Disclaimer: These characters are the intellectual property of Stephenie Meyer. No profit is being made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

"He asked about my birthdays, my grade school teachers, my childhood pets - and I had to admit that after killing three fish in a row, I'd given up on the whole institution." -Twilight pg 258

"It's hard to know what a fish is thinking." -Eclipse

"Happy fourteenth birthday, Bella!"

I awoke to see my mother standing over me with balloons and a birthday cake. She looked excited, as always. Renée loved birthdays.

I groaned and rolled over in bed. "Unhhh, Mom..."

"Oh, sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, that's okay, I'm getting up." I forced myself to get up and look at the clock. It was already past ten - had I really slept so late? - on Saturday morning.

"Come down when you're ready and we can have cake."

"Birthday cake for breakfast?" Renée was known for her crazy ideas, but this was a first. Perhaps she was just trying to make up for all my previous birthday breakfasts, which usually went awry - or turned out to be inedible.

"Of course...if you want. It is your birthday, after all."

"I think we'd better wait until after dinner, Mom."

"Oh, okay. That sounds reasonable."

She left, and I got dressed. I was never really big on birthdays; you were just celebrating being a year older, which, in my book, wasn't really much to celebrate at all. But I was happy to see her happy, so I played along.

After breakfast (eggs and bacon; I left the cake in its plastic container) Renée hustled me out the door. "Come on, Bella," she said excitedly. "We need to go pick out your present."

Every year, Renée had some grand plan for a big birthday celebration. We would go to the zoo, or the water park, or a baseball game. Sometimes her plans fell through; we would get lost, or wouldn't be able to buy tickets at the last minute. But we usually had fun anyway, and my birthdays were never boring.

I followed her out the door, past the big eucalyptus tree in our yard, and into our new-to-us car - I had purchased it with her just a few months ago; my presence was needed to be sure that my mother would not fall into a used car salesman's inequitable deal.

About ten minutes into the drive, I started to get impatient. "Uh, Mom...Where exactly are we going?"

She smiled passionately, as she did whenever she had a new scheme or obsession. "You'll see."

We pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall, and I recognized the store in front by its neon sign and the numerous small animals looking out the store windows.

"You're taking me to a pet store?" I asked skeptically. Usually her birthday plans were more elaborate than that, and I wondered exactly what this would entail.

She looked confused. "Yes, didn't you say you wanted a puppy for your birthday?"

"Mom, that was two years ago."

She looked surprised and slightly hurt, so I quickly backpedaled. "It's okay, though. I'm sure I'll find something in here I want. We won't come back empty-handed, I promise."

This seemed to placate her. We entered the store, and Renée immediately went to the nearest glass cage. "Oh, look at these little bunnies! They're so cute!"

We both knew that Renée was too irresponsible to have a pet. What if she forgot to feed it or take it outside? What if it peed on the rug or chewed up the sofa? I knew, however, that she was trying to make me happy, so I would have to oblige her - even if it meant I was the one stuck taking care of it later.

I looked around for a sales clerk and quickly spotted one and got her attention. "Yes? How may I help you?" she asked.

"I need something low maintenance." Something that wouldn't be fraught with disaster.

"How about a hamster?"

"Okay."

She escorted me to the hamster cages. They looked innocent enough, with their cute little cheeks swollen with their next meal.

"You can hold one, if you want."

"Umm..." I hadn't had much experience with holding live animals. "Okay. How about that one?" I pointed to a little brown-and-white creature that looked particularly calm and non-threatening.

The sales clerk, whose nametag said Michelle, reached into the cage and scooped up the tiny furball. She quickly examined him before handing him to me. "This one's a boy," she confirmed.

I looked into his little beady eyes. "Aww, he's so cu-OW!! He bit me!" After I recovered from the shock, I realized that I had dropped him, and he was quickly scampering away - with Michelle not far behind. I examined my hand. There were little droplets of blood on my finger. I suddenly felt queasy.

"Oh, honey, are you all right?" It was Renée; she had seen the whole debacle from the adjacent aisle. "Maybe we should get something that's not so...feral." My thoughts exactly.

Michelle returned, hamster in tow. "I'm truly sorry about that; the hamsters are usually really gentle. He must've mistaken your finger for a piece of food or something."

"Maybe I just smelled particularly delicious," I mumbled under my breath.

"Anyway," said Renée, "I think we'd like something a little less hands-on."

"How about a fish?"

A fish would be perfect, I thought suddenly. I had always loved watching them - in the tide pools of First Beach with Charlie, and in little koi ponds and fountains with my mom. They always looked so peaceful and content in their own little watery world. "A fish sounds great," I said.

Michelle took us on a tour of the rows and rows of fish tanks, describing each one as we passed it. There were angelfish, rainbowfish, clownfish, and many others whose names I forgot as soon as I heard them. I finally settled on three very pretty butterfly tail goldfish, after Renée suggested that one would get lonely by itself. I picked out a relatively inexpensive fish tank, Michelle instructed me on how to use it and clean it, and we paid and left.

I sighed in relief; we had escaped in one piece. I looked down at my finger again. Well, almost.

A/N: If you read the whole chapter and you liked it, review! If you didn't like it, review anyway! Just be specific about what you didn't like (AKA no flames, please).