And this is the end!

CHAPTER NINE

Chest puffed out in pride at the praise he had received from Mr Matthews for correctly labelling all fifty states on the map in under thirty seconds, Thad ambled along the school corridor, too wrapped up in thinking about the potential outing for the afternoon to witness Russell shoving Sheldon into a locker. His brother had sought him out at breakfast, nudging him in the queue and muttering lowly:

"Meet at the ice cream parlour at four. Got it?"

Thad had nodded in agreement, before both had split off into their respective factions. Now, it was the end of the school day and as Thad had some time to kill before meeting with his brother, he headed back to the Boy's Dormitory to get changed, thanking his friends in response to the birthday messages they uttered to him as they passed by. His freshly pressed buttoned-up shirt and tailored dark blue jeans he wore with pride, striding through Bullworth Town in his loafers, a '15' badge pinned to the front of his shirt.

Mocking shouts of "Happy Birthday, Nerd!" assaulted his ears, hurled at him by the Bullies, who guffawed at his birthday badge. Thad, feeling confident enough to not care for once, ignored their shouts and waited patiently outside the ice cream parlour, hands clasped behind his back. A brief flashback to yesterday's events, cable ties, caused him to jolt, his hands pulling apart with his arms hanging limply by his sides.

Four o'clock came and passed. Thad hummed tunelessly under his breath, checking his watch. Four fifteen. Dan was late. Sighing in frustration, tune dying on his lips, Thad considered whether to stay any longer or to admit defeat and trudge back to school in humiliation. He should have known that his brother would have abandoned his own plan to get out of spending time with him! No doubt, Dan would be on the premises of the Academy, bragging to his friends how he had humiliated his younger brother on his birthday, his special day, cackling at the thought of Thad waiting miserably outside the ice cream parlour, not knowing that his ice cream treat was-

"Sorry, I'm late. Coach made me run more laps than everyone else!... What the hell are you wearing?!"

Dan, freshly showered and slouching in a Bullworth blue tracksuit, curled his lip at his younger brother's attire, eyes lighting up in wicked delight at the sight of the badge. "Thad… why have you got a birthday badge? You ain't five."

"Mom thent it to me," Thad frowned, before turning towards the door. "Thhall we?"

At Dan's nod, he led the way into the ice cream parlour, seating themselves at a booth in the corner. Fortunately, the parlour was quiet and they perused their menus without any interruptions. Two minutes later, Dan dropped his menu onto the table and pulled out his wallet.

"What do you want?"

"The Bubbleliciouth… Wait, are you paying for thith?"

Dan rolled his eyes and waved the wallet in the air. "Duh. You're so dumb. It's your birthday, I can't exactly make you pay for it. Mom will nag my ass if I don't, and trust you to get the sundae with bubblegum in it… If you're sick afterwards, I ain't helping you. Want a milkshake?"

"Won't that make me feel thick?"

He appraised Thad. "You're skinny enough as it is, no wonder you're so weak. I'm getting you a chocolate milkshake… it was always your favourite."

Dan slid out of the booth, standing up and walking over to the counter. The jibe at his apparent 'weakness' made Thad send a burning glare into the back of his brother's head, the glare melting away when Dan came back over to the booth, stuffing his change into his wallet. Once he was seated in the booth, Dan stretched his hands out onto the table, linking his fingers together.

"Why don't you join the football team, Thad?"

His younger brother inhaled sharply, gagging on the sudden spit lodged in his throat. Hacking a cough out, Thad sputtered:

"What kind of quethtion is that?! Imagine me playing football! I'd be wiped out!"

The image of Thad, crushed to death on the football field, brought up mixed emotions within Dan. His first instinct was to chuckle, but worry soon began to plague him. Thad was so weak, how would he survive Bullworth without him? Unless he was able to defend himself when he stirred the pot, Thad had little chance of surviving the rest of his education at Bullworth, and Dan didn't want his brother to die.

"Think about it though? If you joined the football team and worked out to improve your physical strength, then you would stop being beaten so easily. Plus… you wouldn't embarrass me so much."

"Oh, I embarrath you?" Thad scoffed. "At leatht I'm comfortable enough in mythelf to be the true me and not change my attributeth jutht tho I can be 'popular.'" He aimed a direct look at Dan, who shrugged his shoulders in response, muttering: "Touché."

At that moment in time, their sundaes and milkshakes arrived, Thad noting how Dan had played it safe and gone for the After Eight sundae – his favourite ice cream was mint. The strawberry milkshake, to Thad's mind, was an attempt for Dan to be 'good' and stick to a 'healthy diet'.

"Well, happy birthday, I guess."

"Thankth," Thad chugged half of his chocolate milkshake in one go, sporting an upper lip of chocolate once he had downed it. Dan slurped his own milkshake, before murmuring: "Knew you needed that."

As they ate and drank, Thad's braces staining different colours, Dan spoke up:

"So, what did you get then?"

"Oh, Mom thent me a card, Dad thigned it," Dan noticed Thad rushing over the mention of Dad, knowing that despite their parents no longer being together, their Dad still relied on their Mom for the gift giving. "My friendth got me a brand-new cheth board, a limited edition one, and Mom thent me fifty dollarth and the latetht Thtephen King book."

He smiled. "And you arranged thith outing for me… I didn't think you would get me anything."

"I'm not getting you anything, you've got all you need, but you're my brother, I owed you something, I guess." Dan gestured to Thad's upper lip, who upon feeling the chocolate smeared over his skin, wiped it away with the back of his hand.

"I jutht want to t-thank you again, Danny. For all you've done over the patht few days. I d-don't know what I would have done without your help… I know to keep my t-temper in check now… I-I hope we can h-hang out more… it'th demoralithing when you ignore me around camputh…"

It was true. He did ignore Thad, especially when his little brother was hanging around with the other Nerds, partly because he wanted to escape that certain lifestyle he used to be so fond of. The simple fact was, they didn't have any common interests. Dan avoided the Library like the plague and Thad never attended any football matches, only congratulating his older brother if Bullworth won, the day after.

"Look, I'll… I won't ignore you as much, okay? It's just, around my friends, you're so-"

"Nerdy?"

"Well, yeah."

"And you can be thuch a prick." Thad ribbed him light-heartedly.

"Oi," Dan growled, only to break out into a smirk. "That's my line."

They both chatted, moving onto their current interests, the brothers taking turns in talking whilst the other pretended to be interested. Their claim to be friends would be false. They were not friends, and both doubted, they ever would be.

But they shared a mutual respect. After all, they were brothers, and these brothers would be sticking together.