All the Colors of the Rainbow

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there was a very happy platypus called Flappy. Flappy was also a nonbinary, which meant that they were neither a girl or a boy. They had short brown fur all over their body, and they had a beak that looked like a duck bill. They had the tail of a beaver and webbed feet. They also had stubby legs and brown, furry flippers to help them swim underwater, which they were the fastest at doing. When the sky was dark, their favourite thing to do was hunt for bugs with their dad in the moonlight. They loved to go stargazing too, and look at the twinkly lights in the sky while cuddling with their family.  

Flappy had a best friend called Petal, who was a crocodile and was very smart. They lived close to each other, on either side of a small lake in the rainforest. Petal went to school in the day, and learned loads of amazing things, like how rainbows are made and why the sky is blue. She even got to go on daytime field trips to see the blue sky and even a rainbow. Every day, after she came home from school, Petal would tell Flappy about all the things she learned. Flappy loved hearing everything that had happened, but sometimes they felt jealous of Petal because she was so smart. After she told them all the stories about her day, they would swim together in the lake, splashing and crashing with them until their parents called them back home. 

Flappy lived in a small burrow with their family, which sometimes felt a little cramped, but it was cosy and they loved it. Flappy loved their life, but they had one problem. The thing they longed for most was to be able to go to school, but they couldn’t go to school because they had to stay at home to help their mom with chores. Petal had tried to teach them how, but they still didn’t understand. She told them to read certain parts of a book, and then she would read the rest, but they didn’t know how to read any of it, so it never worked. One day, Flappy decided that they were going to go to school so they could learn to read. When they finally persuaded their parents to let them go to school, they waddled as fast as they could to Petal’s sand mound to tell her the news. “I’m going to school with you!” they told her, and then went back home to go to bed.

When they woke up, they put on their new school uniform and made sure they looked extra smart. They skipped all the way to the boat dock outside their burrow, humming a happy little song and smiling extra brightly. When the little yellow river boat wooshed round the corner, they ran over to the door and hopped up the steps. They chose a seat at the very front and pretended to drive the bus along the road. When they got to the next stop, an angry looking pufferfish in a fishbowl got onto the bus. 

“Hi! My name’s Flappy!” Flappy said. 

The angry pufferfish grunted something which sounded like ‘spk’, but Flappy wasn’t sure if he would be the best new friend. Flappy started pretending to drive the bus, when a very angry sounding voice said, “Will you stop that?” Flappy looked at the pufferfish next to them and realized they had been the one who had said it. 

“Oh, uh…sorry,” Flappy said sadly, looking down at the ground, with tears in their eyes. “Is it not okay to play games at school?” Flappy thought, wishing they could ask someone, but too afraid of their voice cracking in the middle, and then they might start crying. “I can’t cry if I'm in school now,” they told themself. “People in school are big kids, and big kids don’t cry.” They put their head down and wished they could turn invisible. They sat like that for the rest of the boat ride, thinking about how they hadn’t even gotten to school yet and already their day was starting out badly. 

Chapter 2 

When they got to school, they slowly walked inside, and made their way down the side of the stream to their class area. They went in and were greeted by about 15 other students, but no Petal. They wanted to run out of the classroom and find out where she was, but they knew they couldn’t. They ducked their head down and walked to an empty pool of water with a tag with their name on it. They went and sat down, ready for the class to begin. The other students were all writing in books or drawing pictures, but they didn’t understand what they should do. After what felt like an eternity, the teacher walked inside and asked everyone to put their books away and get ready for class. 

When everyone was done, she said, “Flappy, will you please come up to the front?” 

They walked up to where she was standing, and she told everyone, “Students, this is Flappy. Can you say hello to Flappy please?” 

The class responded with a murmur of “Hello, Flappy.”

They went back to his pool and sat down while the teacher talked about why water looks blue and why the moon glowed, but they didn’t understand any of it. They tried to listen, but the thoughts of what happened on the bus kept on spinning around their head, like a train was driving around in circles in their brain. They just couldn’t concentrate! The teacher then said to the class that they were going to do hunting practice, and they sat up in their pool. Hunting practice! Finally something they could understand! The teacher walked over to his pool and poured some pretend fish inside. “Now everyone, you will have to catch the critters in your work area and bring them to me. I will analyze how efficient your catching style is, and then I will either ask you to teach other students your method, or I will teach you a new technique.” 

Flappy climbed onto the grass and then dived gracefully into the pool of water. They swam effortlessly through the waves, pushing water behind him until they reached his goal. The fish! They grabbed it in their beak and pushed themself upward using their webbed feet. When they broke the surface, they realized that the teacher had been watching them the whole time. “Well done, Flappy!” she said, taking the fish from their bill. They glowed with pride, and she pointed to another pool and asked them to help the student there. 

They walked over and found a water rat sitting in the pool. Flappy asked her, “What do you need help with?”

The water rat sighed, and then said, “I can’t catch it fast enough, and then I have to come up for air.”

Flappy showed the water rat how to dive down directly over the fish. It took a few tries, but eventually it worked. Flappy and the water rat talked to each other the whole time, laughing about their attempts, the way they dived, and even about how they splashed each other when they jumped into the water. Flappy asked the water rat her name, and she said it was Willow.  Flappy was so excited that they had made a new friend, and they skipped all the way back to their seat, smiling. 

Chapter 3

When the bell rang for recess, Flappy got in the line and walked with their class to the play area. There were fake fish in pools of water, a lake to swim in, and even a little meadow where you could play. They were so excited to show Petal their new friend, and tell her all about their day so far. They waddled over to where she was standing with a group of other animals. They walked up to the group and started to talk to Petal about what they had learned, until a mean voice said to them, “Um, sorry, but this group is girls only. No boys allowed.” 

Flappy looked up at the animal who said it, and saw a glamorous looking kangaroo with a frown on her face. “Um.. actually, I'm a nonbinary,” Flappy said, looking up at the kangaroo. 

“I don’t care what you are. You are not allowed here,” she said. 

Flappy walked away, feeling sad that they weren’t allowed to play with Petal. Why did it matter if you were a boy or a girl? Or something else? As they walked away, they saw Petal looking over her shoulder, mouthing, ‘Sorry.’ 

Flappy didn’t get it. Why hadn’t Petal stood up for them? They went over to Willow, and asked if she wanted to practice hunting together. 

Willow said, “Sure!” and they went over to the pools together. They dived into the water and splashed about together, and for a while, Flappy forgot all about what had happened with Petal. 

They caught fake fish with each other, until a little voice said; “Can I play with you too?” Flappy turned around and saw a tiny, spotted fish in a bowl, looking up at them. 

“Sure!” Flappy said, smiling. “My name is Flappy. What’s yours?” 

The fish said; “My name is Cosmo. I’m a fish called a galaxiid,” 

Flappy and Willow helped the fish into the pool, and they started to all play together. Flappy thought about what happened with Petal, but decided that if she didn’t want to be friends with them, they didn’t care. Flappy had new friends now. They didn’t need Petal! 

After recess was over, Willow and Flappy helped Cosmo back into his fish bowl, and they all went back inside together. They had another lesson on what makes water black in the night but blue in the day, and then a second one on how to climb rocks, and then it was the end of school. Flappy took the school boat home, and was already halfway to Petal and their special play spot, before they remembered that they would rather not play with Petal today. 

They were about to turn around and walk home, when a small voice came up from behind them, saying; “I-I’m surprised you still decided to come here.” 

Flappy turned around to see Petal behind them. 

“L-look,” she said. 

“I’m sorry that-” 

“No,” Flappy interjected. “I don’t want to hear it.” And that was final, Flappy thought.  They walked away, leaving Petal standing there, alone. 

When Flappy got home, they walked up to their room to practice reading. Flappy flopped down on their nesting box and pulled a book out of their rucksack. Flappy’s mom came up the stairs, and asked, “Why aren’t you playing with Petal today?” 

Flappy replied, “Um… I need to study, so we decided that we weren’t going to play today.” They said sadly, looking down at their webbed feet.

“Oh come on,” their mom replied. “I’m your mom, and I always know if something is wrong. What happened? Did you two have a fight or something?” 

“You could call it that,” Flappy said, using their front flippers to draw circles on their bedsheets. 

Their mom sat down on their bed and asked if they wanted to go stargaze together with Flappy’s dad. Flappy said yes, and they began to walk down the staircase with their mom. They walked outside together and lay down under the stars with their dad. 

“You know, if you have an argument with a friend, the best thing to do is to let them explain why they were mean to you. You should always try to hear the other person’s side of the story,” their dad said.

“I don’t think that will work,” Flappy replied. 

“I agree with your father,” Flappy’s mom said, holding a tray of three leaf cups of lake water. “You should try to let Petal explain, and if she was just trying to be mean, then you can forget about her and play with new friends.”

Flappy still didn’t think it would work, but he decided they might try it. After they all had finished, Flappy walked back to his room in the burrow and went to sleep. They would think about what to do…tomorrow.

Chapter 4 

They woke up the next day, and put on their school uniform. Flappy walked over to the kitchen table and began to eat some of his breakfast bugs, and then walked over to the boat dock, feeling sad that they weren’t going to be able to play with Petal anymore, but then they spotted someone familiar at the dock, and all their worries disappeared. It was Cosmo! “I didn’t know you were on my boat, Cosmo!” Flappy said to him as they lined up together on one of the piers. When the boat came round the corner, they got on together, and sat down next to each other. They talked for the whole boat ride, telling each other about what they had done, their favourite food, even who they thought was their best friend. When Cosmo asked that question, Flappy fell silent. They didn’t know who was their friend and who was their least favourite person. Flappy decided that since Petal was so mean, their best friend was Cosmo. 

“You, of course!” Flappy said.

 “Aw, thanks!” replied Cosmo, blushing. 

They carried on talking until the boat came to a halt at the river school. They got off together and walked to their classroom. This time, Flappy saw that the pool name tags had been changed. Flappy walked over to their new pool, and realized that the name next to it was Cosmo’s. They both saw the name tags at the same time, and then looked at each other and smiled. Willow’s name was on the pool on the other side of Flappy’s. The two of them sat down and began talking to each other, until they saw Willow walk into the classroom. 

“Hey, Willow!” called out Cosmo. “Come sit with us!” 

Willow walked over and sat in the pool next to Flappy. 

“Ah, I see you’ve noticed the seat change,” said the teacher, walking up to them. “I felt that to welcome you, Flappy, it would be best to seat you with some friendly faces. But, if I catch the three of you getting distracted or disrupting my class, I will move you immediately.” 

The trio nodded and started to read some of their assigned books. They did talk to each other a little bit, but they all finished a book at that time, so the teacher was happy with them. Other students began to trickle in, and then finally, everyone was here. Class began, and Flappy listened intently to the teacher as she talked to them about the best technique of swimming. After a couple more lessons, it was time for recess. The three walked down to the playground together and got into one of the pools. They began to splash around together, when Flappy heard a familiar voice above them. 

“Can I play too?” Petal asked, looking down at Flappy. 

“Um…” Flappy said. 

“No, why would you want to?” Cosmo said. “Why would you want to play with a bunch of kids who you treat like freaks? So that you can just betray your ‘best friend’ again?” he snapped. 

“Yeah!” Flappy said, realizing that Cosmo was right. “Why would you want to play with me if you don’t even care enough about me to stand up for me! Cosmo is right! You can't play with us!” 

“Fair enough,” Petal said, walking away dejectedly. “I guess I wasn’t as good a friend as I should’ve been.” 

The bell for recess rang, and they walked up together. Flappy tried their best to pay attention to the teacher, but all the words she said just seemed to swirl into the vortex of thoughts running around their head. When the bell rang for the end of the school day, Flappy got up from their seat and went to get their yellow, white, black and purple backpack, and then walked back to their seat and waited for their boat to be called. When the teacher said, “Boat 5, you can go now”, Flappy jumped up from their seat and walked down to the boat stop with Cosmo.

 “You okay?” asked Cosmo, looking worriedly at Flappy. 

“I’m just thinking about the whole Petal thing. She seemed pretty sad about it, maybe I should talk to her later,” they said.

 “Aw, come on, you don’t need her. She was so mean to you.” 

“I guess, but no one really deserves to have to feel that bad about something.” 

“Maybe,” Cosmo replied. “But if it makes you sad, let’s talk about something else.” 

Flappy agreed with him, and they began to talk about what could make school even more fun. When it was Flappy and Petal’s stop, Flappy got off the boat and walked down to Petal and their favourite play place, and sat down on the riverbank. They watched as Petal began to walk up to them, and then turn around and start to walk away. 

“Wait!” Flappy called out to her. She turned around and walked back over to them. “Sit with me,” they told her. 

She sat down next to Flappy, and just sat there for an awkward minute, until Flappy asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about your other friends?”

 Petal looked at them for a moment, and then said, “I didn’t want to hurt you. I thought that if I told you I had other friends, you might feel left out. It was stupid of me, and now I wish I had told you. I’m sorry,” she said. 

“Petal… I’m the one who should be apologising to you. I made you feel like you had to stay silent about your friends. I just decided that you were genuinely trying to be mean. That was stupid of me. I let Cosmo decide that I felt that hurt. I don’t think he was trying to be mean, he was just trying to protect me, but I will still talk to him about that.” 

“I was just trying to make new friends. No offense - I didn’t want you to be my only friend,” Petal explained. 

“None taken,” Flappy answered. “I get it. I felt the same way. I didn’t just want to go to school to learn things like you do. I wanted to experience them like you do. You get to meet so many new people. New friends, new foes, a whole new journey.”

The two friends hugged. 

“It’s getting late. I should go home,” Petal said. 

“Ok,” Flappy replied. “I’ll talk to Cosmo tomorrow. See you later, alligator!” Flappy said. 

“In a while, crocodile,” Petal said, finishing the same goodbye they had said to each other for three years now. They walked away from each other, waving goodbyes. 

Flappy walked slowly down the side of the river, looking out at the sun setting behind the trees along the riverbank. They slowly walked into their burrow, climbing down the little tree staircase that led to their underground haven. They walked to their bedroom and sat down on their little nest of cushions and blankets. This was Flappy’s special learning spot where they would try to practice reading books, writing stories, and drawing pictures. Flappy loved to do all of these things, but part of the reason they decided to go to school was to learn how, and now they couldn’t concentrate because of the whole argument with Petal. They knew that the two of them were friends again now, but it still felt so different. Flappy groaned. Everything used to be so simple. Happy or sad. Dark or light. Best friends or worst enemies. But now everything felt like a tidal wave of feelings trying to break down their walls of ‘normal’, and it felt like they had finally smashed them down. Every realization was rushing in, and it felt like Flappy had been washed into this whirlpool of new worlds. They stood up and shook it off. “I am a strong little platypus and I am going to make sure that all my friends can play together,” Flappy told themself. 

Chapter 5

The next day, Flappy put on their uniform and walked down to the boat dock. Cosmo wasn’t on the bus today, so they sat by themself at the back. They hummed music to themself while trying to draw a rainbow. The boat kept bouncing up and down and it made it even harder to draw. Flappy put down their paper and sighed, staring out the edge of the boat at the huge river around them. They thought about what would happen if they were to leap off the boat into the water and be able to swim away from problems. They snapped back to reality when they realised that the boat had come to a stop by the school, and other students were beginning to get off. 

Flappy picked up their yellow, white, purple and black backpack and pulled the two straps over their shoulders and stood up to get off the boat. They walked out the door of the boat and began to walk along the side of the river to their classroom. They walked inside and sat down in their pool, looking around and realizing that they were the first one here. They got out their sketchbook and carried on drawing the rainbow they had been drawing on the bus, but it was much easier to draw now, because they had a flat surface to draw on. They sat drawing for a long time until they heard a familiar voice above them. 

“Willow!” they said, looking up at the little water rat looking down at them. 

“Finally you noticed me!” she said. “I was calling your name for ages before this!” 

“Oh, sorry!” Flappy said. “I was a little bit distracted.”

“It’s fine,” Willow replied, sitting down next to them. “What were you distracted by?” she asked, looking at them intently. 

“Oh… Uh, Nothing. It’s fine. I’m fine. Um…how did you do on the math test?” Flappy replied. Willow was a good friend. They didn’t want her to end up being involved in the big argument. 

“...you are being reeeeally suspicious. Are you sure you’re fine?” Willow asked them. “If there’s something wrong, just tell me, I can help.” 

“No, no, it’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine. Wait no. It is fine. Just…don’t ask me anything else,” they replied. 

“Okayyyy…” Willow replied confusedly. “Uh, so…are you excited for our field trip tomorrow?” 

“Yeah!” Flappy said. They couldn’t believe the class was going out in the day, to see light blue water. They might even see a rainbow if they got lucky! If they saw a rainbow, Flappy was definitely going to slide down it and see if there was a magical lepra-platypus who would grant them a wish and give them a lucky piece of seaweed. “Maybe then all my problems will be solved,” they thought sadly. Their friends would all like each other, they could all play together, and be happy together. “...Just like the person I…used to be,” they looked down at their flippers. Was this…their fault? If they hadn’t come to school, would none of this ever have happened. They looked to the side and saw Willow sitting next to them, humming a little happy tune to herself as she did her work. “...But then I wouldn’t have met you or Cosmo,” Flappy thought, looking at her and thinking of how good a friend she had been. Sure, she was a little nosy…but only because she always tried to help people. She wasn’t trying to hurt them by asking all those questions, she was trying to help them.

Chapter 6

 After a few lessons, it was time for recess. Flappy walked out to the play area with their class, and waved Cosmo over. 

“So…I was thinking we could maybe have a talk about letting Petal join our group,” Flappy told Cosmo. 

“Why would we let her join? She was mean to you, wasn’t she?” he replied. 

“Let’s just have a think about it, okay?” Flappy said. 

“Fine,” Cosmo replied. They walked to a small treehouse together and climbed up the ladder, sitting down on the comfy nests at the top. 

“Okay, so first question Flappy, why did you even want us to talk about this? We shouldn’t let her in, period. She was so mean to you. Why would you even want to play with her?” Cosmo asked Flappy.

 “I know she was mean… but I feel like she deserves a second chance,” Flappy said. “We used to play together all the time, you know.” 

Cosmo looked at Flappy. “Flappy…Never give people second chances. I promise you, it’s never going to end well. I’ve felt how much it hurts when it doesn’t work out and… I don’t want you to have to feel it too, okay? It’s painful having to know that you’re not even good enough for your best friend. I’ve felt it too many times and… I hope you won’t have to at all.” 

“...Cosmo…What happened at your old school? I feel like that might have a connection to all this,” Flappy replied. 

“I-I just got… teased a lot… and…it was hard…?” Cosmo replied, blushing, “Ahhhhh I never should have mentioned this” he whispered under his breath. 

Flappy could tell he was lying, so they responded, “Cosmo… please tell me the truth. I don’t like it when you lie to me.” 

Cosmo looked down at his tail and said, “Fine. This happened.” he pulled a ripped black tophat from behind him. 

“Here,” he said, passing it to Flappy. “This is why I can’t trust people.” 

Flappy looked at the ripped up hat and turned it over in his flippers. A tiny notebook and a crumpled-up piece of paper fell out of the hat, and landed on the ground at their feet. 

“Wait! Don’t read that!” Cosmo told Flappy, but it was too late. Flappy un-crumpled the piece of paper, which must have been ripped out of the notebook. it was in the same pen that the title of the notebook had been written in. On the paper, three huge letters were written in red, but not in Cosmo’s handwriting. (Just so you know, Cosmo can write, despite the fact that he’s a fish.) 

Flappy tried to read out the three letters, to see if he could read the word. “G-A-Y. Gay?...You got teased for liking boys?” 

Cosmo turned bright red and did a tiny nod. Flappy picked up the notebook next, but it looked like Cosmo was too stunned by the fact that Flappy had just found out his secret to tell them not to read this stuff. Flappy flipped through the pages until they spotted one with their name on it. They read it out loud, trying to pronounce the words correctly so they could understand it. 

Dear Flappy,

I am really sorry if you are mad at me. I thought I was doing the right thing, but you seem… sadder now. I really hope you will forgive me. If you will, please read the rest of this letter. Once again, I am really sorry. So…I was wondering if you would maybe like to go to a movie with me sometime? It’s okay if not, but I would really like to.

Love from,

Someone who cares about you (A.K.A. me, Cosmo <3 🐟) 

“... were you trying to ask me out?” Flappy said, blushing at Cosmo as he tried to hide his face behind his ripped hat, but it wasn’t really working, and he could see the teeny-tiny nod from him, and the way he was blushing so red he looked ready to explode. 

“We can let Petal join…but if she hurts us again, can we leave her with the other girls?” “Sure!” Flappy replied. “And…uh…I would love to go to a movie with you. Which one do you want to see?” 

Cosmo broke out into a huge smile. “Uh…I’m not sure, but why don’t we go ask Petal if she wants to join our group!?” 

“Sure!” Flappy said. They went back down the ladder and walked over to Petal, picking up Willow on the way. 

“Hey Petal… do you wanna play with us?” Flappy said to her. The three looked at her expectantly, and she said, “Yes! Of course!” 

“Let’s go then!” Flappy said, and the four friends all grabbed hands and ran off, playing together under the starry sky, until recess was over. 

“If there is anything we’re more than, it’s black and white!” Flappy called out. “Because we are all the colors of the rainbow, and proud of it!”

FIN

Author’s Notes

I wanted to write this story because I want people to understand that everyone is different and there’s nothing wrong with that. People shouldn’t make jokes about LGBTQ or any differences. Flappy is actually dyslexic, so they couldn’t understand how to read when Petal tried to teach them, and they also had a really hard time focusing, like the way that they didn’t realize Willow was there, and could hardly even hear her talking to them. They couldn’t even focus on the teacher while she was talking. Cosmo has autism, and doesn’t know how to communicate his feelings properly, so he might get angry at someone while trying to say something, like how he shouted at Petal. Cosmo’s story, getting teased for being different, sounds like something made up, and something that would hardly ever happen, but unfortunately this actually happens a lot. People tease others for being a little bit different or having different beliefs, and that’s very unfair. Flappy’s story is partly based on my own experiences, and I hope that my characters could be relatable, since they are basically just people that have been turned into animals.