Casey, Ryder, and Kyle are all getting changed in the changing rooms when someone purposely bumps into Kyle causing him to drop his PE shirt leaving him shirtless.
"Oh: I'm sorry geek!" the boy called Aiden laughs.
"Skinny geek more like," his friend Wesley smirks.
"Why don't you leave my brother alone! What did he ever do to you?" Casey asks, angry that these kids are picking on Kyle when he's already exhausted.
Kyle had still been struggling to sleep properly, ever since Heath's stupid movie prank and that was why he was exhausted.
"He's just a geek; geeks deserve to be tormented!" their friend Grant laughs, as he shoves Kyle, who is so tired and uncoordinated that he actually falls to the floor causing the three bullies to laugh.
Kyle's head drops as he pushes himself up feeling pathetic.
"Just leave him alone you jerks!" Ryder huffs; his friend did not deserve to be treated this way.
"Fine! See you out there loser!" Aiden laughs, shoving Kyle who once again falls to the ground.
"You okay man?" Ryder asks as he helps Kyle to his feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just get this lesson over and done with," Kyle mumbles sadly.
He then puts on his PE shirt and his runners without another word to either his friend or his younger brother.
It's not the first time he's been bullied, due to his timid nature and his smarts. He was always called names in primary school and they have continued since he has been at high school.
After that the three friends walk to the field and Kyle is dragging his feet tiredly on the ground.
"Kyle, go to the sickbay. Mr. Gardiner is going to be all over you. We're running today," Ryder says as he watches his friend just about to fall asleep standing up.
"I'm fine. He'll just make me do it later anyway," Kyle mumbles.
On the the field, Mr. Gardiner is waiting for his class.
"Okay everyone, today I want you all to run around the football field and I want you all to do it ten times; get going," he orders, causing all the kids to start running.
Kyle tries to run but he stumbles and trips as he runs and halfway through his first lap he falls straight on his face.
"Loser!" Aiden laughs as he passes Kyle as he's now on his second lap and Kyle puts his head down humiliated.
"Mr. Braxton: up now!" Mr. Gardiner yells from across the field.
Casey, who is about forty metres ahead, turns back and helps Kyle to his feet.
"You can do this Kyle," Casey encourages with a smile and starts to run again.
Kyle tries to jog but even that's too hard, so he settles on just walking.
Mr. Gardiner glares at him as he passes, fuming at the lack of participation.
Kyle sees Casey lap him a few times, but he doesn't have the energy to move any faster.
Eventually Casey walks beside him.
"Dude: you've got to at least jog; Mr. Gardiner is so angry," Casey sighs, as he grabs his brother's arm and tries to pull him.
"I can't Casey. All I'll do is make a fool of myself. I just can't do it," Kyle mumbles.
He couldn't run at the best of times let alone when he was tired.
"Come on, Kyle; you can do it," Casey says enthusiastically; trying to convince his brother, but he looks at his brother and sees how miserable he is, and the bags under his eyes show his exhaustion with their huge appearance.
"Kyle Braxton: get over here now!" Mr. Gardiner hisses, and points to the grass in front of him.
Kyle and Casey walk over to their gym teacher and stand in front of him.
"No, Casey, you keep running. I just want to talk to your brother," Mr. Gardiner hisses.
Casey turns to his brother, not wanting to leave Kyle without helping reason with Mr. Gardiner.
"Sir, Kyle hasn't been sleeping well lately, that's why he's walking," Casey says, standing up for his big brother.
"I don't need excuses for the lack of discipline a student has with not getting enough sleep. Now I will not repeat myself again, Casey: continue your laps!" Mr. Gardiner orders.
Casey looks sympathetically at his older brother and then goes back to running.
"Do you enjoy wasting my time, Kyle?" Mr. Gardiner asks.
Kyle drops his head in shame, he never meant to waste Mr. Gardiner time; he just couldn't help being so tired.
"No sir, I'm just really tired. I didn't sleep well last night and it's not because of going to bed late but from waking up too many times," Kyle replies; refusing to meet Mr. Gardiner's gaze, for he felt too nervous admitting his reasons behind his lack of participation.
"How is that my issue that you turn up to class unable to participate in the required tasks? You could have easily gotten an excusable letter if you were unable to participate today due to your lack of proper rest and not waste class time," Mr. Gardiner states.
Kyle sighs sadly.
"It isn't sir. I'm sorry, I did try. How can I make it up to you?" Kyle asks, needing to make sure that he shows Mr. Gardiner how sorry he was.
"Well, it's no use me asking you to do exercises as you don't even do the ones you're meant to do," Mr. Gardiner states, causing Kyle to drop his head in shame.
"So here's what's going to happen: from now until the end of the term, you are going to be setting up and putting away all the equipment we use in class and you will be helping me and Mr. McKay set up for the cross country next term by setting up all the cones," Mr. Gardiner says, wanting Kyle to have some form of participation and physical activity.
Kyle's mouth drops. It was another seven weeks until the end of the term and Kyle believed that it seemed a bit extreme, when all Casey got was lunchtime detention for not participating properly; all anyone ever got was lunchtime detention.
Kyle softly nods his head and replies, "yes sir."
"Now get to the sickbay, it's no use you being here. I expect that tomorrow you will be more alert and participate, or else I will have no choice but to send a note home to your brother, as you are in danger of failing, Kyle," Mr. Gardiner informs and points towards the office.
Kyle drops his head and drags his feet as he walks and begins to worry over Mr. Gardiner's threat of a note home and failing PE.
Kyle walks into the sickbay after letting the office lady know that he didn't feel well, and he immediately collapses onto the bed and falls asleep.
He was asleep for half an hour, but it felt like no time at all before he was shaken awake.
"Kyle; hey Ky; wake up Kiddo."
He hears his oldest brother as he continues to feel a shake of his shoulder.
Kyle's eyes slowly open.
"You okay, Trooper?" Brax asks as he runs his hand through his little brother's hair.
"I'm really tired, Brax. I didn't sleep at all last night," Kyle admits, pitifully.
Brax clenches his teeth in anger; he was going to have a stern word to Heath; this was all his fault.
He then turns to his little brother who is falling asleep again and Brax reaches over and shakes his shoulder again.
"Come on Kyle," he says as he grabs ahold of his brother's arm and pulls him to his feet.
"I'll take you to work and you can sleep in the office," Brax says, then he and Kyle walk to the front desk so that Brax can sign Kyle out.
As Brax and Kyle make it to Angelos, Brax makes sure that Kyle is comfortable on the couch that is in the office, where the boys used to sleep a lot when Brax couldn't find a babysitter and Heath was out partying with his friends.
Brax crouches down and runs a hand through his hair.
"Do you want me to shut the curtains?" he asks.
Brax is shocked when Kyle sits up.
"No, no; please leave the curtains open," Kyle says in panic; despite knowing it sounded babyish, he doesn't want to be in the dark.
Brax's face drops, this time Heath had really freaked him out.
"Kiddo, there is no zombie coming to get you; you're okay. Just shut your eyes and relax. Have a big sleep and when you wake up I'll have a Hawaiian pizza for you. After you eat that you can do your homework at the desk," Brax says, as he kisses the top of his brother's head and covers him with a blanket.
By the time he is out of the room Kyle is already asleep.
When Kyle eventually wakes up and sits up, he rubs his hands on his face then takes a look at the time and it was twelve-thirty.
Kyle lightly sighs; not a brilliant sleep but he'd take it.
He sits up and grabs his book out of his bag and starts to read it.
He is already up to date with all his assignments and homework so he's free to read his book.
After about thirty minutes, Brax walks in carrying a pizza.
"Hey Trooper; feeling better?" Brax asks with a smile, noticing his brother looking a little better but still tired.
"Yeah, a little, I guess. I'm still a little tired though. Do you think I can have tomorrow off as well?" Kyle asks, causing Brax to look at him confused.
Usually the only days Kyle ever tried to miss were sports day and cross country and Brax knew those days weren't for a while.
"No, Kyle, you'll be fine by then," Brax says while putting the pizza down in front of his brother.
"Why do you want to stay home anyway, Ky? You love school, even as a little kid you would be so upset during the holidays because all you wanted to do was go to school and learn," Brax laughs, ruffling his brother's hair.
"I just don't feel well, okay?" Kyle replies in a sad tone, as he avoids his brother's gaze.
He doesn't want to tell his brother that the reason why he didn't want to go to school was because he's worried over his gym teacher.
"Are kids at school giving you grief?" Brax asks as he tries to meet his brother's gaze, "Kyle, answer me. Are kids at school picking on you?"
Kyle shakes his head.
"No, the kids at school are fine. I get the occasional comment and shove like I used to, but nothing severe," Kyle replies, "Honestly Brax; I just don't feel well."
"Look, have a good sleep tonight and you'll be fine. Now eat your pizza, you'll feel better after you get food into you," Brax orders, as he stands up and starts to make his way to the door as the restaurant was so busy and he needed to get back out there.
"But Brax," Kyle starts only to be interrupted by his older brother.
"No buts, Kyle! You're tired, that's all. Now eat your pizza and relax. Don't make me lose my temper," Brax growls at his little brother, who immediately drops his head in fear.
"I'm very busy out there, so stay in here, but if you need anything just pop out and come and see me," Brax orders, softening his tone.
Brax then leaves to go back out to the restaurant and shuts the office door.
Kyle puts his head in his hands and cries lightly; it just wasn't fair.
His PDHPE teacher was going to make the rest of the term a living hell and to make matters worse he was going to fail PE; he'd never failed anything.
He had always managed to get straight C's in his practical work and A's in his written work, but now he had Mr. Gardiner who was known for being the strictest teacher in the entire school and he was making PE so much harder.
Taking his head out of his hands, Kyle looks at his pizza and then grabs a slice.
Later that day Casey arrives at the restaurant to pick Kyle up so the two of them could walk home together.
"Mr. Gardiner was so pissed off after you left, he made us do shuttles; it was hell," Casey sighs and he sees his brother's head drop.
"That's just perfect. On top of everything going on at the moment, soon I'm going to have a bunch of angry classmates hunting for me because I angered the teacher and he made you all do shuttles," Kyle mumbles as he kicks up some sand.
"We were talking in the locker room, there's only a few guys that are angry at you, the rest understand that it wasn't your fault," Casey replies.
Kyle has his hands in his pockets and is looking down at his feet as he walks.
"If they give you any grief I'll sort them out," Casey says to his brother with a slight smile and reaches over to ruffle his hair.
"Cheers Case," Kyle says and manages a smile, while he lightly shoves his brother back.
"So how much trouble did you get in?" Casey asks, wondering and notices his brother's face drop.
"For the rest of the term I've got to set up and pack away the gym equipment after class and I'm helping Mr. Gardiner and Mr. McKay to set up the cones for cross country," Kyle mumbles in reply.
"Dude; that's insane!" Casey gasps; Mr. Gardiner had never given out a punishment like that before.
"I'm going to fail PE, Case," Kyle mumbles, as he looks sadly at his younger brother.
"No you won't; you've never failed at anything in your life and you take advanced classes in everything," Casey says, trying to cheer up his older brother; it was hard to see him so upset and all Casey wanted to do was to make him feel better.
"Except PE," Kyle says with a sad smile.
Casey turns to him and grabs him by the shoulder before pulling him close.
"You'll be fine Ky, and I'll be there every step of the way. I'll make sure you pass. I know you can do it, now you've just got to believe it," Casey says to his brother and smiles down at him.
"Cheers Case, you're a great brother," Kyle smiles.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know," Casey laughs ruffling up his brother's hair again, "What did Brax say about it all?"
Kyle shrugs.
"He wasn't mad at least but I don't think he was really happy about it either," Kyle replies.
"Well why don't we just hang for a bit when we get home?" Casey suggests.
"Yeah; I'd like that, but as long as you get your homework done so Brax doesn't bug you about it later," Kyle says, smiling, "I can help you."
"Cool, but I still think hanging out is more fun though," Casey says laughing and the two continue walking towards home.