in seventh grade my science teacher had an aquarium that contained three of the most drab, misshapen “fish” (i use this term lightly bc i’m still not convinced they weren’t aliens scoping earth out as a possible breeding ground) i have ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes upon

they were an indescribable sense of gray, with these protruding lumps coming out slightly from their heads and thick, parted fishy lips, a face no mother could love.

in any sense of the word, they were ugly.

my science teacher introduced them to the class proudly enough (if they had names, they weren’t important, because it’s not like anyone could tell them apart anyway) and then class proceeded as usual for a few months.

now i didnt take notice of the “fish” at first bc they were located in the back corner of the classroom and i sat as close to the door as humanly possible bc i did not like our science teacher (he smiled with too many teeth) and i enjoyed leaving the room as quickly as possible.

sometime in the middle of the semester, we were all forced to switch up our seating arrangement, probably to prevent us from becoming a little too chummy with each other and unionizing, as seventh graders are wont to do, and suddenly i have a front row seat near the “fish”.

now, this is early november, i hate this science teacher, i hate this class, and i enjoy watching things that move, so the majority of my time was spent watching the fish while i halfheartedly paid attention.

not that this was any more interesting, considering the fish don’t move very much, but since their tank was only a few plastic plants or whatever people put in those things.

i take a closer look though (because what’s the alternative, actually paying attention?) and i notice little bits of... gray matter, floating around inside the tank. it looks like dust, but it’s not. it’s too gray to be fish flakes, and i can only conclude: it’s bits of “fish”.

but normal organism don’t randomly flake off bits of their bodies, right? and i look even more closely, and i notice that one of the “fish” is swimming a little strangely, always coming just a little too close to bumping into the aquarium glass.

there is a sizable chunk missing from one of its fins.

but what possible predator could a “domesticated” “fish” possibly have in a glass box containing two of its kin?

and then my seventh grade pea-sized brain had the epiphany of a lifetime: they were eating each other.

and it’s not like they weren’t getting enough food either! my science teacher may have been a creepy little man but my GOD did he love his “fish” (perhaps that’s why he was so creepy) and i can’t believe that he would ever starve them, intentionally or otherwise.

and indeed, if you looked a little closer, the little bits of matter did appear to be drifting through the water from the fat, bulbous lips of the other “fish”, perhaps a little bit still caught inside its mouth, but i was too scared to look any closer.

in my nightmares, i still see these “fish”. sometimes, they have a full set of blunt teeth. i’m too terrified to dig deep in my mind to figure out if that was real or imagined.

these “fish” were clearly going insane, losing what was left of their little fishy minds, swimming aimlessly around and gnawing at each other, and suffice it to say, i did not want to go with them.

so i spent the rest of the semester on my phone because i didn’t want to know anymore what was happening in the glass prison on my right.

anyways, school ends, winter break comes and goes, and class starts back up again in january. we come back to the science classroom and my science teacher is still smiling with too many teeth, but now his expression looks a little strained.

“we had a little mishap over the break,” he says, laughing nervously, with no explanation of what the mishap was. “but luckily, we still have friends left!” and my head whips around to stare at the tank in the back corner.

and indeed, they must have had a christmas feast themselves, because floating in the fish tank, aimless as always, are two drab, misshapen, thick-lipped, plump “fish”.

this thread for @tayttimus who jogged my memory of middle school trauma