Look on the Sunnyside: Chapter 1, Stretch

Every toy at Sunnyside Day care Center has had to endure the pain of being lost, forgotten, donated, yard-saled, second handed or just plain thrown out. These are the stories of four particular toys; a rubber octopus, an insect man, a rock monster and a sparking robot, all of whom ended up working for the leader of the place, Lots-O'Huggin'-Bear, or, as many knew him, Lotso. This is the story of how these four came to hear the cheery yet eerie call of 'New toys!' and a chorus of cheers, despite whatever they felt inside…

Stretch the rubber octopus

Stretch was the favourite toy of a little girl named Amanda. Her natural squishiness was a double-edged sword. Every time Stretch was thrown against a wall or was forced to gradually fall down from the ceiling, it hurt, but she always knew that Amanda would be there to comfort her. Every time Amanda hugged her, it could hurt, depending on how hard she squeezed, but Stretch told herself it meant that she just cherished her even more.

Until one day…

One sunny morning, Amanda, dressed for school, was the same as always. The fourteen year old girl with blonde hair was tossing Stretch into the air, giggling as she would catch her, hug her and repeat the cycle over and over. Stretch loved moments like these, and would always cherish them.

"Amanda! Time to go, honey! You're very late!" her mother called. Amanda gasped, realising that her mother was right. "Okay!" Amanda called, not realising she had just thrown Stretch into the air. As she ran downstairs Stretch slammed hard on the floor. As she pulled herself together, Stretch felt shocked. 'Amanda's never done that before,' she thought to herself. Then she shook her head. 'Well, she's a busy little girl. Gotta pay your dues an' work hard,' she thought as she made her way to the bath tub, where she would go collect her best friend, Quacks the rubber duck.

''Sides,' Stretch thought, 'it's only until about 3 in the afternoon'

But Amanda didn't come home at 3. Stretch and Quacks grew worried. One hour, two hours, three hours went by, but no sign of her. Finally, at 7:30 PM, Amanda arrived home and she looked dead tired. In her haste to get to bed, she almost kicked Stretch out of the way. Amanda looked back, but was too tired to look for her favourite toy, instead deciding to sleep away.

It turned out that Stretch had been knocked away, behind a pair of boxes piled on top of each other. Quacks, well, quacked in his own language that he had found something. Stretch came over and grasped the item in her tentacles. It was a coin, specifically a quarter.

Stretch flipped it into the air and it landed heads. She looked out and saw Amanda was fast asleep, and then turned back to Quacks. "Tails, you go greet her in the mornin'. Heads, I go greet her in the mornin'," She said. Quacks nodded, and Stretch flipped the coin.

Slowly, but surely, it landed on tails. Quacks squeaked with excitement. Stretch sighed, but rules were rules, and decided to let things play out.

The next morning, Quacks bounced out just in front of Amanda's bedroom door. As her alarm went off, Amanda hastily got out of bed and went to the shower, taking hardly any notice of the rubber ducky. As Amanda closed the bathroom door, Quacks turned and quacked with concern. Stretch slipped out. "Its okay, Quacks," she said, putting a tentacle or two around her friend. "Tell you what, once she's done, we'll both meet her. What do you say?" Quacks approved.

Stretch and Quacks clambered onto the bed and onto the pillow. When Amanda came out and started getting dressed, she saw the two toys on her bed. "Hey," she said, picking up Quacks, "how'd this get in here?". Amanda shrugged and went back to the bathroom, dropped Quacks straight into the tub.

Then she came back and picked up Stretch, whose face made her look like she was dying to be played with. Amanda walked over to the shelf. "Sorry, Stretch, but I don't have time today. I have to be fast and on time!" When Amanda exited, Stretch came back to life, gasping at the doorway. Before she had been shocked, now she was starting to feel panicky. Being shelved was one thing no toy ever wanted.

For the rest of the day, Stretch spent her time talking to Quacks from a distance, and, sometimes, flipping her quarter, betting on whether or not Amanda would take her down and/or play with her.

But she didn't bring Stretch back down, whichever side the coin came up. For a whole year and a half this went on, but still nothing came of it. Then, shortly after Amanda's sixteenth birthday, she came up carrying one of her presents, a cookbook. As she flipped through the pages, Stretch, covered in dust, managed to get a peek, but was shocked when one of the recipes had the word 'octopus' in the title!

Strange thoughts started to run through Stretch's mind, like 'Oh no, she's gonna cook me! She's gonna put me in a pot!', and she started to panic and flail her tentacles around, accidentally knocking her quarter off the shelf and onto Amanda's shoulder.

When Amanda turned around after pocketing the quarter, she looked up to see a purple glittery tentacle hanging from her shelf. Curious, she tugged at it and into her hands fell her old rubber octopus toy. Instead of amazement, her look was one of confusion. She still had this toy all this time? What should she do with it? An up-and-coming cook doesn't really need toys. Amanda decided to ask her parents, putting Stretch back on the bed.

Stretch felt quite sad. Amanda had held her again, but it wasn't as happy as she had hoped. She heard a familiar squeaking sound that seemed to come closer. She recognised it and scooped Quacks up next to her. Quacks said that he thought this day was coming, but Stretch didn't know what he meant. Before they could debate further, Amanda arrived in the room with a cardboard box marked with the dreaded words 'Donations'.

Into the box she put Stretch and Quacks, along with a trio of juggling balls, a ring toss and a few old story books. As the lid was closed, Stretch looked around in horror, hoping that this was some sort of bad dream. But her fears were confirmed when she heard the roar of the car, the opening of doors and the sound of voices. Among those voices, Stretch almost swore she heard a sad "Goodbye, Stretch".

Stretch peeked out the side of the box to take a last glance at her old owner. She was now a bit more stern-faced, was fitted with braces on her teeth, and wore her hair in a pair of ponytails. But Stretch still recognised her as the girl who loved and played with her and Quacks.

As she disappeared through the door with her mother, Stretch went limp as the day care receptionist carried the box to a room. When she had left, Stretch and Quacks risked a peek out to see where they were. The first thing that caught their glance was the large crowd around on the floor.

"New toys!" a Jack-in-the-box called out, prompting the other toys to cheer loudly. Sharing a brief glance, Stretch lifted Quacks out and slowly crawled down to be greeted by the other toys. 'Gotta pay your dues an' work hard,' she had once said, now it was time to do so, with or without Amanda.

Author's notes

First new fic in ages. I love toy Story, and I'd say Toy Story 3 is the best instalment in the trilogy. I love a lot of the new characters, especially Lotso's henchmen (who I never considered evil) and Bonnie's toys. With some characters, you just love them because they're there. But sometimes you aren't always happy with the lack of story given to them. That's where we as writers come in.

Next up is Twitch, if I get the chance.