Shrunken Freshmen--Campfire

By Big Thinker and various writers

Ken 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