SCHOOL HAD LET OUT SEVERAL hours earlier, but Mark and his buddies were still hanging out in the Bay City High auto shop, making some final repairs on Dane’s broken-down classic green Mustang.

“That should do it,” Mark said, dropping the car hood so it slammed shut. “Gun it.”

Dane sat behind the wheel and revved the engine, making it purr like a kitten. He leaned out the open window, amazed. “How’d you get this beater to start?”

“You give me a set of tools, I can fix anything,” Mark replied, wiping grease from his hands before tossing the rag at Dane.

Off in the distance, Spyder emerged from behind a tree and pulled out a trophy. He laughed as he bit the head off the shiny gold athlete like a grenade pin, spit it out, and then sent the rest of the trophy flying toward the auto shop. When the headless trophy landed at Mark’s feet with a clatter, Mark bent down to pick it up. He inspected the nameplate on the base, where MARK WALKER, MVP was engraved—except someone had scrawled something else over top of it. Mark squinted as he read aloud: “‘Mark Walker: least awesome’?”

Mark glanced around and then shouted into the darkness, “Okay, who’s spreading lies?”

That’s when MECH-X4 appeared, towering high above the school but too far away for Mark or his friends to see. Inside the robot’s control center, Harris turned to look at Ryan.

“And this is responsible how?” Harris asked.

“I’m training, see?” Ryan explained, crouching down on the circular platform and extending an arm. “I’m learning how to pick up Dumpsters….”

From his spot by the tree, Spyder trained his camera phone on Mark and said, “Okay.”

“And now,” Ryan continued to explain, raising his arm so that MECH-X4’s giant robotic hand lifted a garbage bin, “I’m learning how to empty them.”

Ryan moved his hands through the air and motioned as though he was emptying a cup, thus releasing the contents of the Dumpster from MECH-X4’s grasp. As he did so, Mark and his friends heard a loud rustling coming from the sky and looked up just in time to see mass amounts of garbage raining down on them.

“Aaah!” they screamed, unable to move out of the way before the trash hit, covering their heads and clothes—but mostly Mark’s head and clothes.

Ryan shook his hands a few more times, making sure to get every last bit of garbage out of the Dumpster as Spyder laughed, capturing the entire thing on video.

“Ha!” Spyder darted away from the tree. “Okay!”

“Now, I’m learning how to take the video Spyder just sent me,” Ryan continued, waving his own phone over at Harris as he tapped on the screen, “and anonymously post it to the Internet. See? Training!”

Harris shook his head and exhaled loudly. “Not what I meant.”

“Well, you should have been more specific,” Ryan replied with a laugh as he completed the upload. “I cannot wait to see the look on Mark’s face!”

Later that night, back at the Walker house, Ryan sat on the couch in the living room, watching the Dumpster video on his laptop. He couldn’t decide which part he liked better—the sound of Mark and his friends screaming, or the sight of them completely covered in nasty, slimy garbage. It was a definite toss-up. Hearing a door close behind him, Ryan turned to see his brother walking in—and boy, did he stink.

“Oh, hey, Mark.” Ryan casually gestured down at the laptop as he replayed the video clip for at least the hundredth time. “You know, this is only a seven-second video, but every time I watch it, I find something different to laugh at.”

Mark glared at Ryan as he set his things down on the back table. “Not cool, man.”

“Oh, but it was when you did it to me?” Ryan asked.

“That was different,” Mark insisted with a shrug. “It was a prank. That was funny.”

“Nope,” Ryan said flatly, turning his attention back to his laptop.

“What, you didn’t think it was a little funny?” Mark asked. “Everybody laughed.”

Ryan nodded. “Sure, they did. At me.”

Ryan played the video again, laughing at the sound of his brother’s screams. Mark slumped down on the couch next to him, and Ryan shut the laptop.

“So, I’m a—” Mark began with a frown.

“Yup,” Ryan interrupted.

“And me laughing at you makes me a—”

“Huge,” Ryan cut his brother off again.

“Wow.” There was genuine remorse in Mark’s voice. “I know it’s always been ‘varsity versus freshmen,’ but I should have had your back.”

Ryan was kind of surprised. Was his brother admitting he was wrong about something? As Ryan looked in Mark’s eyes, he could sort of see himself in them. They were family, and as different as they were, they were also the same, right down to their smooth complexions and short black hair.

“I mean, you’d never do something like that to me,” Mark continued.

“What? No,” Ryan agreed. “No, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course not.”

Mark stared down at the ground. “I guess I’m sorry,” he said, holding out his hand for a fist bump. “We cool?”

“Yeah. Frosty,” Ryan replied softly, bumping Mark’s fist back.

But as his brother got up from the couch and headed to the bathroom to clean off the garbage that was still clinging to his hair and clothes, Ryan felt sick to his stomach—and not because of the way Mark smelled. In that moment, he realized what he’d done wasn’t funny at all…and it definitely didn’t make him awesome.