He sat out under the apple tree, reading his newest book from the library. Happy Tree Estates was a quiet community; surrounded on all sides by seven foot tall walls and two nine foot gates kept outsiders from entering, making the parents feel secure enough to let their children wander the streets with their friends. His green hair caught the uneven flecks of light, changing from dark to light with the swaying branches in the summer breeze. Oddly enough, the community housed many children, all fairly young, between the ages of six to nine.
"Flippy!" a voice from the street called, the young red-headed girl running towards him. She lived two houses down, having been the first to welcome him to Happy Tree Estates three years ago. She was one of the youngest, being two years his junior and just starting the first grade once school started the next day. She wore a white dress and showed off her new, shiny black shoes she had gotten for school, white flakes of dandruff showering her around her from the red locks. Her bright amber eyes gleam as she skipped up to him, pale, bony arms flailing at her sides in an attempt to be cute. "Whatcha reading?"
"Alice in Wonderland," he smiled sweetly, dog-earring the page and gently closing the old book, "You look very pretty today Flaky, those are new clothes right? Going somewhere nice?"
She visibly blushed at him taking note of her appearance, but nodded enthusiastically, not ashamed enough to hide the reddened colour, "Yes!"
"Where to?"
She giggled, eyes sliding shut as he blush deepened in the apple tree's shade. "To play with Flippy~!"
He blinked a moment, caught off guard by the forward announcement, but smiled also, "Well, seeing as you took your time to travel all this way," he over dramatized with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead and a look of exhaustion, "how can I deny you a simple game of Hide-and seek?"
"Yay~!" she cheered, jumping up with a fist in the air, more of the white flakes shedding from her hair. The dandruff would have been disgusting on anyone else, but on her it looked innocent, endearing, he couldn't help but smile. The six-year-old took her friend's hand and pulled him to his feet.
"Flaky!" a voice down the street called, the blue-haired nine year old shouted to the other two, her hands cupped around her mouth like a megaphone, though that was unneeded. Petunia was loud in general, being the center of attention at all times. Dressed in a sky blue shirt with jean capris, she stood with her hand on her hips and a smug grin, the orange flower complemented nicely in her long dark blue hair that was pulled up in a long and luxurious ponytail on the back of her head. Beside her was Giggles, wearing a pink dress and white tennis shoes with rhinestones designing the toe-caps; a red bow in her shoulder length amaranth hair.
"We're coming!" the red-head shouted after them, dragging Flippy behind her, "Flippy's it!"
"Eh!" he made a face, his yellow-green eyes brightening slightly, "Volunteering me are you?"
Flaky laughed, still running towards the other two, "We all said 'not it' at the same time, so we needed Flippy to play too. Also, Flippy is too hard to find when he's hiding. We never find him." At the last sentence, her cheeks filled with air in a pout.
"Fair enough," he laughed at her antics. She was very cute, like a little sister, no one could blame him for doting on her. "I count to fifty, you three hide."
As he leaned against the light pole in front of the empty house that separated his and Flaky's, his mind wandered back to his book as he mindlessly voiced the numbers loudly down the street. He barely reached thirty when a low rumbling echoed under his feet and through his new, brown hiking boots. Startled out if his thoughts, he turned towards the origin of the sound, a moving truck slowly coming up the road, followed by a little, yellow sports car. Standing there on the sidewalk, he watched them pull into the driveway of the abandoned house, through the window he could see the silhouettes of the new residents.
"Flippy!" a voice called from some unknown hiding spot, he jolted as he remembered the game.
"Ready or not here I come!" He ran down the street, looking for the three girls, but glanced back to the cars, unable to see the cerulean eyes watching him through the tinted glass.
Flip "Flippy" Gray, Cadet Sergeant Majour of Finsk High School's esteemed ROTC program. Having lived next door to the green haired boy for just about nine years, we haven't talked to each other once and only been face-to-face a rare handful of times. It isn't like me to be shy, or even mean enough to go out of my way to ignore someone. My hero was Superman after all, who is neither of those traits, but I feel so awkward when compared to the military boy. Our only connection was through Flann, or Flaky as all of her friends endearingly called her, including myself. She was my first friend since I moved in here when I was seven, and she does her best to split her time evenly between Flippy and I, but whenever she thinks I'm not looking, I catch her staring at him across the field or cafeteria. Being in high school, I feel things are changing, but I'm not sure I'm ready yet. No, I'm not ready to remove my mask, I'm not ready to grow up. I'm just this little kid, hiding in the courner, too shy to go outside . . .
"Splendid?" Flaky nudged him with her elbow, making the blue haired boy jump visibly, his lunch flying from his grasp, a small cry of disappointment as his last piece of mooched cheesecake fell to the floor. "Oh!" she yelped, hands covering over her mouth as the snowy flakes of dandruff fluttered around her from her own sudden jolt, "I'm so sorry Splendid!"
"Ah, no, it's fine, I ate most of it anyway," he laughed lightly, rubbing the back of his head, "What were you trying to say, the sugar went right to my brain."
"Oh, well, I wanted to tell you that Flippy's birthday is coming up and I need some help planning the party," she smiled shyly, lifting her exposed shoulders to hide her blushing face, though it was a poor job, it was cute nonetheless. The black straps of her tank top her only saving grace under the large red sweater she wore. Swinging her pale, bony legs as she leaned back slightly on the bench, she smiled brightly, amber eyes gleaming happily as she did so, "I was hoping you would . . ."
'So that's it,' he thought watching her from the courner of his eye as h took a long drink out of his juice box, 'but that ain't all of it, is it?'
Nonetheless, he smiled, turning to her happily with a broad grin on his face, the red ribbon from his mask fluttering behind him, "Sure! I am the hero after all!"
"Can I tell you a secret?" she asked hopefully, always one to try and keep her burdens off of others, but she obviously waned to share something really important. Especially if this was a secret, that meant no one knew, not even Petunia or Giggles. He nodded, something telling him he already knew what would come up next. "This year, I'm going to tell him how I feel."
"Really?" he gawked, bright azure eyes blinking at the news, the only sign of him actually registering what she had said before he smiled again, that big, goofy, stupid grin, "That's great Flaky! I'll definitely help you out!"
'Idiot,' he thought to himself as he laughed, congratulating her, 'you're so far in denial, you can't even get upset.'
I see him everyday, though I am sure he never notices we share three classes together. He moved in next door when I was eight, and not once have we ever met. Everything I know about Spence Droves, or Splendid as Flaky named him, comes from her. The awkward kid who wears a blue jumpsuit and red mask to school everyday intrigues me, always has. I just get so tongue tied when I see him, and the few times we have ever seen each other, we never even stopped to say hello. Does he like Flaky? She's sitting with him right now. What are they talking about? They laugh and smile so easy, look, now she's blushing and swinging her legs like she does.
But why should it matter to me?
A/N: My first time ever writing this fandom XD I watched Happy Tree Friends a long time ago, but it was a majour gross out and not really that entertaining. Recently, I was on Zerochan and on the front page was HAPPY TREE FRIENDS. As you can imagine, I'm sitting there going "Whaa-?" An anime picture site . . . Happy Tree Friends . . . I looked into it, Human versions of Happy Tree Friends? OMG, I fell in love, but I can't really get past it to watch the original cartoon. But if they made an anime, just as gory, I'd totally watch it! I watched Higurashi for cripe's sake. I hope you enjoy my story ^^ Any reviews are welcome.