A.N.: So, I published an initial draft of this story in dialogue format and apparently no one could understand what was going on. Please disregard all contents of the first version of Outta My Head in favor of this more coherently organized background story.

TripleDent gum will make you smile
TripleDent gum, it lasts a while!

"AAARRRRGGGGHHH!" screamed Anger, on the verge of losing his bottle again-as always. "One day! Whoever's doing that out there please, just let us go one stinking day without hearing that blasted commercial, before I lose it and blow up Long-Term Memory in flames!" He smashed the console with a folding chair to turn the memory off, nearly setting off a cuss word.

Normally, this reaction would have made Disgust laugh, given its alarmingly high frequency. She also knew he wasn't likely to follow through with the threat. Now that the puberty button had been triggered, the other emotions had developed somewhat of a fondness for watching Anger's outbursts, yet were careful not to overdo it as to get Riley in trouble. However, as Riley was humming the jingle at that very moment, the broccoli-haired emotion had suddenly gained awareness of the host doing the same in the shower and walking to school. No way would she allow that to happen in front of all of Riley's classmates!

"You've got a good point, Anger," she pointed out. "We didn't exactly make much of an impression on Day 1, so we shouldn't give them any more reasons to think we're weird."

"Oh, come on! We're doing a phenomenal job of keeping that stuff to ourselves!" answered Joy, the emotion seemingly to have been affected the least by the puberty button. Because of this, the others all had an inkling that their leader was responsible for the trigger even though no evidence could be produced either way, except for the fact that the alarm went off on the same afternoon after Joy claimed to have had a dream about accidentally doing so.

"And besides, who really knows about our problems with that commercial? Probably just Meg!" Joy was referring to Riley's best friend back in Minnesota. The gum commercial was one of the countless inside jokes that the two had shared over their ten-year relationship. As Joy recalled one of the corresponding memories, she couldn't help but notice that it was tinged just a little bit blue. The same had happened to nearly all of the memories of Riley and Meg goofing around after Joy and Sadness returned to Headquarters just in time to stop Riley from running back to Minnesota and hoping to crash at Meg's place for a while.

And speaking of which, Riley and Meg were at that moment having one of their semiweekly Skype chats. They had long since made up after Riley's initial adverse reaction to finding out about being replaced on the hockey team. Joy ruffled Sadness's hair fondly thinking about this, as the make-up would never have been possible without the chunky teardrop at the helm.

"Hey Riley, I think you should take a look at this!" quipped Meg as she sent over a YouTube link through the chat window. "It's only the best thing EVER!"

That got Riley's curiosity. "Whoa, what is it?" She had been aware of a song from the soundtrack of the latest Disney movie flipping the Internet upside down, but not being the kind to jump on every bandwagon, hadn't thought too much about what was going on.

But Meg just winked at her. "I won't spoil it for you, but it might help you with that gum commercial!"

The flame on Anger's head went out immediately.

"Did you guys hear that? We HAVE to do this!" All the other emotions murmured in agreement except Fear, who immediately started compiling a list of the worst possible reasons why a 4-minute video clip could gain so many millions of views and reposts in just a few short weeks.

"C'mon, Fear! What's the worst that can happen?" said Joy. "Nothing's catchier than the gum commercial as far as I know. It's not like we'd watch this and immediately start singing it in front of Mom and Dad for no reason, right?" She pressed a button prompting for Riley to respond.

"Sure!" giggled Riley. "If you say so. Jordan seems to want to see that movie too, I'll ask him tomorrow about it. Hey, listen, I have to study for a test right now, but same time tomorrow, yeah?"

This caught Meg a bit off guard. Riley had apparently never mentioned Jordan before. "Wait, now? Who's Jordan...ahhhh, I think I have a hunch! Is there anything else you'd like to tell me? Huuuuhhhhh, Riley?" Meg asked while pressing her face directly into the screen.

"Are you kidding me right now?" seethed Disgust. "She's doing that stupid Jangles impression again."

"Oh no, this cannot be good!" cried Fear. "She knows! She knows...wait, did you say JANGLES? Yaaaaaahhhhhh!111!"

Anger seized Fear by the throat and snapped his head into a button on the console. "Of course we're not saying, you dummy. We won't give her the pleasure of seeing us crack like an egg."

"Umm...just a friend of mine from class," muttered Riley. "Nothing much really."

"Ohhh, snap! You hesitated!" Meg got all googly-eyed like she usually did whenever the scoop du jour concerned a cute boy. All those mushy Netflix marathons can do very weird things to someone's psyche, Disgust observed while pushing another button.

"No, I didn't!" Riley hung up before her slightly nosy BFF could go on any further. "And that, my kittens, is the difference between good friends and best friends," quipped Disgust. To which a thoroughly bewildered Joy responded, "So which of the two are us and Meg?"

"Well, we knew she was probing us because she was talking in a way that she knows would creep the hell out of us. Know anyone else who fits that description? Yeah, of course you all do. My point exactly. Now, time to get back to work."

Sure, Riley did have an algebra test to study for, but one could guess that she was probably thinking about opening the link and texting Jordan straight away. Fear turned his attention from the possibility of a virus in the link to not being prepared for the test, but he was quickly overruled by the other emotions, who were dying to see what was inside the link.

"Let It Go...I wonder where this is headed," thought Joy. Before anybody realized it, three whole hours had passed!

At this point, Sadness looked out the window and noticed, "Um, guys...we haven't gotten any studying done...and I see something weird happening in Long Term..."

None of the emotions could figure out what was happening. It appeared as though there were a lot of memories both coming in and going out of Long Term Memory! There also appeared to be a new Personality Island forming just behind Fashion Island. "That's odd..." muttered Disgust. "I don't see this song forming a core memory all by itself."

"And it looks like there are a lot more people needed in Long Term than usual," added Sadness. "I thought this could only happen right before Riley falls asleep." Speaking of which...

"Riley, time to go to bed!" This was unmistakably Mom's voice. No way could Riley let Mom find out about this!

All the emotions screamed and started running like crazy and pressing buttons on the console, which causes Riley to quickly minimize her browser window. Unfortunately, the song was still playing throughout Headquarters, no doubt a very inconvenient distraction at this time. By now it should be clear that Riley had spent most of the three hours watching the video on repeat!

"So, how are your test preparations coming along?" asked Mom.

"Uh...eh...fine, I...guess!" stammered Riley, waving her cursor randomly around her desktop screen. The emotions couldn't figure out who was supposed to control this response, so they all simultaneously pressed a button at random.

Mom gives Riley a goodnight kiss on the cheek. "Well then, let's get some sleep for a big day tomorrow, alright?"

"Sure thing, mom! Love you!"

"Love you too sweetheart, good night!"

"Good night!"

The emotions could all exhale now. "That was a close one!" gasped Fear.

Meanwhile, no place inside Riley's mind was busier than Dream Productions. The Train of Thought had been running nonstop from various regions of Long Term Memory, no doubt carrying memories related to the viral video clip.

"Guys! Drop whatever you're doing right now!" barked the lead director to the fellow actors. She opened a box of the fresh memories and unrolled the new movie poster:

I am the Ice Queen

Starring Riley Andersen

"We've received a new agenda today, and it looks like we'll have to keep on running it for a while," she explained.

All the actors and the rest of the stage crew were thoroughly confused.

"So we spent seven hours today memorizing Fairy Dream Adventure lines for nothing?"

"Do you have any idea how long it'll take to tear down and rebuild the set for this?"

A handful tried to remain optimistic, though.

"On the other hand, it's about time we moved on from losing our teeth and going places with no pants on."

"Yeah, the producers have been really boring lately. They've been very strict about sticking to our routine since the day we got attacked by Jangles the clown."

"Don't panic, everybody," called the director through her megaphone. "You've all got the night off. We've drilled the backup squad with all the song lyrics, which most of them somehow picked up after only two or three run-throughs. There are several carpenters over at Imagination Land working on a life-sized cutout of the ice castle, and my sister has reached out to Disgust for tips on designing an ice dress. I just need to figure out who's going to play Queen Elsa, and we'll be good to go. But I expect you all to pay attention to at least the first couple of recordings and take notes, so that you will be prepared in the future. There are cupcakes and juice on the table behind you, feel free to help yourselves."