Chapter 9: The Lunch Court

Riley expected 'as quick as possible' to mean 'a couple of days.'

Not four months.

Over that time, the emotions gradually left. At first Anger got mad that it was taking so long, because it normally only took a few days. Riley didn't want to see him upset, so she told him he could go up. He was a bit ashamed, but he still left, with the promise she'd visit him in the future.

A similar story with Sadness, except she got really lonely. Fear eventually just wandered off.

But not Disgust. She stayed with her the whole time.

It wasn't that the others weren't loyal, they were! But, Joy was the one who kept the group together. And Disgust really enjoyed spending time with Riley.

She talked about her time as Riley's emotion, but also her time on earth. She reached 16 before she had died, in a very similar event of what happened to Riley.

Riley kept transitioning between calling her Disgust and Jessica, because she seemed both like an emotion and a friend.

"What did the emotions look like?" Riley asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "I was green, and looked like a piece of broccoli. Can you believe that?" The two giggled. They'd have conversations like that, and she loved to listen to Jessie's 90s childhood. She wasn't what she expected, though. It was like when elders telling you their childhood adventures, instead of someone bragging about how much better theirs was.

One day, after going ice skating (Disgust prefered roller-skating herself, but she didn't mind.) they found themselves eating at the "mall's" food in the food court, having a conversation.

Riley had asked Jessie a lot about her past, but she never inquired on what happened to the others, so she asked her this.

The girl put down her french fries, and thought on that. "Well, we didn't remember the past when we were in headquarters, but when I was meeting up with them, Joy told me she was a college student working on scientific ways to make people happier. Sadness said something about being a teacher, I think. Todd worked as a miner. I can not imagine working in such dirty conditions."

"Cool." Riley nodded. "But what about Fear?" His name didn't bring back the usual stress. She was still mad at him, but only a soft burn that was barely felt.

"I think he said he was a medieval blacksmith. All those sparks flying everywhere, how did he do it? He ran at everything." She giggled to herself a bit. "I guess it changed us all a bit, didn't it. I never really was too extremely a 'Disgust' person, yet I was…" She trailed off, wiping the french fry grease off her hands.

Riley sat thinking there for a second. How strange was it that emotions were people? It seemed obvious to her now, but just a year ago she would have told anyone who said that they were wrong.

They both smiled. "I'm so glad I got to be your emotion, even if I was a more negative one."

Riley shook her head. "You we're important! You kept me from getting poisoned! I probably would have died years ago, even if I would have eaten more veggies." They both smiled again. When Jessie smiled, her rosey cheeks almost glew with happiness and high-quality blush.

Riley was happy. She had a friend, and she really didn't need to worry about the future anymore. She hoped this could last as long as possi-

"Riley Andersen to Hannah's Office for Emotion Duty. Repeat, Riley Andersen to Hannah's Office."

Yeah, I know that one was a bit boring, and I'm sorry. I just wanted to give a peak into the emotions, even if it was small. I'll try to upload more soon.