"Open your present Percy!" Sally Jackson sat at the table in their small apartment and snapped pictures as, now five-year-old Percy pulled a large present towards himself. The present was a large rectangular prism, covered in blue bubble paper with a big bow on top. Little Percy grabbed the paper and tore it off. The camera flashed.

"What is it, Mom?" he asked.

"Open your card, sweetie," Was Ms. Jackson's reply. Percy picked the card off the bottom of the present and opened the orange envelope. The card had a fish with a birthday cake on it. Percy opened the card and a newspaper-clipping full of coupons fell out. "Can you read the card with me?" Sally pointed to words.

"Happy… B-ir-th-d-ay Percy. Y-our pr-e-s-e-nt is a-t th-e p-e-t st-o-re. L-ove M-o-m." They read together.

"Good job Percy!" Ms. Jackson praised him.

"What is it?" Percy asked again, looking the glass tank over and out to find some secret compartment, or maybe for a button that transformed it into something other than a plain glass box.

"Percy, do you want to go get the rest of your present?" Percy glanced at the box then nodded. They grabbed their shoes and headed out the door.

The pet store was only a few minutes walk from their small apartment in Manhattan. Once they got there Ms. Jackson led Percy to an aisle full of little toys, colorful rocks, and plastic plants. "Pick out a toy or two and some rocks for your fish tank."

Percy stared at all the wonderful toys. Treasure chests that opened with bubbles, mermaids, shipwrecks. And the bags of rocks. They had every color plus they had two or three or four colors mixed in with each other. Ms. Jackson went down the aisle farther to look at plastic plants and left Percy in a five-year-old's wonderland.

Five minutes later Percy came and tugged on Sally's shirt. "I want those ones," He said. He led his mom over to the shelves.

"Are you sure?" She asked Percy nodded. She lifted a miniature coliseum off the shelf and put it into her cart then a bag of bright orange rocks. "Time to find your fish!" She sang and pushed the cart towards the end of the aisle. Percy thought nothing could top the toy aisle until he turned the corner. The wall was lined with fish tanks full of Real. Live. Fish. "Chose your fish."

Percy ran down the row looking at every kind of fish then ran back to look at ones he already had looked at. An ADHD boy's dream. "I want that one." Percy finally concluded, pointing to a Red Eyed Tetra. The salesman filled a bag full of water and started to scoop up a fish, but Percy screamed. "No! Not that one. That one."

The salesman tried again and apparently scooped up the right fish. "Percy, you can get some more. That fish will be lonely in that big tank."

Percy ran down the row a few more times and finally pointed to a tank with orange fish swimming around. "I want the spotted one," Percy announced. The salesman scooped up the fish with a Mickey Mouse head shape on its tail. Then a Neon Tetra that was green instead of blue, then another Red eyed Tetra with spots on its back. "That's it," Percy announced to the salesman. The salesman blew air into the fish bag and tied it off. Then he gave it to Sally and showed them where the check out counter was.

Percy insisted on carrying the fish home and when they got there they began setting up the tank right away. Ms. Jackson set the fish tank up on a drawer Percy had in his room on top of a towel. Then they cleaned the rocks and put them in the bottom. Percy set the newly cleaned coliseum in the middle of the tank and Ms. Jackson put plastic plants in the middle of it "So that the fish have something to do." Then she filled the tank with water, put some drops of fish tank stuff in and one final touch. Ms. Jackson went into her room and came out with a single sand dollar. She whispered something and plopped it in, watching it fall to the bottom. The tank suddenly seemed cheerier.

"What do you say, Mom?" Percy asked.

"Nothing," Sally wiped a tear from her eye. "Let's get those fish in the tank."

Putting the fish in the tank proved harder than it sounds. With an ADHD boy it is almost impossible to let the fish get acclimated before dumping them in. Sally had to wait beside Percy for the whole five minutes to be sure he didn't accidentally kill his new pets. "But Colorful wants to swim in the coliseum!" Percy whined.

"Whose Colorful?" Sally asked. 'And how do you know what a coliseum is,' she thought.

"That one." Percy pointed the first Red Eyed Tetra he had picked. "That one is Snoopy," He said as he pointed to the orange fish with the Mickey Mouse spot, "That one is Lemonade," The green Neon Tetra, "And that is Spot," The spotted Red Eyed Tetra.

It was finally time to let the fish explore. Slowly, Sally dumped them into the tank. Colorful and Spot went to explore the coliseum while Lemonade checked out the sand dollar. Snoopy swam in a circle around the top of the tank. Percy sat, amazed and ms. Jackson slowly backed out of the room to make lunch.

Percy sat in front of his fish tank all day. He talked to the fish, got them to follow his finger, fed them. His mom had to literally drag him away from the tank to eat dinner. All he talked about was his fish.

"And Spot and Colorful are getting married, Spot is the girl and Colorful is the boy. Lemonade is really fast; he is the fastest in the world. Snoopy likes circles, he told me so…"

Ms. Jackson smiled to herself, hearing Percy talk like that. Tears welled into her eyes. 'Cheers, Honey.' She thought to herself. 'I sure miss you.'

A/N: The fish in this story were my fish's names except for Snoopy, which was my sister's fish last year. When we moved I had to give them away and they all eventually died. I had thirteen fish, but Colorful, Spot, and Lemonade were the most memorable. I will reveal my personal FishTale in the chapters to come.