2. Welcome To Hell

Just as Haley predicted, Alan didn't calm down until two days later when the three of them was driving to the boarding school that was located just outside of Boston. During those two days Alan had been avoiding them like a plague and whenever they did get a hold of him and tried to talk to him, he only responded with mostly one-word syllables. Not exactly the way to strike a conversation. It was even worse during the car ride with Alan sitting in the backseat with earplugs in his ears, listening to the music on his iPod and ignoring them even further. The car's atmosphere was heavy and very much uncomfortable since no one spoke to each other and instead tried to focus on the road ahead.

It was probably even worse for Jem since he was driving and his mind was occupied with the fact that his patience was reaching its limit when it came to Alan's grudge. He knew better than anyone that Alan was pretty much a mature kid, not when it came to getting himself in trouble of course, but it was times like this he truly showed how childish he could be. Which is why his attitude put Jem in the situation where he had to be the authority one and act like a parent, which was strange since he was only twelve years older than him and was easily mistaken for an older brother rather than a father, but it was difficult since Alan had pretty much a none-existing care for the authorities and would be stubborn about anything or anyone who tried to control him. However he was just as determined not to be the person that broke first between him and Alan, but the kid was making it very hard to remain the calm and responsible adult. It wasn't until Alan began singing lowly the song Highway to Hell that caused Jem's patience finally snap.

"Seriously," Jem exclaimed as he turned slightly to the back to look at the teen, who was starting to grin over the fact that he had won the tug war and the fact he finally decided to acknowledged his presence. "You going to Wharton are definitely not the highway to hell, so please stop being so dramatic about it and man up!"

"Whatever you say, Jem," Alan said nonchalant. "You are just sending me away since then you don't have to deal with the problem."

That comment made Jem step on the breaks and drove to the side of the road. He stopped the car and turned to look at the teenager with a pissed off expression on his face and said angrily, "Is that what you think? That we are sending you away because we don't want to deal with you!"

Alan shifted slightly in his seat, obviously uncomfortable over the conversation, but didn't reply on the accusation. However Jem knew that his silence was a confirmation over that it was in fact true. Still that didn't make him any happier instead it only made him angrier over how such a bright kid could possibly think that about the only people they knew of that care about him.

"I already told you two days ago why we decided this," Jem said wearily. He tightened the grip on the steering wheel in order to contain his raging emotions. "You need a new start somewhere else and we thought it was best that somewhere else was somewhere away from us. It will give you an opportunity to be responsible for yourself and possibly figure out who exactly you are and who you want to be."

Jem closed his eyes for a second; taking in the words he was saying and realized how true as well as heavy those words were out loud. He sighed and opened his eyes to look at the distraught teenager, who was listening and taking in what exactly he was saying. However Alan was looking at the hands that rested on his lap and was shaken slightly in order to contained his emotions, but Jem wasn't going to let him go that easy without getting the message through his thick head.

"Both Haley and I want nothing, but the best for you," Jem explained and grabbed Alan's jaw and lifted his head, forcing Alan to look at him. "We love you very much and would never throw you away, because you are after all our precious little brother."

Alan's eyes grew wet, but tears didn't stream down his face. Jem knew that he was trying to keep his feelings inside, but he wished more than anything that Alan would allow himself to let down this wall around his heart and allow people to know his thoughts and feelings. It was one of the many reasons Alan would get close to anyone else and be friends with other people, since he didn't want people to be burdened by his thoughts and feelings. Even though Alan never stated out the reason why, Jem had a good idea that it had something to do with his amnesia.

Twelve years of his life was gone from his mind, even though he remembers the knowledge and abilities he has learned, he can't recall people or memories from his previous life. He had no clue who his biological family are or why he can't remember anything before Jem and Haley had taken him in. It was hard to believe Alan had never once taken interest in finding out his true identity or family, at least not that either he or Haley knew about, but he could only assume that Alan didn't want to hurt their feelings by trying to find them or simply because he didn't want to find the people who gave up searching for him.

"Okay," Alan murmured. His eyes shifted in every direction, looking anywhere except at him. Jem let go of his grip on Alan's jaw and once again sighed heavily before he turned around and started the car.

"Okay, now let's get to Wharton before it get dark," Jem said. He put on the turn signal in order for the other drivers to understand he was entering the road. Then they continued on the road, but this time the atmosphere was lighter than before and it didn't take long before they all got into a conversation. The previous issue was already forgotten and the rest of the trip to Wharton was a lot more pleasant than earlier, even though Alan was not exactly ecstatic about the idea of going to boarding school with rich kids, but at least he had a better understanding of the situation.

Alan was staring out the window when the car finally stopped in front of the academy. He exhaled heavily and all he could think about was that he was seriously not looking forward to going to Wharton for several reasons, but he owed it to Jem and Haley that he would at least try and do what they asked. Who knows maybe they were actually right and this place might be good for him?

So he got out of the car and stared at the gate entrance with huge fences surrounding the property. The school reminded him of a high security prison, where the property was disconnected from the rest of the world. In some ways it might be actually true considering Wharton Academy was a boarding school for the rich and the privileged or as he would say the school for the stupid and spoiled. These boys who went to this school was likely what he was expecting and they were going to judge him once they figured out his social status, which is why he had planned to stay low and keep thing wrapped up about himself.

As he had finally made up his mind, Jem and Haley began saying their goodbyes to him. Haley gave him a tight hug that left him almost breathless. Despite the fact that he was having difficulty in breathing, he didn't pull away from her and instead simply allowed her to say her goodbyes like a mother sending her child off to college.
"Promise me, you will call us as often as you can," Haley murmured into his hair. She stroked her hand up and down his long blond hair and gave gentle kisses at his scalp. "Especially call us if there is any problems and then we will rush over if you need us to."

Alan chuckled. Then he returned the hug with the same appreciation and carefully stroked his hand through her hair.

"I will-I will," Alan promised. "But you are aware that you two do have jobs that requires a lot of your attention, right? I can't exactly call and expect you to drop everything for me."

Haley and Jem had obviously not thought about that part and both held this blank facial expression like they were seriously considering what exactly he was saying. It was so comical that he couldn't stop himself from laughing at the situation. He was laughing so hard that he held around his stomach, which was starting to hurt a little. For second both Haley and Jem was looking at him, wondering what in the world was wrong with him until they too began to laugh along.

Once they all managed to calm themselves down, Jem handed him the blue and dark purple duffle bag, which had some of the things he needed for his stay since they had already sent the most important things over earlier to the school. However there was one more thing Jem had his hand and said gently, "I thought that you might want this."

Jem handed him a dark blue baseball cap and Alan accepted it with appreciation.

"Thanks, Jem," Alan said gratefully. He smiled looking at the cap, thinking back from the time he first got it. It had been gift from Jem one time when he had taken him to see his first baseball game. Everything had been confusing for him at that time considering how little he knew about himself and other things, so it had been a good memory for him when everything else was a total blank. Which is one of the reasons why this cap was his favorite and one of his most precious possessions. "I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it, kid," Jem replied. He took the cap from Alan's hands and put it on his head. "You will do great here. But promise me that you will try and not get in trouble on your first day here."

"Me, trouble?" Alan said innocently. He pointed at himself and tilted his head to the left. They all knew that he was only joking and it was true about being a troublemaker, but that didn't mean that he didn't like pulling Jem's tail whenever he could. "I don't make trouble."

"Aha, sure you don't," Jem nodded. He smirked and was going along with the joke. "I'm convinced, but for my sake will you just try and not get involved in any kind of trouble or argument with anyone. You will put ease on my old heart if you do."

"Alright, I will try," Alan said dramatically. "Now get out of here. It's a long drive and you need to get back before dark since you both have morning shifts tomorrow. And relax I will be fine."

Then they talked a short while giving him the instructions over what and where he was going to go once he entered school property. The plan was that he was going straight to the administration and gets his schedule and other information before he was going straight to class. Simple enough, but Jem had this picture that he was somehow going to screw it up and get in trouble. Not that it was a big surprise or anything, but seriously where is the trust? The instruction was so simple that even a screw-up like him couldn't mess it up.

So reluctantly Jem and Haley left him standing there in front of the entrance. They continued waving at him and he waved back at them until the car disappeared. When the car was completely gone from his sight, then he turned around and looked at what he considered the gateway to hell.

"Welcome to Hell, Alan," Alan mumbled to himself as he nervously tighten the strap of his duffle bag. "So don't screw this up. Just remember the plan. Go to school, lay low with the other kids and most importantly don't get in trouble." Then he thought over his plan and realized there was something wrong with that plan. So continued explaining to himself, "Whom am I kidding? I will probably get in a lot of trouble during my time here. So lets rephrase, try and not get in too much trouble."

When he had finally made up his mind he took one last look at his current location, taking the last images of reality, before he sighed and began walking to the other side of the gate. During his walk across the two places he didn't turn back once, knowing that there was no turning backs now. So without much to be said Alan entered the other side of the gate and then his new school adventure began. What he didn't know was that his adventure was definitely began with a bang.

Fermat Hackenbacker was in a hurry for his next class, which was across campus from the living area, and he had only a couple of minutes before his chemistry class would begin without him. Not that any of the students cared if he was there or not, but the teachers would probably miss him since he was one of the few who actually was interested in the subjects and listened despite some of them being extremely boring. Never mind those silly thoughts, Fermat thought as he decided to take a short cut through the front yard right around the main gate. Unfortunately his plan was interrupted by three of his fellow classmates, but that wasn't the unfortunate part. They were also three of many students who despised him for being a scholarship student and the only other reason for him to be going to this highly privileged school was that his father was an employee of Mr. Tracy, who was kind enough to pay for his schooling despite not having any children his own age who would go the same place. He and his dad was more than grateful for Mr. Tracy's generosity, however that generosity made things difficult for him in the long run.

"Look, guys," Marcus Alistair said tauntingly. He smirked and pointed at him while his fellow friends snickered. They stood right in front of him and made sure that he didn't have any way of escaping them. "It's our favorite street rat on his way to class."

Fermat felt his body curl up in anxiety when he accidently lost his backpack on the ground. He tried to retrieve it, but Marcus was faster and grabbed his backpack before he got the chance.

"Our rat doesn't want to share his stuff with us. That makes me wonder what you are trying to hide," Marcus replied. The tone in his voice wasn't threatening, but his dark brown was cold and empty. A complete void of empathy for him as he began taking out all of his books and threw on the wet grass. Fermat wanted to stop him for treating his books like garbage, because he valued books like any human being. A book should never be harmed in any way, especially by hands of those who do not appreciate them. However he was too afraid that he tried to fight back that they would turn their attention on him and begin to harm him instead. So Fermat watched as book for book was thrown harshly to the ground while trying to maintain a calm demeanor.

Once Marcus had emptied his schoolbooks from his backpack and thrown them into the ground he handed his notebooks to his friends. "All that is in here is just stupid books. Useless things for someone who are not worth being here, around rich and privileged people like us. But then again it makes things so much easier to rip apart what matters to you."

With that signal Marcus's friends began ripping the pages out of his notebook and papers began flying away.

"P-please s-stop," Fermat begged. Not wanting to see more of his stuff and hard work get thrown away like it was nothing. "L-leave m-me alone."

His begging made them all stop, but instead of doing what he asked they simply laughed at him tauntingly before Marcus grabbed him the collar of his shirt and held up slight above the ground.

"Since you are begging, why don't you just leave and go back where you truly belong?" Marcus sneered. Fermat swallowed and his gaze shifted to all the students was either passing through to get to class or was watching the situation that was going on, begging them to help him, however no one stepped in to help him. They didn't even try and help instead they looked away and pretended that they haven't seen a thing. Fermat felt fear building up as his focus shifted back to Marcus, who was clutching the grip on his collar tighter, which made it difficult for him to breathe.

"I-I…" Fermat stuttered. He had no clue how to answer his question, especially when he didn't really want to leave the school because of the great possibilities it would give him, but it was almost unbearable to live with until the day he graduated and left for college.

"What? C-c-cat got your tongue," Marcus said. He was making fun of his stuttering, which was probably the simplest way to torment him, and he didn't waste opportunity to do it either whenever he could. "Don't expect anyone to save you."

Fermat realized resistance was futile, so he closed his eyes and just waited for the moment where Marcus fists was meeting against his skin and bruise his body. The worst part was that he bruised like a peach and he was going to have to hide the bruise marks from his dad and the rest of the Tracy family. If they found out that the students at Wharton was bullying him because of his dad's connection with Tracys, it was no doubt that they were going to meddle in and possibly making things worse than it already was.

But the pain never came instead an unknown voice shouted out loud, interrupting Marcus on his beating, and said angrily, "What are you doing! Leave that kid alone!"

Marcus dropped him and he fell down on the ground, while surprisingly avoided landing at his schoolbooks and fell like a potato bag. Once he was done focusing on the pain from falling on the ground he turned to see whoever had interrupted and automatically helped him out. And he had to be lying if he didn't say the person who saved him didn't surprise him, especially when that person was nothing like he expected him to be. At least he thought it was a guy standing a couple of feet away from them. He was tall with long blonde hair, which was dancing in the small breeze. He wore a baseball cap on his head and was dressed in worn-out jeans, a grey t-shirt, a blue jacket and black sneakers. On his left shoulder hung a duffle bag and he was clutching the strap of the bag like a lifeline to keep his temper down. But in Fermat's opinion it was like looking at a girl cross-dressing as a guy while trying to get a movie role as a runaway teenager, but apparently there was no mistake that this was a guy when he began talking.

"Who in the world are you?" Marcus asked with a sour tone in his voice. "Who do you think you are? Interrupting and butting in on a private conversation like a hooligan."

"I'm the guy who is trying to help the kid that you all are harassing and was just about to beat-up," the blonde guy replied snarky. "Now scram before things turns to the worse."

Marcus and his friends only laughed, since they didn't take the blonde guy as much as a threat despite that it was pretty clear that he wasn't kidding.

"Oh yeah, you think you can take the three of us down on your own," Marcus relaxed. He cracked his knuckles, preparing to fight the blonde guy, and approached the guy with short steps. "You should not underestimate me."

"I should be saying the same thing to you," the blonde guy said with a smug grin. "You shouldn't underestimate me."

With that said Marcus and the blonde guy stepped aside from Fermat and Marcus's friends in order to keep the fight between them. It was Marcus who threw the first punch towards the guy's face and Fermat were waiting for the guy to fall on the ground and get punched to a plump. However the guy didn't meet Marcus's fist instead took a step to the side, avoiding the attack and then used his right foot and pushed Marcus to the ground the minute he had barely maintained his balance. Everyone was surprised how simple the guy managed to take Marcus down without making any offensive attacks and he had not made many movements in order to it either.

"What?" the guy asked with this cockiness tone. "I told you not to underestimate me. Now do you want to continue this or will you do us all a favor and realize it is your loss and leave the kid alone. And before you answer the question, think very hard about the consequences with the choices that is laid in front of you."

Marcus looked at the guy with this dark expression on his face before he turned his gaze towards him, like he was seriously thinking over the options. Then Marcus got up from the ground and brushed the dirt from his knees.

"You just got lucky, street rat," Marcus sneered. "But next time your girlfriend can't help you."

Marcus nodded his head to his friends, signaling to his friends to finish the problem, which were in other words him and the blonde guy. So once Marcus left the front yard, his two friends began approaching the two of them. The blonde guy moved closer to him and took a protective stance in front of him, like he was protecting from Marcus's friends. Fermat found this protectiveness nostalgic, in a way that it reminded him on how the Tracy boys would quickly defend their family or rather their brothers. So it was strange how his unknown guy acted similar to them and even had the same protective feel about him. But he quickly shook the idea out of his head, since there was no way this guy was in any way related to the Tracy family. He would have known if there was another brother, especially if it was a blonde-haired brother, which there wasn't if you didn't count John.

Anyway the blonde guy stood there in front of him, covering him from Marcus's friends while keeping his attention on them before he whispered, "You should get out of here."

Fermat thought for a second that he had misheard what exactly he had said, but when he said once again what he wanted him to do it finally got through his brain.

"W-what?" Fermat said. Even though he understood the question, but somehow he couldn't comprehend it.

"Let me take care of these guys while you go and find a teacher or someone who can take control over the situation, especially when I have this tendency to make things blow up in the face," the guy replied and shrugged his shoulders. "So it might be a good idea to take some damage control just in case."

"R-right," Fermat agreed. "B-b-but w-what is your n-name?"

It sounded rude to just call him the blonde-haired guy, especially since he was doing so much for him without being asked to and would probably get in a lot of trouble because of it. Another reason was that when he ran to get a teacher he had to know all the facts and minimize the trouble.

"I'm Alan Shepard," the guy or should he rather say Alan said gently. "And if you didn't guess it already, I'm new here. So nice to meet you and now please go and get a teacher."

Fermat didn't need to be asked twice and he quickly got up and sprinted to the closest building, which was the language building where the education mainly resolved around English or other foreign languages, and entered the building in hope of finding a teacher since class had already started.

The sound of his feet touching the marble floor clanged through the empty halls, giving it a feel of being in a ghost town. Invisible, but you still could hear and feel the presence of someone else lurking around. Unfortunately because of this it seemed to be quite a task to find a teacher anywhere in the building. Fermat was getting both stressed and annoyed how every time there was no need for a teacher to be around they were always there, while when it was truly an emergency there was no one around. How inconvenient, which makes him wonder what's the point in having a teacher roaming around the campus and in the halls if there are never around when you need them to be?

Fermat exasperated turned the corner and literally crashed into someone and he stumbled to the ground. He looked up to see exactly whom he had bumped into and was glad when it was the French teacher, Mrs. Dubois. The woman was not in any way kind or very pleasant person to be around with, but right then Fermat didn't care less if she was warmest person in the whole wide world. The only thing that mattered to him was that she was a teacher and she could get in middle of things and end the fight before it got any worse than what he was anticipating.

"Monsieur Hackenbacker," Mrs. Dubois said with a thick French accent. Her voice was expressing unpleasantness, since she didn't like having students who broke the ground rules. And she especially didn't like it when one of her star pupils was doing it either. "What are you doing here? You should be in class, not roaming around the halls like many of the other students who don't take education seriously."

"I-I n-need your h-help," Fermat said anxiously. "T-there is a f-f-fight going on in the f-front y-yard. P-please h-help u-us o-out."

Mrs. Dubois looked at him suspiciously, not entirely sure if he was pulling her leg or not, but she didn't say anything instead followed after him as they walked back towards the front yard. As they hurried back the only thing that was going through Fermat's mind was the wellbeing of his newfound hero and seriously hoped that things didn't blow up too much.

The day certainly didn't turn out the way Alan had hoped, especially with his attempt not to try causing trouble on the first day. Unfortunately not only did he managed to cause trouble the same day he got here, but he managed to do just minutes being there. Must be a new personal record or something, Alan thought to himself as he was standing in the principal or should he rather say the headmaster's office, being giving the longest reprimanding yet. He didn't really see the problem, since he didn't beat the two students to the unrecognizable instead just minimal beating with bloody noses and a couple of bruised ribs. Nothing too serious that they couldn't be at school the next morning, but this school took obviously something seriously when they even called up Jem and told him everything.

Anyway after he got yelled at from both the headmaster and Jem for what seemed like forever, the two of them agreed that since it was his first day and didn't intentionally (or least based on what they knew) tried to do anything wrong that his punishment would be him being locked in his room for the rest of the day without supper or contact with anyone other than roommate. That was totally fine by him, so he left quietly the headmaster's office and was given his room key and his school schedule before he was escorted by one of the teachers to his room.

Once he was locked inside his room he took time to get a better look at the room. One side of the room was clean and untouched with a bed and desk while the other side was occupied with walls decorated with space posters and mathematical solutions. His roommate's desk was filled with books and a high-tech computer, which all in all gave Alan the impression that his roommate was a computer/science-geek. So there was still a chance that he might get along with his roommate after all. Alan shrugged his shoulders and began unpacking his stuff. For about an hour he rearranged his side of the room, while listening to classic rock on his stereo when someone suddenly opened the door. Alan turned around in awareness and was surprised to see the kid he helped out earlier.

"H-h-hello," the kid said awkwardly. "M-my name is Fermat H-hackenbacker. I-I'm your r-roommate."

Alan couldn't help but smile at the kid, who was at least one foot shorter than him with round, blue glasses and short dark brown hair. He assumed that Fermat was also younger than him, since he seemed more innocent and naïve than anyone else his age, but then again he had a feeling that he had never been very innocent when he was young. So he gave Fermat a gentle smile and the two of them shook hands and he said nicely, "Nice to meet you again. I had no idea who my roommate was going to be, but I'm glad that it is you, since you seem to be the only one here who are normal."

"T-thanks," Fermat stuttered nervously. Alan felt immediately bad for making him nervous and tried to reassure him that he wasn't going to hurt him.

"Hey, don't be scared," Alan tried to calm him down. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"N-n-no," Fermat denied. "T-This is h-how I-I t-t-talk."

Alan tilted in wonder before he smiled once again. This day had started with him going to hell, but he would have never guessed there was someone humane in hell. Maybe there was a chance he might actually like this school after all.

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Here's a new chapter, I hope you guys like it. First thing I want to mention is the lack of reviews. I'm not trying to be greedy or rude or anything, but seriously I work my butt to update my stories. And a little recognition and feedback is all I have to know if you guys like the stories or not. Many times during the period I have written on this I have been thinking if I should really continue this or not. If no one really care to read it then it is no use for me to write on it either, right? So please give a signal that you want this story, I really believe it is worth it.

The second thing I want to say is that because I'm busy with school, other stories and life itself I'm not sure how often I will update on the story, but I will at least try to update once a month. At least if you guys wishes for me to continue to work on this. So please be understanding.

I want to thank you for the reviews (The ones I got for the first chapter), favorite and followings. I will update this when I can, but until next time...

xXrebelgirl07Xx