He sat under a raincloud, not sure if he wanted to cheer up or stay mad. It had been a very bad day. At least, that's what it should have been. But the more Grumpy thought about it, the less sure he was that it had been.
It had all started at breakfast, when he realized that he was out of his favorite juice. Grumpy sadly joined his friends for the first meal of the day, and when Cheer Bear asked what was wrong, he told her. She immediately got up and walked toward her cloud home. A few minutes later, she returned with a glass of juice. Cheer handed it to Grumpy as she said happily, "Here, you can have some of mine." That made him feel a little better.
A little later in the morning, some of the Care Bears were playing Hide-and-Seek, and Grumpy kept having to be It. He wasn't very good at the game; he had trouble finding good hiding spots, and he had trouble finding his friends. Today, every time he was It, he only found one--Cheer Bear. Grumpy thought she was letting him find her. And even though he would have rather found Cheer without her giving herself away, he was kind of glad she was trying to be nice to him.
Soon after lunch, Grumpy had joined Tenderheart on a mission to earth, and he accidentally stepped on a bee, which stung him on the foot. As Tenderheart worked at removing the stinger, Grumpy found himself wishing Cheer Bear were there to help him feel better. His foot really hurt, and suddenly Grumpy wanted to cry. His day hadn't been going very well at all, but every time something went wrong, Cheer Bear had been there to make the hurt go away.
This was a new feeling for Grumpy Bear, and he couldn't believe he was feeling this way--he actually missed somebody. The feeling kept getting bigger the longer he and Tenderheart were away from Care-a-Lot. When the two Care Bears finally did make it home, Cheer wasn't even there; she'd been sent on a mission not long after Grumpy and Tenderheart left.
So there Grumpy sat, a raincloud overhead, and he was trying to sort out his feelings. His foot hurt because of the bee sting, and his heart hurt because he was lonely. Grumpy knew that everyone saw him as sort of a "tough bear," but until this morning no one had ever penetrated that rough exterior. Grumpy couldn't figure out what had changed. Cheer Bear was nice to everybody, and she was always looking for new ways to help her friends feel better, so Grumpy didn't think that Cheer had changed.
Just then, Grumpy saw Cheer Bear come sliding toward him on a rainbow. She sat down next to him and smiled at him, and as he returned the smile, Grumpy suddenly knew what had changed--he had.