A Full Night of Determination

"I just keep trying. No matter what the others have to say. I'm going to pull an all nighter to reach even higher," Joey said to himself mentally thinking. It is now midnight at the Australian outback as Joey has been trying to jump higher upon higher for hours.

For days, he has been jumping in order to reach his goals while the other animals in the Outback ridicule and make fun of Joey's crazy dream as well as his ambitious nature. However Joey refuses to give up, especially even now that his jumps have been so high that he was able to reach the high branches of the trees this time around after the third day in a row.

Every day and every night, Joey the ambitious kangaroo, would look up at the moon and dream of jumping over it, just like the cow in the story did. Ever since he read that story not too long ago, he felt more inspired to do such a task himself. Of course, this wasn't the first time the kangaroo has tried such impossible task.

One time, he wanted to see how fast he can go against Becky the Nimble Emu in a 100 meter race. By which, Joey unfortunately couldn't win three times considering Becky is extremely fast on her feet, and Joey's feet were always hopping more than running. Even though he has been close the last time by a couple of meters. Plus it didn't help Becky would complain that she wasn't interested competing with Joey for she felt it was too easy for her to win no matter how Joey tried. She likes a good competition with a bit of a challenge.

Another time was to see if he could dig deeper than Donny the Ruthless Dingo with his all time record of 82 feet. However, every single time, Joey couldn't go any deeper than five feet. Especially considering his hands would start to hurt after doing so. He would try again later only to have Donny be such a jerk to pile more dirt into Joey's digging hole. Donny was always like that with Joey considering he was the Outback Bully.

So with this one task in mind, Joey felt this was the moment he can achieve his goal without anyone or some trait of his interfering with his progress. For the more he jumps, the more higher he went. And the more people ridicule him, the more he did it.

Now all this wasn't necessary to show them animals in the Outback that Joey got what it takes. Not to him at least. He never took ill against anyone who didn't believe him or who weren't nice. Joey always had a good head on his shoulder. All credit goes to Granny Joanne for raising her Joey well. This was just Joey's ambitious nature. Ever since he was a little joey, he was always doing something the other kangaroos won't or couldn't do. Such as the tasks as aforementioned amongst other impossible things.

On day one, Joey went from his regular 30 feet to 40. Day 2, 40 to 80. Now on the 3rd day of jumping, Joey plans to succeed more than 80 feet. His goal for today is to jump at least more than 100. And this time, he plans on doing an all nighter until he sees fit.

All day, Becky and Dingo were out and around doing their own business, even still criticizing Joey's antics. But Joey just blushes this off on the side. He has no time to satisfy them nay-sayers and doubters in order to achieve his goal of jumping over the moon.

During the night shift, Sugarplum the Punk Glider and Keith the Witty Koloa was doing the same thing to Joey as the daylight animals were. Criticizing and ridiculing Joey's task while going about their daily business as nocturnal animals do. However Joey didn't skip a beat as he continue to jump higher and higher after every hour.

The hours of the third day seemed to come and go quick for Joey. However the animals including Sugarplum and Keith, were going rather impatient and annoyed with the Kangaroo.

"Go home and sleep, Joey," shouted Sugarplum.

"Yeah mate. Don't let me come down my tree and nibble at your ankle," pointed out Keith.

Joey continue to jump and didn't say anything to the pair.

"I see how it is," noted the sugar glider.

"Going to continue ignoring us as much as anyone else you have been ignoring, ya?" asked the koloa.

Still no answer. Just Joey jumping continuously staying focus on his objective.

"I am willing to bet he'll tucked in before dawn, Keith," mentioned Sugarplum.

"I give him one more hour or two," bet the koloa. "No one, I mean absolutely no one, can jump an all nighter."

"Couldn't agree with you more," agreed the sugar glider. "Well let's go about our night and see if Joey will still be up by then."

"Sure thing, S.P. Let's just do what koloas and sugar gliders do at night," said Keith to Sugarplum. He then turns his attention to the jumping kangaroo and shouts: "Have fun staying awake, Joey."

Joey didn't say anything for he was focus on what's above him: the moon. However mentally, he thought to himself: "I'm still going to keep trying even if my legs gave way. I'll reach my goal by jumping over that glorious moon. If not today, one day soon."

A hour has passed, Joey is still going without breaking a sweat. 2 hours in, the jumping hasn't slowed down. Both Keith and Sugarplum were shocked to see the kangaroo still up at 3 in the morning.

"How is that kangaroo even getting tired from all that jumping?" Keith asked Sugarplum. "If I were him, I would have been down for the count after a good while, if not even. Because after all, we kolas don't jump unless it's from the trees."

To that, Sugarplum replied: "Yeah, I don't know how he does it either. I won't last long either. I think he's delusional to be quite frank."

The koloa respond by a nod before saying: "I second that as I'm sure the daylight animals do too."

"Haha, right. I bet Donny and Becky would."

Joey again doesn't say anything to the two nighttime pair and jumps ever so higher than he did a few hours ago.

"Well, let's continue our daily duties, S.P. I grow bored just watching him jump all night."

"Yes, let's. Who knows, we still got dawn approaching soon. So maybe, he'll be beat by then."

"Only time will tell," replied the koloa.

This time Sugarplum shouted to Joey: "Continue having fun with this ridiculous goal of your's, matey. We both won't be surprised if you can call it quits before sunrise."

Joey, of course, didn't say a word but remain jumping by the time the pair left.

A couple of hours went by, and the moon was lowering down the night sky. Joey felt his heart racing because at first, he thought he was up in the atmosphere. He eventually realizes that the moon was setting down after the few jumps.

Once the moon was gone through, Joey continue on jumping. For even though the moon is beyond his reach right now, that doesn't mean he couldn't practice jumping even more higher now. Especially since he knew he was getting closer to his goal. The sun started to shine among the horizon just before Keith and Sugarplum came into view to ridicule the kangaroo once more before calling it for the day.

When the sun came into view, the kangaroo couldn't help but smile while thinking to himself: "I did it. I just pulled an all nighter. Eventually I'll do what DiDi the Delightful Cow did in her story. I'll be the Kangaroo that jumps over the moon."