It was coming on to fourth period and so far Casey had already managed to doze off during his morning classes, but now he was really struggling to stay awake.
Kyle watches as his younger brother slumps down on the desk beside him and starts to rest his head on his arms.
They were in their PDHPE class, the only one the two boys shared.
The teacher was explaining about the human body and sexually transmitted diseases.
Casey always found the theory part of the classes such a drag and much preferred being outside and running around playing sports, where-as Kyle was the total opposite and hated the physical side of PDHPE.
As the teacher, Mr. Gardiner drones on about HIV/AIDS, Casey begins to doze off, only this time actually falling into a deep sleep.
Kyle punches Casey lightly on the arm, jolting Casey awake.
Casey groans tiredly as he glances up at the teacher babbling on as he wrote down notes on the whiteboard and looks over towards Kyle with his eyes glassy and half closed.
Casey flops his head back down and allows Mr. Gardiner's boring lecture to lull him off to sleep again.
Kyle punches Casey on the arm again.
"Casey, Casey," Kyle whispers, only for Casey to groan.
Kyle notices Mr. Gardiner glancing in their direction but he continues to talk.
Kyle makes many futile attempts to wake Casey up and to stop drawing attention to himself as other classmates were already snickering and Mr. Gardiner kept looking in their direction one too many times.
After what would have been ten to fifteen minutes, Kyle's eyes widen as he sees Mr. Gardiner let out a huff and put all his attention onto him and his sleeping brother.
"Casey, wake up; Casey, now."
Kyle punches and shakes his brother roughly in panic.
Mr. Gardiner makes his way down to Casey's desk and Kyle pulls away from his brother, glancing up and feeling intimidated by his very stern teacher.
Mr. Gardiner was known to be super strict and took no nonsense from any of his students, and why so many times during physicals Kyle was forced to participate in sports he absolutely hated and was no good at, but Mr. Gardiner had told him if he didn't comply, he would fail him in his entire course.
"Do you need some help, Kyle?" Mr. Gardiner asks in a hard tone.
"No, Sir," Kyle whispers.
Mr. Gardiner stares down at his sleeping student as Kyle watches on intensely, knowing it was too late to save Casey from getting into big trouble.
Other students stare and some snicker at the pending fate of the unsuspecting young teen.
Mr. Gardiner clears his throat.
"Casey Braxton!" the stern teacher yells and slams his hand down hard on Casey's desk, in front of where Casey's arms and head lay.
Casey instantly startles awake from the yell of his name and vibration of his teacher's rough hand slamming his desk and sits to attention; although his head and eyes tell otherwise, being droopy and full of fatigue, he lets out a groan.
A couple of the students in the class laugh and Kyle sadly watches his brother as Mr. Gardiner begins his wrath.
"Do you think I'm teaching this information for my own health, Casey Braxton?"
Casey couldn't stop himself from smirking as he glances at the board again and realises what he was talking about and imagines if he was talking about it because of his health.
"I would wipe that rude smirk off your face right now, if I were you! If you find my class so boring Mr. Braxton, maybe you will find it more interesting in lunch time detention where you can catch up on all that you've missed today. I hope those few minutes of beauty sleep were worth it!"
Casey's face turns red from embarrassment as the class bursts into further laughter.
Mr. Gardiner turns to walk back to the front of the class before turning his attention back onto Casey who was still attempting to wake himself up.
"I think a firm word with the principal is required, Casey. Off you go and I will see you back here at the start of lunch."
Casey's face falls and he looks over at Kyle who gives a sympathetic shrug.
Casey groans and collects up his books and bag and walks out of the classroom towards the principal's office.
Bianca finishes on the phone and opens the door to see Casey slumped in the waiting area chairs.
"Casey, what are you doing here?" she asks.
"Mr. Gardiner sent me here because I fell asleep in class," Casey mumbles.
Bianca frowns and gestures into her office.
"Come in," she says firmly.
Casey follows Bianca into the office and takes a seat as Bianca closes her door, then proceeds to walk behind her desk and sit down.
"What have you got to say for yourself?"
Casey shrugs, "I couldn't help it; I was tired."
"Yes, well I got word from your other teachers from your morning classes, and they have all commented about you napping," Bianca informs.
"Is there any reason why you are so tired you fall asleep in class?" Bianca asks in a soft and understanding tone.
Casey thinks for a moment; he couldn't dare tell Bianca it was Heath's fault he was so tired; Heath would kill him, and he was sure Brax would too if he dobbed his brother in; jeopardising his chances with Bianca.
"No Bianca," Casey mutters.
Bianca raises her brow.
"It is Miss. Scott, to you Casey when you are at school," Bianca scolds and Casey stares down at his feet.
"I don't want to hear any more about this kind of behaviour Casey. School is for learning, not sleeping. If you cannot refrain yourself from sleeping in your classes, then I will have no other choice but to give you lunchtime detention for a week. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Miss. Scott," Casey grumbles.
"Okay well, we are done here; get back to class," Bianca orders.
Casey grabs his belongings and notices there are only minutes left until the lunchtime bell. He heads back to his PDHPE classroom and reaches it just as the bell rings.
Kyle sets sights on Casey outside the door and walks over to him.
"What happened?"
"Bianca gave me a lecture about not sleeping in class and said if I did it again, I'd get detention for a week."
"Wow, that sucks; sorry Case," Kyle replies sympathetically and pats Casey on the arm.
"Are you going to go hang with the gang, or are you going to the library?" Casey asks.
Kyle shrugs.
"Might hang with them for a bit, then try and get some of my History assignment done, or I might spend the entire lunchtime with them and do the History assignment at home. I'll see how I feel."
"Ah, Casey Braxton, I'm glad you have returned and are on time for your detention. I hope you are nicely refreshed and ready for a long session of writing out notes from the textbook on sexually transmitted diseases," Mr. Gardiner implies.
Casey rolls his eyes and Kyle gives him a smile.
"Good luck," he whispers.
"Thanks, I'm going to need it."
Casey walks into the classroom and is given a large textbook to summarise notes out of.
"Hopefully you will learn something from this and next time maybe you will pay attention in class and not waste my time, hmm, Mr. Braxton?" Mr. Gardiner states sternly.
"Yes Sir," Casey groans and gets to work.
With thirty minutes of lunch gone already, Mr. Gardiner walks over to Casey's desk.
"You may stop writing and pack away the books and then you may go and finish the rest of your lunch break," Mr. Gardiner informs.
Casey flexes his hand and puts away his pencil case and notebook in his bag and returns the textbook to the cupboard.
"I do not want to have to see you in lunch detention doing the same thing again, Mr. Braxton; am I clear?"
"Yes sir," Casey mutters and quickly races out of the classroom and down the hall.
"How much longer do we have to wait to have our lunches? I'm starving," Liam states.
All five boys were waiting out on the oval for Casey to finish up with his detention with Mr. Gardiner.
"He can't be too much longer, teachers aren't meant to keep kids for their entire lunch break," Dex informs.
"Look: you guys eat your lunch if you want but I'm waiting for Casey; he would wait for any of us," Kyle says; even though deep down he knows this wouldn't be true.
Romeo and Liam start to eat their lunch, while Dex and Ryder wait a little longer.
Soon enough with twenty minutes to spare, Casey makes his way out onto the oval to meet his friends.
"How was it?" Ryder asks.
Casey groans and flops down onto the bench next to his older brother.
"The worst; I thought I was tired before, but he must have made me write so many summary notes on STD's I think my hand is about to fall off and my brain is going into overdrive," Casey moans.
"You'll live through it," Romeo laughs and gives Casey a playful shove.
"I swear he has it in for me; he's such a grouch," Casey moans.
"You should be in Mr. McKay's class, he's so lax. He lets us play whatever games we want as long as we are active," Liam says.
Dex rolls his eyes.
"Must you use improper English terms?"
"Hey, it's the times," Liam replies with a shrug and a laugh.
"Anyway, I just want to eat my lunch," Casey complains.
"Some of us waited for you," Kyle says.
"You didn't have to do that," Casey replies.
"Yeah, we did, or at least I did; you're my little brother." Kyle nudges Casey and smiles.
Dex and Ryder un-wrap their lunches and Kyle and Casey pull out their lunch containers; eager to fill their hungry teenage bellies.
Opening them at the same time, both boys instantly go for their Anzac cookie and scoff that down and then picking out their sandwiches, both boys are faced with a little 'Heath surprise'.
Kyle shrieks in shock and tosses his lunch container onto the ground, while Casey, still very tired, suddenly becomes alert and not only drops his lunch container but also his sandwich on the ground and his apple that rolls away.
The four friends laugh at their friend's misfortunes, but Dex and Ryder lean down to help Kyle and Casey.
Casey was staring hard at his little surprise gift: a big fat plastic cockroach and Kyle still catching his breath from his embarrassing shriek begins to gather up his lunch container.
Once Kyle realises his 'surprise gift' was a squishy rubber spider and not a real one he rolls his eyes.
"Really Heath: fake bugs?"
Heath was well aware Kyle didn't like spiders and Casey hated cockroaches, so the fake bugs were a great plan to give them a fright.
"It's just fake Casey, see?" Romeo says, picking up the fake bug and waving it at Casey.
Casey was stuck in a trance: part tired, part fear.
"Hey, we have to let Heath now he hasn't scared us," Kyle says and nudges Casey out of his trance.
"Kyle, don't do that!" Casey grumbles and bends down to pick his sandwich off the ground then wanders off to rescue his apple from the grass where it had rolled off too.
Casey re-sits next to his brother and ready to forget the bug scare, Kyle and Casey, un-wrap their sandwiches and take a huge bite.
Hungrily chewing and only noticing a slight odd taste, they swallow and take another huge bite, only this time as they chew the taste is smokier and has a crispy texture.
Kyle and Casey's eyes go wide, and they instantly spit out their mouthful of food on the ground and gag.
Among the chewed-up food there are red brown coloured remnants.
Tearing apart their sandwiches they discover they were sprinkled with BBQ flavoured freeze-dried larvae worms.
Kyle and Casey gag again and both grab their bars and rip them open, shoving them into their mouths to try and diffuse the taste.
"What's wrong?" Liam asks.
"Heath put those disgusting worms in our sandwiches and he knows Brax doesn't like food wasted so we'd be made to feel guilty about not eating the sandwich," Kyle explains.
"Who says Heath or Brax have to know?" Romeo asks.
"With Kyle's guilt, he's bound to blurt it out and then we'd suffer the lecture from Brax about the value of food and money and not to waste it," Casey explains in a listless manner.
Liam takes Kyle's sandwich from him, and the friends watch on as Liam takes a bite.
Chewing for a while, Liam shrugs, "it's alright."
"Are you crazy?" Casey spits, still feeling grossed out about eating larvae.
"I'll give it a try. I've tried some weird tasting foods before," Ryder says and reaches over to Casey, who happily gives him his sandwich.
Again, like Liam, Ryder happily chews away at the sandwich.
"Different, but good different; kind of nutty and smoky and crispy at the same time," Ryder explains, only for Casey and Kyle to gag and Dex to stick his finger at his throat in a vomit gesture.
Kyle begins to chew away at his apple and Casey does the same after rubbing off some of the dirt from his.
"I guess now you don't have to explain about wasted food, but now you both barely have lunch. I have some spare cash and I can get you a sausage roll from the canteen," Dex suggests.
Kyle and Casey smile; forever thankful they had at least one rich friend and with Dex's father a doctor, Dex was always coming to school with extravagant things.
With only ten more minutes left of lunch, Dex races off to the canteen and buys two sausage rolls and hands them to his friends.
"Thanks Dex; really appreciate it," Kyle says.
Casey nods with his mouth full of food and looking like a puffed-up fish, as he shoves half of the sausage roll into his mouth in one go.
"Charming Casey," Kyle comments.
"I was hungry," Casey replies, while his mouth is still full, and pieces of pastry spit out with every word.
The end of lunch bell rings and the six teens grab their bags and head towards their next class.
After school, Kyle and Casey walk home and as soon as they enter inside the house, they see Heath lounging on the couch watching some reruns of Family Guy.
"School okay today, boys; anything interesting happen?" Heath teases and stands up.
Heath had been itching for his little brothers to come home as he had a bone to pick with Casey. Bianca had called him during lunch time and along with casual talking, Bianca informed him about Casey's misdeeds of falling asleep in class and getting lunch detention and his warnings of further disciplinary action if it continued.
Heath of course was fuming and immediately called Brax and told him the same story, only emphasising on the complaining part.
"No? Well, how were your lunches?" Heath snickers, still eyeing off Casey.
"You mean the ones you tampered with, with your fake bugs and gross worms?" Kyle replies.
"Yep: that's the one," Heath laughs, "I would have loved to have seen your faces, but I'm sure you gave your friends a good show, especially given you would have had to have eaten those sandwiches."
"Actually, we didn't!" Casey answers, smugly.
"Well, that's going to be one more thing to tell Brax about then, isn't it? Wasting food. And I can tell you now, he's not in a happy mood," Heath teases.
Kyle nervously shifts on his feet and Casey scowls; Brax already in a bad mood; what did that mean?
"There won't be anything to say because we gave them away and they weren't wasted!" Casey challenges.
Heath smirks and approaches Kyle and Casey.
"You saying someone ate those sandwiches with the bugs?" Heath laughs, not believing his ears.
"Yes, our friends did," Kyle answers.
"Man, your friends are weird," Heath laughs.
"Why is Brax so mad already?" Kyle nervously asks.
"Relax Bubs, it's nothing to do with you," Heath informs and gently slaps Kyle on the cheek.
Casey's eyes widen and Heath glares at him.
"It's about him, and on that note: you and I need to have a chat," Heath says, raising his voice and pointing hard at Casey before gripping the young teen by his shirt collar and yanking him forward.
"What did I do?" Casey asks in a worried tone.
"What did you do? How about causing trouble at school with getting lunch detention and then me having to hear it from Bianca?" Heath yells.
"You know how that makes me look, having my baby brother getting into trouble at school and over something stupid such as falling asleep!"
"I couldn't help it. I was only tired because of your dumb prank, so if anyone's to blame; it's you!" Casey yells back.
Heath grips Casey's shirt harder.
"I thought I taught you a lesson last time when I gave you that wedgie?" Heath warns and swaps his hold on Casey's shirt to his arm and spins him around, ready to grab a hold of Casey's underwear.
"No! Please Heath, that hurt so much last time, don't!" Casey pleads.
Kyle stood watching with eyes wide, feeling nervous for his little brother's pending doom.
"No? What do you suppose I should do then?" Heath asks, leaning over Casey's shoulder to look at Casey's face.
Casey grimaces.
"Please just no wedgie; they really hurt," Casey whines.
Heath huffs and rests both his hands firmly on Casey's shoulders. Casey's heart pounds with the anticipation of what Heath was going to do.
Heath takes one hand and runs it down Casey's spine and stops at the top of his pants line and Casey whimpers, just waiting for the intense pain from a wedgie but nothing comes.
After a few long seconds of mentally torturing his brother, Heath speaks.
"Count yourself lucky I'm in a good mood." Heath stops to spin Casey back around to face him again.
"Because, if you cause trouble with Bianca and I with your antics at school again, you, little brother, are going to pay," Heath threatens and sharply whacks Casey on the head.
Casey winces and raises his hand to rub his head.
Heath walks off to the kitchen to grab a drink so he could be ready to watch TV again.
Once Heath leaves, Kyle instantly approaches his brother.
"You okay?" Kyle asks with concern and wraps his arm protectively around Casey.
"Yeah, I thought I was really in for it though. I thought he was going to wedgie me for sure, but it certainly doesn't help getting whacked over the head when I'm this tired, and now I just have to deal with Brax when he comes home," Casey moans.
"Maybe he won't be so mad then?" Kyle replies, trying to cheer up Casey, but the younger teen just looks sceptical.
"I doubt it."
Heath heads back to the couch and flops down, getting back into his show.
The two teens, head towards their bedroom.
Kyle rolls his eyes and whispers, "He teases me for what I watch, and he watches lame cartoons."
Casey smiles at Kyle's comment and hugs his arm around Kyle.
"Did you say something Kylie?" Heath warns.
Kyle raises his eyes, not wanting to feel Heath's wrath like Casey had just had.
"Nothing," Kyle squeaks in reply.
Heath lets out a humph and goes back to watching his show, not feeling the need to address his little brother on his cheeky comment, knowing that just his warning alone made Kyle nervous.
Kyle and Casey were sitting on Kyle's bed chatting for the next half hour.
"Why don't you try getting some sleep now?" Kyle asks, watching his tired brother.
"I can't, I'm too nervous about how much trouble I'm going to get in. It's just not fair Ky; it wasn't my fault," Casey whines.
"I know. I'm not really good when it comes to Brax being angry."
Casey gives Kyle an 'are you kidding?' look.
"Alright, I crumble, but my point is: I will stick up for you and tell him the truth."
Casey smiles but the smile quickly fades when just after four-forty-five, they hear the loud slam of the front door; Brax was home from work, and he was earlier than usual.
"Don't worry Case, I'm sure he's not just mad at you," Kyle tries to comfort and pats Casey on the shoulder.
"Maybe if you go out there before he comes to you and explain, he'll understand?" Kyle suggests.
"I wish I didn't have to," Casey moans.
Both boys get up and walk out towards the lounge room and hear their eldest brother grunting and throwing his keys down onto the cupboard.
"What's the worst he could do over this; ground you?" Kyle whispers, trying not to let his nerves show, but an angry Brax always made him weak.
"Yes!" Casey exclaims.
Brax sets sights on Kyle and Casey and huffs loudly, giving a sharp finger point towards Casey but quickly stops himself from letting his temper get the better of him.
Brax approaches the couch and taps Heath on the shoulder.
"Oi: get up and go and get me a beer," Brax orders gruffly.
Heath is quick to obey and heads off to the kitchen.
Kyle and Casey cautiously step closer to the couch. Brax had his hand rested firmly over his head.
"Brax?" Casey mumbles.
Brax groans and glances over at his brothers.
"What happened with detention and the sleeping wasn't my fault," Casey blurts out.
Brax sighs heavily.
"How was it not your fault Casey? If I find out it was because you stayed up all night after playing your ipad games again before going to sleep, you know I said I would take it from you earlier in the night and not allow you to play at all before bed," Brax replies tiredly, but sternly. Casey rises on the defence.
"That has nothing to do with it! I was tired...!"
Brax was quick to cut Casey off.
"Tone down that attitude when you are speaking to me," Brax scolds and points at the young teen who immediately stares at the ground.
Heath walks back into the room smiling at listening to Casey's grilling and hands Brax his beer.
Casey and Kyle both glare at Heath and Kyle decides to speak up.
"Heath had short-sheeted Casey's bed and he spent the night tossing and turning."
Brax glances over at Heath who is happily smirking.
"Still Casey, sleeping in class is unacceptable," Brax informs sternly and again rubs his tired head.
"He was really struggling, Brax," Kyle nervously adds.
"Besides, that wasn't the only thing Heath did, he messed with our..."
"I really don't want to hear it!" Brax shouts and again cuts Casey off.
"Told you he was grumpy," Heath smarts.
"Maybe I'm grumpy because I don't want to come home after a big day of work and deal with my little brother causing trouble at school from a silly prank and not having enough sense to find somewhere else to sleep for one night!" Brax snaps.
Kyle shifts his feet uncomfortably and Casey withdraws.
"I'm sorry Brax. I did try," Casey mumbles.
Brax sighs and looks over at Casey and sees his exhausted eyes and softens.
"Just don't let it happen again and I think an early bedtime for the next three days is required, starting today. Don't think of it as punishment, think of it as much needed rest," Brax informs.
There is a brief silence before Brax speaks again. "Is your bed fixed now?"
Casey shakes his head. "We both tried last night but it wouldn't work," Kyle informs.
Brax glares at Heath and gets up from the couch.
"I'll go take a look, and in the meantime, have you boys finished your homework?" Brax says and heads towards the bedroom.
"No," Casey sheepishly answers.
"Yes, I have," Kyle proudly adds as they follow Brax.
"Well make sure yours gets done Casey."
Kyle and Casey watch on as Brax pulls at Casey's bed. Eventually he upends Casey's mattress and finds the culprit of the difficulty and unclips the sheet suspenders that were deliberately tangled around for maximum effort.
"It's all sorted now, Case," Brax says and rests a gentle hand on Casey's cheek.
"Maybe after homework you can have a nap before dinner?"
"Thanks Brax," Casey praises.
Brax glares at Heath as he walks back into the lounge room towards his brother, who had taken his spot on the couch.
"What? It was funny," Heath retorts and Brax raises his brow.
"I don't want you playing pranks that mess with the boy's schooling, especially Casey's when you know he struggles in class."
"Alright, no more pranks that interrupt school; got it!" Heath replies and walks off back inside and heads back into his flat.
Meanwhile back in the bedroom, Casey pulls out his Mathematics homework first and groans; he was too tired to focus.
Kyle sits cross legged on his bed and pulls out his Science book. He glances over at Casey.
"Did you want a hand?" Kyle offers.
"I think if I tried this myself, I'd never get to sleep," Casey moans.
Kyle chuckles, putting his book down and moves over to sit on Casey's bed and begins explaining his homework questions.
Soon Casey finishes his Mathematics, Science, and English homework with Kyle's help.
"Thank you, Ky. I couldn't have done it without you," Casey praises and flops down on his bed, exhausted and Kyle laughs and sits back down on his bed.
"Sure, you could have Case; don't sell yourself short."
"No, you are much smarter and wiser and sensible, and...I love you, Ky," Casey claims in his tired, delirious state.
"Just go to sleep Casey," Kyle interrupts his little brother with a laugh.
Casey moans and shuts his eyes.
It wasn't until just after seven that Brax walks into his brother's room and Casey finally stirs from his afternoon nap.
"Are you boys up for some fish and chips tonight?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," Kyle replies.
"Did someone say food?" Casey calls out.
"Yeah; it's almost dinner, so get yourself up. By the looks of it, you got some good rest," Brax says with a smile.
"Yeah; wait did I say things to you Kyle?" Casey asks.
"Yeah, you couldn't stop saying how good I was," Kyle laughs and Casey hits himself on the forehead, embarrassed.
"You should have heard him Brax, if you were here, he probably would have sung praises for you too," Kyle teases.
"Good to hear. Now come on you two."
Kyle and Casey get up and follow Brax out into the dining room.
"Where's Heath?" Kyle asks, noticing his prankster brother was nowhere in sight.
"He's probably off sulking after I told him off about his prank. So, it's just us tonight boys. I'll call up for our order and get it delivered," Brax informs.
Kyle and Casey glance at each other and smile. A Heath-free, prank-free night, what more could they ask for?