Once, in a towering oak near a stream, there lived a little brown bird named Milo.

Milo was nothing important - just small, simple, and normal, but there was something that made this little bird stick out like a sore thumb.

Milo couldn't sing.

Of course, he'd tried. One day, Milo was chirping away in a towering oak when all of a sudden...

He suffered a terrible voice crack.

And everybody heard. They laughed and laughed and said there was no way Milo could sing.

The only ones that didn't laugh at him were his two friends...

George and Big Phat.

One day, George asked Milo sing at her birthday party.

"Please!" George pleaded. "Please! None of the birds said that they would come, and now I have nobody to sing me happy birthday!"

"I can't." Milo said. "I can't sing, George."

"But you're a bird! Of course you can sing!" George protested.

"I'm sorry George. I can't. Really." Milo ruffled his feathers. The heat in George's cheeks grew.

"Some friend you are! A bird that won't even sing at my birthday party!" She cried.

Milo tried to calm her down as she marched away, but it was too late.

All the other creatures of the forest had heard.

"What's this?" The cackle came from a squirrel on a lower branch of the towering oak - Selma. "Milo can't sing? Well, what a surprise!"

Milo dipped his head, shame swelling in his chest.

"Oh, come on, Milo. Prove us wrong!" Selma snickered. "Let us hear that pretty voice!"

Milo turned to Big Phat, who smiled, and simply nodded. Slowly, he opened his beak and...

Hahaha!!

He tried to sing again and again - just to show them that he could - but he couldn't. Milo couldn't get the notes out of his throat. Perhaps it was all the beady eyes staring at him - criticizing him - but Milo couldn't sing.

A tear in his eye, he flew off.

Milo returned home as quickly as possible, landing on one of the branches of his oak.

"Oh, why me?! Why me?!" He chirped. As Milo resided back into the warm of his nest, he let a soft song of pain spill from his beak.

He didn't mean to sing - it just happened. Singing was one of those things that numbed the pain, and he felt in control of his voice when he was alone.

Little did the brown bird know, but a abnormally large frog lurked just behind a lower branch.

As the final lyric fell from Milo's beak, Big Phat jumped from his hiding stop, startling Milo so much that he started to fly away. The frog's face was decorated with a very large smile

"That was amazing, Milo!" The frog cried.

"You have to sing for them!" Big Phat croaked.

Milo shook his head, "No, Phat. I can't."

"But you can! I just heard you! You were amazing!" The frog jumped forward, grinning from ear to ear.

"But I'm not, Big Phat." Milo turned away. "Everybody says so. I can't sing."

"Well, obviously, everyone's wrong. You can sing." Big Phat pulled Milo back. "Here, I've got a plan to show all the creatures of the forest that your voice is beautiful!"

With that, Big Phat leaned forward and whispered his plan in Milo's ear.

As the sun began to dipped in the sky, Big Phat and Milo snuck up into the top branches of the tree closest to the trickling stream.

"Stay here." Phat croaked. "I'll go get everybody."

Milo nodded, "Are you sure, Phat? What if they don't believe me?"

"Oh, please. They're just a bunch of forest animals. Of course they'll believe you." Phat laughed, then hopped to a lower branch.

Milo took a deep breath as he watched Phat leave, then turned away and began to get ready for the show that would soon follow.

Maybe I shouldn't... he thought to himself, then quickly shook the thought away. No. I'll show them...