Inside Out Junior Novel Read online

  Copyright © 2015 Disney/Pixar. All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 1101 Flower Street, Glendale, California 91201.

  ISBN 978-1-4847-1925-1

  Visit www.disneybooks.com

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  Photos from the Film

  On the day Riley was born, Joy found herself inside a strange and beautiful place: Riley’s mind. Joy, a glowing collection of yellow energy particles, was one of the new baby’s Emotions. From inside Headquarters, the control center of Riley’s Mind World, she saw everything through Riley’s eyes.

  Joy stepped up to the console, a device the Emotions used to control Riley’s reactions, and watched in awe, as Riley’s parents looked down at their beautiful daughter for the first time. “Hello, Riley,” said Mom, beaming.

  “Oh, look at you,” said Dad in amazement. “Aren’t you a little bundle of joy.”

  Suddenly, a golden sphere rolled down a track to the right of the console in Headquarters, lighting up the room with its soft glow. Joy picked up the strange globe and held it carefully in her hands. She could see an image of Riley’s parents, smiling inside the sphere. “Aren’t you a little bundle of joy,” said Dad. It was the memory of what Joy had just witnessed! She placed the memory sphere back and watched as it continued rolling down the track to the memory shelves in the back of Headquarters.

  Joy instantly fell in love with Riley and devoted herself completely to doing everything she could to help Riley live a happy life. She thought it would just be her and Riley forever…But thirty-three seconds after Riley was born, someone else materialized at the console and started working the controls. Riley began to cry.

  “I’m Sadness,” the blue newcomer said to Joy, introducing herself somberly.

  “I just want to fix that,” Joy said, gently pushing Sadness off the controls. She pressed a few buttons and Riley stopped crying.

  As time went on, more Emotions showed up inside Headquarters, taking control whenever Riley needed them. And with each new Emotion, memories started rolling through in different colors, matching the Emotion that Riley felt about the memory.

  Fear’s job was to keep Riley safe. He guided her whenever she encountered something he thought was dangerous, like power cords, roller skates, and dogs. “Look out!” was one of his favorite phrases. All of Riley’s memories associated with Fear were stored in purple spheres, the same color as Fear himself.

  Disgust was green. She kept her sharp eye out for anything that looked worthy of an “Ew.” She took control whenever something gross came up—like broccoli, bad art, or nasty people. Basically, Disgust kept Riley from being physically or socially poisoned. Riley’s disgusted memories were saved inside green spheres.

  When the Emotions saw unfair things happening to Riley as they watched out the view screen in Headquarters, Anger—who was short, red, and angry—took the reins. Life’s injustices really heated him up! Anger worked hard to even the score, so he was always ready to release a scowl, scream, or growl at any unfair situation. When he got REALLY mad, he would get so hot that his head would light on fire! Riley’s angry memories were saved inside red spheres.

  Each Emotion had its own job, but most of the time they were content to let Joy run the console. And Joy could see why all of them were important…except for Sadness. Joy didn’t want Riley to ever feel sad! She wanted Riley to be as happy as she could be, so she tried her best to keep Sadness as far from the controls as possible.

  As Riley’s lead Emotion, Joy did an excellent job, and most of Riley’s memories were golden, just like Joy. The most important ones were core memories—these glowed brighter than Riley’s normal memories. They were formed when Riley had big “life moments,” like when she was two and a half and scored her first hockey goal in a game with her parents!

  The core memories powered the Islands of Personality with lightlines, which were like electrical cords that stretched over a deep ravine from Headquarters to the actual islands. The islands made Riley who she was, and they each said something different about her. For example, the core memory of Riley’s first goal powered Hockey Island. There were also Goofball, Family, Honesty, and Friendship Islands—they were like mini theme parks. The Emotions loved to watch the islands light up as they looked out the back window of Headquarters.

  Riley had a very happy childhood, living with her parents in their small Minnesota town. She loved playing hockey, hanging out with her friends, and ice-skating on the lake. Joy made sure that at the end of each day, most of the memories rolling through Headquarters were golden, happy ones. But when Riley was eleven years old, her parents made a major decision that changed everything.

  Riley’s dad started a new business. Then her parents sold their home in Minnesota, and the family moved to San Francisco. Just like that, Riley’s life was turned upside down.

  The car ride across the country was long, and Riley’s Emotions started to get restless. “Why don’t we just live in this smelly car? We’ve already been in it forever,” said Disgust, looking at the other Emotions.

  Joy pointed out that the ride gave them plenty of time to imagine what the new house would look like. She plugged a cloud-shaped disc into the console as the Emotions reviewed all the great options they had thought up. Joy loved the image of the gingerbread house with the candy shutters. Anger liked the one of a dark castle that came with its very own fire-breathing dragon.

  When Dad finally drove down their new block, the Emotions waited anxiously. They held their breath as Riley stepped out of the car and looked at the house…

  It was NOTHING like what they had imagined.

  “Maybe it’s nice on the inside,” Joy said cheerfully as she looked at the run-down Victorian.

  But the inside was even worse! It was small, dark, and creepy, and it smelled weird. “We’re supposed to live here?” Anger shouted.

  “Do we have to?” Sadness said.

  “Can you die from moving?” asked Fear nervously.

  “I’m gonna be sick,” said Disgust, noticing a dead mouse in the corner.

  Joy reminded everyone how cool Dad said Riley’s new bedroom was and suggested they check it out. Excited, Riley hurried upstairs to see it.

  “No, no, no, no,” said Fear, taking in the dismal view.

  The room was ridiculously small, and it had a sloped ceiling, which made it feel even smaller. A gloomy mood fell over the Emotions.

  “I’m starting to envy the dead mouse,” said Disgust.

  “Oh, Riley can’t live here,” added Sadness.

  As usual, Joy tried to get everyone to look on the bright side. “I read somewhere that an empty room is an opportunity,” she said excitedly. She got everybody to imagine how great the room would look with all of Riley’s stuff set up. “We’ll put the bed there. And the desk over there…” Soon, they were all thinking about how they could fix up the room.

  “And the hockey lamp goes there…” Fear added.

  As they thought about Riley’s posters, books, and glow-in-the-dark
stars, they began to feel better. “Let’s go get our stuff from the moving van!” Joy said.

  Riley dashed back downstairs to see if the moving van had arrived yet. When she entered the living room, she saw Dad hang up the phone, and she could tell he was annoyed. “Well, guess what?” he said. “The moving van won’t be here until Thursday!”

  “You’re kidding!” said Mom.

  The news stressed out the family, and Mom and Dad began to argue. “You said it would be here yesterday!” said Mom.

  “I know that’s what I said,” said Dad. “That’s what they told me!”

  The move to the new house was not off to a very good start.

  Joy acted quickly. “I’ve got a great idea!” she said, clicking an idea bulb into the console.

  Suddenly, Riley smiled. She grabbed her hockey stick and dropped a crumpled-up piece of paper on the floor. “Anderson makes her move. She’s closing in!” Riley said playfully as she used her hockey stick to move the wad of paper across the floor like a puck.

  “Oh, no you’re not!” Dad said, grabbing a broom to use as a makeshift stick.

  Riley slid across the hardwood floor in her socks as though she were on skates. She dribbled the paper toward the fireplace and whacked it in. “She shoots, and she scores! Woo-hoo!” Riley said, celebrating.

  The Emotions cheered, and Joy turned to look out the back window of Headquarters. Family Island shone in the distance, powered up and running.

  “Come on, Grandma!” Riley said as she skated around Mom.

  “Grandma?” Mom said, putting her hair up in a ponytail. She grabbed a pillow to use as she played goalie, guarding the fireplace.

  For a moment, the family forgot about their stress and enjoyed playing together in the empty living room. A golden memory rolled through Headquarters.

  Then Dad’s phone rang, quickly ending the game.

  “The investor’s supposed to show up on Thursday, not today,” he said after hanging up. “I gotta go.”

  “It’s okay,” said Mom. “We get it.”

  “You’re the best,” Dad said, and kissed Mom goodbye. “See you, sweetie,” he said, waving at Riley.

  “Dad just left us,” said Fear.

  “Oh, he doesn’t love us anymore. That’s sad,” Sadness said, stepping up to the console. “I should drive, right?”

  Joy quickly blocked her. “You know what I’ve realized?” she said, trying to come up with a way to turn the situation around. “Riley hasn’t had lunch!” Joy yanked a memory sphere off the wall and played it, revealing a pizza shop Riley had noticed earlier, when they were in the car.

  “Hey, I saw a pizza place down the street,” Riley said to Mom. “Maybe we could try that?”

  “Pizza sounds delicious,” Mom said.

  The Emotions cheered, and Joy smiled, happy to see that things were back on track.

  “WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!” shouted Fear as he watched Riley and her mother standing at the pizza counter, staring at a slice covered in broccoli.

  “That’s it. I’m done,” said Disgust.

  Anger fumed. “Congratulations, San Francisco, you’ve RUINED PIZZA! FIRST THE HAWAIIANS AND NOW YOU!” he shouted, shuddering as he thought about the pineapple that Hawaiians liked to add to their pizza.

  As Riley and her mom walked home, the mood was somber. “What kind of a pizza place only serves one kind of pizza?” Mom asked.

  Joy sighed as she glanced at the day’s wall of multicolored memories and noticed there were not a whole lot of golden ones.

  Then Riley and her mother started to talk about the long car trip to California. “What was your favorite part?” Mom asked Riley.

  “Oh! What about the time with the dinosaur?” Joy said as she ran to the console to pull up the memory.

  The happy memory was of Riley and her mom posing in front of a big cement dinosaur on the side of the road in Utah. As Dad knelt to get the shot, the car started to roll down the hill behind him! Riley and Mom tried to tell him, but he was too busy trying to take the perfect picture. By the time he finally noticed, it was too late. Dad ran after the car as it rolled in reverse and crashed into the tail of a cement stegosaurus!

  “I liked that time at the dinosaur,” Riley said, smiling. “That was pretty funny.”

  The Emotions chuckled as Riley enjoyed the memory. But then something strange happened. The memory turned BLUE and Riley’s smile faded.

  “Wait. What happened?” Joy asked as she spun around, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Her gaze landed on Sadness, who was standing right next to the memory.

  “What did you do?” Joy asked.

  “I just touched it,” Sadness said.

  Joy tried to rub the memory to see if she could change it back to gold, but the blue color wouldn’t come off!

  “Good going, Sadness,” Disgust said. “Now when Riley thinks of that moment with Dad, she’s gonna feel sad. Bravo.”

  “I’m—I’m sorry, Joy,” Sadness stammered.

  Joy told Sadness not to touch any memories until she figured out what was going on. Then she turned her attention back to Riley.

  Riley and her mom were coming up to a set of stairs that led down a hill. The stairs had a railing. “Get ready! This is a monster railing, and we are riding it all the way down!” Joy said as she took control of the console.

  Goofball Island, one of Riley’s Islands of Personality, lit up with life as Riley sat on the banister, about to fly down. But then Riley changed her mind. She walked down the stairs instead.

  “Wait, what? What happened?” Joy asked, confused. She gasped as a memory rolled over her feet.

  “A core memory!” cried Fear. Core memories powered Riley’s Islands of Personality. If Riley’s core memories weren’t in the core memory holder, what was controlling her personality?

  “Oh no,” said Joy, picking up the memory. Everyone looked out the window to see a lifeless Goofball Island, completely dark and still.

  Joy rushed to the core memory holder and saw Sadness standing right next to it! “Sadness!” she shouted. “What are you doing?”

  “It looked like one was crooked, so I opened it and then it fell out! I…” Sadness said, referring to a core memory. She had a hard time explaining herself.

  Joy placed the memory back in the holder and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Goofball Island started running again.

  Riley ran up the stairs and jumped back on the railing. “Woo-hoo!” she cried as she slid down.

  “I wanted to maybe hold one,” Sadness admitted. She reached toward a core memory and it started to turn BLUE! As the other Emotions gasped, Joy grabbed Sadness’s hand before she could remove it. The memory turned back to gold.

  “Sadness!” Joy scolded. “You nearly touched a core memory. And when you touch them, we can’t change them back.”

  Sadness felt terrible. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Something’s wrong with me. I, uh…It’s like I’m having a breakdown.”

  “You are not having a breakdown,” said Joy. “It’s stress.”

  Sadness sighed. “I keep making mistakes like that. I’m awful—”

  “No, you’re not,” Joy interrupted, but Sadness continued.

  “—and annoying.”

  Joy wanted Sadness to stop focusing on what was wrong. “There’s always a way to turn things around, to find the fun,” Joy said.

  “I don’t know how to do that,” Sadness said.

  Joy suggested that Sadness think of something funny, but she couldn’t seem to do it. Sadness constantly focused on the negative. While Joy saw the rain as a fun opportunity for Riley to jump in puddles and carry a cool umbrella, Sadness liked when the rain made Riley feel soggy, droopy, and shivery. Sadness even started to cry as she thought about it.

  “Oh, hey, hey…easy. Why are you crying?” Joy asked softly.

  “Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life’s problems,” she said.

  Joy put her head in her hands to think of
a way to keep Sadness out of trouble. “Let’s think about something else,” she said, leading her over to the manual shelf. “How about we read some mind manuals, huh? Sounds fun.”

  Joy left Sadness among the stacks of books and marched back to work.

  The first night in the new house was uncomfortable and creepy. Without furniture or a bed, Riley had to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. All the sounds of the city outside her window were loud and strange. Listening to the noises, Riley couldn’t fall asleep.

  Inside Headquarters, the Emotions were stressing out. “Was it a bear? It’s a bear!” Fear said, controlling the console.

  “There are no bears in San Francisco,” Disgust said.

  “I saw a really hairy guy,” Anger said. “He looked like a bear.”

  “I’m so jumpy,” Fear replied. “My nerves are shot!”

  As Joy gazed at the memory shelves, the other Emotions talked about what a disaster the move had been. They blamed Joy for telling them that things wouldn’t change when they moved. They had assumed they would be as happy in San Francisco as they had been in Minnesota.

  Joy tried to reassure them. “Look, I get it. You guys have concerns, but we’ve been through worse!” But the other Emotions didn’t see how the situation could possibly be any worse.

  “Yeah, Joy. We could be lying on a dirty floor. In a sleeping bag,” said Disgust sarcastically.

  “But think of all the good things that—”

  They didn’t want to hear any more of Joy’s positivity. “No, Joy,” Anger interrupted. “There’s absolutely no reason for Riley to be happy right now. Let us handle this.”

  “I say we skip school tomorrow and lock ourselves in the bedroom,” Fear said.

  “We have no clean clothes,” Disgust agreed. “I mean, no one should see us.”

  “Yeah, we could cry until we can’t breathe,” Sadness offered.

  Joy tried to get everyone to calm down. “Now hold on,” she said. “We all have our off days. You know, I…”

  Then Mom appeared in Riley’s doorway. “The Mom bad news train is pulling in,” said Anger. “Toot, toot!”