It's now after school on the following day and Kyle and Casey are waiting for Brax; Kyle's reading a comic book and Casey's complaining.
"I'm tired," he moans.
"Uh huh," Kyle says, as he doesn't even look up from his comic.
"I mean it's so dumb. I had a drink of beer ages ago and now I'm being punished," Casey grunts.
"You also threatened to swirly me," Kyle says, still not looking up from his comic.
"But I wasn't going to," Casey huffs.
"You still threaten to," Kyle says, shrugging.
Casey glares at his brother who is still reading his comic.
He reaches over and snatches it out of Kyle's hands and holds it above his head.
"Give it back!" Kyle yells and tries to jump and get it back.
"No way, shrimp!" Casey laughs feeling a little better now that he is projecting his anger on his brother.
"Come on, Casey; please!" Kyle begs and continues to try and grab the comic.
He had already had an awful day, they had to run five kilometres in PE and he had no energy left.
Casey sees Brax's Ute so quickly hands the book back to his brother, so he doesn't get in trouble.
"Keep your mouth shut!" Casey says and quickly jumps in the front seat as soon as Brax pulls up.
Lowering his head Kyle jumps into the back seat.
Brax drives to the gym talking to Casey the entire time while Kyle sits quietly in the back seat reading.
Once they get to the gym Casey gets out and Kyle gets into the front seat.
Brax runs his hand through Kyle's hair.
"You okay little man?" Brax asks.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Busy day at school and I'm a little tired from PE," Kyle sighs.
The last thing that he wants to do right now is go to the doctor.
Brax nods understandably.
"How'd you go?"
Casey had already told him all about the big five kilometre run.
"I was the last boy," Kyle mumbles, "and fourth last."
"Did you try your best?" Brax asks as that's all he expects from his youngest brothers.
Kyle nods his head slightly and stares sadly at his lap.
"Good to hear, you know that's all I ask for. Now let's get you checked out," he says and pats Kyle's cheek.
"Okay," Kyle mumbles.
Kyle and Brax are in the waiting room at the hospital, Kyle really doesn't think that this is necessary.
"Come on Brax, so sometimes I don't eat much. It doesn't mean I'm sick, it just means I wasn't hungry," Kyle says but Brax glares at him causing him to drop his head.
"I just want to make sure you're healthy, little man," Brax says and ruffles Kyle's hair.
Kyle sighs and drops his head, knowing there is no point protesting his opinion to Brax.
"Alright," he mumbles.
"Alright, Case, there should be some towels in the dryer. I want you to fold them and put them away. The towels in the washing machine can go in the dryer and these towels can go in the washing machine. After you do that, come back to me," Heath smirks as he sits down on his desk chair.
"Off you go," he orders.
Rolling his eyes Casey grabs the basket of dirty towels and goes to the laundry to do his jobs. He can't believe that this is the punishment he gets for just drinking beer.
He is disgusted that he has to touch other people's dirty towels. He doesn't even like doing his own washing.
He grabs the towels out of the dryer and puts them in an empty basket, he then takes the towels out of the washing machine and puts them in the dryer. Next, he puts the dirty towels in the washing machine and adds two squirts of washing liquid and then presses the start button. Lastly, he folds all of the towels and puts them away and then walks back to his older brother.
"Okay we have a boot camp, let's go little brother," Heath says grinning, causing Casey to groan and follow his brother out.
"Thanks for seeing us Sid," Brax smiles as he and Kyle walk into his office and sit down.
"No worries, now what seems to be the problem?" Sid asks.
"I'm a bit worried about Kyle, there are times where he doesn't eat a lot. I'm just worried he's sick," Brax says and turns to Kyle who lowers his head embarrassed.
"Is it for long periods of time and does he hide food, or do you see it thrown out?" Sid asks.
"No, not for long periods of time, no. He usually has small meals but sometimes he has extremely small meals. It just doesn't seem normal for a teenage boy, and I mean Casey eats so much, sometimes twice as much as Kyle," Brax explains.
"Brax comparing teenage boys is like comparing apples to oranges," Sid says, "They're all different.
"While that may be the case, the other day he barely ate any lunch then he didn't want much dinner. I mean I would think he'd still eat more," Brax argues.
"How's your brother's prank war that they have going on at the moment? Dex told me all about it," Sid says.
Kyle looks up with wide eyes.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Brax glares.
"Loss of appetite can sometimes be due to stress. I know what Kyle's like. He's a sensitive kid and I think that these pranks might be stressing him out and be causing him to lose his appetite sometimes. Did anything happen the other day when he didn't eat much?" Sid asks.
"Yeah, Heath was giving him grief at the beach and then I got a bit annoyed at him while at the restaurant about something," Brax explains.
Kyle breathes a sigh of relief. At least he isn't questioned about what else Heath did.
"Well, he might just be a little stressed sometimes. If he continues to not eat much, come back and talk to me and I'll put your brother on some medication."
Kyle looks up again.
"Woah, woah; medication!" Kyle says shocked.
"Yes, Ky medication. We need to make sure you're okay if this continues to happen," Brax says and runs his hands through Kyle's hair.
"Now let's finish talking to Sid and then we'll go home," Brax says.
"Okay Brax," Kyle whispers in reply; he knows better than to argue.
"Now my assistant here will demonstrate the plank I want you to do," Heath says smirking at Casey.
"Oh no, I will not! I'm exhausted from PE today; we ran five kilometres!" Casey moans.
"You're the assistant and you'll do as I say," Heath says glaring at Casey, the two brothers scowl at each other for a bit then Casey retreats.
"Fine," Casey grumbles and demonstrates a plank.
Heath smirks, this would be a lot more fun if it was Kyle as he can't do any of this stuff, but it's bugging Casey to do it and that's good enough for Heath.
"Okay now it's your guys turn. I want you to hold it for two minutes, if you fall, get back in the position until time runs out," he orders and blows his whistle.
Casey gets to his feet and glares at his brother.
"You're really enjoying this aren't you?"
"Oh absolutely!" Heath laughs.
"Maybe now you'll think twice before stealing a beer or threatening Kyle."
"You always threaten Kyle; why can't I? And what about…" Casey huffs and quickly stops himself blurting out what he discovered from Kyle the previous night.
Heath rolls his eyes, his little brother has never respected Kyle as an older brother like he should.
"What about what?" Heath demanded and looked down at Casey.
"Nothing," Casey grumbled.
"You better rest up Casey. Next, we are doing a big run! Which I'm sure you're looking forward to after that long run in PE," Heath smirks as continues to time until the whole two minutes are up, then he blows his whistle.
Back at the Braxton house Brax and Kyle are back from the doctor and Kyle's eating a ham, cheese and pineapple sandwich; he is pretty hungry after his run in PE.
"Good to see you eating Trooper," Brax says smiling as he pours himself a coffee.
"I told you I wasn't sick, you should have listened," Kyle mumbles as he takes another bite of his sandwich.
Suddenly Brax whacks him around the head lightly.
"Don't be smart with me Kyle, I will get the mustard out."
This causes Kyle to drop his head.
"Sorry," he whispers sincerely.
Brax smiles at his little brother and runs his hand through his hair.
"I'll always look after you Kyle. Even if you think you don't need it," he smiles.
"I appreciate that Brax, it's just that you made me feel like such a freak when you took me to the doctor. You made me feel like there was something wrong with me," Kyle frowns sadly at his plate.
Frowning Brax sits next to his brother and runs his hand through his hair again.
"There's nothing wrong with you Kyle and I'm sorry that I made you feel that way. I was just scared that you were sick. I never wanted you to feel that I thought that there is something wrong with you. I'm so sorry little man," Brax says.
Kyle looks up at his brother and gives a small smile.
"It's okay Brax," he says.
Brax then pulls Kyle in for a one-armed hug.
"You're my sweet little man; aren't you?" Brax smiles, as he pulls away from his brother and squeezes his shoulder.
Kyle shyly smiles at his brother.
"Hey, how about you and me go get a milkshake?" Brax asks and Kyle's smile widens.
"But how about we keep it between us, yeah; our little secret?" Brax asks and messes up Kyle's hair.
"Now go get changed."
Kyle finishes off his sandwich and runs to his room to get changed. He puts on his nightwing tee shirt, his black jeans and white vans and quickly runs out into the lounge.
"All good; let's go," Brax says as he and Kyle walk out the door.
Casey's legs are killing him as he's running on the sand; he is in so much pain. He already had a big run in PE and now he's going for another, it's not fair.
"Okay folks one more kilometre to go; dig it in!" Heath yells as they are running.
Casey's running near the back and his legs are killing him. He is too tired.
"Keep up at the back!" Heath yells chuckling, he is really enjoying torturing his little brother.
Casey continues to push himself even though his legs are begging him to stop.
He hates his older brother so much; he's such a bully.
He however knows he will only be worse if Heath catches him slacking. After pushing himself the rest of the way Casey collapses on the ground, exhausted.
"Thank you everyone! See you, same time next week, just drop your towels where you are and my assistant will pick them up," Heath grins and Casey groans; he hates his life right now.
They all walk away, and Casey gathers up their towels and chucks them in a bucket and walks them slowly back to the gym where he once again pulls towels out of the drier and puts the towels that are in the washing machine into the drier and lastly puts the dirty towels in the washing machine, and adds two squirts of washing liquid, shuts the lid and presses start.
He then grabs the dry towels and starts to fold them and put them away.
"Are we done?" Casey moodily asks Heath.
Heath looks at his watch.
"You wish little brother we're closing tonight; we've got another two hours. Tidy up the weights next," Heath orders.
Kyle and Brax are at the lighthouse lookout with their milkshakes looking at the ocean.
"Thanks Brax, this is yum!" Kyle says as he's drinking his strawberry milkshake. Brax had asked for extra ice cream to be put in.
"My pleasure little man," Brax replies, as he wraps his arm around Kyle's neck.
There are times he wishes that Kyle and Casey would stay kids forever, but he's also looking forward to seeing what they accomplish with their life.
Brax takes a big sip of his caramel milkshake.
"Do you want me to cook tonight? I know we have stuff to make homemade burgers and chips, I can make that," Kyle says smiling.
"Na, don't worry about it. When we go home you do something you want to do," Brax says smiling.
"I want to cook," Kyle says as he looks up at his big brother.
"Something else Kiddo; you can cook another night," Brax says.
"Okay, I think I might clean my room, it's getting a little messy," Kyle says.
Brax raises his brow.
"Is it mainly your mess or Casey's?" Brax asks even though he knows the answer.
"It's a combination of both," Kyle lies looking down at his lap.
Brax shakes his head.
"Come on little man, you and I both know that that's not true," Brax says.
Kyle nods his head, knowing that Brax always catches him out on his lies.
"I just hate sleeping in a messy room," Kyle admits, "I don't mind cleaning it."
"Okay, Trooper, as long as he's not forcing you to clean it," Brax says, knowing that Kyle sometimes gets ordered around by Casey.
"He's not, trust me. He doesn't care if the room is messy," Kyle says sweetly with a small smile on his face.
Brax laughs and ruffles Kyle's hair.
"True," he agrees.
Casey has finished packing away the weights and now is currently wiping down some machines when John and Marilyn walk in and look at Heath.
"Good afternoon, Heath, we are about to go home, would you like us to give Casey a ride home? I saw him here just before," Marilyn asks, causing Casey to lift his head.
A smile erupts on his face, as he begins to think, he might be able to get out of here.
"No, it's okay; thanks though, Marilyn," Heath replies and Casey glares at his brother.
"No worries love, see you both around," Marilyn smiles, and she and John walk out of the gym.
Casey throws down the cleaning equipment and storms over to his brother.
"What's your problem? You've had your fun!" Casey hisses angrily and shoves his brother.
"Oi! Watch it!" Heath warns, "And this is about teaching you a lesson."
Heath rolls his eyes; no matter how many times Casey gets punished he just doesn't get it.
"It was one little beer!" Casey groans, "I bet you were younger than fifteen when you had your first beer."
"That's none of your business, and besides, Baby brother, this is about you. Now get back to work!" Heath orders, concluding, his youngest brother was a real handful, where-as Kyle was much easier to deal with.
"No! I want to go home!" Casey yells and attempts to give his brother another shove, but this time Heath grabs Casey's arms first and puts him in a painful armlock.
"Ow!" Casey moans.
"Less of the attitude, Casey; now get back to work and I mean: now!" Heath orders as he lets go of Casey's arm and shoves him away.
Casey turns to Heath and glares at him, while shaking out his sore arms, as Heath glares right back.
It's a couple of hours later and Kyle is currently cleaning his and Casey's room and he has nearly finished. In the background he is playing music and currently listening to my chemical romance.
He had started the cleaning by setting up his oil diffuser and putting in a French vanilla scent; loving when his room smelled nice, in comparison to Casey's sweaty and dirty sneakers and clothes that often filled the room.
Kyle reluctantly picked up all of Casey's dirty washing, folded all of Casey's half clean clothes and put them on Casey's cupboard, changed both his and Casey's bed sheets, had vacuumed the floor, dusted the desk and window-sills, tidied up Casey's shoes and is currently tidying up his bookshelf.
Out in the lounge room, Casey walks through the front door and in a real bad mood.
"Brax! Heath was a total jerk and he was so bossy; you need to tell him to back off!" Casey huffs.
"Casey, I'm sure Heath was reasonable, and you know that that was your punishment for not only stealing beer, but drinking it and threatening Kyle as well," Brax says frustrated, trying to reason with Casey as he never understood why he was punished.
"But he…." Casey starts only to be interrupted by Brax.
"No: I don't want to hear it, Casey! That was your punishment and I expect you to accept it," Brax says firmly, causing Casey to huff and stomp into his and Kyle's room.
Casey is immediately annoyed by the music playing and how tidy his room was.
He walks over to Kyle's UE boom and turns it off, then tips over his washing basket so all his dirty clothes fall on the floor and then sits on his bed cross legged and pouts.
"Hey! I just cleaned that, and I was listening to that music!" Kyle argues and walks over to his UE boom and turns it back on and plays his music again.
Next, he walks over to the pile of dirty washing to pick it all up again.
However, before he gets a chance to pick any up, he turns around when he hears his music stop playing again.
Casey then walks over to his bookshelf and throws a bunch of Kyle's books onto the carpet.
"Casey! Stop it!" Kyle whines.
"No way! The stupid emo music is annoying me, and I hate clean!" Casey huffs and smells the French vanilla smell.
"It stinks in here!"
"What are you talking about? It smells nice," Kyle defends.
"Yeah, for a girl like you maybe!" Casey spits and sees that Kyle is starting to clean up his books, so he whacks the books out of his hands and shoves him down causing him to land hard on the floor.
"Keep your stupid emo music off and turn off your dumb diffuser!" Casey orders and lies down on his bed as his brother pushes himself up and turns off his diffuser.
He's in no mood to fight with his brother. He has had a pretty good afternoon after the stupid run in PE. He knows that the reason why Casey is acting like this is because something has annoyed him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kyle asks.
"Talk about what?" Casey says hissing at his brother.
"Whatever has you in a bad mood," Kyle says as if it was obvious.
Casey sighs heavily, his older brother knew him too well.
"Heath was a total jerk; he was so bossy! He made me do so many exercises and I'm so sore already. The worst thing is, that Brax doesn't even care! All he said was that it was my punishment and I had to deal with it, but he wasn't there to see how awful Heath was being! He gets away with everything and it sucks!" Casey rants and Kyle listens as he continues to clean.
"Sorry to hear that Case, it sounds really frustrating," Kyle comforts quietly as he finishes cleaning up his books.
"It is! He thinks he's so funny but all he is, is a big jerk!" Casey huffs, "And I thought Brax would have been on my side, but no, he took Heath's side."
"We'll if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you and you forget Heath gets to me as well," Kyle says timidly.
A small smile erupts on Casey's face, he was glad he had an awesome big brother.
"Cheers Ky," he says.
He then turns to look at Kyle who is picking up his dirty clothes and sighs. He is always taking out his frustrations on his timid big brother.
"I'm sorry Ky; for being a jerk," Casey apologises quietly.
Kyle lifts his head and gives his younger brother a small smile.
"It's okay Casey, I understand," he says.
He has gotten very used to Casey's temper tantrums. He doesn't like them, but he accepts that that's how Casey handles his frustrations, and he has gotten used to being Casey's emotional punching bag.
On Saturday afternoon, after Casey begins to get bored after Brax tells him no more playing with his iPad because he has spent practically all day on it, Casey tries to make it up to Kyle after his outburst from the other day by asking to help him with his Hogwarts Great Hall Lego he is currently building at the kitchen table.
Casey comes up behind him and sits beside Kyle at the table.
"Hey bro, can I help?" Casey asks.
Kyle looks and smiles at Casey.
"Absolutely; that would be really nice, Case," he says with a smile, loving the idea of his brother's help as he loves whenever his brother wants to join in something that he is interested in.
"Sweet, so what do you want me to do?" Casey asks.
"Okay, can you please put all the windows together then put them together like that," Kyle instructs, as he points to the picture on the instructions.
"Easy!" Casey smirks and follows the picture and puts it all together relatively quickly.
"Sweet! Now put it there," Kyle says as he points to where the mirrors go.
"Piece of cake!" Casey claims smugly and pushes the windows into place, but he pushes too hard that he not only sends off the window pieces scattering over the table but also breaking off little pieces off the building.
"Come on!" Casey yells losing his temper immediately.
He angrily stands up and heads towards the backyard to play with his soccer ball.
"You okay Kiddo?" Brax asks before Casey makes it the whole way outside.
"No, I was helping Kyle with his stupid lego and it broke!" Casey huffs stomping outside.
Brax looks over at the table and sees Kyle on his hands and knees picking up lego pieces.
"You okay Ky?" he asks as Kyle pushes himself up.
"Yeah, I'm all good," Kyle replies and continues to build his lego.
"I don't think lego is Casey's thing," he says with a smirk.
"Did Casey break it a bit?" Brax asks.
"Yeah, I know he didn't mean to and it's easy to fix," Kyle says with a smile.
"You're a really sweet kid, Ky," Brax says as he smiles at his little brother and gives him a kiss on the top of the head.
He then grabs himself a beer and sits down on the couch, giving Casey a chance to cool off by kicking his soccer ball around outside before having a chat with him.
Kyle continues to build his lego until he's finished, then he carefully picks it up and carries it to his room so that the table is free for dinner.
After a while just before dinner, Brax walks outside and watches Casey for a moment still kicking around the football.
"How about giving me a shot?" Brax asks.
Casey turns around and kicks the ball to Brax who picks it up and holds it before approaching Casey.
"Have you calmed down a bit now?"
Casey shrugs.
"I guess. I was just trying to help but the bits of Lego are always so small it's hard to press together," Casey admits.
Brax chuckles and rests his hand on Casey's upper arm.
"Kyle doesn't hold it against you and appreciates you offering to join in," Brax explains and smiles at his brother.
"I'm just about to get things ready for dinner so why don't you come inside now and wash up," Brax orders.
Casey follows Brax inside and goes to get cleaned up in the bathroom and passes Kyle on the way and he stops.
"I'm sorry about wrecking your Lego. I hope I didn't ruin it," Casey apologises and looks down sadly.
"It's okay, even if a few bits fell off I could still fix it; don't worry about it," Kyle says, smiling.
Casey reciprocates the smile and continues into the bathroom to wash up before dinner.