"Happy birthday Heather!"

Ozzie saying that was the first thing Heather woke up to, much to her chagrin. Usually, it wouldn't be that much of a problem, considering that Heather was used to her father or even RJ or Verne waking her up. The difference here was Heather had not gotten a lot of sleep last night for…a few reasons.

"Morning dad…and thanks." Heather grumbly replied, before catching herself once she realized what she sounded like. "Sorry…just waking up." She mumbled. "Do we have any coffee?"

"Heather, you know I don't like you drinking that stuff." Ozzie replied. Heather had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at this hypocrisy, considering that she's seen Ozzie chug coffee cups like it's no one's business. She had to admit the fact he's never actually felt the effects of caffeine was impressive however.

She didn't get to think about that for long when an orange blur rushed past the two, one that easily belonged to Hammy.

"You let Hammy drink." Heather replied.

"Do you think anyone's going to stop him?" Was Ozzie's reply. Fair point, Heather thought. Trying to control Hammy was like trying to control a child in a candy store.

"Hey, good morning Heather."

Of course, that voice belonged to Verne, who was clearly out of breath from having to try and control Hammy. Stella and RJ have pointed this out many times, but Hammy was his own man…or squirrel…or really just Hammy. Hammy was his own Hammy.

"Good morning Verne." Heather replied in her still barely awake voice. "Is there any coffee left over?"

"Yeah, there's still some there."

Oh, thank goodness.

Before Ozzie could object, Heather was already shuffling as fast as she could over to the coffee maker. She could only hope that Verne had enough sympathy to slow him down for a bit, because she really…really needed that coffee.

Upon arriving at the machine, she was so happy to see that a fresh batch was already made, and without even getting a mug, took the whole pot and started to chug it. Like father, like daughter.

"Uh…Heather, I know it's yuh birthday 'n all, but we all need a bit of that stuff."

Heather immediately stopped drinking that wonderful caffeine once she heard Stella make her presence known. There were several things that she could acknowledge were scary. The humans, the Taxidermist, heights (at least in RJ's case), but none were quite as scary as Stella waking up.

Especially if she hadn't had her coffee.

"Sorry Stella." Heather spoke, before quickly handing the pot to Stella before she got angry. Thankfully she didn't seem to care that Heather was just drinking right from it, as she started doing what Heather was doing earlier and got right to drinking from it.

"So Heather, again, happy birthday." Ozzie spoke up from behind her.

"Thanks dad…again." Heather replied. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"Well Heather, actually I was hoping you would know, since it's your birthday and all." Ozzie replied.

"Wait, anything I want?" Heather asked.

"Of course!"

Anything she wanted huh? Oh there were so many things that Heather really wanted…a new blanket to curl up in, a few snacks she wanted to try, RJ to return her feelings, RJ never finding out about her feelings, a decision on whether or not she wanted to actually be with RJ…

Her mind is weird.

"I wanna see the beach." She replied. The opossum always wanted to see the beach after hearing stories about it. Sure, she could easily look it up on the laptop or the phone if she could sneak it away from RJ (then again, she could just ask), but seeing it with her own eyes would be a different experience entirely.

"We're really doin' one of these episodes already?" Stella piped up. "I didn't think we'd be degenerates so soon."

"Heather, you know there's no way we could get to the beach." Verne spoke, ignoring Stella casually breaking the fourth wall. "We do live in Indiana, which is miles away from the beach-"

"How long?" Ozzie piped up.

"Miles Ozzie." Verne replied.

"So, like, ten miles?"

"Times that by a thousand and you'll get the idea."

"Oh." Ozzie replied. "Well…why don't we make a beach?"

That…actually didn't sound that bad. From what Heather's heard about the beach, getting what was associated with it should be pretty simple. Sand, water, maybe a few other bonus things. It was easy enough, she thought.

Or at least that's what she would be thinking had RJ just not shown up.

Ever since that night where the Taxidermist reared his presumably ugly head and she nearly got the group and herself killed, Heather had made a wide berth of RJ whenever she could. It pained her, considering that even outside of her crush on him, the two were close friends, but for goodness's sake she nearly got him killed and ruined his chances of getting over the Taxidermist. She wouldn't forgive herself for that.

"Hey RJ, good morning." Verne spoke up, to which RJ gave a small nod. "We were just about to head out to try and make a beach for Heather's birthday."

"You're heading out?" RJ asked.

"Yeah, do you…want to come with us?" Verne replied. Heather wasn't sure if this was a great time to ask…considering everything that had just happened-

"I'm down, let's go." RJ replied.

Well, that definitely took the four others off-guard. RJ actually being okay with going out? Okay, yes this would be normal back then, but again, taxidermist, crippling fear, the whole nine yards.

RJ seemed to notice the reaction, based on what he said next.

"I'm okay with going out, I'm sick of sitting around here." He replied, before turning to Verne. "Get Hammy, the porcupines, and Tiger, and meet me by the stump in thirty minutes, okay?"

"Uh, actually, I need Stella for something." Heather piped up, causing the skunk to look at the opossum confused. She knew the two were close, but what could Heather have in mind that would only involve her?

"Stella, you're okay with this?" Verne asked to which Stella just shrugged. "Anything for her today." She replied.

As soon as the two were alone, Stella turned her attention to Heather. "So, what's up?" She asked. Whatever Heather had in mind should be easy if it just involved the two of them, right?

"We're going after the Taxidermist."

Scratch that, whatever Heather had in mind was clearly not easy.

"Excuse me, what?" Stella nearly shouted, prompting Heather to shush her. Usually, a bad idea considering Stella's temper, but needed considering the conversation at hand.

"Look, I know, crazy idea." Heather spoke.

"Understatement." Stella quickly replied.

"But I do have a plan, I thought about it last night." The opossum continued on. "All we need to do is get Luby in on the plan-"

"Heather, how much coffee did you drink?" Stella cut her off. "Because everything you're saying right now just…makes no sense."

"How does it not make any sense?" She asked.

"Do ya' want the blunt reasoning or my reasoning?" Stella replied. No difference between them, considering who was giving the reasoning.

"Just tell me." Heather replied.

"First of all, Luby hates you." Stella replied. Well, she wasn't lying about the blunt part. "Second of all, we're doing a three-animal operation against a human, and you've never led a heist before. Third point is of course, the fact we're going up against a human that'll kill us on sight."

"Stella, you know me, I pay more than enough attention to RJ's heists to know what I'm doing." Heather spoke.

"You pay attention all right." Stella said, prompting Heather to roll her eyes. "But I don't know what even gave you this idea."

Heather would let out a small sigh in response to this, and her paws clasped together. Stella had been around Heather enough to know that this gesture meant Heather had something else on her mind. This plan was no spur of the moment plan, especially considering it wouldn't be on her birthday if she didn't plan it.

"I just…feel bad about what happened." Heather replied. "I want to make it up to not only RJ, but Luby as well…"

So that's where it came from. That one night when they let Luby. Pretty much everyone back at the hedge did not blame Heather for what happened, not even her father. They did believe her about this Zachary mouse, and Stella told herself that if Zachary ever showed up here, she was going to gas him so bad that his whole bloodline would smell.

At least, that's what Stella believed; she couldn't get a good read on RJ.

Regardless, this was important to Heather, and considering Heather went out of her way to recruit Stella on her suicide mission (let's face it, that's essentially what it was), it was clear there was a lot of trust put in her.

"I really hope you know what you're doing, because something's telling me that Luby won't be happy to see you."

"What are you doing here?!"

Knew it.

"Luby, please, hear me out." Heather spoke.

"You literally put my gang in danger, and thanks to you I'm down my own tail." Luby replied, showing off the small stub where her tail previously was. While Heather of course was looking guilty about what happened, Stella was looking behind Luby, trying to see where her gang was.

"Where's your family?" Stella asked.

"Gang, and they're out right now doing recon, looking for that human." Luby replied, before turning around to start walking away. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like you two to leave."

"Luby, I have a plan to take down the Taxidermist!" Heather blurted out, pulling out a piece of paper. Where she got that, Stella would not question. Luby stopped in her tracks, hearing what Heather said, and turned around to see the paper she was holding.

"What are you going to do, give him a paper cut?" She asked. Stella had to hold back a snort of amusement, while Heather held back one of her signature eye rolls.

"On this paper are the rules of the homeowner's association." Heather spoke, while Stella gave her a quizzical look. "Camelot Estates actually has one."

"Where did you even find that out?" Stella asked.

"Remember when we hacked into the Sandusky's network?"

"You really want to remind me of that day?" Stella asked, remembering how cold it was and how close she was to bludgeoning RJ over the head with something.

"It wasn't all bad, I mean, we broke in at one point, and hey that human was really dumb."

"RJ and Ozzie broke in, we stood out in the rain waiting for them to work their magic."

"Uh, as much as I really want to hear this story, how are we getting rid of the hunter?" Luby spoke up.

"Taxidermist." Stella replied.

"Whatever, they do stuff with animal corpses, same thing."

"Somehow not the most messed up thing I've seen." Heather replied, her mind flashing back to that skinned squirrel in the fridge. It took her a while for her to look at Hammy again without thinking of…that.

Yeah, best to get back to the plan before she's scarred for life.

"Okay, so the place where he lives has a Homeowner's association." Heather spoke.

"Homeowner's association?" Luby asked.

"Pretty much it's this thing where a certain number of humans gain control over a neighborhood and everyone in it must follow a set of these rules, otherwise they have to pay these things called fines…" Heather replied. "It's a lot to explain, basically it's a dictatorship but for humans with too much time on their hands."

"Okay, so how does this involve your plan?" Luby asked.

"The Taxidermist is a member of this association, all we have to do is expose him breaking a rule in the rulebook, and boom, he's gone!" Heather replied. "Whadd'ya say?"

Luby…didn't immediately decline it. It was a good sign, at least, Heather thought it was. She actually might be considering it…

"You know what, sure, why not, anything to get him out of here."

We're finally back with another episode! Heather, Stella, and Luby are taking the fight to the taxidermist while RJ and the gang go on their regular hijinks!

Oh, and as of this episode, Heather is officially 18...so yeah...(don't worry, I'm not going to push it immediately, stuff like this needs to play out).

Also, there is a possibility some of the episodes might be shorter chapter length, since I don't want to be doing this for years. I have like, sixteen episodes lined up here, and based on the upload rate, I'd be here for years. I'll still put effort in, but just expect some chapters to be a bit shorter.

Anyways, I'm out!