Author's note: A Happy Tree Friends story from Flaky's point of view. The action takes place during high school and most characters are teenagers of the same age, except for Lumpy, Mole and Pup, who are adults, and Cub, who is a kid, obviously. Due to the fact that they are all humans, I have decided to change their names to an extent, but they will still resemble their original names, anyway.

Their human names will be:

Cuddles-Cody; Giggles- Ginger; Toothy- Thomas; Lumpy- Liam; Flippy- Phillip; Flaky- Flaker;

Petunia - stays Petunia (is human enough); Handy- Hayden; Sniffles- Stanley; Nutty- Nathan; Mime- Mike; Mole- Malcolm;

Pop- Porter; Cub- Corbin; Lifty and Shifty- Luke and Shane; Russell- stays Russell; Disco Bear- David Brian; Splendid- Spencer;

Lammy- Lana; Cro-Marmot- Cormac;

Warning: This story will contain inappropriate language, attempted rape scenes and violence (Flippy is in it, really). I will rate it T/M, with more on the T part, but it will have some M parts, as well.

Summary: She looks at him and sees a freak, a criminal. A Flippy and Flaky story, with The Happy Tree Friends as humans, dwelling with their teenage problems during high school.

...

She wasn't weird. No, she wasn't weird at all.

In fact, she was the most down to earth, normal person in that high school, even though her friends told her that she was weird. They were all wrong and they were supposed to be more like her, more aware of what was going on around them.

Because she was aware all the time. Maybe too aware sometimes, but life was dangerous and she was doing what it was necessary to survive.

That wasn't paranoia. It was consciousness.

"Flaker Thorn."

She jumped in her seat and raised her reddish-brown eyes to see her math teacher looking at her like she had grown an oversized head. She heard the other kids snickering around her and she frowned when she realized that they were laughing at her.

Again.

"Pay attention because I'm not here just to look at you. And stop being paranoid."

Great. Another person who categorized her as paranoid. She looked down nervously and nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Liam. I'm sorry."

She turned her head discretely and threw a look over her shoulder only to face tenths of mocking faces and grins turned in her direction. The only persons who weren't amused were Stanley and Phillip, but she had expected this because Stanley had had a crush on her since the 9th grade and Phillip was... Phillip. The strangest student from 'The Happy Tree' High School.

Flaker trembled only when she thought about him. She admitted that she was easily scared, but Phillip Phren was one of her biggest nightmares and, even though her friends, especially Cody and Thomas, always laughed at her absurd fears, they considered him strange too, and didn't want anything to do with him. If she thought better, no one in that high school wanted anything to do with him. She rarely saw him in someone's company, he always stood alone during lunch, at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, and he almost never addressed to anyone.

She remembered the first year of high school, when he was quite friendly and sociable and he had managed to befriend Cody and a few other kids, but he suddenly withdrew later and became quiet and introverted and the others gave up at their attempts to contact him after the rumors that spread about him. Rumors that terrified her and gave her nightmares many months, after she found out about them. Even then, she sometimes had nightmares about him.

He was an outsider even to the outsiders and she couldn't understand how someone could be so alone.

Not that she particularly cared, of course. She was just curious.

She suddenly realized that she had looked at him too much, because he turned his gaze towards her and the corners of his mouth lifted in what appeared to be a smile. She squeaked and turned brusquely, feeling a cold shiver traveling down her spine.

God, she was such a coward.

She inhaled deeply and calmed down a bit, trying to forget about her nightmares and concentrate on the lesson, without thinking about horrific things like she used to, until the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. She stood up and left the classroom in a hurry, avoiding everyone's stares, then stopped when she reached her locker, at the end of the hall.

She was pulling out her English and Chemistry books and stuffing them into her red bag, when a hand grabbed her shoulder, almost making her drop them. She turned her head in alarm and exhaled relieved when she saw Ginger, Cody and Thomas.

"Dude, you need to mellow out, you're gonna have a stroke one day. " Thomas said, grinning.

"Yeah, Flaky." Cody spoke. "Today you're really tense, even more than usual. Did you see a ghost or what?"

"Nah, there aren't such things as ghosts. But there are scarier things." Thomas replied for her and widened his eyes dramatically, looking like someone or something was about to attack him in any moment. He bent forward and whispered, trying to appear frightening. "Flippy."

The boys gave a roar of laughter that took by surprise a bunch of juniors who looked at them offended then walked away.

Everybody at school called Phillip 'Flippy' behind his back, because he sometimes acted like a lunatic in classes. In one moment he was quiet and normal- as normal as he could be-, the next they knew, he flipped out, snapping at the teachers, and made nasty comments like he was about to go on a rampage.

That was why he usually ended in detention and it was probably one of the main reasons he got low grades, even though he was actually pretty smart. There were a few brave souls who dared to say the nickname in front of him, but Flaker didn't think he really knew just how many people made fun of him. She actually pitied him a little bit.

Ginger frowned and slapped Cody and Thomas on the back of their heads.

"Will you cut it out? You're embarrassing." She scolded them.

"Aww, but you got to admit that it was a pretty good joke, Ginge." Cody wriggled his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes, exasperated.

Ginger was one of the most desired girls in the school along with her best friend, Petunia, but, since Petunia had already a boyfriend, that meant the pink-haired girl was the target number one at that moment. Cody, Spencer and David Brian were some of the many boys who viciously tried to hit that target and Flaker had a hunch that Cody had a great advantage, unlike the others. First, because Cody and Ginger had been good friends for years and second- Ginger seemed to like him as well.

"Actually," Flaker interfered, "Yeah, Phillip Phren is the one who scared me." She paused and gulped. "He stared at me."

The other three's eyes bulged out in amazement and fixed her, impressed.

"Holy chewing gum!" Someone behind them erupted and they all turned to see Nathan, having the same surprised expression, while he passionately crunched some candies that he had stored in his pockets. He measured Flaker and his mouth hung open in surprise.

"You mean that Phillip Phren?" He inquired excitedly. She nodded and he grabbed her shoulders, even more enthusiastic, making her flinch. She knew Nathan was the head of all gossiping and that he was fascinated by what happened to other people almost as much as he was fascinated by sweets, but she couldn't stand when someone touched her. She cringed when Nathan dug his fingers into her arms and kept questioning her like the end of the world was coming. She believed that his hyperactive behavior was one of the consequences of having too much sugar in his blood.

"Phillip Phren as in Flippy, right?" She nodded, starting to tremble. "How did he stare at you? When?"

"W-well, h-he smiled and-"

"He smiled?" The three boys asked at the same time and Flaker backed away from them, a little aghast.

Ginger stepped in between them and threw them an annoyed look.

"Okay, guys, leave poor Flaky alone. You're worse than girls."

They continued to stare at her in awe for a few moments, before Ginger reminded them that half of the lunch break was over and they hurried up to the cafeteria, forgetting about their discussion. Or that was what Flaker thought, until the subject was brought into focus once again, at the table. And this time, Petunia and her boyfriend, Hayden, were the ones who gaped at her in wonder, while Nathan told them about the new rumor.

"- and then, that Flippy guy actually smiled at her, can you believe that?" Nathan snickered.

Petunia flipped her long, dark blue hair and patted Flaker on her hand, trying to comfort her.

"You poor thing." She spoke soothingly.

"Man, that must have been pretty terrifying for you." Hayden told her.

Flaker didn't answer. Instead, she just frowned. That guy just looked at her, for god's sake, and she was sure that until the next day, half of the school was going to make a great fuss over it. Her friends were overreacting in an unbelievable manner about such a small thing and she couldn't comprehend why it was such a big deal. Or that was something specific to teenagers. If it was, then that meant she wasn't really a teenager.

"And what do we have here, Luke?" A mischievous voice spoke above her head.

"I don't know, Shane." A second voice, almost identical to the first one, answered. "It appears that miss cowardice received the glare from the mighty freak."

"Oh, god, not the asshole brothers." Cody growled in annoyance.

Flaker felt two pairs of eyes behind her throwing daggers at Cody.

"What's the matter, blondie? Your pink mom forgot your mouth leash at home?" Shane commented, looking at Cody, who clenched his fists, and Ginger, who turned red under the others' gaze.

Nathan snorted, on the verge of laughter, but he stopped when he saw the dangerous look Petunia gave him. The twins pushed Thomas and Hayden aside and both sat next to Flaker, who shrank when they fixed her with their eyes that resembled small, shiny headlights.

"You're his next victim, red flake." Luke smirked as he glared down his nose at her.

"His next victim?" She asked confused. She observed her friends' worried expressions and she mentally smacked herself for not realizing what the twin meant.

Then it hit her like a truck. She froze in her place and stopped blinking for a few moments.

"Come on, you idiot, you're saying that just to scare her." Thomas interfered, but Flaker sensed hesitation in his voice.

Luke and Shane laughed loudly, then scanned them all, one by one.

"You all know it." Shane told them. "When that freak looks at you, you're going to die. You never know what he has in store for you. Then..."

"Bam!" Luke snapped, making Ginger, Petunia and Flaker jump in their seats. "You're dead."

"I don't believe it." Hayden was the first who spoke after a dead silence. "These are old rumors and they are fake anyway. No deaths have occurred for over a year."

"Yeah, and if he was actually a murderer, the police would have arrested him." Petunia tried to sustain her boyfriend. "Just because he's strange, that doesn't mean he has automatically killed people."

The twins shook their heads and crossed their arms in false disappointment.

"They're right, you guys." Nathan muttered, his face dead serious, which was unusual for him. That meant he was either scared or sick and Flaker doubted it was the last one. "Remember Cormac, Ginger's first boyfriend? Or Lana, that girl who had schizophrenia and always talked to a pickle she carried after her? They were the only persons who came in contact with Flippy after the first year of high school. They were gruesomely murdered a few months after they socialized with that guy."

Silence enveloped their table once again, while the rest of the students chattered around them, oblivious to their tensioned conversation. They turned their stares in his table's direction and saw him standing there alone, as always. He was apparently reading something, but they couldn't distinguish what it was.

"I bet he reads a guide about how to murder without being discovered." Shane told them.

"Yeah," Luke continued. "And what's that in his plate? It looks like organs covered in blood."

"Dude! Cody said peeved, "It's just roast beef with red sauce, I have the same thing in my plate."

His friends looked for a brief second at his plate, then glared at the twins in annoyance, but the brothers shrugged and grinned innocently. They all looked in his direction again, but suddenly turned away when they realized he was staring at them.

"Shit, he figured out we were spying on him." Thomas blurted out nervously.

"Uh-oh." The twins voiced in union. "We're outta here."

They sat up and disappeared through the mass of students that clogged the cafeteria.

"And they call me a coward." Flaker murmured in a sly voice.

"They're just a couple of jerks." Ginger addressed to them, crossing her arms. She appeared to be upset after Nathan mentioned Cormac's death.

"And liars." Cody spoke grimly. "Don' t believe a word they said, Flaky. Those deaths were just coincidences." He encouraged her.

"I don't know, he does seem a little suspicious..." Nathan scratched his chin in deep thought, although he grinned widely when Petunia gave him the dangerous glare for the second time that day. "Fine!" He defended himself, raising his hands. "I'm just trying to make our lives a little more interesting, that's all."

"You know, you're not far from the asshole brothers, you junkie." Thomas mocked him, receiving a punch in the shoulder from his friend.

They changed the subject and started talking about the horrible Philosophy test they were having next week, but Flaker couldn't concentrate on what they were saying anymore. She couldn't stop thinking about their previous discussion and about the old rumors that had spooked the entire school a year ago and that almost traumatized her, due to the nightmares they gave her.

Maybe her friends tried to make her forget about it. Maybe they comforted her and supported her, despite that she had a small feeling that those rumors were actually true, even though it was preposterous and silly to think like that.

He was just a student like they were. A weird one, but she was weird, as well, according to her friends.

She looked at him with the corner of her eye and widened her eyes.

He was smiling at her again.

...

Flaker looked through the window and observed the heavy, black clouds that gathered above the city. She rested her chin in her palm and sighed heavily, while bits of words reached her ears. Jumbled words, that she couldn't understand, words that she couldn't concentrate on.

She was a good student, an excellent one. The only one who defeated her in the grade hunt was Stanley, but that was because he was a genius in technology, math, physics and everything related to science, in general.

"Psst. Flaker." A piece of paper hit her shoulder.

She turned around and noticed Stanley making her signs, two seats away from her, on the same row.

"Do you want to be my partner?" He asked in a shushed voice and smiled hopefully at her.

"Part-ner ?" Flaker stopped and turned towards her biology teacher, Mr. Porter, or Pop, as the students called him, because he acted like a father most of the time. Apparently, that day wasn't a part of that time. He explained to them the way he was going to choose the partners that were going to work together on different essays, that semester.

"So, I will choose a different subject for the each essay." He told them.

Mike raised his hand and stretched himself as high out of his seat as he could, but Pop answered him, before he even asked the question.

"And no. You don't have the right to choose your own partner. I will pair you after your grades. On short, the student who has the best results will be paired with the one who has the lowest grades. The second best student will be paired with the second worst student and so on. Got it?"

A collective groan was heard from the class and Pop snapped at them in irritation, telling them to be quiet. After most of them calmed down, he droned out the first team.

"Nathan, you're the weakest student. You will be paired with Stanley and your subject will be excretion."

A few kids burst into laughs and Nathan protested in indignation.

"That's not fair! Why do I have to be with Mr. Boring over there? And we have the most pathetic subject ever!"

"Silence!" Pop interrupted him. "The grade on this assignment will be a part of your final results. And I assure you that your grades are not enchanting at all, Mr. Gobbet." Pop spoke through his teeth, then rubbed his temples and squeezed his eyes shut, something he often did when aggravated.

When he observed that Nathan was still standing up, he threatened him that he was going to confiscate his stash of candies if he didn't sit down fast. The boy smiled uneasily and did as he was told, clenching the packet of sweets in his hand.

Flaker heard Stanley sigh behind her and mouthed to him 'sorry', throwing him an apologetic look.

"Flaker." The teacher turned to her and scanned the list in his hand. "Your partner will be Phillip."

Whispers and movement suddenly filled the class and she felt many stares burning holes into the back of her head. She heard a few gasps of shock, but she didn't dare to turn around. She was too petrified to turn around. She felt her heart beating so fast, it was almost breaking her ribcage. She even heard her own pulse.

"P-Phillip?" She stammered after what appeared to be hours, even though just a few seconds passed.

"Phillip." Pop repeated. As if she was blind, he pointed a pencil in his direction, at the back of the class. She barely managed to swivel in her seat and catch eye of Phillip, who must have been feeling the same thing as her, except the fear part. He stood there, without moving, a surprised expression on his face.

"Your subject will be circulation: the heart and the blood."

She noticed that Phillip's expression radically changed, because he seemed void of emotion, like his mind was erased for a moment.

Then his features suddenly roughened as he furrowed his brow, baring his teeth into a grin that made her blood freeze in her veins.

She was so doomed.

...

Review please?