Inside Out Junior Novel Read online

  Joy, Bing Bong, and Sadness hid behind some production equipment and watched the director pass out scripts. Then they sneaked over to the costume area. “Okay, how are we gonna wake her up?” Joy asked.

  “Well, she wakes up sometimes when she has a scary dream. We could scare her,” Sadness offered.

  Joy didn’t like that idea at all. She thought Riley had been through enough and didn’t want her to dream of anything that would make her uncomfortable. “Sadness, I know Riley. We’re gonna make her so happy that she’ll wake up with exhilaration. We’ll excite her awake!” said Joy.

  “That’s never happened before,” Sadness said as she watched Joy rummage through the costume racks.

  “Ooh, Riley loves dogs,” Joy said. “Put this on!” She threw half of a dog costume to Sadness.

  “I don’t think that’ll work,” Sadness said, but Joy ignored her and turned to Bing Bong.

  “Don’t let anything happen to these,” she said, handing him the bag of core memories. Bing Bong promised to keep them safe.

  The dream director checked the monitor and asked the cameraman to put on the reality distortion filter. The filter made the phony-looking set and actors look completely real! “Love it,” she said, then reminded everyone to play to the camera. “Riley is the camera!” she barked. “Makeup, get out of there, we are on in five, four, three…”

  The makeup artists finished powdering an actress playing Riley’s teacher and the Sleep Lights flashed on. Magical-sounding harp music played, signaling the start of the dream.

  Inside Headquarters, Fear was drinking a cup of tea as he sat at the console, watching the dream unfold. He was not happy to be stuck with Dream Duty, but with Joy gone, he had no choice.

  “Man, she is one bad actress,” Fear said to himself, watching the teacher unenthusiastically talk about a pop quiz. Then the teacher called on Riley to introduce herself. As the camera rose to look like Riley was standing at her desk, one of the students said, “Ew, look! Her teeth are falling out!” Teeth rained down in front of the camera.

  “Teeth falling out,” Fear said, scoffing. “Let me guess, we have no pants on.”

  Another student spoke. “Hey, look! She came to school with no pants on!” The camera tilted down, revealing Riley’s bare legs.

  “Called it!” Fear said.

  Joy and Sadness waited off camera at the stage in Dream Productions, wearing the dog costume. “Ready?” Joy whispered.

  “I don’t think this happy thing is going to work. But if we scare her—” Sadness tried to explain, but Joy didn’t let her finish.

  “Just…follow my lead. Here we go!” Joy yanked Sadness onto the set, dancing and barking like a dog.

  The dream director flipped through her script, confused, as she tried to find the current scene. “Who is that?” she whispered to herself.

  Joy and Sadness continued to run around in the dog costume, barking, licking students, and acting cute.

  Joy looked at the sleep indicator—the needle was still on the Sleep side. She signaled Bing Bong and he released bunches of colorful balloons that poured down onto the classroom set. “Woo!” Joy yelled. “Let’s party! Let’s dance! Woo!” Then Bing Bong fired a confetti canon and a storm of confetti covered everything!

  In Headquarters, Fear perked up. “Hey, a party!” he said, watching the dog happily running around in the balloons and confetti.

  “Joy, this isn’t working,” said Sadness.

  Bing Bong danced around offstage and knocked into a light, causing the backdrop to come down. Then the dog costume ripped in half! Joy chased after Sadness on the set. “Sadness, what are you doing? Come back here!”

  Fear spit out his tea as he watched the startling sight on-screen: through the reality distortion filter, it looked just like a real dog split right down the middle!

  On the screen, it looked as if half a dog were chasing its other half. “It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream,” Fear chanted, trying to soothe himself. He turned a knob on the console which caused Riley to stir in her sleep.

  The dream director watched in horror. “They’re trying to wake her up! Call security!” she yelled.

  Joy grabbed Sadness’s arm and scolded her. “You are ruining this dream! You’re scaring her!”

  “But look, it’s working!” said Sadness, pointing at the sleep indicator. The needle was starting to move toward Awake.

  “Whoa!” Joy said.

  But before they could do anything else, security entered. The dream director pointed to Bing Bong, Sadness, and Joy. “They are not part of this dream! Get them!” she yelled.

  Sadness saw the guards and grabbed Joy, pulling her backstage. “Stop right there,” a security guard called after them. A second guard got Bing Bong and tackled him to the ground.

  “Ow! Hey!” cried Bing Bong.

  “Pan away! Pan away!” shouted the director. The camera operator moved the camera away from the disaster happening on set, revealing Rainbow Unicorn eating at the snack table in a mystical unicorn forest set.

  Fear shouted at the screen. “Boo! Pick a plot line.”

  Joy and Sadness watched as the guards dragged Bing Bong, holding the bag of core memories, down toward a massive, scary-looking door.

  “There go the core memories,” Joy whispered to Sadness.

  The guards opened the heavy door and a spooky light spilled out along with the frightening sounds of thunder, howling, screaming, roars, and circus music.

  “I can’t go in there. I’m scared of the dark. Please!” Bing Bong said as they threw him inside. The door slammed shut.

  “C’mon,” said Joy, grabbing Sadness. They quietly sneaked to the door down a long staircase. “What is this place?” Joy asked.

  “The Subconscious,” answered Sadness. “I read about it in the manual. It’s where they take all the troublemakers.”

  Joy and Sadness paused as they watched the guards. They were so busy bickering that Joy and Sadness tiptoed past without them even noticing. Once in front of the door, Sadness shook it, causing the guards to finally see them.

  “Hey! You!” said one of the guards.

  “Oh! You caught us!” Sadness said sheepishly, acting like she had just come out of the Subconscious.

  “Get back in there! No escaping!” said the other guard, as they shoved Joy and Sadness through the doorway.

  “Hohhh…I don’t like it here,” Sadness whispered as they walked in cautiously. “It’s where they keep Riley’s darkest fears.”

  Joy gasped. “It’s broccoli!”

  A door eerily creaked open, revealing a dark set of stairs leading down below. Sadness and Joy screamed. “The stairs to the basement!” Sadness exclaimed as they scampered away.

  They screamed again as a giant vacuum cleaner started to chase them! “Grandma’s vacuum cleaner!” Joy said as they ran and hid behind a rock.

  When they decided to walk on, a loud crinkling noise seemed to come from beneath their feet. Crunch! Crunch!

  “Would you walk quieter?” Joy said, blaming Sadness.

  “I’m trying!” Sadness whispered.

  Then they noticed a trail of candy wrappers on the floor. They followed the trail into a dark cave. There, on top of a giant mound, was Bing Bong. He was crying inside a cage made out of long, colorful balloons.

  “Joy?” Bing Bong said, peering at them in the darkness. He pointed below him and said, “Shhhhhh!”

  Joy looked down to see where Bing Bong was pointing—the balloon cage was sitting right on top of a gigantic sleeping clown! “It’s Jangles,” Joy said, terrified.

  Jangles was snoring and talking in his sleep. “Who’s the birthday girl?” he muttered.

  It gave Joy and Sadness the creeps. They stepped gingerly around the giant clown, and Joy carefully climbed up to get to Bing Bong. “Do you have the core memories?” she whispered when she got close enough.

  “Yeah,” he said, handing her the bag. “All he cared about was the candy
!”

  Joy grabbed hold of the cage and tried to pry open the balloon bars. SQUEEEEEE! The balloons made a horrible squeaky noise and Jangles stirred. Joy held her breath as the clown fell back asleep. Then she stretched the bars even farther apart and Bing Bong slipped through. They hurried off the creepy clown mountain and rushed toward the exit.

  “We’re out of here!” said Bing Bong. “Let’s get to that train and wait for morning.”

  Joy slowed down, thinking about what Bing Bong had just said. She couldn’t wait until morning to get the core memories back. Joy looked at Jangles and had an idea.

  “Oh no,” said Bing Bong, watching as Joy and Sadness walked back to the sleeping clown.

  They both honked the clown’s nose, which caused his wild eyes to pop wide open! Then the massive, creepy Jangles stood up, towering over them.

  “H-h-hey, Sadness,” Joy said. “Di—did you hear about the p-pahh-party that we’re having?”

  “Ohh yeah, yes, Joy! Isn’t it a ba-bahhh-birthday party?”

  “Did you say…birthday?” the giant clown asked.

  “Yes.” Joy struggled to get the words out. “And there’s going to be cake, and presents and—”

  “—and games and balloons,” Sadness added.

  “A BIRTHDAY?” screamed Jangles, pulling out his giant mallet and holding it up, ready for birthday action.

  “Follow us!” shouted Joy, leading the way.

  Jangles laughed a maniacal laugh as he chased Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong through the door.

  “Nothing like a good scare to wake you up, right?” Joy said, looking at Sadness.

  Outside the Subconscious, the guards were still arguing when suddenly…BASH! Jangles’ giant mallet smashed through the front gate. The guards jumped in terror, screaming, “AHHHHHHHHH!”

  Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong were free. They ran up the stairs, leading Jangles toward Dream Productions.

  Inside Headquarters, Fear had nearly fallen asleep watching the boring unicorn dream when…BLAM! The creepy clown came crashing through the set! “WHO’S THE BIRTHDAY GIRL?” Jangles’ voice boomed across the stage.

  Fear screamed. He smacked his hand down on the button to wake Riley up, and then he passed out!

  Riley bolted up in bed, waking from the nightmare. The sign in Dream Productions read AWAKE.

  Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong rushed off the stage of Riley’s dream at Dream Productions, leaving Jangles behind as he smashed up the sets and everything in his path with his giant mallet. They hurried toward the Train of Thought.

  The train was moving! The three leapt aboard the very last car.

  “Ha ha!” Joy said. “We made it!” They laughed and celebrated. She grabbed Sadness and swung her around. “Guess who’s on their way to Headquarters?” Joy sang.

  “We are!” said Sadness.

  Back at Headquarters, Anger and Disgust stumbled out of the break room, disheveled and barely awake. “What is going on?” asked Disgust.

  “He did it again,” said Anger, gesturing to Fear trembling beneath the console.

  “We were at school, and we were naked, and there was a dog, and his back half was chasing him…” Fear rambled, recalling Riley’s dream.

  Anger was reaching his limit. “It was a DREAM! This is ridiculous, we can’t even get a good night’s sleep anymore. Time to take action.”

  Anger stomped off and retrieved the idea he had held up earlier. He stood at the console, ready to plug it in. “Who’s with me?” He looked at Fear, who was still recovering and unable to utter a word. Then he looked at Disgust and waited for a response.

  “Yeah, let’s do it,” said Disgust finally.

  Anger plugged the lightbulb-shaped idea into the console.

  Inside her bedroom, Riley’s expression changed. She pulled out her laptop.

  “She took it. There’s no turning back,” said Anger.

  “So, how’re we gonna get to Minnesota from here?” Disgust asked.

  “Well, why don’t we go to the elephant lot and rent an elephant?” Anger asked sarcastically. Then he yelled, “We’re taking the bus!”

  Riley pulled up the Greyhound bus website and began to look at the schedule for buses to Minnesota.

  “A ticket costs money,” said Disgust. “How do we get money?”

  “Mom’s purse,” Anger said casually.

  Disgust gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Oh, but I would,” said Anger. “Where was it we saw it last?”

  He punched up a memory and the Tripledent singers came on again, singing the theme song.

  “NOOOO!” Anger slammed down on the console, ejecting the memory. Then he remembered that Mom’s purse was downstairs somewhere. “Mom and Dad got us into this mess,” Anger said. “They can pay to get us out.”

  Inside the train, Joy, Bing Bong, and Sadness were happily speeding along. Joy looked at Sadness. “Hey, that was a good idea,” she said. “About scaring Riley awake.”

  “Really?” Sadness said, sounding surprised.

  “Nice work.”

  Sadness brightened a little as Joy exhaled, feeling relieved. “I can’t wait to get the old Riley back,” she said. “As soon as we get there, I’m going to fix this whole mess.”

  Bing Bong had found a box of memories and was looking through them. He discovered a recent memory and saw that Riley was much older than he had thought. “Whoa,” he said. “Is this Riley?”

  Joy took the memory to get a closer look. She nodded.

  “She’s so big now,” Bing Bong said. “She won’t fit in my rocket. How’re we gonna get to the moon?”

  Joy recognized the memory. “Oh, it’s that time in the twisty tree, remember? The hockey team showed up and Mom and Dad were there cheering…Look at her, having fun and laughing. It’s my favorite.” Joy sat back down, beside Sadness.

  “I love that one, too,” said Sadness.

  Joy couldn’t believe it! Sadness actually liked a happy memory. “Atta girl!” she said. “Now you’re getting it!”

  Sadness stared at the memory. “Yeah,” she said, remembering. “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’s face fell. Sadness had started out so positive. “Sorry,” Sadness apologized. “I went sad again, didn’t I?”

  “I’ll tell you what,” Joy said. “We’ll keep working on that when we get back. Okay?”

  Sadness smiled. “Okay.”

  Meanwhile, Riley sneaked downstairs to find her mom’s purse. Mom was in the kitchen on the phone, talking to the moving company, so Riley was able to find the purse and slip the credit card out quietly. She put it in her pocket and crept back upstairs without Mom noticing.

  Joy looked wistfully out the train window. All of a sudden a loud BOOM broke the spell. “Honesty Island!” Joy shrieked.

  The train tracks they were on began to sway as Honesty Island started to collapse below them. Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong were jostled back and forth. Screaming, they fell as the train started to tumble, the tracks slipping away with the collapsing island.

  The train crashed onto the side of a cliff and began to tip over as mind workers rushed on board.

  “Let’s go! Move it! Move it!” the workers shouted, trying to get everyone off safely.

  Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong jumped to land just in time as the train plummeted into the Memory Dump below. Joy couldn’t believe it. “That was our way home!” she said. “We lost another island….What is happening?”

  “Haven’t you heard?” asked a worker. “Riley is running away.”

  In her quiet, empty bedroom, Riley pulled her books out of her backpack and picked up her clothes, ready to pack them in her bag. Then she paused and her expression changed.

  Fear was driving. “Are we really doing this? I mean, this is serious,” he said.

  Anger pushed Fear aside and took control. “Look,” he said. “We have no core memories. You want Riley
to be happy? Let’s get back to Minnesota and make some.”

  Riley’s worried expression faded and was replaced with anger as she stuffed her clothes into her bag and exited the room.

  Out on the cliff, Sadness, Joy, and Bing Bong stared at the empty space where Honesty Island used to be.

  “Joy, if we hurry, we can still stop her,” said Sadness, offering a ray of hope.

  There was only one island left…and one lightline that they could follow back to Headquarters. “Family Island,” said Joy. “Let’s go!”

  They ran along the cliff edge, bolting toward the bridge to Family Island. Sadness saw the island start to quake and yelled, “It’s too dangerous! We won’t make it in time!”

  Joy looked out to see pieces of Family Island falling away. “But that’s our only way back!”

  The shaking island had caused parts of Long-Term Memory to collapse and break apart. Suddenly, Sadness pointed over to a memory recall tube. The tubes were normally buried deep beneath the shelving of Long-Term Memory, but with all the earthquake-like movement, one of them had become exposed. If they got to it in time, maybe they could get sucked up and sent back to Headquarters.

  “A recall tube!” said Joy.

  “We can get recalled!” Sadness added.

  They ran past the bridge and headed for the tube.

  With her bag strapped to her back, Riley walked toward the front door of the house. “Have a great day, sweetheart,” Mom called from the kitchen.

  “See you after school, monkey,” Dad added, making monkey noises.

  “We love you!” Mom said.

  Riley didn’t respond. She just turned and walked right out the front door, headed for the bus station.

  Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong were closing in on the tube, but Family Island quaked and twisted the bridge like a piece of taffy. Then a large piece of the island broke off!

  “Go!” shouted Joy. “Run, run!” A nearby cliff cracked and crashed down into the dump, and the ridge where they were just standing fell away. They screamed as they fled the crumbling chunks of land and headed toward the recall tube.