As usual, Barbie was aroused by the sound of her phone playing KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See", a song she'd grown to love during her time in the Real World. She got up with a little yawn, smoothing out her pink silk pajamas so they wouldn't get too wrinkled, then started combing her long blond hair with a purple hairbrush while looking at herself in the small mirror set up around her drawers.
A portrait of herself with President Barbie was placed to the left of the mirror, another in which she was standing around a tree with her sisters Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea was in the middle, while to the right was a picture of herself, Sasha, Ella, and Sam that was taken the first time they went to a movie together. She smiled briefly towards all these pictures, then went back to her self-examination.
"Not bad," she said, nodding approvingly at herself. "No zits, no wrinkles, no bags under my eyes, and those two pounds I must have gained from yesterday's mocha frappe seem to be making me look better, not worse. You look fine, Barbie. Absolutely fine."
Just then, she heard a soft purring sound coming from under her bed. It was Annie, the small gray cat she'd taken in after finding the little feline all alone and scared in the park when she'd gone out there one morning with Sasha. Barbie had instantly wanted to make the cat her own pet, but Sasha suggested she try finding out if she had an owner first. After two weeks of putting out fliers and asking random strangers in the park if the cat was theirs, they'd put off the search and Annie officially became Barbie's first real pet. Luckily, the apartment in which Barbie had been living in for the past four months welcomed all pets, so she no longer had to worry about being completely alone when she was in her new home.
"Hi there, Annie," Barbie said in a sweet voice as she patted Annie's head. "How did you sleep last night?"
Annie gave a quick, joyful meow, meaning she'd slept just fine. Back in Barbieland, an often overlooked Zoologist Barbie had taught Barbie how to understand the hidden language of many animals. Although many of the pets kept in Barbieland were nothing like the animals of the Real World, the animals Zoologist Barbie worked with resembled the animals Barbie saw here much more. Understanding animal communication wasn't really something that required magic or a twisted sense of logic, but rather spending a lot of time observing an animal's behavior and how they communicated, especially when expressing strong emotions. Zoologist Barbie had her observing dogs, cats, birds, and mice for a month and taking notes on everything she noticed, and within a month, Barbie came to understand how these animals used language. Upon entering the Real World, she used these same methods with Annie with just as much success, to the point where she felt as if she could understand her almost as much as if she were a human.
"How great!" Barbie said to Annie. "Now, are you hungry yet?"
Annie responded with a more urgent meow, meaning she wanted a bite to eat as soon as possible. And when Annie was hungry, you had to feed her as soon as possible or else she'd find her own way of obtaining food. Once, Barbie had forgotten to give her lunch, and Annie somehow got out of the apartment on her own, went outside (it didn't help that Barbie lived on the first floor), and devoured a pigeon that had been lingering around the doorsteps. A neighbor had found Annie and returned her to Barbie, explaining what happened in shock, and Barbie had scolded Annie for having eaten a poor innocent animal. But the lesson was learned easily enough; Barbie now made sure to feed Annie regularly and to keep her away from any critters that might be roaming around.
"All right, Annie. Your breakfast will be right up very soon," Barbie promised.
Annie gave a satisfied meow and followed Barbie as she left her room and went into the kitchen. Before she got started, she went on her phone, connected it to some large Bluetooth speakers, and within seconds she started hearing music from her "Happy Morning Vibes" playlist , with the Happy Days Theme song being the first song that was played.
Barbie happily sung along as she first set up a bowl of Friskies for Annie and then began taking out eggs, vegetables, and turkey bacon to make her own breakfast. At first, she hadn't been very fond of cooking, frustrated by all the measuring and steps it involved to get it all right. But upon watching several videos of quick and healthy recipes through YouTube and TikTok, including several where people listened to upbeat songs while cooking, she suddenly found the task very fun. One of these videos had been of a woman listening to the Happy Days Theme song while making an omelet, so even through had Barbie yet to watch a single episode of Happy Days, she now always listened to its theme song when making breakfast.
Within half an hour, Barbie had prepared a spinach and cheese omelet accompanied by turkey bacon, wheat toast with butter, and decaf coffee. She ate well enough, with little concern about calories or whether or not she should have added as much sugar to her coffee as she did. She'd come to realize how little any of that mattered. As long as she made sure she was eating enough of everything each day and committed to exercising regularly, she would be fine, and that was that.
When she finished eating, she glanced at the time on her phone and nodded. "Just two more hours until I find out what world I'll be visiting next, Annie. Isn't that exciting?"
Annie gave a slow meow that almost sounded like a moan, meaning she wasn't as enthusiastic about the whole thing as Barbie was. Annie was a loner, often preferring to be on her own if she wasn't with Barbie and wasn't very welcoming of other humans or animals who wanted to share space with her unless she'd grown accustomed to seeing them, as was the case with Sasha and Gloria.
Barbie laughed. "Don't be such a downer, Annie. I'm sure you'll eventually grow to love whoever our new guests will be."
Annie let out that slow meow again, probably meaning she didn't even want to think about it. And knowing how things had gone when the Toy Story gang was staying over, Barbie didn't want to think too much about it either.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Barbie jumped up from her chair and practically raced over to the door. She was almost certain it would be Sasha, so she took this to mean she should be prepared to take off soon. She already had all her essentials in her black Chanel bag: her notebook for important notes, the forms she had to go over and fill out before taking part in a mission, her iPhone, and her miniature makeup kit and mirror. If she had to leave now, she could do so easily enough.
But instead of Sasha, it was Erica, who was Barbie's neighbor. She wore her long brown hair in a neat ponytail and was wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans. "Good morning, Barbie!" she said with a warm smile.
"Hi, Erica, "Barbie said, grateful that she hadn't greeted her by saying "Hi, Barbie" which brought back a few unpleasant memories now. "How's it going this morning?"
Erica and one of her cousins ran a bakery around a neighborhood that was popular with the city's artists, and due to its modest success, she was able to live quite well despite the Real World's rather shaky economy. When Barbie had moved to this apartment building four months before, Erica had been one of her first friends here, and she was always available to help her out with chores, hang out with her during her free days, go to the gym with her, and give her treats from the bakery. By night, she was the lead singer for a rock band that often got gags in nightclubs and parties. When Barbie had moved to this apartment four months before, Erica had become one of her first friends there, always being there for her when she needed help or just someone to hang out with. She had also been one of the few individuals not affiliated with Mattel or the CCW to know Barbie's story, and the fact that she treated Barbie normally despite all she knew about her and what she currently did was another reason Barbie considered her to be a good friend.
"Oh, it's been going well," Erica told her. "I just wanted to let you know that if you wanted to do laundry today, you might have to wait a while before doing so. I tried doing my laundry just now, and the machine started malfunctioning just minutes after I got it started. Now half of my clothes are soaked and I have no idea when I can get in contact with the superintendent so something can be done about this."
"I'm sorry about that, Erica," Barbie said. "I have the superintendent's number, so I could try leaving him a message on your behalf. Also, if you need good clothes to wear, feel free to borrow some of my own if you want to."
Erica laughed. "Oh, thank you very much, but that won't be necessary. I have almost as much clothes as you do now, so I'll certainly find something to wear. Also, I'll be baking cookies at the bakery today. Would you mind if I dropped some over for you around the afternoon?"
"Of course not, Erica."
"All right, Barbie. I appreciate how much you…"
"Barbie?" a familiar demanding voice called out from the apartment halls. "Barbie, are you ready to go yet?"
It was Sasha, who was carrying a large bag of her own and dressed in a long-sleeved red shirt and gray leggings, looking well prepared for the day.
"Hey, Sasha," Barbie said with a friendly smile. "I'm ready to go. Erica here was just letting me know about something important before I left."
"What exactly? How to make sugar -free cupcakes?"
Erica chuckled, long used to Sasha's sense of humor by now. "No, sweetheart. I was just letting Barbie know that the laundry machines aren't working well. I wouldn't want her to have to find out the hard way."
"Well, since Barbie is a little fond of cleanliness, she probably already did the laundry. And don't call me 'sweetheart'. It sounds so patronizing."
But despite how scornful Sasha sounded, she smiled as she spoke, letting them know she wasn't too serious about all this.
"Now, I say we should get going before we're both left off much busier than we should be," Barbie said. Turning to Erica, she said, "Bye, Erica. Thanks once again for letting me know. And I'll be sure to tell you which world we're visiting next tonight."
"Oh, yes! I can't wait to find out. And if it happens to be the world of Xena: Warrior Princess or Sailor Moon, be sure to ask their CEO if someone else can come along with you."
"I'll see about it," Barbie said, although she doubted anyone at the CCW would grantee such a request. "Come on, Sasha. Time to go."
"All right, Barbie. I'm all set to find out which wacky maniacs we'll be bringing home next."
Annie let out a rather desperate meow as they all left, making her own thoughts about the whole matter perfectly clear once again.
…
As they drove in Barbie's blue convertible, Barbie and Sasha talked about many different things, including how things were going with Sasha in school, how Gloria was trying to oversee certain changes at Mattel regarding advertising for Barbie dolls (with mixed results), and what they each hoped would be the next world they'd be visiting.
"I'm sort of hoping it will be Scooby Doo," Sasha admitted. "I've always secretly loved the cartoons, even the ones with Scrappy Doo that everyone else seems to hate. They're so ridiculous, but also very fun and often dealing with some pretty good mysteries. I'd love having an excuse to do some real detective work."
"Scooby Doo? Is that the cartoon with the funny- looking van and the teenaged detectives with a weird dog?" Barbie asked.
"Yeah, Barbie. It's good to see that you're getting some of your pop culture facts straight for once," Sasha replied. "Anyway, it may be a crazy world, but I'd still like to go and meet the characters. And when we get them in the real world, we could see if it goes the way it does in the live action movies."
"Okay, Sasha. If you say so. Maybe I could learn to love it as much as you do. Now, I'd personally like to either enter that world of that one movie we saw the other day where four children go inside a wardrobe and enter a fantasy world with the weird goat people and the wise lion…"
"You mean The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?"
"Yeah. That movie. Or that show called Doctor Who, where the Time Lord travels through time and space through a police box. I'd certainly want the chance to travel through time and go into the Real World's version of space."
"That could be fun. So basically, you like all the worlds with a travel portal that's bigger on the inside?"
"Now that you put it that way, I guess I do."
"Interesting."
Barbie then remembered a favor she'd asked of Sasha. "Sasha, did you print out the papers from the library like I asked you to?"
Sasha now looked a bit worried. "I couldn't do it, Barbie. I'm sorry, but the library's printer was broken last night, and I couldn't do it at home because my dad was using the computer for work."
Barbie sighed. "Great, just great. The people behind my next assignment aren't going to be so happy about this."
"If they're anything like the people behind Toy Story, I don't think they'll even notice that you're missing certain papers. If you have most of the others, you should be fine. And besides, in case you haven't noticed, I've been quite busy with school recently. High school's tough. Having to juggle a ton of homework each night, along with extracurriculars and helping you out for your work is far from easy."
"I know, Sasha, but my work's also far from easy. Are you sure you can still handle working alongside me?"
"I still want to, Barbie. I just need you to be aware that there's a limit to what I can do for you. Just as I have come to accept your own limits over time, you should do the same thing for me."
Barbie was silent for a while. She understood all too well what Sasha wanted, but she was trying to get the hang of being human and living in the real world on top of having to handle a ton of characters who had to make their own adjustments too. Because of this, she couldn't always take the time to consider what her friends were going through, and she would sometimes try getting them to help her at times that were rather inconvenient for them. She didn't mean to do this, but due to her struggles and workload, it could be hard to her to take in the fact that those who've always been a part of the Real World had their own struggles too.
"All right, Sasha. We'll try talking about this later. Right now, we have a job to do."
The Corporation for Creative Worlds, or the CCW, had originally formed in 1850 as a secret organization among publishers and booksellers in New York. Due to the increase in literacy and the popularity of novelists like Charles Dickens, the interest in creative worlds was starting to go up, and these people wanted to make these worlds something which was more than just the fantasies of children or creative minds; they wanted to make them real and tangible worlds where fictional worlds and characters could have a life of their own.
There were many tales as to how exactly this was done, ranging from witchcraft that was performed as someone read out loud from a creator's books to special machines that were attached to the brains of creators that turned their daydreams into realities. But somehow, through private meetings, negotiations with writers and other creators, and wild stories that booksellers would tell children and adults alike, these worlds ended up becoming a reality. By the CCW's 80th anniversary, directors and producers started becoming initiated into the organization to better manage the increase in worlds that came about thanks to the growing popularity of movies, and by their 100th anniversary, they were the most influential secret organizations in the world.
Now, the CCW had five main branches, with their California location being their second largest. From the outside, it looked like any ordinary building in the city, being four stories tall, painted gray, and with the letters CCW engraved at the top of the door. On the inside, however, it looked like the inside of a bookstore or museum, with dozens of pictures of popular characters, logos, book covers, and movie and TV posters adorning the walls of every corner. Some were painted right on the walls, while others appeared through portraits, posters, and even drawings.
Barbie loved this building, and almost wished she could live or work there all the time. She especially loved the large vintage picture of herself wearing the famous black- and -white swimsuit which came with the original version of her doll that could be found at the entrance of the building's toy department. Aside from this, she also loved the Alice in Wonderland illustrations (straight from the original novel by Lewis Carroll) that could be found towards the main entrance, the portrait of Raggedy Ann and Andy that appeared beside a display of early 20th century toys within the toy section, and the large picture of the original cover of The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, featuring Lucy and Susan with Aslan the lion, that could be found in the literature department.
Barbie and Sasha entered the main office, where a caricature of a fat businessman shaking his finger that was taken from some unidentified 19th century novel was placed towards the top of the door. "At least they're honest about what to expect here," Sasha said with a smirk as they went inside.
But the man that greeted them this time looked nothing like the caricature in the door. Instead, he was a young and lean person with olive skin who greeted them with a friendly smile. "Good morning, ladies," he said as he shook their hands. "My name is Miguel and I'll be the one of those in charge of overseeing your next assignment. Now, just between us, I've always been a fan of yours, Barbie. When my younger sister played with her Barbies, I would often join her during her games, and it got to the point where my parents decided to buy one for me. Of course, I did a ton of weird things with her, like give her hair red highlights with a marker and have her riding a toy army tank along with my GI Joe doll, but still, I once brought the doll to show and tell, and…"
"All right, Miguel. I don't think Barbie wants to hear a long story about your Weird Barbie," Sasha interrupted. "You do realize she's heard about a dozen stories like yours before, right? Just give us our assignment and save your weird stories for your lunch buddies, okay?"
Miguel chuckled. "Wow. Your assistant here is certainly a feisty one, Barbie. How long has she been working for you?"
Sasha instantly glared when he called her an assistant, but before she could say anything, Barbie spoke up. "Sasha's not my assistant, Miguel. She's a friend of mine who I've known since I first entered the Real World. We didn't exactly start off on the right foot, but we get along quite well now, and she often helps me out during my assignments."
"Oh. Apologies for the misunderstanding, Sasha," Miguel said, but got no response from the girl aside from a bored look. "And you do have a point. I probably am taking too much of your time. So, I've got all the paperwork for your next assignment right here in this portfolio. If you've got everything we've asked of you, that's fine, but I'm not really requiring it all right now. I realize how time consuming it must be for you, so I'll give you another week to give us everything if you need it."
Both Barbie and Sasha looked relieved. "Thank you so much, Miguel," Barbie said. "I happen to have half of what you need right now, but we had some difficulties obtaining the rest, so we'll be bringing it over in a couple days. Could I still hand it over
"Of course you can, Barbie" And after she handed Miguel all the paperwork she'd completed, he said, "Thanks for making this work slightly easier. Now, I just have to ask you two questions before you can officially get started."
"All right. What is it?"
"First of all, how comfortable are you working with children who could be between the ages of seven and eleven?"
"I've had the chance to look after some young children through my work, so I think I could handle it," Barbie said, not wanting to mention that her only times doing so was when she looked after Bonnie and some her school friends from Toy Story and when she looked after her younger sisters in Barbieland (when she got to briefly live with them, that is). She was actually looking forward to working with children and didn't want to admit towards her slight lack of experience.
Sasha just whispered, "I guess that rules out Scooby Doo."
"Okay," Miguel continued. "Now, how would you feel about once again working with anthropomorphic animals and handling the challenges that come with them becoming human upon entering the Real World?"
Sasha grinned while Barbie chuckled. "I think my experience with Ella's animal friends during my first assignment taught me enough about that, so I wouldn't mind doing it a second time."
"All right," Miguel said with a nod. "In that case, here's where you'll be going for your next assignment. If either of you have any questions or concerns, feel free to bring them up. Personally, I'm quite excited about it because this is a childhood favorite of mine, and I hope you will be too."
Sasha looked up at Barbie curiously, and Barbie carefully looked through the first page in the portfolio. It featured colored illustrations of a little boy wearing a yellow shirt with black zigzags hugging a dog with white fur and black ears, along with a small yellow bird flying above the only three words featured on the page, which said the following:
Welcome to Peanutsland!
It should be noted that there are some differences between Barbie's life in Barbieland in the movie and in this story, and one of the biggest changes I'll be making is that her sisters are present in this story (Skipper is in the movie, but I don't think she was there as her sister), although as we'll see in later chapters, the definition of "sisters" in Barbieland is quite different from that of the Real World. There will also be other versions of Barbie mentioned, some of which will reference actual Barbies while others, like Zoologist Barbie in this chapter, will just be versions that I come up with.
I'll be making an effort to update this story more regularly, but if you're interested in reading ahead, you can check out additional chapters on Archive of Our Own, in which I've recently posted up to chapter five. My username there is the same as it is here.