The dorm room was totally silent. The whole place was frozen in one single moment of anticipation, all the kids lined up waiting to be able to breath again. If you asked the kids in the Happy Camper orphanage the Majority would tell you that they hated days like this. The anticipation hung in the air like a tangible force. The abject terror when the adopters interviewed each kid in turn; the stomach knotting time while the prospective parents spent time in Mrs. Puffin's office and finally the feeling of rejection when the lucky chosen one was escorted to a new life away from the lonely orphanage.
That is unless you happened to ask Sly, Bentley or Murray. In a way, a strange way, it was the same for them. The anxiety before was just the same, but the three found that adoption days passed with waves of relief.
It was a stormy day, and rain pelted the windows in the dorm room like wet bullets. The orphans were lined up by their beds, military style. Mrs. Puffin could be quite formal and strict at times. Not much light came in from the windows, just a grey glow. The main light in the room came from the halogen strip lighting that lined the ceiling. It made everything in the room look a little too bright and washed out. Not that there was that much to illuminate. Mrs. Puffin insisted that everything the orphans owned be fastidiously tidied away (Which typically wasn't much anyway) in their tiny one-drawer beside cabinets. As it was, there was just the children standing at the foot of their beds in their most presentable clothes, and dozens of steel beds with neatly folded grey linen on them. Sly stood beside his bed, the first in the room, facing the door on the opposite wall. He was bedecked in his usual blue sweater and cap; they were among the few things he'd managed to salvage from his parents' house besides his treasured cane. That was safely tucked away under his mattress, out of sight. He cast his mind back to his parents' house. He couldn't remember exactly what it was like anymore, and that thought bothered him a little. He could remember the living room, with its worn carpets, stolen sixteen inch TV and his father's chequered slippers, and his memory of his parents were still as vivid as ever, but…somehow he couldn't remember what certain rooms looked like. The bathroom? Totally gone. His room? Only the vaguest recollection of the position of the bed and the colour of the walls. It wasn't a big deal; he just prayed that it didn't mean his memories would eventually fade completely. He pushed these thoughts aside for the time being, there was more important matters to attend to. He stood with his arms folded and back straight, trying his best in his young state to look defiant. He stared across to the bed opposite his where Bentley stood. He was wearing his smart red bow tie and grey shorts. Sly cocked his head forward slightly at him and widened his eyes slightly; the universal silent language for 'Are you ready?' Bentley stared back at him and nodded slowly, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Sly nodded back. He then glanced two beds down from Bentley and came to Murray, decked out in his favourite white vest top. Sly gave him the same look that he'd just given Bentley. Murray nodded vigorously and fished around under his mattress and produced a handful of crayons that he'd managed to swipe during last weeks art lesson. He flashed them to Sly and nodded. Sly returned the gesture. This got harder each time. He took a deep breath. The three knew there'd be no supper tonight, so they'd eaten as much as they could at breakfast and lunch. Silence continued to reign supreme in the long room. After a few gut churning minutes, the door opposite Sly swung open.
"Well, here are the children," Mrs. Puffin said on the way into the room. In tow behind her were a male and female dog; Sly wasn't sure what breed. They were both brown. The man wore a leather jacket and blue jeans, casual wear. He had large brown eyes, the left one with a patch of white fur surrounding it, short pointy ears and sported long black whiskers. Behind him his wife (presumably) entered the room. She too had large brown eyes but her ears were longer and floppier. She was quite slight and had long black hair. She was wearing a white fleece and blue jeans and had an incredibly warm smile. Sly groaned inwardly. It was always so much more difficult when they were nice.
"I'll introduce them all to you," Mrs. Puffin continued.
"Thanks, that'd be great," The male dog said, smiling broadly.
"Children, this is Mr and Mrs. Lake." The old buzzard said to the whole room. "Let's give them a nice warm welcome, shall we?"
"Good afternoon, Mr. And Mrs. Lake." The children said automatically in a monotone.
"I'll go through them individually with you, ok?" Mrs. Puffin said, turning back to the Lakes'.
"Yeah, sure, however you think is best." The dogs confirmed.
"Right then." She turned to child number one, Sly Cooper. She narrowed her eyes at him. Deep down in her stomach she knew how this was going to go. Sly smiled winningly back at her.
"This young man," Mrs. Puffin said grimly, and through her nose, "Is Sly Cooper." She gestured towards the small raccoon.
The lady dog crouched down to Sly and beamed at him. Sly grinned back.
"Hello Sly," She said sweetly. Her husband was now smiling down on Sly too. The raccoon forced his grin even wider.
"Hello." Sly said.
"How are you?" The lady fox said softly to him.
"I'm an orphan." Sly replied instantly, his smile not faltering. Mrs. Puffin laughed, too loudly. The couple exchanged glances.
"Right," Mr. Lake chipped in. "Fair enough. So what are you interested in, Sly?"
"I quite like stealing things." The raccoon replied, still wearing his sweeter than sugar expression. Mrs. Puffin rocked back and forth on her heels.
"Stealing things?" Mrs Lake repeated feigning shock. She had obviously opted to humour Sly for the time being. "Why do you like doing that?"
Sly furrowed his brow. "How else do you expect me to pay for drugs?"
"Right then, if you'll just step over here I'll introduce you to Bentley," Mrs. Puffin said loudly, ushering Mr and Mrs Lake away from Sly. The dog couple gave Sly wide-eyed looks as they backed away. Sly gave them a small wave as they turned around to Bentley. It wasn't returned. That was a good sign. Mrs. Puffin glared at him from over her shoulder.
"Right well, yes, this is Bentley," Mrs. Puffin said when the dogs had their backs to Sly and were just in front of the tortoise. "He's very clever, aren't you dear? Tell the Lakes' what you reading about at the moment."
"Well, I'm interested in physics, so I'm halfway through a book on electricity." Bentley said shyly.
Mrs. Puffin smiled at the couple as they smiled down at Bentley. Mrs Lake wore an 'oh how adorable' expression.
"So do you want to be a scientist when you grow up?" Mr. Lake asked politely.
"No, a fascist dictator." Bentley replied, it demeanour instantly changing. "I think if I get a head-start on bomb-making now then by the time I'm thirty the world's superpowers won't have a leg to stand on."
The couple nodded slowly, open mouthed at his words while Mrs. Puffin sighed deeply and stared at the floor.
"First I'll stage a coup in the middle eastern countries. With any luck they'll have an A-bomb or two I can swipe in the confusion. Then I'll hold Europe to ransom, maybe conscript an army or two. Of course this is all building up to the invasion of U.S. soil." Bentley continued. The couple looked completely flabbergasted while Mrs. Puffin stared solemnly down. There was no point in trying to gloss over this one. Why did they always insist on doing this? She swore at times that they didn't want to be adopted.
"Of course there'll be the odd political figure that will have to be, if you'll pardon the expression, 'slotted'…" Bentley paused. He heard a snort of laughter come from the direction of Sly's bed. "…But when I'm eighteen I can apply for a gun licence."
There was defiantly a poorly concealed guffaw from Sly's bed this time. Bentley smiled cheerfully at the couple.
"I…I think we'd better be moving along…" Mrs. Puffin said, not raising her gaze from her shoes. Both Mr and Mrs Lake were still staring at Bentley, and both seemed to have lost the power of speech. After a few more seconds of good hard eyeballing the couple moved on to the bed next to Sly, occupied by a little budgie girl. Sly grinned broadly over at Bentley and gave him the 'ok' hand gesture. The tortoise grinned back and gave Sly the thumbs up. Now it was just Murray left. As long as he could convince the couple that they didn't want to adopt him it would be plain sailing. Sly caught snippets of the conversation next to him, things like 'Oh, that's pretty… Do you like to read stories then? You're certainly very clever…' accompanied by all the oohs, ahhs and awws in all the right places. That was good, because if the other orphans didn't play ball then there was a possibility they could be in trouble. A very remote possibility granted, Sly grinned to himself. Somehow he couldn't see many people going for a master thief in training, or a fascist dict-wotsit, whatever that was. Sly made a mental note to thank Bentley for the line about the drugs. He wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but Bentley assured him that if he casually injected it into the conversation then it would be guaranteed to drop some jaws. It certainly did that alright. Sly continued to stand, waiting patiently for the grown ups to reach Murray. The hippo hadn't been quite clear what his plan was, but he seemed to be quite confident. All Sly knew was that involved crayons. After a few more minutes silent waiting, Mrs Puffin and Mr. And Mrs. Lake reached the small hippo. From across the room, Bentley gave Sly a small wave to attract his attention.
'What's he going to do?' Bentley mimed wordlessly at Sly. Because the tortoise was on the same side of the room as Murray, he couldn't see what was going on. Sly could only shrug as a reply. He returned his attention to the pink hippo.
"This is Murray." Mrs Puffin said without enthusiasm. She knew that if Cooper and Bentley were mucking about then Murray was sure to follow suit.
"Hello Murray," Mr. Lake said warmly, completely missing Mrs. Puffin's tone. "Say, what have you got there?"
Murray opened his hand slowly. Mrs. Puffin scrutinised the contents closely. Why did he have crayons in the dorm room?
"Ooh," Mrs. Lake cooed softly. "Are you going to be an artist?"
Murray didn't answer. Instead he stared wide eyed at Mrs. Lake, than at the crayons in his palm. Then he stared at Mr. Lake, then back to the crayons. Then to Mrs. Puffin, then violently and without warning he crammed the handful of art supplies into his mouth, labels and all, and began to chew furiously. Mrs' Puffin slapped a feathered palm across her face as over on the other side of the room Sly doubled up in laughter. Bentley craned his neck and stood on tiptoe to try and see what was going on but it was no use; he was just too short. He resigned himself to mouthing 'What?' repeatedly at Sly, but the raccoon was in no position to reply. In fact he'd started to chew on his cap to stop any laughs from escaping into the quiet room. Bentley still franticly mimed at Sly even as the tears ran from the raccoon's brown eyes.
Over on the other side of the room Murray emitted a belch that set off a few chuckles from the other kids in the room, and grinned a large, cheesy, rainbow grin at the Lakes'. The dog couple stared down at him, unsure of what to do.
"I think we'll leave Mr. Murray to it there," Mrs. Puffin scowled, moving onto the next bed, the Lakes' in hot pursuit.
"I lose more crayons that way…" She muttered, aside. As she and the couple moved around the remainder of the orphans, Sly recovered enough of his composure to communicate with Bentley.
'What'd he do?' Bentley said silently.
'He ate the crayons!' Sly mimed back slowly, fighting off the urge to burst out laughing once more. Bentley threw Sly a confused look. Sly mimed shoving something in his mouth and pretended to chew it vigorously.
'The crayons?' Bentley mime asked.
Sly nodded quickly. Bentley let out a tiny laugh, but thankfully it went unnoticed. Sly nodded quietly to himself. They should be ok.
It didn't take long for Mrs. Puffin and the would-be parents to work their way around the remainder of the room. The kids stood patiently as the last orphan was chatted to and the old bird led the dogs back up the middle of the room.
"Well, if we just step into my office for a cup of tea, we can discuss what you'd like to do next." Mrs. Puffin said as she walked. Sly noticed she carefully avoided any words like 'pick' or 'choose'.
"Children, you may amuse yourselves for a few minutes while I talk to Mr and Mrs. Lake." She said, disappearing out of the door with the couple in tow. The room breathed an audible sigh of relief, and several conversations broke out. Sly yawned and stretched his arms and legs as Bentley and Murray made their way over to his bed.
"Inspired." Bentley grinned at Murray as he reached the bed.
"Thanks," Murray replied shyly. "I didn't want to upset them."
"I think you did good." Sly said, hopping on his bed and lying down. "So what DO crayons taste like, anyway?"
"Waxy." Murray said, crinkling up his nose. "There's hardly any flavour to them at all."
"You had a multi-coloured smile for a while there," Sly laughed.
"Did I?" Murray ran his tongue over his teeth as he and Bentley perched themselves on the end of Sly's bed. The mattress squashed right down on Murray's side forcing the tortoise up.
"Thanks for that line about the drugs," Sly said to Bentley. "It really did the trick."
"Yep well, I told you it would." Bentley nodded.
"What's it mean?"
"I'll tell you some other time."
"Ah." Sly nodded. That was fine with him. He realised that it was probably something he didn't want to know about anyway.
"So what did you think of them?" Bentley said, changing the subject.
"They seemed nice enough." Sly said.
"I didn't really talk to them…" Murray said, almost regrettably.
"They were nice weren't they?" Bentley said. "Always makes it harder doesn't it?"
"Hmm." Sly concurred. "Still, gotta be done if we're gonna carry out our plan."
"Yeah," Bentley grinned.
"Yeah," Murray repeated, with his own grin.
Sly smiled at the pair of them. It would be so cool when they finally got out of this place. Just then Mrs. Puffin stuck her head round the door.
"Abigail, would you come to my office for a few moments please?"
The yellow budgie in a blue T-shirt at the bed next to Sly looked up, startled. Then hopping off her bed she walked to the door. Sly Bentley and Murray all gave her smiles as she passed, knowing that this was probably the last time they'd see her.
"Oh, and Murray, you too."
Or not. Sly and Bentley looked at each other in utter horror and then stared at Murray. The colour drained from his skin and he began to tremble slightly. He wordlessly slid from the bed causing Bentley to sink a few inches. He slung a terrified look at his two best friends in the world and paced to the door after Abigail, his steps somewhat shaky. The three vanished from view, and the door was closed once more.
"What went wrong?" Sly said frantically hopping from the bed. "I mean what did he do wrong?"
"Maybe they thought he was cute." Bentley said, equally franticly.
"You think?" Sly said, genuine fear in his voice.
"It's certainly a possibility." The tortoise gulped.
"Oh, this is bad," Sly said, beginning to pace up and down the length of the bed, his hands clutched to his chin. "This is really bad. He's our best friend! We had a plan…"
"Now just try to stay calm," Bentley said, not sounding calm. "Abigail went as well, there's a good chance they want her."
"Yeah?" Sly said sounding a little more hopeful.
"Sure," Bentley nodded, trying to convince himself as much as Sly. "You were next to her, how did her talk go?"
"Well, erm…" Sly struggled to remember, still pacing. "There was you look nice…and Abigail said thank-you…"
"Good, good…" Bentley encouraged.
"And then Abigail said that Mrs. Lake looked nice too…"
"Better," Bentley said, his hope growing.
"Then…something about music? Oh it's no good Bentley, I wasn't listening." Sly wailed, hurling himself over the edge of the bed, about to cry.
"Now, it's ok," Bentley said, patting his friend on the shoulder. "Murray's cleverer than he looks, I'm sure he'll think of something."
Sly raised his head from the bedclothes to give Bentley a teary look. Bentley stared at him.
"We're doomed." He said morbidly. Sly let out a fresh sob.
"No, no, wait, it's ok," Bentley said continuing to pat Sly's back. "If the worst comes to the worst and Murray is adopted, then when you're a master thief we can track him down, can't we? And he can join us?"
"H-h-he w-won't wanna by t-then." Sly sobbed wetly from the duvet.
"Sure he will." Bentley said. "C'mon man, pull yourself together. I'm upset too but you don't see me…"
Bentley's voice cracked as a tear ran down his green cheek and he was unable to continue. The pair continued their quiet weeping. After what seemed like an ice age Mrs Puffin strode back into the room. Sly and Bentley both frantically rubbed their eyes. Never show the enemy signs of weakness.
"Right then children, that's that." She said. "I'm just here to get your friends things and then she'll be off."
She? Bentley and Sly goggled at each other. Just then Murray slouched back into the room. He gave them a small smile. Both Bentley and Sly nearly collapsed from relief. Certainly they both felt the need to crumple up on the bed. Murray stared on in confusion.
"Anyway children, its suppertime, so if you'll follow me," Mrs. Puffin said, retrieving a picture book and a small dolly from Abigail's bedside cabinet. "If any of you wish to say good-bye to Abigail we can do that on the way. Except for you two, Sly and Bentley. Your antics this evening has forfeited you that privilege."
Sly and Bentley tried their best to look sad in their moment of pure relief. Neither did a particularly good job. Mrs. Puffin rolled her eyes at them.
"You stay here too, Murray." Mrs. Puffin said, turning her attention on the small hippo. "I daresay you're too full up on crayons to want supper." A quiet titter went around the room and Murray looked genuinely crestfallen. He didn't seem to get enough to eat at mealtimes as it was.
Murray walked over to Sly's bed as the rest of the orphans filed out after Mrs. Puffin.
"Hey guys," he said in his usual laid-back manner. Sly launched himself at him and attempted to wrap his arms around Murray's bulky frame. Bentley didn't really have the stature to perform such a task and so was content to simply touch Murray on the shoulder from the bed.
"Er, hey guys." Murray said. He managed to prise Sly off himself after a few moments.
"Have…have you guys been crying?" Murray asked, looking carefully from Bentley's eyes to Sly's.
"Nah!" Sly said gruffly.
"Nope." Bentley said through pursed lips.
"Your eyes are all bloodshot."
"Yeah, I got some dust in them," Sly attempted.
"I think my glasses are too weak," Bentley offered.
A short while later all the other orphans were still at supper. They seemed to be taking longer than usual, but the three supposed that a lot of the other kids wanted to say good-bye to Abigail. Sly and Bentley were lying on their bed staring at the ceiling, and Murray had taken Abigail's bed to he could be next to his friends. It was still dark outside, and it was still raining, so there was an overcast twilight glow filtering into the room, accompanied by the shadows of the water running over the glass outside. Bentley had turned off the overheads because of the incessant humming noise they made, so there was just they watery grey twilight filling the room. This was the three friends favourite place to chat.
"So they didn't want you at all?" Sly said, getting the story straight for about the third time.
"I wasn't their first choice." Murray said, flat on his back, arms behind his head. "I think Mrs. Puffin was trying to push me on them."
"So she just brought you along to make sure they hadn't changed their minds?" Bentley queried.
"Think so. They hardly paid any attention to me; they were far more interested in Abigail. Puffin tried to suggest me instead but they weren't having any of it."
"Good." Bentley breathed.
"I was afraid she might pull a stunt like that at some point." Sly frowned. "She must have figured out by now that the three of us are…"
"Thick as thieves." Bentley finished for him. He was on his back too, but he had hands interlocked on his belly. Sly grinned to the ceiling.
"Exactly." He said.
"Well they wanted Abigail," Murray said. "Mrs. Puffin couldn't do anything about it."
"I liked Abigail." Bentley said.
"She was nice." Sly commented. "Hope she's happy."
"Well, they seemed like nice people." Murray said.
"Yeah," the other two said in unison. There was silence for a few moments.
"As long as we keep putting them off," Bentley said, changing the subject, "Puffin'll never be able to split us up."
"Right on." Sly said. "Any ideas for next time?"
"I've been toying with the idea of faking Tourette's syndrome." Bentley said in an off hand manner.
"What's that?" Murray said, glancing in puzzlement in the general direction of Bentley's bed.
"I'll tell you later."
"Ah."
"So what are we gonna do first when we get out of this place?" Bentley asked.
"I think we should travel for a bit." Sly said, after a few seconds' thought. "My dad always used to say that his favourite place in the world was Paris."
"Paris?" Bentley said looking up. "I've always wanted to go there…"
"That's the first thing to do then. We travel to Paris. Plenty of thieving opportunities in Paris."
"Yeah?" Murray asked.
"Oh absolutely. You've got the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the uh, orangey museum…"
"Musee de L'Orangerie." Bentley corrected.
"Right. And art sells for big money."
"We're gonna steal the Eiffel Tower?" Murray said obliviously. Bentley let out a little chuckle.
"No, not the actual tower, but they're bound to have something around there worth pinching." Sly explained. Murray nodded, understanding.
"How're we gonna get there?" He asked after a few minutes.
"Er…" Sly said. He hadn't thought of that.
"I should be able to help with that." Bentley rescued Sly. "If Sly can get us some money when we get out of here I should be able to forge us passports."
"Cool." Sly smiled. "We can hang around here for a while so I can earn us some cash."
"You mean steal us some cash, don't you?" Bentley checked.
"Oh yeah." Sly confirmed. "I think we could do with a set of wheels too, maybe a van or something."
"A van?" Murray piped up in awe. "Sly can I drive please, please, please?"
"Uh, yeah, don't see why not." Sly said. "We'll have to take a bit of time out so you can learn though."
"Cool." Murray grinned, wriggling on his bed with delight.
"We'll be the best gang of thieves ever," Sly sighed happily.
"Yeah." Bentley smiled.
"Yeah." Murray grinned.
The trio fell silent, each one planning what they were going to do with their two best friends. All three were thinking happy thoughts and they were all sure that they'd be fine as soon as they got out of Happy Campers. Sly had was thinking these things, but he also knew that pretty soon he was going to have to tell his friends that he had to recover his birthright. He knew it wasn't going to be easy, but, glancing over at the hippo and tortoise, he knew that they were both up to the task, and that they'd stick by him. The greatest thieving gang in the world, he and his two best friends. Sly smiled yet again. He knew they'd be fine. He'd let them settle for a few months after they got out of the orphanage before he'd ask them to help him with his momentous task. He knew they'd all be fine. The raccoon slowly drifted into a calm and contented sleep.