It was a suuny day in Central Park Zoo and a group of excited children crowded round the penguin exhibit. Skipper and his team were busy preforiming a super-cute routine when suddenly, Alice passed by with a crate in her hands. All the visitors turned around to see what was in the crate. By the loks on their face, the penguins knew that all the visitors where excited about the new animal. "Oohh... I wonder what's in the crate?" Private said, turning around to see Skipper and Kowalski exchanging few strange expressions. "Well, I just hope it is not another lemur," Kowalski said, "lemurs are very annoying sometimes." "Right you are Kowalski", Skipper agreed and hopped of to see what was going on. The visitors spent the rest of their time, right untill closing time, looking at all the animals in the zoo.
Closing time. Penguins were ready to analyse. They skid towards the empty exhibit that was close to theirs'. They knew now, from Kowalski's analysis that this is where the animal should be. "Well it ain't gonna be a lemur," Skipper said as they looked around the exhibit. The enclosure was pretty and natural, with a pool of water, a slide and a lot of grass. There was also a cave with mud walls and a cosy interior. Although the interior looked cosy, it only had two pieces of furniture, a bed and an old, yet nice-looking carpet. On the bed sat the inhabitant. Kowalski realised that this animal was an Asain otter. He whispered this to the other penguins and hey greeted the otter together, " hello, welcome." "Aahh, who are you, what are you doing here?" the otter asked in a queit, terrified voice. "Lady we're no enemies, atleast for now, we are just a bunch of ordinary, zoo penguins," Skipper said. "We are cute and cuddly miss, not mean and scary," Private added smilling. "Uhuh," Rico agreed, waving at the otter. "So you will not bully me?" Asked the otter. "No, but if you intend to jabber on hysterically and not tell us your name, we might make that an option." Private looked at Kowalski and Kowalski just said "What? I jsut said that it might become an option, not that it will." "Sorry guys, my name is marlene, I used to live in an aqaurium, I was born there and now I live here."Marlene then said looking at the penguins. "Nice to meet you, Marlene, I am Skipper, captain of this group, the tallest penguin is Kowalski, he does the analysis, the smallest penguin is Private, the cute guy and the one over there with the scarred beak is Rico, my weapon penguin," Skipper said with a smile.
Afterwards, all had calmed down and the group had a relaxed conversation. As the penguins walked away, they chatted about Marlene. "Atleast she isn't a spy," Skipper said. "She doesn't seem to mind my scientific talk, which is good, atleast someone respect the way I talk," Kowalski said "Hey, me and the rest of the team respect you talk, although it is confusing sometimes , well most of the time," Skipper explained. "Marlene is very kind," Private added and Rico nodded with agreement. The penguins turned the lights of in their secret HQ and dosed asleep in their bunks.
Marlene couldn't sleep all night. She was happy that she made some valuable friends, but the change of place made her feel nervous and frightened. Not that her old place was that great, but this was a totally differend place.
In the morning a trio of lemurs visited her. The two shorter lemurs, Mort and Maurice, were kind and it was easy to get used to them, but the third one, the tall one, who was called "king" Julien, was noisy bossy, and mean which made the lemur very annoying. A couple of animals greeted her and with the penguins as her guides she visited all the animals. Overall the zoo turned out to be a nice, pleasant place, althoughit was a shame there was no other otter in the zoo. The children adored Marlene, as much as they adored the penguins, which pleased her.
The penguins rushed over the zoo. They slid, skidd and ran after an enemy,- this enemy was hans.
The otter was awoken by a "BANG" coming from the lemurs' exhibit. Marlene ran to see what had happened when she saw the penguins rushing to her, panting, with serious faces. "Have you seen a puffin, about a foot high, red eyed, causing a lot of trouble?" Skipper asked still panting. "Puffin that causes a lot of trouble with red eyes, nice joke!" Marlene said laughing, thinking that the penguins were joking. The penguins obviosly weren't joking. "Sorry Skipper, didn't see a puffin and certainly not one of your description," Marlene apologised. "You know what guys, you can com to my enclosure for clam cakes," Marlene offered, leading the penguins into her home. The penguins noticed that the walls were decorated with pictures and Marlene also got a table, chairs and a beach ball. Strangely, one of the photos on the wall had the penguins on it. This surprised them, since even they had hardly any photo of themselves, but before they could ask, Marlene already asked them to sit down and enjoy the clam cakes. As the penguins finished their meal Marlene offerd they could have a game of volleyball.
The volleyball game lasted long and they had huge fun, particularly when Rico got frustrated and used his flamethrower to burn the ball. A couple of seconds later, he choked up the ball and said sorry, so they kept on playing. Kowalski wasn't that keen on volleyball, since when ever he tried to estimete where the ball would fall, it fell directly on his head, but in the eventually he started listening to his "gut instinct". in the end Marlene's team won 8:7. The sun was starting to set and so it was clearly time for the penguins to return to their HQ. In the HQ the penguins finally agreed they would talk to Marlene the next day. "She is a strange otter," Kowalski said. "Yup," Rico agreed.
In the morning the penguins got ready for another busy day. In a way it was good to have a neighbour who wasn't annoying and who liked similar things. For the penguins Marlene was now someone they could be friends with, but first they needed to ask her a couple of questions.
The zoo was closed and the penguins walked off to find Marlene smilling at them. Skipper asked," Can we ask you something?" "Sure you can Skipper, you're my friends, aren't you?"Marlene repliedin a sweet voice. "Why is there a picture of us on your wall?" Private asked. "Because you are my friends and I found this in the storage room, someone must have left it there," Marlene answered, with not a trace of nervousness left from the first day she arrived here. "Can we trust you Marlene that you want betray us , or give away the place of our secret HQ?" Skipper asked. "I would not do that, I am your friend, what kind of animal would betray their friends?" Marlene replied. "Well then you are a true friend." "Thank you Skipper, that is so kind of you to say that," Marlene said. "Oh and did you see a crazy red squirrel, whos planning revenge?" Skipper asked. "No, but I will tell you if I see such a squirell," Marlene said. "I was only joking," Skipper laughed and soon the 5 animals burst out laughing, hoping their lives would never stop being fun.