The following morning Brax wanders into the boy's room just after seven-thirty and sees Kyle just getting up out of bed.
"Morning Kiddo," Brax greets before making his way over to Casey's bed to shake the younger teen.
"Up you get, Casey," Brax instructs.
Casey groans but stirs in his covers and throws them off dramatically.
Satisfied, Brax exits the room to go and make himself some breakfast.
Kyle finishes making his bed after getting dressed in his school clothes before Casey even gets half dressed.
"Do you have anyone coming to pick you up for school today?" Brax asks, as Kyle munches his toast at the table.
"No, not today," Kyle replies.
"I can drop you off this morning if you like?"
"Aren't you spending the day at home for Casey?" Kyle asks.
"Yes, but I'll only be gone for a short time, so he won't be at home alone too long to muck around," Brax says, just as Casey walks out into the dining room with a scowl on his face.
"I guess that would be great, thanks, Brax," Kyle replies.
Brax nods and turns his attention to Casey.
"Morning Case, I hope you are prepared for a day like school with your lessons," Brax informs.
Casey groans and rolls his eyes, putting on some toast for himself.
As Casey sits down to eat, Kyle gets up to go brush his teeth before returning, where Brax passes him his lunch.
"All ready to go?" Brax asks, in which Kyle nods.
"Casey, make sure you finish those dishes and tidy up before I get back because we are going to start straight on schoolwork; you have a long day ahead," Brax informs.
Casey huffs and continues to munch on his now third piece of toast.
Kyle farewells Casey and follows Brax out the door.
Casey finishes his breakfast in silence then does the dishes and as he cleans the table and benches, Brax returns.
"Very good. Now once that's done get your schoolwork and books out and sit at the table. I want you starting your work by quarter past nine and it's almost nine now," Brax instructs, tapping his finger on the table.
Casey hangs his shoulders but finishes up in the kitchen and grabs his piles of schoolwork Kyle dropped off yesterday and slams it down on the table before flopping into his seat.
Brax rolls his eyes at Casey's dramatics and goes to make himself another coffee then sits down at the table opposite Casey.
"Why do I have to start all this so early?" Casey mumbles.
"Because Casey, I told you this is going to be exactly like a normal school day and I expect the same amount of work covered as a school lesson would, so don't dilly dally and get started. What have you got first?" Brax says.
Casey sighs and pulls out his History work.
"History, I have to summarise some notes about Ancient Egypt and answer questions. It's so boring. I mean it's called ancient for a reason because it's so outdated, what difference does it make now?" Casey moans.
"Just get it done, Casey," Brax says and picks up the weekly newspaper to read.
Kyle walks towards his friends with a smile on his face, things haven't been so bad so far with Casey being suspended because Ryder was always there to protect him in PE and all the boys looked out for him at break times.
"Hey guys," he greets as he meets his friends at the gate.
All his friends smile at him, but Kyle can see their smiles are slightly forced.
"What? What's wrong?" Kyle asks, slightly concerned.
"Ryder's sick, so you'll be in PE alone today," Romeo says and this causes Kyle's face to fall; this is not good!
"Mate, how about you just go hang out in the library," Dex suggests as he doesn't want his best friend to get hurt.
Kyle shakes his head; he couldn't do that.
"I can't do that," Kyle says and sighs as they all walk towards the school building.
"Why not?" Liam asks.
"I'm already in enough trouble in PE, I can't add to it by skipping class," Kyle says and gives his friends a small smile.
"If you're sure mate, just remember the option is always there," Romeo says and reaches over and ruffles Kyle's hair.
"Yeah, I know, hopefully I won't need to," Kyle says and he forces a smile, deep down he knows that he's definitely going to be picked on, especially with no one to protect him.
It's later in the day now and Kyle walks into the gym early as always and approaches Mr. Gardiner, dreading his class, with Casey suspended and Ryder sick.
"Good afternoon, sir, what would you like me to set up for class today?" Kyle asks.
He is getting really sick of this ongoing punishment to set up for PE but he messed up, so he has to do his punishment.
"Just dodgeballs thanks Kyle," Mr. Gardiner says and Kyle walks towards where the dodgeballs are stored with a sigh.
He hates dodgeball, although to be fair, he hates all sports. He grabs the bag of dodgeballs and carries them to the gym and places eight on the courts.
Suddenly he gets a shove in the back causing him to land face first on the ground.
"Dork."
He hears someone cough behind him, he turns around and sees Wesley. He pushes himself up only to be shoved down again.
"Can't you just leave me alone!" Kyle begs.
"Where's the fun in that loser!" Grants smirks and cracks his knuckles.
Kyle looks up in fear but luckily the bullies walk away and stand with a group of other boys.
Kyle quickly pushes himself up and shuffles over to the corner of the room where no one else is standing.
After another two minutes Mr. Gardiner comes over.
"Okay Wesley and Grant: you two are captains; pick your teams," Mr. Gardiner orders and Kyle's head drops; there couldn't be two worse people to be captains.
Sure, everyone thought he was a klutz and there were a few that thought he was a loser, but there were quite a few that were happy enough to have him on their team because he was nice, but not these two."
"Gavin!" Wesley calls picking a tall and muscular kid.
"Lee!" Grant chooses, picking a small kid, but he also happens to be a sports star; he doesn't let his size stop him, even though he's only year ten he's already in the school's top teams for cricket, soccer and hockey.
"Grace," Wesley picks and the tall, blonde and gorgeous girl walks towards him pushing Kyle slightly out of the way as she passes.
The two kids continue to pick until there's only two kids left: Kyle and a girl called Edith.
"I pick Edith and you can have the dork," Wesley laughs as he high fives Grace.
"Wesley; that's enough! Edith you can go on Grant's team and Kyle you're on Wesley's," Mr. Gardiner says, leading Wesley to curse under his breath and Grant to grin.
Just then another gym teacher Mr. McKay comes in and calls Mr. Gardiner away, Wesley takes this opportunity to grip Kyle by the tee-shirt.
"If you lose this for me, you're dead; got it dork?" Wesley says hissing in Kyle's face.
Kyle nods his head furiously.
"Good!" he hisses and shoves Kyle away.
Not long after Mr. Gardiner walks back in and the game starts.
Kyle gets hit right away in the face by a ball thrown by Grant.
Kyle goes to the side of the courts hoping that no one catches a ball, he doesn't want to go back in, but sadly Wesley does and Kyle's got to go back in.
Not long after he's back in, Grant throws another ball at him and this one hits him in the stomach.
Once again, he goes and stands on the side of the court again, luckily there's a few others there as well, so he won't be straight back in when the next person catches a ball.
The game continues and at one point while Mr. Gardiners back is turned Wesley throws a ball at Kyle when he's standing really close, causing Kyle to whimper slightly.
Soon the game is over, so they get all set up for the next one. Once again Kyle's hit right away, but this time he's hit by four balls at once. This causes him to collapse to the ground and quite a few kids start laughing.
Kyle slumps over to the side of the court and hopes he really won't have to go back in, but once again Wesley catches a ball being thrown at him, so sadly Kyle has to go back in once again.
He picks up a ball and throws it at Grant, but it misses and Grant throws one right back and it hits Kyle in the face.
Much to Kyle's dismay after this game is finished, they still have time for one more. This time however he hides at the back so that he's not hit right away.
Once there are a few more people out he goes more out into the open where Grant throws one at his stomach and immediately afterwards Lee throws one at his face.
He slumps off to the side, luckily for him as soon as Wesley gets Grant out, the bell for lunch blows and Kyle smiles, no more dodgeball.
Soon everyone else is walking towards the changing room. Kyle puts all of the dodgeballs back in the bag and then carries the bag back to the equipment room.
When he gets out Mr. Gardiner calls him over.
Kyle looks up terrified, he's worried that he's going to be told off.
"Now Kyle, I have definitely seen some improvements in your participation in the last few days, now I'm not saying you'll be getting any awards any time soon but it is nice to see, so keep it up," Mr. Gardiner praises with a smile; he knows the young teen is not the most physically gifted but it's nice to see him participating.
"Thank you, Mr. Gardiner. I've been trying really hard," Kyle says with a slight smile.
"Well, if you keep this up, I may finish your punishment early," he smiles.
"Thank you, Mr. Gardiner," Kyle replies and runs to the changing room only to stumble on his own feet slightly, but he finds his balance and runs the rest of the way.
As soon as he enters the locker room, he sees that it is empty, well empty other than Wesley and Grant.
"Hey loser!" Wesley smirks and grabs Kyle by the shirt and yanks him close to him.
"Please Wesley, I didn't lose us a game," Kyle says full of fear.
"Yeah, you didn't, but that's not what this is about. Because of you, Aiden is suspended, so you're going to pay!" Wesley threatens and he and Grant smirk at each other.
"But how sad for you that your loser brother got suspended as well," he says sarcastically.
"Now you've got no one to protect you, how very sad," he laughs and he and Grant drag Kyle to the toilets.
"No, no, no, please no!" Kyle yells in fear but his mouth is quickly covered so he makes no noise.
As soon as they reach the toilet Kyle's head is immediately shoved in and the toilets flushed.
"Drink up nerd!" Wesley says gleefully and pulls Kyle's head out again only to shove it back in and flush the toilet again.
"You like that geek?" Grant laughs as he ruffles Kyle's hair while Wesley brings his head up again.
"Once more?" Wesley says laughing.
"Sure, hey maybe twice," Grant says laughing as Wesley shoves Kyle's head in the toilet again and flushes.
By now Kyle is beside himself in tears, feeling humiliated.
"Awww is the poor nerd crying? Well too bad!" Wesley says howling with laughter as once again he shoves Kyle's head in the toilet and flushes once more, this time he lets Kyle go and Kyle is left crying and coughing on the floor.
The boys don't give Kyle much of a break and they grab him and pull him to his feet.
They drag him away from the toilet and each grab an arm and they both give Kyle a Chinese burn, Kyle squeals in pain as it hurts so bad.
"Stop please!" Kyle says, crying.
"You wish, loser! We're far from done!" Wesley says chuckling and for the next two minutes they continue to give Kyle a Chinese burn.
By now Kyle's struggling to breathe. All he wants to do is curl up in a tight ball.
"Okay nerd, now lunch money!" Wesley hisses as he spins Kyle around and slams him up against the wall.
"I don't have lunch money," Kyle sniffs as he reaches up and rubs his eyes.
"Well, that's too bad…. For you," Grant taunts as he grabs Kyle's bag and pulls out his lunchbox.
He opens it and tips it all in the bin.
"Have fun starving geek!" he laughs.
Kyle looks at the bin upset, knowing Brax tells him not to waste food.
"Hey, Grant don't be mean, the nerd is too skinny. He's got to eat," Wesley says with a smirk.
He quickly grabs Kyle and tips him head-first into the bin.
"See you later geek!" Wesley laughs as he kicks the bin causing it to shake but not tip over.
"Been nice hanging out," Grant smirks and he pulls off Kyle's shorts and chucks them in the toilet.
"Bye nerd!"
The two walk out leaving Kyle crying in the rubbish bin. He has to wriggle around in the bin hoping it will tip. Luckily for Kyle it doesn't take too long and he's able to wriggle out of the bin and he searches around for his shorts, he finds them in the toilet and pulls them out, they are dripping wet, he wrings them out and stuffs them in his bag, next he turns on the shower and wets his hair to try get some of the food and stink out.
Next, he takes off his running shoes and puts on his jeans. Afterwards he takes off his PE shirt and pulls it inside out cause food is stuck to the outside and he dries his hair so it's not dripping wet.
He looks in the mirror and sees that his eyes are puffy and red.
Sighing he quickly puts on his school shirt and buttons it up, he then ties up his tie and puts his school shoes on.
Lastly, he gathers up his bag and walks out of the changing room hoping that Mr. Gardiner doesn't see him as he walks past and luckily he doesn't and Kyle's able to walk to the field to meet his friends.
"Hey Ky! What took you so long?" Dex asks as Kyle sits beside him.
"Just got held up that's all," Kyle says as he has a drink of water.
"Why is your hair damp?" Dex asks as he ruffles Kyle's hair and feels that it's slightly damp.
"Umm, I tripped in the changing room and I used the bin to steady myself but I fell in, so I ran water through it to clear it out," Kyle lies lamely, but his friends fall for it and can't help but laugh.
"Dude! How don't you have several broken bones by now," Liam laughs.
"I'm a klutz, I get it okay!" Kyle says miserably.
"No seriously, so you've now fallen into a bin; what's next? Are you going to fall into a locker and lock yourself in it," Liam says laughing and causing Romeo and Dex to laugh lightly.
They all know that Kyle has a tendency to be very clumsy.
Kyle drops his head and his shoulders slump.
All of his friends see how much they have hurt him and that was never their intention.
"Sorry Kyle! We never intended to upset you," Dex apologises and squeezes his best friend's shoulder.
"Yeah, sorry man," both Romeo and Liam say as they never meant to upset Kyle either.
Kyle nods his head slightly.
"It's okay," Kyle says and forces a smile on his face.
He's still struggling over what happened in the changing room, but he's worried about how his friends will react.
The four boys continue to eat their lunch in silence, well Liam, Romeo and Dex do.
Kyle however doesn't have lunch.
"Where's your lunch Kyle?" Romeo asks as he notices that Kyle's not eating lunch.
Kyle's head drops.
"Ummm," he says; he doesn't know what to say.
He wants to lie but he sucks at it but decides to risk it.
"I accidentally left it at home. "
All the friends look confused.
"Really? Because Brax always makes sure that you have your lunch," Liams says, as Kyle drops his head and tears fill his eyes.
"Yeah, and you had it during the morning break," Dex says.
"Fine, Wesley and Grant threw it away," Kyle whispers but not loud enough for his friends to hear.
"What was that, Ky?" Romeo asks as he can see how upset Kyle is.
"Wesley and Grant threw it away," Kyle mumbles with tears in his eyes.
"What?!" Romeo asks furious; how dare they.
Kyle's shoulders slump.
"What are those jerks' problems?" Romeo hisses, just as the two bullies approach them.
"Hey geek! Did you enjoy your showers?" Wesley laughs.
Liam is about to smash Wesley, when Romeo pulls him back.
"What do you mean by showers?" Romeo asks.
"Well, we gave him a shower in the toilet and then afterwards we gave him one in the bin," Wesley smirks as the two walk away.
"Bye now geek!"
The two bullies walk away, and all the friends turn to face Kyle.
"What happened Ky? I thought you said that you tripped?" Romeo asks his friend who is looking miserable.
"I was too embarrassed to tell the truth," Kyle admits shamefully.
"Hey, you have nothing to be ashamed about; those jerks do!" Liam hisses.
"Now come on Kyle please, tell us what happened?" Romeo asks.
"While you do that, I'm going to get you lunch," Dex smiles as he pats his best friend on the back.
"You don't have to do that," Kyle says, but Dex just smiles at his best friend.
"I know that, but I want to," Dex says as he runs off to the cafeteria.
Romeo reaches over and squeezes Kyle's shoulders.
"What happened Ky?" he asks.
"Well in class, I was once again last to be picked, but there were no surprises there. Then during the game, they would throw dodgeballs at my face. Then after class I walked into the changing rooms where they gave me swirlies and then Chinese burns, afterwards they chucked my lunch out and shoved me head- first into the bin. One of them took off my shorts and they left me there," Kyle whispers miserably.
Both Romeo and Liam glare.
"They're so dead!" Romeo hisses.
He reaches over and lightly pulls up Kyle's shirt sleeve so that they can see his arms.
"Liam, when they come past next, I am going to pound them, you in?" Romeo asks as he's furious that anyone can treat Kyle like this.
"Hell yeah! We'll see how funny they think Chinese burns are when they are getting them," Liam hisses and slams his hand on the table.
"No; you can't!" Kyle yells with tears in his eyes.
"What are you on about Ky?" Romeo asks.
"Casey already got himself suspended for sticking up for me. I don't want you guys to be suspended as well!" Kyle argues.
"But they're bullying you!" Liam argues. He hates to see his friend upset.
"I know! But they'll only bully me worse if you guys stick up for me and get suspended. Just please leave it!" Kyle begs pleading with his two friends.
The two boys look at each other and softly nod their heads.
"Fine."
They reluctantly agree just as the Dex runs back over.
"Here you go man, a chicken and sweet chilli roll, a banana choc chip muffin and a strawberry milk," Dex smiles as he places the food in front of Kyle.
"Thanks man, you're the best!" Kyle says as he immediately unwraps the chicken roll and takes a bite.
"Are you at least going to tell your brothers?" Romeo asks as he's concerned that his friend will get bullied more.
Kyle shakes his head lightly.
"Not if I can help it," Kyle says shrugging.
"What! Why not?" Liam asks, shocked, "Brax has to know!"
"Brax will go all brotherzilla and things will turn out worse," Kyle says simply.
The last thing he wants is for his brother to totally freak out about him lying and covering up about being bullied.
"He should go brotherzilla! These jerks have been getting away with picking on you for far too long," Dex argues, not understanding why Kyle wants to keep this quiet.
Just then the bullies passed again.
"Well, well, well, looks like the skinny nerd didn't get enough to eat in the rubbish, that's a shame, maybe next time we'll have to put some more food in it," Wesley laughs as he whacks Kyle around the head.
In an instant Romeo and Liam are on their feet glaring at the bullies.
"Stop; please!" Kyle pleads with his friends; he doesn't want them to get in any trouble.
"Oohh, I see the geek here needs more people to fight his battles! Geez loser; how pathetic are you?" Wesley asks as he whacks Kyle hard around the head again.
"See you in class tomorrow loser!" Grant calls out and the two of them walk away laughing.
Kyle looks down miserably as he continues to eat his sandwich.
Lunch comes and goes and soon enough they are all walking to their next class.