The Jelly Bean Storm of the McRabbity Bunny Reserve

Note: I wrote this for a writing assignment in English class a few weeks back. The story had to be about stormy weather, take place in a national park or reserve, and the characters had to be animals. That particular class had been a Zoom meeting, because you might have heard about the pandemic that's been going around... Well, there was ajar of jelly beans sitting on the book shelf, and that was my inspiration for this story!

It was a completely normal day in the Melody McRabbity Reserve for all species of rabbits, hares, and bunnies, from cottontails to  antelope jackrabbit, from snowshoe hares to jackalope. Also known as the McRabbity Bunny Reserve.

The McRabbity Bunny Reserve was named for Melody Mariane Abigail Bella McRabbity, who had such a love for bunnies that she founded The Society for the Support of Rabbits, Bunnies, and Hares, which inspired The McRabbity Bunny Reserve.

In the reserve, there lived a small group of cottontail bunnies. The first bunny`s name was Twiddles. He had two younger siblings; a brother named Puffball and a sister Poppyfluff. They lived together in a burrow under the roots of a beautiful cherry blossom.

Anyway, it was a completely normal day in the reserve. Completely normal, apart for the tiny little detail that the clouds in the sky were all the colors in the rainbow plus pink, periwinkle, chocolate brown, caramel, and basically every color imaginable.

“It looks like its going to rain rainbows!” whispered Poppyfluff excitedly as she poked her head out of the burrow. Puffball rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s impossible.” “ Yes, but we never thought that the sky turning   colors was possible, and look at it now!” Poppyfluff retorted angrily. “Puffball, Poppyfluff, that’s enough.” Said Twiddles. “Come on you two, lets go find some breakfast.” The three bunnies hopped out of there  burrow to find something to eat.

Poppyfluff tried to focus on both her carrots and the conversation between all the bunnies about the clouds extreme behavior. “….Couldn’t believe it, I saw the sky and thought I was still dreaming.” Mellisa, a beautiful snow shoe hare was saying. “I thought I had drunk to much carrot rummy.” Old  Jackson the jackrabbit said. “Thought I was drunk, I did.” “But what is the cause of it?”  Peggy the pygmy rabbit wondered aloud. Nobody answered, because nobody knew.  There was a silence as everyone munched carrots and discarded the green   bristle thing that grew out of the top. Poppyfluff tried to grasp what she was hearing. Nobody knew what this strange weather was. Nobody knew the reason the clouds had taken on such an absurd set of colors. Something about it seemed troublesome, but she wasn’t sure what. Poppyfluff was about to point this out to Puffball, when something small, colorful, and not quite circular struck her on the back. She gave a yelp of pain as more and more hit everyone on the head and back. “HAIL!” someone yelled. “EVERYONE RUN TO MY BURROW!” bellowed Old Jackson. “IT’S THE CLOSEST!”  Poppyfluff, Twiddles, and Puffball ran as fast as their legs could carry them to Old Jacksons burrow. The reason hail was so dangerous was that they could grow to the size of watermelons. A large hailstone could crush a bunny. Soon, everyone was safe in Old Jacksons burrow. “I’m going to see how big the hailstones have gotten.”

Barely a minute later, Old Jackson returned with something small in his mouth. “What’s that?” asked Hellen the Hispid Hare. Old Jackson placed the colorful objects on the ground. Allan the antelope jackrabbit sniffed the air. “It smells…fruity.” He said. “Indeed.” Said Old Jackson. “That’s because its what humans call jelly beans. They are little beans made of, I expect, sugar, water, and who knows what other stuff to give them different flavors and colors. Human children enjoy them.”  Poppyfluff was confused. “But why on earth are they falling from the sky?” she asked. Old Jackson shrugged. “Beats me. Probably a huge supply of jelly beans fell out of one them funny flying contraptions. Are plains. Or a smelly copter. Or is it belly flopter…”  “I don’t care how they got here.” Said Jamie the jackalope. “They smell REALLY good. You think we could try them?” Old Jackson laughed. “Of course. Dig in everyone!” And when those were finished, they went out to collect more. Soon there wasn’t a burrow without a huge stash of jelly beans. Satisfied with the idea that the jelly beans came from “are plains” and “smelly copters” that flew by every now and then and dropped jelly beans, the rabbits never pondered how the clouds had achieved such a strange color. Little did they know, that the jelly beans came from a magic jelly bean cloud, which were sugar free and safe for all creatures, which rained jelly beans.