A/N: First of all, thank you. Thank you SO MUCH to all of those who reviewed, "favorited," and followed my story! Here's a thank-you to AquaRoses, Generalhyna, KinsleyAbigail, ProCrafterZ, Toa Aerrow, cryptologicalMystic, demitruli, and ttcroc1 for favoriting! Here's another thank-you to Generalhyna, KinsleyAbigail, ProCrafterZ, Toa Aerrow, cryptologicalMystic, and demitruli for following! And a final thank-you to demetruli, cryptologicalMystic, and ProCrafterZ for revewing! Thank you SO MUCH, YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! :D (P.S. Sorry if I got your names a little off. Silly me.) Please let me know what you think of this chapter! :) Also, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post next, but you can be sure I will eventually! :P

Disclaimer: I own nothing from "Inside Out."

Chapter Two

The Press of a Button

"Riley!"

Riley turned around as she faintly heard her mother call her name.

"I'd better go," she said. "'Bye, Meg. By, Mrs. Harper."

"Goodbye." Meg's mother smiled.

"I'll come with you!" Meg offered enthusiastically, and Riley followed her out of the room. They were in the hallway when they met two little girls standing in front of them.

"Hi, Riley!" they said at the same time, their bright blue eyes, so like their older sister's, sparkling with anticipation. They both had very curly hair like her, too, except it was black, like their mother's.

Riley smiled. "Hi, Peyton. Hi, Emmie."

"What's it like in Minnesota?" the girls, Meg's six-year-old twin sisters, asked.

Riley bent down to their eyelevel. "Nothing like home," she said simply.

Their eyes widened. "What was your house like?" asked the one on the right.

Riley sighed. "Well, Emmie, it was really tall and thin."

"Ooh! Like a giraffe!" exclaimed Peyton excitedly. Riley had memorized who was who by certain birthmarks they had—Emmie had one that almost looked like a heart on the right side of her neck, while Peyton had one right next to her left eyebrow that looked like a shield.

Riley chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so."

She heard her mother calling her name again and gave a fake sigh. "Well, I'd better get going," she said dramatically to the twins. "My mom is expecting me."

Peyton and Emmie giggled. "Okay! Come back soon, okay?"

Riley nodded vigorously. "You can count on it."

While the twins scampered off down the hall, Riley and Meg turned around and stepped out the door. They exchanged mischievous looks, grinning, before saying at the exact same time, "Race you!", and running across the grass back to Riley's driveway.

"Well, hello, Meg," said Mr. Anderson, smiling as the red-head stopped right in front of him. He was holding a large cardboard box, and Riley, coming up a split-second behind Meg, saw that the moving trucks had arrived.

"Hi, Pa!" Meg exclaimed. She had adopted this nickname for Riley's father, since their families were really very close and had been since Meg's had moved into the neighborhood when she and Riley were one.

Mrs. Anderson came out of the house, brown hair back in a ponytail, just at that moment. "Hi, Meg! How's your mother doing?"

"She had the baby!" Meg shouted out crazily.

Mr. Anderson nearly dropped his box. "What?! When? Why didn't you guys tell us?" he asked in surprise.

"We wanted to surprise you!" replied Meg, shrugging her shoulders and beaming.

Mrs. Anderson leaned over and ruffled the hair on top of her head. "Oh, you Harpers." Then she continued towards the moving vans parked on the street. "Come on and help bring some things in, guys. And then I want to say hello to the new baby."

Riley and Meg nodded enthusiastically before running after Riley's mother, smiling and really happy they were back together again.

Riley's emotions watched through her eyes as she stepped in front of a moving truck, where a strong-looking man was pulling out a box.

"Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Stranger danger!" yelled out Fear, pushing some buttons on the board in front of him.

Riley stepped back and looked up at the man, suddenly uncertain. Meg's voice said, "Hi, mister! Any boxes for us?"

The man smiled, and it seemed friendly enough.

"He's not so bad," said Joy, and pressed some other buttons. "He's probably a moving truck guy."

Fear sighed. "Maybe, but he's a stranger!"

Disgust rolled her eyes. "With an awful taste in style." With another twiddling of buttons, Riley's eyes narrowed.

"Come on, guys, let's help with the boxes!" Joy said enthusiastically. "It'll be fun!"

"Fine," the others said together.

"Sure," said the man in reply to Meg's question. He handed her and Riley each a large cardboard box, and together, they started back up the driveway to the open front door, their boxes banging against their legs and arms.

As Riley stepped inside her old house for the first time in a long, long time, she felt herself let out a sigh of relief. She was back home—she was back home! The white tiled floor that her mother hated so much but never got around to replacing, the white walls bare of their usual adornment of photographs and paintings, the carpet that reminded her of sand in the living room, the swinging doorway to the kitchen and dining room combined, the opening in the wall leading off to the hallway that held two bathrooms and three bedrooms: Mr. and Mrs. Anderson's bedroom, a guest room, and Riley's room.

Riley set her box down before entering the hall. Suddenly, she stopped. She was right in front of her room; the white door was shut. A mixture of excitement and nervousness was filling her, making her hesitate before entering it. But then, she realized, of course she would have to go inside. This was her room—and she was going back inside it.

She suddenly remembered that dreadful day, the day she and her parents had left her home for what she thought was to be forever. Riley had barely been able to stop herself from resolutely staying put inside it, but she had known that was impossible. The last look at her room, the last look at the yellow walls of the outside of the house, the roses red and friendly, the trees in the park on the other side of the street seeming to wave goodbye. . . . Riley had felt, to her surprise, tears sliding down her face, and even now, as she opened the door, she felt them again. But this time they were good, because she was so happy that she was finally home again.

The room was silent and dusty. The walls were still painted her favorite color, yellow. The floor was soft, the carpet again reminding her of the beach. That was one thing Riley was going to miss about San Francisco—the chance to visit the beach. But she always had her grandparents' house to visit in Florida every so often.

And then there was the window, facing Meg's house, and Meg's bedroom. She could barely see it through the fence separating the two houses. Riley and Meg used to use tin can telephones to talk with each other late at night.

"So! Wanna go get some more stuff, Riley?"

Riley jumped and turned around. She hadn't realized that Meg herself had followed her into the room. Riley nodded.

"Sure," she said, and followed as Meg led the way out of the house and back to the moving trucks.

That evening, it was almost like the move had never happened. All the furniture was back in place (at least, most of it), Riley's bedroom had been filled again (though she hadn't quite been able to find her hairbrush—meh, she would look later). She had unpacked everything and set it back in its proper place—her laptop on her desk, bed in one corner with its design of white-and-yellow flowers on the bed comforter covered with Riley's stuffed animals, her clothes all in the closet—everything looked like it was before she had left.

However, as her parents hadn't had the time to go shopping lately, the Anderson family had had to go out to eat. But unlike in San Francisco, where even the pizza was not appealing at all (and Riley absolutely loved pizza), they had familiar places to go to, familiar restaurants to choose from. So they decided to go to their favorite pizza parlor, where broccoli pizza was laughed at (though after visiting Meg's house and the new baby, which brought about that feeling of longing again).

It was very fun at the pizza parlor, maybe more so than before, Riley thought, as she munched on her favorite pepperoni pizza. She had felt a pang of longing as she looked at the highchairs in one corner, but quickly forgot it. She was back home, she was happy, and nothing was going to change that.

"But it isn't fair for Riley!" exclaimed Anger. He and Disgust had been arguing over Riley's wish.

"Well, sometimes life isn't fair!" countered Disgust.

"But look at Meg!" said Anger. "Look at her! Her mother practically won the genetic lottery, I mean, look at all those kids she's got!"

Disgust rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but look at all that work that has to be done! Sometimes Meg doesn't even finish her homework because she's got to help her mom!" Then she stopped, and her expression turned thoughtful for a moment. "Though, that would be a good way to get out of school. . . ."

"See! It isn't fair!" shouted Anger, and that ended the conversation.

"Hi, Anger, Disgust," said Sadness in an attempt to cheer up her friends, walking over to them, "remember that time when Riley's mom told her she wasn't going to have the baby anymore?"

Anger glared at her and Disgust gave her a look of contempt.

"Hey, guys . . ." said Joy, walking over to them. "Guys, guys, guys," she continued, giggling uncertainly, "Come on, Riley just got back to Minnesota! She can play hockey again with Meg! She ought to be happy! Come on!" She attempted to gather them up into a group hug, but Anger pushed her away and stomped towards the board full of buttons.

"No. This isn't fair for Riley. She needs to tell someone." He began pressing a bunch of buttons.

Joy let her face fall into her hands.

"Uh . . . are you sure this is a good idea?" Fear asked uncertainly, looking over at what Anger was doing.

"She's gotta do something about it," Anger said stoutly.

"Well, yeah, but not right now at dinner!" said Joy, coming over to them.

"Too late."

Suddenly, Riley felt another pang in her stomach. She sighed and set down the piece of pizza she was about to eat.

Her parents looked up from their own slices and looked at her worriedly.

"What's up?" her mother asked.

"Nothing. . . ." Riley shook her head and picked up the pizza again.

"Are you sure?" her father said.

Riley nodded. Her mouth was full of pizza.

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson exchanged looks with raised eyebrows before turning back to their own.

And then, Riley felt a sudden urge to tell her parents what was on her mind.

"It's just. . . ." She gulped. She could feel tears starting to fill her eyes. She shut them in an attempt to stop it. Her throat felt tight.

"What, Riley?" Mrs. Anderson started stroking Riley's short blond hair.

Riley took a shuddering breath. "Well . . . what with Meg's new baby brother and—and all. . . ." It was difficult to not cry right now. "I—it's just. . . ."

"What, sweetie?" said her father.

Riley shook her head again. She couldn't talk, because she knew that if she would, she would start to cry, and she was in a restaurant; this was not at home, and if she was going to tell her parents this at all, and she was going to break down in tears, she was going to do it at home.

"Later," she managed to choke out.

"Okay," said Mr. Anderson. "But if you want to talk to us, we're always going to be there for you, okay?"

Riley nodded.

"Are you guys ready to go home?" Mrs. Anderson asked after a moment of silence.

"Sure, I'm stuffed," said Riley's father in attempt to bring a cheerful mood to the table. It didn't work very well.

"What about you, Riley?" her mother said gently.

Riley nodded.

After Mr. Anderson had payed, they put their leftovers into a large box and left. Riley sat in the car, and suddenly, she started feeling as though she couldn't quite breathe properly. She didn't have asthma or anything like that; she knew that much. But in the past, when she was upset or agitated or nervous, it had become a little difficult to breathe. And worrying about it made it worse.

She took a shuddering breath and tried to quench the tears now threatening to rain down her face.

"Awe, now look what you did!" Anger shouted . . . angrily to Sadness. She had just pressed some buttons on the board, which resulted in Riley's tears and refusal to reveal what was wrong to her parents.

"I'm sorry! But you know, she'll still tell her parents!" Sadness said nervously.

"But not right now! She needs to tell her parents right now!" exclaimed Anger.

"Why don't we give her a happy memory to make Riley feel better?" Joy suggested.

"Fine." Anger crossed his arms.

Joy then took one of the yellow memory orbs and was about to place it in the memory beam when Fear exclaimed,

"Wait! Maybe this'll help, we haven't tried this yet! Plus, we've all agreed it won't hurt Riley, right?"

And then he pressed the button labeled "puberty."