Kyle and the boys are changed and are now walking back to the main building and Casey looks at his brother concerned.
Kyle sees his brother looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Sighing, he turns towards his younger brother.
"I'm fine, Case," Kyle mumbles.
"Yeah right; we know you aren't! All those jerks do is give you grief," Casey complains, rolling his eyes.
"I don't want to talk about it! Anyways I've got to get to class," Kyle replies with another sigh and leaves his friends to make his way to French.
Haley, who is coming from her textiles class, catches up with him on the way.
"Hey loser!" she says as she gives him a shove.
"Hey Haley," Kyle mumbles and gulps, backing away.
"You going to the soccer game this Saturday to watch that imbecile brother of yours? I heard he's on the team. Damien and I will be there, supporting Damien's friend from Mangrove River, who I'm sure will have no trouble kicking your brother's butt on the opposing team, seeing as the imbecile is so stupid," Haley laughs.
"Don't talk about Casey like that, Haley; he's not in any way stupid!" Kyle defends, however in a slight stutter, as Haley stands tall over him.
'Whatever; you defending that freak again? Maybe Damien will need to meet you in the boy's toilet. We haven't given you a swirly yet and maybe that imbecile brother would like to join? Or maybe he already does that for a living thinking that's where he goes to get a drink because he's so stupid," Haley grins and smiles evilly at Kyle.
Kyle frowns, hating that Haley was putting Casey down so much.
"Nothing to say? That's a shame. That's where your loser brainy head deserves to be anyway!" Haley laughs, ready to slap Kyle on the forehead when Monsieur Monet walks over to them.
"Bonjour Haley, Bonjour Kyle," Monsieur Monet says, greeting them.
"Bonjour Monsieur Monet," Kyle greets him.
"Bonjour," Haley says.
Monsieur Monet walks past them into the classroom and Haley grins down at Kyle.
"You better get in there, shrimp!" she laughs and gives Kyle a shove towards the classroom.
Once in the classroom Kyle takes a seat and Haley sits behind him. She leans over and whispers in his ear.
"You're nothing but a pathetic loser; you and your imbecile brother."
Kyle slumps in his chair, wondering why they have to belittle him and Casey so much?
"Haley, Kyle, is everything okay?" Monsieur Monet asks.
Haley flicks her hair behind her ears and grins.
"Of course, sir; everything's great, we were just discussing some notes," she says sweetly.
"Kyle?" Monsieur Monet asks.
Kyle swallows before answering, "Yeah, everything's great."
"Very well, now let's start class," Monsieur Monet announces.
It's after French and Kyle is starting to make his way outside for morning tea when he's pulled back.
"Good lying freak! You make sure you keep it up; I'm not being suspended because you allow yourself to be bullied," Haley hisses, causing Kyle to lower his head.
"Now what do you have for morning tea?" Haley questions as she rips the bag off Kyle's back and pulls out his lunch box before dumping Kyle's bag on the ground.
"Come on Haley please don't," Kyle begs but to no avail.
He tries to grab it back but is shoved by Haley and he bangs against the lockers.
"Ooh strawberry yoghurt and salsa grain waves, yes please!" Haley grins, grabbing the food before shoving the lunch box back against Kyle's chest.
"See you in English, loser!"
Kyle's shoulders slump as he picks up his bag and puts the lunch box back in it. He then makes his way to meet his friends, feeling defeated that once again some of his lunch has been taken from him, but at least this time there's some left.
"Great, that's just great," Kyle mumbles to himself.
All of his friends are already there, and he takes a seat in between Romeo and Liam.
"Hey Ky! How was your class?" Romeo asks.
"Not bad, how about you?" Kyle replies.
"Yeah, can't complain," Romeo shrugs as Kyle pulls out his lunch box.
Casey's face scrunches up with confusion as he looks at the food that is in his brother's lunchbox.
"Ky, where's your yoghurt and grain waves?" Casey asks, confused.
Luckily for Kyle he had come up with a lie.
"I ate them in French. I was really hungry after PE and Monsieur Monet said it was okay," Kyle replies to which Casey just shrugs his shoulders.
"Okay, sounds good. I wish my teachers let me eat in class though," he replies, causing all the friends to laugh.
Kyle grabs his apple and takes a big bite.
After morning tea it's time for everyone to go to their next class so Casey starts to make his way to Maths with Liam. He hates this class, wanting to rather be anywhere else.
Mr. Guthrie is already in the class and is starting to write questions on the board.
"Man, I wish that I had Kyle's brain; my life would be so much easier!" Casey complains as he runs his hands through his hair, "He's so lucky!"
"Sure! Your life would be easier getting bullied all your life," Liam says rolling his eyes.
He understands that Casey's frustrated, but he doesn't exactly see Kyle as lucky. He still works hard in every class, and he gets ruthlessly bullied.
"I just wish I understood this stuff," Casey sighs as Mr. Guthrie starts class.
"Okay students so if 5x + 4 equals 24 what is x?" Mr. Guthrie asks, but there is no reply.
"Okay what's 24 – 4?" Mr. Guthrie asks, circling the four in the question.
"20," Liam replies.
"Correct! So now we have 5x equals 20," Mr. Guthrie explains.
A girl in their class, Kayla, raises her hand.
"So now do we go 20 divided by 5?" she asks.
"Yes! And who knows what that is?" Mr. Guthrie asks.
"4!" A boy called Martin replies.
"Well done! I'm seeing a lot of improvements from you all," Mr. Guthrie praise, "Now here's another."
Mr. Guthrie continues on with a few more examples for the class to follow along with.
Third period has now finished and Kyle's walking out of his English class when he stops momentarily to pull out his History work.
He smiles widely. He's so focused on looking at his work that he's not paying attention to where he's going and he suddenly bumps into something, well someone.
"Oi! Watch where you're going, loser!" Zeke hisses.
He then notices the paper in Kyle's hand.
"Well, what do we have here?" he asks.
"Come on Zeke, please can I have it back?" Kyle begs, as he tries to reach it but it's whipped away from him, and he's shoved back.
"Ow," Kyle whimpers as his head bangs against the wall.
"This isn't an assignment!" Haley says grinning as their teacher hadn't even mentioned evolution.
"Yeah, I know, I was just curious," Kyle mumbles, causing all of the bullies to laugh.
"You really are the biggest nerd around; aren't you?" Damien laughs and grabs the History work off Zeke.
"You even put references at the end!" he says howling with laughter.
Kyle's shoulders slump and his head drops.
"I mean we're smart, but we're not even that nerdy!" Zeke chuckles.
"I mean what kind of loser puts references at the end of an assignment that they assigned themselves?" he howls with laughter as he grabs the History work back and starts ripping it.
"No," Kyle whispers as he watches little bits of paper hit the ground.
"Oh, what a shame," Haley mocks with a fake pout.
"I guess you better clean it up loser!" Damien laughs and the three bullies walk away.
Kyle fights back tears. He bends down and starts to pick up all the ripped pieces of paper and considers maybe it might be easier if he was just to email the work to Mr. Harrison.
Kyle enters the History class and is called over by Mr. Harrison.
"Kyle, do you have that History work you emailed me about that you were going to submit on your own terms?" Mr. Harrison asks.
"Oh, I left it on my desk. I was in a rush this morning. I can email it to you when I get home," Kyle says and Mr. Harrison nods his head.
"That would be good Kyle. I am interested to see what you have come up with for your research," he says.
Kyle smiles lightly at him in reply and nods his head before walking over to sit next to Dex.
"Ky, you're always organised. How did you forget something you were so excited about?" Dex asks.
Kyle shakes his head.
"I don't want to talk about it, Dex," he mumbles as Dex just rolls his eyes.
"Therefore, I'm guessing it's got something to do with Zeke, Haley, and Damien?" Dex says.
Kyle turns around and looks at his bullies who are giving him arrogant looks. He then turns back to look at his best friend.
"Like I said Dex; I don't want to talk about it," Kyle says sadly.
"Okay. I'll drop it for now at least," Dex says.
Kyle's shoulders slump. There was no point arguing or explaining what had happened.
It's after History and Dex and Kyle are walking to lunch.
"So, you going to tell me what that was about in History now?" Dex asks his best friend.
Just then Zeke shoves past Kyle knocking his bag off his back.
"No," Kyle mumbles as he picks up his bag as Damien and Haley pass as well.
"Kyle!" Dex demands as he grabs his best friend by his arm.
Kyle's shoulders slump.
"They ripped it, okay."
"They ripped that History work you did?" Dex asks as he saw immediately how upset his friend looked as soon as he had finished talking to Mr. Harrison about the History work.
"Yeah, they said that I was the biggest nerd around because I did it without being assigned it," Kyle mumbles as the two friends continue to walk to lunch.
"They're just jerks Kyle!" Dex says as he sees the deflated look on his friend's face.
"What if they are right? I mean I can be smart without being a total nerd. Maybe I wouldn't be as badly bullied if I was more normal?" Kyle says and Dex looks at him.
"You are normal! Those guys are the abnormal ones and are just jerks!" Dex clarifies.
"Thanks Dex, you're a good friend," Kyle says as he smiles at his best friend; he always manages to make him feel better.
"Come on and let's have lunch," Dex says and the two friends walk over to meet the rest of their friends.
Once they sit down Ryder comes and takes a seat next on the other side of Kyle.
"I can't believe it's almost the end of the day; we are so close, until it's our soccer game! " Casey yells, causing a few kids to look in their direction.
"Whose coming?" he asks.
"I am," Kyle shrugs.
"I'm out," Romeo says with a sad shrug.
"I've got homework then Dad needs me to help clean out the garage, sorry," Dex says shaking his head.
"Nerd and boring." Casey says before turning to Romeo.
"Come on man! Why can't you come; it'll be awesome!" Casey cheers.
"I just can't! I've got to help my Mum," Romeo replies.
"Fine, it sucks to be you! We'll be having an awesome time," Casey laughs as he high fives Liam.
Kyle looks down, he was also hoping that Romeo was going to be there. With both sets of bullies there and no friends he knows he's going to have to stay really close to Brax for protection.
Lunch flies by quickly and everyone is making their way to their last two classes. Kyle heads in the direction of his Math classroom.
On his way to class, he is pulled back and deliberately pushed into a huge year twelve.
"Oi!" He bellows as he glares down at Kyle.
Kyle's heart thunders in his chest.
"I'm really sorry; I didn't mean to," Kyle stammers.
"I don't know if I should just let you go with just an apology; I mean what if you do it again?" the year twelve questions, as he grabs Kyle's shoulder that only reaches around his hips.
"I won't. I promise!" Kyle stammers.
"Come on Clark! We're going to be late for PE, just give the little nerd a whack on the stomach or something or a quick wet willy," his friend protests.
Clark shrugs and lifts up Kyle's shirt and slaps him three quick times before moving his hand up slightly higher and giving Kyle a nipple cripple.
"Ow!" Kyle moans, he looks up in fear of what the kid is going to do next.
"Okay we're done. We'll leave you alone from now on kid as long as you don't bump into any of us again. Okay?" he questions, causing Kyle to nod.
"Good, and hey kid. Maybe if you weren't such a weakling those kids wouldn't be shoving you around," Clark laughs and walks away with his friends leaving Kyle to sadly walk to class.
That guy knew that Kyle was shoved into him, but he didn't care.
In Kyle's class Kyle takes his seat and avoids his bullies eyes. All he's got to do is get through this class and then at least he'll have Brax for protection when he gets picked up and gets to go home. He knows it sounds childish but when you get bullied as much as he does, it's comforting being around those who look out for you most.