AUTHOR'S NOTE: Slight swearing in this chapter.
Thanks to Bonnie Sveen Fan and Braxton54 for your continual support with reviewing and to all the readers and followers.
Casey and Liam are currently in math class.
"How was Kyle?" Casey asks Liam.
"He was okay, seemed pretty quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary," Liam replies as he starts to work on the worksheet his teacher had handed out.
"Liam, I must say I am very impressed with your work that you handed to me at the start of the class," Mr. Guthrie says.
"Thanks Mr. Guthrie, I was working really hard and I had a friend helping me out," Liam explains.
Mr. Guthrie smiles.
"I'm glad," he says and walks away.
"Let me guess Liam, the dork that helped you with your math is the biggest dork in the world. Also known as Kylie Braxton," Wesley sniggers behind them and he and Gavin smirk at each other.
Liam and Casey turn around and glare at the two boys.
"At least he can pass Maths," Liam sneers.
"He can't pass PE though," Wesley sniggers.
"You can't even score continuous goals," Casey taunts and then gets a punch from Liam.
"Dude, he just tormented Kyle because he was so pissed off that he didn't score," Liam exclaims.
"Be careful Casey, or the boys and I will get your brother again, and this time, we won't be so nice!" Wesley hisses.
The two boys continue to glare at Wesley and Grant, but then Liam tugs on Casey's sleeve.
"Arseholes!" Casey huffs and turns back to his Maths work; he just wishes these jerks could get a life and leave his brother alone.
When school had finished, all the friends met at the gate.
"We've decided to go over to mine to play some Mario Kart tournaments," Ryder explains as he hadn't seen Liam or Kyle in either of his last two classes.
"I'm not very good at the game, so not sure I'm super keen," Kyle admits.
"I'm not super great either, but I think it still will be cool," Dex says.
"Hey, we don't judge, even if you don't have fast laps," Liam states.
"It's all only for fun," Ryder adds, "Though maybe not for these two," he points towards Casey and Romeo and the friends smile, knowing about their competitive streaks.
The friend's all make the short walk to Ryder's house.
"Hey Grumps, Aunty Roo," Ryder greets as he enters, with the remaining five boys walk in behind him.
"Hey young fellas," Mr. Stewart greets, "What's the plan for the afternoon?"
"Mario Kart Tournaments," Ryder replies.
"Well then, have fun," Mr. Stewart says and walks away.
"Does he know what we are talking about?" Dex questions.
"Probably not," Ryder replies with a shrug and turns on the TV.
He changes the TV to HDMI 1, then he starts up Mario Kart on his Nintendo Switch.
"Who has the schedule?" Liam asks as he makes himself comfortable on the couch next to Romeo.
"I do," Casey announces as he sits on the other side of Liam.
Dex and Ryder sit in the two available armchairs and Kyle pulls a chair from the table and sits on that.
"Okay, the first game is: Kyle vs Romeo," Casey says, causing Kyle to groan; he's definitely not going to win this one.
After a while, the boys have played four rounds of Mario Kart. Romeo and Casey have won all four of their games. Dex has won two games, Liam and Ryder have each won one game and Kyle has won none.
They raced the first race in the fifth round and Dex had won the race and Kyle had come forth.
Now Romeo and Casey are playing each other.
"We will see who the king is soon, Smith!" Casey yells and reaches over Liam and throws a cushion at Romeo.
"You wish, Braxton!" Romeo smirks and grabs the controller off Kyle.
"Nooooo!" Romeo yells as Casey hits him with a bomb right before the finish line and races past him to win the race, and he ends up coming second.
"Oh yeah!" Casey yells as he fist bumps the air.
"I won and you lost," Casey sings and dances around.
"You are so humble in victory, Casey," Kyle says and rolls his eyes.
"Look: I won so I'm the best!" Casey says and shrugs his shoulders.
All of the friends roll their eyes and give a chuckle.
"I'll get you next time!" Romeo says; knowing that he will race against everyone else again so that gives him one more chance.
The boys eventually finish and are now all getting ready to leave. Romeo had beaten Casey in the second game that he played against him, so both he and Casey had won nine games each, Liam, Ryder and Dex had won four games each and Kyle unfortunately didn't win any, but he did come really close in two games.
"Okay see you guys later," Romeo says as he leaves, closely followed by Liam.
"I'll give Indi a call," Dex says as he pulls out his phone to see if his sister could pick them up.
Indi drops Kyle and Casey at the bottom of their driveway.
"Come on man, let's go," Casey says as he and Kyle walk up the driveway together.
"Man! I got so close in that second game against Romeo," Casey huffs as he kicks at the grass.
"It's all good Case, you still won every other game," Kyle says, shrugging his shoulders.
"Yeah I guess," Casey says.
They open the door and see Brax in the kitchen.
"Hey boys," Brax greets and smiles at his brothers.
"Did you both have a good afternoon playing the tournament?" Brax asks, having been notified after Casey texted him before school was out saying about going over to Ryder's.
"Yeah it was fun and I smashed practically everyone, but Romeo beat me at the last minute," Casey explains.
Brax smiles at Casey's excitement.
"What's for dinner?" Casey adds, the afternoon snacks at Ryder's house barely touching the sides.
"Bangers and mash tonight," Brax says.
"Yum!" Kyle says as he pulls his lunch box out of his bag and puts it on the bench.
"Can I help with anything?" he asks.
"Na, I'm all good Little man," Brax says as he runs his hands through Kyle's hair.
"How was PE basketball?" he asks, remembering that his brother was not looking forward to it.
"It was okay I guess," Kyle mumbles.
"Just keep doing your best Ky," Brax says and his brother nods his head in reply.
He is not looking forward to Bianca telling Brax about his participation in PE. Although he'd definitely prefer Brax knowing than Heath.
He walks off to his room to read until it's time for dinner, while Casey flops on the couch and flicks on the TV.
"Have you done all your homework?" Brax asks, popping out of the kitchen.
"Um…maybe," Casey hesitates.
Brax takes the remote and switches off the TV.
"Get it done please, Case," Brax reminds.
"Don't forget I recently had a sore ankle and that stops me doing a lot of things, like homework," Casey cheekily replies.
"Don't pull that one on me," Brax chuckles, "Look: I can give you a hand in a minute once I get the dinner prepared."
Casey smiles and defeated, gets out his homework from his school bag and begins going through it.
The three brothers are sitting at the table when Heath comes in, having been invited by Brax for dinner a short while earlier.
"Hey boys!" Heath grins as he gives both Kyle and Casey a wet willy.
"Gross Heath," Kyle mumbles, while Casey glares and moves away.
"Heath, can you give them a break?" Brax asks as Heath sits next to Kyle.
"But picking on them is way more fun," Heath chuckles.
Casey rolls his eyes while Kyle sighs in defeat
"Let's eat boys," Brax says, with all four boys digging into their meals.
It was now a few days later and it has been a fairly uneventful day at school, Kyle's bullies didn't give him many hassles, and luckily, he didn't have PE and all he got from the smart bullies was a flick of his ear, a whack around the head and a few harsh words.
The boys are currently walking home and Casey's in a big rush because Brax told him that the two of them would go surfing, now that Casey's ankle was better and Casey wanted to practice for his competition.
"Slow down Case!" Kyle complains as he struggles to keep up with his younger brother.
"No way! Speed up Kyle! I don't want to miss any waves," Casey says and grabs ahold of his brother's arm and drags him with him.
Soon enough they reach the house and Casey runs into the kitchen to see Brax, who is placing the boy's afternoon tea on the table.
"Slow down Case," Brax chuckles as Kyle slowly walks in behind him.
"No time for slow, let's go!" Casey urges, causing Kyle to roll his eyes.
He sits down at the table and starts to eat his afternoon tea.
"You hungry, Trooper?" Brax asks ruffling up his little brothers hair
"Little bit, but I'm mainly eating because I'm going to do schoolwork and I need to make sure my brain works," Kyle says, causing his brother to nod.
"Nice, but you're not doing school work," Brax says simply, this causes Kyle to glare at him.
"What do you mean?" Kyle questions.
"Is your school work under control?" Brax asks, causing Kyle to sigh.
"Yeah but.." Kyle starts but then he's interrupted.
"Exactly, it can wait. You can come to the beach and get fresh air," Brax says.
Kyle moans.
"Brax! I don't want to; I get fresh air at school," he says.
To be perfectly honest, he wasn't the biggest fan of the beach and it was something that his brother's found ridiculous as the beach was in their blood.
"What's it with you and the beach?" Brax asks his brother.
"It gets so hot and I hate the way sand sticks to me after I get wet," Kyle defends.
Casey chuckles.
"You're such a girl," he smirks, causing both his brothers to glare at him.
"Well take a water bottle, wear a cap and stay out of the water because you're going," Brax says firmly.
Kyle sighs with defeat, knowing it was no sense to argue.
"You can take your book," Brax informs.
"Fine," Kyle mumbles as continues to eat his food.
"Good try Kyle," Casey chuckles, as Kyle rolls his eyes.
Now down at the beach, Casey and Brax are in the water and Kyle is on the sand. Kyle's wearing his guitar T-shirt and his Batman board shirts as well as his navy LA Dodgers cap that Brax had gotten him for Christmas.
He's currently reading one of the Alex Rider books. Two things he likes about the Alex Rider books is that they are easy to read and they pull you into the story.
He sighs as he finishes another chapter and he looks up to see his two brothers having fun in the water.
He can see Casey showing off some good moves and can't help but smile and reflect that his brother is really good on a surfboard, but still hadn't mastered the expert level of either Heath or Brax.
He looks back down and continues to read his book.
A little while later the sun is blocked by some shadows, so Kyle looks up expecting to see his brothers but he's wrong.
"Zeke, Damien, hey," Kyle mumbles; not really in the mood to be dealing with them outside of school.
"What are you doing, freak?" Zeke asks.
Kyle shrugs his shoulders.
"It's it obvious? I'm just reading. Look you give me grief at school, can't you just leave me alone out of school?" he questions.
The bullies laugh and Damien reaches down and rips the book out of Kyle's hands and drops it into the sand.
Kyle groans, he knew what chapter he was up to so it would be easy enough to find again, but it was just frustrating.
"But it's fun picking on you, what are you even doing reading at the beach?" Damien questions.
Kyle points towards the water.
"My oldest brother is helping Casey practice for a surfing competition," he explains.
"I'm surprised your imbecile brother was able to learn how to surf," Damien chuckles and Kyle glares at him, contemplating whether or not to stand up to the bully, but before he can Zeke nudges his friend as he looks at Brax, the bully is feeling intimidated by the size of the oldest Braxton.
"Let's go man, we'll have fun with the loser at school," he says and the two quickly walk away, kicking sand at Kyle as they leave.
Kyle reaches over and picks up his book again.
"All the time, am I holding up a sign that says pick on me or something?" he mumbles to himself as he finds the page that he was up to and continues to read.
Not long after Casey and Brax come out of the water, they shake their hair, getting Kyle wet in the process.
"Cut it out!" Kyle moans jumping up so he can get any wetter.
"Aww come on Little man; it's just a little water," Brax smirks.
Kyle huffs under his breath.
"Awww Brax I think he's upset," Casey giggles, this causes Kyle to glare at him.
"I think I know what will lighten his mood," Brax says. smiling at his baby brother and then smirking at Kyle.
Kyle thinks he knows what's coming.
"No, no, no!" he shrieks, as he gets up and runs away, but he stumbles in the sand and falls down.
"Relax Kiddo, I'm just joking," Brax smirks and grabs his brother's shirt and pulls him to his feet, then ruffles the top of his head causing his cap to move around a bit.
"Can we go home now?" Kyle asks.
He's had his fresh air, now he wants to go home.
"I wanna swim for a bit," Casey whines as he drops his board down; he's practiced his surfing, now he wants to just swim.
"Just a little bit longer Ky," Brax says and once again ruffles his brother's hair under his hat.
"Fine," Kyle mumbles as he sits back down and continues to read his book.
He grabs his water bottle and takes a big gulp.
Brax watches Casey run off into the water for a moment before joining him.
Kyle doesn't exactly hate swimming in the ocean but he's just not in the mood for getting all sandy.
He looks back down and continues to read, hoping he can go home soon; grateful that Brax didn't mention Zeke or Damien and assumes he obviously didn't see them, for Kyle was grateful for that because he always struggles to lie to his older brother.
Soon after, the boys come back.
"Hey Ky, wanna hug?" Brax questions and extends his arms.
"No thank you," Kyle says, shaking his head.
"Aww come on Trooper; you love my hugs," Brax chuckles and picks his brother up and gives him a big hug.
"You're all wet!" Kyle moans, and tries to get out of his brother's grip, but unfortunately he's too strong.
"It's just a little water, Kiddo," Brax smirks but let's his brother go.
Kyle twists his head to look at his brother.
"Now can we please go home?" he grumbles.
"Sure," Brax says, smiling.
The three brothers then start making their way to the Ute, when they get there Brax and Casey put the surfboards on the back while Kyle immediately jumps in the backseat; looking forward to getting home so that he can do his schoolwork and relax in the safety of his home; providing Heath wasn't there to pick on him.
Brax and Casey jump in the Ute and the three head home.