Ruby's Broken Bone

Ruby's Broken Bone Part 2

"They're really good friends," Max said, now smiling.

"Well, you've done good making them," Mr. Bunny said, patting his son on the back. "Come on, pal. Let's get you to bed now."

That night, Max tossed and turned in his bed, all hot and sweaty struggling to fall asleep. He heard a door open out in the hallway, then some footsteps, then another door shut. All of a sudden he heard a thudding noise in the bathroom. He sprang out of his bed to see what was the noise was, and he turned on the light to find his sister laying on the floor in her nightgown.

"Ruby!" Max said. "I'll help you up."

"Oh, thank you, Max," said Ruby, taking her brother's paw and grabbing a hold of the sink with her other paw. "I would've been able to crawl and turn on the light, but it's nice to have help from others, you know."

"It must be hard," said Max. "Having to use crutches just to get to the bathroom."

"I'll get used to it, Max," said Ruby. "Now if you don't mind, a little privacy please."

"Of course," Max said and he ran out of the bathroom and shut the door.

It was then that he started to realize how grateful he was for his ability to walk normally. He thought about his friend Winston, how he never had that ability in his life and probably never will. It was hard for him to grapple the fact that his sister was just robbed of her ability to walk normally, though thank goodness not permanently.

The next morning was a school morning, but rather than Ruby come in and wake Max up like she usually does, Mr. Bunny came in instead.

"Wha?" Max muttered half awake. "Where's Ruby? She usually wakes me up."

"Well, we didn't wanna make her have to come in here and get you up too. That just adds to the stress she's already got getting herself ready. Actually, your mom is helping her get ready this morning, so I'm gonna help you get ready this morning."

"How long until Ruby can wake me up again?" Max said, disappointed.

"We don't know, Max," said Mr. Bunny. "I guess until she's comfortable enough on those crutches. She still needs to adjust to them. In the meantime, I will be waking you up." Max sat up on the side of his bed in his Superbunny pajamas and thought to himself for a second.

"I don't like Ruby's cast," he remarked.

At school, all the students were crowded around Ruby in the classroom, taking turns signing her cast. Just as the bell rang, Mr. Estevez walked in with his brief case. He took one look at Ruby and gasped.

"Oh my goodness, Ruby," he said. "What happened to you?"

"Fell off the playground," Ruby said with a humble smile.

"It was not pretty," Louise remarked.

"I bet it wasn't," replied Mr. Estevez. He then noticed all the signatures on Ruby's cast. "Would you like me to sign your cast too?"

"Sure, go right ahead," said Ruby, propping her leg up on a chair. Mr. Estevez grabbed a Sharpie, walked over, knelt down, and signed her cast.

"There you go," said Mr. Estevez. "Now let's get on with today's lesson."

Meanwhile on the other side of the U-shaped building, Max watched everyone sign his sister's cast from the window of Ms. Bunty's window. Lily, who was watching one of the butterflies hang out in its habitat, noticed her friend staring out the window and walked over.

"What are you looking at, Max?" the brown-furred rabbit in purple overalls said. Max just sighed.

"My sister just breaks her leg and now everybunny wants to be her friend," Max said.

"They just want her to feel better is all," replied Lily. "I remember she cried. It must've hurt that bad."

"Ruby cries all the time!" said Max. "You just never see it. It didn't hurt that bad. She  was just crying for attention."

"That doesn't sound like the kind of thing Ruby would do," said Lily.

"I bet it is," remarked Max. "Now that she's being treated like the princess she always wanted to be!"

"I think you're just jealous, Max," said Lily, crossing her arms.

"I'm not jealous! Whatever that means!" snapped Max. "I'm just mad that she's doing this!"

"Whatever you say, Max," said Lily, practically done at this point. "I'm gonna go paint a butterfly." She walked off leaving Max alone once again at the window. He kept glaring at the sight of his sister's crutches, sitting angrily with his arms crossed waiting for the day to be over.

That night Max sat in his room playing with his wind-up lobster trying to think of what to do to counter his sister's 'attention grabbing.' He then hatched up an idea.

"That's it!" Max exclaimed to himself. He ran out of his room towards the bathroom and opened the little closet beside the toilet. In the closet laid a big pack of two-ply toilet paper. Max said nothing out loud, but put on his signature cunning smile when he formally hatched his idea of how to get back at his sister.