Alex Lockhart had a promising life ahead of him. His high school gymnastic career earned him a full scholarship to UCLA. He was told he was on the shortlist for the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic team. It was strange that when he was asked to come to an Olympic tryout that he was the only one there and all the coaches were wearing odd colorful clothing.

The rest gets kind of fuzzy, literally. Snowflake the King of the Monkeys was a star of one of the greatest performing troops in all the land. Snowflake would do feats of great dexterity; he would throw knives and perform magnificent dances. Some shows his big finish was to be fired out of a cannon, land on some platform or rope, then scramble back down to the ground for his bow.
Things were great for Snowflake. He was a star. Until the day the ringmaster decided he was to be replaced. A newer, more exciting pet had been brought to the troop and Snowflake was shoved out of the center ring.

This would not stand. If they were going to take the attention from Snowflake, Snowflake was going to take things important to them. His cunning monkey brain knew they loved the shiny things they kept in the one room, so he would take as much as he could shove into his little carpet bag and make good his escape. He’d find a new troop, somewhere he could be the star again.

The plan was simple. Hide all this ill-gotten loot (Resources 2) and then adjust the cannon up so when they shot him out he landed outside the circus. He would snatch up his bag and run. Those large, slow idiots could never keep up with him as he leapt through the branches of the forest.

He’d go make his own troop, and be a star again! Through the hedge only five months had passed, the fake Alex was still in his first semester at UCLA, but the more human Snowflake now realized he was five years older.