The Fishes

• Michelle Devlin, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2009

Present:
‘Urgh’ I say, waking up. Mornings are always the worst. Warily opening my eyes, I see, a dozen goldfish staring at me!
‘Argh!’ I yell.
My sister and her friend, Christine, walk in with a video camera, laughing.
I glare at them as they sit down on my bed.
‘Sorry, Alison’ my sister, Darla, says. ‘We were going for ‘The Birds’ thing, only, of course, with fish’
‘Nailed it!’ Christine says in a high voice.
Softening my glare, I look around at all the pairs of eyes staring at me.
‘I just have one question; where did you get all the goldfish?’
‘A good question’ Christine answers, ‘Followed by a good story’.
The previous day:
‘This Spaß Festival is the best ever!’ Darla exclaims over the screams of the rollercoaster. ‘I know!’ Christine reply’s, ‘To think we almost went to the Museum of Suffering! This is so awesome!’
20 minutes later:
‘This is awesome...’
‘Yeah...’
‘Do you wanna go to the market?’
‘Sure’
Present day:
‘But the market wasn’t open yet, so instead we went to the arcade’.
The previous night:
‘How long have we been playing?’
Beep, beep.
‘I don’t know, an hour’
Beep, beep.
‘How much money have we spent?’
Beep, beep.
‘$10’
Beep.
‘Oh yeah, I forgot that we’re extremely awesome at video games’
Beep, beep, beep.
‘In the zone man’
Beep.
‘I ‘m bored’
Beep.
‘Me too. Let’s go get slurpees’
Present day:
‘By that time the market had opened, so we went for a walk’
The previous night:
‘Get custom bone bracelets!’‘ Ball- in- a- cup, Mexico’s favourite toy for 360 years!””Mafusa and Kimba! I mean, Simba!””Get a hoop around the prize and it’s yours! 15 hoops for 15 prizes, only $6.95 including GST”
“Hey” Darla says, “I’m gonna try the hoop thing”
‘But it’s rigged!’’ Just watch and learn...’
7 minutes later:
The man at the stall was in awe. ‘How did you do that?’
‘Three months at my grandma’s house with nothing to do but throw wooden hoops over the things on her drawer’
‘I remember that!’
‘Anyway, can I have my prizes now, please?’
The man looked shocked.
‘But that would ruin the game!’
‘I won those prizes fair and square!’
‘What if I gave you 30 dollars?’
‘But the prizes are worth way more than that!’
‘$50 dollars?’
‘Keep going...’
‘$50 dollars and... All the goldfish in this stall’
‘There aren’t any fish in the stall!’
He ducked down and started putting plastic bags with bright orange fish on the counter.
‘Well, there are now!’ Darla mumbled.
‘So...’
Present day:
‘So that’s how you got a dozen goldfish? And $50 dollars?’
‘Also a football phone!’ Christine chimed in.
‘But what are you going to do with a tonne of goldfish, anyway?’
‘I don’t know. I really don’t know’
THE END.