Inside Out Junior Novel

by Suzanne Francis

  Joy stepped into the lower section of the recall tube first, with Sadness right behind her. But the tube was small and there wasn’t enough room.

  Sadness and Joy jostled against each other and the memories inside the bag started to change color. “Whoa, whoa! Sadness!” Joy cautioned. The bag emitted a blue light, and Joy tried to push Sadness away. “Sadness, stop! You’re hurting Riley!” Joy pulled one of the memories out of the bag. It was bright blue. Sadness stepped back, horrified.

  “Oh no!” she said. “I did it again!”

  “If you get in here, these core memories will be sad,” Joy said.

  RUMBLE! Joy looked to see the source of the terrible sound: the family statue on Family Island was breaking apart. Joy didn’t know what to do! She had to make a quick decision. “I’m sorry…Riley needs to be happy.”

  Joy pulled the tube closed and began to ride it up to Headquarters…alone.

  “Joy?” Sadness called after her friend as she stood with Bing Bong on the cliff.

  Then the intense rumbling from below made the cliffside fall and shook the tube apart. Joy fell from the tube. Bing Bong reached for her, but the ground beneath him disintegrated, causing them both to fall into the abyss.

  “Joy!” Sadness cried. Feeling helpless as she stood on the cliff’s edge, she buried her face in her hands.

  Joy landed with a thud and groaned as she rolled down the long, steep hill into the shadows filled with faded memories. When she finally stopped, she looked around, confused, trying to figure out where she was.

  She hugged the bag of core memories tightly. All the memories were still inside.

  Then she looked up at the ledge high above her. Suddenly, she knew where she was: the Memory Dump! She couldn’t believe how far she had fallen. She frantically ran up the steep mountain, trying to climb it, but came crashing back down. She tried again and again, but each time she tumbled right back down to the bottom.

  A short distance away, Bing Bong was looking down at his hand: it was beginning to fade. “Oh no,” he said. He ran off to find Joy.

  When he finally reached her, Joy was still trying to claw her way up the mountain.

  “Joy, what are you doing?” Bing Bong asked. “Would you stop, please?”

  But Joy ignored him and continued trying to scale the cliff.

  “Don’t you get it, Joy? We’re stuck down here. We’re forgotten.”

  Joy stopped in her tracks, feeling the pain of Bing Bong’s words. She looked down at her feet and watched as the memories around her faded and disappeared. A short distance away lay the blue core memory of Riley crying in class. Her heart breaking, Joy fell to her knees as tears began to run down her face.

  She tried to focus on the old happy memories of young Riley. “Remember how she used to stick her tongue out when she was coloring?” Joy said longingly.

  She continued to flip through old memories, watching and remembering happier times. “I could listen to her stories all day,” she said, watching one of three-year-old Riley talking to a bug.

  Joy finally picked up the blue core memory. She couldn’t believe how miserable Riley was. “I just wanted Riley to be happy, and now…” Feeling truly hopeless, Joy cried even harder.

  One of Joy’s tears fell onto the sphere that contained the faded memory of the twisty tree. Joy wiped the tear away and it accidentally rewound the memory…and the color of the sphere changed from gold to blue.

  In the memory, Riley sat in the tree with her parents as the team approached in the distance. Joy looked closer and closer. Then she used her hand to rewind the memory farther. She remembered what Sadness had said: It was the day the Prairie Dogs lost the big playoff game. Riley missed the winning shot. She felt awful. She wanted to quit.

  Joy watched as the hockey team surrounded Riley in the twisty tree, and suddenly she realized…

  Mom and Dad…the team…they had come to help because of Sadness.

  Joy turned to Bing Bong with renewed energy. She knew what had to be done. “We have to get back up there,” she said, determined.

  Bing Bong looked at her sadly. “Joy, we’re stuck down here forever. We might as well be on another planet.”

  “Another planet,” Joy said thoughtfully. That gave her an idea—what about taking Bing Bong’s rocket ship to the moon? She started to sing his theme song.

  Bing Bong’s eyes lit up as he understood the plan, and he joined her in song. As the melody drifted across the dump, off in the distance Bing Bong’s rocket answered back by binging and bonging!

  Joy and Bing Bong ran toward the sound and found the rocket. They could fly out of the dump!

  They pulled the rocket wagon up one of the big mountains. “Hop in!” Joy shouted, and they both climbed inside. Bing Bong pushed off and they sang their hearts out. The song powered the rocket as it sped down the mountain. When it reached the bottom, it shot up the next hill, launching into the air.

  Joy reached for the high ledge above the dump…but they weren’t even close. They crashed back down. “C’mon!” Joy said, ready to try again.

  They took the wagon up another mountain, singing even louder now. But again they fell short of the ledge and dropped back into the dump. The rocket just didn’t have enough power. Bing Bong looked down at his hand and noticed that it was disappearing!

  “Come on, Joy,” he said, reaching out to help her stand. “One more time. I’ve got a feeling about this one.”

  They took the wagon up the mountain and sang once again. “Louder!” yelled Bing Bong. “Louder, Joy! Sing louder!”

  When they reached the base of the mountain, Bing Bong dove out of the wagon, but Joy didn’t notice. Without his additional weight, the wagon had plenty of momentum. Bing Bong watched as Joy and the wagon soared into the air.

  “We’re going to make it!” Joy shouted as she flew closer and closer to the ledge.

  The rocket made it! “Woo-hoo!” Joy cried. “Bing Bong, we did it! We—” Joy turned around and gasped. “Bing Bong? Bing Bong!”

  Joy hurried to the edge and looked over the side. Bing Bong was down at the bottom, laughing and dancing. “Ya ha ha!” he sang. “You made it! Ha ha! Go! Go save Riley! Ha ha ha! Take her to the moon for me. Okay?” Bing Bong waved and vanished.

  “I’ll try, Bing Bong,” Joy said, hanging her head. “I promise.”

  When Riley’s parents came home, they were surprised to find that she wasn’t there. “I’ll call her cell,” said Mom.

  Riley’s cell phone rang as she walked through the streets of San Francisco. She looked down at who was calling.

  “It’s Mom. She’s on to us. Where’s my bag?” asked Fear, looking for his paper bag. He felt as if he was about to hyperventilate.

  “What do we do?” asked Disgust.

  “Riley needs to get core memories. We keep going,” said Anger.

  Riley ignored the call, put the phone in her pocket, and continued to walk toward the bus station.

  Joy frantically ran through the aisles of Long-Term Memory, searching for Sadness as Family Island began to break apart behind her. “C’mon, Sadness, where are you? Okay. If I was Sadness, where would I be?” Joy looked around and imagined being Sadness. “Ohhh…everything is awful and my legs don’t work and you have to drag me around while I touch all the—” Joy said, imitating her. She slumped to the ground and kicked her leg up in the air. Then she saw something: a trail of blue memories on the bottom shelves! Joy followed the trail.

  Meanwhile, Riley had made it to the station and was standing in line to get on the bus. Her cell phone rang. It was Mom again. Her phone read “15 missed calls from Mom.”

  “Oh…it’s Mom again,” said Fear. “What do we do?” He began to breathe faster into his bag.

  BOOM! Family Island rumbled behind them. It was the only island still standing.

  “This is madness! She shouldn’t run away,” said Anger.

  “Let’s get this idea out of her head,” said Disgust. Fear and Anger agreed, and the
three rushed to the console to unplug the idea.

  Joy was still searching for Sadness in Long Term Memory, following the trail of blue memories. “Sadness!” she called.

  Sadness turned around. “Joy?” She was surprised to see her, but she couldn’t face her. She ran away.

  “Wait!” shouted Joy.

  “Just let me go,” Sadness called, still running. “Riley’s better off without me!”

  Joy chased Sadness into Imagination Land. Sadness toppled fries from French Fry Forest into Joy’s path to slow her down.

  “Come back!” yelled Joy. Then she used a super-long fry to pole vault over the mound of fallen fries.

  She tried to follow close behind Sadness but lost her in Cloud Town. Suddenly, a shadow passed over Joy, causing her to look up. Sadness was flying overhead on a chunk of cloud, away from Headquarters. “What? Sadness!” Joy called.

  “I only make everything worse,” Sadness cried as she drifted farther away.

  “Wait—Sadness! We’ve gotta get you back to…” Joy chased after her, but the cloud was moving too fast.

  Joy didn’t know how she was going to catch up with Sadness until suddenly, her eyes fell on the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator.

  Inside Headquarters, Anger struggled as he tried to untwist the idea bulb from the console. “It’s stuck!” he shouted.

  “Oh, great,” said Disgust.

  “Whaddaya mean it’s stuck?” said Fear, reaching out to try.

  “Now what?” asked Disgust.

  Then the console started to shut down! A strange blackness slowly crept across the console, like a dark, scary blob. “What is this?” cried Fear. Nobody knew.

  Riley stepped onto the bus.

  Thinking the idea bulb was making the console shut down, Fear struggled with it, but it wouldn’t budge. He even tried using a crowbar. As Fear strained to pry it out, he lost control and the crowbar whacked him in the face.

  “Make her feel scared!” urged Disgust. “That’ll make her change her mind!”

  Fear frantically pushed buttons and pulled levers on the mostly black console, but nothing worked.

  “Guys,” he said, turning his gaze to Disgust and Anger. “We can’t make Riley feel anything.”

  Joy ran up to the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator.

  “Hey!” she said, addressing the Imaginary Boyfriend, who sat slowly plucking petals off a flower. “Did you mean what you said before?”

  “I would die for Riley! I would die for Riley! I would die—” the boyfriend replied.

  “Yeah, yeah, okay, Haircut,” Joy said. “Time to prove it.”

  Joy scooped up the Imaginary Boyfriend and put him in the bag she had gotten from Bing Bong. Then she turned on the generator and a bunch of imaginary boyfriends began to pour out. They moved down the conveyor belt, shouting, “I would die for Riley!” Joy caught each one in the imaginary bag.

  “That’s good,” she said, putting the last boyfriend in.

  As Sadness floated up ahead on her cloud, Joy ran past her and yanked on a twisty palm tree made from balloons, pulling it from the ground. With careful aim, she untied it and used the rush of air from the balloons to blow Sadness and her cloud back toward the Memory Dump.

  Joy sped up, running along the cliff’s edge, parallel to Sadness, as they both moved closer to Family Island. Joy finally stopped, her eyes on Sadness, and aligned herself with Family Island. All of a sudden, Joy dumped the bag and the boyfriends poured out. Their momentum pulled Joy to the top of an incredibly tall tower of imaginary boyfriends.

  “This is crazy,” Joy said to herself. “No! Be positive.” She took a deep breath. “I am positive this is crazy.”

  The tower of teen boys swayed as Joy gazed at Headquarters in the distance. She looked out at the trampoline on Family Island, then back at Sadness, and calculated her strategy. “NOW!” she shouted.

  On Joy’s command, the boyfriends took out their cell phones to take a photo, tipping them forward and launching Joy onto the trampoline. She bounced off and ricocheted into the air, flying toward Sadness. Then she grabbed Sadness midair and carried her along!

  “Joy?” asked Sadness, stunned.

  “Hang on!” shouted Joy as they soared through the air like birds.

  SPLAT! Bull’s-eye! The two hit the back window of Headquarters!

  The other Emotions ran over. “It’s Joy!” exclaimed Disgust.

  Fear, Anger, and Disgust tried to open the window but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Stand back!” shouted Anger. He threw a chair, but it bounced right off.

  “That worked,” said Disgust.

  “Well, what would you do, if you’re so smart?” Anger said, annoyed.

  Disgust’s eyes lit up with an idea. “I’d tell you…but you’re too dumb to understand,” she said.

  “What?” Anger asked.

  “Of course your tiny brain is confused,” Disgust went on, mocking Anger as she tried to get a rise out of him. “Guess I’ll have to dumb it down to your level.”

  Anger let out a giant, angry roar and flames came out of his head. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

  Disgust, who had quickly put on a welding mask, picked him up and used his head like a blowtorch, cutting a hole in the window. They pulled Joy and Sadness up from the ledge and back into Headquarters.

  The others were so relieved to see them. “Thank goodness you’re back, Joy!” said Fear. “We were just trying to make more happy memories. That’s all we wanted to do.”

  Joy looked at the screen, watching as the bus driver shut the door and pulled away from the station.

  “Joy, you’ve got to fix this,” Disgust demanded. “Get up there.”

  Joy turned and looked at Sadness. “Sadness, it’s up to you.”

  “What?” the others said in unison. “Sadness?!”

  Joy hushed them and gave Sadness a look of encouragement.

  “Oh…I can’t, Joy.”

  Joy pushed Sadness toward the console. “Riley needs you.”

  “Okay,” Sadness said nervously. She took a deep breath and set her hands down on the console. The blackness receded and the idea bulb flickered off. Sadness gently pulled it out as Joy, Anger, Fear, and Disgust watched in amazement.

  Inside the bus, Riley’s expression changed from listless to sad. Then she stood up, gripping the seat in front of her. “Wait! Stop!” she shouted. The bus stopped and Riley marched up to the front. “I want to get off.”

  She got off the bus and ran toward home.

  Riley’s parents were worried sick as they racked their brains trying to figure out where she might be. “Her teacher hasn’t even seen Riley all day,” said Mom.

  “I can’t believe this,” Dad said.

  “What was she wearing last? Do you even remember what—” asked Mom, panicking.

  Just then, Riley walked through the front door. “Riley!” shouted Mom, rushing to her.

  “Riley, there you are! Thank goodness!” said Dad, relieved.

  Inside Headquarters, Sadness was confidently driving. Joy pulled the yellow core memories out of the bag and handed them over to her. The memories all turned blue.

  In the dining room, Riley cried as Sadness placed each memory, one at a time, into the recall unit. All the memories turned a deeper shade of blue. Sadness continued to work the console, helping Riley as she talked to her parents.

  “I know you don’t want me to, but…I miss home,” Riley said through her tears. “I miss Minnesota.”

  Mom and Dad listened as Riley went on.

  “You need me to be happy, but I want my old friends, and my hockey team….I wanna go home. Please don’t be mad.”

  Her parents hugged her. “Oh, sweetie,” said Mom.

  “We’re not mad,” said Dad. “You know what? I miss Minnesota, too.”

  Her parents talked about all the things they missed about Minnesota—the woods, their backyard, the lake. The three of them hugged as Riley continued to sob.

  Joy gave Sadne
ss the blue core memory. Sadness took Joy’s hand and led her to the controls, placing Joy’s hand on the console alongside her own.

  The Emotions watched on the screen as Riley smiled through her tears and her parents hugged her tightly.

  Joy and Sadness, standing side by side at the console, shared a smile. They were a team. A sudden DING sounded throughout Headquarters as a new core memory was made. This one was gold and blue swirled together…a first. Joy and Sadness placed it in the core memory holder and watched as a new Family Island arose, bigger and better than the last.

  Days later, Riley’s Mind World looked very different. Headquarters was getting a major upgrade. While mind workers adjusted the console, the Emotions looked out the window, admiring the new Islands of Personality.

  “Hey, I’m liking this view,” Fear said.

  “Friendship Island has expanded,” Anger said. “Glad they finally opened that Friendly Argument section.”

  “I like Tragic Vampire Romance Island,” added Sadness.

  “Boy Band Island. Hope that’s just a phase,” Fear said, wringing his hands nervously.

  “Say what you want—I think it’s all beautiful,” said Joy, just grateful that there were islands once again.

  “All right,” one of the workers announced, clearing his throat. “There you go. Your new, expanded console is up and running.” The worker hit a button and the shiny new console lit up as the Emotions gazed at it in awe.

  Disgust eyed one of the new buttons. “Hey, guys? What’s ‘pu-ber-ty’?” she asked, reading the word on the button.

  Fear and Sadness shrugged as Anger checked out some new additions. “Whoa,” he said. “I have access to the entire curse word library!”

  On the screen, they could see that Riley and her parents were just getting to the hockey rink. Once inside, Riley’s parents gave her some words of wisdom before the game. “Now, when you get out there, you be aggressive!” Dad said.

  “I know, Dad,” said Riley.

  “But not too aggressive,” added Mom.