Chapter 1: Love

"AHHH!"

The scream was heard throughout headquarters for well over 60 seconds before someone decided to step in.

"Ugh, I'm getting real tired of Fear's constant yelping. It's disgusting to my ears, quite frankly," said Disgust.

"It's INFURIATING! SOMEONE BETTER HOLD ME BACK BEFORE I LOSE MY TEMPER!" added Anger.

"You're temper is just as bad," replied Disgust.

"You know, I read that screaming for that long can have very serious consequences on a person's vocal chords and their lungs. It'd be very sad if he died. I'm sure Joy could help, right?" asked Sadness.

"You betcha!" Joy jumped around. "I'd be more than happy to help!"

Joy walked over to Fear who was crouched on the floor, rocking back and forth, and still continuing his single-breathe scream.

"What seems to be the problem, Fear?"

"It's terrible! I accidentally pressed the button labeled 'puberty'!" answered Fear.

The other emotions looked at him in shock.

"Oh, that's amazing! Now we'll get to see what that button even does!"

"But what if puberty means self-destruct!?" exclaimed Fear.

"Don't worry, there'd never be a button like that!"

"What if it causes Riley to become extremely gross and icky? I don't think I could deal with that," said Disgust.

Sadness looked straight at Disgust, holding a book labeled "puberty." "She's actually not far off. I guess that's it for our little Riley, it was nice while it lasted."

Disgust went over to Sadness and took the book from her hands, skimmed the first few pages, and immediately ran to the bathroom. The emotions just stared at the bathroom door for a seconds as they heard Disgust throwing up.

Breaking the silence, Joy began to speak. "Uhh...it can't be all bad, right Sadness? Let me see that book." Sadness handed her the book. "Yikes, this is...this is some pretty heavy stuff. But hey, look! It talks about love! Love is wonderful and it will be completely new to Riley!"

"But Joy, don't you already know most of what love is?" asked Sadness.

"Well yes, but this is a different kind of love! Romantic love! I'm sure Riley is going to love it! It's such a joyful feeling! I'm sure Riley's going to love plenty of boys and I can't wait to make her feel so happy when she's with them!"

"Woah! Who said anything about loving boys? I'll have you know that women are the way to go!" yelled Anger.

"Maybe to you, but Riley's a girl," answered Joy.

Sadness then flipped to the chapter in the book titled "Love." "Actually, guys, it says here that love can have many forms and isn't always strictly prohibited to liking one gender."

"Really? Well, ok, then, I guess I stand corrected! We'll let her choose whoever her heart chooses! Now, which one of us actually knows about romantic love and who she'd want to be with?" Joy looked around. The emotions just stared back at her, blankly. "No one?" Disgust stepped out of the bathroom, catching Joy's attention, but she just shrugged as well. "Wait, how are we supposed to help Riley through puberty if we don't know the first thing about love!? Truly none of you know anything about love?"

"I do."

Joy heard a faint response to her question coming from behind her. She turned around only to see a dark, shadowy area of headquarters. "Is there someone there?" asked Joy.

At that moment, a figure started to step out of the darkness. As more light was shining on her, she was now clearly visible to everyone. Sporting a hot pink dress with a white heart pattern all over it, her skin was a slightly brighter shade of pink and her hair was purple. She had matching heart shaped earrings and a necklace that carried a locket shaped like a heart. As for her facial features, she had a tiny dot of a nose, but beautiful purple eyes that sparkled as if they were the ocean and the sun was glimmering on them. As well as that, she had small, but cute lips that just made her look adorable. Lastly, she wore slippers that matched the color of her hair and eyes and carried little white fuzz balls at the tips. Overall, she was quite the sight to see.

"Yes, I'm here," the girl said.

"Hello there! How'd you get here? Who are you?" asked Joy.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure how I got here, to be honest." The girl's voice was very soft and childlike, but at the same time it was somewhat smooth and soothing. The kind of voice you could never get tired of listening to. "The last thing I remember was hearing the one you call 'Fear' screaming and then talking about pressing the puberty button. Maybe I'm here because of something that button did? Either way, my name is Love. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Love held out her hand which Joy instantly shook

"Love! I was hoping someone like you would show up! I'm so happy to have you here with us! We're gonna have so much fun!"

Love looked surprised to see so much enthusiasm come from one person as Joy shook her hand furiously.

"Let's bring you over to the console and see what you can do!" said Joy.

The two walked toward the console while the others huddled around them to see what would happen. They watched the main screen and saw Riley at school.

It was passing time and Riley was getting her binder for the following class. The emotions watched as her best friend walked up to her.

Riley had met her newest best friend her first week of school. Her homeroom class had to fill out a worksheet of different things they had as favorites, such as favorite food, favorite type of music, favorite movie, and so on. There were nine favorites total. After handing in the worksheet, sometime during the next couple of days, they would get paired up with someone who shared a favorite with them, and would be their partner for the rest of the month. Well, it just so happens that the first month of school was based off of everyone's favorite sport, so naturally, Riley had gotten paired up with someone whose favorite sport was hockey. And there wasn't anybody Riley'd be able to get along with better than her! Her name was Tiffany.

Tiffany looked somewhat like Riley, and somewhat not. She had blonde hair, like Riley's, but she grew it out longer and sported 2 ponytails (one on each side). She was also several inches taller than Riley. Their faces were similar too, though Tiffany's face looked slightly more feminine.

It had been a year now and both Riley and Tiffany were 13 years old. Today, the two had back to back classes together. Science first, followed by Language Arts. Tiffany had grabbed both her folders for those classes, so she was just following Riley to her locker before they would go to their next class together.

"Ugh, I really wish we could read books that are actually interesting," said Riley as she put her binder and her class novel in her backpack.

"Right? Why would I even need to know how to kill a mockingbird? Why would I even want to?" Tiffany replied.

"So true!" Riley put her backpack on and got ready to close her locker.

That's when Love decided to press some buttons.

"Now's as good of a time as any, right?" asked Love.

"I don't see why not," replied Sadness.

Love pressed a variety of buttons and began to glow as they were being pressed.

Riley simply stared at Tiffany as it happened. After a few seconds, she said "Y'know, you're...really pretty." She sounded almost as if she were in a trance. A smile crept upon her face.

"Oh, thanks Riley! You're pretty too!" Tiffany smiled. Riley kept staring into her eyes. "Uhh, you ok, Riley? Hello?" She waved her hands in front of Riley's face, snapping her out of it, just as soon as Love stopped pressing buttons to see what would happen.

"I mean, woah, wait what!?" Riley became very nervous and embarrassed to what had just happened, or at least what she was thinking about what could have happened.

"What's going on, Riley? You're face is getting all red!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"I-it's nothing." Riley stopped making eye contact with her. "Um, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick, you can go ahead to class I'll meet you there." Tiffany agreed and they waved to each other. Riley looked up at her friend once more, and thought to herself that she looked very cute. That followed by blushing once again.

Riley ran to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. "What is wrong with me?" she thought to herself. She believed in her heart that this wasn't normal, but she couldn't deny how attractive she found Tiffany to be.

"Oh no! Did I do something wrong? Is there something wrong with me?" asked Love.

"No, no, well, not exactly. It's just that, that was Riley's best friend Tiffany, so I suppose this may feel a little...awkward for Riley," said Riley.

"And now she'll never see her best friend the same way again." Sadness sighed.

"Ew! She can not fall in love with her best friend, that is gross on so many levels. She's like family!"

"What's been done is done. It's ok. That was Love's first try and I'm sure it's only uphill from here, right Love?" assured Joy.

Love started to blush herself and her face became a darker shade of red than usual. "I, well, um...I'll try."

"That's the spirit!" Joy excitedly yelled.

Love smiled now, hoping for the best. And then, something happened.

Joy watched Love as she, sort of, twitched. A neck spasm, or something; Joy couldn't exactly tell. Love also went wide-eyed at that moment. After a split second she was back to normal.

"What was that about?" asked Joy.

"What was what about?" Love looked just as confused as Joy.

"Uh, nothing. Don't worry about it. It's probably nothing."

Probably nothing.