Shrunken Freshmen--Campfire
By Big Thinker and various writersKen wasn't at school that day. But Marcus had seen him and told us all to meet him at his place after school. I drove out to the old farm and parked my car in the driveway.
I headed for the old barn where I knew the others would be. I wondered what it was that Ken wanted to show us?
James a freshman.James is rather brash even though in a strange situation, being shrunken. by Tim Lacey
I was hanging around with several of my friends just chilling. I remember blanking out. When I came to,I found myself wrapped in a sheet. And
stuck in a small plastic chest or something. I tried calling for help. But there was no response. As far as I could remember; I was still pretty dizzy and felt weak. Also, I was thirsty and hungry. I had been wondering too about my friends. What had happened to them?
Later, I felt as if I was being shipped somewhere, I mean,I felt all this movement. When it stopped and I heard voices, I think they were voices,
the sounds were distorted yet I could make out words like, "I kept my promise," I was hoping the ordeal was now over.
When the white plastic lid was being lifted off I felt relief---somewhat. My relief turned to disbelief and shock. As I climbed out of the
container, my ears were bombarded by the amplified sounds of shouting. I covered my ears and looked up. Surrounding a large brown plateform were giants! I wantd to laugh. I wanted to cry. And I wanted run and hide. But there was nowhere to go on this circular place I found myself on.
When I saw my friends climbing out of their plastic prisons I felt a little
better. Only a little. I ran over to them. Like me they were in shock over the giants, who looked down at us with big smiles. And these giants were big. Their faces gazed down at us from many stories. They had to be several hundred feet tall! One of my friends pointed out a fact that I had been trying not
to think of. My friend Ray pointed out two giants he thought he had seen at school. And he said and it makes me sick to my stomach to recall the words, "Oh man. We have been shrunk." As my friends and I huddled together the giants leaned in closer over us. I could feel their hot breath as they made cooing sounds over us. Their faces just filled our vision.
Their huge eyes marveled over us. They had the eyes of a collector, who had just found a precious find. I felt so helpless. One of the giants told his giant friends to move back. His face was the only serious one. I felt maybe he was looking out for us. He turned and looked at one of the giants, who he called Ken. And sounded like he was asking a question. I found it
hard to understand all their words because of the volume and deepness of their voices.
My other friend Jordan screamed when one curly headed giant passed a finger the size of a tree over the top of his head. I just squeezed myself closer to the other guys away from the gigantic finger. I thought what had been happening was the worst. I was wrong. I heard one giant the one called Ken say, "...your pets." The giants gave out a thunderous cheer of emotion. My
friends and I just covered our ears. I still couldn't remove the word pet from my mind. Was I now a pet?
David - a Senior (by forestsage)
"Wow!" I said as I looked down at the shrunken freshman. I couldn't believe this was real. "How the hell did you do this?"
"Not important," Ken replied with a grin. "Just enjoy. One for each of ya."
"But we... I mean... you can't... they are people," Rob said as he
looked at Ken and then back at the freshman.
"Freshman are not people, remember?" Ken said with a grin. The others laughed, but Rob just looked down at the poor souls. I couldn't help but be overwhelmed at the thought of having a little person for a pet. I mean, yeah, a part of me did feel bad, but another part thought "what's done is done." I didn't want to be mean to my pet, I wasn't that kind of person, but I wasn't about to stop myself from having some fun.
Ben--a freshman (by shrinkingman)
It happened so fast. I was hanging around with my
friends, Jordan, James, Marshall, and Ray. We're all freshmen, and all came from the same middle school; we'd hung with each other then and it continued now in high school. Some senior named Ken told us he had some beer at his place and we could party, so we went out to this old barn.We got there and within minutes, our lives changed. Now here I am in a green toga; my T-shirt, jeans, and sneaks are gone and maybe it doesn't matter because I can't fit into them any more now. I'm 14, going on 15, and up till then I was nearly 6 feet tall. I am now four inches tall or so. So are the other dudes I was with. And now suddenly, this guy Ken and some other seniors are looming over us, over 100 feet tall. I'm hearing the word "pet" over and over and don'tlike the sound of it. "Change us back!," I yelled angrily-- and was surprised at the raised pitch of my voice. My voice "changed" last year, but now it was
very high; I sounded like a cartoon character. The giant who now "owns" me is named Marcus. Is that sickening or what? I'm "owned" by some senior and am not much bigger than his palm. He took me home, despite me yelling
and screaming...and he kept insisting that this is permanent.
Marcus went out of his room to get me some food. I figured this was my
chance to escape, so I climbed down the desktop
he'd put me on, using a phone cord. When I got to the
floor I just ran as fast as I could, past his
gargantuan sneakers and long bed; out into the
hallway where I knew sooner or later I could find a
door and get out of this hell.
I didn't
count on meeting a black monster which bared its
claws at me. A gigantic friggin' cat! Now I really
began to run, but I tripped over my toga and
sprawled on the floor, landing on my back. Huge paws
surrounded me. The cat moved his face closer, in for
the kill, when--
Marcus suddenly showed up. His
huge hands picked up the cat and flung it into another
room.
Then his hands picked me up; I tried to
squirm my way out but he held me tight.
[BookGuy]
Marshal - a freshman. As we stood
there, listening to the giants argue, I realized how
much trouble we were all in. I couldn't even remember
being changed into this blue toga thing. I shivered
when I realized how we had been dressed. One of the
giants had done it when we were knocked out. We
huddled together, hoping to avoid their hands again.
When the giant hand had come towards Jordan, it really
brought it home to us how small we were now. The
giants seemed to have finished discussing us and I
heard one say "This is cool, too, like having a living
action figure," and he reached out. We all froze, we
all wanted to run, but figured we'd be safer together.
It seemed he had decided who he wanted - ME! As his
fingers got between me and my friends, I panicked. I
was going to be picked up by a senior, who was a
giant. I was going to be held in his hand. I admit it,
I screamed my head off. I was frightened, not only for
me, but for my friends. Once I had that out my system,
I looked up at the giant who held me, but he was only
grinning. This was not good, he was really enjoying
this and I could tell he'd enjoy it a whole lot more.
He didn't seem mean, he just thought I was a really
cool, what - toy? pet? One of the other giants
yelled at the one who held me, David I think his name
was. We were brought over to a bench and put down. We
were given food by the giant who had done this to us.
None of us wanted to eat what the giant was giving us,
but we were starving. I realized that a lot of time
must have passed from our shrinking to our waking up,
maybe even a day. What were out parents thinking? I
heard the giants discussing that it was time to go. I
was going to be separated from my friends and taken
home by a giant! David reached out for me again, I
only got about three steps before I was wrapped in his
hand again. He gave a small laugh as I pushed at his
index finger. He put me back in the plastic thing I
had awakened in and only needed one finger to hold me
down as he put the top back on. I stayed upright, but
it got dark, he must have slipped it into his pocket.
What a nightmare!
[rightz85]
When I got home I immediately took the
shruken freshmen up to my room. Once upstairs I took
the lid off the container and sat it on my bed.
"Do you need anything?" I asked the freshmen.
"You hungry again or anything?" He didn't respond.
Suddenly the phone rang and I went in the other room
to answer it.
"Hello?" I said.
"Dude,
its me," said Ken.
"What do you want?"
"I'm just calling to check on you and your
pet. And to invite you and him to come to my place
tommorrow. I've already invited the
others."
"Fine, we'll be there. Is that all?" I
asked.
"Guess so," Ken said. "See'ya, Rob."
"Bye."
I went back in my room and
found the freshmen gone from where I left
him.
[straker]
James-A Freshmen
I felt more and
more unsure about everything. I was concerned about my
friends. I remember their screams as the giants
snatched them up in their enormous hands. The giant,
who took me tilted the plastic container for me. I
wasn't impressed. I am shrunken and made a pet and
suppose to be happy by his jesture?
I just sat
at one corner of the container. He took the lid off
during the trip to his home. The giant on the way home
introduced himself as Rob.
I was sealed up
again in the container as he entered his
home.
When Rob took off the lid I just stared
up at him. His face was friendly and thoughtful. And
he said a few words to me. I didn't think he was going
to hurt me or anything but I still couldn't get around
to wanting to talk.
The phone rang. I was
startled. It sounded like a thousand fire engine bells
going off at once. Rob went and left the room. His
giant foot steps thundered as he walked. The thunder
and pounding of his steps decreased. I could hear him
talking to someone though I couldn't make out the
words.
The whole thing was getting to me. All
those giant faces staring at us like some rare
collection. The sounds everything.
With Rob out
of the room, I felt maybe I could escape this
nightmare. Slowly, I climbed out of the container. I
found myself in a rippled landscape of white and
brown. The ripples and folds of sheet and blankets
rose about me. They kept me hidden as I made my way
for the edge of the bed. Rob's bedroom floor spread
down below like a valley. A vast landscape. One which
I wanted to reach. It was along drop to this carpeted
valley. The blanket was made up of thick strands of
stitching. I started down.
Halfway down, my
heart leaped into my mouth. I heard Rob's giant
footsteps returning. I hid underneath part of the
blanket that created a fold on this cliff made of
cotton fabric. I could hear the sounds of materail
being shifted about. When it sounded like he went to
the other side of the bed to look, I continued on
down.
The blanket ended short some ten feet
from the ground. I let go and jumped. I felt free. My
feelings of elation vanished when I turned and looked
under the bed. Across this dark canyon, a pair of huge
and searching eyes were staring at me. I shrieked. I
started to run. I heard the building size teen coming
for me. In no time two giant sneakers the size of dump
trucks were before me. Two denim towers stood before
me. I lost it, and felt water coming down my checks. A
wall of flesh engulfed my body. From below my
shoulders down I was traped in the warm, and powerful
grip of the giant. It was like having five large trees
curl around you. I wiped my eyes. I looked at the
fingers that held me. They were so huge and powerful.
I could run a finger along several creases in the
skin.
Rob went over to his bed and sat down. "I
know this must be scary," he told me; But running away
won't help. I mean, where can you go? Its not safe for
you. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry about what
happened. I really am." His voice became more gentle.
"Whats your name?"
I tried to clear my throat.
I also wanted to get the tears out of my eyes without
him knowing I had cried. So I kept my head down.
"Hey," rob said, as he lifted my chin up with the tip
of a finger. "I don't blame you for crying. This whole
thing, especially for you must be so Blank freaky. I
didn't get your name yet."
"James."
Rob
gave me a muted smile and said, "James I will try to
help you and your friends." With his free hand, he
extended an index finger. I grasped the end with both
hands to try and shake it." Rob gave out a little
chuckle. The warmth of his hand felt good. I felt a
little better. My heart started to pound again when I
thought about my friends. "Rob will my friends be
safe?"
In an assuring voice, "I told them to
not harm any of their pe..I mean little people. I have
known them for a long while. They wouldn't hurt them.
Oh, Ken (rob seemed to spit out that name)the man who
caused all this wants to see all of us tommorrow.
Maybe we can reverse all this."
He took me
over to an empty glass aquarium. I started to squirm
in his hand as he lowered me in. "Its ok, I am just
going to keep you here for a while as I get some
things together for you. I feel better knowing you are
somewhere safe."
His hand released me. I was
starting to trust Rob. I couldn't help and think,
being so small it must be hard for him not to see me
as a pet. As this living building walked away, I
wondered will I start seeing him as my master or as
some young God? And what will tommorrow
bring?
[shrinkingman0202]
Yes, it was good that Marcus had saved me
from the cat. But it didn't feel so good to be trapped
in his hands as he walked back to his bedroom. Bad
enough that I was now four inches tall, and maybe a
"pet" to him; but his mammoth fingers were holding
me tight, and any thought of escape seemed
unlikely.
Even if I were to squirm out, it was
over a 70 feet drop down to the floor, and if I
survived that, I wouldn't be able to run far--not
from the towering teen.
"Let go of me! I
won't escape, I promise..." "You just tried to
escape now, and almost got eaten by my cat. Besides,
who are you to order me around?"
He placed
me down on the floor, and I gazed up at him. Feet
in heavy grey socks-- feet that were two and a half
times as long as I was tall. Grey sweat pants
extending up some 60 feet. An impossibly huge
torso, long arms... I suddenly looked down at my puny
body and sat down on the floor, sobbing, holding my
head in hands that were each less than half an inch
long.
Talk about a mismatch. I couldn't fight
him. I couldn't run away. I had no power now, not
at this size. What the frig did I do to
deserve this?
Marcus took pity on me; he
reached down and gently placed me on his cupped
left hand, which he then raised up to his desk. He
grabbed a tissue (bigger than a blanket to me) and
handed it to me so I could dry my tiny eyes.
"I
did that to show you something," he told me. "I
wanted you to see what you're up against. Don't
even bother to run away, because this world is just
to big for you, lil' guy. And it's gonna be like
this forever."
Gee, thanks for cheering me up!,
I thought.
"Look. I didn't shrink you, someone
else did. And we can't bring you back to normal.
You gotta get used to it...Hey, don't feel so bad.
You're in good hands with me. I'll feed ya, keep
ya safe--"
"My life is over!," I sobbed.
"It's almost like someone killed me.
Why??"
Marcus just shook his head slightly.
"You didn't need to try to escape, Ben. Do you
realize now that things have changed?"
He
didn't have to put me on the floor to show me "what
I was up against". I knew. But if there was one
glimmer of hope, of escape, I was sure as hell going
to try it.
He tapped me gently on the head with
one finger. "If it makes you feel any better, if I
was in your situation now, I prob'ly would've
done the same thing. But look at the bright
side. You'll have someone to take care of you
and won't need to worry at all. And hey, it must be
fun to be that small..."
That enraged me, but I
tried not to let it show. As it was, he was
suddenly distracted by a call on his cell phone. As
he talked, I looked down at my tiny hand and imagined
Marcus in it, a mere fraction of an inch tall. I
clenched it into a fist, imagining a teeny-tiny Marcus
being squashed in it, until he was--
"Guess
what, Ben? You'll get to see your other lil' pals
tomorrow. We're going back to the farmhouse to see
Ken."
"Is he gonna change us back?"
His
response was in a singsong manner, almost as if he
were talking down to a very young child. "Oh, I
don't THINK so, little guy! But you're gonna see
your PALS again, Ben, aren't
ya EXCITED?"
Swell. Boy, if I were only
about 68 inches taller. I'd give Marcus a good smack
in the face. The nerve of him!
[BookGuy]
As the giant walked, I got more and more
scared and more and more claustrophobic. I still
didn't think that David would hurt me, but I wasn't
sure he saw me as a person anymore, I was just
something to have fun with.
David finally
stopped walking and he lifted the box that held me out
of his pocket. I was glad just to see light again. He
laid it flat and then I heard him walking away.
Through the holes in the box I could see a wall, a
poster. Was I in David's room?
I don't know how
long I laid there in David's room, but when I heard
someone enter the room, feelings of relief dominated
my fear over what David would do to me. A shadow fell
over the box and it was picked up. The top was taken
off. I was out! I breathed the fresh air for a second
before I was dumped out of the box and into David's
hand. I screamed again.
"Dude, quit it," David
said. "I think I know which one you are. I saw you
guys in the paper. You're Marshal." I looked up at
David, who was holding his hand just in front of his
shirt and looking down at me. "Marshal's a dumb name,
I think I call you Jack." Jack was my middle name, but
where did he get off changing my name?
"That's
not my name," I said.
"Oh, so you can talk,"
David said, "I thought all you could do was scream,
Jack" He emphasized the name. There was no way I was
going to respond to that.
He started to close
his hand. I sat up and tried to push the fingers away.
At first I thought I was really holding them off. I
hated touching them, I could actually feel the whorls
that formed his fingerprints. Then I heard him laugh
above me and realized he had just been playing. His
index finger pushed me back down and everything except
my head and shoulders were wrapped in his hand. He sat
down on his bed and picked up his phone.
"Ken,
it's me. Yeah, he's really cool. Thanks for giving me
one. Uh huh. Yeah, sounds cool. OK,
tomorrow."
"Hey Jack, we're all going to Ken's
tomorrow. We can see what the other guys are doing
with their pets."
PETS!
[Stevie
B Prince] Ray - Freshman
So
after all the arguments of these giant teens, I see
the hands of the one called Ken coming towards me. For
some reason, which I thought was strange, the name Ken
I had heard many times. Actually, I heard the name Ken
more than actual words.. most words that I heard
sounded muffled because of my new small size. I guess
another reason that I heard his name a lot is because
I was paying close attention to him since he seemed to
be watching me out of all of my other friends that had
also been shrunken. Finally after joking around about
something to do with pets; which I admit I laughed too
since I couldn't hear every word that they were saying
so it sounded funny, Ken came up to me and grabbed my
container and pulled me out in a painful way, well it
seemed to be although I do not know if it was intended
since we were so different in size.
He held me
in his hand until he got to his home, as far as I
could tell and he dropped me into a box, and I landed
on my back and watched as the box closed and
everything went dark, except for a small crack at the
bottom of the box, which I noticed when he picked the
box up. I thought to myself that I would try to escape
through the crack since I didn't want to be in his
sweaty hands again. So I went over to the crack and
looked through it and saw the ground that seemed so
far down now. I felt the box moving now and knew that
he was walking so I thought to myself that if I would
jump out of the hole in the box that I would probably
get hurt so I decided not to try yet. But then all of
a sudden he was moving faster and it seemed as if he
was going up stairs, and I did not have time to react
or get away from the boxes opening before I would fall
through. I then was bouncing around the box as he sped
up the stairs and I once again slid to the hole and
barely caught myself from falling out and I was
holding on for what seemed to be forever when the
shaking finally stopped. I climbed back in the box the
rest of the way, exhausted and just wanted to pass
out. Finally he put the box in a little corner in the
room, which I only know it was a corner since he
pushed the box towards the wall pretty
forcefully.
I then felt something hit the box
and it got darker then I knew anything could be. I
heard it again and again. I could smell it too. Ew. He
was throwing a pile of dirty clothes on the box. I
wasn't gonna be able to breathe this much longer and I
don't know if I would be able to breathe with all
kinds of stuff on top of the box covering up my air so
I looked around for some other opening in the box.
There was none that I could see but on the side of the
box there was just a crease or something that bugs
like ants would probably be able to crawl through. I
pushed and pulled at the crease but it would not
budge. I tried again and nothing. I was beginning to
feel dizzy so I just tried one more time and it opened
slightly, but just enough for me to sqeeze through. I
crawled into the pile of clothes that were surrounding
the box and I could now here Ken on the phone talking
to another one of his friends called Rob and once
again by the tone of his voice it sounded like he was
arguing or upset about something. He also called all
of his friends from what I heard. I didn't really
catch the conversations though, but I did not feel
confortable and wanted to leave but I had nowhere to
go. I didn't know what the other days were going to be
like and I really hoped that I was dreaming. Ken
walked around for a while but didn't seem to worry to
much about me for the moment, but what he was going to
do with me the next day was very much on his mind. I
thought of getting up and running away and hiding
somewhere but I was so out of energy that I just
collapsed in sleep.
[straker]
I pulled the white tube sock off of me.
Rob had given it me to use like a sleeping bag. He
assured me it was clean. Sleeping in the sock of a
senior, can my life get any lower? I knew it could
have been lower. Rob ain't such a bad dude. He had
given me a pretty good supper, though he had to chop
the bits of warm roast beef up. I had no utensils my
size to use. I hoped all during the night he could
find away to reverse this.
After I put on my
handkerchief, I waited for Rob. Soon a blue terry
cloth bathrobe many stories high appeared before me.
The top portion was rather opened and the muscles of
his chest shown through. I normally don't go around
noticing these things, it was just at my size it
increased the image of him as this powerful youthful
God like being.
"Hi Jim. Do you mind me
calling you Jim?" he asked. "James seems too formal."
I will say also I appreciated how Rob spoke softly and
carefully to me. I think the situation would be worse
if I couldn't understand him.
Still, I replied
back dryly, "Yeah."
"Good," he said his voice
rumbling around the aquarium he had kept me in. "My
parents left early this morning so I though we could
raid their kitchen." Rob's giant face looked
thoughtfully down at me. I could see he was mulling
something over. "Don't get alarmed but I'm going to
pick you up."
I braced myself for it. My mouth
went dry as Rob's huge hand descended down towards me.
I lifted my arms up. It was very strange to feel those
warm powerful fingers wrap around me. I picked up the
scent of soap off his fingers. In amazment, along with
fear of these immense fingers, I ran a hand over the
top of one. They were so thick at least several feet!
The skin was also warm and soft. I figured Rob must
have taken a shower for looking up his hair hung
limply over his barn door size forehead.
Rob
slowly lowered me into the pocket of his bathrobe. Its
size was equal to the interior of an elavtor. I hung
on tight as the pocket swayed back and forth agaisnt
his leg as he went downstairs.
I was placed on
the kitchen table. He put together for me in one of
those dixie cups that he had cut down right to the
base,a cold ceral breakfast for me. He tore up bits of
buttered toast as well. I had to use my hand like a
cup to eat the wheat flakes. Rob didn't mean too, but
at my size he made a lot of noise as he ate. Between
mouthfulls, he spoke to me. "You sleep well? Pretty
wild sleeping in a sock huh."
"If you say so,"
I replied gruffly.
Robs face dropped. After
several uncomfortable minutes, I said, "Yeah, it was
Rob. But that clean fresh downey softener made it ok."
I tried to sound more friendly. I don't think Rob
intended for this to happen and he was trying to do
right by me. I also thanked him for the meal. His face
softened up again.
"Later we will be going over
Ken's house to meet him and the others." I felt my
stomach tightened. He leaned over over me creating a
sky of flesh and blue terry cloth. "I will see what I
can find out about returning you all to normal." Rob's
eyes were so sincere and clear. I could make out my
reflection in his pupils. I was puny and distorted in
them. And the reality, I was puny.
When the
dreaded time came to leave for ken's, rather than put
me in the plastic coffin which I hated, really hated,
he put me in the side cargo pocket of a pair of shiny
blue sports shorts. The side of the pocket had white
mesh. This meant I could, somewhat, enjoy fresh air in
the otherwise stuffy pocket.
Who let off the
bombs I thought when Rob enetered the house. There was
an explosion of laughter, and music. I heard one voice
say, "Hey Rob. Hows your new pet doing?"
"Jim," he replied pointdly, "Is doing well.
Look Ken we really have to talk."
"Later man.
Take out your pet and join the others," responded
Ken.
I was looking forward in seeing my buddies
and how they were doing. Rob unzippered the top of the
pocket and his huge hand came in and fished me out. I
was placed on a grayish carpet. Two of my buddies were
there. I ran over to them to see how they were. Soon
my other shrunken friends joined us. One giant
released him from a plastic container. Another pulled
his tiny freshmen out of the pocket of his baggy denim
pants. Our giant master's then sat around us. Their
eyes were transfixed on us. This made me uneasy. I
went and spoke with Ray first. He I found belonged to
Ken. Ken according to Ray wasn't the gentlist. Marshal
told me his giant, David wanted to re-name him Jack.
The others pretty much told me the samething. They
weren't mistreated other than no longer having
free-rain over their lives.
Rob went off with
Ken. I wished he had stayed with us. One giant if I
heard the words correctlly under the immense bass,
said, "Cute aren't they all huddled together
talking."
One of the seniors reached out and
picked me up. I heard Ben shouting up. Then this must
be Marcus I thought. He started talking too me in a
manner you would to a small child. And with a huge
finger rustled up my hair. When his finger came back I
punched at it. This only fueled him to do more. He
said some words to me in a tone that sounded like he
was correcting me.
There was some loud talking
amongst the titantic teens. A portable disc player was
brought out by one of the giants. Marcus placed me on
it. I couldn't understand, until his huge finger
pushed the play button, why I was put on it. I started
to spin around. To keep from falling off I had to keep
running as fast as I could. I had a few near misses. I
thought I must look like I'm doing a wacked out
tap-dance. The giant teens roared with
laughter. Rob and Ken thundered back into the room.
Rob when he saw me cracked a smile and a chuckle. I
guess the sight was funny. Rob then said some loud
words to Marcus, who turned off the disc player. I
jumped off and re-joined the others.
The giant
teens soon after, picked up their freshmen, their new
found pets. I wondered what Rob had found out from
Ken.
[shrinkingman0202]
The next day had arrived and it was time
for Marcus to take me to see this Ken dude. All of us,
all the freshmen who had been shrunk, were to be there
along with our... "caretakers". Honest to God, I
thought Marcus was gonna use the word "owners" but he
quickly "corrected" himself. I guess he figured I'd
freak out if he had said "owners".
He would
have been right. Being four inches tall was sucky
enough but the whole ownership deal was too much. The
last time I checked, I was still a person, not a pet
animal.
We got there and I was soon reunited
with my four friends...and there we were, on a grey
carpet, looking up at the five giant... "caretakers".
We talked briefly; I tried to keep my voice soft so I
couldn't be heard too well by the giants, but I was so
excited (angry, really) by the situation that it was
hard to "keep it down". Still, I supposed the giants
would be having a hard time understanding our
high-pitched voices.
One of the giants
remarked that it was kind of cute seeing us huddled
together, talking. I saw Marcus pick up one kid
(James, I think his name was) and put him on a
portable disc player and when it turned on, the kid
was jostled about by the moving disc. I had yelled up
at the giant when he picked James up but was
ignored.
Then I saw a huge animal scramble
toward us-- a black mask around its eyes,
gargantuan claws, and a body that was short but long.
The same creature I'd seen a week or two earlier when
my parents and me went to a pet store. A
ferret.
To the giants, it must have seemed
cute, but to us, it was terrifying! We backed away,
almost feeling like some giant hand had suddenly
plucked us and dumped us into the lions' den at the
zoo. The ferret zoomed forward and knocked me down; my
thin arms and legs were no match for it. Suddenly I
saw the ferret's mouth within inches of my right arm
and it looked like the little pest was about to
amputate it! Giant fingers reached in and plucked the
ferret off me.
"Hey, you know what would be
fun? We could put them in the ferret cage at the
PetCo...," one giant giggled.
"That would be
freaky! All these little freshmen
running--"
One giant had grabbed the ferret and
put it in a cage. I got this image in my mind of me
and the others in our OWN cage at the pet store,
looking out as curious kids pressed their faces
against the glass. The store could sell us-- oh, and
folks, be sure to buy a Freshman cage and some
Freshman Chow. Maybe put a hamster wheel in the cage,
and...
We all started shouting up to the giants
to bring us back to normal size, and
now.
Marcus looked down at me. He seemed a bit
serious, unlike the others, who were all giggling. "We
don't know how to do that. Maybe if we can find the
solution on the Net..."
"Cut the crap, you DO
know! You're just keeping us this size to get your
jollies!"
[BookGuy]
That first night with David was horrible.
Every time he would put me down and I thought I'd get
a few moments peace from being held, he'd pick me up
again. He said he "wanted me to get used to it". I
never would. Even as he was getting ready for bed, he
reached for me. I ran across his desk. "Jack, stop
it." I was not Jack, so I wouldn't stop. He stuck out
a finger and I tripped over it. He laughed again. He
reached for me with the other hand and I tried to
crawl away, but he pulled me by one of my bare feet
(ugh, that felt nasty, my bare foot touching his
finger) and I was in his hand again. He had changed
for bed and put on the radio and just the one lamp by
his bed. "If you don't stop running away from
me..." he said. "You'll do what?" I asked, "You
guys have already shrunk me, made me your...." I
didn't want to say pet or toy. "Your plaything. What
else could you do that would be so bad." His eyes
narrowed at that. I think this was the wrong giant to
say that to. David seemed like someone with a
mischevious sense of humor and I would be the object
of many of his ideas over the days to come. "Well,
I could make you sleep on my stinky foot, or in my
underarm or I could give you to my sister's baby boy
to play with." I honestly couldn't tell if he was
serious or not. "Get the idea?" he asked. He put me
down on the bed side table. I stood up and he reached
for me again. "Ready to be picked up?" he asked. This
was horrible, but until I was with my friends again
and get back to normal again, I had to play along.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I raised my
arms. "Good boy Jack," David said and picked me up,
but a little more gently than he had before. "See. I
can be nice." Yeah, right. He was real nice when
he put me back inside the plastic box to sleep. I
didn't even have a blanket or anything. He put the box
on the table next to his bed and I spent half the
night listening to him breath, catching glimpses of
him through the holes. It was like watching a mountain
sleep. Sometimes he'd move in his sleep and the
creeking of the coils and the bed would wake me up.
The next morning, I was rudely awakened by David
picking up the container and taking off the top. "Good
morning Jack." he said. "Aren't you excited, we're
going to see your friends today." He handed me a piece
of bread and a soda cap filled with water. He made me
eat sitting in his hand and then he put me into the
container again for the walk to Ken's house. His
house was just as bad. The five giants seemed to bring
out the worst in each other. James was placed on a CD
player, Ben was chased by a ferret. David was bad
enough at home, what would he do in front of the
others. The stakes had been rasied, they looked like
they were expecting him to do something with me. What
would it be?
[Stevie
B Prince] Ray – Freshman
I woke
up in the morning to the sound of Ken cursing and
yelling as he lifted clothes off the box that I had
moved out of. I was still near the box, but I was not
in it, and I guess that since I was so small he just
couldn’t see me. He began to lift up the pile of
clothes that I was laying on and before I knew it he
threw the pile, with me on it, across the room at the
wall. I was lucky that I was in a way mixed with the
clothes or I could have seen how much that would've
hurt me. "Where are you?" He was yelling pretty
loudly. I began to crawl around as he approached the
pile of clothes that I was on. He still didn't see me
and I was lucky that he didn't crush me as his hand
reached down to pick up the clothes again. As he
reached down, he laughed as he caught sight of me.
"There you are," he said as he picked me up in his
smelly hand. " Thought you could hide from me, did
you?" He asked, and I tried to say no but I don't
think he heard me. "Do that again and next time you'll
be sleepin around more than dirty clothes" This scared
me and I began to try and wiggle myself out of his
hand but he just laughed. "Don't worry now," he said.
"Your friends will be here soon, the fun hasn't even
begun yet!" He flicked his finger towards my head and
I felt as if he was going to knock my head off, but it
just went right by and all I felt was a huge gust a
wind. But that was still very frightening.
Ken
put me in a small plastic jar with maybe one small
hole in the lid to breathe from, just so I would not
get out somehow. Then he put me under a small lamp and
told me that he would be back after a while. Then he
left. The lamp was left on and it reflected off the
jar in every direction that I seemed to look. It was
like the sun shining on a mirror or reflecting on a
windshield. The only way that I could block it was to
be face down in the jar, covering my head and face. It
felt like hours before Ken returned and by that time I
was feeling very sick, achy and uncomfortable. Ken
lifted up the jar and walked out the door and went
towards the living room not seeming to care how much
that I was shaking around inside the jar. I closed my
eyes, and after another short moment, that seemed
long, I was dumped out of the jar as I landed flat on
my back. I opened my eyes to see that all my friends
were around me, and the giant kids were around us. It
was not a good sight. James then came up to me and
asked me how I was doing. I told him that it was
horrible and that I wished it was all over already, or
that I was dead. He told me that although he wished
that he was back to normal, his umm, keeper, was an OK
guy. I told him that I would trade Ken for Rob
anytime. "No thanks" he laughed, but it was still a
stressful laugh. James then began to go to each of the
other freshmen asking how they were doing and checking
up on them. I didn't move for a short while cause the
fall had hurt me just a little bit, mainly just
knocking the wind out of me. I finally got up and
joined the rest of our group who were now in a little
circle. We talked for a while telling our stories of
how the day before had been for us, and of our dreams
of what we would do if we ever got out of this
situation. Most of us were losing hope every minute
that we were this small. It felt as if we were getting
smaller and smaller as time passed. But people like
James gave us a little hope and encouraged us that Rob
would somehow help us get back to normal. " And look..
There they go!" said James, as he pointed to Rob and
Ken walking off together. " See, Rob's going to make
everything ok.. He will find a way!" continued James.
"I hope he kills Ken." I said, " Or at least knocks
some sense into him." We all laughed a little but it
was short lived. We heard the seniors saying how cute
we were in a little group, or something to that
effect, and not long after, one of them came and
picked up James rather violently. Ben began to shout
but it didn't phase these kids at all. I could see
James trying to resist but to no avail. My heart felt
small now too. I felt like all hope was lost.
I
watched as the giant pulled out a portable disc player
and put James on it. Then all I could see was a James
as a little dot spinning around on the CD player so
fast, I couldn’t tell what he was. I tried to watch to
see if James was ok but I was distracted by another
thing. Something was now approaching us. A creature
with a grayish brownish fur, and black eye patches. It
had a long body, and came at us quickly. A ferret it
was, but it seemed like so much more. It was huge. We
backed away together but the ferret was too quick. It
leaped at Ben and Ben fell over. He was now crawling
backwards with sweat coming down his face. The giants
thought it was hilarious as their laughter sounded
like an echoing thunder. Just as the monster ferret
seemed to be about to take off Ben's arm, a hand came
down and picked up the ferret. I heard them talking
about Pet Co. and stuff but only for a short while
because Ken and Rob came running back in the room
asking what was going on. I then saw James jump off
the CD player, which was now off of course, and join
us again. He was breathing very heavily. I too was
tired, and felt myself beginning to fall asleep, but
then I saw Ken's hand reaching out for me. "Oh no" I
thought, " Another night of torture and stench." I
cried as he lifted me up. I waved to my friends as I
was placed back into my small jar and carried back
into the other room. He left me in there as he went to
say goodbye to his friends. " How long could we live
like this?" I asked myself. Not too much longer Ken
came back in and pulled me out of the jar and put me
back into the little box. But this time he gave me a
little rag, or cloth to keep warm, I guess, and he
also handed me some bread crumbs and crushed hamburger
meat, which at first I didn’t want to eat cause I
didn’t know what he did to it. Eventually hunger took
over me and I ate. It was like a whole meal to me even
though it was so small, but it also relaxed me a bit.
After I ate, I rolled myself up in the rag and fell
asleep, without the smell of dirty clothes; the sleep
was a lot more pleasant.
[straker]
On the way back home, from nightmare
party, I told Rob about the disc player. But more
importantly about the ferret. Rob went silent.
Rob did break the silence as he told me, "Ken
says he doesn't have the information to reverse it
yet." That news lowered my already "low" day. "He is
trying," added Rob.
"Thanks for trying. But
after today I'm worried about the safety of my
friends."
Rob pulled the car off into a
parking lot of a mall. He picked me up and placed on
the ceter of the steering wheel. "Oh, I don't think
they were trying to hurt you."
"I'm not talking
about the disc player Rob. I can chalk it up to just
fooling around. But the ferret. Trying scare us with
an animal."
"Hold it Jim. That really
happened?"
"Yeah! For a moment it looked like
it was going take a chunk out of Ben. The ferret was
swept up in time. Man if it was a second later I hate
to think what would have happened to Ben. And Marshal
told me David didn't give him anything at night to
cover him with. And that guy Ken has been rough with
Ray..." I stopped. My throat was getting sore from my
shouting.
I sat down on the padded horn cover.
I banged my feet against the GMC emblem. I felt
smaller than small. I couldn't really do anything to
help my friends. And even if at times we behaved as
jerks, we were always there for each other.
Rob ran an anxious hand through his field of
hair. "I'm suprised by this. I really am surprised.
Yeah, they do have their rough edges. "David does like
to push people's limits. And you have to stop him. So
he's proably going over baord. I'll be seeing David
and the others at school tommorrow."
"What
about Ken?" I asked straining my throat.
Rob's
face tightened. "I'm afraid I might pound the BLANK
out of him. And if I did that how will he treat Ray?
Its strange Jim, Ken is the smallest of my friends and
a few years back I stood up for him. You would think
he would know how it feels to be small." Rob shook his
head, "I guess he wants to be the big
guy."
"Rob but Ray?" I shouted
gaging.
"Take it easy Jim. I'll think of
something."
Rob put me back on the seat and
pulled out of the lot. When we got to his place he put
me back in the side cargo pocket of his shorts. I held
on to the material as my fabric room swayed back and
forth with each step. Rob's steps were to me, a series
of deep pounding, muffled sounding cannon
fire.
Back in his bedroom, Trying to lighten
things up Rob suggested, "Hey there's still time to
catch a early evening film. Its that new movie with
Candy Sparkle and Cliff Peak; "Street Racing Through
My heart." I heard it was suppose to be fun."
"How I'm I going to see it?"
"You can
use the button hole in my shirt to look through. What
do you say."
I wanted just to stay and rest.
Maybe it would for a while, keep my mind off my
worries about my friends. Just for a while.
Rob told his parents about going to a movie.
He said he was meeting some of the guys there. His
parents said ok. As he was leaving, his mother added
in a parental sounding voice, "There's school
tommorrow don't forget."
"I'll come right back
after," he replied.
Off we went. And I hoped
tommorrow Rob could speak up for my
friends...
[Forestsage
graduating soon] I picked up my little
guy Jack (Marshal) and put him in my jean pocket and
then waved good-bye to my friends. When I got back to
my car I took him out and sat him on my thigh. "So,
how was it?" He didn't respond.
"Aw come on,
you aren't gonna go silent on me are ya?" I asked. He
didn't answer, so then I started to tickle him with my
index finger. He panicked at first, but then broke out
into laughter.
"Stop, Dave, please stop!" he
said with chuckles. I did so. I then ruffled his hair
a bit.
"I know you must not like the idea of
being a 'pet' or 'toy', and you probably hate me, but
I promise you that I won't let anything bad happen to
you." I know my words weren't gonna have much effect
on him, but atleast I was honest with him. Sure, I
probably wasn't the best master out of my friends, but
I knew I couldn't have been the worst. "I hope we can
atleast try to be friends, Jack" I said with a smile
as I started up the car. He settled himself up against
my waist and held onto the seatbelt as we pulled out
of the driveway.
In a soft voice, even softer
then normal, he said "Me too." He didn't expect me to
hear, but when I did, a big grin spread across my
face.
"Hey, how about a movie?" I asked. He
nodded, and then I made my way to the local
Blockbuster. "What kind do you want?"
"Uh,"
Marshal thought for a few seconds. "What about a good
comedy?"
"Sounds great," I replied as I placed
him into my pocket and then walked into the store. I
rented 'Spaceballs', on of my favorites. There weren't
any good new releases, atleast none that Marshal
agreed to, so he finally just gave me permission to
rent what I wanted.
When we got back to the
car, he looked at the movie box on my lap and read the
description. "I never saw it," he said.
"You'll
love it!" I assured him. If there's one thing he could
believe from me, it was surely that.
[shrinkingman0202]
Ben-- a freshman
And so we went
back to Marcus' house after that get-together at
Ken's. Me and the other shrunken dudes thought it was
terrifying and embarrasing. The "giants" thought it
was hilarious. They suddenly seemed more like younger
kids playing around with new toys, or a pet or
something.
He mentioned the possibility of
bringing me to school with him the next day. "I'll
wear a pocket T-shirt and you can rest in there.
You'd probably be bored stiff here by
yourself."
"How about bringing me back to
normal first?"
"I don't know how to do
that...besides, it's fun having a pal your size.
You're like one of those lil' guys in the movie they
were showing on Disney the other night...'Borrowers',
or something like that. You'll have a good
life here...I'll take care of ya."
A good
life...and how much longer would I live, since life
at this size was much more dangerous? A couple
months? Weeks?
The next morning, Marcus took a
shower and left me in a small box on his nightstand. I
heard footsteps coming into room (but who could that
be? The sound of running water in the
bathroom hadn't stopped.) The box shook and I
suddenly fell out of it, onto the nightstand. I
looked up and saw a boy, about 11 years
old, looking down at me and before I could run,
he picked me up between his thumb and forefinger
and lifted me so he could get a better look.
He
certainly was smaller than Marcus, but
still huge--maybe 90 feet or so. If I were normal
sized, he'd be a little pipsqueak almost a foot and a
half shorter than me.
His eyes widened when he
saw that I was a real, very little, person...not a
toy. He rubbed my hair all around with the tip of a
finger, then took the index and finger and thumb of
his other hand and placed them around my puny left
arm.
I heard the shower (from the next room)
stop; the boy quickly put me in his shirt pocket and
began to leave the room. We were apparently headed for
the boy's own room. A moment later, Marcus had
dried off and gotten dressed. I heard a voice from
Marcus' room: "Benji, have you been in my room
again?"
"No..." (Benji? So Marcus' little
brother was a "Benjamin" too.)
I heard
Marcus step into the boy's room. "Because I'm missing
something very valuable and..." Marcus stopped in his
tracks-- he noticed "Benji" had a very guilty look
on his face. I took that moment to emerge from the
shirt pocket, and Marcus spotted me.
"Give it
to me now!," Marcus ordered his younger
brother.
"NO!"
Marcus reached inside the
pocket and grabbed me, but "Benji" pushed up
against his older brother and I was dropped about 60
feet down to the floor. I landed on the 11 year old's
sneaker and rolled off--suddenly caught between
Benji's sneakered feet and Marcus' socked feet. A
hand grabbed for me, picked me up, and held me
tight. I looked up and saw it was Benji who now
held me.
Marcus' younger brother looked up
defiantly at him and told him, "Finders' keepers.
He's mine."
[BookGuy]
I had to admit that David was at least
trying to be nice. We watched a movie after getting
back from Ken's, and it was pretty good. He even made
some popcorn, though I could only finish one and a
half kernels. What I didn't like, but couldn't do
anything about, was my 'seat'. David has a tv &
vcr in his own room, so we could watch without
worrying about someone else in the family spotting me.
David wouldn't let me sit on my own, though, I had to
watch sitting on his chest. So, for me, the movie kept
going up and down and every time there was a good
joke, Dave would laugh and I would get shaken. If I
was sitting up, I'd fall onto my side and one time,
tumbled right off of David's chest and onto the bed.
David though that was really funny and lifted me up by
my toga thing and back onto his chest. Every so often,
he'd give me a quick pet on the top of the head or on
one arm.
I got a chance to wash in the
bathroom sink that night while David was taking a
shower. He carried me to the bathroom in his robe
pocket and at least gave me privacy while I washed. We
both finished at nearly the same time and soon it was
time to sleep again. He brought out the plastic box,
expecting me to get back in again.
"Is that
really the best you can do?" I asked him. He actually
thought about it. "I guess it is pretty bad. Give
me a minute." He opened a drawer in the small table
next to his bed and cleared it. He put a small face
towel folded over twice in the bottom and got a
handkerchief.
He turned back towards me. "Want
to give it a try?" he asked and I nodded. He reached
for me and I only flinched a little as his fingers
enclosed my entire body, except for my head. He turned
his hand and opened it. I rolled down his fingers and
onto the soft floor of the drawer.
"Pretty
good," I said and he smiled. He got into bed, but sat
up so he could still see me. "Maybe you can see
your friends again tomorrow," he said. "Time for bed."
He stayed there until I laid down and wrapped the
handkerchief around me. I looked up and saw him nod.
His hand came sailing over high above and turned out
the small lamp on the table.
What would my
next day as Dave's freshman bring?
[(D
the B)] Jordan-Freshman
All my
friends have been telling me that what their masters
aren't treating them as well. I feel very lucky,
because Kobe is a good-hearted master. He feeds me,
and leaves me alone when I want to be left alone. But
today, I didn't know the bliss may end or not. I saw
one who I recgonized as Ken come in, Ken, I would say
he is the 3rd nicest (out of 5).
Ken said, "I
can't take Ray. He won't do any of my demands. Can you
take him and in return I want Jordan!!" Kobe says,
"
[straker]
The next day Rob took me to school with
him. He kept me in the pocket of his shirt. I could
hear from inside the pocket the sounds and smells of
school. I thought I even could hear a few people that
I knew.
I would have to wait till lunchtime,
till Rob met up with the others. I was wondering how
they were doing after the "party."
When the
Rob's first teacher started to dron on, I fell to
sleep.
I was awakened from slumber by a rocking
sensation. A huge finger pulled on the lip of the
pocket. Rob's huge face filled my vision. "Time to
meet up with our friends James." I shook my head to
bring clearity back.
I heard the voices of
Rob's friends. Rob asked if they had their freshmen
they said they did.
Two fingers hoisted me out
of the pocket. I was disappointed to see only two of
them. David and Kolbe. My two friends and I met on the
edge of our,giant caretakers hands. They moved in
their hands that created three points. Marshal told me
things were getting better with David since the party.
Jordan told me the same thing. I was happy to hear it.
I wish I could have seen Ben and Ray.
As a
project for school. Rob had to visit a children's
ward. I hated that smell. Rob asked, "Would you like
to try something?" I replied slowly back, "Ok, what do
you have in mind?"
"Entertaining several kids.
I will tell them you are a special kind of toy
ok?"
"For making sick kids
happy,sure."
It broke my heart to see the two
boys and little girl in their wheel chairs so white
and gaunt. Rob placed me on a floor. I remained still.
Rob told them I was voice activated. When he told me
to do a jig, I did. Even if I did feel like a
fool.
I even spoke to them. "Are you good
kids?"
They replied, "Yes, we are."
"I'm
sorry being tiny and having tiny ears couldn't hear
you."
I then thought this was a mistake since
the children were weak with their illness. But I got a
resounding, "Yes we are good kids!"
I shouted
back, "Yeah, I think you are too."
Other kids
came in. Not all in wheel-chairs. One child in a red
bathrobe ran right up to me. I thought I was going to
get stepped on. Instead, I had a pair of giant
slippers in front of my while two others came and
looked down at me. I spoke to the stories high tots.
"So life like," they commented.
Seeing their
happy faces made me see humanity can be a beautiful
thing even when you are only inches tall.
Rob
soon after picked me up and left. On the way home,
"Thanks buddy. That was brave of you. And it gave them
joy."
"Glad to help."
He added, "I
suppose they want to see more of you."
I
laughed, "Not very much to see." It was a good change
for me. The tiny freshmen, who is a friend of a giant
senior
[Forestsage
graduating soon] I had kept Marshal in
my pant's cargo pocket during school. Whenever I
checked on him, he always said he was all right,
though he got a little annoyed when I had to walk up
stairs.
When school was over, I went to my
locker to put my books in. I pulled Marshal out of my
pocket when no one was around and began to ask him if
he was hungry. As I was doing so, two hands covered my
eyes. A warm and soft voice said, "Guess
who?"
I closed my hand around Marshal, careful
not to hurt him in the process. A smile went across my
face and I answered, "Hey you." I pulled the hands
away with my free hand and turned around.
It
was my friend Catelyn. She was a lovely sight, with
brown hair down to her shoulders and two beautiful
blue eyes. Many considered us a couple, but we never
determined our relationship, though it was pretty
obvious that we both were attracted to
eachother.
"I was thinking," she began as she
leaned in closer, "that we could go back to my place."
She gave me a quick kiss and then added, "or back to
your place." This was followed by another kiss, a bit
longer, and then she said, "or we could..." I was
prepared for another kiss, but was taken back when she
asked "What's that in your hand?" Could I show Marshal
to her? I thought it be best if just the owners knew
about this. But how could I continue to hide him from
her? Maybe I should talk this over with my friends...
and maybe I should talk this over with
Marshal.
I gave her a kiss, smiled, and
said...
[shrinkingman0202]
Bad enough I was four inches tall-- now I
was being fought over by a senior and his bratty
younger brother. I hoped to hell that Benji wouldn't
be in charge of me-- as an 11 year old boy wouldn't be
as careful and responsible with me as an 18 year old
would.
I wondered if Benji thought I was a
doll-- a very lifelike one. Or did he know I was
"real"? And, even if he did, would that make any
difference? Kids his age can be so cruel-- and I
didn't want to be a victim of an
out-of-control kid.
"Benji, give him back to
me." His younger brother shook his head
"no".
"Tell you what, Benji; give him back to
me and I'll treat you to the movies. You wanted to
see the new Harry Potter."
"Naw, I think
I'll keep him."
"OK, how about this--I know
where there are some more tiny teens like him. I can
give you one. I just need HIM back..."
"I'll
give him back to you after school," said Benji,
heading for the door.
Marcus had one piece of
ammunition left. It was risky, as it would blow the
entire scheme that these giants had going, but he went
for it.
"Benji, this guy used to be as big as
me but we shrank him. If you don't give him back to
me, I'll shrink you to his size."
"No way!
You can't shrink anybody."
"Look close at
him...he's real. He was shrunk."
Benji looked
up at his brother, then down at me. He carefully
let go of me and I dropped from his hand into
Marcus' hand.
"Good decision, Benji. Tell you
what...we'll catch the 3:30 showing of Harry Potter
today."
And so we did, with me sitting in
Marcus' shirt pocket. I peered over the edge of the
pocket; hundreds of pounds of popcorn were in a
bag on Marcus' lap, and he held a cup with
thousands of gallons of soda. Benji sat next to him.
To his credit, he didn't let on to anybody
else about me, though sometimes he leaned over
and smiled over at me.
After too many
previews, the movie started. The screen was so huge I
could really only see part of it, but I could still
kind of follow the action. Giant spiders, a huge
snake...geez, I was dealing with enough giants in real
life, and now I had to see a movie full of
them?
But near the end of the film, just as the
students of Hogwarts were settling down to a huge
feast, I felt two huge fingers grab me and in a matter
of seconds I was dropped into Marcus' soda cup! It was
almost empty, but I was still drenched in Pepsi with
some partially melted ice cubes rubbing against me.
That horrible Benji!
I heard Benji giggling and
looked up just as Marcus looked down and saw me. He
lifted me out of the cup and placed me back in his
shirt pocket. I heard an "ow!" coming from
Marcus's right; he'd just jabbed Benji with his
fist-- not strong enough to hurt him severerly but
enough to let him know he'd done wrong.
The
rest of the movie was uneventful, but I could hear
Marcus yell at Benji as he drove home. "You stupid
jerk! I oughta take you over to my friends' house and
have you shrunken right now!"
"I thought he'd
want a drink," laughed Benji. "Oh by the way, guess
what one kid at school said today?"
Marcus
sighed. "Whaaaat...?"
"Oh, his brother's been
missing for a few days, and some other kids are
missing too."
"Who said this?"
"I think
his name's Todd; he's only in one of my
classes."
I gasped. For I have an 11 year old
brother named Todd.
"Hey, these shrunken guys
you're talking about-- maybe that's them!,"
exclaimed Benji. "Maybe there's a reward for them or
somethin'."
Earlier that day, I'd found myself
wishing that I wouldn't get dragged to the kid's
school. Now, it suddenly seemed like something I'd
really want to do. Yeah, have Benji take me there
and turn me over to Todd, so I could get home
THAT way. I'd still be 4 inches tall but at least
I'd be home.
"No, I don't think these are those
guys," said Marcus. But he knew his cover had been
blown.
[BookGuy]
David pulled me out of his pocket and I
was almost glad to be in his hand. Every time he
walked up stairs, his pocket swayed and I kept getting
swung against the side of his leg. His hand opened
slightly and then closed again, tight. I heard someone
else talking, but I couldn't tell who through my
prison of fingers. Then, I realized it must be a girl.
What else could have started David sweating like that?
I was getting drenched. As he talked, he moved me
around slightly in his fist and occasionally, his
thumb would come by and give me a pat.
After a
few minutes, he finally opened his hand. "Who was
she?" I asked right away. David blushed. "How did
you know?" he asked. "Why do you think I'm soaking
wet?" "Oops," David said and smiled, "sorry about
that." He told me about Catelyn and I could tell that
he really wanted to show me to her, but he couldn't
let someone else find out about us freshmen without
the others seniors knowing. If just each one told one
person and then each of them told one, soon everyone
would know. Of course, from my view, I wanted to get
these guys ratted out, if only to force Ken to grow us
back to normal size.
"Hey," David said, "I
know something fun, let's....."
[(D
the B)] go and visit Ken!!" So David
and Marshal were going to go over Ken's house.
(Narrator:Ray)
All the seniors were
coming tonight. But I knew I was going to be traded in
to Kobe. I couldn't stand the whole idea of being
traded by Ken.I knew Ken was no good. I saw my chance.
I knew I had to take it now! I escaped, I managed to
make it outside. I couldn't believe it. I had
escaped!! I then laughed as I heard Ken's loud
screams. I was free, I was no longer under rule. I
decided that I was going to enjoy my freedom. I tried
to hide. I knew that I didn't make a good choice, but
it's better than being with Ken. Maybe I should have
stayed maybe Kobe is a little nicer. I think anyone is
nicer than Ken.
The news obviously spreaded
fast as I saw 5 giant seniors looking for me. I
started to run extremly fast. Then I saw Jordan, he
said, "Ray, I'm glad you escaped too. The 2 of us can
escape together. It's better than being with our awful
masters." I said, "We have to escape quickly. This
will be better."
The 2 of us took a nap after
the 5 left. Then we woke up. Our freedom was over. We
were in a giant hand.
[straker]
I heard from Rob that there was going to
be another get together at Ken's. "Hope it's nothing
like the last one," I shouted up to Rob.
"I'll
make sure its not," replied Rob.
Rob wanted to
pick up a new cd of music by; The Demented Baby
Sitters. Rob put me in his shirt pocket and drove off
to Super-Duper Millcreek Mall.
From the pocket
I could hear the sounds of the Mall as we enterd. I
placed my hands on the lip of the pocket and slowly
peaked over the brown edge. I could see gangs of teens
roaming the expansive concourse. It brought back
memories of time not so long ago when I was a member
of these towering beings.
It was crowded in
Cosmic Music. Many people from what I could see were
buying the Demented Baby Sitters new cd: Hot Tot Trot.
There were only several rows left. Rob bent over to
get one from a lower shelf while another teen moved in
under him to get a cd off of a even lower shelf.
Someone pushed into Rob which sent me flying out of
the pocket on to the black tee-shirt of the teen
directly beneath me. Thank God he was there otherwise
I could have broken my neck.
I landed with a
thud on the giant's back and slide down. I was able to
grab hold of a belt loop. I was surprised the teen
didn't respond to the feeling of something falling on
his back.
I saw, with relief, Rob's hand
coming to get me. The teen however, stood up and
started to walk away. Rob still was in arms length of
me, when several people crossed in front of him. I was
surprised no one saw me.
I wish I hadn't
tempted fate by that thought, for a boy with brown
hair and a blue and red bandana had his green eyes
fixed on me. I thought I was going to scream when I
saw his hand reach for me. In a flash I was in the
warm, sweaty darkness of the boy's hand. When the hand
released me, I glided down to a very deep dark pit. I
was stuck in the kid's pocket. He must have been
wearing those really baggy denim pants. I was
wondering what was going to become of me. I was hoping
somehow Rob would find me.
For a few minutes or
more I sat at the botom of the massive pocket as it
swayed back and forth with the boy's brisk stride.
When the pocket stopped swaying, I found liberation
from the denim prison by a stranger's hand. A youthful
and surprised face marveled over me. I started to pick
up the aroma of food. The boy, who looked around
twelve placed me down on a white shiny surface. A
table I imagine. I was placed inside a circle he made
with his arms. I was charoled in. Next to me, long as
a station wagon was a hot dog in a bun. "You hungry he
whispered." I shook my head. "Where did you come
from?" he asked with a sort of lyrical laugh. It was
clear he was really entertained by moi. I guess I
would be too.
"HEY ERIC, " boomed a voice that
seemed to crackle on each word.
His eyes
became as big as that of a hunters moon. Panic crossed
his face. It was clear he wasn't ready to show me to
anyone---yet. The boy lifted the top part of his hot
dog bun and placed me on top of the meat. He lightly
pressed the bun down on top of me. The ketchup the
relish, it was all too much. "Your dog is going to get
cold dude," spoke the other boy. I felt an upward
movement. I heard a slurping and deep gutteral gulp. I
felt him lower the dog.
For a few minutes they
talked. The other teen told Eric, "Man I blew all my
money. Do you mind if I have a bit of your hot dog?"
Before Eric could answer I was lifted up again. I
heard a loud tearing sound. And before me I saw an
ugly sight, a huge living cave. This cave was filled
with the mushed up contents of his bite. I was
starting to sweat. I didn't want to have a piece
bitten off of me. I screamed. "What was that?" the
teen asked. I figured the jig was up. I saw the palm
of a hand cover the exposed end up. I felt down ward
motion, thank God.
There was more talking. I
heard the other boy say, "Seeya later." Eric removed
me from the bun. I was covered in relish and ketchup.
Eric took a napkin and started to wipe me
off.
"I better get home. Before something else
happens," he told me. I wanted to tell him I all ready
have a home. I turned, and ran. I jumped over his arm.
Five tree size fingers seized me. In the tight grip of
his hand I was taken right up before his face. In a
whisper he said, "Take it easy. I'm not going to hurt
you. But don't try to run away again." As he spoke,
warm air filled with the scent of coke and hotdog
rushed over me. I felt as if on an elevator as the boy
stood up. I then was lowered. I saw a finger as big as
me expand the opening to his front denim pocket. Warm,
musty air flowed up out from the dark depths of the
pocket.
I heard a shriek of surprise from the
boy. Another hand entombed me in warm flesh before I
was almost lost in the depths of the pocket prison.
"He's mine," said Eric. I felt really good, when I
heard Rob's voice reply, "No, he's mine." I was so
glad to be found I didn't care of the ownership
response of Rob's.
I quickly found myself in
the darkness of Rob's pocket. After he had taken me
out of his pocket in the safety of his car, he told me
how trailed the boy and waited for his chance.
The boy knew of me. But, who would believe
him. Well, maybe four other seniors I know.
[Forestsage
graduating soon] I placed Marshal in
my pant's pocket and walked to my car. When I was
safely in and driving I took him out and placed him on
my lap. "It's gonna be hard to not show you little
guys to some people," I said. "I'm sure the others
want to show you to friends and stuff, and most likely
they have."
"I don't have much of a choice,"
Marshal said with a sigh. "If you want to show me to
Catelyn, then I can't stop you."
"Catelyn won't
tell anyone, I know," I said, trying to ease him of
his worries, "but it is up to you if you want to be
known to others. You're my friend, not just a pet." I
doubted that he believed that, I even doubted it a
bit. It was hard not to see this little person as a
pet, as someone just here for my own amusement, but I
did have sympathy for him and he was still
human.
"What about any others?" he asked
me.
"What?" I replied, a little
confused.
"I mean, are there any others you
will let know about me or that will find out? Like
siblings, other friends, other
relatives?"
"Well," I began. "I do have two
brothers. Sean is 16, and Ryan is 14. I don't plan on
letting them know about you, unless you want to. You
might even know them from school."
He smiled a
bit. Maybe if he got to hang out with giants his age
it wouldn't be so hard for him, especially if they
were friends. I knew my brothers were good kids who
liked some fun. I felt I could trust them with this
secret if I needed to, but I wasn't in no rush to let
anyone else know.
"Well, we're here," I said as
I lifted Marshal off my lap. I saw his smile fade to
disappointment when he realized we were at
Ken's.
[shrinkingman0202]
Ben-- a freshman
"Well, if these
ain't the guys, who are they?," asked
Benji.
"They're from a couple towns away...we
went over to see them and they volunteered to be
shrunk."
Marcus made that up, of course, but he
didn't want his little brother to know what really
happened. That's when I decided to speak
up.
"Is his name Todd Nelson?," I
inquired.
Benji's jaw dropped and he looked
over at me. "Yeah, yeah, I think that IS his name!"
He looked up at his older brother. "You said
they were from another town. Todd's from our
town."
Marcus sighed. "It's probably just a
co-incidence. Nelson's a common name."
"But
what if Todd is his brother? I can take Ben to school
tomorrow and give him to Todd. Poor lil' guy-- I'm
sure he wants to go back home."
Marcus sighed
again. "OK, you got me. He is from here and whether
he's Todd's brother or not, I don't know. But I
don't want to get into trouble."
"You won't,
Marcus...I'll just tell Todd I found him out in the
woods."
"You won'd have to tell him anything
because you won't be getting him. He's mine-- and if
you breathe a word of this to anyone, you'll wind up
small, just like him. Smaller,
even."
----- Apparently Benji woke up early
the next morning; maybe around 5:30 am. It was
still dark. He crept into his brother's room with a
flashlight and got ahold of me. Marcus had put me in a
small cage on a closet shelf. I awoke to see Benji
standing on a chair to reach the shelf; his giant
hand grabbed the cage and brought it back down.
We went silently back to his room (I thought
about yelling, but my voice wasn't too loud anyway)
and he got a good look at the cage. Marcus had put a
lock on the door.
Benji reached for something
in a dresser drawer. It was a pair of pliers. He used
them to bend a couple of the bars; then he reached for
me with his hand. At first I backed away, but
then I thought: maybe this kid can help me after
all. Maybe he can give me to Todd.
With
that, I went over to the side of the cage and
walked through the gap onto Benji's cupped hand. He
put me in his shirt pocket and walked outside, toward
his bicycle.
[BookGuy]
As David carried me in, I could hear
raised voices. Ken was yelling at, Marcus I think it
was. David put me down on the table where only three
of my friends waited.
"What's going on?" I
asked. "Marcus lost Ben," answered Ray, "Ken's
really pissed." I could tell that Ray was worried.
Obviously Ken hadn't been treating him very
well. "Lost? What do you mean lost?" I
asked. "Marcus' little brother Benji found Ben and
took him this morning before Marcus got up. He was
talking about taking Ben to his brother Todd," said
James His brother! If our families found out what
had happened to us, then maybe everything would turn
out OK. We'd be away from these giant seniors.
There was a lot of talking from the other side
of the room. We couldn't make out what they were
saying, but a few minutes later, Marcus and David
left.
Rob came over to the table and we all
look up at him to see what he had to say. "Marcus
and David are going to try to find Benji," he said. I
could tell he wasn't totally thrilled with this
development. "Its not that I don't want you guys to
get back home, its that we don't want to get in
trouble. If Ken can figure out how to make you big
again, we don't have to tell anyone." Rob and
James had become good friends and James convinced us
that Rob was telling the truth.
While we
waited for Marcus and David to come back, though, Ken,
Kobe and Rob were still here and 'my' senior wasn't
here to see what they planned to do.
[shrinkingman0202]
Marcus didn't tell Benji where he was
keeping me, but Benji must have figured it was
somewhere in his room--and the first place he checked
on that early morning visit was in Marcus' closet. And
there I was, in the cage on the high
shelf.
Before he ran out of the house, with me
in his pocket, Benji had quietly placed the cage back
on the shelf. I suppose Marcus probably checked the
cage first thing when he got up, and he no doubt
freaked to see I was missing. Benji had left a note on
the kitchen table saying he was going out for a bike
ride around the neighborhood, and then to
school.
He rode his bike toward my house (I had
told him the address). I wondered if Marcus would
drive to my house to try and get me before Benji could
turn me over to my folks. There are about 8 Nelsons
listed in the local phone book. Maybe he'd try each
one till he found my folks, then rush over to grab
me back.
It was still pretty early--my family
was just getting up and about to have breakfast. Benji
knocked on the back door and my brother Todd
answered.
"Todd! I found your
brother!"
"Benji--this better not be a joke."
He looked around to see where I was, expecting to
see a normal sized brother Ben.
"He's down
here." With that, Benji grabbed me and lifted me out
of his pocket, put me in his left hand, and offered me
to Todd. I looked up at my huge younger brother's face
(naturally, he was astonished) and suddenly I rolled
down into Todd's outstretched hand.
"Ben! Oh my
God, it's really you?" Here he was, holding his 14
year old brother in the palm of his hand; a
four-inch-tall high school freshman wearing a green
toga.
My mom and dad came into the room. "Ben's
back! But he's really small now."
"Not
another word!," I heard my father shout. "Bad
enough your brother's been missing for days, and now
you're saying--"
Suddenly my Dad looked down
and realized that what my brother was holding wasn't a
doll, but me. "It's me, Dad!," I shouted up in my
high-pitched voice.
"Well, gotta go--bye!," I
heard Benji say and I could see him grab his bike to
make an escape.
"Benji! Wait a minute--" Todd
almost went after him but wound up sticking around in
the kitchen.
It was an emotional reunion with
my family and of course they wanted to know what had
happened. I told them the truth, though I didn't
know the last name of this "Ken" dude. I supposed they
could get ahold of Marcus ("older brother of Todd's
friend Benji," I explained) and maybe I could get back
to normal somehow.
Two things were
certain:
I was back with my family but still
only four inches tall. I had no intention of staying
this small forever.
And, Marcus and all his
friends were in big trouble.
At least I was
home again. Todd wanted to take me to school with him,
but I asked him not to. My mom and dad had to both
get to their jobs. So they decided, for now, to put
me in back in my own room, though I'd now have a
makeshift apartment on my dresser top. For a bed,
there was a facecloth on top of a small, flat
sponge.
I was no longer a "pet" of a senior
(not unless Marcus found some way to get me back). But
I was still a shrunken freshman; living in a world of
giants...where my 11 year old brother seemed 90 feet
tall.
I didn't know what would become of the
other shrunken guys, or the seniors who had us for
pets. I just wanted one thing: to get back to normal
size.
[BookGuy]
Marcus and David came back after a couple
of hours and didn't look happy. The five seniors
huddled together and kept looking and Ken and looking
at us.
"They must not have found Ben yet," I
said. "Or someone else did," said James.
I
heard some raised voices. Among the few things we
could make out were "I'm not gonna get in trouble,"
and "My brother" and "Your fault". They didn't want to
tell us what happened to Ben, but they had to. We kept
asking where he was and why he wasn't with Marcus. We
felt happy for him to be back with his parents, but
realized that he was still our size and would be that
way until Ken was forced to come up with a
cure/antidote.
It seemed that the seniors were
breaking into two groups. David and Ken wanted to keep
us and kept insisting that it would be all right. Rob
and Marcus wanted to give the rest of us back right
now and avoid getting in any more trouble. Kobe was
the swing vote and couldn't decide what to do, but I
could tell that Ken was a strong influence on him.
We kept looking up at the seniors, hoping that
they'd do the right thing, but not daring to belive it
until it actually happened.
"Why don't we just
leave them all here with you, Ken and you can explain
it to their families," said Marcus. Ray told us that
we wouldn't want to be left with Ken. "That's easy
for you to say," said Ken, "You don't even have yours
anymore. The other guys don't want to give them up."
"Come on, Marcus," said Rob. He reached in
among the group of us and lifted James away.
"Don't you dare turn him in," said Ken, but
Rob wasn't listening.
Everyone was quiet after
the two seniors and one freshman left. Now it was just
the three of us and our three seniors.
"What
about your parents cabin?" asked Kobe to Ken. Ken
smiled at this. "Yeah, it's Friday. We can go up to
the cabin and figure out what to do without those two
losers," said Ken.
Ken leaned over the three
of us, his face filling our view. "Pack up boys, we're
going camping!"
[(D
the B)] Jordan- A Freshman (My
Decided Character)
Kobe was busy looking for
Ben. If Ben managed to escape, I thought to myself, so
must I. But one little problem, in my escaping plan. 2
of the seniors were right near me, 2 named Rob and
Ken. Rob was pretty nice, and maybe it would be better
to run towards where Rob was. I knew I could have been
assuming about Rob, because James seemed to be the
happiest as a freshman, but still I knew I had to
escape, but bejeezers (a stupid word I made up). Kobe
is taking me somewhere. He said, "You are not going to
escape like Ben did. No siree."
I looked up at
the sky. I had a feeling I was going to die soon. Kobe
hasn't been the nicest person in the world to me so
far.
[straker]
James: a freshmen.
It had turned
chilly. The air seemed to be heavy. A mist covered the
landscape like a shroud.
More than ever I was
concerned. "By God if anything happens to my friends I
will somehow get at Ken and the others," I thought.
Of-course at action figure size what could I do? I
thought of Ben, God knows what has happened to him.
And Jordan. He looked so scared.
I was sitting
on Marcus's knee. I started thinking about this whole
thing. While I wanted to be returned to normal, Rob
made the whole ordeal tolerable. And parts of it I had
enjoyed. I kinda looked up to Rob. But now everything
is just going from bad to worse.
"I want to
take you to your parents James," said
Rob.
Marcus turned turned to Rob, "You sure
about this?"
"Yeah, I got too."
"Rob
before we do anything, I'm worried about what Ken has
planned up at the cabin. I'm scared for them," I
howlered up to Rob.
Marcus patted me on the
head and told me in a master to his puppy kind of
voice, "Now take it easy. Don't be scared. Your with
us"
"What do you want me to do? We don't have
any real options."
"If there..." I stopped for
a moment and gaged, all the shouting has done a real
number on my throat. "I thought we could check up on
them at the cabin."
It then occured to me,
"Hey Rob, I have a cousin he's a year younger than me,
maybe you could take me to his house. I'm sure he
would help me out. After getting over the fact his
cousin is now pocket size that is. He could take me up
to the cabin and we could spy on Ken. If they saw him
they would think he was just another camper. Just an
idea."
"Your too small to be playing
detective," replied Rob sharply.
Rob turned to
Marcus, "Should we turn back?"
[shrinkingman0202]
Ben--a freshman
It was great to be
with my family again though it didn't make me any
taller than the four inches of height I now had.
I declined Todd's offer to ride in his shirt
pocket during a day of school. My mom and dad both had
to get to work but before Mom left, she stayed a
moment to ask me some more about the seniors who had
shrunk us.
I knew most of their first names;
and we could find out Marcus' last name because Todd
was a classmate of Marcus' brother Benji. Just
before Todd scrambled out the door to catch the
bus, he told us. It was D'Amato.
"We could
find Marcus and ask him to lead us to Ken; this Ken
dude found a way to shrink us so we can get him to
restore us somehow. Look up a site on the Net or
something."
That is, if Ken wanted to
co-operate. If my parents went to the police or
something, he'd have to. Or else how could I find out
how to get back to normal size? It's not like you
could find something like that on Yahoo or
Google. Ken knew how to shrink us, and he could
find out what kind of strange magic could restore us
to our previous heights.
Then again, would
Ken stick around or flee? If there was any chance
he could be in deep trouble over this, maybe he'd
think about leaving somehow.
While it was great
to get away from Marcus (I didn't want to be a pet,
and I did want to be with my family), now I realized I
may need him after all.
How long would this go
on? Would the seniors try to convince Ken to get us
back to normal? Did they have any compassion in their
hearts for us? And our families? (Or did they just
want to avoid trouble...)
If we could convince
the seniors that we wouldn't go to the police, maybe
they'd agree to get us back to normal. Who
knows.
---- My new home, on a dressing
bureau in my bedroom, came equipped with a bed
(facecloths draped over a sponge), a Walkman, and a
lamp (they had found one with a switch on the bottom
which I could leap on to turn it on or off. At my
reduced weight, even that wasn't easy). The lamp had a
long cord which provided access to the floor.
I
went over to the Walkman; one of the radio-only types.
Palm sized to most people, but it was bigger than me.
The headphones were like giant stereo
speakers.
The local news/talk station mentioned
me and my fellow freshmen.
"No word yet on the
fate of five high school freshmen who have been
missing for 11 days now. There was a search of some
area woods this past weekend but the search was called
off. The mother of Jordan McAvery had this to
say..."
"We...we can't give up hope. The police
have looked all sorts of places and... It was as if
they just vanished. Oh Jordan, we miss you-- if
you're out there...if someone knows where these
kids are, please..." She began sobbing.
The
newscaster spoke to the talk show host. "This has
been a baffling case, Pat...and I know your listeners
have been talking about it for some
while."
"They sure have, Doug, and we've heard
theories ranging from 'they got kidnapped by space
aliens' to 'they're being held hostage somewhere', but
if THAT'S the case, why haven't we heard from the
abductors yet?"
I almost wanted to try and get
to a phone and call the station and tell them all
about what happened to us; that is, if their call
screener didn't hang up, hearing my high pitched voice
and thinking it's a prank or something. Hopefully my
mom and dad could track down this Ken dude...or
Marcus...or anyone who could help me and the
others...
[BookGuy]
Of course when Ken said "pack up" he meant
Kobe and Dave. We didn't have anything except the
togas that Ken had put us in after we had shrunk. Ken
seemed nervous about letting the other seniors out of
his sight, and so told them that they would go
together to each other's houses to get stuff for the
trip to the cabin.
We started at Ken's, of
course. David and Kobe picked up Jordan and I and Ken
asked David to pick up 'his' freshman, Ray, too. Dave
wasn't really concentrating and picked up Ray and I in
the same hand. We were squeezed together chest to
chest while Dave walked through Ken's house.
"What do you think they're going to do with
us?" I asked Ray quietly.
"If Ken has his way,
they'll never give us up." Ray said, "How's your
senior?"
"Dave's OK. We even watched a movie
together the other night. He doesn't hurt me, he's
just really into having me with him. I think he's
actually come around if he had longer. Now that he's
around Ken, though, I'm not so sure. Ken seems to
bring out the worst in these guys."
Ken had
thrown a bunch of clothes in a backpack and put out
his hand for Ray. Dave finally realized he had been
holding us together and opened his hand. Ken grabbed
Ray out of Dave's hand and almost knocked me off. As
Dave turned, I saw Ken shoving Ray in his pack with
his clothes. I hoped he'd be all right.
"Let's
take your car," said Ken to Dave. Ken got in the front
with Dave and was surprised to see Dave place me in
his lap.
"You let him ride out of your pocket?"
Ken asked.
"Sure," said Dave, "He likes it
better that way." Ken shrugged and reached for his
pack. From the inside, I could hear Ray's muffled yelp
as Ken grabbed for him.
Dave's house was next.
Ken and Kobe waited in the car as Dave and I went in.
Dave put me in his shirt pocket as he turned the knob.
He was about to head upstairs when I heard voices of
other boys.
"Dave, mom's on the phone. She said
you have to watch us this weekend cause Aunt Karen is
sick. She's gonna give you the number." This must be
one of Dave's brothers.
As he walked towards
the voice, I heard him mutter "Uh, oh"
[Forestsage
graduating soon] "Honey, I hope you
don't mind," mom said when she came into the room. I
didn't mind. I was sort of... relieved.
"It's
fine, mom," I replied as she put her coat
on.
"Oh, hello boys," she greeted Ken and Kobe.
"I hope this doesn't ruin your weekend
plans."
"We'll just work around it," Ken said,
a little angered.
"I hope Dave's aunt gets
better," Kobe said.
"Thank you. I will see you
later. Sean and Ryan already ate. Just make sure they
get to bed." She gave me a kiss on the cheek and then
left.
"This is just great," Ken said, the anger
rising in him.
"Relax, man, it's not Dave's
fault," Kobe said. I'm glad I still had Kobe as a good
friend.
"You two go ahead without me," I
stated. "I will see if I can find a way around this
babysitting and meet up with you two
later."
"You better call us later," Ken said.
And with that, he walked out of the house. Kobe waved
and followed.
I let out a sigh of relief, and a
smaller sigh echoed from my pocket. I laughed as I
picked up Marshal and held him in my hand. "I guess
you're stuck in my house this weekend until we can
figure out what to do with you." Marshal frowned a
bit, and I added "we meaning us two, not
them."
"You mean..." he began.
"I'm
gonna call Rob on his cell phone. Hopefully he will
answer. What about your parents? Maybe I could drop
you off at their house or..."
"I want to stay
with you until you and Rob can figure this out. I want
to make sure my other friends are free before I can
enjoy it. Besides, I want to be regular size when I
meet back with my family. I can wait..."
"Well
hopefully you won't be waiting long," I said as I
placed Marshal down on the table and picked up the
phone.
[straker]
Rob had made the decision to go to the
cabin I was glad. For some reason Marcus was nervous
and turned on the radio. "I use to surpress my anger
But then surpressed by stomach with food," said the
voice over the radio. "Only you can heal you."
"What is that nonesense?" I
asked.
Marcus replied, "Oh, I think its one of
those self-help gurus." Marcus changed the station.
Thank God. It was bad enough this situation, without
having to hear, "feel good," "I'm ok and your ok,"
type of garbage. I think I would have gone
nuts.
I heard a muffled buzzing sound. It came
from Rob's jacket. "Yeah, hello? Dave? Where are you?
Oh, sorry to hear. But glad you guys didn't go. Be
right over."
I was doing an impatient jig on
Marcus's knee. "Hey chill," said Marcus putting two
fingers on my head.
Rob told us, "Something
came up. They didn't go to the cabin. There at Dave's
house."
Going to the edge of the knee I
shouted up to Rob, "Great." The car went over a bump.
I fell of the giant knee. The rubber foot mates, in
slow motion came up to me. I heard a sickening thud.
Ben in supper fast motion ran up to me. James
what are doing?"
"Huh?" I
replied.
"Jordan,Marshal and Ray we are going
to giant land?"
"Giant land?"
"That new
miniature golf course," replied
Ben.
Miniature?"
"Yeah, you have a
problem with that?" asked Ben.
"No." I
said.
"Good. Good! Good!! we will have fun.
Right James," and Ben slapped me on my back. He
started to laugh and I started to laugh.
Walking down the yellow sidewalk, we ran into
Jordan, who had just come out of the, Cat and Mouse
Pub. He had on glasses that were battery powered and
blinking. "Hey, Jordan, who do you think you are Elton
John?" asked Ben. Jordan threw his glasses down. I
laughed and so did Jordan.
I saw Ray running up
to us. "Ray!" I shouted. "You're ok?"
Putting
his face right to mine, "Why shouldn't I be. You think
a creep of a giant took me?" I knew something wasn't
right. but it was great to see Ray and see he was ok.
As we walked, a senior from high school walked
by. As this dude came closer, he pulled on lip of his
shirt pocket. "You look concerned. You can be safe in
my pocket," he said sincerely. I just watched him
past.
"Hey, look!! screamed Jordan. Skipping
down the sidewalk, that now had turned blood red, was
a little boy.
As the boy in a blue denim
jumper skipped by, he held up five action figures.
"See," he said and opened his hand. The action figures
fell out of his hand landing on the red sidewalk with
a deafening bang. I ran over to the action figures
that were spewed about.
"Oh no, what have you
done?" I asked the boy.
Ben slapped me on the
back, "Just toys. Nothing else."
"Just toys.
Nothing else?" I asked feeling confused.
The
boy kicked me in the shin. "You're a looney," he said
as he picked up his toys.
"Little, little boy,"
said Marshal.
"WHAT!" said the boy sounding
like he was sixty feet tall.
"You have names
for those toys?" asked Marshal.
In a voice,
that seemed distorted replied, "I call them my
freshmen."
"Lets get the Blank out of here," I
said.
The boy pointed a finger at me, "You are
a very bad man. You should be small." The boy then
gave me an angelic smile and resumed skipping down the
sidewalk.
We came to Giant Land. It had a
entrance shaped like an arch from a pair of giant
legs. I didn't want to enter, but I followed my
friends. Once inside there was nothing. Nothing but a
gray bleak landscape. I turned to Ray his face was
gray, his eyes sunken.
I turned to the others,
when the sound of brass instruments started to blair.
A line of chourus girls, in a perfect straight line,
wearing short red dresses came dancing by us. I nearly
got knocked in the chin by a high kicking
shoe.
After they disappeared of a gray hill,
Ray shouted from his sickly face,"L-l-look!"
A
giant. This giant I think I knew. And I was sure,
I'didn't like him. "Ha, ha you are small. Now, I will
step on you all."
"Nooooooooooo!!"
I
woke up.
Very big eyes gazed down at me from
several stories. I knew those eyes. It was Rob. "You
ok."
"I'm sorry James. I shouldn't have moved
my hand," said Marcus apollogetically.
"James,
sure good to see you man," said another familar
voice.
"Marshal! Hey, where are we?" I then
asked.
Another giant responded, "Your at my
house."
"James, this is Dave. My giant teen,"
said Marshal pointing upwards.
As I looked up,
I heard a kid's voice say, "What the..."
Which
was followed by Dave's voice,
"Ryan!"
************************************************ rightz85
Rob- Senior Terrific. It was bad enough we had lost
Ben because Marcus's little brother had found out, now
David's little brother Ryan knew. It almost made me
glad to be an only child.
"Wow," said Ryan, as
he gawked at James and Marshal. He reached out at hand
as if to touch one of them, but I stopped him.
"If you wanna touch be polite and ask first,"
I said.
"How... how did you do this?" he asked.
"I didn't do anything," I said.
"It
was Ken," David said.
"How did he make them?"
asked Ryan. "That one looks like a guy in my English
class named James."
"That because it is," said
Marcus. "Ken didn't make them, he just shrunk them."
Marcus you idiot, I thought. He already knows
too much.
"Is that one Marshal Gene?" he
asked.
"Yeah," said David. "He's mine."
"Then these are the guys that are missing?"
"Yeah," said David.
"Where are Ray and
Jordan and Ben?"
"Ben's with his family," said
David. "The others are with Ken and Kobe."
"So, they like belong to you now," Ryan said.
"Like toys or something?"
"Not really," I
said. "We're friends."
"How did Ken do it?"
"We don't know."
"Can I have one?"
Ryan asked.
"No," said David and I
simutaneously.
I looked down at James. He
looked surprised. I guess he thought because Ryan was
a fellow freshmen that he was suppose to sympathetic.
But being a freshmen had nothing to do with it.
I wonder how James and the others would act if
the roles were reversed; if they were the giants and
we were the little people. I had seen how more mature
seniors had acted, would yonger freshmen be the same,
or would they be even worse?
I also wondered if
the roles were reversed if James would treat me the
way I'd been treating him. I'd become like his
guardian, his protector. Maybe he would, and maybe
not. James is still just a kid, and I'm technically an
adult.
I guess I'd never know.
Oh
well, I thought. I prefer to be the one doing the
protecting anyway.
But right now I had to deal
with Ryan. I came up with a plan that I knew would
keep Ryan quiet.
"Why can't I have one?" said
Ryan. "You guys get ones."
"Because," I said,
winking at David. "We got to tell him the truth," I
said to David.
"Okay," said David confused.
"We've decided to go into bussiness," I said.
"What kind of bussiness?" asked Ryan.
"The shrunken freshmen bussiness," I said.
"We're gonna travel around shrinking freshmen from
different schools and selling them as pets on the
internet. We're gonna charge a million dollars a
piece."
"Who can afford that?"
"Millionaires, duh," I said. "We've already
lined up three buyers who want their own pet freshmen.
So you see, that's why you can't have one."
"I
still don't understand why I can't have one," Ryan
said.
"Understand this kid," I said, in a
voice that scared even me. "You're a freshmen. And if
you tell anyone about what we're doing, you're gonna
end up part of our inventory. Got it?"
Ryan's
eyes went wide as he understood the
threat.
"You'd shrink me?"
"Yeah, we
would," I lied. I felt sick to my stomach.
"I
won't tell anyone," said Ryan, clearly nervous.
"Good," I said. Ryan left the room.
"You didn't have to do that," said David. "My
brother's a good kid."
"He wanted his own
little person," I said. "He doesn't understand anymore
than Ken and Kobe do. Or Marcus for that matter. Now
he won't cause us any trouble."
"I guess
you're right."
I walked over to the table and
knelt down, bring my face level with James.
"You know I didn't mean anything I just said,
don't you?"
"I understand it was just a lie,"
he said.
I realized that even though I wanted
to change James back, I was getting kind of attached
to him the way he was. I was gonna miss the feeling of
having someone so tiny and helpless depending on me.
I kind of always wanted a little brother, and
I guess in a way I have one now. A very little
brother.
"I really do care about you James," I
said. "You know that right?"
"I know."
I looked at David. "Look, its getting late and
you have to stay here with your brothers. I honestly
don't think Kobe would let Ken do anything to hurt
Jordan and Ray, so let's just wait until tomorrow to
go up to the cabin."
"Okay," said David.
I picked up James and headed home.
[(D
the B)] Jordan-A
Freshman
Ray and I were in the sweaty hands
of Ken. Ben was in hiding, we knew that the duo was
looking for him. I was scared, if he had any awareness
about where he was, I was relieved that one of us got
out.
Ken said, "YO! KOBE AREN'T YOU GONNA HELP
ME!!" Kobe said, "Ken, just let Ben stay free." Ken
said, "NO!! BEN IS MINE!!" Kobe then said, "I know you
gave me this, the potion that can make the freshmen
grow back to normal height. If you do anything bad to
Jordan or Ray, I'll grow them back
instantly."
I was relieved that if that
chemically imbalanced child tried to anything to us,
Kobe would just grow us back. Ray gave an evil laugh.
Ken said, "FINE WE WON'T LOOK FOR BEN!! BUT THE FOUR
OF US ARE GONNA HAVE A SLEEPOVER!! (PITCH BLACK)" The
way Ken said it, gave Ray and I the chills. What if
Ken hurts us in the middle of the night and Kobe is
sleeping. Uh oh.
[Forestsage
graduating soon] After making sure
Sean and Ryan were in bed, I decided to do the same. I
carried Marshal up to my room and I placed him on the
nightstand. I laid down a sock for him to use as a
sleeping bag. "Don't worry, it's clean," I ensured
him. He smiled as he got in; I could tell he wasn't
really into the idea of sleeping in a sock. I must
admit, it was cool watching him use it as a sleeping
bag.
I then stripped down to my boxers and got
into bed. It didn't take long for sleep to find me,
and I almost instantly drifted away with the thoughts
of the shrunken freshman in my
head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I
don't know what made me wake up, but it was an uneasy
feeling. I looked at the clock. It was 6am. I wanted
to go back to bed, but something told me that was the
wrong decision. That something was the fact that
Marshal wasn't in the sock. I looked around the
nightstand, but he wasn't to be seen. I knew where he
was.
I walked down to the living room and
yelled "Ryan!" when I saw my brother sitting on the
couch. He nearly jumped up when he heard his name. He
was only dressed in a t-shirt and shorts with socks;
his usual bed attire. He must've just gotten up a
while ago.
"I wasn't gonna keep him," he said
as he turned around to face me. I walked closer and
saw Marshal on the coffee table watching
TV.
"Hey Dave!" he called up to me. "Don't be
mad at Ryan. We've had a blast this morning!" I let
out a sigh of relief; it was a good thing that a kid
his age had found out about Marshal.
Then I saw
my other brother Sean walk into the room. I was
worried he would find out about Marshal. He walked
towards the coffee table and placed down a bottle cap
filled with orange juice. "Here ya go, dude," he said.
He already knew.
"I didn't think you would
mind," Ryan said to me.
"I thought you wanted
one for a pet," I replied.
"At first," he
began, "I did. I thought it would be cool. But that
was just the initial reaction. After I got to talk to
Marshal, I understood how cool of a guy he was. We
didn't talk much in school; weren't in a lot of
eachother's classes; but now..."
"But now,"
Marshal chimed in, "we're like best buds! And Then I
got to meet your other brother, Sean, and we're cool
too!"
"We played video games this morning while
you were sleeping," Sean said. "I can't believe I lost
to a shrunken person."
"
[BookGuy]
I ate breakfast with Sean and Ryan while
Dave got his own. It was funny, I know Dave wasn't as
bad as Ken, but its so much better being around Sean
and especially Ryan. Not only does he treat me better,
but even though he's not that much shorter than Dave,
even the little difference was noticable to me. Being
even a little bit bigger in comparison to someone made
me feel a bit more like a real person.
Dave
brought his breakfast into the living room while Sean
clean up ours. Dave kept looking back between me and
Ryan. I think he was glad the pressure was off and
that I was getting along OK with his brother, but he
still wanted to be involved, too.
"So what's
the plan for today?" asked Dave, in between bites of
toast.
"I dunno," said Ryan, "You wanna go to
the skatepark or something?"
"Maybe," said
Dave, "Mom left us money for pizza. Maybe if we have
sandwhiches instead we can use the money to go
somewhere, even just the movies."
"Yeah," said
Sean, "there's that great new spy movie out." They all
nodded. Movies it was. I really didn't care one way or
another, though the skatepark could have been kind of
scary.
Dave finished his toast and reached out
for me. I was so used to Ryan at least telling me that
he was picking me up, I let out a small yell, "Hey," I
said as his fingers grazed my back.
"Leave him
here," said Ryan.
"Hey, I'm the one who brought
him," said Dave as he closed his grip around me. He
pulled me in towards his chest. He was feeling..what,
jealous?
"Leave him," said Ryan, holding out
his hand.
Was I about to be fought
over?
[straker]
(I'm going to have a good day today.
Because I'm smart enough and dog-gone it, people like
me.)
"Rob please turn that trash
off!"
Rob laughed, "That really gets to you?"
Rob had a big smile on his face. The biggest (even
made bigger from my opposite size) smile I had seen on
Rob. It was cool to see. He gave me a fraternal poke
to my stomach, it was gentle, but still forceful
enough to knock me on my back. I was on his bed so I
didn't get hurt.
It was great just to fool
around. Hadn't done it since I was shrunken. Just to
chill out and be a tooty. Hope my other friends could
just enjoy and be tootys. But my mind and my gut, went
serious thinking about Ray with that goof Ken. I hope
this experiance won't change Ray in a negitive way.
But big or small, there are those walking human trash,
who cause harm to others because of their own agenda.
Both on a small or large scale.
Tomorrow we
would be going up to camp. I asked Rob, "Would this be
a desive moment for us? What perils would Ray be
facing? And...."
Rob picked me up and started
to tickle me, "Whoa, ha-ha-ha Rob-ha-stop." I felt
like a little kid squirming in his huge
grasp.
He stopped,"James I understand how you
feel. But you do have a tendency to lay it on thick.
'What perils would Ray be facing?' It sound like a
promo for an Irwin Allen program."
"Irwin
Allen?"
"Yeah, you know he was America's or one
of them, next to Rod Sterling, science fiction
producer. You have to catch his old shows someday. But
I'm concerned for Ray too."
"Yep big guy," I
said, "I think your right."
He stretched out on
his bed. He placed me on his stomach. His stomach. I
was flattered he felt secure enough with himself to be
that open with me. Having come from a freaked out
family, never could let my guard down. I wanted to
tell him. No that would be stupid. "Oh, what the
hell," I said out loud. I ran up the length of his
chest toward his neck. Feeling like a fool at first, I
just crawled under the neck opening to his tee-shirt
and tickled him. For once I wasn't going to let
freaked out feelings get in my way. I wanted to return
a fraternal expression.
I didn't expect his
reaction would be like an earthquake. He chuckled,
which sent ripples down his chest bouncing me on a
wave of muscle. I crawled out of his tee-shirt. We
watched some television.
Afterwards went to
sleep. In the morning, well---be going to the
cabin.
************************************************** rightz85
Rob- Senior
I awoke the next morning feeling
somewhat refreshed. James was still asleep in his
tank, so I let him sleep. I got dressed and turned on
the TV. Only a short segment on the freshmen on this
mornings news.
I realized that James had been
wearing the same clothes for the last couple of days,
and by now he would need a change. I took an old red
western bandana I had and cut a strip out of it that
James could use to make another toga. Then I filled a
coffee mug with warm water and cut out a wedge of soap
so he could bathe.
I woke James up and carried
him into the bathroom, where I told him what to do. He
seemed glad he wouldn't have to wear those dirty
clothes anymore. I left him alone to bathe and when I
returned twenty-minutes later he was in a new toga
made from the bandana.
"Ready to go?" I asked.
"Yeah," said James. I picked him up and put
him in my jacket pocket.
I drove to David's
house to pick him up. I had decided to leave Marcus at
home. At David's house I got out of the car and and
rang the door bell.
David's other brother Sean
answered the door.
"Oh, hey," said Sean. "This
isn't really a good time, could you come back later?"
Oh crap, I thought. What happened now?
"Where are David and Marshal?" I asked.
Sean's eyes grew wide with surprise.
"You know?" he said.
"Yeah, I do," I
said, opening my pocket to reveal James.
"Cool," he said. "You got one too."
"Yes," I said. Judging from Sean's reaction
Ryan hadn't mentioned how I'd threatened him last
night.
"Come on in," said Sean. In the
livingroom David and Ryan were arguing. Ryan suddenly
shut-up upon seeing me.
"What's going on?" I
asked.
"Nothing," said David. "Just a little
argument."
"About what?"
"We want
Marshal to stay here with us," said Ryan.
This
is what I was afraid of.
"Marshal needs to
come with us," I said.
"Why?"
"We're
going up to find Ken, Kobe, and the other shrunken
freshmen."
"Marshal told us you were just
lying about what you said last night," said Ryan.
"Yeah, I was. I was hoping you'd take the hint
and stay out of this. We've got enough problems
dealing with Ken without having to bicker with you."
"What if Marshal wants to stay with us?" said
Sean.
"Let me talk to Marshal alone," I said.
David handed me Marshal and I took him in the next
room. I held him in one hand and James in the other.
"What do you wanna do?" I asked Marshal.
"I don't know," he said. "I like David okay,
but Ryan and Sean treat me better."
"I know,
but we can't just hand you over to them. Sean and Ryan
are really nice kids," I said. "But they're not the
most responsible people in the world. They're fourteen
and sixteen and David's mom still makes him stay home
and babysit them. I don't know if I trust them to take
care of you. Also, if we find a way to change you back
I'm not sure Ryan would have an easy time giving you
up. I beleive he means it when he says he wants to be
friends, but he'd still probably keep you if he
could."
"Why couldn't we take them with us?"
said James.
"What?"
"To the cabin? Why
couldn't they come too?"
"I don't know about
that," I said. "It might be dangerous. We don't know
exactly how Ken shrunk you. What if when we get there
he tries to do it again?"
"I think its a good
idea," said Marshal. "I'm sure if you explain to them
they'd understand."
"Okay," I said. "We'll
see."
I walked back into the livingroom.
[Forestsage
graduating soon] I wasn't too sure if
I liked the idea of getting my brothers involved. I
was worried Ken might find it fun to try to shrink
them. Ken might even try to shrink me and Rob if he
found out what we were planning to do, and I wasn't
sure if I liked that either.
"Do you really
think it's safe to bring the little guys to the cabin
with you?" Sean asked, interrupting my
thoughts.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Rob
asked.
"What if something goes wrong?" Sean
replied.
"Nothing can go wrong. We're gonna
solve this problem whether Ken likes it or not," Rob
said, addressing the little guys more than me and my
brothers.
"Well, we do want to help," Ryan
stated, and Sean nodded. "Come on Dave,
please?"
"It's up to Rob," I replied. "He's in
charge of this operation."
[BookGuy]
"OK," said Rob and Sean and Ryan high
fived. Luckily Dave was holding me or else...oof. Sean
and Ryan ran upstairs to pack and then Dave passed me
over to Ryan while he grabbed stuff. I didn't know
what it was, maybe just the fact that Ryan was my own
age and a little smaller, but I felt better being held
by him than Dave, but I didn't want a repeat of Dave's
jealousy to ruin what was going on.
Soon it was
time to go. Dave sat in front with Rob who was
driving. Dave held onto James for Rob, so he wasn't
fighting with Ryan over me. I started the trip in
Ryan's shirt pocket, but he couldn't resist holding me
in his hand for a while and then, of course, Sean
wanted a turn. They wouldn't tease or tickle, they
just wanted me there. I'd get the occasional pet, but
that was OK. I felt safe.
As the ride
progressed, I wound up back in Ryan's pocket so he
could try to get some sleep during the remaining two
hours of the drive. I settled myself into the bottom
of the pocket to get some rest myself.
[straker]
James-shrunken freshmen
I have been
swapped around in more hands lately that I could
remember. Yeah, in some ways the attentinon is cool,
but it's also scary when you are tiny. It may not seem
it to the average person(giant) your hands to a
several inch person takes on whole new appearence and
weight i.e., tonnage.
With Most of us shruken
freshmen together and with our respective giants, I
was feeling good. Even with Ryan and Sean there was a
positive energy. Maybe progress will be made.
I
felt a tap on the head. Looking up towards Dave, I saw
the huge face of Sean gazing down at me with a hopeful
face. "Show us that dance you
did."
"Dance?"
"Yeah, Rob told us about
that dance when he took you to the children's
hospital."
Rob didn't turn around to look back
since he had to keep his eye on the road, he responded
nevertheless, "I told them about our, ur, I mean your
dance."
"Cool, show us," chimed in Ryan with
his crackling adolescent voice.
"I don't
kno..." Before I could finish and Dave respond, Sean
grabbed me from off of Dave's leg.
"Sean gave
him back," said Dave sharply.
I was pushed
against Sean's chest as he replied,
"After."
Their not bad guy's but there're the
type, if haven't experiance something, can't really
relate to how it is for us, who are shrunken.
Ryan brought over Marshal, who was in his hand
in front of me. "Why don't you both do a dance," he
suggested.
From up front came a no nonsense
voice, "Ryan." It was Rob.
"Ok," replied Ryan
with Marshal, who now retreated with the
hand.
I felt like a tooty, as I said, "Ok, Sean
this is what I did." I don't know how to dance, so I
did a cross between a little rap dancing and mixed in
with a little jazz that I had seen in movies.
And away I went.
His huge eye-brows
came together, in what, I couldn't tell was either a
frown or question. A smirk appeared on his Mount
Rushmore Face, followed by a smile. "If that's your
dancing; don't give up your day job."
I gave
him a big stupid grin. Squinting his eyes he told me,
"Don't smile like that James, it makes you look like a
demented ventrilloquist."
Everybody in the car
laughed. Marshal shouted up to Sean, "What are you the
next Don Rickles?"
Our jovial mood changed to
important intent. We arrived. Marshal and I both hoped
Ray was ok. And that soon we both would be back as
giants in land of the
giants.
************************************************** rightz85
Rob- senior
The cabin was old and beat-up. I
couldn't see Ken's car anywhere so I assumed they must
have gone somewhere.
"Wait here," I said.
"I'm coming with you," said David.
"Leave the freshmen here," I said.
"Okay," he said.
"We wanna go," said
Ryan.
"No," David said. "It's dangerous."
"Come on," Sean said.
"You wanna end
up the size of an action figure?" I said.
"No."
"Then stay put," I said.
"There's nobody even here," Sean said.
"Stay," I said, firmly.
David and I
got out of the car and walked up to the front door of
the cabin. It was dark inside.
"Maybe we'll
luck out, and wherever they went they'll have left the
freshmen here," said David.
"Maybe," I said,
turning the doornob. "It's open." Me and David walked
through the door into the dark, dusty
cabin.
Whack! Something hit me hard in the back
of the head! I felt myself sink into unconciousness.
As I slowly came too I felt my hands tied
behind my back, and I was laying face down on the
floor.
"It's about time you two woke up." It
was Ken. I opened my eyes and breathed a sigh of
relief. It was just plain normal sized Ken. I was
still full size. David was right next to me.
"Ken," I said.
"Thats me," he said
with a smirk. "Wondering why you're not the size of a
rodent?"
I didn't respond.
"I would
never shrink you guys," said Ken. "You're my best
friends. These two, however, are a different story."
Ken stepped aside to reveal Ryan and Sean,
tied up and on their knees. I also saw Marcus.
"Surprised to see Marcus?" said Ken. "He was
the one who warned us you were coming."
If
looks could kill the one I gave Marcus would have been
deadly.
"Don't blame him, Rob," said Ken. "He
was just so upset after losing his pet. Which is why
I've decided to let him have yours."
Marcus was
holding James.
"But don't worry," said Ken.
"You can have Kobe." He sat a jar down in front of me
with Kobe in it.
"I thought you wouldn't
shrink your best friends?" I said.
"He gave me
no choice," said Ken, defensively. "But don't worry, I
know you'll take good care of him. I'm going to leave
him and David's pet here. I wouldn't want to deprive
you guys of the joys of having a shrunken freshmen."
"So, where you gonna go?" I asked. "You just
gonna take James, Jordy, and Ray and hit the road?
We'll come after you."
"I know you will," said
Ken, the mockness in his voice leaving. "Which is why
I have a back-up plan. Saving the freshmen might be
worth the risk, but I'm willing to bet you won't risk
losing Dave's little bros here."
"If you hurt
them Ken I swear I'll..." said David.
"Please,
I hate violence," said Ken. "Unless it's necessary.
I'm not going to hurt them, there just won't be as
much of them when I get through."
"Ken, don't
do this," I said.
"Too late," he said. From a
table he took a squirt bottle filled with a blue
liquid.
"Congratulations, Sean," said Ken.
"You're about to become the world's first shrunken
sophomore."
"No!" shouted David.
It
was too late. Ken sprayed Ryan and Sean with the
liquid. It only took a few minutes for the two to
shrink out of their clothes.
[Stevie
B Prince] Ray- A Freshman
I had
passed out from being in the dark sweaty palms of Ken
for such a long time, with just the few cracks of air
coming in once in a while. I wasn’t quite sure what
was going on have the time, and when I wasn’t being
held by Ken I was put in a very small container with
barely enough space to move around if I can even say
that there was that. When I first got taken by Ken, I
had thought it was the worst experience ever, then he
started to calm down about the third day, and I
thought things were gonna change and he was gonna
become nicer. I guess I was wrong. Each day, Ken would
get more upset and angry, and not just at the
freshmen, but at his senior friends as well. I tried
to ask him what was up one time and he said something
about being frustrated about finding a cure for us. He
didn’t sound too serious though, and it seemed like
something bigger or more important was on his mind.
Every once in a while I would get a chance to move
around and do stuff like exercise, but it was usually
when he was too busy doing other things in which I
wasn’t ever aware of.
It had now seemed like a
decade since the last time that I had seen my
friends.
“Where have all the others been?” I
asked Ken when he grabbed me earlier in the day. No
response, he seemed extremely busy today. “Has
something happened? Have you found something to help
us yet?” I asked
Still nothing came out of the
lips of Ken He put me on his shoulder, which was
new to me, and began to walk down the stairs and head
towards his living room. “What’s going on Ken?!?!?”
I shouted hoping to get some kind of answer out of
him.
“Ha!” Ken laughed “Just wait.” He
replied.
Eh, it wasn’t the kind of answer that
I wanted but I let it pass. It took to much energy
trying to ask him anything at anytime. When we got to
one section of the room he put me on a desk on the
sidewall. I leaned over and peered off the edge, and
there I saw two younger kids whom I did not know.
“Hey Ray!” shouted Ken. “Meet Ryan and Sean! Two
more freshmen to add to my shrunken
collection!”
“But Ken, I thought you were going
to find some kind of antidote for us!”
“Well I
was, but I thought about it for a while, then these
losers began talking about how they were going to help
you or tell others about you, or even get me into
trouble. Now I have just decided that I might as well
shrink them as well, just to be sure that no rumors
are spread”
“But they are not rumors! We have
been shrunken! And sooner or later we will be found
out. Even if you don’t plan on changing us
back.”
“Well, good, because now I don’t plan on
it. And I guarantee that nobody will screw this up for
me”
Ken then began to tie up the two kids Ryan
and Sean. After he was done he put me back on his
shoulder like he had forgotten our whole argument
which was only about 5 minutes ago. I was still
enraged though and did not forget it. I ran over and
bit his neck. I think he didn’t think about what it
was and thought that I was a bug and swung his hand
out like he was gonna swat me but I had figured he
would since that would have been my response as well
so I jumped. I didn’t know where I was going to land
since that was the part that I had forgotten to plan
out but luckily I landed in a pile of CD cases
underneath the desk. It hurt a little but it could’ve
been worse. I hid myself in between some of the cases
and heard Ken trying to find out where I had fell. But
after a few seconds he stopped looking. I had guessed
that he just didn’t think I was important anymore,
well either that or something else was occupying him.
It guess it was the second choice. David then stumbled
in. He too was tied up and Ken shoved him next to the
two younger kids. Shortly after Rob too was sitting in
the same spot right next to David. Then Marcus
appeared but he was not tied up. In fact he seemed to
be helping Ken. That was just great.
A few
minutes later Ken talked a bit to his ‘prisoners’ and
pulled out a Jar. There was a shrunken person in the
jar. It was Kobe. Why would Ken shrink his own friend?
I had no idea and did not want to see what was going
to happen. I climber out of my box of CD cases and
ran. Where I was running I did not know. At first I
began to run toward Rob, in thoughts that I might be
able to help him but after the foot of Marcus almost
crushed me, I decided that I was too small and would
not be able to do any good so I turned and ran the
opposite way. I ran and I ran, for what seemed like
forever, but when I turned around and looked, I wasn’t
too much farther than where I started. My tiny legs
couldn’t do much more running. I collapsed, but I got
up and tried again after about a 30-second break, I
could still hear the loud voice of Ken as I continued
to run in what seemed a purposeless effort. I ran
until I couldn’t even stand. I lay on the ground
wondering what would happen to me, possible I would
get vacuumed up or stepped on. Just then, another door
opened and someone else walked in. This person seemed
huge. I had never seen them before, and they looked
older than Ken as well but not too much older, just a
few years. I then noticed that he was reaching over to
pick up a pile of newspapers that were strewn across
the floor next to be. I rolled myself onto the top of
the stack as he picked it up. He then turned and
walked into another room, not even looking towards
Ken, or noticing what was going on around him. This
other room was darker, but with a small dark orange
lamp that just lit up enough to be able to read the
newspaper as he placed it on the room on the table. He
went back and shut the door. As he sat down he picked
up the newspaper and I rolled off. He didn’t even
notice me. Did he ever notice anything? I had no idea.
I fell to the table and screamed a short scream when I
hit, just because it hurt my already bruised body.
Somehow this he did notice and he looked around the
room but did not see me. How could he miss the obvious
and notice what a lot of people would not notice. Who
was this person? He didn’t look like he was related to
anyone. He just was there. I didn’t know what to
think. I was just tired, and didn’t really care about
anything. I just wanted everything to be over or for
death even. But now I was just too tired. I hid myself
in a corner of the table, next to a jar with pens and
markers in it, and tried to sleep. With my luck
though, and everything on my mind, all I could do was
simply rest.
[BookGuy]
Now I know what Ray meant when he said
that Ken was very rough. After Rob and Dave
disappeared into the cabin, Ken came after Sean and
Ryan, holding a bottle in front of him which he told
them held the shrinking formula. He told them to get
out of the car and come with him. When Ryan got out,
Ken told him to hand me over. Ryan didn't want to at
first, but one point of the bottle convinced him.
As soon as I was placed in Ken's hand, he
squeezed his fist shut around me and I yelped in pain,
he was really holding me tight.
He put me down
when we got into the cabin, right next to a jar. There
was a person in the jar who I didn't recognize at
first, then I realized it was Kobe, one of the
seniors. He looked strange at almost my size. I
scanned the room and saw Sean and Ryan being tied up
by Marcus of all people and then Dave and Rob sprawled
on the floor, unconscious.
When they woke up,
there was an arguement and Ken shrunk Sean and Ryan!
He held the bottle out towards Dave and Rob to stop
them from rushing him and Marcus. He kept his aim
steady while Marcus crossed to the pile of clothes
that used to fit Sean and Ryan. I heard a small cry
from one pile and could just make out Sean held in
Marcus's hand. Marcus took a piece of cloth out of his
pocket and put it on Sean, just like Ken had put them
on us. He put Sean in his pocket and soon Ryan was
being dressed as well.
Dave was furious. "Ken,
what the hell are you doing! Marcus, put them down,"
but he couldn't act with Ken holding the bottle on
him.
"What are you complaining about? You said
your brothers were pains. You guys still have your
freshmen." This didn't seem to pacify
Dave.
"OK, here's how it's going to go," said
Ken, "We're taking Kobe and our two freshmenand your
brothers and head out. As long as you don't follow,
I'll get your brothers back to you safe and sound."
Ken crossed the room and I backed up as he picked up
the jar still holding Kobe.
"See you!" Marcus
said as he left the room with Ken, still holding Ryan
in his hand.
"Dave!" screamed Ryan.
[Forestsage
graduating soon] I couldn't believe
this was happening. I couldn't believe that Ken would
stoop so low. If I got my hands on him, he'd be worse
then dead. I bit my lip in anger, a little blood
running down my chin. "You bastard!" I screamed. "Get
back here!"
There was no reply, though. I
lowered my head, trying to fight back the tears. I
couldn't give up hope, though. I couldn't stop
thinking that no matter what, in the end all of this
would work out. Everything would be back to normal and
Ken would get his justice.
"I'm sorry," I said
softly. Rob looked at me strangely, as if he wasn't
sure I said it to him or not. "I'm sorry I ever got
involved in this. I'm sorry I ever thought what Ken
did was 'cool'. I'm just... I'm just sorry."
I
was still looking down, so I couldn't see Rob smiling.
I hoped Rob could forgive me and we could be friends
again. I hoped I would see my brothers again, at their
normal size. I hoped that... I just hoped that... I
just hoped...
[BookGuy]
Dave was going crazy. He was talking
quietly to Rob and I was sure he was about to burst
into tears. I wasn't too far behind him myself, it
seemed that Ken could grow people back, but if he
disappeared, how would I get back to normal.
Dave came over to the crate that I was on. He
knelt so his face was level with me.
"Marshall, I'm so sorry," he said and put his
head down on the crate. I walked over and put my tiny
hand on his forehead.
"I know you never meant
it to go this far," I said. He looked up, his eyes
just about to burst with tears. "and don't you mean
Jack?" I said, trying to cheer him up.
He
smiled and put his hand on the crate. "Ready to go?"
he asked.
"Sure," I said, and hopped into his
hand. All our thoughts were with Ryan and Sean. We all
wanted to see them back safely, they had never been
part of this.
Rob picked up James and we went
back out to the car to plan our next move.
[straker]
Sick---that is how I felt. I hoped Ryan
and Sean were going to be ok. I wanted to believe
nothing bad would happen, but who am I kidding, that
is not always the case when you are dealing with evil
or just plain selfish people.
"CRAP!!!"
"What James?" asked
Rob.
I was so excited I started to do a jig on
Dave's lap. Dave looked down at me. He looked over at
Rob, who was driving. And at his shirt pocket where
Marshal had his arms dangling over its lip. "I think
this freshmen needs certfying. He's ready for the
padded room. No offense James."
"Sorry," I told
everyone. "I was so stupid. Before Ken left with that
smug smile of his. And when we return back to normal I
want first crack at him."
"James!" shouted Rob.
"Oh yeah, sorry. Don't mean to be a tooty. I
saw a bottle of something roll out of a bag Ken was
picking up before he left. It wasn't large so I guess
he didn't notice it. It could have the solution to our
tiny problems in it."
Like a scene from a James
Bond film, Rob quickly turned the car around. Right in
the midlle of the road! We all leaned to the right,
then to the left.
Dave in a splint that any
track runner would be proud of ( according to Dave's
account) flew into the cabin. I had told him where I
had seen it.
When Dave came back he said, "Is
this it James."
"Yeah."
Marshal from
Dave's pocket clapped his hands together, "Great!
Things are looking up."
"Wait," said Rob. "It
could just be water. Or a sick joke on Ken's part to
delay us." My hopes started to ebb again. "Lets try a
tiny bit."
James left the car and a moment
later came back with a toad. As a kid I use to catch
toads. But man, seeing it in Rob's hands at my tiny
size looked like the strangest of creatures. Something
right out of H. G. Wells or Jules Verne story. Rob
sprayed it with a minute amount of the liquid. It
shrank. I was hoping it would have been the
"cure."
A big grin appeared on James's face. As
he peeled out of the cabin driveway, "Lets cut Ken
down to size."
Back in Dave's lap, I could see
the look of anxiety on his face. I really didn't think
about it up front, but if those were my brothers I
would be feeling as if I was burning in hell right
now.
I was also kind of moved by how Marshal
was starting to be of some cheer to Dave.
On
we flew down the road....
[rightz85]
It was getting dark, and we weren’t even
sure where Ken and Marcus were headed. They had Ryan,
Sean, Kobe, and Ray. First the shrunken freshmen, and
now David’s brothers. One good thing: we now had
control of the shrinking potion.
We were on
our way back to town when I needed to stop for gas. I
pulled into an old station and a man in coveralls
jumped up to wait on us.
“Fill’er up?” he
asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, motioning to
David to conceal James better. “I don’t suppose you’ve
seen a couple of friends of ours come through here?” I
asked.
“Maybe,” the guy said. “What they look
like?”
“One of them is about medium height,
stocky build, with shaggy blond hair. The other’s a
little shorter, thin, with a pale complexion and black
hair down to his brow,” I replied, describing Marcus
and Ken.
“Yeah,” he said. “They stopped for
gas about an hour ago. Asked for directions to
Grayville.”
“You mind telling us which way
that was?” I asked.
“Go strait down this road
about three miles, then take a right and follow the
road signs,” he said.
“Thanks, Mister,” I
said. I pulled out and followed his directions.
“At least now we know the direction they’re
going,” I said.
“What are we gonna do when we
find them?” asked David.
“Cut Ken and Marcus
down to size,” I said.
“I wish I could say
they don’t deserve it,” said David. “But they do.”
I could see the anger in David. It was scary.
Finally we reached the “Welcome to Grayville,”
sign. It was a lot smaller town than the one we live
in. I’d never been there before, but David said he had
an uncle who lived there. I drove down main street
looking around.
I saw what I was looking for:
Ken’s car. It was sitting in the parking lot of a
Motel Six.
“Bingo,” I said. “There they
are,” said David.
“What are we gonna do,”
asked Marshal.
“We have to be careful,” I
said. “Ken still has Kobe, Ray, and David’s brothers.
Not to mention we don’t know how much more shrinking
potion he has.”
I pulled into the parking lot
of a gas station across the street from the motel.
After about a half an hour of watching I saw Ken
emerge from the motel room. He told Marcus something
before getting in his car and driving off.
“I
want to go after Ken,” said David.
“No,” I
said. “We’re doing this my way. You wait here with
Marshal and James. Under no circumstances are you to
leave the car.”
“But-”
“One of us has
to stay behind in case something happens to the
other.”
“They’re my brothers,” said David.
“Stay here,” I said.
I got out of the
car and walked across the street to the motel. I
walked up to door and knocked. A moment later the door
opened and Marcus stood framed in the doorway. His
eyes grew wide when he saw me. He tried to slam the
door but I shove passed and knocked him to he ground.
“Please, Rob,” he said. “Don’t hurt me.”
“This won’t hurt a bit,” I said. I removed the
small bottle of shrinking potion from my pocket and
aimed it at Marcus’s face. One squirt later and Marcus
began to shrink. Within a matter of moments he was
fully shrunk.
I shifted through the pile of
clothes. I didn’t have any cloth or anything to wrap
him in like the others, but I really didn’t care. I
grabbed him, naked, and shoved him roughly into my
pocket.
I looked around the room as he
squirmed in my pocket. Kobe and the others were on the
bed. I tore the room apart looking for the antidote. I
found nothing.
So I just sat there, on the
bed, and patiently waited for Ken. When I heard
someone approach from outside I hid behind the door.
Ken came through the door and saw the room in
shambles.
“What in the hell?” he said. I shut
the door behind him.
He turned to see me
aiming the shrinking potion right in his face. The
moment seemed to freeze. As he fought the fear and
tried to utter a word, I pulled the trigger.
Ken shrunk. I grabbed him up and slammed him
down on the nearest coffee table.
“How do I
undo it?” I demanded.
He cowered, trying to
conceal his shame. “I don’t know,” he whimpered.
“How do I undo it?” I asked again.
“I
don’t know,” he said. “The guy didn’t tell me.”
I’ve known Ken along time. He’s a lot of
things, but above all he’s a coward. He was scared of
me, and I knew that that fear was making him tell the
truth.
My heart sank. There was no cure.
I moved all Kobe, Ryan, Sean, and Ray into one
cramped jar, and then put Marcus and Ken in the other.
I then wrapped the jars in a towel from the bathroom
and went back to my car.
I gave the jars to
David, who was overjoyed to see his brothers.
“Rob?” said James. I knew what was coming.
“No,” I said. “I didn’t find it. And I believe
Ken’s telling the truth. He was lying before when he
told us there was a cure.”
We drove home
silence. Once at my place it was decided that I would
take charge of James, Ray, Kobe, and Ken. David would
take his brothers, Marcus, and Marshal.
Later
that night I sat alone on my bed. The freshmen and
Kobe were in James’ tank and Ken was in a separate
jar. I couldn’t believe how out of control I let
things spin. James was beating on the wall of his
tank.
I took him out and sat him on my bed
beside me.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Its
not your fault,” he said.
”Yes it is.” “It
wasn’t your fault Ken shrunk us,” James said.
“I should have handled the situation better.”
“You did the best you could,” said James. “And
it could be worse. At least Ken was stopped.”
“I promise I’ll find a way to cure you,” I
said.
“Maybe you will,” he said. “Maybe you
won’t. Only time will tell.”
“I may never find
a way to change you back,” I said. “But I promise I
will always take care of you.”
“I know, Rob,”
I said. “I know.”
The End.
Thanks to
everyone who took part in this campfire!
The End |