I was 5 at the time, and very gullible. I was told that we were going to Costco and being myself, I believed it. It was the thirteenth of January, and was still the Winter Holidays for my sister and me. I was walking out of my car, and just skipping around, happy as usual, singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the top of my lungs, as my sister hushed me. She is 8 years older than me, and we got along together just fine. I love my family as we always have fun together. We play many pranks on each other, as most pranks are on my mom, and it is fun to watch. I also get pranked very often, as I believe anything anyone says. Little did I know that I was meeting the rest of my family.

My sister opened the PetSmart door for me, and at the time, I got confused between the letter “P” and “B", so, I said, “Why are we going to Bet Smart? I thought we were going to Costco! I like their samples better than your so called pretty clothes,” I said in my cute 5-year-old voice. This was mostly directed to my mom, who loved to shop. Though I wasn’t angry, I didn’t like this idea. Then I noticed my parents and my sister looking at each other, having a mischievous look on their faces.

“Sweetie, this is a surprise for you!” said my mom, trying to smooth things out. “Tada!!!” said my sister, going with the act. I loved surprises, so I said, “Tell meeee! Wait, no, don’t tell me! I want to know but I want to keep the surprise.”

“Ooohh, something smells funny,” I said. I walked around holding my parent’s hands, swinging them wildly. My eyes lit up with excitement. We were walking around, my parents knew where they were going. I was actually liking the smell of the bird food, and we were getting closer and closer to the source, and guess what? We were in the bird section. “Birdie Section” I read. “Oooohhh lookie! There is a glass window to look through! WOW! They are so pretty!” I was astonished by the sight. They were beautiful. There were dozens of birds--in all colors you could imagine, and there were two birds that caught my eye, a white headed blue bodied bird and a yellow headed and green bird. They were playing together, playfully poking each other and taking turns eating out of the bowl placed in their cage. Our eyes clicked together, each amazed by the other. They were looking at me intrigued by the sight. “Look at that one! That birdie is eating,” I said in a know-it-all voice. There were dozens of birds in there. My sister was flabbergasted by the sight, and broke the silence, saying, “So far, I have counted 42 birds, and I am not even halfway done! WOW! These birds do look amazing, I agree with lil sis.”

The birds were inside an enclosed area, around five to seven birds per cage, as the cages were pretty big compared to my height. Since they were in multiple cages, they allowed us to go inside and my mouth dropped open, I was amazed even more. This was when my love for birds started. This was the best day of my life!

“We are getting a pet bird!” my sister said, breaking the silence, and bringing my awareness back. “Tada?” my sister said, not able to predict my reply. I said in wonder, as I couldn’t believe them.“YOU ARE JOKING.” “Nope! Not a bit, sweetie,” my dad replied. I questioned, hoping I processed the information correctly “You are in on this act too?”. I was smart in this sense, living in a family who always had jokes going around. But deep inside, I was really hoping that this was real, and not a dream. I would have loved to get pet birds, but I wasn’t going to show my real emotions, not falling into the trap, letting my family trick me. I was still not sure. Now for me, this was a problem. “It is true, sweetie,” said my mom, and then I knew for sure it was true. For real. My mom is usually never the one to be in on these pranks, as she gets pranked easily, and she doesn't want us in her spot. My mom is super nice in these ways. But still I had some inner doubt. WE WERE GETTING PET BIRDS!!! I was flabbergasted. But wait, was she in on this? I thought. Why should I hide my feelings? If my parents will know how happy I will be, then they might feel bad for not getting me a pet bird, and for all I knew we were probably getting one bird.

“WAHOOO,” I said so happy, showing my true inner feelings. I was bouncing all over the place. I was bouncing around for quite a while, holding my sister’s hand, going up in down in a repetitive motion, bouncing like a spring. “ You are bouncing like Tigger! Hahaha!” joked my dad.

The shopkeeper walked up to us, in her fancy uniform, and said, “Hello, do you need any help? Are you looking for anything in particular?” My dad politely replied, “ We were just looking around the store, but do you have bird cages, big ones? Like we want our birds to have enough room.” “Birds??!!??!!” my sister exclaimed before the shopkeeper could reply. To clarify the information, my dad said, “Wahoo! We are getting two of them!” I had just processed the information and said, “Wait, like birdies, more than one?” In reply, my dad said, “Yes, sweetie.” I was wide-eyed by the thought of two birds. “Heyyy! You guys never told me!” said my sister. “Hay is for horses,” my parents said at the same time, and they laughed. Since there never told my sister about getting TWO birds, I was now starting to believe them more because they usually only prank one person, not two!

“Can we please get this type of birdie?” I said pointing towards the parakeets “There is a name tag, reading parakeets, wow, these are so colorful! Let’s get them!” The shopkeeper took the latch out from all of the cages containing parakeets, and there were lots of them.

The birds were fluttering here and there, and my parents told us to choose two birds out of the crowd, and I told my sister to also choose mine, as I didn’t want any bird to feel bad that I didn’t choose them. “That blue and white one that is circling the light bulb,” said my sister. After a few minutes, the bird was caught. She was such a fast bird. This was the bird that was eating before, and she was pretty cute. “Is it a it a girl or a boy?” I questioned. “Girl, four months old, you can tell by the color of their nose. Her nose is pink, and if it was a boy, the nose color would be blue,” said the shopkeeper. “Thankyou!” I said. My sister continued and said, “Hmmmm, that yellow and green one that is gliding near the blue cage, wait it moved, red cage!” The shopkeeper replied, “Caught it!” I said, “This one is a boy, right?” “Yes,” said the shopkeeper.

She placed them in a box and I held the boxes, one in each hand, my hands going up and down as the birds were moving in the box.

After we were done, we were going to go home, happy as ever. I realized that I should always believe in my family, no matter how foolish or silly it sounded. At the end I trusted my family, knowing that they were correct. The thought made me so happy at first, but some of my happiness drowned out, not sure if I should believe them. I could have had more fun at the time, but I didn’t believe them, and I regretted not believing my family. My pet birds were a cute bundle of love, who cared for you no matter what.