New Home, New Life Ch. 5

Emily walked into the toy room early the next morning, "Do any of you want to go to school with me?" she asked.

"Why would you take us to school with you?" Mr. Potato Head asked.

"I teach second grade and the kids get board after a while with the toys we have there and it's supposed to rain most of the day, so they'll be stuck inside for recess." Emily told them.

"We'd get to be played with again?" Rex asked.

"Yep and then I can bring you home with me this evening." Emily replied.

"I'm coming, I want to get played with again." Rex said practically running over to her.

"Buzz and I will be staying here." Jessie said, shooting a mischievous grin at Buzz before going back to looking through a pile of the records they had brought down out of the attic.

In the end Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex and Slinky decided to go with Emily while Jessie, Buzz and Bullseye decided to stay home, "Where is Woody?" Emily asked as she set down a box for the toys to get into to go with her.

"That's odd, he's usually around, then again we don't usually have the freedom of the only human in the house knowing we're alive, but I still wouldn't think he would leave the room without letting someone know." Buzz said.

"He probably just didn't think about letting anyone know." Jessie said.

"But he always-" Buzz stopped for a moment as Jessie took his hand in hers, their eyes meeting as a sad look crossed Jessie's face, "I forgot what day it was."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"It's been eighteen years today since his girlfriend was sold at a yard sale, he always get's a little depressed on the anniversary of losing her." Buzz explained.

"The poor thing, do you think he's alright?" Emily asked.

"He'll be fine and back by tomorrow, although this is the first time he's actually left since she was sold, but with the freedom of not having a kid notice him missing he probably decided to find somewhere else to go to get some time alone." Buzz said.

"Yeah, when she was first sold he disappeared for a whole week, our owner, Andy, thought he had accidentally been put out to sell and we all thought he wasn't coming back. A week later he showed up trying to act like nothing had happened." Jessie added.

"Okay, well I've got to get to work, I'll see you guys later." Emily said as she picked up the box that the other toys had all climbed into and left.

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That evening Emily was washing dishes and looking out the window above the sink as the sun started to set when she noticed movement in the bushes at the edge of the yard. Woody came out of the bushes and made his way towards the house, a moment later Emily heard something hit the door and attempt to turn the knob.

Walking over to the door and unlocking it, she opened the door, "You could just try knocking or letting me know your going outside so I can leave it unlocked for you." she told him.

"Sorry about that, I just had a lot on my mind and it's kind of nice being able to go outside without worrying about anyone questioning how you were able to leave." Woody said.

"It's alright." Emily said as she picked him up and set him on the table then sat down, "So, tell me about this girlfriend of your's." Emily said.

"They told you about her?" Woody asked.

"Not much, just that she was sold at a yard sale eighteen years ago and that's why you had disappeared." Emily told him.

Woody sighed and sat down on the table, " Her name was Bo Peep, she was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She was the first toy I'd ever met who I wasn't sure how to act around at first and she always knew how to put my mind at ease when I was worried or upset. Then one day there was a yard sale and they took her, I tried to rescue her, but someone bought her before I could sneak her back into the house. I spent a week sneaking from house to house asking the toys there if they had seen her, but I never found her and finally had to give up and go home."

"So Bo Peep, like Little Bo Peep?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, she had these sheep that were constantly getting into trouble." Woody told her.

"What did she look like?" Emily asked.

"She had blond curls, a pink bonnet and her dress had a pink top with a white skirt with pink polka dots and a bit of pink lace around the top. I was always so afraid Andy would break her when he played with her."

"Why, wasn't she a toy like the rest of you?" Emily asked.

"No, she was part of a lamp, she was made of porcelain. Why do you want to know so much about her?" Woody asked.

"Well, it's a long shot and maybe impossible, so I don't want you to get your hopes up or anything, but I go to a lot of yard sales and flea markets on the weekends and I thought I could take you with me and we could look for her." Emily told him.

Woody stared at her for a moment, too shocked to say anything, "You'd really do that for me? You'd really look for her? I'm just a toy, why do that for me? Why spend your time trying to find her when it's so unlikely that we'd ever find her?" he finally asked.

"Because you're not just a toy, you're a living, sentient being who deserves to be able to live out his life with the woman he loves and you saved my life, this is the least I can do for you. Anyways I'd already be going to the sales, the only difference is now you'll be going with me and if we see any lamps that might be her I'll find a way to get you close enough to find out for sure." Emily replied.

Emily and Woody spent the next hour making plans and working out the details so that Woody could go with her and talk to other toys at the yard sales without being noticed.

When they finally headed upstairs the light in Emily's room was on and music was playing. Emily silently pushed the door open far enough for her and Woody, who was sitting on her shoulder, to see in. Emily's iPod was set up with a speaker and was playing a fast paced song as Buzz and Jessie danced gracefully across the floor.

"They're good." Emily whispered to Woody.

"They've been dancing for about fourteen years, so they've had lots of time to practice although they we're already naturally good at it when they first started." Woody told her.

They watched silently for another minute or so until the song ended, Buzz dipping Jessie back then pulling her back up and kissing her.

"Okay guys I need to get to bed, which means I need my room back." Emily said when they stopped kissing.

Buzz and Jessie both jumped, having not noticed that they had an audience, "I hope you don't mind us coming in here, its just more romantic when it's just the two of us." Jessie said.

"It's fine, I don't mind at all." Emily said as she set Woody on the floor.

"Great, well see you in the morning, good night." Jessie said as they all headed towards the door.

"Good night." Emily told them.

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"Woody, you ready to go?" Emily asked as she stepped into the toy room on Friday morning.

"Don't the rest of us get to come?" Rex asked.

"Not today, the weather is perfect so the kids will be outside for recess, Woody and I are just going to stop at some yard sales on the way home to look for some of your missing friends." Emily told him.

"You'll look for my babies won't you?" Mrs. Potato Head asked Woody as he walked over to Emily.

"Of course I will." Woody assured her before Emily picked him up and let him sit on her shoulder as she left.

"Her babies?" Emily asked as they headed downstairs.

"Yes, they were three little green aliens, Mr. Potato Head saved them from falling out of the truck they used to get to the airport when I was kidnapped and they followed him around constantly after that and Mrs. Potato Head decided to adopt them. They could be a little annoying sometimes, but they saved our lives and it was quite a blow when they were sold, especially to Mrs. Potato Head." Woody told her.

"Oh the poor thing, I hope we can find them for her. How did they save your life?" Emily asked as she set Woody on the kitchen table next to a large purse.

"It's a long story." Woody replied as he climbed into the purse.

"Well then you can start telling me on the way and if you haven't finished by the time we get to school I'll eat lunch in the class room and you can finish telling me about it." Emily said as she carefully picked the purse up and left.

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"Wow, Lotso makes that other Pete you ran into sound friendly in comparison. I never would have imagined that toys could be so, evil, especially after you risked your life to help him." Emily said as Woody finished telling her about Sunny Side and how the aliens had saved them.

"Yeah, we couldn't believe it either." Woody replied.

"And the aliens saved you, then ended up being sold at a yard sale, and they all looked identical?" Emily asked.

"Yes, completely identical." Woody replied.

"So the chances of one person getting all three of them and them still being together are pretty slim." Emily said.

"I don't know, we saw them and Hamm get bought, a women in a van with four children bought them, three of the kids each picked up one of the aliens and the fourth took Hamm, so it's possible they're still together." Woody told her.

"And how long ago was that?" Emily asked.

"A little over three years ago." Woody replied.

"So there's not too much of a chance that they could have been resold and separated already, although it could also mean it would be a while until those kids decide to get rid of them, but we'll keep an eye out for them." Emily said as she pulled up to a yard sale.

Five yard sales later they still hadn't found anything, Emily was going through a tub of little toys, with the purse carefully balanced on the edge so Woody could let her know if he saw anyone familiar. Down in one corner Emily found a single red haired girl quint and picked her up then walked over to the woman running the sale, "Do you have any of the other dolls like this?" she asked.

"Where did you find her?" the woman asked.

"In the twenty five cent tub." Emily replied.

"Oh dear, well I did have the whole set in their little bed on the table, but someone must have knocked that one down, I sold the rest this morning." the woman told her.

"Do you think the people who bought the others might come back looking for her?" Emily asked.

"No, they probably didn't even realize I had her." the woman replied.

"Well then I'll take her." Emily said and paid the woman.

Once they were in the car Woody climbed out of the purse to sit on the passenger seat and Emily handed him the quint, who, as soon as she realized she was with another toy and didn't have to stay in toy mode started to cry.

"Oh you poor little thing." Emily said gently running one finger over the back of the little girl's head, "You'll be okay, we'll take good care of you, I promise." she told her before starting the car.

By the time they got home the little girl had cried herself to sleep in Woody's arms and Emily carefully carried them both into the house then up to the doll room, "We have a new addition to the family." she told the cousins as she knelt down and set Woody on the floor, "She's quite upset, apparently she was still with the rest of her set until this morning, she got knocked into a tub of toys and someone bought the others without ever realizing she was there." Emily explained.

"Oh the poor thing, don't worry too much though, all of the others who you've brought home with less than a complete set have all adjusted and come to be happy with use, it'll just take a little while." one of the cousins replied.

"Good, if there's anything I can do to help let me know." Emily told her.

"I think I'll stay in here for tonight." Woody said looking down at the little girl in his arms, "I don't want to wake her." he said as he sat down leaning against the wall.

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning then, good night." Emily said then left.

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Emily was sitting at the kitchen table looking through the adds for yard sales in the news paper the next morning when Woody came down and climbed up onto the table.

"How did she do after I left?" Emily asked.

"She slept through the night and just woke up a little while ago, she started crying again, but we were able to get her calmed down and now she's playing with the others. I think she'll be just fine." Woody told her.

"I hope you're right, I feel so bad for her. It doesn't seem right that you guys are alive, but can't do anything to ensure you stay with the people you care about, it's just not fair." Emily said, "I can't believe no toy has ever let anyone know they were alive to avoid being separated from their family and friends. I mean who even made up this rule that humans can't know you're alive?"  

"I don't know, it's just sort of an instinct, we just know that we can't let humans know about us, even a toy who doesn't realize they are a toy instinctively goes into toy mode when humans are around." Woody told her.

"A toy not knowing they're a toy, without being brainwashed into to believing it?" Emily asked.

Woody smiled, "No one's told you about what Buzz was like when he first showed up?" he asked.

"No." Emily replied.

"I'll tell you about it on the way to the sales." Woody told her.

"Okay." Emily agreed as she marked one more sale on a map of sales she had made then put it into her purse.

By the time they pulled up to the first sale Emily was laughing too hard to get out of the car right away, "Oh I wish I could have seen that, it must have been so entertaining." she said.

"Just find a Buzz Lightyear who is mint in the box and hasn't woken up yet. Buzz actually did that to the second Buzz when they came to rescue me and he reacted the same way, it's entirely possible that every single Buzz Lightyear ever made actually believed they were real and not just a toy." Woody told her.

"So Buzz didn't wake up until he was taken out of his box, but Pete was still in his box and awake, so do most toys come to life for the first time before or after they're taken out of their box?" Emily asked.

"I don't really know, I woke up for the first time when I was taken out of my box, but I've known plenty of toys who have been awake before even being bought. There doesn't really seem to be one set way things happen, toys come to life at different times, some toys that you wouldn't expect to come to life, like Etch do and others that you would think would come to life never do. My original owner, Andy's dad, Harry, had a cousin who had a Tammy doll that never came to life. And then you have Slinky, Rex and Bullseye, all three look like animals, but Slinky and Rex both have human like personalities while Bullseye, although smart, is still not that different from a normal animal." Woody told her.

"Wow,  it all sounds really crazy and mixed up." Emily said.

"Yeah, I'd never really thought about it before, but it is." Woody agreed.

"Well you can tell me more about the confusing life of toys and Buzz's delusional days shortly, we should probably go look around this sale before some one comes out to ask why I've just been sitting here so long." Emily said.

"You're right, we wouldn't want them to think you're sitting here talking to yourself." Woody agreed then climbed into the purse.

The rest of the day was uneventful, they went to every garage sale in the area, but never ran across any toys that Woody knew. At lunch time they stopped at the cemetery where Emily's grandfather and great grandparents were buried to have a picnic as the park was too crowded for Woody to be able to stay alive without constantly having to go back to toy mode.

"Oh well, maybe we'll find Bo and the other missing toys next weekend." Emily said as they headed into the house later that day.

"I hope so, although I didn't really expect to find any of them today, that would have been too easy." Woody said as he climbed out of the purse.

"And you toys never do anything the easy way, do you?" Emily asked.

"Of course not, what fun would that be?" Woody replied then jumped down off of the table.

"Where are you heading to?" Emily asked.

"I promised Molly I'd come check on her and tell her and the others a story when we got back." Woody replied.

"Molly?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, the quint you found yesterday, when we asked her she said her previous owner never gave her a name and she asked me to come up with one for her, so I suggested Molly and she liked it." Woody replied.

"Well I wouldn't want her to have to wait any longer than necessary." Emily said as she picked him up and set him on her shoulder then headed upstairs, "Anyways I don't have anything else to do so I think I'll join you."

Once they got up to the doll room Molly ran over to Woody and he picked her up, "You gonna tell me stories now?" she asked.

"Yep, as soon as we find out if anyone else wants to listen." Woody told her.

Within minutes a group of dolls and all of the quints had gathered around Woody except for Molly who was sitting in his lap while Emily sat with her back against the wall as Woody stated to tell them a story.