Rated T for coarse language and graphic violence


I do not own Over the Hedge, nor do I claim ownship of anything pertaining to the movie nor comic book. Enjoy the story! ^_^


The moonlight stabbed lucidly through the gloomy night sky at the institutional suburbia of El Rancho Camelot. It's street lights shot every star from the sky, leaving the lunar satellite as the sky's lone resident. It was quiet. Far too quiet for a village such as this, as if this calm were to precede a storm.

The tall oak overseeing the woodland creatures' log home seemed as if it had been painted on the canvas. There wasn't even a breeze to disturb it, nor fly to move it's autumn colored leaves. On that oak, the shining black skunk, Stella, sat hunched on one of the lower branches. Her emerald eyes reflected the moonlight beautifully, as did her tears.

"I'm sorry." She whispers to the silent night. "I couldn't save you…" She curls her legs into her chest, wiping her eyes into her arm. "I'm sorry." She hears a noise, like a scurrying behind her toward the trunk. "Who's there?" She said without any emphasis nor movement. It was like the life had been sucked out of her.

"Who do you think?" The light, female voice was too young to Penny's.

Stella turned to the figure. "What are you doing up, Heather?" Stella said, wiping her face again. "It's almost midnight."

"I'm sixteen, Stella" The possum came into Stella's view, her sapphire blue eyes glowing like true gems. "I make up for it in the morning…" She sat down next to Stella, who had turned so her left side faced the tree trunk. "What's your excuse?"

"Just can't sleep." She said sadly.

"I didn't think you were one to cry over insomnia…" Heather remarked.

"I wasn't crying! I was just… coming up here to clear my head is all." Her defensive voice was more obvious than she would of liked.

Heather smiled innocently. "You should've said 'I have something in my eye,' I think that would've been more believable." Heather chuckled under her breath, but Stella rolled her eyes. "Oh, wait." Heather said, her expression drooped. "Oh God, I'm sorry. I forgot about Tiger."

Stella almost smiled at Heather's guess, but that humor turned into an idea. "Yeah, well… he was a snob anyway. He doesn't know what he's missing, right?" A feigned smile might have been painful, but worth it. Heather seemed to have taken the bait.

Heather smiled. "Right, and don't you ever forget it." She leaned back on her arms, looking up at the oak's workings. "What a jerk. You can do better than him."

"Well, it'll take some time." Stella's lies were adding up. She could really care less about that past relationship, and harbored no real resentment. The breakup hurt, of course, but it was a chapter of her life that was written, read, and closed for good. It was in the past and evoked no emotion anymore.

"Well," Heather began. "There are some cat-boys interested in you." She smiled playfully. "Not the stuck up house cat type, like tiger, but there are still some nice ones. I could hook you up."

"Thanks for the offer." Stella said, waving her off. "But I like to make what I earn, you know. I can find people if I need them."

"Okay…" Heather said in her best 'you don't know what you're missing' voice. "But just saying, the tan one has a cute ass." They looked at each other and started cracking up.

"Go to bed, hormones." Stella joked to Heather.

"Right, I think the lack of sleep's costing me my brain-mouth-filter." She began down the trunk. "I'll see you in the morning." She climbed down to the base, and then silently off into the log.

Stella sat alone again. The smiling and the joking hadn't started to alleviate her misery. But she was tired, and she'd cried all the tears she could afford for one night. She crawled to the crotch of the branch and tree and laid down on her side.

Just as she was beginning to fall asleep, a bright light startled her awake. In this light, the beauty of her coat was revealed. She'd maintained her 'make-over' well.

She looked down at the source of this blinding radiance, a frustration on her face. "Some of us are actually trying to sleep, asshole!" She yelled to the light. Nothing happened about the light. Then a man walked out, balding and a bit overweight. Stella's expression turned even more sour. She began down the trunk of the tree.

Once at the foot of the tree, she picked up a nearby rock. "I'll show you!" She said. She walked through the hedge that separated the two properties. Once on the grass she hid behind a lawn gnome so as not to be seen by the human. She watched him turn away to his backdoor. Planning on getting out of this unscaved? She tossed the rock in to the air and caught it. Not a chance!

She came out from behind her cover and threw the rock as hard as she could at the bulb. It shattered, and the light was no more.

"Hey!" The man's husky and coarse voice was a satisfying gesture to Stella. "Who's out there! Show yourselves, vandals!" His yelling attracted the attention of the neighbors.

"Shut the hell up, Whindle! We're trying to sleep!" Yelled the one next door.

"Piss off, Gurney!" He yelled back.

"Piss off? You asshole, I'll fuck you up!"

"Go for it, bitch!" Whindle yelled. "I'd like to see that!"

Stella watched as her plan unfolded, a sadistic smile coming to her face. "Amazing." She remarked. "All it took was one stone, and the humans are in the palm of my hand." She began to walk back to the hedge, swaying her hips and looking over her shoulder. "Who's in control now?"

Once on the other side of the hedge she turned her head from the screaming and to her foreground. Leaning on the oak tree, RJ stood with his arms folded. "Evening, Stella" He said, obviously annoyed.

"I woke you up?" She asked. RJ nodded. "Sorry sugar, why don't you try to go back to sleep. I think I'll do the same." She hurried off in the log's direction, but RJ stepped in front of her path.

"I saw the whole thing, Stella." He said. "What's going on? Why didn't you just go inside the log, or by my place. You could've avoided all this." His sky blue eyes were piercing in the moonlight, as if they could suck the truth out of you.

Stella's jaw tightened. "How much longer are we supposed to be taking shit from them?" She raised her voice. "How is anything going to get done if we just 'run and hide' every time a human goes against us?" The anger in her voice was more than present. "They think they can control us, like we're slaves to their little remotes. 'Move here, sleep there, starve to death so I can have a new mall.' They took half of our home from us while we were asleep, and now he gets to wake me up in the middle of the night too? Why? What makes them so invulnerable and us so subordinate?"

"Stella, you know the answer to that." RJ says calmly. "It sucks, but that's how it is. They are bigger, stronger, and more durable than we are. Getting revenge would just provoke a counter attack, one that could kill us all." RJ's voice got more commanding, more intense. "Is that what you want? To have us slaughtered by these things?" He was standing over her a little.

Stella felt her heart beat faster, her eyes warming and bracing for tears. She quickly clenched her teeth to ignore the feeling, covering it with anger. "You know, I've seen you as a lot of things RJ. A leader, a friend… even a cute guy." She half smiled, but then turned serious again. "But until tonight, I never saw you as a coward." She pushed him aside and stormed off into the forest, angry tears in her eyes.

RJ stayed where he was, thinking over what had just happened. Stella's unpredictable, He thought. But this isn't just a random outburst… He sat down at the foot of the tree, his thoughts racing each other to a conclusion. It can't be about Tiger, that was almost a month ago, and she isn't one to dwell on those kinds of things. He lightly palmed his forehead a few times, as if trying to get his brain to work faster. Is she really just upset about the humans' dominance…?

Yeah! It's another Over the Hedge story because I think there's a lot of unexplored depth to the characters. Hope you enjoyed the introduction, and please comment. I take criticism well, and compliments are very much apreciated as well.