In Calculatortopia, everyone who

lived in this unusual kingdom were numbers! And each number had something different and something special about each one of them.

Little One, for example, though he may be next to the smallest number, he was always first in everything!

Number Six, was very good at tricks.

Number Seven was the luckiest of them all!

(Bad things BARELY ever happen to him)

And there was also Sixteen.

Sweet Sixteen.

Yesir, every number had something different and special about them and they could do lots of things.

But this story is about a number who felt down at the bottom of the list of the best.

He could do nothing.

He felt like nothing.

In another word, he WAS nothing.

His name was Zero.

When his friends picked teams for baseball,

as his best friend, Little One, was always chosen first, Little Zero was always chosen LAST!

Every time he tried to climb trees like Six could, he always fell on his head!

He CERTAINLY couldn't ice skate like Eight could.

He was too scared to try because he was afraid of falling on his head all over again!

And, when it came to telling jokes on stage.......

And the Hippo said to the Giraffe, "Hey, how's the view up there?"

Even, Thirteen, who was even more unlucky than him,  was WAY funnier than him-and never in purpose!

HA! HA!

HEE-HEE-HEE-HEEEEEEE!

HAw! Haw!

HAAAAAAW!

And what certainly did not make things better for Little Zero, was that everytime something wrong happened to him, Seven would poke fun at him saying:

"Too bad, Little Zero! But I happened to be the lucky number before anyone else was! What would the world be with 2 lucky numbers! Boring, huh?"

And the more bad things that happened to him, and the more things he found out he just couldn't do, the worse he felt!

Sooner or later, he began thinking that he really was nothing!

An absolute zero, Little Zero!

I'm hopeless, he thought to himself.

"Don't think that you are worth nothing, Little Zero" Sixteen came over to him

"Each number is special in his or her own way, you know!"

"But I can't do anything as well as the other numbers do!" Little Zero cried.

"Well, you are NOT Thirteen" Sixteen pointed out "You've seen how Thirteen gets all the bad luck around here. And he's not sour about it. So, even though you're a zero, I'm sure you can be happy about being you, too!"

Little Zero was not convinced.

A few weeks later,

Little Zero was playing fetch outside with his dog, CaNine when he saw a group

of numbers gathering around a poster hanged nearby.

"What's this?" Little Zero walked over to see a poster announcing The Marathon!

The great big race that came every January the 5th! 

"Now that's something for me! " Seven said aloud.

"I'm joining that for sure!" said Little One "Hey Zero, want to join me?"

"Who me?" muttered Little Zero "Oh no. No.

Certainly not!"

And If you think you can,

come join the MARATHON!

Starting Tomorrow

"Huh? Him? In the marathon?" scoffed Seven.

"Come on, it'll be fun" Little One coaxed.

"Mmmmmaaaaaaaayyyyybeeeee" said Little Zero.

"Okay, I'll  just....try....it" he finally decided.

"I don't believe this" muttered Seven.

The next day was the marathon and oh BOY what a day it was!

The audience were bursting with excitement to see the race!

Everybody who should be there was there!

Number Five,

Number Three,

Number Six,

...and an old number in....a wheel chair?

"Who are you?' Five asked.

"Just an old Number in the wheel chair, sonny" was the reply.

Even the V.I.Ns were there!

(Very Important Numbers)

Like Thirty who was GINORMOUS (He liked to be called Big Three-O).

There was also Grand 100!

And most all, King 10, King of all of Caluclatortopia, was there!

"Alrighty! Let the marathon BEGIN!" he hollered!

All the numbers who were to join the marathon lined up at the starting line.

Little One,

Seven,

Sixteen,

Thirteen,

Four

and....

Little Zero.

Fifty was to start the race.

"RACERS ON YOUR MARK!"

he said

"3....2....1....GO!!!!!!"

And they were off!

Seven and Little One were neck to neck!

Sixteen was trying her utmost to catch up with them.

Little Zero was just behind Sixteen, when he looked behind and saw that Thirteen and Four had accidentally crashed into each other!

Thirteen recovered from the impact quickly, but was dizzy and ran the wrong direction the race was suppose to go.

Four, on the other hand, fell over and got hurt.

Little Zero ran over to her.

"Here, let me help you up"

"Thank you! Thanks a bunch!" Four replied.

"Oh! The finish line is just in front of us!".

They ran with all their might

but in the end.......

It was Seven and Little One who won fist placed!

They tied!

Of course, Little One won because he was always first in everything and Seven won because of his luck!

And as for Little Zero?

He ended up LAST!

Well....not exactly LAST last...

Thirteen lost miserably!

But either way....he was still LAST!

So-Last

Place

Last

Place

"Ah, tough luck, sport" sang Seven unsympathetically "But what do you expect? You're a Zero! You're a nothing! And you amount to.....NOTHING!"

"Leave him alone, Seven" Sixteen stepped up

"He can't help it being a zero! You can't help being a lucky seven!"

Seven stepped back a little.

"Fine" he muttered "But YOU STILL won't ever be as lucky as me, Zero!" he called back walking off.

"Don't worry about it" Sixteen told Little Zero "I'm sure you'll do better in the next race-"

Just then, they got suprised by a terrible screaming!

Three ran up to them in a fluster!

"What's going on?' Little Zero cried.

"Thirty-uh-Big Three-O disappeared!" Three responded "It was all the sudden! We have NO idea what happened to him!"

Just then, the Old Number in the wheel chair wheeled over to Five.

"Well, sonny, what did I miss?"

"You left?" said Five "I didn't know you were gone!"

It was time for the Second Race!

"Numbers, get ready!" Fifty called.

The racers lined up at the starting line again.

"3....2....1.....GO!!!!!!!!"