Flawless plans are rarely made out of the gecko.

That’s what she said to Jones, and Lou repeats this like a mantra, hoping it will soothe her eventually.

Even though she is trying to appear confident, she is worried that this will all fall apart, and it will be her fault.

Her friends are breaking into their high school because of her concerns. So if they get caught like a deer in headlights, it’s on her.

It’s like an elephant is on her chest. She can’t breathe until this is done.

Why did she want to ruffle feathers again?

Oh yeah, their school is doing something to them with the muzzles. And now it’s her mission to find out.

Because she will not wear this damn muzzle if it is harming her and her friends.

“You good to go Cross?” Roman whispers as they crept towards the front door. They are surrounded by a thick fog created by Bell.

Cross nods. He holds his hand out towards the door and they all hold their breath. A few clicks sounded through the quiet night. Cross had sweat beading on his forehead from the intense concentration.

Then a final clink and the door popped open. Everyone exhaled from relief. Lou still held hers.

Zac swings the door wider and lets everyone through except Jeremiah and Liam. They are the watch dogs. Their warning birds.

If someone or security showed up, they would warn them through old walkie talkies that Jeremiah had. They could use their phones, but for a secret mission like this, it felt more correct to use the walkie talkies.

Bell continued with the fog and Cross also assisted her in condensing the the mist around the cameras.

That made them sitting ducks though since they have to continue that, so the rest of them had to finish it out.

Getting to the office door felt like forever. The hallway stretched like one of those ones in fun houses or in horror movies. Lou doesn’t enjoy those things very much.

Even though cameras don’t have sound, all of the crept like lions, ready to pounce on their prey.

Jones may have actually turned into a fly to avoid footsteps. He’s been a bit skiddish. She can’t blame him. It’s his first break in.

This is her second.

When she was six, she snuck into a pet shop. Don’t ask her how she accomplished that. But she did.

With one hand focusing on their cover, Cross reaches out his right arm and unlocks Principal Colan’s office. Zac touches the metal knob and they go in.

Amelie and Ria stay out to keep watch. Bell and Cross keep the cameras busy.

There aren’t any in the Principal’s office. Liam said when he, Zac, and Precious first arrived, he looked specifically for cameras because he doesn’t like being watched or recorded. So they don’t have any need to be concerned about that.

Each of them had gloves on except Zac since he can’t be tracked. Lou wonders if this is the most his powers have come in use. It’s a useful one to have if you want to be a criminal.

“Ok, now search for anything that talks about the cuffs. Anything. Could be their purpose, where they get them, or how they work,” Lou instructs.

Time to get searching.

They are busy bees in there. Not audibly buzzing but all of them vibrate with motion. Roman and Zac take the left side of the room and her and Jones have the other side.

Each drawer is opened, file looked through, and paper turned over.

“This cabinet only has our student files,” Roman says, flicking through the Manila folders. “Was that just open?” Zac questions, his eyebrow raising, maybe in concern how easy someone could look at their own student files.

“Yeah.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“Focus.”

Lou pulls open the bottom compartment of Principal Colan’s desk. All the documents are boring school crap. Where is the information on the muzzles?

They did not break into their high school for nothing.

Smoothing her hand on the flat top of his desk, she studies it. Most important papers would be in the filing cabinet or this desk. If what Roman searched through just had stuff on the students, then it has to be here.

Sometimes she wishes she had cat eyes. Maybe then she would be able to see better in the dim lighting and spot the perfect place to hide paperwork.

“The molding of the desk is weird,” Zac comments, joining her at the desk. “It’s only on this side of the desk and not on the sides or back.”

Once he points it out, she sees what he means. This layered crown molding is only on one side of the retangular desk.

Sticking her hand underneath the desk, there isn’t any place to push it out.

Next, she tries pressing on the molding to see if it would be a pop out drawer. That also does nothing.

Roman and Jones are on opposite sides of the desk. They prod at it too, but the whole molding isn’t a secret compartment.

She’s beginning to feel bats flying in her stomach. Panic is setting in.

What if it was a wild cat chase? And the muzzles aren’t bad at all? And she convinced her friends to risk their spotless records for a flimsy guess?

“Wait, I think I got something,” Jones says.

He is attempting to dig his nails into the top of the decorative molding. In a split second, his nails elongate into more animalistic talons. They manage to part a gap and a loud echoey noise rings through the air as a drawer in the center whips out.

All four of them just stare for a moment with gaping mouths. Not doing anything.

On the paper laid neatly on the top was an image of the muzzle. This is it.

Just as her hand hovers over the answers that she so desires, the walkie talkie that she forgot about crackles to life.

“Team Fox, this is team Sly. There is a hyena out in the field,” Jeremiah’s voice whispers.

Lou doesn’t really know what that means. Her animal metaphors make much more sense.

“What?” Roman questions.

Ok it isn’t just her. Even his mate doesn’t know what he’s quacking on about.

Liam must realize the need for a straightforward answer because Jeremiah’s response sounds much more Liam coded. “I mean there is a security guard making rounds. We can’t tell if he was tipped off or if this is normal.”

Lou scans over the amount of documents in front of them. It’s a lot. Like a rabbit litter amount.

“We don’t have time to read them,” Jones comes to the same conclusions that she did.

“Zac flip through them. We’ll take pictures as you do. We aren’t leaving until we take a picture of every page,” Lou commands, taking charge. Some person has to be the leader of this pack. For this situation, that is her.

So for the next three minutes, Zac slides, flips over, and restacks papers. Jones, Roman, and Lou use their phones to photograph the evidence, being cautious to never touch the papers themselves.

“The guard is coming in,” Bell warns.

All of her friends are in different positions. Jeremiah and Liam are safe since they are already outside. The rest of them are inside. “Everyone, scatter,” Zac hisses through the walkie talkie.

“Convene back at Bell’s house,” Cross says.

Lou hears some scuffling outside the door. “Ria? Amelie? Get out of sight,” Lou whispers into the communicator. “I got this,” Ria answers.

Jones, Roman, Zac, and Lou don’t say a single thing, perhaps waiting for what Ria meant. Ria’s powers definitely lend to this break in. She is a fierce lioness. She won’t go down without a fight.

“You guys can come out now,” Amelie voices, relieving all of them in the office. The tension in Lou’s shoulders deflate like a pufferfish.

Zac opens the door and they all pause to see Ria standing in front of the security guard. The man just stood there entranced. Ria’s eyes had a faint glow of flamingo pink around her irises.

Amelie gestures for them to follow her out. They tip toe around the two immobile people and finally get out to the hallway.

“She is making it so he thinks he never saw anyone,” she clarifies, throwing her hand behind her in a vague reference to what they just left. The neverending hallway ends, and they breathe the fresh air.

Plan Sly Fox actually succeeded.

Lou couldn’t wait to share that with her animal friends. They didn’t have any faith in her human friends, said that they would be better suited for the job.

“What’d you find?” Amelie asks, with a lilt to her voice like she forgot the reason for the break in.

She lets them all walk in the night silence for a moment. Well, it isn’t silent to her. She can hear the crickets singing a lovely tune. An owl hoots a question. She likes the night. Animals can be themselves at night because humans aren’t awake to chase them away.

Maybe that’s why she wanted to do this at this time. To be more like animals.

“I don’t know. But we are going to find out.”

———

(I forgot in Before Break In what Roman was supposed to do so I added him to searching the office. I wasn’t sure how to craft a break in even though a lot of story led up to it. I hope it made sense!)