Story One Phoebe the Penguin

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

Phoebe was a very lonely penguin. Instead of swimming, and playing outside with all the other penguins at Crooked Creek, she stayed inside her igloo and kept to herself. It isn’t that she didn’t want to play with everyone else, she did but Phoebe always got picked on, and didn’t have any friends. In school, she sat in the very first seat, and always knew the answers to Mrs. Otter’s questions, but outside the classroom the other’s made fun of her crooked teeth, and short haircut. Every day in English class, Felicia Finns would hide her glasses and everyone would laugh at her while she anxiously tried to find them. Boys never even looked her way, and she never got asked out on a date. Over time Phoebe just preferred to be by herself where she was always liked.

One day Felicia came into school wearing the newest oil shine to make her feathers shine, and soon all the other girl penguins did so too. Phoebe’s mom came into her room one afternoon and said, “Phoebe why don’t you go outside and play with your friends?” “Because I don’t want to mom I want to stay in here and read, plus they don’t like me because I don’t have shinny feathers like all the other girls.” She replied. “But darling, we can go get you some right now if you want.” “No thank you mom,” she said, “I don’t want to be all sticky and slimy with that stuff on my feathers, it might drip onto my school work anyways.” Then off she went with her studies.

Over time as the children of Crooked Creek grew up, Phoebe did too, and boy did she grow out of her awkward days. Her dark brunette hair grew long, and she styled it to look perfect around her face, her feathers had grown in to a dark shade of charcoal black, and her green eyes sparkled behind her newly fitted glasses. When all the children had reached Seaport High School, everyone really seemed to notice Phoebe’s new burst of confidence and beauty. All the boys started asking her out on dates, and though she liked the attention, she never forgot the way the boys had called her “Beaver tooth” as children.  

One day at the beginning of class, her English class had assigned projects, and who else did her teacher pair her up with than Felicia Finn. This was the last person that Phoebe wanted to be paired up with but she knew she could stand up to her now.

“Hey beaver tooth, how’s the weather down in ugly town?” Felicia said as she walked over to Phoebe. “Look can we just do the project, I really don’t want to fight” was all Phoebe said to her. Well the entire time that they had to work on the project, Felicia did nothing but tease Phoebe, telling her that her clothes were ugly, spilling coffee on Phoebe’s notebook, and “loosing” all the notes Phoebe wrote for the paper. Phoebe had the perfect plan to get her back.

The day it was due, Phoebe went into class early to set up, and when it was their turn to present the presentation, Phoebe pretending she was sick and she couldn’t talk so that meant Felicia had to give their speech. Now Phoebe knew that she had done all the work, and it would show everyone and the teacher that Felicia didn’t help her and she would be left speechless. And that was just the case, Felicia stood there and didn’t know what to say, and turned fire engine red when the teacher called on her to present. She ran crying from the room, and Phoebe took over and explained that she had done the entire project, and gave her presentation for a perfect A.

Felicia learned a valuable lesson that day, she may have outsmarted others into doing her work, but there will always be someone smarter than you who will bring you down. She may have pushed Phoebe but she could never break her down.