Hey guys, this is my sequel to Hard Times Of The Raccoon Kids (I regret the title tremendously)
For those of you who've read it, it is based about nine months after the ending. I'm not saying you need to read the first one, I'm just saying it would make more sense.
I only own my ocs
Swiftys P.O.V
"I got your position, T2. T3 is behind you?" Shifty asks through my ear piece.
"Yeah, T3 is at my tail.
How's security looking T1?" I ask as I continue crawling on my belly through the vents. We have to use code names whenever we use the head sets, if we use our real names and someone tapped into our signal, it could be a disaster. No money, jail time, we could lose everything.
"Looks good from where I am. BB, how's things looking for you?" He asks Thrifty.
"Security is on the first floor, could take them awhile to get to your position. The cameras are fakes, or at least no one is paying attention to it. The only monitor the fat guard is watching is some dumb movie with horses. The others are just chatting and walking." My youngest brother says through his head set. He's supposed to be in the oak tree next to the museum and keep an eye on security through the windows for when our system fails. Honestly, it's a useless job, but he's six. We can't trust him with anything of real importance yet!
Lifty and I sneak closer and closer until we're right under the display case. "Saw." I tell my brother plainly and he hands me the small hack saw. I carve a small hole until I can fit my hand to the velvet lining of the box.
"Holy hell, they're heading upstairs!" Thrifty gasps. "And quick!"
"BB, you have to fall out of that tree like I showed you. When you get to the ground, scream as loud as you can." Shifty instructs, using his 'leader voice'. It's calm, yet stern.
Thriftys P.O.V
I roll myself off the branch, making sure my shirt snags on a branch like Shifty told me to. Supposedly, it makes the landing less harsh. I look back up and realize that it didn't work. I tumble to the ground and land on my side. Shit, my elbow and shoulder hurt. I scream as loud and as long as possible. I'm not really in too much pain, but I have to sell it to help my family.
The three guards rush outside carrying flashlights. I continue screaming until one of them, a ferret, is by my side.
He gets on his knees and helps me up. "Are you okay, kid? What happened?" He asked with concern.
"I fell out of the tree I was climbing!" I burst into even more fake tears, covering my face in my hands for good measure.
"What's your name little guy? You can tell us." The guard dog asks
"Mittens Squirrel." Shifty tells me through the ear piece.
I repeat the name and the dog eyes me suspiciously. "You don't exactly look like a squirrel. You look more like a raccoon." He gets closer and I can feel him staring at my dark blue mask and ringed tail.
"I ran away because I found out I was adopted. Now I just wanna go home!" I bawl louder.
"Eh, we were about to head out anyways. Fellas, you just wanna call it an early night?" The ferret guard asks the other two.
"Yeah, let's just lock 'er up and get him home." The fat mountain lion says, taking a set of keys out of his pocket. "Do me a favor, Slinky, start up my Buick and get this kids address."
"Good job, Kid. Just give them the address I tell you." Shifty directs me as the tall guard, apparently named 'Slinky' helps me up.
"Can you walk, kiddo?" He asks as I walk forward. I take a step and slip in the wet grass. I slide and I smash my face into the brick building. Ow, oh my god that really did hurt. I run my hand across my forehead and realize that I'm bleeding.
"Can you just take me home? My mom's a nurse and she has a First Aid kit." I say with a little more bite than necessary.
"2045 Acorn Drive." Shifty tells me. "I already called, she said it would be okay."
"I live at 2045 Acorn Drive. Can you please take me?" I nearly plead.
Shiftys P.O.V
"Thanks again, Flaky. We should be by to pick him up soon." I thank Flaky over my cellphone.
"Anytime, tell Swifty I just cleaned my room and I have almost two bags of her stuff." She tells me and I laugh. "Damn, I should start charging you three for how many times I'm 'emergency babysitting' your brother." She laughs more.
"Fine, you can grab something from the Storage Room." I tell her and hang up.
I put my head set back on. "What's your progress?" I ask, checking all the equipment we got from Sniffles. Okay, stole. The equipment we stole from Sniffles.
"We got the diamond. I just have to swap it out and we're good to go." Lifty updates me.
Thriftys P.O.V
"Thanks for bringing my little cousin back." Flaky waves at the guards as they leave.
"Come on, I just baked some cookies." She invites me in. I step into the house and slip off my shoes. "My mom's out of town and my dad's working the graveyard shift tonight, so if you want to watch a movie or something, go ahead."
I walk into the livingroom with two cookies and start looking at all the movies. I can't exactly read that well yet, so I'm mostly looking at the covers. I find an interesting looking one. "What's this?" I ask Flaky as she walks into the livingroom.
"Thrifty, no. That movie is sooooo scary!" She pleads and I put it back. "Do you want to watch Freezing?" I've watched it at school and at other kids birthday parties. I'm not too big of a fan, but I can't get the song 'Allow It To Go' out of my head.
"Yeah, I'll go find it."
Liftys P.O.V
"Let's get out of here." I whisper to my sister as we crawl back, the diamond safely in our bag. "The guy didn't seem too patient."
"Agreed. Why does he want the diamond anyway? With a guy as loaded as he is, he could buy a bigger and better diamond. This is nice, but we've stolen better." She asks me as we come to the open end of the vent.
"I looked into it, from what I could tell, it's a family heirloom. His brother got it and donated it to the museum. He's one of their biggest benefactors and he made the curator sign an agreement to not sell it." I tell her, crawling out the vent. I feel for the small ledge and shuffle myself to the far corner and start sliding out, keeping a tight grip on the large metal end.
"I guess it doesn't really matter why. We're getting a pretty good chunk of change." She sticks her head out. "Bro, that's a pretty good sized drop, are you sure you measured?" She asks, worry sneaking into her voice.
"Yeah. It's about 12 feet. We're both 5 foot 8. If I grab you by your feet you can lower me down and I'll catch you from there. I already did the math on this, trust me." I tell her.
She takes a breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. "Okay, I'll give you the bag to put on your shoulder. It's only about a five pound difference. I should be able to support your weight. She tells me and hands me the bag. She starts lowering herself slowly until her knees and tail are out. "Grab on." She tells me.
I leap and wrap one arm around her ankles, the heels of her boots rest against my cheek. She continues lowering herself until she's hanging by her hands. I can almost touch the grass with the toe on my shoes. I let go, clutching the bag to my chest. "Okay, let go. I promise you I will catch you." I tell her. I know she doesn't like heights so I almost have to coax her down.
"Okay, here I come." She stammers. She let's go, as she falls I manage to catch her by the knees. I put her down and she starts sprinting toward the gate. I follow her lead and we both spring onto the chain link fence surrounding the museum.
We climb and drop and continue with our race through the woods. We don't say anything, we don't really need to. A smile creeps across her face as we approach the black van. Shifty throws open the door, knowing fully well what will happen. We jump into the van and Shifty slams his foot on the gas as we shut the door.
"We just have to deliver the diamond and grab Thrifty." Shifty calls. "Do me a favor, look up Happy Tree Academy for Girls. That's where this guy wants us to meet him."
I look it up on my phone and give him the address. "Guys, do you really think he's going to pay us what we agreed on. Family heirloom or not, this thing isn't worth $4000 a piece." I grab the loupe out of my pocket and look closer. "I really hope he understands that this is what was there." I sigh.
Swiftys P.O.V
"What do you mean?" I ask him, worried about the answer.
"I mean that this is just some low qual' moissanite. Low luster, probably a high scratch point too." Lifty, our gem/lock expert sighs.
"In English, Lift." Shifty and I roll our eyes at our younger brother.
"It's a type of synthetic mineral. It's better cubic zarconia, but not by much. In short, the diamonds a fake." Lifty sighs and puts it back in the satchel around his shoulder.
"Well, let's hope he doesn't notice." Shifty sighed and killed the power. "Cause we're here."
We walk tentatively up to the front steps. "Loaded?" Ask both my brothers, feeling for the glock in my pocket, ensuring the safety is off... just in case.
"Ye-" Lifty is suddenly cut off by the door swinging open. A large ape man opens the door.
"Are you the four Mr. Jepsom told me about?" He asks in a deep growling voice.
"Yes, he did ask for four, but the last one was used for a diversion." Shifty said coolly, matching the ape mans bravado.
"Right this way." He snarled.
We follow him down the long corridor, glancing at the pristine school halls. School starts up again in two weeks and we still haven't gotten registered. I mentally remind myself to grab the paperwork.
We're finally lead to an office, the words 'Head Dean' in golden letters printed across the glass. We walk in and we're immediately greeted by a bear, I assume that this is Mr. Jepsom. "Welcome, I trust that you have what I need?"
"Now, that all depends on if you have what we need. We agreed on $4,000 a piece. We're four man operation, so if you want it, it'll be $16,000." Shifty pauses for a moment. "Cash." He adds.
"About your payment-" he starts off and Shifty twitches his nose, giving us the signal.
I draw my gun out and Lifty does the same in a blink of an eye, Shifty already has it aimed. "What about our payment?" He snarls.
"That's not the wisest thing for you to be doing, kid. A lot of people can get hurt." The deep voiced ape growls, stepping between Jepsom and us.
"Barnabus, I'm sure the children would feel more compliant if you left the room." Jepsom told him, keeping his cool and calm demeanor. He leaves without a word, but we don't put our guns back.
"I know you three much better than you'd think. Shifty James Raccoon, aged 16, 6' even, you weigh 100 pounds. The birthdate you use to register in most things is July 15, 1998. You're theoretically the oldest, but seeing as though you aren't registered as an existing person, no one really knows." Shifty keeps his gun cocked, but I can see his tail twitching back and forth, a nervous habit that he's had for years. "Swifty Delilah Raccoon, aged 16, 5'8, 95 pounds. You often register your birthdate as October 21st, but sometimes you use June 8th. Theoretically, you were born second. Only sister, must be lonely." He smirks.
"Hardly." I growl, my ears start twitching, another habit developed years ago.
"Ah, and finally, Lifty Anthony Raccoon, aged 16. Height, 5'8 and 98 pounds. You never register with the same birthdate. Presumed to be the youngest of the triplets. It's a shame your little brother isn't here. Thrifty Phillip Raccoon if I'm not mistaken, I never am. He may be six years old. He's only 27.3 pounds and he's 3'4, rather small and scrawny for his age, but showing improvement. I can barely find anything on this child, except for the fact that he was almost expelled last year and has to repeat Kindergarten."
Thrifty strikes a sore nerve. He's our little brother, we're supposed to protect him. My only fear is if someone from Child Services sees that he's been with us for months and he's only gotten a little bigger. Would they take him away?
"Why do you know so much about my family?" Shifty asks.
"Well, I advise you to put your guns down my young friends. Grab a seat and we shall discuss this."
Both me and Lifty glance at eachother and at Shifty. "Put the safety on, keep it out." Shifty commands and we sit down on the chairs in front of us. "We are not friends. You are going to pay us and you are going to show me how you got this information."
"I would much rather pay the three of you fairly. Giving you money outright would be dangerous, wasting your potential like that. You are very smart, but traditional schooling doesn't help you. You aren't excelling to your full potential. Now am I correct in saying that your family never got what they deserved out of public school?"
"Jus-" Shifty starts off before Jepsom puts his hand up, signaling him to stop.
"You've been doing all the talking. Give your brother or sister a chance to speak." He smiles a smile that makes me want to tear his eyes out of his sockets appears on his face. He dares to doubt our leader?
I'm officially Second in Command so I speak first. "What are you insinuating? Because if it's not that you're going to pay us, you're insinuating that you want a bullet in your head." I click the safety off my gun to show him I mean business.
"I want to offer the four if you a full scholarship at this school. It's almost $30,000 a year, so I'm actually be giving you more than we agreed on." He pauses for a minute. "Wasted potential is a very sad thing. What does your future really hold? Shifty, you'll hang up your boots and become a cop with a drinking problem. You'll miss your family, but they'll be long gone. Swifty, you'll wind up working at some shifty, low end diner as a waitress, living off of tips to support your abusive boyfriend and your kids. Almost like your mother. Lifty will more than likely start running an illegal casino. Cheap watered down scotch and machines that beckon you back is all you'll have. And finally, Thrifty. I have some level of hope for him. He'll be taken away, probably settle in with a nice couple. Marry a girl he loves and have kids. But, he won't give any of you a damn thought because he's too busy drinking his life away." I feel a knot form in my stomach and I feel like I'm going to vomit. I take a second to regain my composure.
"This is an all girls school, how on earth would we even attend. Physically, and mentally, me and my brothers are male." Lifty points out. "And I doubt Swifty could ever go to school without us." He points out. It's true, we all have varying degrees of separation anxiety and PTSD. It absolutely kills me to he apart from them.
"We require uniforms of all our students, you would be able to blend in easier than you may think. I would truly be the only one who knows the truth. I will assign you new identidies, it's a new start if you will. Besides, between 'disciplinary problems' and attendance, you skated on some very thin ice last year. Do you really think that they wouldn't expel all of you? There was talk at the district meeting of banning your entire family from public school for life. I strongly urge for you to consider becoming members of Happy Tree Academy for Girls." He gets up and opens the door. "Go home, discuss it, but I want an answer in 48 hours time. Failure to do so will result in this tape going to the police department." He smirks, grabbing a black cassette from his jacket.
"What exactly is on that tape?" Shifty asks, standing up.
"Our little conversation on the phone. I have you admitting that not only would you steal for me, but that you've successfully stolen from the museum numerous times." Me and Shifty glare at Lifty.
"We are talking when we get home." Me and Shifty both snarl at our shaggy haired, now red faced brother. He made the deal on the phone. He was supposed to make sure the call wasn't being recorded.
"Three days, Lift. I am going to murder you viciously for three days in a row." I inform him.
"Don't be so hard on him. I have some of the best equipment money could buy. Virtually undetectable." Jepsom brags. "Run along now. I'm sure you have more important business to tend to besides this." He ushers us out.
We walk out the door and into the van in silence. "Shift, what are we going to do." Lifty puts his head into his hands. "I really fucked up. I am so sorry guys." He apologizes. My anger drained from me, now all I see is my younger brother. Shifty and I are Leader and Second in Command, we've decided this years ago.
I hug him close. "It's okay, bro. It's that bastards fault, not yours. Shifty and I will find a way out of this, we always do."
"Yeah, Swift." Shifty runs his hand through his hair. "I'm really not finding a lot of wriggle room in this. He's got us by the tail and he's not gonna let go."
Dun dun dun! Yes guys, this is my new story. Tell me what you think and if I should even continue on with this story.
Okay, R&R!
I love you guys'll and thank you for your support
pm me for an oc form(mostly looking for kids to fill out the Kindergarten class) but anyone will be accepted!