic.