“Black and white. Nothing goes with those colours,” Fleur moaned to her friend, Ziggy.

“But they are lovely colours,” argued Ziggy, for he liked his own.

“There’s a yummy hat I’ve seen in that shop called ‘Baboon’s Boutique’; it’s yellow straw with blue flowers, but it would clash with my stripes.”

“Why would you need a hat?” asked Ziggy.

“It’s nothing to do with NEEDING a hat. Hats are a MUST-HAVE. They are very trendy at the moment and anyway hats complete your outfit,” replied Fleur sternly.

“Just seems silly to me,” Ziggy muttered.

Fleur grunted. “Well, if you’re not into hats there’s this super scarf I saw at the stall on market day. It was a gold colour, made from webs of spiders. The problem is gold isn’t right for my complexion, silver maybe but not gold,” Fleur added, thinking she needed to explain since Ziggy had a lack of fashion sense.

“But black and white are such striking colours,” argued Ziggy.

“Striking?” Fleur disagreed, “I think they are boring.”

“Fleur! You can’t change who you are or how you look. You are a zebra and you have black and white stripes and everyone thinks you look fine as you are,” said Ziggy. “You don’t need hats, scarves or bows.”

“A bow!” said Fleur, “There was a green silk bow at ‘Hare 2day, gone 2moro,’ you know the place I mean, the corner barber shop. It would be nice to have it to decorate my mane, but again, green would look silly with my colouring!”

Ziggy shook his head and trotted off, fed up with Fleur forever talking about fashion. It was as if she had lost all sense, because all she wanted was to lose her stripes. Suddenly Ziggy had an idea; it was a bit crazy but Ziggy was desperate. And so that night when Fleur was asleep Ziggy went down to the local watering-hole and got all the frogs to help. With their little hands they could mix the paints, using mud and water from the pool and various things for the colours: different berries made the blue, purple and red while crushed leaves made the green. Then the frogs painted Fleur as she slept, all the colours were dabbed onto her coat, spots painted onto every place where they could reach. And then they waited.

The sun rose above the horizon and Fleur awoke with its warming rays. “Thank goodness it’s morning! I had the strangest dream last night,” said Fleur.

“What about?” asked Ziggy.

“I was walking through a forest and all the bushes were closing in on me, I could even feel the leaves patting my coat. It was very strange.”

“Your multi-coloured coat” said Ziggy excitedly.

“What are you talking about Ziggy? My boring, black and white coat you mean.”

“But you’re not black and white any longer. Looks like your wish has come true and you’ll match any hat, scarf or bow you like,” said Ziggy.

Fleur turned her head and looked at her body. It was … shocking! There had to be something a matter with her; she would have to visit the doctor in the next village. “It’s terrible. What can be wrong with me? I must be ill” she said, looking very worried indeed.

“But why is it so terrible?” asked Ziggy. “You were moaning before that your coat wasn’t colourful and was just boring black and white.”

“But I’m a zebra; to have spots is … unnatural, it must mean I’ve got some disease and to have so many different coloured spots probably means I have LOTS of illnesses mixed into one!” cried Fleur. … “Oh dear! Oh dear. It could be Blue Boils, the Red Rash and Yellow Fever all rolled into one!” moaned Fleur, adding, “ARRGH! I’m going to die!”

“No you’re not Fleur,” said Ziggy, trying to calm her down. “It’s paint. We painted you different colours so you could see how you’d look if you weren’t striped. And as you can see, it’s all wrong. You are a Zebra and you are meant to be black and white, not multi-coloured.”

Fleur listened. Ziggy and the frogs sat patiently waiting to be thanked for all their hard work, after all they had stayed awake all night mixing the colours and painting Fleur in different shades. But Fleur didn’t thank them, she was going red under the spotty paintwork; she was angry. … “How dare you paint me? This had better come off!” she shouted.

Ziggy and the frogs kept their distance from Fleur as she went to the watering-hole and washed the paint off, for she was in such a bad mood. They didn’t speak all day and it wasn’t until evening before Fleur and Ziggy met face to face.

“Okay, I guess I’ve been boring, going on about stripes, saying I didn’t like them. And I guess your … idea … has made me realise that deep down I like being a zebra,” said Fleur. “But you have to see that painting me was a bit extreme, and that … purple is a real pain for washing off!”

Very soon Ziggy and Fleur were friends again, and Fleur was proud of her black and white stripes, she doesn’t say no to the occasional red bow though and can still be seen gracing the front cover of the local magazine. But there is one thing she won’t go near; the cosmetic counter, for Fleur has had enough of paint or make-up to last a lifetime!