I
Everything had gone on swimmingly since the near disaster of the emotions causing Riley to run away. The move from Minnesota to California would be jarring to anyone, but throw an eleven-year-old into the mix and a disaster was almost inevitable. After all, it was easy for an adult to pack up and move onto new things but for a child it was the end of the world. It was a change that caused stress for them all, especially Mr. Anderson. His stress could be felt throughout the house which prompted Mrs. Anderson to ask Riley to try and see the bright side of the situation. Only…people can't stay happy for too long. Something had to give. And it certainly didn't help that Sadness touched a core memory and turned it blue.
But that was in the past. Riley's sixteen now, her emotions know how to work well together and they all have their rightful place in her mind. They love their girl and only want to do what's best for her. They had no problems in the past five years, they had everything under control.
Until Mattie Fisher came to town.
"Rise and shine, guys! Rise. And. Shine!" Joy trilled, bounding around the floor of Headquarters. "Today's a new day! The best day! It's the first day of school!"
"Oh no, not again!" Fear whined. "I thought we did this last year!"
"Ugh," Disgust grunted. She pressed her mouth against her hand to stifle the yawn that had momentarily seized her. "Why do you insist on getting us up early every year? Haven't you ever heard of beauty sleep?"
Joy laughed off her friends' complaints. They just didn't see how wonderful the first day of school could be. Everything was new! Anything could happen! The day was filled with possibilities! And she was going to do anything in her power to make a good day. With the help of her friends, of course. After all, no one can be happy all the time. Perhaps when Riley was younger that was possible but now that she was older and the emotions had a turn at the wheel, so to speak, they all understood how to work together.
That didn't mean they didn't have problems every now and then. It was one particular scuffle that ended up with the Pu-berty button pushed. They still weren't sure what it did but sometimes Riley got sad over videos of kittens learning to walk and sometimes she got angry over there being more orange Starbursts than red. But those extremes were few and far between and they seemed to come around on a schedule so they've gotten control over it in the last five years.
"Come on, Disgust, help Riley pick out the best outfit for the day," Joy said, rubbing her hands together. "Fear, you can make a list of situations to avoid. We don't want her tongue getting tied again. It took a while to get that knot undone last time. Anger, pick out daydreams for the boring classes. Sadness, you're on standby just in case any of Riley's friends needs a shoulder. Alright, everybody! Let's start the day!" With the declaration, Joy slapped her hand down on one of the buttons on the control panel.
Riley sprung out of bed and, humming the tune to Triple Dent gum—much to Anger's chagrin—and went to the bathroom for a shower. It was difficult at first, Disgust tried to insist on Riley having a new bath towel but Joy pointed out she got a new one the night before and it was still fluffy. After all, you don't replace towels when they're still fluffy! But then Riley finally got her shower in and that little hurdle was overstepped. Anger reared his fiery-head briefly when Riley accidentally burnt her toast while talking on the phone with Alyssa, one of her friends on the hockey team but that was averted when a toaster strudel was found. Riley changed into her outfit, approved by Disgust, made sure she had all of her school supplies, due to Fear's paranoia, kissed her mother goodbye and began her short walk to school with a pep in her step, all because of Joy.
"Yep, I can feel it. Today's gonna be a good day," Joy beamed, crossing her arms over her chest. "We'll make new friends and get good grades and make lots of memories." She glanced over her shoulder at the new and improved rack that held all of Riley's core memories from the past sixteen years. There sure were a lot of them: some yellow, some blue, some purple with others a mixed up swirl between all of them. Her eyes then moved over to the empty shelves on the walls. She couldn't wait to see how they filled them up! The possibilities were endle—
"Uh oh! We tripped!" Fear cried out, covering his eyes with his hands. "We tripped!"
"Its okay, Riley caught her balance," Joy said, waving away his concerns.
"Good thing. Who knows what she would have picked up from that dirt," Disgust commented, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
"Hmm?" Sadness's hum grabbed everyone's attention. Above them red lights flashed as a loud alarm went off around them. "That doesn't sound good," she muttered, adjusting her glasses and shrinking in on herself.
"What? What's going on?" Joy asked, adjusting the levers on the control panel. But nothing she did stopped the alarms blaring and the red lights pulsing. "Anger, did you explode again?" She called over her shoulder, running a hand beneath her short fringe to wipe away the beads of sweat that had gathered there.
"It wasn't me," he replied from behind his newspaper, the headline screaming RILEY BURNS TOAST.
Joy frowned. Then what could it be that was causing the rise in temperature? She looked behind herself at the islands that, thankfully, continued to function and then looked forward once more. All at once she got her answer.
"Look! A boy!" Disgust gasped, pointing at the screen in front of them. The emotions all gathered around the screen in front of them, taking in what Riley saw. And what Riley saw was a smiling teenage boy, his long hair falling into his eyes and his hand extended towards her.
"Sorry, I didn't meant to hit you. I didn't see you there," he said.
"Oh, uhm…it's okay," Riley muttered, pulling her lips back into a smile, covering the gap in her front teeth. She grasped his hand and allowed him to pull her to his feet. "So, uh, are you new here? I mean, I haven't seen you before," she continued, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah, I just moved here from Florida," he replied. "My mom's job. Apparently they don't have artists there but this is a big commission so…"
"Heh, yeah. My dad's job made us move here. Er, no recently. A few years ago. We've been here ever since." She cleared her throat and stuck out her hand. "I'm, uh, I'm Riley."
"Hey, I'm Mattie," he replied, grasping her hand. Riley's smile got wider.
"Why's it so hot in here?" Joy asked, rubbing her hand across her forehead again.
"Anger," Disgust called out, her tone accusatory. "You're making me sweat. I don't like sweating! You get all smelly and…and disgusting."
"Oh, really? Never would have guessed," Anger replied. His shoes clomped against the ground as he walked over to her. "It isn't me, Greenie. I told you that already."
"Then what is it?"
"She could be dying," Sadness commented offhandedly, only causing Fear to scream and start running around.
"Way to go, Sadness," Disgust grumbled, watching Fear take another lap around headquarters. "Just what we needed, Fear going off the walls."
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"Well…ignore all that! Riley just made a new friend! That's another one for her to spend time with!" Joy declared happily, turning her eyes to the wall right as a yellow memory sphere descended and rolled along the empty space until it tapped the edge of the shelf.
Joy wrapped her arms around herself and swayed from side to side as her smile split her face. Okay, okay this was a good start. A few green spheres would fill in during the day—the cafeteria food wasn't that good and some of the boys around here were immature—maybe a few reds here and there due to the popular girls. If they were lucky they could keep from having any blues or purples join the shelf. It was the first day, after all, what was there to be—
Wait. What was this?
Joy's head tilted to the side as she watched another orb rolling down the track. It came to a rest against her gold orb, lightly tapping it. It looked like Disgust's orb but the shade of green was off. Instead of a pea green color this one was a stark, neon green. The longer Joy stared at it the more the color seemed to pulse and throb in front of her.
"Uh…Disgust?" Joy asked.
"Don't look at me," Disgust replied, holding up her hand.
Joy swiveled around and her eyes widened. Standing at the control panels was a tall, neon green emotion with a shock of red hair stylized in a Mohawk. A black leather jacket hung off her shoulders, sitting atop of a white t-shirt with a green eye in the middle. Her brown cargo pants hung over black combat boots. One hand pushed a lever up as far as it could go and the other was placed on her hip as she shook her head.
"Oh no, no, no we cannot have this," she muttered, glaring out at the screen in front of her.
Joy looked up to see what Riley was looking at. There was Mattie, okay, what was wrong with that? But then she saw it, some other girl talking to Mattie. Her hand on his shoulder and the other twirling a finger through her hair and her eyelashes fluttered as if she had something stuck in her eye. Maybe someone ought to help her.
"Hi! I'm Joy!" she announced, bouncing over. "What, uh, what are you doing there?"
"This girl thinks she's all that. Ha! Let's see how she handles some water thrown on her," the new emotion muttered.
"Riley! Hey!" Riley's view swung over to see who was yelling at her. A girl with her hair in twin pigtails, running at her at full speed. Her eyes were shining and a large smile sat upon her face.
Joy slipped between the new emotion and the control panel and pressed a button on it. "Alyssa!" Riley squealed, rushing to her friend. Once the two girls got close enough to one another they slammed together in a hug that caused them to stand on their tiptoes and spin in a circle. Joy watched as another golden orb rolled onto the shelf. "It's so good to see you! How was camp?"
"Camp was great! You should have been there! We're going to dominate this lacrosse season," Alyssa replied. She shook her head. "I can't believe we made captain this year. As sophomores! That's unheard of! We are going to rule!"
"Yeah," Riley mumbled, her eyes having moved back over to here Mattie was standing with Leslie Crenshaw, the most popular girl in their year. She kicked at the ground and twisted her mouth to the side.
Alyssa followed Riley's gaze. "Who's that with Leslie?" she asked.
"Mattie. New guy," she replied. "He's...nice."
"Yeah?" Alyssa threw her arm around Riley's shoulders. "Well you're nice too. Hell, you're the nicest girl I know. Nicer than Leslie by far. And you're awesomely good at lacrosse and hockey. He'll be tripping all over himself to get to know you better. Trust me."
"Yeah, whatever, Alyssa," Riley dismissed, looping her arm around Alyssa's waist as the two girls headed inside. She cast one more look at Mattie over her shoulder and bit her lip.
Another neon green ball rolled onto the shelf.
"Hey, I'm Envy," the new emotion stated, turning around from the control panel. Lacing her fingers together, she stretched them out in front of herself until they cracked. "Hold onto your hats, this is going to be a bumpy ride."
Joy, Anger, Sadness, and Disgust all stared at her. Fear's eyes rolled in his head and he fell over, landing on the floor with a thud.
a/n - So, what did you think? I'm thinking of having this story as a two-shot but I'll see reactions first to decide if I want to expand it. I have an idea ready to use just in case. So, what do you think of Envy's introduction? I know that Anger + Sadness and maybe even Anger + Disgust could come together to create Envy but I wanted to see how Envy would be personified on their own. Also I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted Envy as a girl or a boy but after getting an image in my head I chose to make Envy a girl.
Please read and review. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
~C.M.
