The sound of laughing people was a veritable jungle of noise at the theme park. Everywhere, families and friends were walking in a churning mass of thrill seekers and fun lovers (and the occasional grandparent reluctant to go but shanghaied into it by grandchildren). Among the people, one family of three was working their way down the concrete sidewalk, smiles adorning their faces. The mother's grin was hidden beneath some silly gold-and-purple facepaint, the father's was masked by a BBQ coating (remnants of lunch). But neither smile could even begin to compete with that of Riley Andersen, thoroughly enjoying her first Spring Break in this new State.

"...and I can't believe how weird that hall of mirrors was! You had such a big head, Dad!"

He wiped the remains of that barbecue sandwich from his mouth before replying, "Yes, and you know what? I'm glad it looked like that. Now I know how you feel, Monkey."

Riley playfully shoved her Dad aside in mock anger - not that she was doing a good job at pretending to be mad; the feeling usually wasn't manifested by a grin and giggling. Inside her head, unsurprisingly, Joy was at the console, doing her best impression of Anger and earning a laugh from everyone else, save the red brick himself. "Oh, come on, lighten up," Joy whined through a laugh (and facepaint matching Mrs. Andersen's - the brightest emotion had somehow managed to get her hands on a variety of theme park memorabilia. How she did it nobody bothered to ask).

A gruff noise broke from Anger's lips as he folded his arms.

"I-It was pretty accurate," Fear chuckled, patting his red coworker on the back, "Come on, you gotta admit-"

"Don't touch me unless you want another burn."

The point was well taken; Fear jerked his hand away. But - even had Anger not spoken - Fear would've done so: up on screen, Riley's family was approaching a clown. The purple emotion whimpered. He darted over to the controls tapped a button. Riley took notice of the big, red-nosed figure, and smoothly let her pace fall back until she was securely hidden behind her parents. The family passed the clown without incident, and all five emotions breathed a sigh of relief. Well, except Joy.

"Oh, Fear, really. We can't overcome our f-fear of clowns if we keep on hiding from them..." she only sounded half-confident.

"Yes, but no, Joy. Not here - not in an unsafe environment!" Fear declared, one finger raised in the air.

"You know, maybe Joy's right..." Sadness half-mumbled, "Because we might- we might as well overcome it... other kids aren't scared..."

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Fear insisted, "Other kids can get themselves killed by some makeup-wearing psycho who's always smiling, but Riley? No thank you!"

"Oh, okay..." Sadness said, backing shyly away.

"Fear, seriously," Joy complained, her shoulders slouching so far over that she was nearly half her normal height, "No need to be a kill-... uh... no need to be such a spoilsport!"

"Oh, we've been having fun, right?!" he nervously smiled. Awkward silence, save a cricket chirping. Fear scowled and looked over at Joy, who had a cheap little purple plastic toy (also something Riley had won at an arcade game) that imitated a cricket's chirping. She looked up and stopped, then pocketed the item.

"Seriously, though, come onnn!" Joy begged, "Let's... y'know, actually do something besides walk around and play arcade games!"

"But those are fun, right?!" Fear asked defensively.

"There aren't very many..." Sadness complained.

"Okay, I see your point," Fear said to her, "But there's more than that we've done! The facepaint-"

"Is fine for mom, not for us," Disgust interjected, "She's allowed to look that ridiculous, because adults just are, but us?" A scoff flickered in. "No thanks. Sorry."

"Well, yeah," Fear admitted, "But we can walk and get some exercise, right?"

"It's hot out, and our legs are getting tired," Anger snapped, "Any more of this and I'm gonna push that button myself! Let's get on a ride, darn it!"

Fear looked at Joy's big, watery, begging eyes. It came off less as sympathetic and more as annoying, which did the trick just as well. "Fine, fine, fine," Fear said, "Let's look at what rides we have."

Joy squealed in delight, gave Fear a painfully tight (but mercifully brief) hug, and shoved a lightbulb in (she'd been saving it ever since they walked into the amusement park). "Hey!" Fear said, scurrying up to her, "What's the big idea? You can't just-"

"Too late!" Joy said.

"Hey!" Riley suggested to her parents, "I... I wanna try the Zurg Rush!" she gestured up to the tall, imposing roller coaster, whose dominating silhouette could be seen from anywhere the park. In its center, a giant purple figure with yellow eyes and teeth scowled down at the parkgoers in disdain. An exciting, intimidating sight if there ever was one.

And Riley's heart was pounding from merely looking at it.

"Take it out! Take it out! Take it out!" Fear screamed, gripping the lightbulb and doing his best to unscrew it. All he succeeded in doing was nudging a few buttons, creating a few faintly purple memories, and exhausting himself. That idea was in, and definitely not coming out. "Please, Riley!" Fear dropped to his knees, clasping his hands together, "Please reconsider it!"

"Too late!" Joy sang as she skipped across to the center of the controls. She cracked her knuckles, "The idea's in, and there's no stopping it!"

"B-but... but you could stop it if you wanted, right Joy?" Fear suggested.

"But I don't want to," the gold emotion flatly responded.

Fear whined and slammed his head into his palms. Mentally, he began creating a list of things Riley should include in her will. She'd scream them at her parents as the roller coaster took off so they'd be sure to get it right. All the while, Riley was in line, bursting at the seams with excitement while her mother held her hand and her father (who firmly but politely declined the invitation to join, saying he'd wait for them) smiled and waved. The line was - admittedly - long, to the eleven-year-old's moderate annoyance, but she'd live with it.

Inside her head, while Anger gently nudged a lever, Fear was collapsed on the sofa, crying in terror while Sadness handed him tissue after tissue. Joy sat nearby, trying her best to calm him down. "Oooh, hey, look!" she said, pointing at a sign posted in the coaster's waiting area, "Here's a neat bit of trivia for you, Fear! It says the ride was built only a few months after the rights to the franchise were purchased by Lucasfi-"

"We're gonna die!" Fear squealed. He bit his fingertips in worry, "Joy, we're gonna die and it's all because of me!"

"Oh, now stop saying that," Joy said, putting on her best smile, "It's not because of you."

"Wait- we are gonna die?" Sadness's voice squeaked, shocked.

"No! No, that's not what I- I didn't..." It was Joy's turn to groan and slam her head into her hands as Sadness, too, collapsed into tears (yet still didn't break her near-automated handing of tissues to Fear). She fell sideways onto the couch and bonked her head against Fear's. If either felt pain, they didn't register it. They were too busy bawling their eyes out at the prospect of Riley dying. Joy moaned in frustration and gave up, deciding the two would dry up eventually. So she walked over to Anger.

"How's it going?" she deadpanned.

"Well, some punk just tried to cut us, but Mom gave him 'the look' and the little brat shriveled up and walked back to the back of the line. Apart from the heat, the smell, and the long wait, we're doing just terrific!"

"Good!" Joy beamed, genuine.

"Yeah, sure," Anger said, "Call me if you need me again."

As Joy contemplated whether Anger was being sarcastic or serious, the brick walked back to the sofa, newspaper in hand. He gruffly sat between Fear and Sadness and began to read, trying his best to ignore their waterworks as they leaned on him like a pillow. He flipped to the "Forecast" section and began scanning an article about the long wait ahead. Riley didn't like it, of course, but the small bits of trivia posted all around were enough to distract her, and she managed to remain happy throughout the whole wait (which, in retrospect, wasn't very long at all). In the end, she found herself and her mother situated in a violet, two-person roller coaster car with lightning streaks running down its sides.

This was it.

Fear and Sadness had stopped their crying by then. Sadness, of course, had realized Riley wasn't going to die, but Fear wasn't too sure. He'd stopped because of the image on screen; the Zurg Rush began moving, with Riley in the front car! All of Fear's instincts took over, and he jumped up. His little legs carried him over to Joy's side, and he pressed a button. "Stop it! Stop the car!" he screamed, "You've gotta stop it now!" But his efforts were in vain; Joy, too, had her hand on a button and was refusing to let up. "Joy, stop!" Fear cried, "Stop, we need to get Riley off!"

"Too late!" she said, "The ride's starting, and you don't want Riley to be embarrassed by asking the attendants to stop it, do you?"

"No! No, of course not!" Fear said defensively, "But... But-" his helpless eyes took in the sight on the screen as the ride approached the first drop, slowly, steadily. A miniature eternity swallowed up the time between the start of the ride and the ride's official start. Riley's trilling heart only beat faster with each passing second. Fear gripped Joy's arm and was trying to pry her off, but the more he tried, the more she resisted, going so far as to push him to the side. Her stubborn grin matched Riley's tooth-for-tooth.

'You can't! You can't!' Fear mentally hollered, 'We'll be a red splat on the sidewalk when this is over!'

He looked over at the levers. Joy didn't have them! Maybe he could still save Riley!

He ran up to their protruding figures and gripped them each tightly. He looked to the monitor.

The horizon greeted him; they were at the peak of the coaster, not even a foot from dropping! Slowly, the world began rotating up as the coaster started inching forward...

All at once, the ground was in front of them (seemingly miles below their dangling hair) and the sky was behind them! Fear screamed and yanked the levers all the way back, his throat bellowing his voice out at top volume. Joy slammed the button hard enough to feel a tremble of pain, but she didn't care. She was grinning ear-to-nonexistent-ear.

A vibrant purple-and-yellow memory popped into existence, and Riley screamed in delightful terror as the roller coaster took off like a bullet.