Hush, Little Penguin

School In Neverland

The Octonauts had long since gotten used to the fact that Peso was only half grown up. He had his mature side, but didn't quite feel ready to leave childhood yet.

Barnacles had told him that just because he was getting older and smarted didn't mean he had to leave childhood behind and forget it, like most adults thought was traditional. It was who he was, and no one could take that away.

Peso, however, knew otherwise.

He'd grown up hating adults because of the power they wielded over kids. The power to tell children to shut up when they didn't want to hear anything contrary to what they thought was right. The power to deny the truth when it didn't sit well with them. The power to hit and run and force, the power that Peso learned, the hard way, adults liked to abuse.

Grownups just loved to be right. they just loved to look down on kids. They had been kids once. So when they grew up, they left childhood behind and never thought about it again to hide the pain, and use that to now be the one's ruining a child's life instead. Peso figured that was why everyone was in such a hurry to grow up. They wouldn't have to be the ones suffering anymore. Now, they had the power to make helpless, innocent children suffer in their place.

Society was low like that. If Peso were in charge, no one would be allowed to leave childhood behind until they were ready to be a kind, responsible adult that could make an example in society, a person who cared about others. Until they were mature, like that, they could not graduate, or leave home, or be adults. They would just keep starting over and over until they could be kind and nice and smart.

Like the captain.

The reason peso was thinking all this was because he was really mad at the adults, who didn't want to hear the truth. The grownups wanted to ignore the truth, because Peso was younger and therefore, they didn't have to listen to him.

The truth was that he hated all the changes.

"Peso, it's not going to be that bad." Barnacles stood outside Peso's door, trying to coax the little penguin out. "You love school!"

"It's not school!" Peso reminded him, snappishly. "And I don't like school. I'd like it more if there were less kids, or better teachers."

Barnacles sighed, knowing what Peso meant. Throughout his childhood, Peso had been bullied because of his father's selfish decisions. Forced to go to school in dresses and diapers, his homework burned when he didn't do his chores fast enough---as if the abuse in the house wasn't bad enough, it had to follow him to school, and those awful little imps had decided to stick him in the lowest slot possible to save themselves from the same fate.

Barnacles didn't think penguins could be so selfish.

But he tried not to dwell on why they did it. What they needed was a good punishment, to be stuck in their place for once.

but this was not even the tip of the iceberg. Peso's miserable life had surrounded adults, and the way they treated him. Some of his teachers didn't care about the bullying. They did nothing to stop it. Some of the teachers were much more worried about their performance, and didn't want Peso in their class, saying 'It's a middle school class, not a daycare!' Even before Peso moved up a few grades, his baby face had caused his teachers to think he didn't belong. Some teachers thought this was a scab on their class, having to be stuck with some stupid baby who couldn't do anything for himself, refusing to give Peso a chance.

Other teachers had been misinformed by Peso's father that he was a wart, a troublemaker, lazy, selfish and immature, among other things, all the exact opposite of what Peso really was.