Alone again. The first cut may be the deepest but that doesn't make the others any more fun.

But Stella couldn't feel sorry for her self this time, after all, she had broken up with Tiger. But she did it for good reason; she wasn't in love with him. She only got with him because he was interested in her and it had been so long since anyone else had been. It felt good to be desired, but not to lead someone on like that.

But after Gladys made bail she took Tiger and got the hell out of that neighborhood, so perhaps it was better that things didn't end unexpectedly. Not for Stella, at least.

The skunk wasn't the only one unhappy with being single. RJ, who before had been a loner, was enjoying having a family, but there was another 'part' of him that was still lonely. While Stella wanted someone to call her own, RJ was craving something more physical. As he watched The Verminator take off with the rest of the gang, he realized he needed other people, he was tired of living his life by himself. And how he was growing tired of 'being serviced' by himself. And being around beautiful girls like Stella and Heather all the time wasn't helping him keep his mind off of how his body was feeling. Or what it would be like to feel theirs.

Heather wasn't worried about being single, she was more worried about her safety. Although Gladys and Dwayne had been driven out of suburbia, the humans had been cracking down and making it harder to pull of heists. Sure, Hammy had filled the log with enough acorns to last more than just through the winter, but who wanted to eat the same thing every day for the next couple years?

But Heather had always been nervous about pulling jobs, and now that things had gotten harder, her anxiety had gotten worse.

And on top of that, Heather remembered the map of suburbia RJ showed everyone when he first showed up, and that the little speck of forest that they lived in was marked "Future Development", which meant sooner or later the humans would be coming in with their machines and running the animals out of their home. She had talked to RJ about it, but he just told her not to worry about it, and that humans take forever when it comes to doing important things. But that didn't put her mind at ease. Nobody knew when the humans might get around to tearing down that last bit of forest, it could happen in the middle of winter when all the hedge animals were hibernating. One of the humans' crushy-pushing-machine things could come along and run right over the log...

Heather found it more pleasant not to think about that.

About seven o'clock in the evening and RJ had just finished eating. And while his stomach was full, he still felt another kind of hunger. He was sick of just using just using his hand. What he wouldn't give for a real, live, warm, female body. The raccoon started to stare into space. He wanted to run his hands down the luscious curves of someone's body, to spread her thighs apart and feel the warmth coming from her-

"Damnit!" he said aloud. He was getting hard, and as he didn't wear clothes like humans, it was harder to hide his arousal. Sure he could beat off and tame his libido for a while, but it just wasn't satisfying enough anymore.

There was Stella. Freshly single and probably vulnerable.

"Ah, I shouldn't take advantage of her."

But it wouldn't really be taking advantage of her if she consented.

"No, she wouldn't just randomly have sex with me. Well...I don't really know that unless I ask. I mean, girls have needs too, right?"

RJ didn't think he would get lucky. But he wanted to. And there's no harm in asking right?

Stella stood leaning against a tree sipping an alcoholic cherry flavored drink through a straw. Tiger had loved and lost while Stella never really loved him at all. The skunk tried to keep her mind off of it.

"Hey Stella."

She jumped, "Jeez man!"

"Sorry." RJ apologized.

"No worries, what's up?"

"Well, how are you doing?" RJ asked, nervous.

"Oh, just feeling little sorry for myself. Doubt I'll ever find find anyone, and all that crap."

"I'm sorry things didn't work out."

"Me too." Stella said and stared into space.

RJ swallowed hard, "I'm here if you need me."

Stella turned to him and smiled somewhat weakly, "Thanks."

The raccoon continued, "And until you find Mr. Right...if you wanna..fool around.."

"What?" Stella said firmly and tilted her head.

"Just casual sex.." RJ replied, trying to sound less meek but failing.

"I don't fuckin' believe this!"

"Alright, I'm sorry, never mind-" RJ said, already wanting to forget the whole encounter.

Stella put her hands on her hips, "I thought you came over here to be a friend, but noooo."

"Forget it, I'm sorry! Just, keep it down.."

"What?" the skunk raised her eyebrows, "You don't want the others to hear that I'm depressed and you just wanna hit my ass?!"

RJ did a double face-palm turned to leave, he knew it wasn't going to happen, but he didn't think Stella would freak out like this.

"You better buzz off if all you want is sex." Stella said, then she shook her head as she watched RJ walk away.

"Men," she thought, "always thinking with their dicks. Dickheads."

"At least you treat me well, Mr. Weinhard." she said aloud and took a gulp of her drink. After the nerve of RJ she needed a good drink and she loved cherries. Plus when you love cherry and the bottle is half as tall as you are, why bother savoring the taste?

RJ banged his head against a tree. "Fuuuck!" he said under his breath. Not only had he made an ass of himself, but he was worried Stella would tell someone. On top of embarrassment, he felt that he might loose credibility as leader of the group. He sighed. The only logical thing to do was to try to forgot the matter, and hope for the best.

Heather was taking a walk along the hedge, trying to clear her thoughts. She wasn't super nervous all the time, but the idea of the humans kicking them out did seem to gnaw at the back of her brain quite a bit. Full on anxiety came and went, and right now she had it. She found herself just as upset at the anxiety as she was at the thought of a construction team coming in.

She threw her head back and sighed in frustration, "Is there anything I can do to keep my mind of this crap?"

As she came to a section of the forest that the gang didn't hang out in much, Heather smelled something. It's smelled like skunk, but more 'planty'. Heather called out, "Stella?" but there was no answer. She followed the smell until she came upon a skinny, strange looking plant. As Heather got closer she recognized the leaves. It was a marijuana plant. The gang had jacked a laptop computer and one of the human families nearby didn't bother password protecting their wifi, giving the animals free access to the internet. Heather had seen enough marijuana leaves when surfing the net, she finally asked RJ what the deal with them was. He told her how people smoked the bud of the plant, and how people got "high" off of it and became...

Relaxed.

"This could be just what I need." she thought, "Ugh, but I don't know exactly what to do..."

The laptop. Heather always found the internet useful for looking up human practices she was curious about.

Heather jogged off to main area the family hung out, they usually kept the computer near the t.v.

When she arrived at her destination, Heather's heart sank; she wasn't seeing the computer. She looked around. Vern was heading off to the pond to brush his teeth, Lou, Penny and Ozzie were watching t.v...

"GOODNIGHT HEATHER!"

The possum jumped, then let out a breath. She had gotten into a bit of a trance looking for the computer.

"Night Hammy." she said and kept scanning the area.

"You ok there Heather?" Penny asked as Hammy headed off to bed.

"Yeah." Heather replied, still looking around.

"Seems like you've been pretty jumpy lately."

"Hammy is loud enough to scare anyone to death." Ozzie said, "Although you should learn to be more alert, Heather."

"Where's the computer?" Heather asked.

"RJ took off with it." Lou answered.

"Ok, thanks." Heather said.

"He said he wanted some time alone to relax." Ozzie called to Heather as she took off.

"Oh yeah..." RJ said as he moved his hand up and down. He was so jealous of the dog in the video he watching. What he would give to have one human girl hold him down and another to suck his-

"RJ?" Heather seemed to come out of nowhere.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" The raccoon practically jumped out of his skin.

"Oh my god!" Heather said when she saw what RJ was doing. She turned around and apologized, "I'm sooo sorry."

"Shit, what the hell do you want?" RJ asked promptly as he quickly closed the web browser on the computer and tried to cover his now dwindling erection with his hands.

"The computer..." Heather answered, and as she started to walk away, "but, you're busy with it."

"Take it." RJ said.

"No..."

"No, really. I'm...not in the mood anymore."

The possum pursed her lips and turned around slowly. If she didn't need to get high before, she did now.

RJ kept his hands over his crotch as Heather closed and pick up the laptop, "Again, I'm really sorry.."

"Just..don't mention it to anyone." the raccoon requested.

"I won't." Heather said, and with a little grin, "Nice dick."

As RJ watched the possum leave, he was too embarrassed to tell if she was actually complimenting him or just being sarcastic.

As Heather read up on how to roll a blunt, the embarrassment and anxiety from interrupting RJ's "time alone" wore off a little, but Heather didn't really get any more relaxed. Her dad had never said he didn't want her smoking anything, but it was something that she knew if she were to ask about it, he would forbid it. Ironically, what she was using to try and calm herself down, was making her nervous.

Before too long, Heather had a crude blunt made and was ready to go, thanks to the internet.

Now she had to light it. While she had made the blunt a convenient size for her (albeit a bit large), the lighter she possessed had been made for humans, not opossums. So Heather sat on the ground, in a spot in the hedge that she had claimed as hers and kept her stuff there. With the lighter between her legs she used her entire left hand to flick the lighter while she used the other to hold the joint in her mouth. It took her a couple of tries to get the flame going, and after a moment of staring at the fire, Heather exhaled and lit 'er up.

Almost immediately she started coughing. Having never smoked anything before, second hand or other wise, it was very intense for the little marsupial. She found the taste alone pretty strange. It didn't necessarily taste bad, but it was like if Stella had a lovechild with the hedge.

After taking a few moments to gather herself, Heather took another drag. She still coughed, but this time she at least knew what to expect. She grinned. It was exciting doing something new, and something she'd probably get in trouble for. It made her feel like an adult. It actually made her feel...aroused. She took a bigger drag and managed to hold it in for a couple seconds.

Once RJ had calmed down after his encounter with Heather, he realized he still felt the need to let off some sexual steam. Two very unarousing experiences and he still was horny. "I just better be able to get off this time.." he thought to himself as he sat down with his back against a tree, closed his eyes and started groping himself while his mind went off to unholy places. Unholy places with imaginary nymphomaniacs.

RJ became so engrossed in his fantasy that he didn't notice Stella come up to him.

"Hey dawg." she said.

"GOD DAMN IT!" RJ shouted and almost ripped his genitals off. Stella started laughing.

"Can't I have ten fucking minutes to my self?!" RJ shouted in his head.

"I'm sorry.." Stella said through her laughter, "I'm sorry man, I'm..sorry." The skunk stopped laughing rather abruptly. She looked down at RJ's erection and laughed, "Dang, you are a horny one!"

She stopped laughing again. "But serusly," she said, and as she sat down next to RJ with the grace of a falling piano, RJ figured she was drunk.

"I came o'er here to tell you," the intoxicated skunk continued, "I'm sorry for being a bish, you know earlier when you wanted to fuck...me."

"Don't worry about it..." RJ said, still embarrassed.

Stella grabbed his cock, and stroking it, continued, "So I thought I should do somethig f'you, to tell you I'm sorry, for being a bich earlier,when you wanted to fuck me...because you asked, and asking is polite!"

"Uh huh." RJ nodded in agreement as her hand went up and down, hoping she would do more.

"Man I haven't tousched a dick in so long..." the skunk said as she leaned over. RJ closed his eyes as his penis went both into Stella's mouth and erotic bliss. He couldn't remember the last time he had his dick anywhere besides his hands. He let out a long sigh as Stella started moving her head up and down. "Oh yes," he thought, "Finally..."

"Oh my god, this thing goes on forever!" Heather said aloud as she walked alongside the hedge, not realizing she had already made a lap around the parameter. The possum was as high as hell. Or more accurately, as high as heaven. Her only care in the whole wide world was finding out how far the hedge went.

"You know something, Steve?" the possum said to the bush to her left, "RJ's actually pretty hot." Heather looked over at Steve and added, "He's the raccoon."

Steve said nothing.

"Anyway," Heather continued, "I saw his dick today, and it was really cool. I don't get to see penises very often. I mean, guys like vaginas more than girls like dicks, but that doesn't mean we don't like dicks."

The hedge continued to listen quietly.

"Like, if two girls liked two dicks, it would be as much liking as one guy liking one vagina. I toootally like other stuff, but, I get and have other stuff, in life, but I don't get or have a dick. I mean, I've never asked him, but I'm sure dad wouldn't let me. Not his though."

Heather rolled her eyes, "Oh my god, my daaaad. He says sex is sacred, but he acts like it's evil. HOW THE HELL DID I GET HERE THEN?" she stopped. "What if my memories of mom aren't true? What if dad's a hermaphrodite?" the word sounded so strange to Heather, "Hermaphrodite. Her-maff-row-dite."

She turned to Steve, "Am I talking to much?" she asked.

When the hedge said nothing, she took it as a no, and continued babbling as she made a couple more laps around the forest until she passed out for the night.

RJ awoke the next morning with a smile. "Good morning everyone!" he said as he joined the others for breakfast.

"Well someone's in a good mood, there!" Penny commented.

"Yes I am." RJ said with a grin, hoping the porcupine wouldn't ask why.

"If I didn't know any better," Lou started, "I'd say that you, you know..."

"What?" RJ asked, getting a little bit nervous, "Who said I did?"

"Did what?" Hammy asked.

"Lou!" Penny scolded when she caught on, "Nothing Hammy."

"Anyway, what's for breakfast?" RJ asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Nothing at all..I'm gonna puke..." Stella said as she joined everyone.

"Jeepers," Penny said, "you got the flu, Stella?"

"My head, hurts...my stomach, so nauseous..."

"Goodness! You better lie down." Penny said and lead Stella over to the pillow they kept in front of the t.v.

"I'll get you some ice." Ozzie said and opened the cooler.

"It sounds like she has a hangover," RJ said, "it's what happens the day after you drink too much alcohol."

"Don't mention alcohol..." Stella moaned.

"How much did you have?" Ozzie asked as he brought a piece of ice over.

"Just half a bottle."

Ozzie gasped.

"You can't drink as much as humans can when your only-"
"I know," the skunk cut RJ off, "just be quiet, my head..."

"Come on kids," Penny said as she gathered the youngsters together, "let's eat someplace else and let Stella get some rest."

"FEEL BETTER STELLA!" Hammy shouted as he and the others went away.

"OW!" Stella cried as the noise sent a bolt of pain through her skull.

"Sorry!" the squirrel whispered, thought it was a loud whisper.

RJ started to leave but Stella stopped him, "RJ, come here.."

"Yeah?" he said as he walked over.

"Closer."

He knelt down.

"How far did we go yesterday?" Stella asked.

"Um, well,"

"Don't lie to me."

"You..gave me a blow job.." the raccoon answered.

"Did I swallow?"

"Yeah.."

"Ugh, good thing I ended throwing up.." the skunk sighed, then continued, "If you mention what happened to ANYONE, you won't be able to do anything with your penis for the rest of your life, got it?"

RJ nodded, "Yeah."

"Good, now go."

As soon as Heather had woken up all the way she remembered what she had done the night before. Immediately she sniffed her arm to see if she smelled like pot. A little bit. She decided to go take a quick dip in the pond.

When she arrived, she found the whole gang by the pond eating breakfast, a tad unusual, as the main t.v. area was where everyone had breakfast. "Why's everyone eating here?" Heather asked.

"Stella's not feeling well so we're leaving alone to rest." Penny answered.

"Where is she?"

"Laying down in front of the t.v.."

"...Is she watching it?"

"No, she's got a headache. Why?"

"Nothing." Heather answered casually, then continued in her head, "Except that she could've just stayed in the log instead of inconveniencing everyone..."

Heather made her way, paranoid someone would notice that she smelled funny and start asking questions. Just as Heather was waist deep in the water, Her father spoke, "Heather, why didn't you come to bed last night?"

"Shit." she thought as her heart began beating like a...cliche.

"I fell asleep listening to music." she lied, then without taking a breath, submerged herself completely.

"I hope that's all she's doing." Ozzie stated.

"She's a teen and needs her privacy, that's all." Penny reassured him.

"I suppose so." Ozzie sighed.

After rinsing off, Heather sat down a bit away from everyone for breakfast, and RJ soon joined her.

"So," he began, "have fun last night?"

"What do you mean?." Heather asked.

"How was the 'music'?" RJ asked, putting his fingers up like quotation marks.

Heather looked at the raccoon, unsure what to say.

"Well you caught me doing something bad, I guess it's fair I did the same to you." RJ said.

"Were you spying on me?" Heather asked, her heart rate getting faster again.

"I was taking a walk when I smelled...something, and when I recognized what it was I was curious who was lighting up."

"Please don't tell anyone," the possum begged while trying to keep her voice down, "especially not my dad."

"I won't, as long as you share." RJ said with a grin.

"Ok, sure." Heather nodded anxiously.

"So..." she continued, wanting to change the subject and calm down, "What's wrong with Stella?"

"She went overboard with alcohol."

"Seems like she's been having a lot of it lately."

"Well," RJ said, "it's her new favorite thing. Plus she's needs a pick-me-up since things didn't work out with her and what's-his-name."

"Yeah but she broke up with him. You think she would have been over it by now."

RJ shrugged, "I guess things are looking hopeless for her in finding that special someone."

"Still, she doesn't have to be so emo about it." Heather rolled her eyes.

"Well, it does suck being single." RJ said, knowing that first hand.

"I just don't look forward to how my dad would act if I had a boyfriend.," Heather said, "he's so overbearing."

"Oh yeah?" RJ asked, feeling dismayed at the thought of Heather not being into casual sex with friends.

"Like, we wouldn't be left alone to do anything innocent, let alone...fool around."

RJ thought for a moment. If she didn't have a boyfriend, there wouldn't be any suspicions about her being alone. Not if Ozzie thought she was alone.

"I envy you." Heather sighed.

"What?" the raccoon asked, snapping back from his naughty thoughts.

"You don't have anyone bossing you around, you can do anything you want."

RJ sighed. Almost anything.

That night Heather turned up the volume on her ill-gotten iPod and laid on her back on her also stolen Hello Kitty pillow and smiled.

"This stuff is great! It really works."

The stoned little possum closed her eyes and let Cherub Rock flow into her ears and through her soul. She hadn't a care in the world, and she loved it. But the same couldn't be said about her raccoon friend.

RJ made his way toward the music and found Heather sprawled out on the pillow. She looked like she was on another planet.

"Hey stoner." RJ chuckled.

Heather opened her eyes and sat up, "What." Then she noticed RJ and greeted him, "Oh hey man! Like...hey."

RJ smiled and said, "You started without me."

"What?" Heather asked, "Oh! The thing, with the stuff." She got up and grabbed a joint, then handed it to her friend. "I made this for you so you would smoke it instead of telling on me, because I need this to not freak out, so smoke this instead, like, I've been doing."

RJ laughed as he took the joint and lit up.

RJ managed to hold the smoke in a bit better than Heather, indicating some experience in the matter. After a couple more hits he laid on his back next to Heather.

"This song is like, sooo cool." the possum commented. "Yeah." RJ replied, not as interested in the music as in the beautiful girl laying next to him. As his eyes moved across her gorgeous white fur, RJ began to think, but not with his brain.

Everyone else was turning in for the night, the two of them had a comfortable bed, music playing loud enough to drown out any...

RJ snapped out of it. There was no way he could try anything, not after what happened with Stella. Heather might be more likely to tell someone, and she did, he would be so screwed.

RJ sighed, thinking how he was so close yet so far when Heather rolled over and laid her head on his chest. "Mmm, you're warm." she said lazily as she rubbed the raccoon's stomach.

Surprised, RJ put his arm around Heather, his heart beating faster. He figured it was platonic, but it had been so long since he'd been this close-

"Oh SHIT." he thought, he was getting hard.

"Shit, shit, shit!" The last thing he needed was Heather to see him getting a boner from her.

She giggled. Not the reaction he was expecting. Then what happened next was the last thing he expected. She touched it.

"Hi there." Heather said as she played with RJ's penis, making it even harder. The raccoon hadn't the slightest idea what to say, and after what seemed a lot longer time than it actually was, Heather spoke: "I wonder what it feels like."

RJ wasn't sure how to reply.

"It feels good right?" Heather continued, "I like feeling good."

RJ swallowed hard, then the possum straddled him and rubbed his chest. With a dazed smile she said, "Let's feel good."

Although in the back of his mind he knew it wasn't a good idea to continue, as Heather leaned over and kissed him, he found that he had absolutely no willpower to resist.