Kyle is sitting at the table reading through Mice and Men and answering questions that he set himself. He knows that next term he has a test so he wants to be as ready for it as he can. Luckily the book isn't that long so he can easily read through it in an afternoon.

The door opens and Kyle jumps in his seat thinking that it's Heath and the last thing that he wants is his brother giving him hassles, but it isn't, it's Casey.

"Hey Case," Kyle greets as Casey walks in and immediately goes to the fridge and gets out a bottle of apple juice, he walks over to Kyle as he takes a sip out of the bottle.

"Hey bro; what are you doing?" he asks.

He stands behind Kyle and looks down at what he's doing.

"Practicing for my English test next term," Kyle says simply and continues on with the questions.

"Next term!" Casey exclaims, shocked; he can't believe that his brother is already studying for a test that's weeks away.

"Yeah, do you want to join me? I can help you with your novel study," Kyle offers and looks up at his little brother, "It's good to be organised and study."

"Umm… no. Only nerds study, and only super nerds study weeks before a test. No offence, Ky," Casey snickers and walks to his and Kyle's room.

"None taken," Kyle mumbles sarcastically and goes back to studying.

Later in the afternoon Heath does enter the house, causing Kyle to jump in his seat again.

"Hey squirt!" Heath says and ruffles Kyle's hair.

"Hi Heath," Kyle whispers in reply, hoping his brother would leave him alone.

"What are you doing?" Heath asks as he stands behind his brother.

"Just studying for my English test. How was work today?" Kyle asks as he looks up at his older brother.

"Work was good; just a little busy," Heath answers, then exits to walk into the kitchen to get food, just as Casey walks out of the bedroom, into the kitchen.

"What are you doing here?" Casey hisses at Heath.

"Eating," Heath replies simply as he takes a bite out of an apple.

"Well why can't you eat somewhere else; like your own place and leave Kyle and me alone? We don't want you here," Casey smarts, pointing out about Heath's habit to sponge at their house again.

Kyle glances over at Casey wanting him to just shut up and not involve him in his plans to annoy Heath, for he knew it only led to trouble.

"In your dreams, baby bro," Heath chuckles and takes another bite of the apple and upon mid chew licks his hand and wipes it over Casey's cheek, leaving a mix of chewed apple and saliva on his face.

Casey scowls and lets out a loud moan of disgust.

"Yuck: Heath! You're disgusting! Why are you always such a jerk?"

Casey rushes to the kitchen sink to scrub at his face.

Heath continues to laugh, "Keep your comments to yourself in future, Case."

Just then Brax enters the house.

"What's going on here?" he asks.

Heath smiles innocently.

"Nothing," he says and walks out, back to the flat.

Brax furrows his eyebrows.

"What was that about?" he asks again.

"Nothing," Casey grumbles and walks towards the lounge to watch TV.

Brax shakes his head, not feeling in the mood to be dealing with his brother's drama. He then approaches Kyle.

"Hey Ky, studying hard?" Brax asks as he walks behind his brother and runs a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, just getting ready for my English test," Kyle replies, "Have you ever read of Mice and Men?"

He glances up at Brax.

"Nope. I don't read many books, kiddo," Brax says while laughing.

Kyle looks up and smiles.

"You could listen to the audiobook! And then later you could listen to the Harry Potter audiobooks and that way we can talk about them," Kyle suggests.

Brax raises his brow and smiles, finding it sweet that his little brother wants to share his interest with him.

"How about instead you tell me all about it later?" Brax suggests and this time ruffles his brother's hair, then walks into the kitchen to start prepping for dinner.

"Do you want help?" Kyle asks, knowing that he has plenty of time to study for his test.

"Yeah, I'd love some help Trooper," Brax smiles as his brother stands up to wash his hands.

"What are we making?" Kyle asks as he dries his hands.

"Crumbed chicken with chips and coleslaw," Brax answers, "How about you chop up some potatoes?"

"Okay, I can do that," Kyle says smiling and starts to chop up the potatoes.

Brax smiles at his brother, so thankful for the help that he always gives him.

The two continue to cook dinner and soon enough it is finished and the three Braxtons are sitting down together and eating.

"This is so yum, Brax!" Casey exclaims, munching on some of his meal.

Brax shakes his head and chuckles.

"I had some help. Kyle made the coleslaw and prepared the chips and crumb recipe," Brax explains and smiles over at Kyle.

"Well, I help too…I help you by eating it!" Casey announces with a chuckle.

"You sure do," Brax replies and both he and Kyle smile.


It's the next day and so far, Kyle hasn't had problems with any of his bullies and he hopes it will stay that way, but that lasted until lunchtime.

Kyle walks out of his Music class and comes face to face with Wesley and Grant.

"Look Grant! It's an emo nerd! I hear they're really rare. In fact, they may be extinct soon," Wesley chuckles, causing Kyle to walk backwards until his back is pressed against the lockers.

Wesley then quickly but harshly slaps Kyle around the face.

"What do you guys want?" Kyle asks timidly as he looks down at his feet unable to look at his bullies.

He can feel a stinging feeling coming from his cheek.

"Our Math homework done!" Grant demands as the two of them shove their homework in Kyle's face.

"Okay I'll do it, just leave me alone," Kyle says quietly as he puts the homework in his bag.

"Good and don't tell anyone, otherwise we'll pummel you if the teachers find out!" Wesley threatens as he grips Kyle by the shirt and pulls him close.

"Got it geek?" He snarls, causing Kyle to viciously nod his head.

"Good! See you later, loser," Wesley teases and shoves Kyle away.

"Later emo freak!" Grant adds, laughing and gives Kyle a quick wet willy.

Sighing, Kyle makes his way to the library to do his bullies Math homework because the last thing he wants is to get caught by anyone; he knows that if he takes the homework home and does it there that he will get questioned by Brax and he wants to avoid that as much as possible.

Kyle sits down at a table in the library and quickly texts Casey, letting him know that he's in the library doing homework, that way he won't come looking for him.

He then pulls out his bullies' homework and takes a quick look at it and sees that it's fairly straightforward, considering they are in the lower class, and that he should be able to smash it out fairly quickly.

"Perks of being smart," he mutters to himself as he starts Wesley's homework.


Casey pulls out his phone and can't help but roll his eyes.

"What?" Liam asks.

"Kyle's doing homework in the library," he explains, and the other four friends look at each other confused on what the issue is.

"And?" Romeo asks, he knows how smart Kyle is and how much he loves school work and he honestly doesn't see a problem with Kyle being in the library.

"He's always doing school work! Can't he just let his hair down for once, get dirty, get into trouble…." Casey says, causing all four boys to snort with laughter.

"That's the sort of stuff you like Casey, Kyle's different and I bet you don't mind him being a super genius when he's helping you with your homework," Ryder says.

"I just worry about him, he gets picked on by jerks like that," Casey says as he points to Wesley and Grant who are sitting down eating their lunch.

"They pick on him for being smart, and he doesn't even try and change to get them to back off," Casey adds.

"We get that man, but Kyle shouldn't have to change who he is just because a bunch of idiots are being arseholes," Romeo says, "Besides they've backed off now haven't they?"

"Yeah, I guess. I'm still afraid that he's making himself a target," Casey says.

"Look Casey, if anything happens, we are here for him, he's your brother and my best friend. We are all protective of him and we will be there if anything happens," Dex informs.

Casey nods his head and puts his phone down telling himself that Kyle's fine.

Kyle continues to work on their homework and is extremely happy that he'll be able to get it all done by the end of lunch.

He cleans up all his stuff just as the warning bell rings. He picks up the Math homework and makes his way out of the library and makes his way to English class.

"Hey loser!" Zeke smirks giving him a shove in the back.

"Come on Zeke, I'm not in the mood," Kyle grumbles.

He sees all three of his other bullies and tries to walk around them but is shoved back by Haley.

"Aww the little squirt isn't in the mood! Isn't that cute!" she laughs.

"Can you please just leave me alone?" Kyle requests.

"No way! This is way more fun!" Damien smirks.

He rips Kyle's backpack off of him and unzips it, tipping the bag upside down and causing all of Kyle's books and lunchbox to drop onto the ground.

Just then the second bell rings which means it's time to get in class.

Damien quickly puts the bag over Kyle's head and shoves him down, and the three bullies walk into class laughing.

Kyle removes the bag from his head and sadly gets to his feet. He then puts all of his books and his lunchbox back into his bag before walking into class.

He walks to his table and sits down ignoring the sniggers coming from behind him.

After school Kyle meets his brother and his friends at the gate.

"Ready to go home Ky?" Casey asks, while Kyle nods his head.

"How about we stop for milkshakes before we go home?" Kyle suggests with a smile.

"What, you don't have any homework to do?" Casey asks, expecting Kyle to want to go home and do homework or at least study.

"Nah, I'm up to date," Kyle says, as he sees Zeke, Haley and Damien out of the corner of his eye.

"Let's go," he says quickly and starts walking.

"You guys coming for a milkshake?" He looks toward the friends.

"Yeah man!" Liam cheers and swings his arm around Kyle's neck and ruffles his hair.

The other friends are all keen as well, so the six friends walk to the diner.


It's later that night and the four Braxton's are sitting down eating butter chicken that Kyle had made.

Heath is currently shoving it down his throat causing Kyle to screw up his face slightly. He hates watching his older brother eat like a pig.

"Heath, eat nicely," Brax says, seeing the disgusted look on Kyle's face.

"So, boys, how was school?" Brax asks, this causes Kyle's stomach to drop.

"Alright, I guess. Just learnt nothing and then got a milkshake with Ky and the boys after school," Casey says, shrugging his shoulders.

Brax rolls his eyes, that response was so typical from his little brother.

"What about you little man?" Brax asks Kyle, who looks up timidly.

"Not bad. I studied in the library at lunchtime and got all caught up," Kyle says.

"I thought you already did all your homework?" Brax asks, feeling a little confused.

Kyle drops his fork in panic. He totally forgot that he had told Brax that he was all caught up. He had to think of a quick lie and he hates lying; it makes him so nervous.

"Yeah, but I got more today, and I wanted to get it done immediately," he says timidly.

"Geek," Heath jokes, his mouth full of food.

Kyle's shoulders slump, he hates being seen as a loser by his own brother.

"Heath: that's enough!" Brax scolds his younger brother.

"What it's true, he's a geek and he knows it," Heath says, smiling and ruffling Kyle's hair.

Kyle looks sadly down at his bowl.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's move on," Brax says, noticing the look on his little brother's face.

Heath huffs and goes back to eating his dinner.

The next day Kyle is walking to his French class when he's dragged into the boy's bathroom.

"Homework now nerd!" Wesley hisses in Kyle's face.

Kyle drops his head and grabs his bullies' Math homework out of his bag.

"Here," he mumbles, just as the warning bell rings.

"Thanks geek!" Grant laughs, as they snatch the homework off of him and they shove him.

"You're bloody lucky that we can't be late for another class, or you would have your head shoved in that toilet!" Wesley laughs and points at one of the toilets, "Oh well, maybe next time!"

The two bullies walk out of the bathroom laughing, leaving Kyle miserable but very thankful that they didn't get a chance to swirly him.