"I'm a Bad Kid"

Let me tell you about "Klopek". (name changed obviously)
Klopek is a kid I see everyday. Thursday he wouldn't write anything down or do as I asked him to do. When I informed him "Klopek, if you don't write this down, you can't study for your quiz which is tomorrow" he replied, "I don't care, I hate this class." To which I said, "why?" and he said, "Because you are mean." Interestingly, in the same class I had 2 other kids tell me I was the nicest teacher they had this year. So I tried no to take it to heart and wondered what else was going on in his life...

Friday, Klopek returns to class and we get ready for the quiz. I give him his paper and he just pushes it away, gets out a marker and starts to draw in his spiral. Another teacher/aide I have in the room comes to him and asks why he isn't work on his quiz, and he says he doesn't care. She tells him he'll get a zero, and again, he doesn't care. So I come to him quietly and ask him to step outside with me while the other teacher monitors the class. He mumbles under his breath "I don't wanna talk to you!" Here's our dialogue:

Me: Klopek, why aren't you working on your quiz
Klopek: Because I don't want to.
Me: You know you'll get a zero right?
Klopek: I don't care
Me: We can work together to improved and replace grades, but I can't do anything about a zero.
Klopek: I don't care, I hate this class!
Me: I can't make you like the class, I can only help you learn.
Klopek: I don't even like High School, I wanna drop out. I hate it here.
Me: Why do you hate it?
Klopek: Well, I got friends, yeah, I got friends. But I'm gonna get jumped, or "T-ed" or beat up.
Me: Who is going to beat you up, is someone threatening you?
Klopek: No, but they will. Everyone says I'm annoying.
Me: Ahh, I see, so you are preparing yourself for the worst. Well, I don't think you are annoying.
(he looks me in the eyes for the first time)
Klopek: Even my family doesn't like me, They think I'm a screw up.
Me: why?
Klopek: because I'm 14 and I'm on probation. I messed up. I'm a bad kid. They don't like me.
Me: Klopek, You aren't a bad kid. My brother is also on probation (I didn't bother with the in-law explanation, didn't figure it mattered), and he's not a bad kid. In fact We love him very much. He messed up too, but he's not a bad kid. And you aren't either. We gotta get you working on learning, because I know you are smart. And if you learn, you can begin to get out of the situation you are in, but you gotta try. Can you go try on that quiz for me please?
(again looks me in the eyes)
Klopek: But I wasn't paying attention when you were teaching. I'm not going to pass.
Me: Just do your best and we'll work with it from there.
Klopek: Ok (looks me in the eyes one more time and half smiles).

He goes in and works on the quiz. I haven't graded it yet, but we'll see. But that conversation alone, Friday at 3:15 PM after a very long week of Setting Rules, Boundaries, Procedures, Lines, Expectations and teaching as best as I could - That conversation made it worth it.