Freckles

“Freckle - Freckle – Chuckle – Heckle,” they screamed when Lily passed by. “Is it chicken pox or did the flies crap on you?”  they giggled pointing at her. Lily used to cover her face and run away.

The mean popular girls were very much into appearances. None of them had freckles. They refused to play with Lily and gave her a nickname – Tiger Lily. When they saw Lily they just began to growl. Poor Lily turned permanently orange from constant blushing. Looking in a mirror became painful for her and she stopped doing it completely.

Tiger Lily was very smart and had a good nature. She was kind, compassionate, hard working and had many talents. But it didn’t matter. In the eyes of the popular girls her freckles overshadowed all her good qualities. Also there was one more thing that made the flower girl’s troubles even worse.

Tiger Lily had a sister that looked exactly like her but wasn’t freckled. So, everybody compared them, everybody had a living reminder of how perfectly Tiger Lily could look if she didn’t have freckles.

Our flower girl lived like an outsider. She didn’t have many friends, so she dedicated most of her time to studying, reading and helping other flower people when they needed her help.

One time the flower people decided to have a beauty pageant. 
Many lovely flower girls dreamt to become Miss Flower. All the popular girls immediately enrolled into the competition.

The flowers beyond the circle of popularity and older people that liked Tiger Lily were encouraging her to compete for the title as well.

“How could I?” argued the girl. “I am ugly. If somebody is chosen as Miss Flower for her beauty it should be my sister Lily.”
“You look just like her,” replied her friend Cornflower.
“Oh, no. I have freckles,” said Tiger Lily.