AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to everyone reading and to Braxton54 and Bonnie Sveen Fan for continuing to review. This chapter has a tiny bit of swearing.
It's the third period of the next day and Kyle's currently in PE. They are doing some gymnastics, which isn't good as Kyle has nearly no balance so the last thing he needs is to fall from a height while he's walking across the balance beam or fall on his head while trying to do a flip. Luckily for him there are mats, but sadly that won't make it any less embarrassing.
It's currently his turn to walk across the beam so he pushes himself up and wobbles for a second but then manages to get his balance.
He only manages to take a few steps before he falls off and lands on the mats, causing his bullies to laugh at him.
Kyle rolls off the mats and walks over to Ryder and Casey.
"That was humiliating," Kyle sighs and drops his head in his hands.
"Can I just disappear?" he moans and looks over at his bullies who are all laughing with each other and he's assuming that they are laughing at him.
"Don't worry about it man," Casey says and shakes his head at the boys, "You do realise that one day you'll have this massive business making lots of money and those losers will be doing nothing with their lives."
Kyle huffs and shakes his head.
"Yeah right, Case. I'll be happy with where my life will be, but they won't be nobody's. Aiden will probably play footie for Australia, Wesley will represent Australia in the 100 metre sprints in the Olympics and Grant will represent Australia in basketball," Kyle sighs just as Ryder runs up and bounces off the mini trampoline and does a front flip landing on the mat on his back.
Casey is about to say to Kyle that he was giving them too much credit but then decides his brother is probably right and that one day the jerks would probably go on to be successful, and Casey becomes angered as they don't deserve to be successful, not after the way they treat Kyle.
"Well, they're ugly, and once girls grow up, they'll get over themselves, ditch those losers and will come running to you," Casey reassures, causing his brother to roll his eyes.
"Oh please! Girls will always love them," Kyle replies in a sulk, just as the bell rings.
Kyle sighs knowing that he now has to put all of the mats away and it was going to take a while.
"See you soon man," Ryder says and heads off to the changing room.
Casey is about to follow Ryder but stops and turns to his brother who is starting to pick up the mats, but they are so long that they are really awkward for Kyle to carry all on his own.
To make it even more obvious that he was struggling, Kyle drops the mat and sighs in annoyance as he picks it up again.
Casey walks up to his brother and grabs a hold of the other end of the mat to help his brother.
"Casey, you don't have to help; I don't want you to get in trouble," Kyle mumbles as the two of them put the first mat away.
"Dude! These mats aren't small and besides you're not strong enough to carry them by yourself, you just dropped one," Casey says not meaning to offend his brother, but he knows that he upset Kyle when he sees his face.
"I'm not strong enough either. I bet that Aiden and his stupid friends aren't strong either," Casey adds, hoping it'll make his brother feel better.
Kyle knows that this isn't the case and that his bullies would have no trouble carrying the mats by themselves, but he's grateful that his brother is trying to make him feel better.
"Well cheers Case. Anyway, we better get going and put more of these mats away or else I'll be late to a class that I actually want to go to," Kyle mumbles with him and Casey grabbing another mat.
The two are carrying the mat to the storeroom when they hear a voice.
"Casey Braxton, this is your brother's punishment. It's his responsibility to put away the gym equipment," Mr. Gardiner says firmly, causing both the boys to look up.
"But the mats are too heavy for just Kyle!" Casey argues, causing Mr. Gardiner to point towards the changing room.
"Go! I'll help your brother because I need to also have a word with him," Mr. Gardiner says.
Casey sees Kyle's face and he looks terrified.
"Sorry Ky," Casey mouths.
Kyle gives Casey a weak smile in return.
"Okay sir," Casey replies as Mr. Gardiner takes his place.
"Look Kyle, there's no denying that you're a good kid, but you need to make more of an effort in class. You need to be more like Aiden, Wesley and Grant and even Ryder and your brother; they always participate," Mr. Gardiner says this causes Kyle's head to drop; he can't believe that his teacher wants him to be like those cruel bullies.
"I'll... I'll do better," Kyle says, as he loses his grip on the mat and drops it.
"Sorry," he adds sheepishly and picks it up again.
Mr. Gardiner nods his head.
"Okay Kyle, but I will be talking to Miss. Scott about this, who I'm sure will be talking to your brother," Mr. Gardiner says, causing Kyle to sigh slightly.
"I understand that sir," Kyle says as they put away the mat.
Mr. Gardiner looks at his watch.
"Okay let's hurry and put the rest of this stuff away," Mr. Gardiner says.
"Yes sir," Kyle reluctantly agrees.
Kyle walks into the changing room where his brother and Ryder are waiting for him, and luckily his bullies have left and gone to their next class.
"What did he say?" Casey asks; curious to see what Mr. Gardiner said to his brother.
"Pretty much that I need to participate more, and he wants me to be more like Aiden, Wesley and Grant," Kyle says, sighing as he pulls off his PE shirt and quickly puts on his school shirt.
"You're kidding me; more like those jerks!" Casey grunts.
"I really don't want to talk about it," Kyle says as he puts his jeans on.
He walks over to the mirror and fixes his hair and puts on his tie.
"Dude, you have no time to fix your hair. Put your vans on and let's go," Ryders says as he drags Kyle to get his shoes.
"Yeah, come on!" Casey says, causing his brother to stare at him.
"Okay I'm happy that you're excited to go to class, but why are you so excited to get to class?" Kyle asks.
Casey smiles at his brother.
"We're making sherbet in Science; so, let's go!" Casey cheers, causing Kyle to roll his eyes; of course, the reason his brother was excited was because of food.
Kyle quickly puts on his shoes and the three friends walk to class and then separate to go to their different classes.
Casey takes his seat in Science next to Liam.
"Wass-up man?" he says as he fist-bumps Liam.
"I'm so excited to eat sherbet! Heath's going to be so jealous; he loves sherbet," Casey grins as their Science teacher, Mr. Lewis walks in.
"Hello class, today as you all know we will be making sherbet. Now can you all please come up and get a small plastic bowl each and a big plastic bowl between you," Mr. Lewis instructs and the kids all line up and grab some bowls and walk back to their seats.
Mr. Lewis then walks around, and places four bowls filled with ingredients on each table; every table has two students sitting at it.
"To start off, put a cup full of icing sugar each into the big bowl," Mr. Lewis explains, and everyone puts a cup of icing sugar in their bowl.
Casey then puts a little more icing sugar in the cup and tips it straight into his mouth.
Liam snorts with laughter and slaps his friend on the back.
"Now a teaspoon of citric acid," Mr. Lewis informs the kids, who all add a teaspoon of citric acid to their bowls.
"You going to eat that too?" Liam asks, jokingly.
"No! I'm not an idiot," Casey huffs.
"Now give it a little stir," Mr. Lewis says, "Make sure that it's all mixed up."
Everyone gives their sherbet a little stir to make sure both ingredients are mixed together.
"Now can you all please put a teaspoon of baking soda into the bowl," Mr. Lewis adds in which everyone then adds some baking soda.
"Now add your jelly crystals. I've given you all the same flavour so there will be no arguments after you add your crystals, and give it another stir," Mr. Lewis instructs, and the students all follow the instructions again.
"Now all have a taste and tell me how it tastes," Mr. Lewis says.
"Ours is a bit bitter," a girl called Sophie says.
"So, what ingredient do you think you should add more of if it's too bitter?" Mr. Lewis asks.
"Icing sugar?" Sophie's friend Georgia says.
"Correct, but don't add too much," Mr. Lewis informs, and the girls add a little more icing sugar then taste it again and give the thumbs up.
"Ours is too sweet!" Alice, a girl in another group says.
"Okay, so what do you need to add more of to make it sourer?" Mr. Lewis asks.
"Citric acid?" Billy, Alice's friend suggests.
"Very good, now be very careful with the citric acid as it's very strong, so you only need a very tiny bit." Mr. Lewis says.
"Is everyone happy with how their sherbet tastes?" Mr. Lewis asks, and the rest of the class nod their heads.
"Now get your sieve and sieve through some sherbet into each of your separate bowls," Mr. Lewis instructs.
Liam and Casey take turns sifting through the sherbet mixture into their bowls. After they have done that, they have another taste and grin at each other wondering what their friends are doing at the moment in their classes.
"Now here are some zip lock bags for all of you, so you can take these home," Mr. Lewis says as he hands out the bags.
"Now for the rest of class, I want you all to write a description on what is happening. I will collect these after class. They aren't being graded but I would still like you to do your absolute best," Mr. Lewis says as he goes and sits at his desk.
Casey and Liam pull out their books and start to talk about how the ingredients worked together.
"Figures we still have to write about this. Why couldn't we just make the sherbet and forget about the Science theory behind it," Casey comments, in a whisper.
Kyle is in English taking notes on what is on the board when suddenly there is a knock at the door.
Miss. Jones turns to look at who knocked, and Kyle looks up and sees Bianca. He gives her a small smile and a wave, in which she returns.
He was feeling a little nervous about her talking to Brax over his PE participation, but hopes it'll be okay.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Miss. Scott asks, and Miss. Jones nods her head.
"I'll be back in just a moment, class. Just continue to copy what's on the board," Miss. Jones instructs.
Just after she leaves Kyle feels a slap on the back.
"Hey loser! So, is your bestie the Principal now? Are you as pathetic as your brother?" Zeke hisses in Kyle's ear.
"Just leave me and my brother alone!" Kyle whines.
"Why should we?" Damien laughs and roughly ruffles Kyle's hair, "So is she your girlfriend?"
"She's dating my older brother!" Kyle protests and wriggles away as Zeke gives him a wet willy.
"Aww, so she's your future sister-in-law; how sweet! Will you be the flower girl at their wedding?" Haley giggles.
Kyle's head drops into his hands; why did he admit that, knowing it would only lead to more teasing?
"Aww, the poor baby's upset," Damien sniggers.
"Maybe big sister-in-law Miss. Scott can give him a cuddle and make him feel better," Zeke laughs.
"Just leave him alone!" a boy sitting beside Kyle, called Mike, says.
Kyle looks up, surprised that someone was trying to help him.
"Stay out of this! This is between us, and this dork!" Zeke says, slapping Mike on the head, followed by Kyle.
"Come on please!" Kyle begs as Haley snatches the pen out of his hand and snaps it.
"Whoops! Hope you have another one shrimp," Haley laughs and high fives her friends, she then snatches his pencil case and throws it to Zeke who shoves it in his bag.
"Looks like you don't! Aww; how sad!" she laughs.
The three friends high five each other again and only then do they walk back to their desks, just in time for Miss. Jones to walk back in.
Kyle's shoulders slump and he raises his hand, so Miss. Jones walks up to him.
"My pen ran out of ink, and I forgot another pen, is there a spare class one?" Kyle asks, embarrassed.
"Just at the back Kyle. Try to be a little more prepared from now on, okay Kyle?" Miss. Jones informs, in which Kyle nods his head.
Miss. Jones walks back to the front of the class and Kyle pushes himself up to walk to the back.
As he passes Zeke he's tripped and lands on his face.
"Ow!" he yells out.
The bullies do their best to hide their laughter at Kyle's misfortune.
"What happened?" Miss. Jones questions as Kyle pushes himself up.
"I tripped," Kyle mumbles.
"Be more careful where you walk next time," Miss. Jones says and goes back to writing on the board.
Kyle continues to quickly walk to the back of the class.
"Loser," Damien says, coughing.
Kyle reaches the back and looks for a pen to grab. He wants to make sure it's a black one, so that all his writing can be in the same colour.
Kyle hears behind him someone call out to him.
"Hey, Kyle."
He turns around to see Ben, a boy in his class. Ben wasn't much bigger than he was.
"Hey, Ben," Kyle mumbles.
"Are you okay?" Ben asks, having seen the bullies harassing Kyle before.
Kyle shrugs, "It's nothing new."
"Listen, I wanted to step up and help, but I'm scared of what they would do to me if I did say anything. I'm not really brave," Ben says.
"I get it, Ben. Honestly don't worry about me, I can take it. Thanks though and I'm sure you are brave in your own way," Kyle replies, smiling; knowing that standing up to these guys was one of the main reasons why they were starting to bully him.
Finally, he finds a black pen and walks back to his desk and is once again tripped, but this time by Damien.
Miss. Jones doesn't even look for this one and Kyle pushes himself up and walks the rest of the way to his desk and then plummets into his seat.
Kyle goes back to continuing writing what is on the board.
After class had finally finished Kyle pushes himself up and walks towards Miss. Jones.
"Miss. Jones, can I please have this pen for the rest of the day?" Kyle asks, and Miss. Jones nods.
Kyle walks out of the class and starts to head for lunch when he is grabbed by the bag and shoved against a locker.
"Here's your pencil case dork!" Zeke says and shoves it hard against Kyle's chest.
"I'm actually impressed, loser; I thought you would have had a, my little pony one," he teases.
"Yeah, or a princess," Haley giggles.
"Though having a Batman one still makes you a total loser!" Damien laughs and bangs Kyle's head against a locker.
Kyle looks up at him with a frown.
"You three are only picking on me worse now, because I told you off for bullying my little brother!" he says as bravely as he can.
They all glare down at him, making him feel more than a little intimidated.
"What; you mean the imbecile?" Haley giggles, causing Kyle to glare at her.
"Don't you like us calling him that? Aww, too bad. Let's see you try and stop us loser! You even think about going to Miss. Scott and I promise you, we will make sure you regret it," Zeke warns and glares as he takes a menacing step forward, causing Kyle to take one step back.
Zeke cracks his knuckles and sneers down at Kyle.
"You going to keep your mouth shut?" Damien sneers, causing Kyle to nod his head.
"Good!" Haley hisses and gives Kyle a jab in the ribs.
Kyle lets out a yelp and drops his pencil case.
"Bye dork. Say hi to the imbecile," Zeke laughs before the three of them walk away.
Kyle sighs and quickly picks up his pencil case and starts to walk outside to meet up with his friends.
Kyle sits down between Ryder and Romeo and pulls out his lunch and looks over to see Casey eating his sherbet.
"Don't eat that too fast, Case; you know you get stomach aches," Dex says, and Casey pokes his tongue out at him.
Kyle sighs lightly as he takes out his ham and cheese sandwich.
"You okay man?" Casey asks as he dips his finger in his sherbet and licks it.
"Yeah fine," Kyle mumbles as he takes a bite.
"Really? Because you look miserable," Casey replies.
Casey sees his brother drop his head. Not only did he have to deal with the smart kids in his class, but he knows that Mr. Gardiner was going to tell Bianca about his performance in PE, who was then going to tell Brax.
"Kids in class," Kyle mumbles.
"Yeah, Aiden and his stupid friends are jerks!" Casey huffs and rolls his eyes.
Kyle shakes his head.
"Not them," he says sadly.
"Who then?" Casey asks.
"Zeke, Haley, and Damien," Kyle replies sadly and looks towards Casey who turns his head away, knowing that Casey is intimidated by those three.
"Oh man; what jerks! They're just jealous Kyle," Dex says, knowing exactly what those three are like.
Kyle sighs heavily wondering what on earth they would be jealous about. Other than his grades there was nothing extraordinary about him.
"Anyways, how's the sherbet Case?" Kyle says changing the subject.
"It's good; Heath is going to be so bloody jealous," Casey says grinning.
"Casey! Don't swear!" Kyle says with a sigh.
Casey rolls his eyes at his brother, not understanding what the big deal with swearing was.
"Kyle, it's not a big deal!" Casey huffs.
Kyle doesn't bite back and just takes a bite of his sandwich.
"So, what did you learn?" Dex asks Casey and Liam.
"That sherbet tastes good," Casey says, shrugging.
Dex to roll his eyes.
"I mean about how the ingredients mix together," Dex says in which both the boys shrug.
"Come on guys! The whole point of doing these sorts of experiments is so you learn more about Science," Dex exclaims.
"Get real, Dex; Science is dumb! Let's talk about something better, like the soccer game we have coming up!" Casey says and high fives both Ryder and Liam, "You guys coming to watch?"
"Sorry man, I'll try but I'll probably have homework," Dex says.
"Come on dude! You're just about as big of a nerd as Kyle. You can do homework anytime, but this game is going to be huge," Casey huffs.
Kyle looks up with Casey's comment and glares at him.
"Sorry Ky; no offence."
"None taken," Kyle replies, rolling his eyes.
"I'd love to but I'll probably have to help my Mum at work," Romeo says in a glum tone.
"That sucks, who will be there to cheer me on if my best friends can't make it?" Casey moans.
Kyle looks up, "I'll be there."
"Cheers Kyle," Casey replies, thankful his brother is choosing to go to support him even though he doesn't have to go.
"Isn't it still a wee way away, still?" Kyle asks, wondering why the boys are talking about it now.
"Not too far away," Casey says excitedly.
"We have a good team, we hopefully should win," Ryder says and high fives Liam again.
"Yeah, even if some of them are arseholes; aka Wesley and Gavin," Casey laughs.
Kyle glares at his brother and sighs.
"Can you please watch your language?" he asks.
"Whatever Ky, stop being so strict about swearing, you don't have to be like Brax. Besides, they deserve to be called that," Casey huffs.
"I just don't like swearing, Casey," Kyle defends.
"Casey's right though: Wesley, is at bare minimum, a jerk, and well Gavin doesn't play fair sometimes," Ryder says.
"Exactly! Gavin's the biggest sore loser around when it comes to the team. Anyway, they're not the only ones around who are. Wesley and his mates are a right team of them, as are those ones in your class who think they are better than everyone," Casey states.
Kyle stares miserably at his half-eaten sandwich. It was true they all loved to make his life miserable, however, Gavin wasn't as bad, but he still picked on him when he got the opportunity.
"I agree, Zeke is always a moron to Kyle in class, he thinks he's so cool because he's smart and sporty," Dex explains, causing Casey to nod his head.
"Yeah, he never misses an opportunity to call me dumb," Casey admits sadly and rolls his eyes.
"Can we move on from talking about those guys, please," Kyle sighs, trying to defer the subject.
After having to deal with his bullies in class, the last thing that he needed was to spend his lunchtime talking about them.
"Fair enough," Romeo replies as he looks at his friend.
Kyle stays quiet for the rest of lunch while the other boys talk about a new video game that they all wanted.
When the bell rings, all the boys stand up and go to their separate classes.
Casey and Liam are in history and that's when Mason, a kid in their football team taps Casey on the shoulder.
"Coach wanted me to tell you that we're going to have practice after school; can you pass it on to Ryder?" he asks and Casey nods.
"I'll let Kyle know that he'll have to walk home alone," Casey says as he pulls out his phone.
"I'll let Ryder know about the practice then," Liam says as he pulls out his phone.