Sun rays pouring into the opening in the tree hit Surly's eyes, forcing him to blink them open. He squinted at the blinding light, and rubbed his tired eyes. Adjusting his vision, he looked at the mother squirrel and pup he called his brother. But he wasn't really his though, after his own mother was lost at the beginning of the winter frost when she left to find food for her only pup and ended up freezing to death. Now, he was adopted by the dark gray squirrel, and her pup just a bit younger than Surly himself, Grayson. Surly sighed, Grayson wasn't much of a brother, he isn't very bright, but his company at night keeps him content. A chill traveled down Surly's spine and he rubbed his arms with his paws. It was still the middle of winter, but it would be over soon from predictions. Stretching his limbs, he waddled over to the tree opening and looked out through the bare branches and over the park. Most of the land was covered in white, and the sky was a calming white. The air was still with freeze, and the bark of the tree lined with frost. Surly shivered and shook his fur, and crawled out onto the edge of the opening and sat down looking over the view. Just then he felt a huge weight land onto his back and he almost fell out the hole. Then a head popped in front of him, two large wide, turquoise eyes starred at him with excitement.

"Hey Surly!" Grayson shouted, bouncing on his head.

Surly was shaken and grabbed Grayson's face, pushing him backwards.

"Grayson are you nuts, I could have fallen and died!"

Grayson lifted himself off his back and tilted his head.

"But you didn't. Hey! I know, lets go play a game today."

Surly stood up and pushed past Grayson.

"You say that everyday…"

Grayson lifted up his back paw and gave his ear a quick scratch.

"Yeah, but I don't know, I was thinking something different, like maybe a game of hide and seek, or racing, oh, oh! I know, a snow ball fight, I could get the others to come play!"

Surly's frowned at Grayson, Surly didn't really enjoy the company of others. No one seemed to really understand him most of the time. He felt like others never thought like him, and always seemed to follow a certain order other than think outside the box.

"Maybe another day Grayson, I'm tired…'

Surly replied grimly, and curled up in a ball against the walls of the tree.

"But Surly-"

Grayson was about to complain, then he felt a paw being placed on his shoulder and he looked up at his mother.

"Surly won't play…"

His mother gave Grayson a smile, before turning to Surly.

"Now Surly dear, come play with your younger brother, it's not fair to him when he has to play alone."

Surly grumbled, and folded his ears down. The mother sighed and walked over to Surly, placing her paw on his face and turning him to look at her.

"Look Surly, I know you don't like much interaction with the others, but at least try, tomorrow I'll let you sleep longer, ok?"

Surly looked up at the squirrel he was supposed to call his mother. His eyes saddened, but then he shook his head.

"Ugh fine, come on Grayson, lets go get the others…"

Grayson perked up and flicked his tail around.

"Alright!"

Then he jumped out of the hole and onto a near by branch, scurrying down the tree. Surly sat up, but his mother pulled him over.

"Surly, this time try to make a friend," she said, licking her thumb and smoothing out the tufts of hair on his head, "Ok?"

Surly swatted her paws away, and rubbed his head until the top of his head was shaggy again.

"Stop…ok fine, I'll try and communicate a bit…"

His mother smiled and held him in a hug. Surly hesitated and groaned onto her chest. His mother let out a small laugh and she patted him over to the hole.

"Thank you Surly, have fun."

Surly looked back at his adoptive mother, before jumping out of the hole, he barely was able to grab the branch and he dangled in the air. He turned his head to a worried look from his mother.

"I'm fine!"

He assured her, and looked around. He noticed Grayson down below, he seemed to have the twin gophers, Jimmy and Johnny with him, and their younger sister Jamie.

"Perfect, us two against them, we're dead…"

Then he felt the branch he was holding onto crack and he fell down a few branches before hitting a branch onto his gut. He let out a huge gasp as the breath was taken from him and he slid off the branch heading for the ground below.

"Now, all we have to do is wait for my big brother to join us!"

Grayson ordered, then a huge crash was heard next to him, and he looked over to see Surly laying on his back, gasping for air.

"Ah ha!," he cheered, picking up Surly by his ears and getting him onto his feet, "Here he is, now we can play!"

Surly grasped his stomach still trying to catch his breath as Grayson patted his back.

"Alright, now we have an even number of players!"

Surly looked at the three gophers and raised a brow.

"Uh Grayson, there's only two of us, and three of them."

Grayson squinted his eyes and looked over them, counting on his fingers, before opening his eyes in realization.

"Oh…"

Surly grinned a bit, "Well, guess we can't play then, might as well go-"

"I'll play!"

A voice called from the tree. Surly and Grayson turned to see a flash of red fur jump down from the tree and land in front of them. A female squirrel with burnt orange fur stood proudly before them. Surly's eyes widened a bit, she was actually quite pretty. Grayson walked up to her.

"And who are you?"

The female squirrel twitched her tail and put her hands on her hips.

"My name is Andie, you guys have never seen me because my mom is a bit over protective, and she has never let me out of our hollow, but finally I was able to convince her when I saw you guys down here. Also, I want in on this game."

Grayson perked up and put her hands on her arms, lifting her up.

"Alright that's the spirit!" He shouted, and ran by letting her down. Andie tripped a bit and Surly reached out to grab her.

"Whoa there…"

Andie grabbed Surly's shoulders to keep herself from falling. She looked up at him and pulled away.

"Oh um thanks."

She stuttered, smoothing the hair behind her ear. Surly even tried to smooth down his own which he usually liked to keep ruffled.

"Yeah, sorry about Grayson, he's got more brawn than brain most the time."

Andie chuckled, "No problem, um…"

"Surly, my name is Surly."

Andie looked up at him with a worried look.

"Surly? Aren't you that pup who…lost his mother."

Surly frowned and looked at the ground. He remembered when his mother had be pronounced deceased, the park animals had held a meeting to decide what they were going to do with him. Andie must have not been any younger than him, and it made sense if her mother had brought her to the meeting.

"Yeah…uh, that's me."

Andie got a sad look in her eyes, and placed a paw on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

Surly looked up into her lime green colored eyes and smiled a bit. She smiled back at him at the two stood looking at each other. But they were soon interrupted as Grayson came and placed one arm around each of their necks.

"Alright team, it's us again the Bruisers, now this is what we got to do. Build a fort, make snow balls, and then full out war, got it? Ok, lets get to it!"

Grayson then broke off and began digging up snow into piles making a fort. Surly sighed and rounded up some snow into balls. Andie watched Grayson and Surly work for awhile, and looked at the Bruisers who already had a fort dug up and had a full supply of snow balls. She frowned and thought for a moment. She took a pile of balls Surly had made, and walked up to the fort, placing them along the rim on top. Surly watched her and tilted his head.

"What are you doing?"

Andie had finished putting all the balls he had made on the fort and turned around to him.

"Well think about it, we always have piles of them next to use and we have to look down to get them to reload right? Well I was thinking, if we were to have some along the top of the fort, and would kick them off, sending them flying faster than using an arm."

Surly starred at her with impressed eyes, and Grayson clapped his paws.

"Brilliant! I could never have thought of that, well done Andie, maybe Surly and I have a chance of winning now."

Grayson cheered, and readied himself at the front of the fort. Andie looked over at Surly with a concerned look.

"Chance?"

Surly grabbed some snow balls, and looked at Andie.

"Grayson and I never actually have won a game against these guys before…"

Andie eyes widened a bit just as Grayson had shouted, "War!" And the fight was on. Surly ducked down flat onto his stomach and Andie did the same as snowballs flew overhead. Grayson was busy throwing some snow balls, using up most of his pile.

"Surly, help me!"

Surly sighed and crawled over to Grayson, gathering up a ball and flinging it overhead. He heard a thud and looked up to see Jamie had been knocked down. She was out, but now they had to deal with the twins, those two were amazing diggers, and had a huge pile of balls ready and they threw more. Surly ducked down, his back against the fort. He heard a thud and snow splashed onto him. He looked up as Grayson fell onto his back next to him, bit of snow still covering his face.

"Oh I've been hit! Man down! Surly, its up to you and Andie now…"

Surly rolled his eyes over Grayson's dramatic fall, and turned to Andie ready to give orders, but she had jumped up into the air, flipped around, and her back paws were now facing the fort. With a mighty kicked, she launched a ball she had placed on top of the fort. It flew and hit a side of the twin's fort, breaking off a piece. Surly looked at her with a grin.

"Well, you were right about the force thing."

He complemented her, and she smiled at him, but her looked changed as she tried to reach out to him, but it was too late. He felt a snowball nail him right in the side of the head, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

"Surly! Are you okay?"

Surly shook his head, whipping snow off and looked up at Andie with a thumbs up.

"I'm fine, come on Andie, you can do this!"

Andie nodded, and turned back around, kicking more and more balls off, until she heard a thud and turned to see that Jimmy and fallen. Now it was just her and Johnny, but she was out of balls to kick off the fort, and had no time to set it back up. She thought for a moment and grasped a pawful of snow and climbed on top of the fort. Surly lifted his head up.

"Andie, what are you doing?"

Johnny grinned from the other side, and threw a ball and Andie, but she jumped up and let it fly under her. More and more balls were thrown but she dodged everyone one of them with flips and jumps. Surly just watched as all the balls were used up. Johnny picked up two balls and threw them all at once. Andie grinned, and jumped and flipped as one ball passed over her head and under her back, and as she turned in mid air, she twisted her body and threw the ball at Johnny. He didn't see it coming, and it hit him smack in the face. Grayson jumped up and cheered and ran up to Andie hugging her tight.

"We did it!" We won!"

Surly smiled and lifted himself up, laughing along with them for a change. After Grayson was done with Andie, she turned to Surly, smiling big and hugged him. Surly was taken back, he wasn't one for hugging, but Andie's hug was so warm. He slowly wrapped his arms around her and laughed.

"Wow, I can't believe how you dodged the balls like that, it was insane!"

Andie hopped up and down with excitement.

"And the way you threw your ball though and hit one of them, that was a great shot!"

The three celebrated awhile, then Surly perked his ears up at a call from the tree. Grayson's mom was standing out of the hollow calling them for lunch. Grayson waved goodbye to the bruisers, before leaping off up the tree to his mom. Surly looked over at Andie.

"So… we should do this again sometime." He said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah it was fun. You know, you're a pretty cool squirrel, Surly." She said and headed off for the tree.

Surly sighed and followed her up the tree, but turned into his own hollow. Grayson was inside nibbling on a dried piece of a pecan nut. His mother walked over to him as he walked down to sit next to Grayson.

"So boys, how was that game? Surly, did you make any friends?"

Surly picked up a peanut and sat down next to Grayson, he looked outside and grinned.

"I don't know, maybe I did…"