"The overweening self-respect of conceited men relieves others from the duty of respecting them at all" Henry Ward Beecher

One fine day near a lake, a slinky white cat lingered around a silvery blue lake. The cat's name was Paige and she wasn't a very nice animal. She often teased the other animals in the neighborhood for not being as gorgeous or pliable as she was. Her clean, white fur was silky soft and had the radiance of a diamond. Paige's deep green eyes peered furtively under her dark, long lashes. She flipped her hair every time she passed by a lower animal than she, and Paige enjoyed long saunters down the street, loving the attention she had from the neighborhood children. Many animals envied her and Paige wouldn't have it otherwise.

There was one specific animal that was a bit jealous of Paige, but never said anything like the others did. It was a raccoon who went by the name of Ellie, and she was a very homely, reserved creature. She was nocturnal and wasn't seen much in the block where most of the other animals lived. Alas, poor Ellie was the one that Paige loved to tease the most. A couple of snide comments would do well to make Ellie not mind spending time alone. It was the one particular day that Ellie had decided to sneak out of her burrow in the sunshine hours.

"I didn't know vampires came out in the daytime," said Paige as she sunbathed. Ellie remained silent, not continued to shuffle around, looking for berries and dipping them in and out of the lake.

"Look at you darling, with those dark circles around your eyes. Did you sleep in your makeup?" Paige was being serious. She was quite a stupid cat and didn't know much else about other animals. Paige backed up against a tree and started purring. Ellie glared at her from the lake and carried on with her business. When Ellie didn't reply, Paige continued. "Oh, be reasonable, hun and answer me."

"My eyes are naturally like that," Ellie responded dully.

"Excuse me?"

"They're naturally like that," the raccoon repeated, louder.

Paige started to giggle. "You mean, you don't really have a choice if you look like that or not?"

"No," snapped Ellie, trying to be patient. With that, Paige started to laugh, rolling around in the green grass. Ellie picked up her apples and berries and left in a huff without saying anything.

"That's very funny," laughed Paige. "That's a good one, right-o then." Without looking where she was going, she turned around in a swift movement and was about to prance away when she bumped her delicate face into the tree. "Ouch!" She fell backwards on her butt and shook her head. There was a throbbing pain on her face and frankly, she wasn't used to that feeling.

Paige hissed and arched herself back up on her toes, prepared to start strutting again on her long legs. She shook the splinters out of her nose and sauntered on. As she walked though the neighborhood, the other cats, dogs, and animals stared at her. I'm a bombshell, Paige thought to herself. She waltzed around a little more, throwing her head back and showing off her white, glossy fur.

Soon enough, one of the other cats named Cody came up to her and hissed, "What are you doing?"

"I'm flaunting," came Paige's quick reply.

"And what happened to your eye?"

"Aren't they beautiful?"

"Well, they would be if you didn't have that black circle around your right eye." "WHAT?!" Paige rushed over to the backyard of the McClelland's house, jumped up on the bench, and peered into the mirror. Sure enough, she had a black eye. Just like Ellie, she looked like she slept in her makeup. She was teased by the other animals that she made fun of for the rest of her life.

They all lived happily ever after except for Paige.

MORAL: Treat others as you want to be treated because what goes around comes around.