Story:
Fiction Fifi and the Uncommon Colors
A story about Bullying and Being Yourself
Fifi was a happy fish. She liked to read, color and play with her sister. But she didn’t like going to school.
You see, Fifi was a colorful fish, striped with blue and orange. But at school, all the other fish were just one color. And that made Fifi get laughed at by the other fish.
All of the fish laughed at her, but the worst was Clyde the Crab. He laughed at her the most and called her mean names. And today, he laughed so much, he made Fifi cry.
Fifi went home and thought of ways to make the other fish not laugh at her. Then she had an idea. She took a can of blue paint and painted her orange stripes blue.
The next day, when she went to school, the kids laughed anyway. When she looked around to wonder why, she saw the paint had washed off her back, and was becoming colorful again. As the kids laughed, she ran away to cry.
But her teacher saw her and followed her. “What’s wrong Fifi?” the teacher asked. Fifi explained it all. The teacher looked at her and asked why she didn’t tell him. “I guess.” Fifi replied slowly, “That I was scared of being called a tattletale.” The teacher sighed.
“Fifi,” he said. “If you are being bullied, it is always best to tell someone. And you have to be yourself. You are a beautiful fish, and you should be proud of your colors. I bet someone, somewhere, wishes they had those colors too.” Fifi nodded, but wondered if someone really wanted to look like her.
The next day, Fifi went to school and no one was mean to her. Until, the teacher left. Then they began to laugh again. “Now you are ugly and a tattletale!” Clyde laughed. Fifi was about to cry.
Then the teacher came back into the room, a new student swimming beside him. As she sat in her desk she looked at Fifi. Fifi was sure the girl was going to laugh at her.
Instead she smiled. “I love your colors! Back where I lived, lots of fish were more than one color. I always wanted to be, too!” Fifi smiled and looked at the other fish. She looked at the teacher, who smiled back. And from then on, Fifi was never laughed at again.
