Chapter 3: Care-a-lot

They broke through a layer of clouds, and the magical land of Care-a-lot spread out before them. Seeing Care-a-lot was the most magical feeling and it warmed Sophie's heart. It was beautiful and even more so. The sun was gleaming down from a blue sky dotted with cotton candy clouds.

Wish Bear took the scenic route to the Hall of Hearts, to let Sophie have a bird's-eye view of all of Care-a-lot. Then they landed on the rainbow path in front of the Hall of Hearts in the center of Care-a-lot.

"I hope we're not late for the meeting." Cheer said.

"So, what do you think of Care-a-lot, Sophie?" asked Wish Bear.

In that moment she knew she would want to stay for more than one afternoon.

She couldn't hide her excitement when she said, "Um… can I stay for more than one night?"

"Of course!" Funshine gave her a high five.

"I knew you'd like it once you saw it." Wish Bear smiled.

They went inside the Hall of Hearts, where everyone was gathering at the heart-shaped table, chatting about what Tenderheart could've called a meeting for.

Before Wish Bear could have the chance to introduce everyone to Sophie, Tenderheart came out and stood on his chair.

"Thank you every bear for coming, please sit down." he said, and introduced everyone to Sophie.

"Hi Sophie!" they all said together.

"Hi every… every bear." she said, trying to get used to Care-a-lot terminology.

Everyone smiled, with their attention on Sophie.

Then Tenderheart pulled out the book that Wish and Cheer had found earlier – the Legends of Care-a-lot.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" he asked.

Everyone looked to Tenderheart.

"Thank you. I called this meeting to order because we need to fix our problem with the Caring Meter dropping points faster than we can go on Caring Missions. And now things are worse now that No Heart has three more girls on his side. Sophie is familiar with them."

"Emily King, Tanya Lopez, and Vera Peterson." she crossed her arms.

"I have a bad feeling that they are going to only cause more trouble from here on out."

Everyone agreed.

"But not to worry, I found something in this book that can help us. And all thanks to Sophie, Care-a-lot can be saved before things get worse."

"Me?"

"Yes. Remember your mom? She had very close connections to Care-a-lot. What you might not know was that she was once the Queen of Care-a-lot."

Sophie gasped. "My mom?"

In that moment she knew that the Care Bears did care about her mom. They had to, if she had been their Queen!

"That's correct. And that means that you Sophie, are the Princess of Care-a-lot, and the next Queen."

She was flabbergasted. "You're joking."

"That's what the book says. We need your help, Sophie. Care-a-lot is in grave danger. Once Care-a-lot is gone, the Care Bears will be gone too, and there can be no more caring in the world." he said sadly.

Sophie looked at Tenderheart, still unable to believe that she was the one who could help save Care-a-lot.

"Will you help us, Sophie?" Baby Hugs asked.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had only just gotten to Care-a-lot, let alone hardly knew the Care Bears. But she did know that they were her friends, and she couldn't push them down. That had been done to her, and she would never do that to her new friends.

When she opened her eyes all the Care Bears were waiting for her answer.

Sophie answered, "Yes. I'll help save Care-a-lot."

Everyone cheered.

"Thank you, Sophie!" Wish said.

"You're welcome, Wish Bear."

Tenderheart smiled and got everyone's attention again by tapping a judge's hammer on a heart-shaped pad again. It made a squeaky noise, and Tenderheart looked directly at Funshine.

"Funshine, not again!" Tenderheart said, "This is a serious meeting!"

"Hehe, sorry… I just couldn't help myself!" Funshine said giggling, and gave Tenderheart back the real hammer.

"Now that we have Sophie, there is some help that Care-a-lot can be saved. And Sophie since you are going to help us, there is one thing you must do before you can help us. It's time to take a test!"

"What?" she gawked and looked at Wish Bear for answers.

"It's a caring test." Wish explained.

"Oh."

"Come to the rainbow rescue beam room, and Grumpy and I will get the tester set up."

Everyone got up, as the meeting was over, but they all went to the rainbow rescue beam room. From the side of the room Grumpy pulled out a caring tester that looked like a blood pressure checker at a hospital.

"Are you sure this is for a caring test, and not a doctor's checkup?" she asked.

"You'll pass with flying colors." Cheer said with a big smile.

"Yeah, don't worry." Funshine said.

"Well if you insist…" she sat down in the chair, and put her arm in the sleeve.

"Ready?" Grumpy asked, looking over the computer portion of the machine. There was a monitor on the other side that Sophie couldn't see.

"I guess." she gulped nervously.

The sleeve pressed down on her arm, hurting her a little. But she had gotten her blood pressure done before so she didn't complain.

"Hmm…" Grumpy said, "Something's not right."

"What's the matter?" Tenderheart asked.

"Her score is zero, which is impossible."

Sophie felt sick to her stomach. She looked to Wish Bear, who shrugged.

"Try it again."

"Ok, here goes." Grumpy said, and the sleeve closed down on her arm again.

Sophie took a deep breath to try and calm herself. All the Care Bears waited eagerly for Sophie's test results. She closed her eyes, and imagined that she was hugging her mom.

"And there we have it. Ready to hear your results, Sophie?"

She opened her eyes, and nodded.

"You'll do fine, I'm certain." Wish said.

"Okay. Here are the results. Sophie's current level of caring is at 89%. Which is good, considering most Care Bears score around the high 90's. So there is room for improvement. However…" Tenderheart gasped.

"Her caring potential level is off the charts! I've never seen numbers like these, not even for a Care Bear." Grumpy finished.

"What? How is that possible?" Sophie asked.

"It's because you're not perfect, but have lots of room in your heart to grow and learn to care." Cheer explained.

"That's good." Sophie nodded.

Grumpy helped Sophie get her arm out of the sleeve, and since she had passed the caring test, Tenderheart came up to her holding something.

"Sophie, I want to give you something."

"What is it?" she asked.

In his paws was a beautiful star shaped necklace, outlined with rainbows and clouds, and speckled with little ruby hearts on the edges. It was a very beautiful necklace.

"It's so pretty." Sophie said, admiring it.

"It's not just for looks. This necklace holds your caring power. It's like your very own Care Bear symbol, and you can use the Care Bear Stare against your enemies, but you must use your own caring power." Tenderheart explained.

"Wow!" she said as he placed it in her hand, "Thank you Tenderheart."

Wish Bear helped her put it on after she admired it.

"It looks lovely on you, sweetie." Love-a-lot said.

Sophie smiled.

"Now, how about a real tour of Care-a-lot?" Wish said.

"Yeah!"

"She's gotta know the place that she's going to save." Funshine added.

Everyone agreed.

First was a tour of the Hall of Hearts. Wish Bear, Cheer and Funshine lead the tour while the other bears went off on their Caring Missions. Tenderheart, Grams, Share, and the Cubs stayed behind. Share started to help Grams with dinner. The cubs were playing a game on the living room floor with cards. Tenderheart stayed in the rainbow rescue beam room, and made sure the beam was in perfect working order.

Sophie loved visiting Wish Bear's room. She had a bunk bed, for the purpose of having guests like Sophie over. Her room was aqua and space themed. Her ceiling was decorated with glimmering stars, and there wasn't a thing in her room that wasn't shaped like a star. She even had a starry plush that she slept with to remind her of her best friend Twinkers the wishing star buddy.

"I love your room!" Sophie said.

"Thank you. And you'll be sleeping on the top bunk tonight." she smiled.

"Yay!"

"Now on to my room, come on let's go, let's go!" Cheer said, jumping up and down with joy.

She took Sophie by the hand and whisked her to her rainbow-themed room. Wish and Funshine rushed after them holding each other's paws.

"Wow!" Sophie said.

Cheer's room was all pink and rainbow, and it even had a mini art studio by the window. She had quite a lot of roller skates and pom-poms in every color of the rainbow. Cheer jumped on her bed while Sophie looked around.

"So do you like it?"

"Yes! It's so colorful."

"I love rainbows!" Cheer exclaimed, and squealed with excitement.

Next they moved on to Funshine's room. His was sunny and bright, and it even had a skylight. Lots of items were solar powered, like his alarm clock. His bed was yellow and round, like a sun. Not to mention he had a flat screen TV and plenty of gaming councils plugged into the walls. His collection of games was incredible too, it was stacked from floor to ceiling.

"The fun starts here!" Funshine said, "I'm never bored in here."

"I can imagine!" Sophie giggled.

They visited the rest of the Bear's rooms. Then they stopped by the kitchen. After that it was time to go outside in the backyard.

In the distance Sophie saw the Moody Mountains, which were purple and blue.

"In the biggest mountain over there is the Care-o-mine, where our most precious resource of Caring Crystals is mined." Wish told Sophie.

"It sounds pretty." Sophie said.

On the porch was a grill, and a family sized table with plenty of rainbow-colored chairs. There was enough to fit more than thirty hungry guests!

In the backyard there was a swing set, a pool, volleyball net, and a fountain. There were rainbow colored trees surrounding the property line. The sun was beginning to sink into the late afternoon. Birds flew and sang their pretty songs.

They went to the left side of the yard and spotted the Rainbow River a few paces away. Beyond the river was the Forest of Feelings where the Care Bear Cousins lived. There were so many beautiful rainbow trees that Sophie thought she was looking at a painting.

"Wow! It's so pretty."

"Yes it is. And you'll get to visit it, I'm certain." Cheer said.

"I can't wait!" Sophie said.

Wish smiled and said, "Now that we've just showed you the grounds of the Hall of Hearts, let's go hop in the cloud car for a grand tour of all of Care-a-lot!"

"Yeah! Road trip!" Funshine said excitedly.

Together the four of them went to a circle next to the Hall of Hearts. Wish simply whispered into a random star buddy's ear, and then that Star buddy went and fetched a heart buddy. Together they swirled around each other and a cloud car poofed into existence.

"That's cool!" Sophie commented.

"Yeah! Now let's get in. First stop, the Care-a-lot Castle." Wish said.

Everyone climbed in, and off they went.

They drove over the Forest of Feelings. In the center there was a huge rainbow-colored tree that flickered with color. That was the main tree of the Forest, which was like the Cousin's meeting hall, just like the Hall of Hearts. Instead it was the Tree of Feelings.

Wish drove them over to the Castle but they didn't land. They were up high in the air, close to the birds.

"There's the castle." Wish said, "It's very pretty."

"Yes it is. Will I get to go inside sometime?"

"Hopefully soon. This is just a quick look." Wish said.

Cheer and Funshine were chatting in the back seat about one of Funshine's games. He was talking about a scary final boss.

Then they flew all around Care-a-lot. The sun began to set as they headed over the Rainbow Town, the Caring Farms, and got a glimpse of the National Space Center. Then they hurried to catch a glimpse of the Rainbow Capital City, which was aglow with golden sunlight. Then they flew back to the Hall of Hearts, just in time for dinner.

Sophie and Wish Bear got their food of pizza and soup.

"So, what was your favorite part of the tour?" Wish asked.

"Seeing your room!" Sophie said, which got both of them giggling.

At dinner everyone was chatting but Sophie noticed that a lot of the Bears were worried and seemed beat down. She took another bite of delicious supreme pizza.

"Well it really seems like we have a problem. I've never failed a mission before." Good Luck Bear said, almost in tears.

He was sitting next to them and he hadn't even touched his pizza or soup.

"It's okay, Good Luck Bear." Sophie tried to comfort him.

"It's really not. Care-a-lot… Care-a-lot really needs help." he said, "Care-a-lot needs you."

Sophie was full now. She got Tenderheart's attention.

"Yes, Sophie?"

"What do I have to do to become the Queen of Care-a-lot?"

Everyone became quiet.

"Well, I'm glad you asked. There are three objects you must find… they have been scattered over Care-a-lot in three locations. But they are lost so I'm not exactly sure where they are, you see. I only found hints in the book." he said.

"What are the things I hafta find?" she asked leaning in.

"The shield, a staff of caring, and a crown." he answered, "They are very important, just like your caring necklace."

Sophie nodded.

"Also you're going to need friends!" Friend Bear said, "Five humans to be exact."

"What? Aren't all of you enough?" Sophie gawked. She could hardly imagine having one friend, let alone five.

Friend shook her head. "You see Sophie, when your adventure here is over, don't you want to have some friends back home?"

Sophie shook her head.

"No. They'll just push me down."

"Those aren't friends." Friend Bear said.

"Come one everyone, let's lighten up!" Funshine complained.

Tenderheart told him, "Not now, Funshine."

He grumbled and took a bite of pizza.

Tenderheart said, "Friend Bear is right. You need five human friends. That will be our first priority tomorrow. First off, why don't you just get two. Funshine, Cheer, Wish and Friend, you can all help her learn about friendship."