p. 1

the beginning okay let me get this straight you think because i m short you can pick on me said a short boy about 4 8 or 4 9 long brown curly hair yeah replied a taller kid that was at least 5 2 blonde hair kind of in the middle of straight and curly well then you must be new here then a 7 7 kind of guy picked up the small kid and perched him on a shoulders because round here i m the tallest aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh said the 5 2 kid running away that was a nice one eddie said the one carrying eddie the 4 8 or 4 9 kid his name was devin the one carrying eddie devin supers tall almost 7 8 but not all the way there he was really strong from benching and carrying eddie because if any would carry eddie it would be him these two were invisible when eddie was on devin s shoulders at least rumor said what can i say when i m big i m the midget with muscles everyone laughed you see eddie devin kyle bryan and cody were the school populars aka the bullies the strong bulldozers the intimidator whatever you want to call them they were the most feared things in school no one would dare mess with them unless they had a death wish and their will written eddie was their leader ironically since he was after all the shortest devin was the co-leader bryan would carry eddie if he needed a workout because bryan is 5 9 strong had both muscle both in his arms and stomach kyle was another taller guy in the group he was 7 8 dirty blonde hair and had lots of muscle on his abs cody was the shy one but he would be there in a heartbeat if any of his brothers cody was about 6 9 almost 7 0 every time a new kid tried to pick on eddie devin or one of the others picked up eddie and put him on their shoulders devin was the tallest almost 7 8 he had straight curved laid back blue slash black hair it was always funny how the tall

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p. 2

kids who thought they could pick on eddie and they ran away in horror eddie seemed to have that rare kind of guts you could find in a small guy but eddie being eddie was far from normal most of the time the person who picked up eddie was devin they were friends from way back really way back from long ago eddie wasn t always one of the popular kids he used to be a teacher s pet and yes even a teacher s pet can become bad he always played poker or blackjack at his table with some random people who liked to play at lunch one day the gang he has now saw him playing and they demanded for eddie s lunch how bout i play you for it you win you get the money i win you leave me alone for the rest of the year dealed eddie the gang looked at each other and kyle the leader at the time said deal eddie started shuffling now he decided to play poker even though that wasn t his game at the time but he had a feeling that today was going to be his lucky day the fates or luck had made him win seven times in a row looks like you guys won t be getting anything out of this bet why you little started bryan what do you think you re doing mr cortez asked one of the lunch attendants seeing eddie with the deck of cards nothing ms.wilacers we were practicing some good old go fish right guys ms wilacers hated eddie hated him she was one of the teacher aides she had the ponytail of a devil the glazing eyes of a falcon and the classes thought only a complete blind person would buy she had always caught eddie doing something wrong and when she did she announced it to the whole class eddie doesn t know what he deserved to be tortured like this yeah that s just what we were just going to do agreed cody okay but don t let me see them again understood mr cortez got it ms wilacers eddie stuffed the deck in his pocket and ms.wilacers walked off wow dude you re cool for well you know a teacher s pet said kyle.

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p. 3

yeah that s just an act just to fool everyone you kind of cool for a well you know shortie so do you want to hang with us sometime asked bryan well sure but wouldn t it be kind of weird hanging out with a shortie no prob i can carry you on my shoulders suggested devin great so what do you populars do for fun populars what are those asked cody they re you kind of people you know the ones who think they re all that and other stuff in other words people who think better than anyone else and can tell us normals what to do whenever and where ever people who are too stuck up to come back down to earth oh did you come up that all by yourself asked devin yup said eddie so what do you have next period asked cody so it speaks i have backstage theater why do you have that dumb class it s for losers asked kyle yea losers with girlfriends sneaky said bryan i know right so it figures out the usual guys who help are out so you want to give a whack at it let s do it said kyle then we got to go soon it starts in 2 minutes then let s get a move on said devin the rest of the gang ran ahead devin grabbed eddie and put him on his shoulders and devin ran off to catch up with the gang now eddie wasn t the leader right off the bat he did have to do a few things here and

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p. 4

there he eventually led himself to be the weights of the gang and eventually the gang leader eddie liked the idea so he took it on his way to backstage theater he was thinking about the adventures he would have with his new crew the best part of being tall for once is that he could see the top of people s heads even he had a little muscle himself thanks to lifting a 15lb and 20lb weights lifting every night when he was thirteen but compared to the others he had none devin had finally made it to backstage theater hey ms blueberry i ve found some helpers for today said eddie ms blueberry loved eddie he had been her after school class forever he was her favorite student if she needed someone she asked eddie she was an elder lady gray hair not married and had a boyfriend her favorite witty saying about theater was you can t spell manslaughter without laughter it was a bit of humor to the class anyway back to class do i want to know why you re on your helpers shoulders asked ms blueberry not really responded eddie well okay then go show them what to do and assign them jobs can you handle that asked ms.blueberry yea i think i can thanks ms.blueberry yelled eddie as devin and the rest ran back stage well okay let s see bryan cody curtains for you two kyle can you handle the lights and as for devin and me we ll keep this project running and if devin doesn t mind i ll stay up here said eddie it s no prob bro barely notice your there said devin okay cool now let s get the headphones devin if you would please there on the third shelf in that big room over there said eddie devin found the headphones that looked like something pilots would wear he handed eddie a pair then bryan cody kyle and ms.blueberry you guys ready for this asked ms.blueberry.

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p. 5

as they ll ever ms blueberry said eddie ms.blueberry laughed and motioned the gang to hide backstage so that s what they did the crowd came in after they hid behind the stage and curtains she gave everyone the speech about who s who and the next thing she says is now all of you scatter and wait backstage where our tech crew is waiting to tell you what to do all the students ran for the backstage gee i m glad i m up here or i d be like scrambled eggs said eddie the gang laughed and some random blonde chick about 5 5 looked curious came up to devin and said what are you doing up there eddie did you get yourself into trouble again and who s asking pipsqueak asked devin his girlfriend hotshot oh hi said devin yea hi so what did you do this time eddie nothing chelsea i m just having fun the two for about five minutes devin just standing there talk back and forth pretty fun your next so you better get ready said eddie humph chelsea stomped off i have to say you have good taste in the ladies except the attitude said devin you get used to it said eddie for the rest of time the gang messed around and took pictures with their phones when they had to wait a while great rehearsal everybody eddie and the rest of the party would you please see me asked ms.blueberry.

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p. 6

great first day and we re already in trouble said bryan oh dear you re not in trouble of the slightest bit but i was wondering if since you guys did a great job did today you can replace the other workers the gang looked all up at eddie except devin he just stood there because he couldn t exactly look up why not the gang exchanged glances and all bonded in one big high five that s how it once was before the thing that changed the gang s life forever it was almost near fall break eddie was on devin s shoulders and the gang was going to eddie s house for a visit there was no need to call ahead eddie s parents always assumed that the gang would come home with eddie on one of their shoulders devin walked up to the door and opened it and walked right in he put eddie on the ground hey i m home as eddie searched around he saw lots of labeled boxes around the one story home he lived in you guys going somewhere you see eddie s parents moved around a lot because of their job as business managers hey guys and to answer your question we all are said mrs cortez ha ha i thought you just said all of us were going she did squirt so better get your stuff ready we re leaving today said mr cortez no no i won t go eddie looked at his parents ran off yelling opened the door and started running fast he didn t care where as long as he didn t have to move but devin ran right behind and caught up with the midget on the run and grabbed him and put eddie on his shoulders man i m surprised the track team hasn t found you you re like super fast said devin.

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p. 7

you re going to take me back now aren t you not till we get some answers boss said cody this isn t just about moving isn t it asked kyle that isn t even that half it penny for your thoughts asked bryan eddie laughed a little bryan was always asking for money and eddie never did have any money he even owed bryan a dollar from 7th grade well i don t want to move obviously and you guys know how hard it is for me to make friends and i m afraid if i move i ll turn into someone i hate explained eddie it didn t take four bullies that eddie was trying real hard to hard not to cry go ahead boss let them out we isn t gonna tell anyone said cody let what out questioned eddie don t play dumb with us we know you got to let some tears out said devin your right i do but i just can t seem to let them out you know being strong for so long does that to ya replied eddie i m sorry for being such a downer guys but you know me better than anyone and i m afraid if i move away i ll come back as someone i ll hate its fine bro and we better take you back your parents must be worried sick said bryan well i guess i ll get this eventually even though i regret this already but yea let s go home guys the guys turned around and headed back to eddie s house and when they got there eddie started to squirm on devin s shoulders the gang was confused for a while till the noticed a moving van with eddie s dad paying off something eddie almost fell off devin s shoulders but devin caught eddie at the knees this is strangely relaxing so what s hanging

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p. 8

you are little buddy said bryan the gang laughed devin gently got eddie off his shoulders and eddie looked at his parents one last time before he ran ran again this time he ran towards a small trail and he followed the trail until he found a small creek and sat on a rock after a while a full-grown tiger came up to eddie and sat down hey toruk i have some bad news you re not going to like it but then again i hate the idea but i m moving the tiger purred softly but eddie could tell toruk was depressed about the bad news eddie eddie the gang was looking for eddie so eddie yelled for them they came running towards eddie hide in the bushes toruk i ll call you when it s safe toruk got up and hid behind the bushes like eddie insisted there you are short stuff thought we d lost you there for a minute there said devin now why would i let you do that the whole main reason i m running away is to prevent that from happening said eddie out of the bushes toruk came around roaring softly relax toruk they re cool toruk stopped roaring and lied down next to eddie keeping his eye on the gang do you mind explaining why you have a tiger right beside you asked bryan well i guess i could so i guess i will it was five years ago when i went to africa anyway i was looking around in a forest there mom told me not to but i did anyway i was running all over the place and then i accidently bumped into a shaman you know what they are people are who are believed that they can communicate with dead spirits i said my apologizes and when i did this fell off eddie took a pause and pulled out from his white shirt and polo a grateful dead amulet with a dog chain necklace holding it.

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p. 9

what is it asked bryan i m getting to that so anyway she welcomed back me into her hut inside the forest she introduced herself as tory she looked to be about mid-thirties she asked my one question after she told me to take a seat and after that it s all blank to me so you ve come back to the living xavier night she asked me after that as i said completely blank i was there and everything but it wasn t me who was talking after a while i m back in control then tory laughs at my whoa what just happened expression on my face she then showed me my necklace where d you find this she asked me and i answered i just found it i was nine i didn t have much of a vocabulary so she didn t ask again she asked lots of hard questions for a nine year old the last one was a bit weird do you know who xavier night is nope i answered real fast she handed my necklace back and as she did she continued on to say xavier night is a vampire regardless somehow xavier was caught in that necklace of yours so in a way he s like your alter ego but it doesn t make sense you only look like you ve drank your own blood am i correct i nodded my head yes then she continued on well before xavier disappeared he gave me this to keep incase he ever came back tory walked over to a hand-woven basket of some sort and pulled out to what seemed to be like a basketball tory said a few words under her breath and instantly the basketball turned into a ball of fur but when the ball of fur rolled out it was a tiger cub before i could even think i heard myself yelling jacob so xavier night really lives on now i think xavier would want you to rename the tiger cub he will respond either way

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p. 10

she was silent for a while and i said toruk excuse me his name his toruk that s a great name now you must find your parents here are a backpack to carry toruk in now hurry along eddie she said as she placed toruk into the backpack and then she scurried me out of there like no tomorrow wait how did you know my name i tried to ask but when i turned her and her hut disappeared and that is how i got toruk here everyone was silent trying to fit all the pieces together eddie looked at toruk and then he thought aloud and said i bet toruk and i could beat you to that tree and all the way back yea and how are you and a tiger going to beat us asked cody eddie didn t answer he just got on toruk s back toruk got up and looked ready to race the gang laughed a little but they got ready ready set go toruk and eddie were in the lead followed by devin bryan kyle and then cody man that tiger is fast said bryan i know right i trained him myself so you guys will keep toruk a secret he doesn t eat much if ever he eats the deer and you only need to check him every three months begged eddie the gang all looked at each other and kyle bent down on one knee and placed his hand on eddie s shoulder and said sure little buddy we ll take care of toruk for you

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p. 11

words were not needed then he motioned the gang to him and they got down on their knees like kyle well everybody got up devin stayed on his knees and eddie just started to bawl devin pulled eddie towards his shoulder and eddie just kept crying you could tell these friends were really brothers to eddie he couldn t move he couldn t move away from his from his forever brothers he couldn t but he had to devin patted eddie on the back while he was crying trying to calm him down sorry guys it s just it s eddie couldn t finish the sentence because he went back to crying after about ten minutes eddie had cried everything out you good now bro asked bryan yea i m fine now thanks devin said eddie no prob bro devin now we really need you to get you home i know said eddie here i ll carry you since devin s shirt is all wet said cody cody bent down and eddie climbed on his back thanks bro said eddie no prob said cody the gang walked back to eddie s and when they got there it started to rain the moving van was gone cody slowly dropped eddie off his back eddie walked off to the door he d never see again and away from his true brothers eddie mrs cortez yelled as eddie closed the door mrs cortez ran over to eddie and got on her knees and hugged him after about ten seconds she told eddie you have got to stop running away like that come on squirt we re leaving mr cortez said mr cortez was always had been the type to hurry things up all the stuff was already in the back trunk of the car mr cortez rented eddie got in the car plugged in his ear-buds into his ipod and lied back and fell asleep it might ve felt like a second but it was longer because the next thing eddie knew his dad was shaking him to wake him up.

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p. 12

come on squirt we re here eddie s ipod was still playing so he turned it off eddie dragged himself out of the car and grabbed what seemed to be his suitcases and rolled off do you even know where we re going eddie asked mrs cortez anywhere but here said eddie sarcastically we re moving to new york said mr cortez yippee said eddie with even more sarcasm the family was off after they had done the usual airport crap they found a seat and waited eddie plugged his ear-buds into his ears and waited eddie you hungry asked a voice eddie opened his eyes and devin he literally jumped out of his seat and ran over to hug devin the rest of the gang had made it to the airport somehow what are you guys doing here we missed you too little buddy said bryan eddie laughed once again for the first time in a while eddie was smiling i hate to ruin this lovey dovey moment but i m starving said kyle so where do you guys want to go asked eddie i m really in the mood for wendys said cody good idea let s go said eddie so the gang started to walk to the wendys about halfway there devin picked up eddie and put him on his shoulders they got there and ordered found a seat then devin placed eddie on one of the high chairs and the gang sat right next to him then they dug into their food as soon as kyle brought it over after a while eddie could hear a voice coming from the distance i thought you guys said you d bring eddie to the car

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p. 13

chelsea chelsea eddie started running to the voice and yet to behold it was chelsea hey tiger did you really think you could move without saying bye to me i didn t have a choice you know dad always let s move no exceptions true you could ve texted me or something i had to hear it from these guys well that s behind us so we cool well okay we re cool but when you come back never do that again k eddie looked at the gang you didn t tell her did you we couldn t so we brought her here so she can hear it from you said bryan gee thanks no prob tell me what eddie tell me what pleaded chelsea eddie took a deep breath and a long sigh and took the courage and said i m not coming back chels believe me i would if i could you know that but i m being forced to move i know this is going to be hard for you but i just don t know what to do say eddie you mean you won t come back for like a year or so right eddie took another deep sigh and said i m not coming back ever that was it chelsea lost it chelsea started to cry a river of tears falling down her face eddie gently moved her to his shoulder and she started to cry on that for a while after a while he pushed her away and told her chels i ll always remember not as my friend but as my home girlfriend who s always there for me no matter what time it is even if it s four in the morning you might get mad at me later but i was always your pillow in english class and you were mine haha awe that s so sweet now don t forget to text me about everything said chelsea.

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p. 14

that was great and all but we ve been talking about eddie moving but we still have no idea where he s moving to said devin uh oh i m moving to new york wow that s really far i know but i ll take plenty of pics and send them all to you guys the move it s time to go eddie yelled mrs cortez the gang got up out of their seats and each gave a quick hug then chelsea gave him a long hug eddie backed away slowly and run towards his parents as eddie you could see a tear fall from his face he knew he couldn t look back if he did he would bawl like crazy so he just looked forward he followed his parents to where he handed the attendant his ticket and got on the plane the family didn t sit by each other eddie sat with all the other teenagers who had probably better lives than him at the moment he found his seat no one sat next to him thank god so he naturally sat down closed his eyes and installed his ipod into his ears the next thing he knew the plane or somebody was shaking him what what i m up eddie opened and yet to behold the person who was shaking him were devin and the group what are you guys doing here well it only took us about five minutes that you can t move without us so we found your parents on the plane and we told them about our plan and your mom was touched so she bought tickets for all us and here we are cool did chelsea come

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p. 15

no little buddy she called her mom to drive her home she couldn t say another good-bye oh okay so where are you guys sitting right here actually so move over haha so eddie scooted over and let the others in the seats he then fell back asleep and was smiling again eddie woke up to see the plane was landing eddie woke up the gang and they started to walk out of the plane and waited on eddie s parents to show up when eddie saw his mom he instantly ran for her in open arms mrs cortez knew what eddie wanted and she and he hugged thanks mom it s no problem eddie i m glad you re feeling a bit better i am now we better get our suitcases before anyone else does that s a good idea come on eddie get on my back so you don t get lost said devin eddie never argued when it came to devin so he did what as devin told him can you bend down a little haha sure buddy devin bent down and eddie got on the family got their suitcases and the gang got eddie s bags their own too and walked out of the airport mr cortez called the cab company and got a cab to pick them up the cab only took about a 15-minute wait everyone scrunched in eddie had to sit on his devin s lap but they got the window seat so the whole ride was full of oohs and ahhs and some ewws not much though this is new york everybody said mr cortez the cab drove in front of a neighborhood stop here said mrs cortez but mom we re right in the front said eddie.

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