The sun was nice and hot while the sweet breeze kept the temperature cool and balanced, and songbirds and butterflies fluttered in the perfect summer day. It was a fluffy, postcard perfect moment for the Happy Tree Friends to enjoy life to the fullest. And what better way to do that than to have a picnic at the beach?

The Mole had driven his ice cream truck over too, serving ice cream to the other beach-going critters. He pushed his shades closer to his eyes as he passed a couple of cones to the lovely Giggles the pink chipmunk and Petunia the car freshener-wearing blue skunk. They giggled giddily, paid for their treats, and hurried back to the others in the sand away from the sidewalk.

The playful rabbit, Cuddles, smirked mischievously as he tossed the volleyball into the air and then served it to the other side of the net. Toothy, an equally-playful, buck-toothed purple beaver waited anxiously and then smacked the ball back to the other side. Handy the hard-hat-wearing beaver was ready to slap the ball back. As the ball bounced back and forth, timid Flaky the red hedgehog sat at the side lines watching the group play with the observant Sniffles the blue anteater. It wasn't long until Giggles and Petunia came back with the ice cream cones and gave one to Flaky and Sniffles too. Giggles smiled and took in the beautiful scenery.

Handy leapt to spike the ball- and just before it hit the sand Toothy was there to bounce the ball back. The ball flew straight up into the air. He knew already that was a bad move, his only hope is for someone to spike the ball back.

Finally, this shot was his!

A yellow critter leapt into the air, already raising his arm for an epic spike. The ball was so close; it was just inches to his face. Now it was getting closer. And closer. And closer. Now it was only two inches away. One inch. POW! THWOMP!

The creature fell back and crashed into the sand. The salt and sand was flying everywhere! The friends gasped and rushed over to the little guy. He was on his back, motionless and his face was replaced by the ball! Toothy tried to pull the ball, but it was lodged into his face pretty good. While the others gathered, including the girls and Sniffles the blue anteater, Toothy motioned for them to stay back and braced himself for more effort. Toothy strained to pull the ball out- harder, harder…

Poof!

"You okay, Chewy?" asked Cuddles as he looked down on the yellow bush dog.

Chewy's face was concave now! The ball literally dented his face! He tried to reply but even his lips were shoved inward. All he could do was muffle and grumble.

"Hang in there," chuckled Cuddles. Then he motioned for Sniffles to help out, since he is the smartest of the bunch and the closest they have to a doctor.

Sniffles smiled, approached Chewy, got on his knees, sucked in air and was just about to blow into Chewy's mouth, despite Chewy's lips being closed up. Chewy's eyes literally popped out of their sockets when he saw the horror of the anteater's trunk-lips hovering close to his! No way!

"WAH!" Chewy's face popped back out without any need of CPR. "That's okay! That's okay!" Chewy flailed his arms in front of him for personal space, screaming panicked gibberish. The rest of the group laughed.

"Glad you're okay," smiled Giggles. "I would've done the CPR myself under the circumstances."

Chewy blushed and then hid his face in shame. His short, pointy ears and brown, stubby tail drooped. He mumbled sadly, "I missed the ball..."

"No kidding," Toothy cocked a brow. "That was just terrible, even Handy can spike the ball better than you!"

"Hey!" cried Handy in protest.

Toothy realized his comment offended the paw-less Handy and then chuckled nervously, "Oops…"

Handy grumbled and folded his arms in annoyance.

Flaky stood beside Chewy timidly, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Chewy looked back up at Flaky and nodded, "Uh, yeah, I'll be fine."

Petunia raised a brow and smirked. "C'mon, Flakes, don't baby the new kid," she half-scolded. "It's not like he was run over or something."

"My feelings exactly," Toothy smiled. "Now c'mon, no one's died so let's keep playing!"

"After my serve," Cuddles smirked. He then motions for Toothy to pass the ball.

Chewy rose from the sand and rubbed his bruised face. I wonder if I'm making any good impressions here, he wondered, chuckling to himself. Besides my face

Chewy returned back to his position and the game resumed. He promised himself he'll be playing better. While the group played, there was a small sailboat drifting by along the blue water away from shore. Inside the boat, there was Russell the pirate, seaworthy otter standing proudly on the deck and admiring the fine scenery. The seagulls were squawking all around him and sea breeze was rather calm. He listened to the waves lapping and splashing against the boat. It was a gorgeous afternoon! Soon he spotted the fellas in the distance with their game. He pulled out his spyglass to have a better look and chuckled delightedly at the event.

A seagull had perched itself at the top of the main sail. It pecked at its feathers for while until it spotted the shiny, white, glistening ropes wrapped around the beam. It began to peck at it, yanking it a bit. Russell's attention was at the volleyball game, he didn't even realize how much the stronger the sea breezes were becoming. The bird kept yanking at the pearly ropes. Pop! The rope snapped and the sail began to sway side to side. Russell turned around and was shocked to see the sail out of control!

He ducked, avoiding getting whacked by the support beam on the sail. He saw the ropes dangling and attempted to reach them to tie the sail back again. The sail kept swaying and Russell kept ducking. It was looking hopeless to reach the ropes. Suddenly a giant gust of wind blew the sail towards one direction. Russell panicked as the boat suddenly took off towards shore!

Toothy just spiked the ball towards the opposite side of the net, earning his team a point. Everyone cheered, it was an awesome game! Suddenly the group heard screaming. They looked towards the ocean and all were shocked to see Russell's boat heading towards their direction. Finally Russell got a hold of the ropes and attempted to close the sail. Whack! The sail swayed again and smacked the back of Russell's head. He fell unconscious, now the boat was completely out of control! It crashed against the sand, but it still wasn't slowing down! And it was headed right towards the volleyball court!

The Happy Tree Friends screamed and tried to run out of the way. The boat then crashed into the net and finally began to slow down, tearing the net out and digging into the sand. Giggles tripped and quickly turned around to see the boat approaching her. Her eyes could not shrink any smaller! She screamed her lungs out in pure, absolute fear. The boat began to slow down… and slower and slower…. And it stopped. Just centimeters away from Giggles' nose! She blinked and could swear she was going to pass out from all the excitement. Cuddles rushed over to her side.

He looked at the white sail boat and put a paw on the front. It looked safe now. The other friends drew close and sighed breaths of relief. Cuddles was the first to chuckle.

"That was close," he smiled. "Everyone okay?"

The others nodded, chuckling nervously along with him. Flaky fanned air and fell back on the sand- she was so overwhelmed, it was too much for her. Soon Russell popped out and immediately began to apologize for the accident. Cuddles reassured that no one was hurt and that they had forgiven him. Eventually the nervous chuckles turned into excited laughter. They had to admit it was quite a good scare, and it instantly became the highlight of their day.

Chewy stopped to smile at the colorful group around him. Despite this scary episode, he felt he was going to like it here.

HTF

There was a new hollow tree house on the block. The owner was the new kid, Chewy the bush dog. He stepped outside to do some sightseeing around town. It was a bright day and he could use the fresh air. He was sore and stiff from all the unpacking he had to do all week, now he finally had some free time. He made his way around town and admired the neat and clean streets. He waved hello to some of his new neighbors; most of them looked like simple, happy folk. Well… happy sure, but simple…

Mime was on his unicycle and circled Chewy. Chewy waved and greeted him. Mime then blew into a balloon and morphed it into a bear. Chewy laughed and took the balloon, and then Mime took off. Chewy really liked this happy little town!

While Chewy reached a stretch of highway, he noticed the bus stop to town was at the other side. He shrugged and stepped forward. Whatever happened to looking both ways before crossing?

HONK! HONK!

Chewy looked to his right and was terrified to see a truck heading towards him! He flinched and yelped, but the truck had stopped just in time. It took Chewy a few seconds to open his eyes and relax when he realized he wasn't hit. He blinked and walked onto the sidewalk and peered to see who the driver of the vehicle was. The window rolled down.

A green bear in an army uniform scolded him from the driver's seat, "Don't you know it's dangerous to cross the highway like that?"

"Sorry," apologized Chewy, half smiling and shrugging nervously. "That's completely my fault!"

The bear drew a breath and shrugged, "Well, at least no one was hurt; I can forgive you just this once."

Chewy chuckled and kept smiling.

"Hm, you're new aren't you?" the driver asked. Chewy chuckled and nodded. "What's your name?"

"Uh, Chewy," he replied.

"I'm Flippy, nice to see you," the bear replied. Chewy waved politely. "Well, I'm headed over to town, care for a ride?"

"Really?" asked Chewy.

"Sure, c'mon," Flippy smiled and motioned for Chewy to hop in.

"Are you sure that's fine?" Chewy asked unsurely as he climbed in and slammed the car door shut.

Flippy nodded and started his truck again, heading towards town. It wasn't long until they reached town and Flippy pulled over to a sidewalk to let Chewy out. Chewy hopped out and thanked the driver for the ride. That's Chewy saw the ice cream parlor just down the block.

"Hey wait!" Chewy called before Flippy took off. "How about a drink? It's the least I can do about earlier."

"Oh, um… well, see-" stammered Flippy.

"C'mon," smiled Chewy. "Everyone's been so nice to me; I really don't wanna start any bad blood because of my recklessness."

With some more persistence, Flippy finally nodded and shut off his truck.

Cha-ching! The two walked inside the parlor and made their way to the front counter. It looked like a clean and cute parlor and Chewy began to drool at the colorful pictures on the menu of tasty, frozen treats. The Mole approached the two new customers and took their order. Chewy and Flippy had ice cream floats.

The two chatted as they drank, with Chewy explaining about his time here. Cuddles and Toothy had been coming over a lot to help with moving in. The three were becoming close, especially when they'd get a little sidetracked and play and joke around. There were also a few times the girls came over, as a matter of fact yesterday they brought comedy movies for the whole group to watch.

"What about Flaky?" asked Flippy.

Chewy nodded, "Uh huh, she came by too."

Chewy was making good company with them all and was enjoying their times together. He told Flippy how much he liked this new town. Flippy then began to talk about the other folks there. He said there were many nice people to meet, and that this place was the happiest town to live on Earth.

"You bet!" Chewy smiled. "I can already feel it growing on me!"

The two laughed and clanked their icy drinks in a delightful toast.

After a while longer, Flippy told him he had to leave. Chewy paid for his drink, Flippy tipped his hat to him, and then left the parlor. Chewy smiled and waved his paw cheerfully as his new friend went. Chewy then whirled back around in his seat to sip the last of his float. It was a tasty drink.

Suddenly someone hastily sat right beside him where Flippy sat.

"What did he say?"

"Wah!" shrieked Chewy. The sudden voice scared him for a minute.

Then he relaxed when he realized it was Flaky sitting there. "Oh… hi!" he waved a hello and smiled.

"What did he say!" she repeated, shaking Chewy from his shoulders furiously.

"Wah! Wah! Calm down!" panicked Chewy, putting his paws on Flaky's to make her stop. "What is it?"

"What did Flippy tell you?"

"Nothing! Nothing bad anyway! He was just telling me about the town and everything."

Then she pulled her paws away, "Did he say anything else?"

"Mm, mm. No."

"Are you sure?"

Chewy became curious, "Why? What's wrong?"

Flaky twiddled her fingers and seemed hesitant. That's when Chewy noticed several others looking at them. When he whirled around to confirm it wasn't just my imagination, they quickly turned away. That was certainly strange. Chewy raised a brow.

"Looks like people here really like eavesdropping," Chewy muttered to himself and frowned in annoyance. "How rude."

HTF

Chewy and Flaky were walking down the highway heading home. Their houses were in the same direction so it was no big deal. As they walked along, they chatted some more, but suddenly they fell awkwardly quiet. It was suddenly hard to keep the conversation going and both didn't really know what to say next. Chewy knew she was supposed to tell him something, but he didn't want to be rude to have her just tell him about it. Eventually, Flaky drew a deep breath.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you something," she finally spoke. "But you have to promise me you won't tell anyone else about this."

Chewy turned his eyes toward her, "Okay, I promise."

Flaky sighed once more, still feeling hesitant to go through with telling him, "Okay… so... Flippy's a war veteran… and he's settling down right around the far end of the block…" Flaky continued to explain about how he is now retired from serving his unit (wherever that might be) and has been trying to relax and start a simple life. He's a really nice guy and has a pure and kind soul. He wouldn't even hurt a fly, and everyone knows it.

"But, it hasn't been going so well lately," Flaky said sadly.

"Why not?" asked Chewy.

"Well..." she was twiddling her fingers again. Suddenly she whirled her head to Chewy. "Remember you promised not tell anyone else, okay!" she practically demanded.

Chewy was surprised by her sudden exclamation, "Okay I promise, I promise! Just tell me already! Sheesh!"

Flaky withdrew herself and blushed in embarrassment, twiddling with her fingers again, "Okay, I'm…I'm sorry."

"So…" Chewy scratched his head, waiting for her answer. Then Flaky talked about how whenever Flippy sees something that really makes him upset, he would become disturbed by it and even develop nightmares about going on a killing spree on everyone around them. Flippy described to her that in his dreams he was literally flipping out.

Chewy raised a brow, "Flipping out?"

Flaky nodded and sunk her head low. Chewy could tell it was really hard for her to tell him about it.

"I've never talked about it with anyone else before…" she said. "We're close enough so we manage to talk about them. The nightmares have been scaring him and lately he's been having them a lot more than usual. He told me about them a few weeks back and we haven't gotten back in touch since."

"Why?" asked Chewy.

"Because…" Flaky continued. "There's been a lot of accidents happening and people are starting to question if it's actually someone behind it all. Flippy's been feeling edgy and a little paranoid, and says maybe people are blaming him for the accidents. Someone's been claiming they've seen him stalking people and killing them."

"Really?" asked Chewy. "How come I've never heard of them yet?"

"No one likes to talk about them," she explains. "It's too scary to think about; even I don't like talking about them."

Chewy's eyes widened, a little alarmed by this information.

"But he wouldn't!" Flaky turned to him. "Everyone can't buy into that. They know he's so nice and innocent, and always does good without ever asking for anything in return!" Suddenly she began to blush, "No one has ever been so nice and caring like Flippy has with me. He's very understanding and patient with my… shyness. He's never bothered by it… like how it would usually bother others. He's… he's my very dear friend."

Chewy frowned and felt sorry for her then. She looked so determined to keep her faith in Flippy. Everything she was telling him had to be the truth!

"What about the nightmares?" asked Chewy. "Do people know about them?"

Flaky nodded, "It's the reason why people are so afraid of him suddenly." Suddenly she stopped walking. Chewy took a few more steps before stopping and faced her. After a brief moment she lifted her head and clenched her paws into fists. "But I have complete faith in him. He would never do anything to hurt anyone. And that's final."

Soon Chewy smiled, "Then there's nothing to worry about!"

Flaky's eyes widened, a little surprised by his sudden enthusiasm.

"Well yeah, I mean if you both know the truth, then you'll be okay. It'll only be a matter of time before people realize it's all just a huge misunderstanding. You guys should keep living life to the fullest and ignore everyone else because you know the truth! And Flaky… you're a very good friend to defend Flippy like that. Deep down… Flippy must be really happy to have you as a friend."

Flaky's irises expanded and she blushed madly and began squealing, "No! You're just saying that!"

Chewy laughed at Flaky flailing like this. She actually looked a little cute right now.

"But," Chewy began to ask. "If everyone already knows about Flippy, why are you telling me to keep it a secret?"

"Because no one knows how close we actually are. He's been real careful about avoiding things that upset him, so he's been suggesting we keep our friendship a secret."

Chewy patted Flaky's head, assuring her with a warm smile that things will work out. "Just keep supporting Flippy and everything will be okay."

Flaky smiled and hugged Chewy. Chewy just smiled cheerfully, a little taken back by her action. "It's been a long time since anyone hasn't given him the cold shoulder that wasn't outside his circle of friends." She pulled away. "Flippy looked so happy today and what you've done was very kind. That's why I'm telling you all this, hoping you can understand him."

Chewy nodded and they let go, "Thanks, Flaky. That's a very nice thing to say too."

It was then Chewy realized they were already standing in front of his house. It was about late afternoon now and the world was turning light hues of blue and pink. The sunset just passed as it sunk behind the trees in the town's direction. A flock of crows squawked as they soared over his house towards the sunken sun. Flaky dashed away before stopping again to wave goodbye to Chewy.

"Please be nice to him!" she cried. "This doesn't change a thing about his image!"

Chewy flashed a wide smile and waved back. "I promise I'll be compassionate to him!"

She smiled and then kept running down the street to get to her house. Chewy stopped waving and raised a brow. What a strange girl. She was always the shy and quiet one, this was probably the first time they actually had a real conversation with each other. He shrugged and then walked towards his front door.

It was a very interesting topic, and he kept wondering and admiring why someone as timid and cautious would hang around with someone as possibly unstable and unpredictable like Flippy. And curious yet, what were the accidents that Flaky talked about? But if she says Flippy didn't do it and it would scare off people to talk about it, he probably shouldn't think about it too much. They were just accidents right? People just need to be a little more cautious. And learn not to blame their mistakes on other people.