Take another step to another year and how Cody deals with most young penguins picking at his size, hence the title name of this chapter. Also, the early parts of how Big Z became a big name.

Chapter 8: Picking At Cody

A year has passed by and Cody, now seven, is thinking about what he wants to be when he grows up, but some others doubt that he will become everything he wants to be when he grows up because he's different from everyone else in Shiverpool.

He sat there, in front of the igloo, thinking about what he wants to be. He knows he doesn't want to be in the fish-piling thing because to him it seems very boring for him, not to mention doing the same thing every day.

He starts thinking, 'What do I want to be when I grow up? There's gotta be something.'

All of a sudden, everyone starts talking about this new penguin named 'Big Z', who's a great surfer out of Pen Gu Island and it seems as though, every penguin in Shiverpool has caught a daily dose of 'Vitamin Z'.

"Do you see how cool Big Z was?"

"Yeah, I've seen him perform the surfing competition in Australia. When he rode this brown carved surfboard and stood there, weightless?"

"Oh, man! That was so epic!"

"I wish you would've seen it."

"Man, I wish I would've, but I actually got to see him."

"Shut up! Really? When?"

"2 months ago, when we were in Pen Gu Island, he saw me standing there in the ocean and he asked me to surf with him."

"Did you?"

"Heck, yeah! He even brought me one of these awesome-carved boards and even signed his name there. How cool is that?!"

"Oh, extremely cool."

Cody overheard the entire conversation until someone turns around and whispered, "Don't look now, but I think the little puny fish-piler is staring at us."

"Who, Cody Maverick? Man, he's a loser."

"I am not a loser! Why can't you guys let me be me for one second?"

"Dude, you're smaller. You're only, like, six."

"Seven years old!"

"Whatever!"

"Yeah, I think you're too small to know who Big Z is."

"Do you even know what he does?"

"What?"

"Of course. He doesn't know. Surfing."

"What is surfing?"

"It's some sort of sport that Big Z brought in and he rides around a board and floats it in water with the waves. It's pretty much the most amazing feeling. You'd have to be out of your mind to not know stuff like that."

"Maybe that's what I want to be when I grow up."

The others looked at each other and started laughing hysterically. One penguin said, "Yeah, right! How can you possibly be a surfer? You can ride around the water and a board wouldn't lift you up."

"Actually, every board holds up every size; big or small."

"Well, whatever. You still wouldn't surf. How could you make it back in shore?"

"I can swim."

"Puh-leeze!"

"Come on, guys. We don't ned to take this from that little runt."

As the guys walked away, he shouted, "I am not a runt! Just let me be me for once!"

The guys started laughing at him and even threw a snowball at him and said, "Talk to the snowball!"

"At least a snowball is twice the size as you are!"

"That's because you're the bigger penguin."

They all laughed at him, thinking that Cody should be better off being smaller, which pretty much hurt him a little, but nobody seemed to care.

As they walked away, Cody sat at the snow on the ground and he felt some pieces of snow on his head, which brought him to tears. He walked back to the igloo and headed towards his room and started crying. He sat down on the floor, curled himself into a little ball, hid his head down and continued crying. It just tore Cody up to know that everyone else would make fun of him or judge him because he was smaller than everyone else.

He asked himself this question, "Why am I so different from everyone?"

GASP! How could these penguins be so mean to Cody? Poor Cody. Things will get better in the next chapter.