CHAPTER 4 – Sudden Movements

That evening, when Bonnie was downstairs eating dinner, the toys gathered for a short staff meeting. Woody, as always, took the lead role in the meeting, In the absence of RC there was no way to carry his voice, but they were a small enough gathering to warrant the lack of use of a mic anyway.

Jessie was one of the first ones there, having spent the remaining portion of that afternoon in a doze due to her lack of sleep from the night before. And in these restless states, she saw Buzz. It was like he was permanently engraved on the back of her eyelids.

Someone sat down beside her with a thud, and she turned, half expecting to see Buzz, but inside saw it was Rex, who was gabbling away to Trixie about defeating Zurg on a computer game, and the female dino was listening with rapture.

"Hey cowgirl," the warm breath of the greeting to her other side made her jump, and she found herself face to face with Buzz himself. He'd also sat down very close to her – whether on purpose or merely by accident, she didn't know - but she was tightly wedged between him and Rex, and there was little else to do than accept it. She shifted slightly, feeling awkward. Buzz broke the silence first. "Any thoughts?"

"On what?" She questioned, confused.

"On what I was speaking to you about earlier?" Buzz reminded her.

"Oh." The memory of the 'relationship' conversation was brought to the forefront of her brain, and she shook her head, "sorry Buzz. I've been asleep since then. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Funny that. Me either, a certain toy woke me up." Buzz indicated Woody, who was taking the stage for the meeting.

"Ok thank you everyone for coming," Woody greeted them all with a smile, "I'm sure we'd all like to thank Mr Pricklepants, Buttercup, Dolly, Trixie and Chuckles for making us feel so welcome. On behalf of everyone, a great big cuddly hug of a thank you from us to you."

Jessie noticed several of the other toys wincing at the world "hug" – no doubt their brains were forcing them to remember Lotso. Woody must have noticed it to, for he cleared his throat and looked slightly uncomfortable, before carrying on.

"Next item of business, sleeping arrangements. Bonnie's room is very different to Andy's, as I'm sure you are all aware. Any toys that are not relegated at night to the bed can either choose to sleep on the shelves, or under the bed. Because Bonnie is little, and used to plush toys, she won't be very happy if she happens to get out of bed and step on...well, something hard and plastic like Rex's tail. And I'm sure Rex doesn't want a broken tail."

"Argh," exclaimed Rex. "Is Bonnie going to step on me?" He looked worried, and Woody sighed.

"No Rex, it's just an example, for crying out loud."

"I don't want to be stepped on!" Rex said to Trixie, who nodded in understanding.

In front of them Mr Potato Head turned, "Will you shut up you big lizard, some of us are trying to listen!"

"Will you guys break it up," Buzz uttered from next to Jessie, and she looked over at him. "They're giving me a headache," he complained.

Jessie giggled and turned her attention back to Woody at the front, who was now going on about schedules for the week, and how everyone should pitch in to establish the routine in the house. After that, Woody asked if anyone had any other business, but there was none, so the staff meeting was adjourned, and all the toys shuffled off to make use of the time until Bonnie came upstairs to play before bed. When Rex moved besides her, Jessie ducked to avoid his tail swishing around and inadvertently found herself leaning across Buzz, who froze until she moved.

"Well cowgirl, that was a great...erm... assessment of the situation," Buzz praised her. "That lizard king really does need to mind his tail. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if it did get snapped off."

Jessie smiled, as Buzz hopped up and helped her to her feet. She rose shyly, aware they were holding hands again, but Buzz noticed nothing and simply let go of her once she'd got up. She blinked, watching him turn and saunter off. Perhaps Buzz was never going to look at her in –that- way. Perhaps it was best to give up?

Buzz walked across the room to the tea table, where Hamm, Mr Potato Head and Slinky were playing tiddlywinks. "Hey Buzz," Slinky called enthusiastically, "we could use a fourth, you want in?"

"Sure, springy dog," Buzz hopped up onto the table. He picked up the red counter, and the game began, all the toys taking it in turns to flip counters, but when they grew bored of such a generic game, they all started flipping the counters at the same time. The floor was suddenly strewn with counters – in fact there were more counters on the floor than in the cup!

"This is boring," Slinky finally conceded.

"Yeah." Hamm agreed.

"You know what you turkeys might enjoy," Mr Potato Head offered, and they all looked at him expectantly. "A nice game of spin the bottle."

"Spin the bottle? Oh you have to be kidding me," complained Hamm.

Buzz blinked. "I'm sorry, spin the bottle? What is that?"

"Well, spaceman, it's simple. You get a few girls and a few guys together, and you put a bottle in the middle. You spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on, you have to kiss. Simple enough, right?"

"Ugh. That sounds...not quite right. And I don't think we have a bottle anywhere anyway.."

"We could use the milk jug from the tea set," Slinky put forward, "but I agree with Buzz. It is a bit of a stupid game."

"Well then you turkeys are gonna have to figure something else out." Potato Head snapped.

"Hey, how about truth or dare" asked Hamm, and Slinky visibly brightened.

"I don't know what that is either," Buzz said apologetically.

"Simple," Hamm grinned, " you just pick a person to do truth or dare. Truth, you ask them a question and they HAVE to answer it, and dare, well you dare them to do something, and if they don't...well then they forfeit. You can also add double dare – where the toy asking you the dare has to do it as well – and kiss – where you have to choose someone to kiss."

"That just sounds like the first one but with loads more options and no bottle." Buzz pointed out.

"Well its either that or spin the bottle, your choice."

"Fine!" Buzz threw up his hands. "I choose truth or dare."