I dreamt this three nights ago. I like some points of the plot.
Mom and Dad got put in charge of an Abbey for both nuns- and monks-in-training, but it was truly for training assassins undercover. The kids trapped in this life are mostly all-in. They are great friends with each other, keep the secret, and fully embrace their destiny.
Mom and Dad, of course, do not want to be training assassins, but their boss is powerful and evil so they instead love the kids and instill truth at the same time as teaching them the skills necessary for satisfactory progress. The boss is quite pleased when one boy (quite a main character in the "family") fulfills his destiny and expertly assassinates some power as he is walking, black-cloaked, in a late-fall wood.
All this is backstory. Our main character comes on the scene when she is submitted to this Abbey, and we are introduced to the ways of the place through her eyes.
She is a little waywardly at first, but the mother soon brings her into the strict training and love of the place by, at one time, making her count to 5631, and, for fun, taking an official picture for police.
She is best of friends with all involved and well-incorporated when suddenly a rebellious girl named Glonny strangles and drowns a little boy she was angry with right among them, and escapes never to be found again, showing her (and their all) superior and refined excellency at their art.
The family was heartbroken, and immediately changed her name to Gay to protect her and themselves. Things are tense for a while, and then three women coming in to house-keep are caught stealing, and the police are called. In the investigation everything is blown wide open and all the secrets laid bare.
In an effort to save the lives of the children they had grown to love, the parents ordered the whole Abbey shut down, and turned all the kids out to fend for themselves, which they well knew was no problem for the clumsiest of them. I'll bet the country was never in more danger than when 23 trained (and small) assassins were turned loose upon it, with only the instructions to survive.
Our hero started by robbing the nearest house of a handful of trail mix. The mistress of the house came in to wash lettuce but she climbed out a bathroom window, feeling very accomplished. As she snuck around the back of the house, the real assassin, whom she'd been especial chums with at the Abbey, crawled out of the same house munching a couple of leeks he'd found.
They chatted quietly for a few minutes, and were convulsed when, as a police car showed up, the house began sprouting with thieves, and many of their friends ran off into the bushes surrounding.
"If each of us only took one thing, we'd still have cleaned her out in five minutes," our hero whispered as they prepared to leave. They walked straight into the arms of a policeman.
They'd been taught how to ace this as well, and by the end of our hero's conjolings, the officer felt both her especial friend and extremely bad for suspecting this innocent person of crime. She was feeling elated, when he just asked her to pull up her picture. She snapped one of herself right there, and their search engines found, thankfully, only one match. "Why "5631?" he asked, peering at it and showing it to her. "Oh," she laughed, "that was when I had been naughty as a child, and my mom made me count to five thousand six hundred and thirty one, and for fun she sent my picture in." "Okay," he replied, "I apologize for suspecting you, and if you're ever in trouble, you can just call on me." He gave her his information, and she continued down the road, while he turned to the other culprits.
She made good progress, and met up with another friend, so they walked together a piece, but by nightfall she was terrified. She had potentially made bad enemies with two dangerous assassins, and they moreover knew her well.
When she at last found a tent where lots of them were camped out for the night, she was thrilled to find those she had slighted and apologized, "I am sorry. In that moment I thought only of myself. I hope you will not be angry with me?" ...and I woke up.
Our hero was me, of course. I wrote it thinking of reminding myself for when it came time to write the movie.
Thoughts upon waking:
-I remember how scared they all were of the Abbey being found out. They were taught to sing like larks, and the only iphones allowed on the premises belonged to the mother and father.
-Can you imagine a little innocent-looking nun, singing away? What's she got under that cloak?
-The other two caught did have photos on record (and the one had killed a guy), so I've no idea how they got away.
-The assassination in the wood was done with a sword, in a strange mix of technology - considering the photo recognition.
-Too bad Glonny was the only one who was named in this piece.