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Dean and I have been best mates for the past five years since he first arrived at our school from up in the country.� I remember we got into some deep discusion about the band Queen at the time because I was really into them and Dean knew every word to every song they recorded.� His Brother Brett was a big Queen fan too, and he'd picked them all up from that.� I thought he was a genius for knowing all this, but I didn't know then that he really was a genius.� He was a bit of a short arse then, and always hyperactive, and you would never have guessed it, but he was a total brain and from the day we started to hang around and sit together in class, he would help me with my schoolwork.� That's because he was the type of personwho was always trying to help other people.� It was no time before he became really popular, and one thing you would hear all the time from girls is; "Isn't he cute".

He joined in with our group of mates who have stayed together right through school and afterwards.� Woodsy, Johnno, Jim, Mick, Dean and I were the core group and we used to call ourselves the T.C.'s back when we were young, but I won't explain what that stood for.� Dean was always the one with the ideas and there was never a party without Deano.� He was the king of the 'pants down' brigade and there were often times we would entertain everyone by dancing with our pants down around our ankles, and I remember he would do things, like start talking to a girl and during the conversation, let his pants fall to the floor and wait for

her to notice.� He was always a charmer with the women and even in year eight, had letters shoved in his bag, and a group of girls following him around.

There were two Deans really always.� There was the super popular, always funny party Dean, and there was the quiet serious Dean, and this was the one who became my best mate.� He was like another brother to me, and in fact all my family treated him like one of us the same way that the Christiansens made me part of their family.� He was a person who was always aware if there was something wrong and would talk to people quietly to find out and help them.� He was the person everyone came to if they had a problem and he would always listen and help them out.� The thing about Dean was that he was there for everyone but would never bother people with his own problems much, although in the past year and a half there were times when he would just say; 'I'm having a bit of a bad time right now' but wouldn't go into details.� I guess because everyone assumed because he was always on top of things, that he would stay that way andoften all he would say when I asked if there was anything I could do was; 'You're doing it already'.

I know there is no way he can come back to us which is hard because even if he could come back for one day, there is so much his mates would want to say to him.� Just to let him know that underneath everything he was still king of the T.C.s and no better friend could be found by anyone, anywhere.