The next day, Diamond bumped into Petal scampering along Warren Street on the way to school.

“Where is Sky?” asked Petal, looking around for her fluffy friend. The blue-cobbled road was full of bunnies bounding toward Dandelion School. Petal was so busy searching the masses of bobbing bunny heads for Sky, she didn’t see the lamppost right ahead of her. “Ouch!” Petal yelped as she bounced right into it.

“Are you all right?” said Diamond, stopping to help Petal up.

Petal took Diamond’s paw and got to her feet. “I’m fine,” she said cheerily. “It happens all the time. I’m so unlucky like that!”

Diamond smiled to herself. No one else bumped into lampposts like Petal did. Diamond thought it was probably because Petal was clumsy, rather than unlucky. But she didn’t say anything, and instead told Petal, “Sky has a toothache.”

“A toothache?” Petal repeated. “That’s strange. I am positive she said she went to see Dr. Molar, the dentist, just last week.”

Diamond twitched her white whiskers as she thought. “Sky has been eating a lot of hopcorn. Maybe that’s given her a bad tooth.”

“Maybe,” said Petal. “Or perhaps Sky’s upset about not being chosen to be a Bouncer.”

“But she said she was fine about it yesterday,” said Diamond as they walked through the school gates and into the dandelion field.

Petal flicked her long pink ears over her shoulders. “I think she might have been fibbing. Did you notice how she didn’t tell one joke yesterday after Mr. Nibble announced the team for Bounce-a-Lot? And Sky left Paradise Beach early last night. Perhaps she’s upset and she’s trying to hide it.”

“Oh dear, that’s not good!” said Diamond.

“What’s not good?” asked Ruby, scampering up behind them in a blur of red.

“Sky,” Petal told Ruby. “I think she’s miserable that she hasn’t been chosen as a Bouncer.”

“Really?” Ruby wriggled her curly whiskers, then clapped her paws together. “Then we totally have to work some lucky bunny magic to cheer her up!”

Diamond frowned. If Sky really was so upset about not being in Bounce-a-Lot, how easy would it be to help her get over it?

They reached the school trees and hopped to their desks inside the oak trunk. Today, Mr. Nibble was gnawing on a stem of broccoli, and the floor around him was covered in little specks of green. The classroom wasn’t even half full of bunnies, with seven of the desks empty—six places where the chosen Bouncers usually sat, plus Sky’s.

The first lesson was food technology, and Mr. Nibble put the class into groups to make Berry Bakes. Luckily, Petal was put with Ruby and Diamond—now they could make a plan to cheer up Sky as they worked!

Petal tied back her ears into a bow so they wouldn’t droop into the food, and Diamond unhooked three shiny lily-pad aprons from a peg. But Ruby shook her head when Diamond handed one to her. “I don’t need an apron!” Ruby told her.

“But Mr. Nibble said we had to wear them,” Diamond replied quietly.

“That’s because he’s so messy.” Ruby nodded toward their teacher. “He can’t even eat broccoli without making a mess. I’ll be totally fine.” She waved the apron away, and Diamond shrugged and hooked it back up on the tree-trunk wall.

Ruby studied the recipe Mr. Nibble had written on the barkboard. “Step one, mash the blackberries.” She took a masher from the pot on the cooking bench and began squishing the blackberries in a chestnut bowl. Diamond winced as bright purple blackberry juice squirted all over Ruby’s fur, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“What’s next?” said Petal, squinting. She had the best hearing out of the friends and could make out the tiniest whisper, but her eyesight wasn’t very good and she struggled to see the barkboard.

“We have to add the blueberries,” Ruby said, glancing at the recipe again. “Then add torn-up mint leaves and pour the mixture into a baking dish.”

While the friends worked, they went back to talking about Sky.

“Can anyone think of some ideas of how we could cheer her up?” Petal asked as she poured the blueberries into the bowl of mashed blackberries.

“There are so many ways!” said Ruby, who liked solving problems. “We should totally write a list!” Ruby also liked lists and had a list for everything, like her top ten list of favorite foods, her list of every movie she’d seen, and her list of all the herbs that grew in Basil Forest.

Ruby wiped her paws on the pale red fur of her tummy, spreading blackberry juice everywhere, and took out her exercise barkbook from her desk. “So, what should we try first?”

Diamond pointed at the dish. “Berry Bake is Sky’s favorite, right? We could take her this one to try to cheer her up?”

“That’s lucky—and an awesome idea!” said Ruby as she scribbled down the first item on the list.

“How about carrots?” suggested Petal. “They’re Sky’s most favorite vegetable.”

“We could take Sky to Carrot Central?” said Diamond. It was a carrot field in Bright Burrow where the vegetables luckily never ever stopped growing, and it was very popular with all the bunnies.

Their Berry Bake was ready to be cooked, so Diamond carried it over carefully to the fireplace in the corner of the classroom. As the tree trunk filled with delicious fruit smells, the three friends focused on writing their list.

By the time the Berry Bakes were ready at the end of the lesson, Ruby had written down four ideas. She closed her barkbook as the school bell rang out, and Petal stuck her paws in her giant ears.

“Sometimes I wish my ears weren’t quite so good at hearing,” Petal said as the piercing sound made her brain rattle.

“But it’s so lucky that you can hear everything,” said Diamond. “I wish I could. It’s much better than having good eyesight.” All rabbits could see in the dark, but Diamond’s eyes worked even in pitch-black. It sometimes came in handy, but she thought being able to hear even the tiniest whisper would be much better. Then she’d be able to listen to her parents whispering—her birthday was coming up, and she really wanted to know what they were getting her.

“So … who’s going to take the Berry Bake to Sky’s burrow after school?” asked Ruby.

“I can do it,” said Petal as she untied her ears and apron. In fact, she lived the farthest away from Sky, but she knew Ruby had to take her little sister home after school, and Diamond would be rushing back to her burrow to do her homework.

“Thanks, Petal,” Diamond said. “I really hope it helps.”

Ruby twitched her nose. “Well, we have lots of awesome ideas for Operation Cheer Up Sky. One of them has got to work!”

Petal put her paws to her face. “I hope you’re right, Ruby. I can’t bear the thought of Sky being sad!”