By: Kathy Wu
It was “Bring your Dog to School” day, and I was sure that I had the school’s coolest looking dog. Flash was sleek black, with bundles of sharp fur sticking out in all angles as if to say, “Back off and watch out, your favorite Flash is coming through!” The spike collar was so shiny I could see everyone’s whimpering faces as we walked by. People made excuses to leave the room as Flash filled the air with fiery red smoke as it trailed out of his handmade sunglasses. I grinned, but it was always that other voice in my head, saying, you could be nice and allow yourself to be accepted, you know. I swatted that thought away with a swift of my hand. It didn’t matter anymore. Now everyone knew the real person I really was.
I was walking down the hall, searching for a particular victim to scare when I saw one of my fellow “average” friends, (Not that I had any close ones) Betty, clutching a bright pink leash decorated with colorful hearts. Ugh! I muttered to myself, crinkling my nose in disgust. As if that wasn’t enough, I noticed that her poodle was dressed in once again, pink, a poofy glittery tutu with neon yellow bows covering all of her fur. I hated to imagine how hot the poodle must have been, with her fur already thick enough to wear during a winter snowstorm. “Love your poodle!” complimented Ann, another one of my “average” friends. I pricked my forehead three times at Flash’s collar. What were my friends doing? Was I dreaming? I turned to see Ann applying human lipstick onto the animal and made the conclusion that no, I was not dreaming, but was about to get tossed off to the dreamland of Heaven. Betty and Ann spotted me and gave a quick gesture of hello, frantically moving through the crowd to meet me. Ohhh no, I thought, already regretting the decision of my existence here at the school. This is where I meet the sweet ballet princesses and me and Flash’s fame disintegrates. “We’re coming!” They hollered. I could already smell the scent of sickly perfume coming from them and at this point, my nose was crinkled to the max and on the verge of falling off.
Suddenly I heard a voice shrill, “Look, they're getting along together!” My eyes immediately flickered open in surprise. To my shock, Betty and Ann hadn’t shown any mean reaction to Flash or me at all! In addition, Flash, the massive and fearless wolf, was having fun and playing with that scrawny barbie dog! I was so focused on my thoughts I didn’t even realize both Betty and Ann with staring up at me, engaged in what I was thinking. When I looked back at them, Ann said, “I know what you're thinking. Actually, we’re all the same and different in many ways. I love cute animals but actually hate the color pink.” I blinked in surprise. I hated pink as well! “And actually, even though I like the color pink, I’m not that big of a fan of poodles.” Betty added. No wonder why it looked so frizzy! That was the day when I realized, that all dogs can be friends with their similarities and differences, just like their owners.