Once upon a time, there lived a zebra. This zebra's name was Hogan. Hogan was a lovely zebra. He loved running, jumping, dancing, doing all the normal zebra things and his favorite activity was playing Monopoly. But, there was one different thing about Hogan that made him especially special. Hogan was the only ever rainbow striped zebra! You may not know this, but normally zebras have a black and white striped pattern on their coat. The fact that Hogan was not born this way, made him very different from all the other zebras at Central Park Zoo where he lives.
One day, Hogan went up to a few zebra-kids who were in his class at school and said to them, "Hi Corey! Hi Brez! Hi LaVon! Would you all like to play a game of monopoly with me!?"
The 3 other zebra-kids replied, "With you!?!? No way!"
"Why not?" Hogan said, feeling a bit upset.
"Because," LaVon sassed back, "You are WEIRD! Just look at your coat! It's all different colors, not nice and plain like our beautiful coats!"
Hogan was very upset! He always thought his rainbow coat was special in a beautiful way! Hogan ran far away from the other zebra-kids, looking for his mother. When he finally found her, he said to her, "Mom! The mean kids made fun of my stripes! You always told me my stripes were beautiful, but you were wrong!" Hogan cried and cried.
"They ARE beautiful, Hogan! Yes, they are different but that's what makes you special. That's what makes you who you are! Everyone has something different about themselves, Hogie. Your special trait just happens to be the beautiful colors of your stripes!" Hogan's mother assured, "And I wouldn't change it if I could."
With a new confidence thanks to his mother, Hogan decided to confront his schoolmates. Hogan approached the zebra-kids, "Listen you guys, I know you think I'm weird because I have rainbow stripes, but I've got something to tell you about that," Hogan went on, "My stripes are what make me who I am. And I know all of you guys must have a special trait that makes you who you are too! We all have a little something different in us."
"One of my hooves is crooked!" Corey shouted, "Hey, that makes me different too!"
"My mom still has to tell me a story before I go to bed!" LaVon yelled.
"I like to free-style rap!!!" Brez joined in.
"You see!" Hogan concluded, "We all have things that make us special!"
And with that, all the zebra-kids apologized to Hogan for making fun of his stripes and asked if they could be friends.
"Of course!" Hogan replied.
"Oh, and about that monopoly game," LaVon said, "Can we sti-..."
"LET'S PLAY!" Hogan exclaimed.
And they all lived happily ever after.
THE END.
