[Hmmm! I can work with this!]
The ball bounced from boy to boy, slowly, rhythmically. They all gave each other looks as they caught and tossed the basketball. They stood in a small circle in the orphanage playground.
"Okay, guysth." Said the young Sly with a small lisp thanks to his missing tooth, "The plan isth in motion! We justh gotta play it cool!"
Bentley caught the ball clumsily and bounced it to Murray, "Right! We can do this, if we just keep up this act, they won't suspect a thing!"
Murray didn't seem so sure as he listened to his friends whisper to each other, "I dunno. We didn't have time to fix up the office... Maybe they'll know..."
"They'll know sthomeone wasth there, not that it wasth usth." Sly tried to sound confident, but the lisp just made him sound silly. He hated losing teeth, "Justh keep cool, Murray."
The hippo quietly nodded, bouncing the ball back to Sly, as the headmaster walked out and blew her whistle, making all the children line up. She looked over them with angry, suspicious eyes.
"Someone broke into my office last night." She said as she marched along the lines of kids, "Which one of you was it?"
Sly glanced at his friends, both of which were starting to shake. They looked scared.
'Oh no!' He thought, 'They're gonna give us away! I gotta do something!'
"Whoever did it, stole from me as well. Do you children understand that stealing is a crime?" She asked, her eyes landing on Sly, "It'll get you sent away for a very long time."
Sly's ear flicked and he looked grumpy. Really he was just thinking. The second her eyes were off of him, he lifted the basketball and threw it at her back.
"Ack!" She nearly toppled over, but whipped around to look at the raccoon, "Sly Cooper, what do you think you are doing?!"
"Enacting justhice, ma'am!" Sly grinned widely, before picking up the ball and bolting out of line, laughing as he ran.
"Get back here young man!" She screamed, and the office was forgotten about.
When the kids saw Sly again, he'd be caught, yelled at, and punished already. But he didn't care, he was just happy his friends didn't get in trouble.
He was also banned from playing with the basketball.
