elrhiarhodan

Title: Testing Silence
Author: elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey, Clinton Jones, Diana Berrigan, Mozzie, Ellen Parker; Peter-Neal, pre-Peter/Neal, Peter/Neal
Word Count: ~4300
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Brief reference to intentional humiliation of students by a teacher, reference to underage (16 and 17 year olds) sexual activity, nothing explicit.
Beta Credit: sinfulslasher
Summary: Set very early in the Wonder(ful) Years 'verse, four vignettes of Peter and Neal's life in junior high and high school.

Author’s Note: Written as an extra day (Day 9) for my Fic-Can-Ukah meme, for pooh_collector, who picked the prompts, "There is always one more silence" and requested a fill in the Wonder(ful) Years 'verse. I also promised not to write super-sad death/dying fic for her, even though this prompt really could have gone that way. Instead, she'd getting super-young Peter and Neal.

Many thanks (again) to my creative co-conspirator, kanarek13, who provided the lovely and spoilerly artwork for the end of the story.

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( Before he started seventh grade, Peter had thought he'd love English class. All the new books they'd get to read and talk about, even learning about silly things like grammar and sentence structure, too. His mom had explained that that stuff was really like baseball rules. Sometimes they didn't make a whole lot of sense (like the in-field fly rule or tagging up before going from third to home), but they were important anyway. )