When Timothy Met Smidgeons

Previously on Smidgeons the Fish...

"Is he gonna put us back in the pond once he gets all the money he wants?" questioned Nearly Smart Sister.

"No..." Smidgeons said slowly. "He's not. He said yesterday that once he's done with us... he's going to flush us down a thing. I'm pretty sure he called it... "a toilet." "

...

"Panic!!!" Shouted Panic Fish, having correctly determined that this time it was indeed a proper time for panicking. And every gold fry in every cup, save for smidgeons, began to swim in panicked circles shrieking things like 'Gonna die!' and 'Down the toilet!'

Smidgeons sighed.

And went about formulating a plan.

Chapter five!
When Timothy Met Smidgeons!

It seemed to all the human passers by and those waiting in line to throw balls at hoops as well... that something rather odd was going on with all the tiny baby goldfish, who all seemed to be swimming in tiny frenzied semi circles within their tiny plastic cups.

"Are the fishies ok?" asked a small girl, as she tugged on her mommy's sleeve.

"They're fishes in cups," answered a tall boy standing off to the side of them. "What's to be ok about?"

The boy was an awkward, and handsome -(in an unusual and slightly simian way)- Irish lad with messy fiery colored hair, whose name happened to be Timothy, and he had been passing by the attraction after exiting a porta potty in which he had been dunking his best friend Billy's head for the past quarter of an hour.

(Billy had recently found religion, and thusly ratted Timothy out to the Principal for having suplexed an elderly midget into a trash can [on a dare,] resulting in Timothy's half week suspension from school.)

He had been on his way to the library in search of a new (and preferably less ethically disposed) geek to do his homework for him, when the many cups full of circling fish caught his attention. No one can say for certain, what caused Timothy to stop and watch those tiny goldfry circle in their cups... perhaps somewhere within that tiny pea brain of his... he drew an analogy between those circling fish in their cups and his own life. The world may never know. But he stopped, and he watched.

Three parents with children stepped to the front, paid their five bucks a piece, and each tossed three metal balls haphazardly at the ring. Timothy wasn't overly intelligent, but he was born into a family filled to the brink with the types of folks who would run scams such as these, and he was relatively certain there was no way anyone was going to get any of those balls through that hoop.

He eyed the hoop for awhile... thinking for a moment that if somebody threw the ball hard and perfect enough, they could throw it so the ball would get stuck right in the middle of the circle... and then for a moment he even wondered if he could do it. As a professional bully, Timothy spent nearly 60 percent of his time throwing things either at people or through their windows, and he'd become quite good at it. And he supposed their was a slight possibility he could make that shot. That is if he had fifty or sixty bucks to blow on the game, and all day to throw metal balls at hoops.

Well technically he did have all day to throw balls at hoops, he supposed with a shrug. But all he had was five dollars on him left for the fare. And mugging someone here in broad day light might be ill advised... but the final deciding factor was that Timothy had no interest whatsoever in winning a goldfish. After all, goldfish were stupid.

So with a final stretch and yawn. Timothy started to walk past the goldfish and onward in search of geek lackeys.

It was that point that a tiny goldfry with a silver stripe on its back, shot out of his cup and into the air, latching onto Timothy's nose in it's mouth.

...