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It was the eve of Thanksgiving, and I had awoken in the night screaming...
At my sister.

"WHAT?!" I shouted, raising up from the warm confines of my pillows and glaring in the darkness. I was very tired, and though a laid-back person, I have little tolerance when jarred from my state of hybernation.
"Get up and get ready. We're leaving for Grandma's in an hour, ok?"
"Ok." I mumbled as I began to lay down again, with the full intentions of ignoring the warning and sleeping 'just a few moments longer'.
"SISTER!" The term of endearment snapped like a whip from behind the double doors.
"OK! GEEZ!" The blankets shuffled, and I sat up for the last time. Waiting for my eyes to adjust to the black opaqueness of my room, I eventually slid to the end of the bed and crumbled on the cluttered floor. "I'M UP!"
I laid in a state of drowzieness until the sharp shrill of my rats' wheel pierced my dark haze and pushed me up.
"Damnit...It's late, we should just go in the morning" I growled, stuffing my legs into a pair of jeans I had snatched up from the side of my bed.
The light flooded in and directed their assault towards my eyes as I open the door. I grumbled and squinted into the brightly lit livingroom. Shuffling along the carpet, I entered the kitchen and flicked on the light to reveal a counter full of dishes, and a pale green linoleum. I grinned in the back of my mind at the flooring. It was a step up from what our family used to have...
I know, I laid it down myself.

Mercury yawned an meowed, moving and removing herself from the appearence of 'some object' in the kitchen. Standing on four little paws, she arched her back, then stretched foward.
Nearly falling off the cat stand she had previously been sprawled out upon.
Catching herself on the floor, the tiny fluff of brown swirls padded lazilly to where I stood and head butted the back of my leg.
I looked down, thoroughly amused by her child-like demeanor.
"What?" I inquired, looking down at her and imagining how my father must of felt when he said it to his much smaller children.
Large green eyes looked up at me and meowed-much louder than before.
Something this little brat was known for.
The loud meow of Mercury brought from the livingroom and computer room a series of calls. A shadow flitted into the lit kitchen, mewing slightly and shaking. Then a silver flash streaked up onto the chair and meowed before streaking somewhere else.
Then a much larger and older cat sauntered in and rubbed along my legs.

I knew that the only reason these creatures were allowing me the priveledge of so much attention was because they were expecting a form of Thanksgiving dinner themselves.
I granted them such, providing for them a equal servings of canned cat food.
The four cats were finished by the time I had made my rats their own little feast of carrots, ham, baby food, and bread.

After I finished feeding the animals their treats, I sauntered back into the livingroom to find my mother. Still asleep.

Annoyed by the fact that she still slept and I didn't, I stood for a moment watching her, before calling out "MOM! Get up! Come on, Debrah's going to be mad!"

The fish would have sparkled, dazzled, and swam around with the ferventness of an animal who couldn't remember what it will be doing in 12 seconds, but they didn't.
Though the beta fish were clad in brilliant scales and fins of even more luminous colors, they laid there, sickly and wilting, at the bottom of their plastic sippy cups.
I bent down and stared hard into one of the cups, only to receive the same defiant glare from a fish who thought it could take me on. "That's right," it said in it's fishy mind. "Get closer, tap the glass, see what I'll do you big over-preened mammal with your football sized brain I'll-
HOLY CRAP! A HUMAN!"
The fish's red and white fins fluttered, and it swam to the other side of the cup.
"Not very lively, are they?" My sister asked, leaning over and looking at the one that had just moved.
"Well, yeah. I told you they were sickly. We should just buy some at Petco."
"No, we get these for free though." She said while looking at another fish.
Which was true, and now I saw why they were free with every purchase of a wall-hung aquarium bubble...thing. My mom had bought two aquariums for my sister and I as Christmas presents. She kept the receipts so we could return the day after Christmas and redeem our fish.
Now the only hurtle left was to decide which sickly fish was the coolest looking, with the possibility of living more than a day.
"When was the last time they cleaned out this water?" My sister whispered to me. "There's poop and pee everywhere. No wonder these fish look like crap."
I nodded in agreement while keeping my gaze on the different fish.
I felt bad selecting something merely by it's looks. I wanted the fish to give me hints, clues, as to which one of them really needed my help and love.
They merely gave me the same defiant looks as the first one.
Which I let slide. If I was stuck in a clear toilet for people to shake around and inspect all day, I'd be pissed too.
I found myself glad they had bad memories.
"Here. I found mine."
My sister raised up a small clear cup to the light. It was a small female beta of brilliant red.
I admired her ability to show such apathy towards animals. Yet at the same time, I didn't want such a curse. If the beta weren't so territorial, I would have tried to pull money out and purchase all of them.
But I didn't.
It was another half hour before I finally began to refuse to look at the other fish. Not because they weren't good enough, but because my heart was sore.
I chose a small mottled one of blacks, blues, whites and reds, that had been thrashing in it's wall-bubble.

"So what are you going to name them?" My mom asked on the ride home. My sister didn't reply. She didn't believe in naming something that insignificant.
"I don't know.." I mumbled, having been deep in thought on the subject since we had left the small booth situated outside of Macy's.
A thought occurred, and I smiled in a sarcastic manner.
"Alpha. Alpha the beta."
My mom laughed.