It was the day of Bounce-a-Lot. As Diamond, Petal, and Ruby hopped toward Hay Arena, Petal could hear the buzz of the crowd even before the stadium came into sight. No one in Bright Burrow ever missed Bounce-a-Lot—if they weren’t in it, then they’d be in the crowd watching it instead. But this year there would be one bunny missing. When the bunnies called at Sky’s burrow that morning, she had told them her toothache was too bad for her to come. Petal hadn’t believed Sky, but she’d insisted she was telling the truth.

The three friends hardly spoke as they hopped along together in the sunshine. Bounce-a-Lot wouldn’t be the same without Sky. Sitting in the crowd with her friends, she would talk and joke about what they were watching. Her commentary on the festival events was always so funny, it made Diamond laugh so hard her stomach ached for days afterward.

The three bunnies passed Carrot Central, which was closed today because of Bounce-a-Lot. Then Hay Arena came into view. The stadium was made of giant haystacks, built up on top of one another, and bunnies could grab pawfuls of the hay to eat while they watched a festival or sports event. Luckily, it meant they never had to get up from their seats for a snack!

Hundreds of bunnies were hopping into the haystack entrance, and chattering loudly about Bounce-a-Lot and what they were looking forward to most.

“I can’t wait to see the Team Hop and Skip,” Petal heard a little bunny say.

“My favorite is the Super Bounce,” his bushy-tailed friend replied. “Last year, a bunny jumped so high, she was just a dot in the sky, remember?”

Ruby, Diamond, and Petal scooted through the crowds into Hay Arena, and jumped up the hay steps inside. There weren’t many empty seats left, but they were lucky enough to find some toward the top of the stadium, where they had a great view of the whole arena.

“Look, there’s Star,” Diamond said, waving a now-white-again paw at their friend. Star was warming up on the far side of the grass below them—doing little star-jumps that made her ears flap up and down like a bird’s wings. Star didn’t look up, so she didn’t see her friends waving at her.

“Is that Twinkle?” asked Ruby, squinting at the center of the grass field below. All she could see was a tiny ball of mint green darting across it.

“I think so,” Diamond replied. “Why’s he running so fast? Shouldn’t he be saving his energy?”

Petal waved a pink paw. “Oh, you know what Twinkle is like. He cannot sit still for very long at all. And when he’s nervous he’s much worse.”

Ruby nodded her glossy red head to agree with Petal. “He’ll be totally fine once it starts. But I so wish he’d look up so we could say hello.”

Twinkle kept on scampering around, zooming about faster than the Clover Train. Then he disappeared into the Bouncer Box, a glass-fronted area on one side of the stadium. It was where all the Bouncers sat when they weren’t performing.

A marching bunny band strode onto the grass below and began playing the Bounce-a-Lot theme tune. “Oh, Sky loves this bit,” said Petal, missing Sky even more now. “She always sings along!”

The friends bopped their heads to the music, but they weren’t as excited as they normally were. They couldn’t stop thinking of Sky, sitting in her burrow all alone.

The band marched off the field, and the commentator’s deep voice boomed through the speakers. “Welcome, bunnies young and old, to the festival of the year. The one and only hoptastic, fantastic, leaping, jumping Bounce-a-Lot!”

The crowd of bunnies cheered and clapped as the teams ran out onto the grass. The first event was the Team Hop and Skip, where each team took turns performing a dance made up of different bounce-moves. The team from Oak Class did a dance where they all held paws and skipped together in different shapes to spell out the word LUCK. They ended in a move where they spun and leaped in a circle at the same time, and Diamond thought they looked just like a Hula-Hoop spinning in the air.

Next came the Leapfrog, in which each team formed a line, and the bunnies leaped over one another’s backs. As soon as the leaper had reached the end of their team’s line, they stopped to become a frog, and the bunny at the back of the line began leaping, until everyone in the team had taken a turn. Some of the bunnies did flicks and kicks as they leaped over their teammates, and Twinkle even somersaulted in the air every time he made a jump.

“Twinkle might be quite small,” said Petal, “but he’s ever so good at leapfrogging!”

“Next up is the Hoop Bounce!” said the commentator. “Please be patient while we get the hoops set up.”

The teams carried out twelve hoops and spread them out around the grass field. Each Bouncer took turns bouncing from hoop to hoop while trying not to land outside them. Star completed her round without making a single mistake.

“That was totally awesome, Star!” called Ruby as the crowd clapped for Star’s perfect round.

Bounce-a-Lot continued with the Super Bounce, where the members of each team stood on one another’s shoulders and did one big leap together. It was very tricky—in some of the teams, the Bouncer at the top lost their balance and fell off midbounce. In the Oak Class team, Twinkle was at the very top of the Super Bounce, but he managed to hold on as the six Bouncers flew up in the air in one giant jumping tower.

“Excellent work, Oak Class!” shouted Petal as she munched on a pawful of hay.

“Next is the final event,” the commentator’s voice boomed around the stadium. “This is what you’ve all been waiting for: the Bright Burrow Bouncy Big Bounce!”

Diamond clapped her paws together. “This is my favorite!” She felt a jolt of sadness when she remembered it was the one Sky liked the most, too.

Twinkle suddenly appeared on the hay step in front of them.

“What are you doing here?” Ruby asked him.

“Is everything quite all right?” said Petal.

Twinkle was looking around at the steps, as if he’d lost something. “Where’s Sky?” he squeaked.

Diamond gave a sigh. “She wouldn’t come,” Diamond told Twinkle sadly. “She said she still has a toothache.”

“What? No—no—no! I need her!” said Twinkle in an even squeakier voice.

“Why?” asked Ruby, twiddling a curly whisker. “Is something wrong? Is everyone on the team okay?”

Twinkle wrung his paws together. “Yes, we’re fine. But I’d organized something furbulously special for Sky so that she could be a part of Bounce-a-Lot after all—and now she’s not here!”