“Sky!” Sky’s dad called gruffly. “Ruby and Petal are here for you.”

Sky jolted out of bed. What were her friends doing at her burrow so early? It was a school day, but her parents would have woken her up if she’d slept in.

Sky rubbed the sleep from her fluff-edged eyes and pulled her yellow Dandelion School tie over her head. She hopped into the kitchen, past the Berry Bake that Petal had brought yesterday. She hadn’t felt like eating it, even though it was her favorite. Instead, Sky’s sisters had eaten most of it for dessert last night, and by the look of the empty bowl, Dad had had the rest for his breakfast. She began to wonder, If Dad eats that for breakfast, why can’t I have hopcorn?

She walked past her dad to the hallway, spotting telltale purple berry stains around his mouth. “Hey, Petal. Hey, Ruby. What’s going on?” asked Sky. Her two friends were standing at the front door, both hopping from foot to foot.

“It’s a surprise,” said Ruby.

Sky looked out of the doorway and up at the purple-gray sky. The sun hadn’t even risen, although the Luck Rainbow arced across the sky as it always did. Sometimes one of the strips of color in the rainbow shone more than the others, which meant a certain type of luck was around that day.

Sky yawned. “Do you think the surprise could wait until later? I’m super tired.”

“I’m afraid it cannot,” said Petal brightly. “But it’s a good surprise—you’ll see!”

Ruby grabbed Sky’s arm with a blackberry-stained paw and pulled her out of the burrow. “Come on—it’s awesome. And Diamond is waiting for us!”

“Diamond?” Sky blinked. “Why?”

“Just wait …” Ruby kept tugging on Sky’s arm until she gave in and started scampering along with them.

They ran down Warren Street’s blue cobbles. “Hey, are we going to school?” Sky asked.

“No!” Ruby replied as they reached Sparkle River. Dandelion School was still in the distance. They hopped across the silver stepping stones that shone in the sparkling water. Often older bunnies swam in Sparkle River, believing it would help keep them young, but it was too early for any bunny to be there yet.

Now they were approaching Bright Burrow’s shopping street. “Ooh, Cucumber Row?” Sky guessed again. “But the shops won’t be open yet!”

“You’re quite right, not Cucumber Row,” said Petal. Her giant ears fluttered out behind her as she ran across the green cobbles of the shopping street. She swerved right and two gigantic carrots came into view. These weren’t real carrots, but orange-brick towers with green grass tops on either side of the entrance to Carrot Central.

Sky skidded to a stop. “Carrot Central? But you normally have to line up there all night if you want to get in for the morning. Will we make it before school starts?”

Ruby was standing on tiptoes and squinting at the line. “Awesome … there she is!”

Sky followed Ruby’s gaze. At first, all she could see was hundreds of bunny ears in all shapes and sizes, but then her eyes fell on two pale pink ears, edged with white fur. Those were Diamond’s ears—and luckily it looked as if she was right at the front of the line!

“We wanted to cheer you up,” Petal explained. She took Sky’s paw and guided her toward Diamond, past the winding line that circled the whole of Carrot Central. The round field was jam-packed with bright orange carrots, and as soon as one was plucked, another would magically spring up in its place. “Diamond’s been here since yesterday,” Petal continued, “to make sure you can have as many carrots as you want this morning.”

Ruby jumped up and spun on the spot. “And we know how you totally love carrots!”

Sky tried to smile at her friends, even though her stomach felt cold and empty with disappointment. They were being so kind to her, but she just couldn’t forget about not being a Bouncer.

As they drew nearer to Diamond, Sky heard her shouting. She frowned—Diamond never raised her voice. She sniffed—what was that funny, eggy smell?

“What do you think you are doing?” Diamond yelled.

They finally reached the front of the line, and the bunny Diamond was talking to came into view. Except, it wasn’t a bunny …

It was a ferret! They all recognized Hiss—he was a very annoying ferret who sometimes sneaked into Bright Burrow.

“Hiss, what are you doing here?” Ruby asked. She was pinching her nose, so her voice came out all funny. Like all ferrets, Hiss didn’t smell very nice, especially if you had Ruby’s super-smelling nose.

Hiss put his little brown paws on his hips and raised himself upward on his hind legs. Now he towered over the bunnies—even Petal, the tallest of them all. “I am getting some carrots,” Hiss said. “And anyways, what’s it to you?”

Diamond looked up at Hiss’s angry black-and-white face and backed away. “But … but you haven’t been in line all night,” she said, then turned to her friends and added, “He just suddenly appeared in front of me.”

The bunnies in the line behind Diamond all nodded and tutted.

“It sounds like you’ve been up to your tricks again, Hiss,” said Ruby, who was still holding her nose with a paw. She looked around at the ground and spotted some fresh earth—as if someone had quickly tried to cover up a hole. “Did you dig a hole to get to the front?”

“Hole?” Hiss stuck his small black nose in the air. “I dunno what you’re talking about!”

“What is that then?” asked Petal, flapping an ear at the ground.

“I dunno!” Hiss repeated, not even looking down.

“Yes, you totally do!” said Ruby. “You’re a bad liar. Your cheeks have gone red.”

Hiss snorted. “They have not!”

“They have too!” Ruby replied. “You just can’t see them. You should look in Mirror Lake, then you’ll see.”

“I will then! I’ll show you!” said Hiss, and he lowered his front paws to the ground and darted away past the line of waiting bunnies.

Petal gave Ruby a big smile. “Well done, Ruby. That got rid of him.”

Ruby smiled back, making her curly whiskers dance. “Ferrets can be so sneaky,” she said, “but they’re also not very clever. Luckily he fell for my trick!”

“Thank you, Ruby,” said Diamond. “Now Sky can take my place as first in the line without Hiss bothering her.”

Petal pointed ahead. “Look, I think it’s about to open!”

The gatekeeper of Carrot Central, a large golden bunny with floppy ears, was hopping through the bright orange field toward them. She unhooked the latch from the carrot-shaped gate and waved Sky in.

But Sky didn’t move. She turned to her friends. “Hey, thanks for doing this for me. But the thing is, I really do have a toothache.” She put a paw to her jaw where her back tooth throbbed with pain.

Petal was so surprised, her mouth dropped open. “But we thought you were just saying that because you didn’t want to come to school after you weren’t chosen to be a Bouncer!”

Sky shook her fluffy blue head. “Nope—I went to the dentist again yesterday. Dr. Molar said I’d eaten way too much hopcorn.”

“Oh, that’s unlucky!” Ruby said. “So you’re really, totally okay? Even with Star and Twinkle being on the team?”

“Yep,” Sky replied. Then a frown appeared on her furry forehead. “You haven’t said anything to Star and Twinkle about this, have you? I don’t want to make them feel bad.”

“No,” said Diamond. “And we won’t. We just want you to be happy.”

“I am!” Sky insisted, and she tried to ignore the empty feeling in her stomach. The four friends began walking away from Carrot Central. “Hey,” Sky said, quickly trying to think of a joke to prove she was okay. “Um … what do you get if you cross a carrot with a parrot?”

“What?” Ruby asked.

“Um … a carrot-parrot!” said Sky.

Her friends all laughed, but alarm bells were ringing inside Petal’s head. That joke was truly awful, which proved only one thing. Sky wasn’t really over her disappointment at all.