I heard the sound of the store bell ringing around eight in the morning. It woke me from my daze.  I peered through the plastic cup labeled Jeffrey that I live in and saw Jackie, my favorite PETCO worker, walking towards me with the bag of fish food.
“Time for breakfast,” she chimed as I began stretching out my fins. The little, brown, delicious, crunchy pebbles that fell into my cup were gone almost immediately. What? I was hungry. Being a betta fish is a hard job if you want to get adopted. Jackie noticed how fast I ate my food and smiled that bright sparkly smile of hers. I immediately went back to swimming around my little cup. I’ve been in this place for two whole years. It gets so boring communicating through Morse code with the other betta fish and sitting in this stupid PETCO. I want to be adopted, and live a long wonderful life and be flushed down a family toilet when I die. Just as I finished my pity party for myself, the store bell rang again and a little girl with big brown eyes walked in.
The really short smiley girl with long hair started sprinting towards the fish area giggling and pointing. All of us betta fish froze. We didn’t even blink. She looked through the glass of the fish tanks to my left and then ran over to the glass fish tanks to my right. Her eyes shifted as she looked through the glass. Finally, she walked over to my area. Immediately all of us began to swim in circles trying to show off our colors. Then there was a huge shutter of shaking hands as she picked my little cup up.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy, can I get this one please, please, pretty pretty, please?” she questioned. Another lady walked over. I hadn’t seen her earlier but it was probably because the little girl was bounding towards me. The older woman’s eyes were the same as the little girls and they both had long brown hair.
“Sweetie are you sure you want this one?” the lady asked kindly.
“Yes, yes, yes!” exclaimed the little girl.
“Well okay, come on a carry the little guy over to the counter, “the woman chimed. That’s when reality hit me like a truck. I, Jeffrey, am officially getting adopted. I blinked my goodbyes to all the other fish and continued to blow bubbles full of happiness. My cup was scanned and my name tag ripped off, then we were off to the car. I looked back and saw the little girl. Then I saw the little cat eyeing me from the car. Oh no, This  is not good, oh no, no, no!.My first thought was that maybe I could play dead. Then I realized that I was finally getting adopted. My second thought was to swim away. Then I realized I was in a plastic cup. Eventually I gained the courage to turn around and look again at the car. I relaxed as I noticed that it wasn’t the car we were walking towards.
“Honey, let me see the fish you’ve got there,” chimed a man who was inside the car. He seemed as if he had just woken up from a nap.
“Look daddy look, he’s got uhhh what’s the color that comes after green in the rainbow again?”
“Blue”
“He’s got a blue body with uhhh a red tail I think,” she responded. I have blue scales with a hint of white and my fanned out fins have an ombre red on them. The car started to shift and then we were moving. I noticed that the little girl’s eyes were beginning to close as the car continued to move. As we continued down the street, my eyes began to close as well and I slowly drifted off into a daze.
When my daze broke I saw two bright green eyes staring at me through some glass. Glass. Oh my gosh I’m in a bowl! I’ve never been in a bowl before; I have always just been in my little cup. After my mini freak out, I remembered that the green eyes were still watching over me. I slowly turned around to see that the green eyes were ones of a cat. They followed me as I swam around my bowl. The cat had black fur and was long and lean with a thin body. It’s eyes poured into mine as I tried to find a hiding place to escape its gaze. Finally I went inside my little castle and started to look for the cat again. It was circling my bowl then it abruptly stopped and sat down. One of his paws began to raise and move closer towards the bowl, my bowl. Just as its paw was over the center of the bowl there was a squeal then,
“Mr.Whiskerson! Get away from the fishy right now!” shouted the little girl as she began to run towards me. The cat jumped and fell off the table. “Bad kitty!” yelled the little girl as the cat slowly walked away. As he walked he gave me a scary look and exited the room. I knew then that I might not live much longer.
It was the next day early in the morning when I had a second encounter with that stupid cat’s paw in my bowl. The little girl had woken me up due to her gentle taps on the glass. She was shaking a little can of fish food and smiling.
“Here you go fishy!” she whispered as the little pebbles fell into the bowl. She just always seemed to brighten my day. After she finished dumping practically the entire container of fish food in the bowl, she ran back to her room after whispering a quick goodbye. While I was enjoying my food, I could sense someone staring at me. I opened my eyes to end up meeting the ones of the stinking cat by golly! He blinked a few times reminding me of morse code, and I could have sworn he was trying to talk to me but then he jabbed his paw into the water. It was like he was frantically searching for something but he just couldn’t find it. I was so scared I think I could have shed a few tears. Just kidding, I’m a fish. He eventually stopped thrashing and retracted his paw leaving me terrified for what could be coming next.
It happened every day. The cat would come to my bowl and swat at me. He’d usually miss me as I rushed to my shelter, my little castle. Every time he’d almost get me the little girl would walk in and save me. Eventually the cat started coming at night. He’d thrash his paw around the bowl and shake it. The whole world would literally shake. Then the cat would get discouraged or uninterested and wander away to its litter box or to its bed. I knew I was blessed with a very good life, but my life would be cut short if I continued to be harassed by the cat. I dreaded the nights and waited for them to be over and done with. Even though the cat always missed me I knew that if he got me I’d definitely be a goner. I was hoping and praying for that night to never come because I loved my home. The little girl always fed me and would talk to me about her day, the only problem I had was that stinking’ cat. The only thing that needed to happen was for the cat to be gone.
That night I had prayed to the fish Gods, Marlin and Dory, and hoped that for once this stinking cat would get caught so that maybe he would go away. He came, as always, looking for me with those mysterious eyes. I thought about panicking, fleeing the scene. I thought about what I was trying to accomplish so I looked him dead in the eye and said/blinked, “Do you understand me?”
No response
“Do you understand me?” I blinked again. His eyes widened and then he began to blink rapidly.
“Yes,” he responded. He answered. He actually answered my call to him through morse code!
“Why are you trying to hurt me?” I asked him, he suddenly jumped and began to respond.
         “I never was trying to hurt you, I was just trying to talk to you face to face,” he looked to be almost hurt now. It looked like he had just taken a blow to the gills.
“Wait seriously? I have been scared of you for almost four months now just because of a misunderstanding?!” I blinked back angry at myself. How could I have ever considered this bright eyes and bushy-tailed feline as a murderer.
“I’m sorry you were afraid of me, I didn’t mean any harm,” he blinked. He had guilt in his eyes and I just wanted to go hide in my little castle or try and make him feel better.
“Oh no, no, no, this is definitely not your fault, this is just such a misunderstanding on my part!” I began to explain. His expression softened and he relaxed.
“Ok that does good, now that we have gotten that out of the way, tell me about the pet store,” he replied. After that moment we began to talk about everything, and that’s how our friendship began.
It’s been a whole year now and Sheldon, the cat, and I are the best of friends. We talk constantly and we’re very happy in our home. Jenna, the little girl, just turned eight and has really grown up. She now has sleepovers and brings friends over all the time. Her mother is pregnant with a little girl and she is about to pop. Her dad got a new job which apparently pays pretty well considering they have redone almost the entire house. Sheldon and I talk everyday now. He sits and talks to me so much that Jenna got her mom to get him a bed next to my tank. Yeah, that’s right, I got a tank. Most betta fish like me don’t like big spaces, but let me tell you, big spaces to swim around in are amazing. My brand new tank came a few weeks ago once the construction workers stopped coming as often. Life has been great lately. Everything always goes as planned; we all have our own schedule worked out between us. Everyday flies by because of all the fun I am having with my new family. My life has truly been an amazing adventure. It’s not just anybody’s adventure; it’s my adventure, Jeffrey’s adventure.