Petal's Party

by Catherine Coe

  Petal decided not to push her friend. That wouldn’t help persuade her. Instead Petal told Diamond, “I very much hope you can come. You don’t have to join in on the games if you don’t want to.”

  Diamond nodded and gave Petal a little smile. “Thanks, Petal. I’ll try my best. I promise.”

  As they entered the classroom, Star tugged on Sky’s fluffy blue tail to stop her from going inside. “Ooh, ouch!” Sky squealed. “What did you do that for?”

  “I’m sorry,” Star apologized. She was hopping from paw to paw just outside the tree trunk. “But I need to speak to you. Petal’s party is tomorrow. We have to do something before then!”

  Sky’s fuzzy ears shot upward, and she wiggled her very fluffy eyebrows. “You’re right. It’s up to us. We’re lucky bunnies, and we can fix this!” Sky chirped. She did a backflip into the classroom and landed at her desk.

  As Star followed her, she thought about how much she loved that Sky was always so positive. This time, more than any other, Star hoped that Sky was right.

  On Saturday morning, after a breakfast of strawberry porridge, Ruby scampered toward Pineapple Square. Star and Sky had arranged to meet her there to play games on the checkered pavement. Sometimes the friends played Snakes and Ladders there together. Sometimes hopscotch. Sometimes they made up completely new games to play.

  The square was empty when Ruby arrived. A moment later, the Weather Rabbit popped out of his tower. Please don’t make it rain, Ruby thought. It was already so windy that Ruby’s curly whiskers were getting blown everywhere. The Weather Rabbit opened his silver mechanical mouth and said:

  “Wind, wind, go away. Be calm and bring out the sunshine to play!”

  Ruby grinned up at the clock tower. “That’s lucky. Thank you!” she said to the rabbit, as if he could hear her. She watched as he shuffled back inside the tower, wondering just how he worked, and how exactly he could change the weather in an instant.

  As Ruby looked down again, a ball of mint-green fur darted in front of her. Ruby groaned. She’d recognize that shape anywhere. What was Twinkle doing here?

  Before she could ask him, the Clover Train came out of nowhere, whizzing down from above, and coming to a halt beside the two bunnies.

  “All aboard!” Edna called. “Both of you!”

  Ruby twitched her red nose. “But I didn’t call the train.”

  “Nor did I!” Twinkle said.

  Edna hopped from the train and jumped behind the two bunnies to usher them onto the four-leaf clovers. “I know,” she told them. “But lucky for you, Star and Sky did. You two are getting on this train, and you’re not getting off until you’ve worked out your differences.”

  Edna hopped on behind them, and the Clover Train swooped off into the air, leaving Twinkle and Ruby stuck on it. Its magical power to keep bunnies safely on meant they couldn’t jump off now even if they dared!

  Ruby shook her head, realizing that Star and Sky had tricked her—and Twinkle, too. They weren’t ever planning to meet her at Pineapple Square. They had planned this all—for Ruby and Twinkle to be stuck on the train together.

  “What are you doing here, Ruby?” Twinkle squeaked as the train sped high over Bright Burrow. “Where are Sky and Star?”

  “I don’t want to be here!” Ruby replied. “Don’t you see? It was a trick—they were never really going to meet you here.”

  Twinkle gave a high growl. “A trick? Are you calling me stupid?” he asked. “How rude!”

  “No, I didn’t say you’re stupid,” Ruby called back. “And I’m totally not rude—you are!” She hopped to the very rear of the train, as far away from Twinkle as she could possibly get.

  At the front of the Clover Train, Edna glanced over her shoulder and sighed. She’d wanted to help her granddaughter and her friends, but it looked like it might be a very long train ride …

  A little while later, Star and Sky met at Pineapple Square.

  Star pointed into the sky above Hay Arena, the stadium where many of the events and festivals in Bright Burrow were held. “There’s the Clover Train,” Star said. She could see the leaf carriages in the distance, but it was too far away to make out any bunnies aboard it. “With any luck, we won’t have to wait too long before Gran brings them back,” Star added. “I wanted to do some bouncing practice before Petal’s party today.” Star bounced every day without fail, and it paid off—she had been picked to take part in the annual Bounce-a-Lot festival every single year.

  Sky did a cartwheel across the checkered pavement of the square. “I’m sure they’ll make up!” she chirruped. “Now that they have to talk to each other, they’ve got to make up.”

  The two friends sat down to wait in front of the line of pineapple plants that edged the square.

  Star looked behind her at a large ripe pineapple, bright yellow and juicy. “Shall we share a pineapple while we wait?” she asked.

  Sky wriggled her little blue nose. “Ooh yep, sure thing!”

  The gigantic fruit was almost as big as Sky. They munched and munched and munched, each bite flooding their mouths with the pineapple’s sweet, sharp flavor.

  “They’ll definitely be back by the time we finish this!” Sky said, swallowing yet another mouthful. They’d been eating for ages now, but the pineapple didn’t seem to be getting much smaller!

  Both bunnies were feeling extremely full, but they kept going until they finally took their last bite each and only the spiky green stalk at the top was left. The bunnies buried it back in its old spot—where a brand-new delicious pineapple would soon grow again—and looked up. But the Clover Train was still far away in the distance.

  Star began pacing up and down Pineapple Square. “I really thought this would work!” she said. “How much longer will they be? I’ll never have time for bouncing practice now. Perhaps they’ll never make up!”

  “Hey, don’t give up yet,” Sky told her. She looked around for something else to do while they waited. When she didn’t see anything helpful, a different idea popped into her head. “We can tell some jokes!” Sky chirruped.

  Star twitched her golden nose and stopped pacing. She plonked herself down next to Sky again. “All right, then. You go first.”

  “Sure!” Sky thought quickly and remembered a joke she’d told her mom and dad just that morning. “How can you tell when a dandelion is angry?” she asked Star.

  Star frowned as she tried to think of the answer. “Hmmm … An angry dandelion … It doesn’t make sense! Dandelions are just plants.”

  “It’s a joke,” Sky said. “Don’t think about them being plants, think about them being angry!”

  “I knows,” said a strange voice behind them. “Dandelions shout when they’re angry!”

  Both Sky and Star hopped up and spun around in one fast movement. A black-and-white ferret stood grinning on the other side of the line of pineapples. It was Hiss—a ferret the friends knew all too well. He liked to sneak into Bright Burrow and annoy the bunnies.

  “I thought I smelled something awful,” Star said, and she waved a paw in front of her nose.

  “Hey, Hiss, what are you doing here?” Sky said. “You’re not supposed to come into the burrow.”

  “Wells, I did, didn’t I?” Hiss stood up on his hind legs to make himself seem bigger than the bunnies—he was even taller than Petal when he stood up like that. “Anyways, was I right?” he said. “About the joke?”

  Sky wasn’t scared of Hiss, even when he tried to make the bunnies frightened like this. He was too stupid to be truly scary. “Nope—you’re wrong!” Sky said with great pleasure. “Now leave us alone!”

  “Why should I?” said Hiss. “I likes being here.” He scurried around and sat himself down on Pineapple Square—right in front of Sky and Star. “Now I’ll tell a joke. What d’you call a squished—”

  But Hiss didn’t finish, because the Weather Rabbit popped out of the clock tower all of a sudden and yelled, “It’s raining rain, in Bright Burrow, it’s raining rain!” As t
he silver bunny spoke, fat droplets of rain began pouring down from the sky.

  “Urgh, I HATES rain!” moaned Hiss. He shot up and darted away quicker than you could say “annoying ferret.”

  Star and Sky grinned. “That was lucky,” chirped Sky.

  “Thanks, Weather Rabbit,” Star said to the silver figure, even though she was pretty sure he was a machine and couldn’t hear her.

  As the rain kept pouring, the droplets slid off Star’s glossy short fur like oil, but Sky wasn’t so lucky. She was trying to use her fluffy ears to protect the rest of her fur from the rain, but it didn’t really work. In seconds, Sky looked as soggy as a sandwich that had been dunked in Mirror Lake.

  “I think we should go home,” Star suggested. “You’re soaking, Sky. You’ll need to dry off for Petal’s party.”

  The party! With all the waiting, Sky had almost forgotten it, and it was only now that she saw what the time was on the large black-and-white face of the clock tower. She squealed and said, “There’s no way we can go home first. It’s nearly noon!”

  Star followed Sky’s gaze to the hands of the clock. The big hand was pointing exactly left, and the little hand was almost at the top. They’d been so busy waiting for their friends to make up that they’d forgotten about keeping track of the time.

  “What about Ruby and Twinkle?” Star asked.

  Sky and Star looked upward. The Clover Train still circled around, high in the air. Even though it was raining, there was no sign the train would be coming down anytime soon.

  “I really thought they would have made up by now,” Sky said, her soaking blue ears dripping like a tap with the rain.

  “We can’t wait any longer.” Star sighed.

  Sky nodded, sending water droplets everywhere. “I know. And if we don’t hurry up, we’ll miss Petal’s party, too. Let’s go!”

  They spun around and began hopping back toward Warren Street, their paws splashing in the puddles that now covered Bright Burrow. As they left Pineapple Square, they heard the Weather Rabbit behind them shout, “Rain, rain, go away!” and the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started.

  “Excellent!” Star said with a flick of her ears. “With any luck, our fur will dry by the time we get to Petal’s burrow.”

  The two bunnies hopped and skipped as fast as they could, and didn’t even talk so they could focus on running. But as they leaped across the stepping stones dotted in Sparkle River, Star burst out with a “Roar!”

  Sky stumbled in shock and almost slipped off a stone. “Huh?” she said.

  “Your joke,” Star explained. “The answer is roars!”

  Sky made her final hop to the safety of the bank and clapped her paws together. “Right!” she chirped. “Because it’s a dandeLION!”

  Sky high-pawed Star as she jumped onto the bank beside her, and they sprinted all the way to Petal’s burrow at the center of Warren Street. They skidded to a stop at Petal’s door, and Star pressed the heart-shaped doorbell with a paw.

  DING-DONG, DING-DONG! They heard the chimes ring inside Petal’s burrow. A second later, they could hear the heavy pads of Petal’s paws as she rushed to the door.

  “Hello!” she said brightly as she swung the door open. Behind it, Petal was wearing a beautiful pink ribbon around each ear, a stripy party hat, and her tail had been styled into a pretty bow shape.

  Star gulped. We look dreadful, she thought. Not dressed for a party. We don’t even have party hats!

  “It’s such bad luck that the Weather Rabbit made it rain right when we were hopping to your burrow,” Sky said. It wasn’t quite the truth, of course, but she didn’t think now was the right time to explain what they’d been doing. Sky’s blue fur had dried, but it had grown extra fluffy, and she could hardly see past her eyebrows.

  Petal didn’t seem to hear—she was looking over their heads instead. “Is it just the two of you?” she asked.

  Star gulped and said, “I’m afraid so. I’m sorry.” She thought of Twinkle and Ruby, still on the Clover Train.

  “Oh,” Petal said, and her mouth turned down. Then she clapped her paws together and smiled again. “Never mind. Three is still enough for a party. I hope you’re hungry!”

  Sky thought back to the gigantic pineapple she and Star had eaten earlier. She wasn’t hungry at all—but she couldn’t tell Petal that. “I’m starving!” Sky fibbed, and Petal’s smile grew wider.

  Petal beckoned them into the burrow dining room where a log table had been piled high with all sorts of party treats. There were carrot crisps and kale cupcakes and parsnip pretzels and spinach sandwiches. A giant cake stand with four tiers held all sorts of desserts, including pear pies and mango muffins and banana buttons. There were even kiwi ice pops and rhubarb crumble ice cream. A huge jug of Five-Flower Fizz drink stood at one end of the table, surrounded by chestnut cups decorated with little rabbit umbrellas. Petal passed Sky and Star a dock-leaf plate each, but didn’t take one for herself. “Dig in!” she said.

  “Aren’t you eating anything?” Star asked.

  “Oh dear, no, I couldn’t possibly eat any more,” Petal said. “I tried everything as I was making it, and I’m absolutely stuffed!”

  Star and Sky looked at each other, their eyes wide. “Okay, then we’d better get started!” Sky chirruped. She began loading her dock-leaf with all the different treats.

  After eating two platefuls of food, Star thought she might burst.

  “Would you like some more?” Petal asked, heaving up the cake stand and holding it out to her two friends.

  Star wiped her whiskers with a rose-petal napkin. “Maybe later,” she said as politely as she could. “It was all delicious, but shouldn’t we play a game now?”

  Petal’s smile vanished again. “We can’t! All the games I’ve prepared need at least four players,” she explained.

  Sky, who also couldn’t eat another thing, said, “Sure you’ve prepared them for four, but we could try them with three, couldn’t we?”

  Petal nodded slowly, her long ears flopping forward. “I suppose—”

  DING-DONG, DING-DONG! Petal was cut off by the doorbell. She hopped up, her black eyes sparkling. “Coming!” she called, and raced out of the dining room.

  With all their fingers on all their paws crossed for luck, Star and Sky scampered behind her.

  “Diamond!” Petal said when she opened the door. She flapped her ears around her friend in a hug. “You came after all!”

  “Flippety-flop!” Star whispered to Sky. “I thought it was Ruby and Twinkle.”

  Sky nodded. “Me too,” she whispered back. “But hey, four is better than three, and it sure is nice to see Diamond!”

  Diamond smiled shyly as Petal let her go from her ear-hug. “We sold the cakes at the bake sale really fast, so my parents let me come,” Diamond explained in her quiet voice. “And I bought the last one—for you!” Diamond held out a heart-shaped cake covered in pink icing and scattered with tiny silver stars.

  Petal put her paws to her face. “It’s simply beautiful!” she declared. “Let’s have a piece now, shall we?”

  Sky groaned, louder than she’d meant to, and everyone turned to her. The cake looked delicious, but there was no way Sky could eat even a bite.

  “What’s the matter?” Petal asked Sky, and her smile slipped away again.

  “I’m sorry, Petal and Diamond,” Sky said, “but I can’t eat any of that cake right now.”

  Star patted Sky’s paw. “Sky’s right. We’ve eaten an enormous amount already.”

  With a sniff, Petal burst out crying. Her friends crowded around her as tears as big as raindrops dripped from her shiny black nose.

  “Hey, Petal, please don’t cry,” Sky said. “We’ll eat the cake somehow.”

  “I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have brought it,” Diamond said.

  “No, no, it’s not the cake that’s made me upset,” Petal sniveled. She wiped her eyes with one of her long, droopy ears. “I so miss all six of us being together. I mean
, it’s wonderful that the three of you are here, but the party just isn’t the same without Ruby and Twinkle, too. I don’t think they’ll ever make up!”

  Star didn’t know what to say to that. Deep down, she agreed with Petal. It seemed as if Ruby and Twinkle would never be friends again.

  “Hey, come on,” Sky chirruped, trying to make the best of things. “Now that Diamond is here, we have four bunnies to play the games. We can still have fun. And we’ll be able to eat the cake later!”

  Petal nodded, sniffed, and said, “All right.”

  But she doesn’t really sound all right, Diamond thought.

  Petal hopped to the door to shut it. But luckily, just as she started to push it, she spotted something in the distance. She blinked, rubbed her eyes with an ear once more, then blinked again.

  She could see two shapes scampering along the path and heading right for her burrow. Petal’s poor eyesight meant she couldn’t make out exactly who they were—not even what color they were—but could it be … ?

  “Ruby! Twinkle!” Petal’s friends yelled from behind her, and now Petal could see the bunnies more clearly—a medium-sized red bunny and a tiny mint-green one.

  Petal’s heart did a somersault, and she ran out to meet them. She wrapped each one in a giant ear-hug and danced them around in a circle while Ruby and Twinkle giggled.

  “You made up!” Petal said as she finally let the two bunnies go and ushered them inside her burrow. “What happened?”

  Sky and Star were waiting for the answer just as much as Petal. What had happened on the Clover Train?

  Ruby and Twinkle glanced at each other. “It’s a verrrrry long story,” squeaked Twinkle.

  “And, to be totally honest, I’m really thirsty,” Ruby said.

  “And sooo hungry,” added Twinkle.