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Once upon a time in a high school far, far away there were animals of all different kinds, each animal group in their own cliques, there were your big cats, your dogs, your birds, your reptiles and even your fish. First day of freshman year, all the students looking their best, making friends with their cliques. Walking down the hallway a certain animal turns the head of every clique with his appearance, they all start to whisper and point, “What’s wrong with him”, “He’s so funny looking”, “That’s one UGLY duck.” The duck looked around and realized everyone was making fun of him, just a small little duck that didn’t look like the rest, this made the duck feel embarrassed and alone, constant staring everywhere he went. He didn’t know why he was seen so ugly, why no one could accept him. Every day was the same thing, until eventually no one bothered to even acknowledge he existed. The poor little duck spent his whole freshman year sad and alone, not one animal that bothered to be his friend. Sophomore year was approaching, and the little duck made it his mission to fit in. He first tried to fit in with the cats, it was going well at first. The cats mainly dwelled behind the school gym or cutting class to go to the movies. The Little Duckling didn’t feel comfortable with ditching class, especially since it meant jeopardizing his perfect GPA, but he was determined to be apart of a crowd, even if it was as nonchalant and callous as the cats. However, his first “ditch day” didn’t go nearly as planned. The security guard caught the cats ditching but only because of the Little Duckling and all his white feathers stood out like a sore thumb against the cats smooth, shiny fur. All the cats got 3 day’s worth of detention and scolding from the Dean. However, the Little Duck was let go because he hadn’t ever gotten in trouble for anything before. The Dean hardly even recognized him. So there goes his chance to fit in with the Big Cats, it was probably best that he steer clear of their stomping grounds for a while.
Next he tried the dogs. The dogs were pretty much the jocks of the school. Athletic, charming, loud, hairy, and stinky on occasion. The Little Duck , however, does not have any athletic ability. He is loud, he isn't so much hairy as he is feathery, and he takes care of his basic hygiene. With the cats it was easier to fit in they never really cared about much. Dogs are a little more territorial and specific about who they let into their circle. The little duck knew that if he was going to impress them, he'd have to have something in common with them. So, he tried out for the swim team, since of course he was a natural born swimmer after all. When he got to swim tryouts, the first thing that he noticed was that all the dogs had on swim trunks, while he had on a speedo. He realized yet again he'd be sticking out like a sore thumb. But it was too late, his mom had already bought the Speedo’s, there was no going back. So he puffed up his chest, and jumped in the pool. The coach, who oddly enough was a pig, instructed the students to line up against the pool, wall split everyone up in twos, the Little Duck was the last, and was paired with a wolf. The Little Duckling thought to himself, “why, why of all dogs, did I have to get stuck with a wolf?” The wolf hardly even acknowledged the Little Duckling. Which, although was counterproductive, it made the Little Duckling feel good for a change, to go unnoticed. When it got down to the Little Duckling and the wolf, the coach blew his whistle, and they both started swimming. For the first five seconds it looked as though the wolf was going to beat Little Duck without breaking a sweat, but the Little Duckling quickly picked up speed and in no time had already reached the other end of the pool before he knew it. He didn't even have to try. The wolf came up shortly after him. But he was not met with celebratory cheering and howling, instead there was just looks of confusion and of anger, mostly from the Wolf and mostly out of jealousy. It did not matter anyway, because all though the pig was secretly rooting for the duck over the wolf, ( because pigs and wolves have a long-standing bad blood within the relationship) the pigs still declared the wolf the winner. That's when everyone cheered and howled. The duck got out of the pool sulking as he moped on over to the boys locker room. The coach stopped the little duck and said, “I know you were the winner, but Wolf is our school superstar without him our athletic department wouldn't be what it is today, sorry kid.” this made the Little Duck feel badly. When he got home later that night, he went up to his room and crossed dogs off his list right under cats. The duck had a feeling he had done enough damage for the school year, he needed a break from rejection for a while.. Junior year was here, new year, new Little Duck? Not hardly. The very first day, the Little Duck tried to make friends with the reptiles, The reptiles are geniuses, there is literally no other clique in the school that’s smarter than them, Little Duck thought that’d work to his advantage but it turns out he was nowhere on the reptiles level. They were doing math equations he’d never even seen before. He knew right away that this wasn’t going to work out for him. He moved down before they had a chance to reject him. Fish make Little Duck anxious, from stories he’s heard, all sorts of strange things happening in the ocean and shark attacks, he had a right to be. but he was still determined to find a place to fit in. The fishes were the party animals at the school every weekend they threw parties and sometimes they even skip school and throw day parties. Since freshman year the Little Duck had already built the courage to skip class, so he went to a day party, Everything was going well, he was enjoying himself a little and minding his business, until a certain shark came up to him and pretty much pushed him around until he left the party. This sparked a turning point for Little Duck. Senior year came around and something about the little duck was different he no longer cared about appearances or whatever people thought of him, he was no longer trying to fit in or to please others around him, He has finally come to the realization that there was no such thing as pleasing everybody and if everyone in high school was so shallow to make fun of his appearance when he was a freshman and treated him mean then maybe he didn’t want to be apart of that. The Little Duck had finally transformed into a beautiful swan and suddenly everyone wanted to be his friend, the dogs wanted him on the swim team, The cats still skipped school pretty much every day, they didn’t care, they hadn’t changed. The lizards invited him over for study dates and tutoring sessions, the fishes gave him invitations to their parties and begged him to come. Something he wanted all his life, but he realized something, if no one could accept him for how he looked before than he didn't want to be treated better because he was beautiful. Beautiful swan decided he didn't need to be part of any clique, he was brave and independent and will make friends with anyone who will accept him for who he really is.