A/N: Hey, guys! First of all, there is a book mentioned in this chapter that I didn't want to give name for almost no reason. It's called The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley and a really good read. It's similar to "Inside Out," actually. I just read it recently and highly recommend it. Anyway, here's a shout-out to GreyWolfDruid, xxx sonamy lover xxx, MarcelineFan, Hubbabbuba123, Boris Yeltsin, TheTinyDiamond, TrimusicaDrag00n90, and Fun with typing for favoriting, GreyWolfDruid, Beep's B, xxx sonamy lover xxx, Hubbabbuba123, Boris Yeltsin, bigstinker03, for following, and lastly, to Yay (guest), Krypie, demitruli, Sapstar (guest), and Boris Yeltsin for reviewing. Thanks so much, guys! :D Also, I was sort of lazy with this chapter and didn't read through before I'm posting it, so sorry if there's anything crazy in here. ;)

One last thing—I just started writing a new Harry Potter fanfiction, so if you're interested in that sort of thing, go ahead and check it out! (It's on my profile - way down below it). Thanks again so much, guys! :D (P.S. You know what I own).

Chapter Four

A Day of Bed

Riley awoke the next morning to see the sun shining brightly through the blinds on her window in front of her. She yawned and looked around. And then, she remembered the first dream of the previous night and groaned. She sat up in bed and stretched, staring at the dust lit up on the blinds.

She wondered what time it was and looked around. It was ten o'clock in the morning. Riley gasped. How could she have slept in for so long? She slid out of bed, still feeling absolutely exhausted, and sat down on the carpeted floor, staring ahead of herself without really seeing anything.

Riley didn't really feel much like doing anything today. Yesterday had been such a blur, and she did not want to remember half of it. All she wanted to do was climb back into bed. . . .

Then she remembered. Her mother. Again, the thought of going to see if she could still hang out with her today came into Riley's mind, and, with a feeling of new determination, she slowly stood up, stretched a bit more, and walked out of the room.

She felt the cold tile beneath her feet as she walked through the hallway and into her parents' room, wondering if they were awake yet. It seemed they were, because their beds were unoccupied. Riley shuffled back out of the room, rubbing her eyes to wake herself more, and into the kitchen, where she promptly sat down at the table and rested her head on it.

Then she noticed the slip of paper there, right in front of her face. She unstuck her head from the wood and grabbed it, crumpling it in the process. She un-crumpled it and saw her mother's handwriting,

Riley,

Your father and I both have meetings this morning. Dad will be back by around eleven. I'll be home about lunchtime. There's cereal in the cupboard and milk in the fridge for breakfast.

Love,

Mom

Riley sighed. Nope, no chance of doing anything with her mother today. She might as well eat something and then maybe go back to sleep. So she pushed her chair back and stood up, and then trudged over to the kitchen. She grabbed a bowl out of a cupboard, a spoon out of a drawer, both the milk and a box of cornflakes, and then sat back down.

It was right when Riley was starting to eat that she started to feel really bored and like she wanted to do something. For the first time ever, she wanted to read a book.

Well, maybe not the first time ever. Riley had used to love to read, but ever since she had gotten her phone and her laptop and everything, she had gotten distracted. The most recent book she had read was probably somewhere in a box. She hadn't read anything in months and months, which was saying something.

And what she wanted to do right now was read a book.

So, leaving her cornflakes untouched, Riley stood up from the table once more and walked back to her room. She looked at her shelves, which had the few books yet unpacked, and considered each title. She finally decided on one with an interesting title. According to the back of it, the plot was unique, so maybe that would be nice.

Riley took a bookmark with a coyote on it from her desk drawer, walked out of her room once more, back into the dining room, sat down, and began eating—and reading.

She was soon immersed in the story. It was one she had never read before. At the beginning, it was rather confusing, but Riley gradually caught onto the plot. It was, as the back had said, very unique, and well written. It was a little over two hundred pages, but they were short, and so were the chapters, and it was an overall easy read.

The story, which was about a character from a book within this book, who enters the dreams of the "reader" of the book, and tries to find a place to stay permanently and happily, was very captivating. Even once Riley was finished eating, she stayed at the table and finished the next chapter. Then, she began another, and kept reading even as she put the milk and cereal back away and her bowl into the sink. She wandered over towards the living room and sank onto to sofa, drinking the story in, not wanting to stop.

This story had a calming effect on Riley, and in the silence of the house, for at least a little while, she was happy, and she didn't have to worry about anything, because this story seemed to make any bad thoughts simply disappear.

Eventually, the silence was disrupted as the sound of the front door opening echoed throughout the house. Riley's father came into the room.

"Hey, sweetie," he said, sitting down on a chair.

"Hi," said Riley brightly, looking up from the book.

"How are you, Riley?" said Mr. Anderson, before adding playfully, "Hey, weren't you supposed to be at Meg's house? I thought you'd want to spend every minute possible together now that we're back!"

Riley shrugged. "Later, maybe."

"What's that book you're reading?"

Riley showed him.

"Oh, your mother used to love that book." Mr. Anderson smiled. "What do you think of it so far?"

"Really, really good."

Riley's father chuckled. "Good. Well, if you're so busy reading, I guess you wouldn't mind missing out on a little game time with your old dad. . . ."

Riley looked up from the book. "What?! Are you kidding me? Of course I want to play!" She sat up on the couch.

Mr. Anderson laughed. "What would you like to play, then?" he asked.

Riley considered for a moment before deciding, "Chess."

"All right then. Nice and simple, chess is," said her father, smiling. He stood up and went over to their game closet, which had since been filled, and pulled out an old, battered-looking box of chess pieces and a board.

"Which color do you wanna be?" Mr. Anderson asked.

Riley thought briefly. "White."

"All right, then," said her father. He cracked his knuckles before setting up the pieces under careful observation of his daughter. Finally, they were ready.

"White goes first," said Riley, smiling mischievously. She moved a pawn forward two spaces.

"And black follows," said Mr. Anderson, doing the same with one of his pawns.

"And white takes a pawn," said Riley, looking down at the pieces with a smirk on her face.

"And the king strikes back," said her father.

They played like this for a while, until Riley shouted, "Check-mate!" and the game was won.

"Well, I think I'm going to watch a bit of baseball on T.V. Would you like to join me?" said Mr. Anderson.

Riley looked at him in horror. "A sport that's not hockey? No way, ho-zay." She stood up. "I think I'm gonna go over to Meg's house, 'kay?"

"Sure," said her father, turning on the television. "Let me know if you're having lunch there."

"Will do." Riley promptly stepped out of the room and out the door and walked less than one hundred steps to Meg's family's front door. She knocked, feeling quite cheerful. That is, until Meg's mother answered the door.

"Hi, Riley!" she said sweetly. Baby Ethan lay in her arms.

"Hi," Riley said flatly. The grin she had had on her face as she walked over there had vanished.

"Would you like to see Meg? She's in her room," said Mrs. Harper. Her expression turned to one of concern as she saw the look on Riley's face. "Riley, dear? Are you okay?"

"Fine," said Riley stiffly.

"Meg's in her room, if you want her," Mrs. Harper said again, but Riley's gaze was fixed on Ethan, who was yawning adorably.

"Riley?" said Mrs. Harper.

Riley shook her head. "Oh—um—uh—you know what—uh, actually, I, uh, wanted to get Meg's, um email," she stuttered. "I've forgotten it, and, um, I wanted to send her this picture of, um. . . ." Her voice trailed off.

"Well, sure," said Mrs. Harper. "Do you want me to go get her?"

"No!" Riley said, much more forcefully than she had meant to. "I mean—uh—it—I want it to be a surprise." She attempted to smile. She didn't do it very well.

"All right, then," said Mrs. Harper, obviously still perplexed and concerned. She wrote it down on a piece of paper and gave it to Riley. "Here."

"Thanks," said Riley, and she ran off without saying anything else.

"Th-there!" said Fear, standing up straight from the controls board. "Riley—she got out of that just fine, right, guys?"

"Yeah . . ." Joy said untruthfully. She and the others had just handed the controls over to Fear, because this, of course, was his time to help steer Riley out of dangerous waters. "Well . . . hey, Sadness, Riley's mom just pulled up! I think she needs her right now."

Sadness looked up at her. "You do?" she said uncertainly.

"Yeah." Joy nodded vigorously. "You're in charge of the controls, Sadness."

"Well, all right, then, I guess," said Sadness. She stepped up to the controls board, tapping some buttons and pulling some levers.

"You know, I just thought of something," said Disgust suddenly.

"What?" Joy and Anger and Fear asked at the same time.

"Well, why does Riley need a baby sister or brother, anyway?" continued Disgust. "I mean, all they do is eat, poop, sleep, repeat."

"Not this again . . ." muttered Joy.

"Riley used to be a baby!" countered Anger.

"Well, duh," said Disgust. "But I mean, she's almost twelve, she's got better things to do than hang around, helping out mom with a baby!"

"It's her dream!" shouted Anger. "And it isn't fair!"

"Oi." Joy face-palmed herself.

"Here. Gimme the controls," Anger said . . . angrily, shoving Sadness out of the way and pushing some buttons.

Riley ran through the house and collapsed onto her bed, tears pouring down her face. She had not known how this could have affected her so badly. One minute, she was happy as an elephant in a mud puddle, the next, she was bawling her eyes out just because she saw her stupid friend's stupid mother and stupid baby brother.

She was angry at everyone right now. Meg's family was nearly to the breaking point with children, she was totally going to fail hockey because of this, and her parents weren't even giving her the happiness of a baby brother or sister! She just—she just. . . .

She just couldn't stand it anymore.

She didn't know what to do.

Riley didn't know how long she lay there, sobbing on her bed, but when she finally hiccupped herself into silence, she sat up. Her book was on the desk. One of her parents must have brought it in.

She got up off of her bed and lifted the book up off of the desk. And then, as a feeling of extreme anger overcame her, she tossed the book into her trashcan. It wasn't going to be any help at all any more.

Riley heard her mother's voice echo throughout the house as though she were on an entirely different planet. She tossed herself onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Then she got up and locked the door and fell onto the yellow and white flower patterned comforter and looked at the ceiling again, as though it wasn't there.

She seemed to lay there for hours, not doing anything, just a robot lying on a bed. Or maybe it was mere minutes; she wasn't sure. But Riley did know that sometime after she had fallen into her sort of stupor, music came floating through the house.

It was a familiar song, one she had heard many a time in the past. It was a song that her mother listened to whenever she was upset or stressed out or something of the like. It calmed Riley, and she slowly closed her eyes, letting the melody, one that made an image of a drop of dew gently falling from a yellow sunflower onto a patch of bare, deep, rich, wet soil, and then of a flower, this time a white lily, blooming slowly from that very spot. It was soothing, somewhat long, and oh, so wonderful.

The melody soon lulled Riley to sleep like a lullaby, and she smiled as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Lea," came the voice of Riley's father, breaking into her dream of rain and waterfalls in a forest filled with beautiful flowers.

"I think I'll have a doctor take a look at it, anyway," said Riley's mother as Riley opened her eyes to see that it was now evening, according to the light shining from her window. "Better safe than sorry."

Mr. Anderson sighed. "All right, then."

"I've scheduled something for today, actually."

"You have?"

"Yes. Jack, don't sound surprised. You know me."

"Okay. What are we going to do for dinner?"

"You can take Riley out somewhere, or make burritos if you want. I'll get something on the way back from the doctor's."

"Fine. Hey, I love you, Lea." Riley heard the sound of gentle kissing.

"I love you too, Jack." More kissing.

Riley was uncertain as to what was going on, but somehow, a feeling inside her told her it wasn't good. She sat up in bed and looked over at the trashcan. It was empty. Her father had probably emptied it earlier. She felt a flicker of regret as she realized that book she hadn't yet finished had still been in there, and now it was gone.