Two Brothers Two is the continuing story of Sam and Luke and their two younger brothers, Tommy and Joseph, 5,000 days in the making. Watch Sam, Luke, Tommy, and Joseph negotiate the journey of adolescence on the road to young adulthood. While they don't have it all, they do have each other. And this is their story. My nerdiest characteristic is probably dancing. I have some pretty nice dances. I'm also the fastest seventh grader, so everybody expects me to win every race. Sometimes I won't win, and everyone will just be disappointed if I come in second. So you feel the pressure to win? Yeah. Rate yourself in terms of looks, out of a hundred. Hundred. He's, like, 100% popular. Yeah. He's, like, the most popular guy in school. Now, are you sensitive about the fact that you're slender? I don't notice that I'm that skinny, but other people do. Sometimes people will call you skinny, and that hurts your feelings. Yes. He's just good at making friends, I guess. People think I'm skinny? Fine. I'm kind of like the weird guy that everybody likes. But yeah, I'm fine with that. It's my little weird personality.

I am Joe Nelson, Joseph Nelson. And I'm 13 years old. People think money can't buy happiness, but that's not true. OK? It can buy lots of things that make you happy. Helium actually makes your voice natural. But as humans, we start talking really low. I just think of all these things. Maybe we're going to find out someday, and I'm going to be right. I grew up thinking that I couldn't have the thing called sex. I didn't think I could have it. Then that day I found out that that is actually how babies are made, and I was happy.

There are some kids I got to know pretty well in fifth grade. And then right as they hit middle school, they were thinking they weren't getting any younger, so they were just doing all this stuff. Yeah. Some of them are smoking already. I think about how innocent they used to be and how good of a friend they were, and now you can see them going down the wrong path. It makes me pretty sad, but I know that there's nothing I can really do. And I get made fun of a lot about my faith. Stereotypes get worse and worse, I swear, every single year. Some people think we can't drink soda pop. So I have a lot of friends. But it's not like any good enough friends that I can talk to.

So what do you want to do when you grow up? I want to coach football. I like kind of being in charge. I've been the president this past year. It's been kind of fun for me. I've also grown two inches in the past year. You know, I've gotten more acne. I'm not trying to hide it or put a little makeup on the acne or anything. I just accept it. I just enjoy it. And I know in a few years, it's really not going to matter what I looked like in eighth grade.

A few of my friends that I kind of suspect were going in the wrong direction did drugs and sex and alcohol. I like having friends, and I like knowing a lot of people and being close to them. But it's just like I have to draw my line, who I want to be my friends and who I don't. What are you most grateful for? Probably right now is my family. Me and Tommy still share a room, and he's going to be a senior. I'm going to be a freshman. It's fun coming home to my three brothers and my two parents. That's not going to be there for much longer because Sam's going to college, Luke's going to college, and Tommy's eventually going to graduate. I'm going to have sophomore, junior, senior year just by myself, which is why I need to find really close friends that I can hang out with.

What's your name? Joe Nelson. How old are you? Fifteen years old. And where are you in high school? Freshman in high school. Finishing up my freshman year. If you were to see a pie chart of what I think about when I'm walking through the halls, it's like, "How big do I look right now?" That's something that I'm really still self-conscious about. I've been training to be a wide receiver like my brothers. And I've been training to do that for a long time, and--because they see Tommy and it's like, "How nice." He's just this huge kid. And he's not fat, and he's not skinny. He's just, like, he's perfect. So if you were to sum up this first year, what's it been like? It's been the toughest year of my life thus far. Last year I was president of the middle school, so if I wanted a friend, I could just usually go get one. It was not hard. And then this year, I sat by myself for a few days at lunch, just kind of, like, wondering where I should sit. Popularity is temporary for sure. At the beginning of the year, there was this girl that I liked, and she didn't like me back. And this-- What? I know. It was nuts. Like, what didn't she like? You know? She was really attractive. And I guess I was kind of drawn to that, and I was starting to really like her. And Tommy just, he texted me saying something like, "You got to find it in yourself if this girl's right for you." And my motives with this girl was, I'd get respect. But it was really nice to have that someone, Big Tommy, to tell me that that wasn't the best girl for me. There was friends that I had to let go of just because they were getting into weird stuff. And there are some people that don't like me, and they let me know. Whenever they make fun of me, it's always making fun of my friends for being Mormon, that we don't do that stuff. We don't drink. We don't have sex. I try to let them know that that's not cool, because that's something I believe in. "I devote a lot of my life to the thing you're making fun of." Besides when Tommy brings me along with his friends, I usually just stay home Friday nights. So you have three years of high school without your brothers. What's it going to be like? I'll probably just have to find a few good friends that I can count on.

Only four minutes up here, but this will be the best four minutes of your fricking life! So this is the high school talent show? Anyone could sign up. This is stand-up comedy. Took a lot of confidence to go up there. I did this stand-up comedy routine, and I had a shiny gold vest. I moonwalked out there. I guess I like entertaining. And another thing that I wish I would have learned a little earlier in my academic career was commas. "Let's eat, Grandma." "Let's eat Grandma!" I think people really took a kick out of it. It was great.

Whiskers? I actually shaved it a few days ago. And I'm actually growing facial hair, so I need to start shaving every day. My favorite part about going on a date is kind of making the agenda of what we're going to do. A lot of girls aren't used to that. But I have plans to go on the tour of the local milk factory and things like that. Started a club. It's called the slam poetry club. I start to think. I remember the time they used to love me for me. I remember the time that you touched me oh so gently. A lot of guys, their guilty pleasure is making poetry. What? Yeah. We have 35 members, and we meet twice every month.

In middle school, my good friends were doing these bad things or these bad decisions. But once we got to high school, I found my best friend, Nick, who I baptized. Seeing more and more friends drop off, they can't tell, but the decisions they're making are going to affect the rest of their lives. And it's really sad to see it. It really narrows down the people that I would like to hang out with. There's been a lot of lonely Friday nights.

Well, if I do get lonely, I'll shoot off an email to Tommy or I'll call Luke. I've called Luke a few times just to talk. Those are pretty good conversations. You know, I can't be relying on my brother for everything now, so I've kind of been relying on Heavenly Father. And I feel like our relationship has gotten a lot closer. [SINGING] All I want when Christmas comes to town. So what's your best memory with Tommy? I got pulled up to play football freshman year, to play with Tommy. And that was a really special moment for me as well. Kind of walked out to the football field. Everyone gets someone that holds their hand and walks out. And I held Tommy's hand when we walked out there. And I thought Tommy was really cool, really classy for doing that, because I was just a little freshman just looking around, and my helmet was a little bit too big for me. I was really blessed to have Tommy as an older brother. I think there's no one in the world who could've taught me the things that he taught me. I really took for granted my brothers, I think. The hardest thing I've had to go through is watching each one of my brothers leave the house until it was just me. Is it the loneliness, or is it sort of the passing of an era? I think it's definitely the passing of an era.

I'll go talk to anyone. I'll give anyone a hug, you know? Is it still hard when people make fun of you about your faith? Knowing that they're making fun of me for something that I'm standing up for, something that I choose to be made fun of for, it doesn't take as big of a toll as something that I'm doing wrong. You know, at the end of the day, I really don't care. It's just, I'm going to be friends with people who are nice to me. I've actually found myself a lot less insecure nowadays. I've actually been really comfortable with myself lately. One word that describes yourself. Interesting. Is interesting a less committal version of weird? Yeah, I guess so. But weird is good, right? Weird is awesome. Still? Still, yeah. Weird is still good.

Next time on Two Brothers Two: Well, as soon as I--the first date was awkward. But you don't just propose to her on the first date. No. That's not cool. You got to play it cool, right? I had this vision of the perfect girl, and that was Lauren. And I told her I loved her and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I am the biggest BYU fan to ever play for BYU. Going to games as an eight-year-old kid, looking at those guys running out of the tunnel. And I remember when I saw my name on the list, I called my dad in the car and I just, I broke down. I was so excited that it's actually going to happen. I remember there was one week where three things happened that kind of just put me over the edge. It was like football was, like, too much for me. With wedding bells also ringing for Luke.