Well. Here's Chapter Two a month later. Just like I said. And wow! Favs and Follows even though I said that the next chapter wouldn't be up until a month later. You guys are awesome!
Disclaimer: Still don't own Sly Cooper. He'd probably even find a way to make sure I don't.
The first day at the orphanage for me was slightly boring, first Mrs, Puffin sent me on a tour of the orphanage, and I couldn't help but notice all the vents in every room. When lunchtime came, I sat over back with Murray and Bentley and as Murray feasted on extra peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I swiped for him, Bentley opened up a little and explained that he and Murray have been in the orphanage for as far back as he can remember. When the bell rang, every kid bolted out the door to the playground, well, almost everyone, since I spotted Bentley and Murray waiting until every other orphan was outside. I left right behind the two and as soon as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, I noticed that the playground was divided between boys and girls.
The girls had the jungle gym and the hopscotch while the boys had the basketball court and the field for American football. I couldn't help myself, but I snuck into the climbing gym and I his under a platform where some teenage girls were sitting at and gossiping.
"Have you guys seen the new kid?"
"Yeah. He's kinda cute for a eight year old." I made a grossed out noise and that's when one female lion looked down and saw me looking up at her. "Hey there. We were just talking about you, and I guess you heard what we said."
I grinned at the girl for a few seconds due to another eight year old finding me and saying, "Hey! There's a boy in our turf!" I ran off and as I approached the monkey bars, I jumped off the platform and ran back over to the blacktop as the girls threw wood chips and small rocks. When I located Bentley and Murray, who were sitting all by themselves, I went over to them and as I sat down, the two simply stared at me in disbelief. As they started debating over me doing something completely stupid or something heroic, the bell rang off and just before we went back inside, I stated "Are you stating that the next time I try something like that, you want me to come to you for a plan?" Bentley looked over at me and hesitantly stated, " If you have a plan that involves a ninety eight percent chance of failure, no. But one that has ninety five percent, maybe." He finished with a friendly smile.
As I entered from recess, Mrs. Puffin handed me a time schedule for every day.
7:00 A.M. to 8:00 A.M.: Wake up, Breakfast, etc.
8:00 A.M. to 9:05 A.M.: Science Lessons
9:10 A.M. to 10:10 A.M.: English and Writing Lessons
10:15 A.M. to 11:15 A.M.: Math Lessons
11:15 A.M. to 12:40 A.M.: Lunch
12:40 A.M. to 1:50 A.M.: Recess
1:50 A.M. to 2:50 P.M.: Study Hall, Free Time
2:55 P.M. to 3:55 P.M.: History Lessons
3:56 P.M. to 8:30 P.M.: Home Work, Free time
8:30 P.M. to 7:00 A.M.: Sleep
Talk about a tight schedule. Thankfully, Study Hall was where everyone was, so, I took the opportunity to explore the orphanage and know the environment I'll have to deal with for some time. The ventilation shafts helped very much for getting past doors that were locked and in the hour of exploring, I had about three fourths of the orphanage mapped out in my head and I slipped out of the vents into one of the halls. I landed on the floor and ran as fast as I could to the History Classroom. When I approached the door, I stepped in just as the two fifty five bell rang out.
"Sly Cooper!" The teacher called as I had only my tail hanging out of the door. My ringed tail instantly went to in between my legs as the stern crane stood up and walked over to me. "Uh...I-I...Uh." I stuttered nervously as the teacher glared down at me through slitted eye lids. "You are lucky today is your first day here at the orphanage, otherwise, you would have to be punished." His feet softly clicked against the tiled floor as he pointed at the last open seat.
"Sit." The crane said just barely at whisper, but I could hear him clearly, and I didn't need to be told twice. I was in that seat as soon as the teacher sat back down and went over the roll call. One by one, the other orphans' names were called out and when the teacher said my name, I quietly whispered, "Present." The crane didn't look at me as he continued down the roll.
"Good afternoon, Class." The crane said at a normal level. "Good afternoon, Professor Tachiokatada. (Tachi-oka-tada)" The class said in unison to the Red Crown Crane. "Now, for this morning, will everyone turn their text books to page thirty seven and read up to page forty eight. I lifted the top of the desk and pulled out the hard covered book and turned to the page he assigned and I almost gasped with shock, up in the sky of the picture of Egypt, there was a dark bird of some sort flying around.
Shaking off the strange and sudden fear, I turned the page over to thirty seven and began reading, until Tachiokatada placed a wing on the page. "Cooper." He lightly whispered, "I want you to turn back and run away and never come after your precious book." I sat there slightly stunned at what I heard. Did he really say that? "Did you hear me? I want you to turn back to page fourteen."
"Uh...yes sir.." I mumbled as I turned back to page fourteen and started reading over the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras. Half way between the two eras, I let my mind wander off and question of what I heard Tachiokatada say, "I want you to turn back and run away and never come after your precious book!" My blood ran cold in my veins as my memory of that night hit me again, Clockwerk with him holding me by the neck in those cold talons of his and the other four members of the Fiendish Five just laughing at me as tears ran out of my eyes and left trails on my fur and Clockwerk's metal skin. I tried to shake off the fear on my shoulders as the clock ticked three and I focused on getting through the next fifty five minutes.
I felt as if one minute was eternity as the class only coughed or turned the pages of their book. Bentley and Murray were over in a corner with some rhino sitting in front of them. Mr. Tachiokatada walked around making sure that everyone was doing their work as they were told. As I continued reading, I suddenly got absorbed in reading and just like a swish of a tail, fifty four minutes flew right by and I jumped at the sound of the bell ringing the end of all the lessons.
As I placed the text book back in the desk, Professor Tachiokatada's talons lightly clicked on the floor as he stepped past me and he murmured, "Some Cooper you'll be." I pretended that I didn't hear what he said as I left the class room and headed for the boy's dormitory. As I entered the room, several animals from the ages of five to seventeen were either rough housing or working on work they got from the teachers. I kept low from the ones who look like they could just turn me into a meat pretzel at the flick of the wrist.
"Pst!." My left ear twitched at the sound and instinct kicked in and I looked to my left to see Bentley and Murray working on some large piece of paper. "Sly. Come over here." Bentley whispered to me and went back to working on a the paper again. "What is this?" I asked as I sat down in front of the two and I saw the title. "Cookie Stealin' Plan?" I whispered out, I noticed that the plan had Bentley getting a jar of cookies and Murray moving a chair over to a book shelf.
Before Bentley could say any more, Mrs. Puffin entered the room with the most angry look on her face. Thats when her eyes set on the three of us and I could see all eight years of my life flash before my eyes when I saw the fire in the eyes of that old woman. "Cooper! Bentley! Murray! My office! Now!" The whole room went dead silent as me, Murray and Bentley shuffled our feet across the floor and went into Mrs. Puffin's office. I silently prayed that the Cooper Clan wasn't going to end with a eight year old being the cause of the thieving family to go extinct.
"This is unacceptable! You three stole cookies from my jar! Give them back!" Well. Looks like the Cooper Clan was going to live to see another day since all she was going to do was yell. I noticed that Murray was staring intently at the cookie jar on top of the book shelf and the hippo was licking his lips like crazy. "We didn't do anything." I spoke out, Yet.
The old Puffin sighed and started writing something on a piece of paper and quietly sent us out of the office. Out in the hallway, I started laughing, "I can'the believe I thought she was going to kill me." Bentley and Murray joined in laughing with me at my idiotic thought. "Is she really that crazy about her cookies?" I asked as we slowly stopped laughing and Bentley nodded and told me that even when they were three, they were the first two to be blamed about stealing her cookies and it was always a older kid.
Later that night, I sat in front of one of the windows and gazed at the night sky. As I simply sat on the windowsill watching the moon move lazily across the sky, Murray was tossing and turning in his bunk mumbling, "Cook...cookies...no..." I looked back at the hippo with a sympathetic look on my face, "Least he has cookies for nightmares instead of-" I didn't finish that thought as the hippo woke from his nightmare and he lightly shook Bentley awake. "Bentley. Wake up. Please wake up." The hippo begged to his turtle friend who was retracted into his shell.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Murray?" Bentley mumbled as he came out of his shell and rubbed his tired eyes before he put on his glasses. "I had the nightmare again." The hippo said to his friend as he looked around the room to see if anyone heard them. When his eyes spotted me, he gasped in fear since he could only see me as a shadow with the moon at my back. I got off the sill and walked over to the hippo and placed a carrying hand on his shoulder as I said, "Don't worry. I'll help you get those cookies."
The rest of the night was spent over Bentley drawing out the plan we would use tomorrow night. With Murray eating a few of the crayons, Bentley and I went through the plan. Just before Mrs. Puffin comes into her office to lock up, I would slip in and hide in the trashcan and Bentley and Murray would go outside and wait for me with the escape tricycle. When Mrs. Puffin locks up her office, I would have a five minute window to get to work on getting to the top of the bookshelf and snatch the cookie jar and jump out the window and Murray would run the tricycle into the edge of the forest where we would feast on the cookies.
The day of lessons just flew right by and before my breakfast even digested, Bentley had two Styrofoam cups hooked together with wires he pulled out of some kid's head phones. When Mrs. Puffin closed the door, I lifted myself out of the trash can and go the plan in motion. As I slowly moved some of the furniture in place, I felt something special tick inside of me. I'm pretty sure that somewhere up there, my dad was smiling down at me. As I moved the last piece of furniture in place, Bentley said that I only had a minute and thirty seconds to get the cookies and get out.
I jumped up onto the desk and launched myself off the desk, grabbed the lamp chain which turned the light on which made me yip in surprise. I swung off the chain and started climbing up the book case. When I got to the top, I heard someone walking outside and the footsteps were coming closer and closer to the office door. "Uh...Guys? I thought we planed that you would be outside?" Bentley started asking why I thought they were inside, but he stopped and started panicking and told me to get out.
I quickly poured the jar of cookies into my hat and before I knew it, the wire on the cup tugged and I started flying out the window. As I was flying a few inches off the ground, Bentley and Murray were yelling something about the brakes, but I didn't catch exactly what they said before Murray crashed into a tree. "Well, that was another failure." Bentley said sadly and I instantly smiled, "Failure? We didn't fail." Before Bentley could ask what I was talking about, I took my hat off and showed the cookies in my hat. "Dig in!" We feasted on the cookies like no tomorrow and I stated, "This is a pretty sweet tasting failure."
That night, I knew, that my own Cooper Gang, was formed, and we were going to be in the ride of our lives.
And there's all you guys have been waiting for the past month. I know, you guys probably wanted more, but there will be more on August 24! I promise. And as the usual, Please Review and Fav/Follow and I'll bring chapter three on August 24!
~Jak Cooper the Lombax
