Sneaking your pet into school without getting caught would be an achievement in and of itself. However, that task becomes much trickier when the pet in question is a fish – as one three-year-old girl attempted last week.

As was first reported by BuzzFeed, a young girl named Peyton in the US managed to do so in a remarkably clever and cunning way.

The full story was relayed by journalist Conor Hughes, a relative of Peyton’s, who recently shared how the pre-schooler managed such a feat.

As Mr Hughes explains on his personal Twitter page, “Having recently gotten married, @BrieHughes3 & I have started the discussion on having children. I received this text message from my cousin today and I’m not sure we’re ready.”

He then proceeded to share a comical text exchange with Peyton’s mother, who writes: “Got a call from Yeton’s school today that apparently she smuggled her fish from home and brought it in a sippy cup”. After confirming that the fish was indeed still alive, she then said that Peyton had “scooped it out of the tank”.

Even more remarkable, however, is how the youngster got caught. According to Mr Hughes’ text with the family member, she was rumbled by the teacher after trying to drink the fish water. “She forgot it was there”, the text message reads.

At this point, a presumably astonished teacher then noticed the poor fish stranded in the cup, and attempted to save both it – and Peyton – from a rather slimy surprise.

In an interview with BuzzFeed, the girl’s mother, Lauren, revealed how she reacted upon hearing the news. “I was absolutely not prepared to pick up the phone and hear, ‘Mrs. Scanlan, did you happen to know that Peyton brought her Beta fish to school today in her sippy cup?”

According to the mom, on the very morning Peyton brought the fish into school, she felt like there was something slightly off. “Every morning, she feeds Mermaid. When I went over to where she was, she said, ‘No mommy, stay away, don’t come over here!

“Clearly, that was suspicious. I did notice that she spilled the fish food on the floor, so I just told her it was OK and that I would clean up the fish food. It never crossed my mind that she would put Mermaid in a sippy cup.”

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