AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you everyone continuing to read and support this story, we really appreciate it. There is slight swearing in this chapter.
It's now break time and Kyle and Dex are now walking to meet up with their friends.
"What happened?" Dex asks his friend, causing Kyle to nervously ruffle the back of his hair and look behind him to make sure that none of his bullies can hear.
"Zeke, Haley and Damien happened. They cornered me when I was coming out of Math class," Kyle sighs.
"Can't they just leave you alone? Dex says while huffing.
"Apparently not," Kyle replies just as they meet their friends.
"Let's go get our food Case," Kyle suggests.
"Sweet, so thirty five dollars for me and five for you?" Casey asks with a cheeky smile.
"No Casey," Kyle says and rolls his eyes.
"Thirty for me and ten for you?" Casey teases, causing Kyle to look at him.
"Okay; twenty five for me and fifteen for you?" Casey bargains, but Kyle continues to stare.
"Fine! Twenty dollars each," Casey huffs and Kyle smiles.
"There you go, Case."
The two brothers make their way to the canteen.
"So, what do you think you'll get?" Casey asks as the brothers wait in line.
Kyle shrugs his shoulders.
"Maybe a banana and I'll get lunch at lunch," Kyle responds and Casey stares at him.
"You're just getting fruit?" Casey accuses and rolls his eyes, "You're such a dork!"
"I like fruit! Plus it's healthy and it's important to eat healthy food," Kyle protests, causing Casey to roll his eyes again.
"Whatever," he says.
Kyle rolls his eyes. Despite being picked on, he still gets called names by his brother.
"What about you?" Kyle asks.
"Chocolate bar, a bag of chips, juice, pie and a sausage roll!" Casey says smiling.
Kyle looks at him shocked.
"Casey; that's so much! You won't have enough for lunch and you don't have enough time to eat it!" Kyle says shocked.
"Yes, I will, just let me handle it," Casey says, and soon enough they are at the front of the line.
After getting their food the two boys walk towards their friends and sit down.
Kyle takes a bite of his banana and cringes as he watches Casey eating his pie quickly; too quickly.
"Hey Case, do you think that you could eat like a normal human being?" Dex says, giving a chuckle, along with Kyle.
"I could but I won't," Casey says with his mouth full of food.
Kyle finishes his banana and Casey moves into his chocolate bar finishing it in two mouthfuls.
"It's like he's a human garbage disposal," Ryder says, laughing.
"Can we pick on someone else? I mean Kyle's hair is still pink!" Casey points out; not liking his friends were teasing him.
"Hey!" Kyle protests, "Don't you think that I've copped enough teasing because of my hair.".
"Good point, sorry, Ky," Casey huffs and then moves onto his sausage roll and his juice.
After morning tea Casey, Ryder and Kyle make their way to PE.
Kyle thinks that he's going to be enjoying PE more now. Of course he still has to deal with people like Gavin and Grace, but they weren't as bad as Aiden, Wesley and Grant.
There is also the added bonus that after the horrendous bullying incident he no longer had to set up and pack away so he was enjoying that, he also didn't have to help set up the cross country course that was happening later in the year.
The three friends walk into the changing room to get ready for class; apparently today they were playing basketball again.
"Good luck today pixie! It may be hard for you to reach the basket! Or should I call you a fairy as fairies are small!" Gavin laughs and high fives some of his friends.
"Piss off Gavin!" Casey hisses; he is so sick to death of everyone bullying his brother.
Kyle screws up his face.
"You do know that they say in folklore that pixies are actually smaller than fairies," Kyle corrects and shrugs his shoulders; not meaning to anger Gavin but it has the opposite effect.
"Oh yeah! Well I bet both are small enough to be crammed in a bin," Gavin hisses and grabs Kyle by the shirt, causing Kyle to squeak in fear.
"Oi: let him go!" Ryder and Casey yell and shove Gavin off Kyle.
"Just piss off Gavin!" Casey hisses causing Gavin to back away.
"Fine! You'll be alone eventually, geek!" he hisses and gives Kyle an evil smile, "Then we'll talk."
Kyle leans back against the lockers and sighs.
"Casey, you shouldn't swear," he sighs and Casey rolls his eyes.
"Dude, what is it with you and your non swearing rule? He deserves to be sworn at!" Casey replies.
"It's not whether or not he deserves it, it's the fact that it's bad to swear," Kyle replies, causing Casey to roll his eyes again.
"Fine; sorry," he sighs.
Kyle drops his head and ruffles his own hair.
"Is it possible to grow ten centimetres overnight?" he asks sarcastically as he knows that it isn't.
Casey reaches over and squeezes his brother's shoulder.
"Come one, let's finish getting ready," he says and the three friends quickly get changed before walking out into the gym ready for class.
"Braxton and Daniels: you're captains," Mr. Gardiner announces causing Casey and Kyle to look at each other confused as to which one the teacher was referring to.
Both assumed he meant Casey but they weren't sure.
"Casey Braxton," Mr. Gardiner clarifies and Casey and Gavin stand at the front with Casey glaring at Gavin as he's still furious that Gavin threatened his brother.
"Pick your teams: Gavin you start," Mr. Gardiner says.
"Lee!" Gavin says and high fives Lee as he walks up to him.
Casey thinks for a bit, he wants Kyle on his team but he also wants to guarantee that he also has Ryder so that Kyle will have both of them protecting him.
"Ryder!" he says, and Ryder walks over to Casey and smiles at him.
"Grace!" Gavin calls and Grace walks up and stands next to Lee.
"Kyle!" Casey says picking his brother to make sure that he's safe.
Gavin, Lee and Grace snort with laughter and Mr. Gardiner turns to them.
"Is there a problem?"
"No Mr. Gardiner," Grace replies and holds back another laugh, they all thought it was hilarious that Kyle Braxton was someone's second pick as they all thought he was a big dork.
"Good, now continue," Mr. Gardiner instructs.
After the teams are selected, one of their team-mates, Alfie approaches them.
"Hey Kyle, I'll look out for you and make sure that those jerks don't target you," he says and smiles at Kyle.
Alfie was a small and shy kid, he was actually only a little taller than Kyle. However he was extremely athletic and not picked on, unlike Kyle.
Kyle always thought he was a nice guy, as he was one of the kids who never laughed at him after being bullied or tripping over his own feet.
"Thanks Alfie," Kyle says with a smile and nervously looks at his feet.
"Don't mention it, you don't deserve any of the crap they give you," Alfie says and Kyle looks up at him and gives him a small smile.
"Cheers man, we really appreciate it. Especially since I think Gavin is going to be after Kyle," Casey says, and just then Mr. Gardiner blows his whistle, and the teams get ready to start.
PE wasn't as bad as Kyle thought it was going to be, with Casey, Ryder and Alfie looking out for him he didn't have that bad of a time, he got hit with the occasional ball and was knocked over a few times, but this is nothing that Kyle didn't expect.
"Kyle, can I talk to you for a moment?" Mr. Gardiner asks and Kyle nods and walks towards his teacher.
Casey and Ryder decide to wait for Kyle just to look out for him,
"Is there a problem Mr. Gardiner? Have I done something wrong?" he asks, causing Mr. Gardiner to shake his head.
He feels very sorry for the poor kid, not only does he get bullied but he also suffers from low self esteem.
"None at all Kyle. I heard what happened with Wesley and Grant," he says and Kyle drops his head.
He expects that all the teachers know and this isn't a good feeling as he doesn't want them all to know about it.
"Oh," Kyle simply says and looks down at his feet, "Yeah, they got expelled ."
"I'm very sorry that that happened to you, Kyle after your unfortunate incident with them previously, you absolutely didn't deserve that," Mr. Gardiner assures.
"Thanks Mr. Gardiner, I'm very glad that it's over," Kyle says and gives Mr Gardiner a small smile.
"You let me know if anyone else gives you any troubles and I'll keep my eye out as well," Mr. Gardiner informs, in which Kyle widens his smile.
"Thank you Mr. Gardiner, I really appreciate it," Kyle says, he then looks shyly down.
"Anyways, I don't want to be late for French, but thanks for today Mr. Gardiner," Kyle says and smiles at Mr. Gardiner a final time, who smiles back.
"See you Kyle," Mr. Gardiner replies and Kyle walks over to his friends.
Casey ruffles up his hair and Ryder throws his arm around his neck.
The three get into the changing room and quickly get changed before walking back to the main building and they all go to their own classes.
Kyle plummets into his seat in French. Suddenly he gets hit in the back of the head.
"Nerd!" Haley taunts, this causes Kyle to screw up his face confused.
"You're in just as many advanced classes as I am, how can you call me a nerd?" Kyle asks, confused.
"Ohh that's easy, you see. You are a clumsy, wimpy, ugly pathetic loser who thinks that he knows everything! I am a gorgeous, popular, funny beauty who has lots of friends and boys who are interested in me," Haley says and glares at Kyle, "See the difference loser!"
Their teacher then walks in.
"Bonjour Monsieur Monet," Haley calls, causing Kyle to roll his eyes and face the front.
French class came and went and just as Kyle was packing up stuff Haley came up behind him.
Kyle freezes thinking she's going to do something.
"Miss Regan, can I please have a wee word to you?" Monsieur Monet asks, in which Haley nods.
"No worries sir," Haley says then whispers to Kyle, "See you in history nerd."
Kyle packs away all of his stuff and makes his escape and starts walking towards outside to have lunch.
As he's walking, he passes Bianca's office, he stops momentarily as he feels bad that she and Heath are fighting at the moment as it's obvious that they care for each other, Kyle doesn't think it's worth them breaking up over Heath doing a stupid thing. If Heath got broken up with every time he did something stupid, then he'd be single forever.
Kyle walks over to the door and knocks.
"Come in," calls Bianca's voice.
Kyle opens the door and walks in.
"Kyle! How are you? Is something wrong?" she asks in slight panic.
"Hey Miss. Scott, I'm good, and no nothing's wrong. How are you?" he asks.
"I'm good Kyle, I'm glad to hear you are okay. Is there something that I can do for you?" Bianca asks.
Kyle shuts the door behind him.
"It's about Heath," he begins.
"Oh, look Kyle, this isn't something to talk about during school," Bianca informs.
"Miss. Scott, I know it's personal and I'm sorry for talking about personal stuff during school but Heath really likes you," Kyle says
"Look Kyle, I like your brother too but I can't get past the fact that he can be that immature," Bianca says and puts her head down.
"Look, I'm not denying that what he did was immature but he's a really good guy deep down," Kyle admits and rubs his arm nervously.
"He just takes his jokes too far."
"Kyle, he dyed your hair pink! You got bullied because of it," Bianca reminds and is surprised when Kyle chuckles lightly.
"Miss. Scott, if they didn't bully me over my hair then they would have found something else to bully me over," Kyle says, shrugging.
"Kyle, that doesn't make a difference," Bianca replies.
"He misses you, and I want to see my big brother happy. Despite everything that he did to Casey and me, I still believe that he deserves a second chance and then a third and a fourth and so on. I love him, and I know you make him happy, and I know he makes you happy as well," Kyle says.
"Kyle," Bianca sighs, finding it hard to say no to the boy.
"When I was four I was crying because I had lost Milo, my absolute favourite soft toy. We were on a road trip and we had stopped at a park to stretch our legs. I accidentally left him there. I thought that I had put it in Brax's bag but I was wrong, I only realised when we got home, I was bawling my eyes out thinking that I'd never see him again, the park that we went to was a good four hour drive away, so going back wasn't really an option. That night I had cried myself to sleep in Brax's arms. When I was shaken awake in the morning I saw Heath holding Milo, both of them were soaking wet as it had been raining heavily and Heath was exhausted as he'd been up all night driving and looking for Milo. He went out of his way to make me happy because he knows how much I love that monkey," Kyle explains and looks at Bianca who is looking at him as if she's trying to fight her feelings.
"He's a really great guy Miss. Scott. I know this isn't professional, but can you please think about giving him a second chance?" Kyle asks sweetly.
Bianca sighs and nods her head.
"Thanks Miss. Scott, I hope to see you around these holidays," Kyle says and turns and opens the door before walking out and heading to lunch.
Kyle catches up with his brother and friends in the canteen again.
Casey, Romeo and Liam are already waiting in the line when Kyle rushes over to them.
"What took you so long?" Casey says with a hint of annoyance.
"I just went to see Miss. Scott," Kyle replies.
"Why; did something happen?" Liam asks.
"No, it was for a personal matter," Kyle mumbles and glances at Casey.
Casey steps up to the counter.
"Can I get a meat pie with tomato sauce, a ham and cheese toastie, one chocolate muffin, a fruit salad bowl, and an orange juice, please," Casey requests.
The canteen lady calculates Casey's items and the total comes to more than what Casey had left from recess.
He looks over at Kyle.
"Can I please borrow five dollars of your money?"
"I told you not to spend it all at recess," Kyle mumbles.
"Please Ky, I'll pay you back," Casey begs.
Kyle sighs, knowing well that Casey would not pay him back.
"Fine, I only want water and chicken salad anyway," Kyle says.
"Okay, thanks, Ky!"
Casey makes Kyle's order as well while he is at the front of the line and when he gets all the food, he hands Kyle his water and salad bowl and leaves the canteen to go and sit with their friends.
Ryder laughs upon seeing Kyle and Casey walking to their table with Casey holding a mountain of food again.
"Let me guess: that's not for sharing between the two of you?"
"I'm hungry and besides Brax gave us twenty dollars to spend so I made the most of it," Casey replies.
"Including some of mine," Kyle points out.
Dex frowns.
"Did you get enough food for yourself? I hope you didn't let Casey take some of your money,"
Kyle shakes his head.
"I'm okay, I've got enough to eat."
Casey begins scoffing down his hot pie first, while Kyle slowly chews on his chicken salad.