A Day in the Life of a Fish Tank

      “Be good to each other,” Marigold cooed as she joined her owner and older sibling up on the bed.

      When the human and neopets had finally fallen asleep, the Catamara and the Pepito swam to one side of the tank while the Ghoti buried herself and the Leeble swam to the other side.

      “Who do you think they are?” Snow the Catamara asked, her swollen belly taking up twice as much space as a normal Catamara.

      “Well, I heard the Zafara call one of ‘em Tangerine and the other Kisses.”

      “Hm... I wonder which one is which?” Peppy, the Pepito, rolled his eyes.

      At the other end, Kisses the Leeble was staring longingly in Snow and Peppy’s direction.

      “Maybe we should go introduce ourselves,” Peppy stated, looking at Kisses’ long face.

      “Okay, you go first. I’ll be right there!” Snow exclaimed as she went into the flora of the tank to look for a nice present for the new petpet.

      Peppy swam confidently over to Kisses, as was his way, and introduced himself. Kisses blushed and stammered out a greeting. Sensing her discomfort, Peppy decided to tell her his story, to help her relax.

      “Before I came to live with the Zafara and her family, I was a part of a performance. They made us practice and practice and wouldn’t feed us if we acted tired during the show. Finally, the PPL busted them for petpet cruelty and I was put into the care of a PPL neopet. He was really nice. He let me live in a tank with all of my old friends until we finally relaxed enough to be adopted by a new owner. Some of my friends were directly adopted to the PPL, but the rest of us were sold to petpet sellers for money for the PPL’s cause. I wasn’t in the shop long before the Zafara saw me in the tank and wanted to take me home. I’ve been happy ever since.”

      Kisses smiled. “At least you’re happy now.”

      “Trust me, I am. The human trains me, which at first I didn’t like. But she feeds me every day whether I perform or not. Now I try to do my best to please them, especially the Zafara.”

      Just then, Snow swam slowly next to Peppy with a fin full of soggy negg flakes.

      “I saw you didn’t eat much at dinner, so I saved you some in case you get hungry later.”

      If you could see tears underwater, Kisses’ face would have been wet with them.

      “Thank you so much; no one’s ever...”

      “Oh, don’t worry about it! I’d want someone to do it for me! Well, I heard Peppy here telling you his sob story. So I guess it’s my turn! I was bought for some spoiled Grarrl who hadn’t wanted a Catamara. So, she tried to eat me! I was terrified when her sharp, pink claws tried to fish me out... Ha ha! No pun intended. So, anyway, her owner decided I needed a safer home, and sold me in her shop. Well, let me tell you how many owners...”

      “Alright, Snow, why don’t you tell her the story of how you got here.” Peppy asserted gently.

      “Oh, yes, of course! So like I was saying, I went to all these different owners and after a few weeks they’d decide to upgrade from me. The last owner I was with put me in his shop and sold me to that human. When I got here, I saw Peppy here in a little plastic bag. He looked so funny in that thing, all stretched out and disproportionate. Have you ever looked through a plastic bag?”

      “Okay, Snow, I think she gets the picture.”

      “Oh, right. So then the human put us in this tank and we even have a travel tank! The little Zafara carries us around every where! We get to see all kinds of things we would never see if we were just stuck in this here tank!”

      Peppy gave Kisses an embarrassed smile. “Snow is a very sweet soul. I think it’s your turn now.”

      Kisses giggled and then turned around to look through the glass of the tank. The moon was full and shining right through the window.

      “Well, I lived in the ocean...”

      “The ocean! Oh, how exciting!”

      “Let her finish her story, Snow.”

      “Oops! Sorry, go on.”

      “Yes, well, I lived in the ocean around Mystery Island. There were so many different kinds of petpets. It was a paradise. Until the pirates came...”

      “Pirates! How scary!”

      “Snow!”

      “They were from Krawk Island. We thought they were just tourists, you know. None of them were actually painted pirate...”

      “No, that would be totally cliché.”

      “Just the average colors. So we posed and did tricks for them, for the vacation photos. But then one of them pulled out a net and started capturing the most talented ones. They took us back to Krawk Island to sort out their catch. We were going to be sold on the black market to owners who wanted to experiment on us. But thankfully, the PPL did a raid on their place of business and rescued each and every one of us.”

      “Oh, how wonderful!”

      “Yes, and I was immediately given to a petpet supplier, because they knew I had not been too badly traumatized. That’s when the human picked me up.”

      “Yay! What a great story!” Snow exclaimed, taking a bite of some of the soggy negg flakes she had brought for Kisses.

      “Thank goodness you’re out of that situation.” Peppy smiled, doing a little twirl to show his happiness.

      “I was there too.” A voice came out of the darkness. Snow jumped (as only a fish could in water) and they all turned around to see Tangerine swimming up from the bottom of the tank.

      “I thought by hiding in the sand, they wouldn’t find me. But one of them had a digger of some kind and fished me out. But I didn’t always belong to the sea...”

      Tangerine swam in slow, graceful circles around the trio, causing a gentle current.

      “My first memories were in a fish tank. I was the only one there. My owner, a red Lenny, loved me a lot. He fed me every day, would talk to me, and play with me. He really was amazing. Then one day, his owner announced he was going to the pound. At first, he thought they were going to adopt another pet into the family. But sadly, that wasn’t the case. He forced my owner into a cage and flung my bowl in with him. My bowl cracked and the water started pouring out. My owner quickly put me in his drinking bowl, to keep me alive. We stayed in there for months. Finally, an adoption agency adopted him and started working on making him more desirable to potential owners. They got rid of me. I wasn’t good enough for my owner’s new image. I know it wasn’t his fault. He wanted to please these people that would find him a good home. So, I was sold around, until finally coming to Hallow’s house.”

      “Who’s Hallow?” Snow asked, swimming in a slow circle to see if a creature would have a nametag that said “Hallow” on it.

      “Hallow is the human,” Tangerine said with a shy smile.

      “Hm... I did always wonder what her name was. Anyway, guys, the sky’s getting light. I think we should go to sleep before breakfast.”

      “Don’t you ever think of anything else but food?” Peppy asked, rolling his eyes.

      “What else is there to think about?”

      A few hours later, Marigold slid sleepily off of her bed and walked over to the fish bowl.

      “Good morning, guys.” She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

      The four petpets smiled at her as she poured half a can of negg flakes into the tank.

The End

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.