Daisy was lounging in Minnie’s living room, while Minnie in the kitchen making trays of popcorn and soda for them. This particular evening was the premier of the new season of their favorite show, The Jr. Miss Perfect Pageant. They had looked forward this all through the summer. After Minnie came in with the trays, they sat munching their snacks with they’re eye glued to the screen. As soon as it broke for commercial, Minnie remarked, “Oh, I just love these pageants, don’t you Daisy?”
Daisy took a big gulp of her soft drink and replied, “Yeah, I do. Of coarse, I think it would be a lot more fun to enter one of them, rather than to just watch it on TV.”
Misunderstanding her, Minnie laughed said, “Now Daisy, you know that you’re too old to enter as a constant in a children’s beauty pageant.”
“Not me enter silly!” Daisy said while laughing, “I mean, that I’d love to enter a little girl in the pageant! Of course, if I did that I’d like to have a lot of spare money to spend on her. You know so that I could be sure to get her best dresses, best hairstylist, best make-up artist, and best coach!” Hmm… That’s always been a dream of mine.”
“Huh… I never really thought about that before. I guess it could be fun.” Minnie replied.
“You bet it would be fun!” Daisy said excitedly, “I mean think about it. Having a little girl you can dress-up kinda like your own personal doll, watching her perform…”
At that moment the commercial break ended. Minnie, not wanting to miss any of the show, shushed Daisy. She responded to this with an angry “humph!”
The next day was the first day of school at Duckburg Elementary School. During recess Webby was playing with her doll by herself. She said out loud, “Gee, I sure wish somebody would play with me.”
All of a sudden she noticed another girl standing next to her. Although in many ways she looked more like a woman than a girl. She her hair was cut in a shag-bob, her dress was so tight it looked painted on, and her lipstick was fire engine red. Webby sat there for a few minutes studying her, and trying to figure her out. She was amazed that this girl’s parents let her dress and wear make-up like that. Webby recalled how hard it was for her to convince Uncle Scrooge that she needed lip-gloss.
“Hi.” Webby said nervously.
“Hey shorty.” The girl replied, “Name’s Victoria, friends call me Vicky. And you are…?”
Webby, still feeling intimidated said, “ Um…my name’s Webby”
“ Well, Weirdby who were talking to, your doll or was it your imaginary friends?” Victoria said mockingly.
“Umm… No.” Webby answered, “I was just talking myself, wishing that somebody would play with me.” Then she asked, “ Hey, will you play with me?”
Laughing haughtily Vicky replied, “Me play with you? As if! There no way I’ll play with a weirdo like you!”
Webby was confused and sadden. So she said, “I don’t understand, how am I weird?”
“Well, for starters you know absolutely nothing about fashion. I mean, look at those clothes. Where the heck did you get those things? It looks like your grandparents dressed you. And sorry but, you’re not very pretty. And that’s putting it nicely.” Victoria explained
Webby, who was now having to hold tears back, asked “What do I do if want to be pretty?”
Victoria continued to explain, “Well, there might be some hope for you if you entered the Lil’ Miss Duckburg Pageant. Of course I wouldn’t expect an inexperienced first timer like you to even come close to beating the reigning queen, me!”
All through the rest of the school day Webby couldn’t concentrate on her work. Her thoughts kept coming back to what Victoria had told her. She wondered if maybe Victoria was right about her not being very pretty. She tried to think if anyone ever told her she was pretty. Come to think of it there weren’t many; that she could think of, off the top of head. Of course there was Uncle Scrooge, he often referred to her as “my beautiful wee lass”. But, he might just say that to make her feel good because he loved her. There was also Miss Minnie; she told Webby that she was pretty every time she saw her. Then again Miss Minnie said that all the kids were either beautiful or handsome. So she probably just said it to be polite.
As soon as she got home Webby ran up to her room. She slammed her door, threw herself on the bed, buried her face in the pillow, and started to cry. She laid there, and let the tears roll down her cheeks, while she thought about the horrible things Victoria had said.
Scrooge was in his bedroom, counting his money, when he heard the bang of Webby’s door slamming. He was startled by the loud noise; so startled that he jumped and knocked several neatly stacked piles of gold coins of his desk. He was upset when he saw that all his work had been for nothing. So, he shouted angrily “Webbigail! Please keep it down!”
Then it occurred to him that Webby was by no means a loud, rambunctious child. In fact, she was usually very quiet and calm. So there must be something wrong. He should probably check on her, and find out what was the matter.
When he came up to her door he could here her crying. He knocked on the door and didn’t get an answer. So he knocked again with still no answer. Finally he opened the door a crack and asked “Webby dear, may I come in?”
Webby looked up and sniffed, “ No. Go away.”
Scrooge stepped inside her bedroom and asked “Darling, what is the matter?”
She mumbled, “It’s nothing Uncle Scrooge.”
He came in and sat down on the bed next to her. Webby rolled over and tried to ignore him. He sat there for a few minutes, trying to think of how to help her. Finally he said, “Well, it certainly doesn’t look like nothing. Please tell me what is bothering you. I cannot stand seeing you this unhappy.”
Webby sat up and brushed the tears away. Then she said, “Well if you really wanna know… I learned at school today that I don’t know anything about fashion, and worse then that I’m… umm… not pretty.”
Shocked and appalled, anyone would say such a thing to Webby, Scrooge exclaimed “What?! Who would dare say such an awful thing, to my darling lassie?!”
She explained, “Some girl at school. I think she said her name was Victoria. She also told me that if I ever wanted to learn how to pretty I had to enter the Lil’ Miss Duckburg pageant.”
Scrooge leaned over and hugged her. Then he said, “Oh Webby dear, don’t pay attention to what that nasty little kilt nipper has to say. You know you’ll always be my beautiful wee lass.”
Webby smiled and hugged him back. Then she said, “ I know, you always call me that. But, I’ve been wondering… um…can I enter the pageant?”
He began to laugh nervously, and asked, “Eh, why on Earth would ye want to enter a beauty pageant dear?”
“She to prove Victoria wrong, of course!” she snapped
“ Oh, Webby dear you know are just a load of superficial nonsense. They don’t really prove anything about the beauty of those dolled up wee lassies that are in them.” He replied
“Well, Victoria says they do! And I wanna learn how to be pretty and… um… fashionibible too!” Webby said
“That’s fashionable dear.” Scrooge corrected.
“Right, fashionable!” she said, “So can I enter.”
“Um… no you may not.” He answered, “I will no be spending any of my hard earned cash on something as silly as a pageant.”
Hearing this Webby got down onto floor the on her knees and began to beg, “Please Uncle Scrooge, pretty please with money on top.”
He got up and gave her a kiss; then he said, “Well… perhaps…let me think about it, dear.”
It’s very hard for an elderly man to understand the mind of a young girl. Scrooge sat in his money bin for over two hours puzzling over what Webby had said, and trying to decide what would be best for her. He wanted his precious Webbigail to be happy of coarse. But, He did not want to waste his money on something silly, like a pageant. Nor did he want to put the idea in her head that it was wise to spend her money on unnecessary cosmetic items. And more importantly he didn’t want to encourage vanity, or make her think that friendship was based on outward beauty or material items.
While Scrooge was thinking he decided to do something that was very unusual for him; call his nephew Donald for advise. “Um…Donald this may seem like an odd question… but what do know about beauty pageants?”
“Er…Beauty pageants? Well I watch the Miss Perfect Pageant all the time… boy those chicks are hot. Oh, don’t tell Daisy I said that.” Donald replied, “Uh… Why are you asking me anyway? Thinking about starting your own, to bring in some cash or something?”
“No, nothing like that.” Scrooge answered, “Webbigail asked me if she could enter the Lil’ Miss Duckburg Pageant. I’m just concerned about entering my wee lass in that pageant. I mean have you seen the price of some of those formal dresses…”
Donald interrupted, “Hold on. If the only thing you’re worried about is the price of the dresses; I say quit worrying, ease up, and let her enter the pageant.”
“Um…it’s much more complicated than that.” Scrooge replied, and then told Donald the whole story.
After hearing the story Donald said, “Sorry I don’t know how to help you with this.”
Finally Scrooge made up his mind. He got out of the money bin and changed out of his swimsuit. Then he went up stairs and knocked on Webby’s door. She opened the and asked excitedly, “So can I enter?”
“Aye, you may enter the pageant.” Scrooge replied, “ But, before we enter you in it I want you to understand…Oomph!”
He was stopped mid sentence by an excited Webby jumping on him and knocking him over. And then exclaiming, “Oh thank you! Thank you Uncle Scrooge!”
He stood up on his feet still in a bit of a daze. She took him by the hand; and started pull him toward his office, where he kept his computer. All the while saying, “ Come on Uncle Scrooge let’s sign me up!”
Once Scrooge had recovered from his fall he sat down on the bed and said, “Come here dear, before we sign you up there’s something I need you to understand.”
“What is it?” Webby asked, after she sat down next to him.
“Well um…for starters, as I said before, beauty pageants are a huge waste of hard earned money so don’t be expecting me to spend a lot on this.” He explained.
She sighed, “I know, I know. You think that lots of fun things are a waste of money.” Then she jumped up “So let’s go sign me up.”
“Hold on a moment.” He said taking her by the hand, “I also want you understand that anyone who bases a friendship on how you look or what you wear is not worth impressing, and win or lose you will always be beautiful to me.”
Later that evening Laura Quackson, director of Lil’ Miss Duckburg, sat on her bed while scrolling through the list of contestants on her laptop. All the while she was gloating. She chuckled to herself, “Oh, I just love watching the these unsuspecting idiots lose.”
All of a sudden there was shrill yell that came from her daughter’s room, “Laura! I can’t find my dolly and I can’t seep with out her!”
Laura got up stomped into her daughter’s bedroom and snapped, “Vicky you don’t need that stupid doll to sleep! Now shut-up and let me finish my work!”
Vicky whined, “But, Laura I do need my dolly.”
“And I’ve told you a million times stop addressing me by my first name! It was cute at first but now it just annoying!” Laura shouted
Then Laura stomped out of the room and back to her bedroom. She got back on the computer and continued to read the names of the contestants. She said to herself, “Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?”
She continued checking the list with no more interruptions. When she got to the last entry she said, “And our last loser is… Webbigail Vanderquack, her parent or guardian is… Scrooge McDuck… and the relationship is uncle.”
Laura paused and thought for a moment. Then it occurred to her who was actually the guardian of the contestant. “Uh-oh.” She said, “I hope this isn’t THE Scrooge McDuck. I’d better find out.”
She quickly looked him up on her laptop, after going to several different websites; she finally found a site with brief biography of Scrooge McDuck. She read through it and saw that there was actually an adopted niece named Webbigail Vanderquack, who was the granddaughter of his former maid, for whom he was now the legal guardian. “Umm… I think I may have a small problem,” she said to herself
Laura stayed up all night worrying that her daughter Victoria might lose the pageant for once. She knew deep down that Victoria was not an especially beautiful girl. She also knew that the only reason Vicky had won all these pageants was because she could afford to get her better dresses and accessories then the other contestants, that and the judges and been bribed a few times. But this time would be different; she would not be the wealthiest contestant. Laura shuddered at the thought of Vicky losing to a spoiled rich kid. Then she decided she had to find a way get Scrooge McDuck and his niece out of the competition.
