Bee Yourself

The music flowed inside her head as she sat in her room. Her wings fluttered and her legs unconsciously moved to the beat. Crystal looked at her clock with a start and realized she was late. As she flew down the hallway, two other bees sidled up to join her.
“Dancing again Crystal? You know, if you spent a little more time on your make-up or wore jewelry or something…you could be so much cooler.” One of the bees said as she flipped her antennae imperiously.
“Well, it’s just that I don’t…I…” Crystal didn’t know what to say. Music was a part of her but she still yearned to be accepted by the other teenagers. She reached the main cavern of the hive and, after a brief lecture on punctuality, was sent outside to The Gardens. The Gardens were beautiful and Crystal loved them. She could picture the blooming flowers of reds, oranges, golds, and every color in between. The honey they held was the hive’s source of food and the core of their society. As Crystal went to gather her normal quota of honey, she came upon a terrible realization: the honey was gone.
Crystal flew desperately from flower to flower searching for the liquid gold of her people. She found nothing. Back at the hive, everyone was in an uproar. Arguments over the loss of the honey and what to do along with whispers of hopelessness echoed down the hallways. Crystal went back to her room and tried not to hear the voices of the hive. She attempted to draw on the music so she could dance away her troubles. She heard nothing.
She couldn’t find her music.
The voice of the other bees mocking her echoed in her mind. Quietly she slipped on a bracelet, then two. A touch of make-up and Crystal could see nothing but a stranger in the mirror. But without her music, why shouldn’t she just fit in with everyone else?
Later that day, Crystal and the other bees set out to find another source of honey. The other bees no longer teased her, but she still felt on the outside of the group. She longed to dance to her music again. The make-up and jewelry and fake laughter was not her. Torn between the longing and desire to be accepted, Crystal could only remain silent. That is, until one of the other bees began talking about music and about how weird people that like it are. Then she could take it no longer.
“You should all be ashamed of yourselves. You fight over having no food instead of rationally figuring out a way to over come it. You look down upon things that you do not understand. Music is a part of me, dancing is my life! Your make-up and jewelry are shields against getting knocked down for who you really are. Well, I’m not afraid anymore!”
She flew away from the other bees and left The Gardens far behind. The music flowed through her veins as she went, released as she accepted herself. As she flew, Crystal noticed the beautiful colors underneath her. What beautiful reds, and oranges and golds...she thought to herself. Such beautiful flowers…Flowers! Crystal had unknowingly come across a new patch of flowers. The hive would have honey and food again! She rushed back to the hive, her wings beating so fast they were nearly a blur.
Crystal told the hive what she had seen, but did not know how to describe where the flowers were at. Then an inspiration hit her. She began to dance on the floor in the pattern that she had flown, using the music and dance steps as directions for the rest of the hive. Never again was she mocked for her music or her dancing. Crystal had saved her hive because she was brave enough to be herself no matter what everyone else thought of her.