1066 All Stars

He didn't know where he was going but everyone else was going this way so he thought he may as well follow.

All of the other pegs looked like they knew each other. They were smiling and chatting as they walked, as if they didn't have a care in the world. No one talked to him. He walked along in silence, not sure if he was going the right way. Not even sure where it was he was heading.

Suddenly he noticed a commotion up ahead. All of the other pegs had stopped and had gathered around in a circle. As he drew nearer, he could hear excited chattering and laughing, punctuated at intervals by a loud cheer.

He approached the gathering and saw what had drawn everyone's attention. In the centre of the circle were three holes and the pegs were taking it in turns to throw themselves in to great cheers from the crowd. He didn't know where the holes led but everyone seemed keen to have their turn to jump in.

The crowd began to thin out in front of him and pressure from behind brought him to the front. It was his turn to jump.

He stepped forward cautiously. Which hole to choose? None of them looked quite right. There were impatient mutterings from behind him, he would have to make a decision. He chose the hole to his left, closed his eyes and jumped.

When he opened his eyes, he realised something had gone horribly wrong. He was stuck in the hole. He wriggled and writhed but it was no good, he couldn't go down.

Angry faces stared down at him. One of the pegs strode forward purposefully.

'What do you think you're doing?' said the round peg. 'This is a round hole and you're a square peg. You don't fit in here.'

'And don't think you can jump in one of the other holes,' said another peg approaching from his other side. 'This one here is for triangles and this one is for stars. We don't have any square holes here.'

The square peg went bright red with embarrassment and, with a great effort, managed to pull himself free and back out of the hole. Head bowed, he shuffled off away from the crowd to sit by himself on a rock.

'I don't fit in,' he moaned to himself. 'Why do I have to be different to everybody else?' He started to cry.

'Psst.'

The square peg looked around but couldn't see anything.

'Psst.'

There it was again. This time he saw a face from behind a tree. It was a square face just like his. The peg was beckoning him over. He jumped off the rock and trotted over.

'Hello there,' said the friendly square face. 'Have you been crying? What's wrong?'

'It's just that,' he sniffed, 'I didn't fit in. I was different to everybody else.'

'Oh, don't worry about that,' said the friendly face. 'Everybody’s different. Just because you didn't fit in there doesn't mean you can't fit in somewhere else.'

'It doesn't?' said the square peg.

'No, course not. In fact, I know just the place where you'll fit in nicely. Come on, follow me.'

And with that, the friendly face trotted off leaving the square peg running to keep up. After a few minutes, they came to another gathering, just like the one with the round holes.

'Not more holes,' said the square peg sadly.

'Ah,' said the friendly face. 'But these are different holes. Take a look.'

The square peg looked closer and to his surprise, the holes were not round, or triangular or even star shaped. He saw a rectangle and a hexagon. And there, right at the back, a square.

'Can I...' he started.

'Of course you can,' said the friendly face, beaming. 'Watch me.' And with that, the friendly face took a running start and jumped straight through the square hole.

The square peg squealed in delight. He ran forwards and looked down in the hole. He could hear music and laughter and saw, there at the bottom of the hole, the friendly face waving up at him.

'Come on down,' said the friendly face.

And so the square peg closed his eyes, jumped in the air and sailed straight through the hole, landing on his feet.

When he opened his eyes, the friendly face was waiting for him. And someone else was there.

'You made it!' said the round peg. 'Good for you. See, we all fit in somewhere. Come on, let's go join the party.'

And so the square peg went off with his friends to have fun at the peg party.