My first ever story!

Hi there and welcome to my 2nd ever Flash Fiction Friday!

This week I decided to do something a little bit different... (in all honesty I couldn't come up with any ideas for a story.) So I decided to look back on my FIRST EVER BOOK!!! AND re-write it... Almost 11 whole years later!!!

A quick reminder; these stories are likely to vary greatly, so if you have younger readers with you, you may want to screen the posts before sharing. I won't write anything kinky, I'm really not that type... But I may write slightly more intense stories from time to time, or I may simply have some content that you don't want to get in to with your kids right now... I will try to include a "common sense rating" for my stories every week though.

I first wrote this story at 9 years old... so it's totally G. My rewritten version is also totally clean.

(This is the original paper copy... literally written on plain lined paper and bound with yarn. For ease of reading and accuracy I've copied it exactly, misspellings and capitalization errors intact.)

THE PENGUiN with Blue Toes AND A BLue NOSe.          By KAT, 8/17/09.

ONeS UPON A Time THeRe WAS A PENUGiN WiTH BLUe Toes AND A BLUe NoSe… BeCAuSE EVERY WiNTER HE STAYED Home WHERe THeRe WAs FisH TO EAT. AND oF COURSE THE OTHERS pICKED oN HiM.

BUT THe NeXT WiNTeR THeRe WeRe Less PeNGuiNs. So THe HuDDLeiNG ToGATHR THiNG DiDN’T WoRKOUT So WELL. So THEY HAD TO STAY HOMR AND THEY HAD BLUE NOSES AND BLUE TOES. AND HE HAD A ORNGE NOSe AND GREY TOes JusT BeCAUSE HE STAYD Home.

THE END

(Caption- LooK AT WHOS BLUE NOW!.)

(Back cover)

WHAT iF yoU FEEL LiKe you DON’T FiT iN? DiSCOVER WHAT HAPPNS WHEN yOU DON’T FiT iN AND LEARN THE INPORRTANCE OF WAiTiNG FoR YOUR Time To CAmeTOe.

Fascinating read right? Now I know what you are thinking... "The story is good alright.. but with skills like those why didn't you become an artist?" I know... I know... The world of art was calling out to me, but two of my Aunts are already artists, and I didn't want to steal their thunder. ;)

This is sure to be hard, especially with my industry-challenging redundancies, and call to action with the ever shrinking population of penguins... and my youthful professionalism with creating a tantalizing back cover... but I'll see if I can one up it with a few extra years of experience behind me.

The penguin with blue toes and a blue nose. By Kat, 3/23/2020. Once upon a time, there was a penguin named Blizzard, and he didn’t act like other penguins. Most penguins huddle together for warmth when it gets extra cold. But not Blizzard, he didn’t want to wait until winter was over to eat! So he stayed home where there was plenty of yummy fish to eat! But penguins aren’t meant to stay home when the temperatures are so low, and poor Blizzard got SO cold that his toes AND even his nose turned blue! Once it was warm enough for Blizzard to visit the other penguins, he covered his feet in charcoal and went to see his friends. But as soon as they saw him they began to laugh at him. Chilly, Blizzard’s girlfriend didn’t even want to stand next to him! Poor Blizzard was confused! Penguins don’t use mirrors, so he didn’t know that his nose had turned blue; and he had covered the blue on his toes with charcoal, but no one would tell him why they were laughing at him. So he sadly slipped over to the edge of the beach on his own, to figure out why no one wanted to play with him anymore. As soon as he saw his reflection in the icy water, he began to cry… He didn’t want to look so funny, he just hadn't wanted to be hungry! He had such an especially big appetite for a penguin that he couldn’t imagine not eating for such a long amount of time, but now he wished that he had listened to the other penguins when they had told him to huddle up, and he decided that next year he would join the other penguins no matter how hungry it made him. Blizzard spent the next year getting ready to huddle with the other penguins, but he was still worried about getting hungry half-way through the winter. So a few months before they planned to huddle, he went on a diet. He hoped that if he could get used to eating less food, he wouldn’t get hungry so quickly. But poor Blizzard was making a mistake, as the other penguins were eating extra food to make sure their tummies would be full as long as possible. The day before the huddle started he met up with his friends, who looked especially waddly and round. “Blizzard!” they exclaimed upon seeing his slender body, “Why are you so skinny? Have you been sick?” “No,” Blizzard explained, “I’ve been on a diet… now I can go much longer without eating!” Snowball, Blizzard’s best friend, took him aside to explain his mistake. “Blizzard, you were supposed to eat extra food before the huddle so that you won’t start out hungry! If you were to huddle now, you would starve!” Blizzard felt very foolish, and he began to sniffle. “But can’t I just eat extra today and still huddle with the rest of you?” Snowball shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid it’s too late now… you’ll have to stay home again this year.” Blizzard felt miserable. He didn’t want to starve, but he also didn’t want the other penguins to pick on him. So he went straight home and began to eat all the fish he could, hoping to fill his tummy SO much that the other penguins would HAVE to let him join the huddle. But instead he got a big tummy ache and had to stay in bed the whole next day, as snow began to swirl just like his name. Blizzard knew better than to try and join the huddle after the snow had started falling this thickly, but he couldn’t help but remember how the other penguins had avoided him when he was all blue the year before. So he sadly paced around his cave, salty penguin tears slipping down his beak and onto the floor. He kept kicking at the feathers that were on the floor of his cave; he had molted several times the year before, and they were all over the place. He looked down at the piles of thick, warm, downy feathers, and suddenly he had an idea. He gathered up all of the feathers he could find, and he began to weave them together. It took a lot of time, especially as penguins don’t have fingers. But after a few weeks he had a cozy pair of slippers, and a long black and white scarf to cover his nose. And he couldn’t wait to show all of his friends what he had made! Winter lasts long enough when you are a penguin, but it’s extra long when you are missing your friends… and when you want to show them the smart idea you had. But even the longest winter eventually turns into spring, and as soon as it was warm enough Blizzard slipped off his slippers and scarf and hurried out to find his friends. He could see them from the top of the hill where his cave was, and he was far too excited to walk down to them, so he slid down the snow-covered hill on his tummy, (there’s always snow where Blizzard lives) so that he could get to his friends extra quickly; and it was fun to play outside after being stuck in his cave for such a long time. Blizzard went right over to his friends, but as soon as he was close enough to talk to them, he noticed something strange; all of their noses and toes were blue just like his had been the year before! “What happened?” Blizzard asked, “Did everyone forget to huddle this year?” Snowball shook his head, and sneezed, before replying. “No, we all huddled, but they're just weren’t enough of us. We all got cold anyways!” Snowball wiped his eyes, which were all blurry because he had a cold, and he exclaimed “Blizzard! Your nose isn’t blue! And your toes aren't either! What did you do?” Blizzard blushed. All the white feathers on his tummy turned a pale shade of pink (that’s how penguins blush you know,) and he took all the other penguins back to his cave to show them his slippers and scarf. All the other penguins were very impressed with Blizzard, though they all agreed that they were still going to huddle the next year and hope that there were enough of them. The next year Blizzard stayed home again, but this time he wasn’t alone. He had his wife, Chilly, and their new egg to keep him company, and as he went to get a snack for himself and Chilly while they watched their egg, he was very glad that he had decided to stay home. The end.

What do you think? Did I improve upon "perfection" or do you prefer the original?

Thanks for the read!

If you have a story idea that you would like me to tackle please comment it below, I'd be glad of the help!