In the book Tears Of A Tiger by Sharon M. Draper Andrew Jackson , Robert Washington , Gerald Nickelby and B.J Carson are the star of the Hazel wood High School  basketball team. They all loved playing basketball to the fullest. One Night at Hazel-wood  High School there was an intense game against another high school. There were a few college scouts there and they were all excited about the win they were about to receive.After there wonderful win Andrew, Gerald and some  one other teen who isn't on the basketball team but are tight with all of them decided to tag along. They decided to celebrate there amazing win and drink couple of six packs of beer that was stashed in Andrews car. So Robert and Andrew are in the front seat and Gerald and Tyrone are in the back seat. They all have drink in there hands except Robert, Robert don't drink and the kind of respect him because of it. He says it bring bad habits in the future.

       There cruising down the highway and everything becomes dizzy to Andrew and the car starts to swerve a little but they all thought it was funny. Andrew was driving and there all laughing having a good time then Andrew notices the cars around them are beeping crazy at them so they start to laugh even harder then suddenly SLAM. They slammed into a cement wall on the highway and they all went unconscious. Suddenly they all woke up by the smell of gasoline and realized the gas tank was open and the car was going to explode. Gerald stumbled out of the car and helped Andrew and Tyrone out of the car ans then tried to save Robert. Since Roberts legs were so long he had them on top of the dashboard and the impact of the accident caused his legs to be stuck in the window shied. that's when Gerald and Andrew sprung into action to save Robert they jumped on top of the hood of the car and and tried to pull Robert out by his legs then there was a big burst of flames that threw Andrew and Gerald off the top of the car. that's when Robert started screaming " i don't want to die like this, Andrew help me ,help me". the explosion caused Robert to burn to death and that crushed Andrew so much. he felt he was the reason Robert was dead and he needs to go with him.

       After the accident Andrew went into a deep depression feeling like the reason why Robert is dead is all his fault. i feel really bad for Andrew because i wouldn't know how to handle the situation he is in. Andrew feels that he should be dead instead of Robert and he will take his place any chance he gets. i think Andrew needs to stay strong for his family and his friends that are supporting and overtime he will forgive himself for what happened to Robert, or he wont.

Protagonist

       Tyrell is a very interesting character in my independent reading book. Tyrell's family is struggling financially and physically. Tyrell lives with his mom and little brother troy in Bennett homeless shelter in the Bronx. Tyrells father is in prison again for illegally selling liquor at a party. tyrell mom is no type of role model for troy so tyrell has to make sure he can provide a life for his brother. Over this time tyrell finds a companion, Jasmine. the first time tyrell saw jasmine he was instantly attracted to her, but tyrell has a girlfriend Novisha. jasmine is a influence on tyrell, like shes helps him promote parties like his father use to do so he can get his family out of a shelter and into a apartment. she lets him know when his mother leaves troy alone in the shelter everything. but there is a huge distraction in tyrells life, Novisha. She constantly making him mad and always getting in the way of his business. But tyrell loves her with all his heart.
        Novisha constantly brushes tyrell away when he picks her up from school and she is hiding something from him and he cant get it off his mind. Its like Novisha like to keep him stressed out and he dosen't realize it. He has too much on his hands to be thrown off by nonsense and unnecessary things. Novisha Dosen't understand what he is going threw because she isn ot in his situation, but jasmine is.