• There was a small fairy. She lived in a fairy glade near a haunted forest. In the glade, most every fairy was like the other. Not she, for she had a different sparkle, a different flutter-flap of her wings, and a different, songlike laugh. The other fairy children avoided the small fairy, but she didn’t mind.
    One day, she decided she wanted to play with the other fairy children. So she flutter-flapped up to the other fairy children and asked, “Excuse me, fairy children. Would you like to play with me?”
    But the other fairy children responded “No thank you! You’re too different! Maybe explore the haunted forest, where the monsters are?”
    So the small fairy left with a bow and a shimmer, and went exploring in the forest.
    In the forest, the small fairy found a group of monsters. There was a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy, a ghost and a skeleton. The small fairy flutter-flapped up to them, and asked, “Excuse me, monsters. Would you like to play with me?”
    The monsters agreed. “Certainly, mien frauline,”responded the vampire, with a big grin.
    “YES!” barked the werewolf, wagging his tail.
    “Of course we do,” said the mummy, swaying with the wind.
    “I think we should,” said the ghost, bobbing up and down.
    “Why not?” said the skeleton, chattering its teeth.
    So the small fairy played with all the monsters.
    “What shall we do?” asked the small fairy.
    “Let’s do a game of monster noises!” exclaimed the werewolf.
    “M-monster noises?” wondered the small fairy.
    “I will show you, my dear” said the vampire. The vampire took a deep breath, then let out a loud laugh. “MWAH-HA-HA-HA!”
    “My turn!” cried the werewolf. He howled “GRA-ROOOOOOOO!”
    “OOAAAAHHhhhhhhhh!” moaned the mummy.
    “WooOOOOOoo,” sighed the ghost.
    The skeleton, with a quick dance, rattled its bones with a wrinkle-tink-tink.
    “Let’s hear your monster noise, now, dear,” said the vampire.
    The small fairy took a deep breath. “Tee-hee,” she started. Noticing how different her laugh was, she decided to try sounding more like the vampire. “Mwah-ha-ha-hee!” Her flutter-flap stuttered, and she lost a little bit of sparkle.
    “That was a nice laugh,” said the mummy. The rest of the monster group agreed. They went on for a while.
    “Well, now what?” asked the vampire to the rest of the group.
    “We should go around scaring kids,” ventured the ghost.
    “We haven’t scared kids in a while,” chimed in the mummy.
    “LET’S SCARE THE PANTS OFF OF THEM,” shouted the werewolf.
    “Sure. Whatever,” the skeleton added in.
    “And what do you think, my dear?” The vampire looked over at the small fairy expectantly. She hesitated, for fairies help children. But these monsters were nice to her.
    “Uh, okay. Let’s go,” said the small fairy.
    So they went off in search of human children. When they found a group of children approaching, they all hid. Each monster took a turn scaring the children.
    The vampire turned into a bat and flew past one child, screeching. They screamed and ran away. The werewolf howled and growled. Another child went scuttling home. The mummy shambled up to another, groaning. That child went away crying. The ghost appeared behind a child and shouted “BOO!” He disappeared in a flash, terrified. The skeleton waited for yet another child to draw near, then jumped out of hiding. They shivered and shook and yelped, then ran away.
    One last child was left. The small fairy fluttered up to the child. The child looked at the fairy with curiosity and awe.
    “Um, rawr?” said the small fairy to the child. The child shrugged and walked away.
    The fairy lost her sparkle, and her wings stopped flutter-flapping. Grey and embarrassed, she ran off into the forest crying. In the forest, she hid. The monsters followed her into the forest. They split up to search for the small fairy.
    The vampire looked for her from above the trees. The werewolf sniffed the ground for her. The mummy left a bandage wherever they searched. The ghost went through the trees. The skeleton watched to see if she left the forest. But there she was nowhere to be found.
    Then the mummy had an idea. “Where are you?” asked the mummy. The fairy poked her head out from under the brush.
    “I’m over here,” she said. The monsters gathered around.
    “Are you okay?” asked the ghost.
    “No,” said the fairy.
    “Why?” asked the skeleton.
    “I’ve lost my sparkle, and now I can’t fly.”
    “Well, that’s okay,” said the werewolf, “Neither can I!” Everyone was silent for a moment.
    Then the vampire spoke up. “Maybe we can help.”
    “Could you?” asked the fairy, with a frown.
    “I know we’ll try” said the vampire. “Hey, ghost. What helps you float?”
    “I dunno,” said the ghost, with a shrug. “I just do.”
    The vampire scanned the area. “No one else here flies.”
    “But you do,” said the werewolf. There was a stifled laugh or two.
    “Yes, of course,” said the vampire, crossly. “I turn into a bat, then I flap my wings.
    “How do you turn into a bat?” asked the fairy, looking down.
    “I’m not sure,” said the vampire, with a pause. “I just do.”
    “No one here knows how we do what we do,” said the skeleton, with a yawn.
    “Everyone knows how to do these things by themselves,” said the mummy.
    “It’s no use,” said the small fairy, as she started to cry. “I can’t be scary like any of you, and now I can’t even fly.”
    “Why not be yourself?” asked the ghost. “Maybe that’ll work.”
    “You don’t need to be like us.” Said the mummy, giving the small fairy a pat and offering a bandage for her tears.
    “But I’m not like the other fairies,” cried the small fairy. “They don’t like me because I’m different. And now look! I don’t even sparkle! They’ll never like me now!”
    “We’re not them,” said the werewolf, ears flattened back.
    “Nothing wrong with being different from the rest,” said the ghost.
    “We like you already,” said the mummy.
    “So what?” asked the skeleton.
    “I don’t know how I’m supposed to be like myself,” said the fairy.
    “Well,” said the mummy, “what made you so different?”
    “I used to have a different sparkle,” said the small fairy, “but now I can’t do that. My flutter-flap was different, but I can’t move my wings.”
    “You sure there’s nothing else?” asked the vampire.
    “Well, I suppose there’s my laugh.”
    The ghost got excited. “Try that! Try that!”
    “Okay,” said the small fairy, and she took a deep breath. “Tee-hee-hee!” And just like that, she began to sparkle, to shimmer, and to fly.
    “That was a really nice laugh,” said the mummy. All the other monsters nodded.
    “Thanks everybody. Though, now I must go back,” said the small fairy.
    “Feel free to come around again,” said the vampire, with a bow and a grin. “We’re all a band of misfits, my small fairy friend. Not a one of us is like anyone else. I say you’d fit in just fine.”
    “Alright,” said the fairy, waving goodbye. And they all waved back.
    “See you next time!”