Later that day at school, Petal scratched a message on a strip of barknote and passed it to Diamond and Ruby. It read:

What shall we do about Sky? I’m worried about her.

“But I thought Sky was okay,” Diamond whispered to Petal as they ran outside at playtime. “She told us she was.”

Petal flicked a long ear. “Sky says that, but I still think she’s fibbing. Her carrot joke this morning didn’t make sense at all, and look at how she’s staring at the Bouncers practicing over there.”

Diamond and Ruby turned to look at Sky. She was sitting cross-legged on the grass, her fluffy head in her paws, her gaze fixed on the Bouncer teams at the other side of the dandelion field.

“I think she just told us she’s fine so that we don’t worry about her,” Petal added.

Ruby thought back to their list. “Then we need to do the next thing on our Operation Cheer Up Sky list,” she said. “Number three: Persuade Mr. Nibble to let her be a Bouncer after all!”

After school, Sky’s dad picked her up to take her to the dentist again, which meant Diamond, Ruby, and Petal could work out a plan on their way home.

“We need to speak to Mr. Nibble when Sky isn’t around,” said Diamond as they hopped out of the school gates.

“But how do we do that?” Petal asked. “Sky’s always in class with us.”

Ruby put a paw to her mouth as she thought through the problem. “I know—we could totally go to his burrow!” she said. “Except … I don’t know where he lives …”

“I do!” said Diamond. “I’ve been there before for some extra math lessons.”

“Extra math?” said Petal, flapping an ear over her eyes in horror. “Urgh!”

“I like math,” Diamond explained quietly.

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, math is awesome! Anyway, so luckily Diamond knows where Mr. Nibble lives, but how are we going to change his mind about choosing Sky?”

The three friends were silent as they all tried to think of an idea. In the distance, the silver Weather Rabbit in Pineapple Square suddenly popped out of his clock tower. “Rain is coming!” he squealed. “Get ready for rain!”

The sky had been blue and cloudless, but now rain clouds moved in. The next moment, rain began pattering down on the bunnies. They sped up to a run along Warren Street.

“But we absolutely cannot go home yet,” said Petal. She looked up to the gray, rainy sky, with the Luck Rainbow arcing through it. “Oh, it’s such bad luck for it to rain, when we have most important Operation Cheer Up Sky work to do!”

“You know the Weather Rabbit,” Diamond replied, twitching her pink nose to shake off the raindrops. “He likes to change the weather all of a sudden like that.”

As if to prove Diamond’s words, the mechanical silver rabbit popped out of the clock tower again. “Sunny, sunny sunshine!” he screeched. “Here comes the sun!”

The rain stopped immediately, and the gray clouds slid away to reveal a bright yellow sunshine in a pale blue sky.

Ruby clasped her red paws together. “So, back to business,” she said. “What can we do to persuade Mr. Nibble to let Sky be a Bouncer?”

“We could bring Mr. Nibble something he likes to eat?” Diamond suggested.

Ruby sniffed. “He likes eating everything though!” she said.

“Silkleaf!” Petal shouted. The bunnies nearby turned to look at her, and Petal lowered her voice. “I overheard Mr. Nibble talking to Mrs. Lop at school about desperately wanting some silkleaf, but he doesn’t have any time to go and pick it.”

“Then that’s totally what we can do!” Ruby did another jump-spin. “We can go and get some right now, and then take it to Mr. Nibble before school in the morning.”

The three friends hopped off Warren Street, heading for Basil Forest. They crossed the glossy stepping stones of Sparkle River and then scampered toward Pineapple Square. As they passed the clock tower, Diamond hoped more than anything that they’d be lucky and the Weather Rabbit wouldn’t pop out to change the weather to rain again.

They passed the end of Cucumber Row where the street bordered Paradise Beach, and ran across the golden sand alongside Mirror Lake. The turquoise lake water perfectly reflected the giant herbs of Basil Forest, which loomed up ahead of them. It was a beautiful mix of huge plants in every shade of green, orange, pink, and purple.

“Right, so the purple silkleaf is over by the mint on the east side of the forest,” said Ruby.

Petal raised her little pink eyebrows. “How do you know that?”

“My mom eats heaps of it,” Ruby explained. “She says it totally helps stop her fur going gray. She’s always sending me to get it.”

The bunnies started hopping through the forest, heading east. Wonderful herby aromas filled their nostrils as they passed rosemary, coriander, thyme, and parsley plants.

“Here we are!” announced Ruby when they reached a large patch of purple. The millions of heart-shaped silkleaves stretched far across the forest floor. They began picking the purple leaves, which were still wet from the rain.

Petal jumped as Diamond squealed and said, “My paws!”

“Whatever is it?” Petal asked, quickly hopping over to her friend. “Did you get stung by something? Does it hurt?”

“No, but I’m going to be in big trouble when my mom sees my fur has gone purple!” Diamond held out her paws. Her beautiful white fur was stained bright purple from the silkleaf.

Petal gasped as she and Ruby looked at their own paws—theirs were just as purple. The patches were worse than Ruby’s blackberry stains from making the Berry Bake yesterday!

Ruby shrugged as she plucked another pawful of silkleaf. “Never mind, there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

“It must have been because the leaves are wet,” said Petal. She examined the silkleaf she’d collected in her paws and tried not to let her ears dangle in them. “Do you think we have enough?”

Diamond didn’t reply. She was still staring at her purple-splattered white fur.

“I think so,” Ruby said. “Let’s go home before it gets dark.”

The next morning, Ruby, Petal, and Diamond met before the sun rose. They wanted to visit Mr. Nibble without the risk of Sky seeing them.

Ruby lifted their teacher’s parsnip-shaped door knocker, and let it clatter against the wooden front door. They waited in the dark and quiet—it seemed no other bunny in Bright Burrow was up yet. After a few moments, Mr. Nibble swung open the door. By the light coming from inside his burrow, they could see he was wearing a red stripy nightcap.

Petal heard Ruby giggling. She thought Mr. Nibble looked rather silly, too, but she didn’t want to get in trouble with their teacher. Especially not today, when they needed his help. Luckily, Mr. Nibble didn’t seem to notice Ruby—he was yawning too much for that.

“Is … ahhhh … something wrong?” he said sleepily. “Are you … ahhhh … in trouble?”

“Oh no,” Ruby said quickly. “We just brought you some purple silkleaf!” She held out a moss-weave basket filled with the silkleaves they’d picked. Mr. Nibble peered at it with his paws behind his back.

“You could have given this to me at school,” Mr. Nibble said, still not taking the basket from Ruby.

“Actually, we needed to speak to you outside of school.” Petal flapped her huge ears nervously, then added, “Mr. Nibble, please will you let Sky join the Bouncers for Bounce-a-Lot?”

Mr. Nibble didn’t say anything for a moment, but his graying whiskers twitched up and down. Petal hoped that was a good sign.

Finally, their teacher opened his mouth. “I thought you three bunnies were better than that! I will not put Sky in the team just because you brought me silkleaf. You cannot try to bribe me like this!”

Diamond hid behind Petal. She’d never seen their teacher so angry.

“And anyway,” Mr. Nibble continued, “I like pink silkleaf best, not purple!”

“Pink silkleaf? Where does that grow?” Petal whispered to Ruby.

Ruby shrugged. It definitely wasn’t on her list of herbs that grew in Basil Forest!

At that very moment, the sun rose above the horizon, lighting up Bright Burrow as the new day began. Mr. Nibble shrieked and pointed behind them. “What have you done to my garden?”

The friends looked backward at his neat, green lawn. Except it wasn’t so neat and green anymore—they’d tracked purple paw prints all over it, and now it looked like a patchwork quilt!

Oh no! thought Diamond. She started rubbing at the grass with her tail, ruining the heart-shape style, but all that did was spread the purple farther across the grass. If only she’d kept the dock leaves on her paws that her dad had made her wear last night—he’d taken one look at her when she’d returned from Basil Forest and wouldn’t let her enter their burrow without her tying them on!

Now there is no way Mr. Nibble will change his mind, thought Ruby. It was such bad luck! “We’re so sorry, Mr. Nibble,” Ruby said.

“But if it rains again, the purple might wash away,” Petal suggested, trying to make things better.

Mr. Nibble sighed. “Hmm, we’ll see! Now leave me to my peace before school starts, and please try to get rid of those fur-stains on your paws between now and then. I don’t want my classroom covered in purple prints, too!”

Petal, Ruby, and Diamond scampered away carefully, avoiding the lawn, as Mr. Nibble ducked back into his burrow, mumbling to himself.

“What are we going to do now?” Petal asked her friends. As she ran, Petal rubbed her front paws together to try to get rid of the stains. “We’re back to square one!”