Chapter Three
One quiet Week
Kevin walked into the kitchen the next morning to see Nick and Joe sitting at the table, doing their schoolwork, their mom was making lunch and Frankie was working at his desk that was right on the outside of the kitchen. Kevin took one look at Nick and laughed. His brother was sucking on his fourth medicated lolly pop in the last hour. Miley had told him about them and had given him a bag of them the day before and he had been using them ever since.
"Okay Nick, enough of this, one of those things is one thing, and I know you want to get better, but sucking on all those lolly pops is not going to do anything but rot you teeth and send your sugar levels sky high," Kevin said as he sat down beside them.
Nick looked at him and rolled his eyes, "umum," he hummed through his lips.
"Kevin's got a point Nick," Joe said putting his pencil down taking a break from his math.
"Umum!" Nick hummed even harder.
"Okay Nick, give it to me," Kevin said as he took hold of lolly pop stick and started to pull on it.
"Mumm," Nick mumbled as he stood up as Kevin pulled him up with the lolly pop stick.
"Come on Nick," Joe said with a laugh as he watched them.
"Nick, release!" Kevin said as pulled even harder on the stick.
Their dad walked in as Kevin finished his sentence.
"What in the world are you two doing?" their father asked.
"Kevin's trying to get Nick to stop sucking on his throat suckers," Frankie said laughing.
"I see," their father said with a laugh.
"I said it before Nick, but I'm saying it again, release!" Kevin said pulling the stick above his own head.
Nick pulled his lips around the lolly pop even more and stood on his tip toes as Kevin brought it above his head.
"Aright fine, you leave us no choice-," Joe said as he brought his hand up and began to form a claw, "Tiiiickle, tickle, tickle."
Joe started tickling Nick on his sides, Nick held his mouth shut as long as he could but he finally opened his mouth and Kevin yanked out the lolly pop.
"Haa, got it!" Kevin said as he tossed the lolly pop into the trash can.
Nick grunted at his brother as he reached for his water bottle and took a drink trying to get the medicated taste out of his mouth.
"Frankie, do you think you could last a week without talking?" Joe asked their youngest brother as he left his desk and came over to the rest of his brothers.
"I don't know; do think Nick will make it through a week?" Frankie asked as he sat down next to them, Nick glared at him.
"I think he can make it, I don't think he has much of a choice," Joe said with a laugh.
Kevin looked at Nick and saw him rinsing his mouth again, Kevin grinned, "See, you have a bad taste in your mouth don't you?" Kevin said with a grin.
Nick glared at his brother as he went back to his school work, after a few minutes he looked up to Kevin again and handed him the white board.
Kevin looked at it and smiled, "Of course I'll help you with your math Nick J. but no more lolly pops okay?"
Nick took the white board back and wrote something else, and handed it back to Kevin again.
Kevin looked at it and then looked back to Nick, "Alright I'll make you a deal, I'll help you with your math if you have only one lolly pop every two hours, deal?"
Nick nodded and handed Kevin his math book, Kevin took it with a smile and turned to the page Nick was on and started helping him with the problem.
"Hey, not fair, Kevin's the wiz kid when it comes to math," Joe said holding up his notebook.
"Sorry Joe, Nick asked me first," Kevin said with a smile.
Nick grinned and he handed Joe the white board. Joe looked at what his brother had written: "You snooze you loose brother." Joe looked back up at him and gave him a hurt look and said, "Now that's just rude."
Nick grinned, and Kevin burst out laughing.