The bright lights of Toy Heaven flicked off as the last employee locked up the store. Everything was quiet.
"Psst!" whispered Justin Timberlake. The handsome doll crawled out of his box and tiptoed over to another box. Inside was JC Chasez.
"Psst! JC!" said Justin. He tapped on the cellophane between he and his friend. "Wake up!"
The blue-eyed, brown-haired doll inside blinked and awoke. Quickly jumping out of his box, he glanced around nervously.
"Is the store closed?" he asked quietly. Justin nodded.
"You go wake up Chris and Lance, I'll get Joey." said the blond doll.
JC nodded. Another night in this peaceful store.
* * * * *
Soon all five dolls were out of their boxes and talking with each other.
"Hey!" Chris exclaimed suddenly. "Where are we?"
The five dolls looked around. Instead of seeing their nice, white shelf surrounded by toys and games and stuffed animals, they found themselves thrown carelessly onto a black metal shelf full of cardboard boxes and broken toys.
"Oh, no!" wailed Joey. "We're in the storage room!"
"Aw, man! How's anyone gonna buy us if we're back here?" muttered Justin.
"Wait a minute, guys…" said Lance quietly. "Toys only get taken back to the storage room if they're…"
"Broken." finished JC, his blue eyes widening with fear.
Quickly, all five dolls began to inspect themselves carefully, searching for any sign of damage. No broken arms or legs, no faulty joints, no chipped paint or ripped clothing. They were all perfect.
"Our boxes!" exclaimed Chris. They all ran to inspect their boxes.
Sure enough, there was a tear in Lance's cellophane, dents in Justin's box, and Joey was horrified to discover that someone had almost totally ripped the top off of his box.
"Ugh!" JC yelled from behind his own box. The others ran to see what was wrong.
Someone had drawn on the photo of JC's handsome face.
"They blacked out my teeth!" he groaned.
"You think this is bad?" Chris snapped. "There's a huge hole in my box!"
"Well," said Lance. "The question is: how are we gonna get back out to our shelf so someone can buy us?"
JC ventured over to the edge of the metal shelf and gazed around.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Chris, whatever you do, DO NOT come over here and look down!"
Of course, upon hearing this, Chris HAD to go and do what he'd been told not to.
"Holy Barbie Dream House!" he cried as he backed away from the edge. "We're like, ten feet up!"
"Oh, we are not." said Justin witheringly as he peered down at the floor. "We're only about six feet up."
"That's still pretty high, Justin." Lance said uncertainly. "How are we going to get down?"
"Well…" said Justin. "I dunno…"
"Hey!" said JC happily. "There's a spool of thread! We can use that to repel ourselves down to the floor!" Chris looked sick at the thought.
JC and Joey ran to the spool and rolled it back to the others.
"Okay," said JC. "Joey, you and Justin hold the spool while I go down." As he spoke, he tied the end of the thread into a loop around his waist, making sure the knot was tight and secure.
As JC began to repel down, Chris sat down (not too close to the edge) and muttered, "I can't watch, I can't watch…"
"Chris," said Lance. "It'll be okay. JC's almost all the way down."
At that moment they heard a triumphant shout from below the shelf.
"YEAH! Okay, guys, who's next?" JC shouted up to them.
"Guess I'll go," said Lance, looking a bit nervous as he stepped up and tied a loop around his waist as JC had done. Within minutes, he was down on the floor standing beside JC and looking up at the three others on the shelf.
Chris, who was next, took a little longer to lower. That was because every few inches he dropped, Justin and Joey had to stop the thread and Lance and JC had to call up to him, reassuring him that he was fine. Joey went after Chris, slamming into everything as he dropped swiftly down.
"Ouch!" he cried as he landed on his butt beside Chris' feet.
As Justin prepared to slide himself down, he tied part of the thread to one of the supports on the shelf. He slowly and carefully began to lower himself down to the others.
Suddenly, the thread above him began to fray. His eyes widened as he looked down and saw that he was only about halfway down. He still had about two feet to go before reaching the floor! Glancing up at the thread, he saw that he needed to make a decision NOW. As the thread broke, Justin pushed off and took a flying leap down to the ground. He tumbled a few inches and landed flat on his back.
"Justin!" The other guys came running toward, him looking worried. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Justin groaned as he picked himself up. "Nothing broken or ripped or anything. Hey! There's the door!"
The guys ran to the towering door. "One question, genius." muttered Chris. "How do we get the door open?"
"Look!" cried Lance. "It's not all the way shut! We can pull it open!"
The five guys all crowded around the door jam and slid their tiny fingers into the crack between the door and the wall. Grunting and groaning, they pulled the heavy door open enough for each of them to squeeze through. Just as the four others helped pull Lance through, the door slammed shut, nearly taking the boy's arm off.
"Phew!" He breathed a sigh of relief. "That was a close one." He rubbed his shoulder protectively. "That would have HURT."
"You're lucky you didn't get broken." said Chris quietly. "Because, think about it… Who's going to buy a Lance doll with one arm missing?"
Lance shuddered. He had come very close to losing his dream of being bought by a loving child who would take him home and take care of him. That scared him.
Shaking the thought from his head, he said, "Let's get going. Our shelf is at the front of the store. We've got a long way to go."
The five dolls climbed to the top of the nearest shelf. It was a very short one with a toy train set rolling around on top. Grinning eagerly, Joey jumped aboard one of the cars behind the engine. "Hey, this is fun!" he yelled as he went 'round and 'round in circles.
"Joey, will you quit goofing around?" shouted JC. "Get off that train!"
Without bothering to stop the train, Joey slid right off the car - and right off the shelf!
"Oof!" They heard him groan as they ran to the side of the shelf where he had fallen. Below them was a large basket full of soft, cuddly looking teddy bears - and one Joey Fatone doll.
"You klutz!" laughed Justin as he doubled over and pointed down at Joey.
"At least I had somewhere soft to land." said Joey cheerfully.
"Excuse me?" came a soft, rich voice from below Joey. "Could you please move? You're hurting my ear."
Joey quickly rolled off of his soft landing cushion and found himself face-to-face with a small brown teddy bear.
"Thank you," said the little bear quietly as he rubbed his ear. "My name is Theodore."
"I'm Joey," replied the brown-and-red-haired doll. He looked up at the shelf. "Hey, guys! Come down here! Quick!"
The other four dolls climbed down into the basket and joined Joey beside the bear.
"Guys," said Joey happily. "This is Theodore." The little bear smiled shyly.
"Hey!" exclaimed Chris, sounding friendly and kind. "I'm Chris."
"I'm JC,"
"I'm Justin,"
"My name's Lance,"
As soon as he had said hello to everyone, Theodore said curiously, "What are you guys doing way back here? Aren't you supposed to be out front with the rest of the dolls?"
Quickly, Justin explained all that had happened.
"So," he said once he was done. "Now we've got to get back to our shelf."
"Well," Theodore started shyly. "Do you think I could go with you? Maybe if I go up front, someone will choose me."
"What do you mean?" asked Lance.
"Well," he said sadly. "Lots of people want teddy bears. But they all want big ones! I'm so little that I get tossed to the bottom of the pile. Nobody wants a tiny bear like me." He looked close to tears.
Chris' heart ached for the poor little bear. "Of course you can come with us!"
"Absolutely!" said Joey.
"Are you sure?" asked Theodore bashfully.
"There is no way that you are not coming with us!" exclaimed JC, hugging him.
"Well," said Lance. "Let's get moving! We might be able to get back to our shelf by morning!"
The six friends climbed out of the basket and dropped down to the hard, cold floor.
"We ought to stay there!" said Joey, yawning sleepily. "It's nice and cozy in there."
"And warm!" added Justin, getting goosebumps from the cool air in the store.
Grabbing Lance's arm and holding him in front of Joey and Justin, Chris said, "Does this look like a teddy bear?" The two dolls shook their heads. "Alright then! Let's go!"
Soon they came to a shelf full of Barbie dolls. Excitedly, Joey immediately began to climb up the shelf.
"Joey! What are you doing?" called JC.
"There are girls up there!" he shouted happily. At the sound of that, Justin immediately began to follow him. Chris rolled his eyes.
"We better make sure they don't get themselves into any trouble." groaned Lance. He, Chris, and JC slowly began to make their way up the short shelf.
Continuations coming soon!
