The piece of cardboard paper used to be a simple thing, like a flat blanket of snow lying untouched across the surface of a lake. The perfection of it was wonderful. Untouched.
Then Riley squirted deep blue paint onto it in a blobbish puddle, followed by a glob of red, and began mixing them together in an increasing swirl. The unperturbed sheet was no more; it was now the canvas of an eleven-year-old's heart (a heart which was up in the clouds, miles away). She smiled enthusiastically as she went to work, the paintbrush never leaving the paper for even a second as it skated across its surface. Time seemed to smear and blend like those two colors did, and - as the crimson and blue smears gradually took on a violet hue - time allowed the picture of a heart to emerge from Riley's swirling.
It was perfect.
Riley paused a moment to admire her work, then quickly yanked her head up and looked to her bedroom door. It was still locked. She glanced at her phone. Thirty minutes until she had to leave for school. She sighed in relief, though her cheeks still nervously burned, and put some final touches on her work, this time with some other, less bold colors, addressing it to one "Jameson Berker." While the paint dried, Riley let her thoughts wander blissfully, daydreaming about the brown-haired boy she occasionally passed in the halls.
That would be Joy's doing, by the way.
Mirroring her girl exactly, Joy was sprawled across the console, legs rocking listlessly back and forth in the air while she examined her own cardboard paper (or, rather, papers, four of them). She - too - admired her handiwork, a paintbrush sticking out from behind smiling white teeth. Splotches of paint were all over her face and hands... and - Fear noted as he approached the console - even her hair.
"You really shouldn't be encouraging Riley to be so... bold!" Fear muttered, tapping a button. He then turned around and kept pacing back and forth, to the couch, then to the console, then to the couch, then to the console, as he had been for the past half hour (making sure to press a button each time he approached the controls... it was the least he could do, what with Joy currently activating so many as she used the console as her own personal art studio).
"Mmhmm..." Joy replied, clearly not listening.
"What if Jameson doesn't like it?!" Fear asks, "What if he thinks we're being obnoxious?"
Another purple button press.
Another non-response from Joy.
Another frustrated groan from Fear. "You're not listening." Joy's lack of reply confirmed as much. Fear slapped himself in the face and then walked back to the couch, sitting down grumpily. He bothered himself with a quick look at Anger's newspaper. "VALENTINE'S DAY IS HERE!" it said. 'No, really?' Fear thought to himself. He'd tried convincing Anger that the card was a bad idea, but the red brick told him he was being too wound up over something that wasn't as bad as he thought it was (though he didn't put it quite so eloquently). Fear also knew it was useless to bother Disgust or Sadness over it. While Disgust was busy picking out the perfect clothes for Riley to wear, Sadness was trying to come up with a list of apologies should things turn south. Then, to top it all off, once they were done with their tasks, the two became entranced by a golden memory Joy had recalled, which was currently playing on loop: Jameson accidentally bumping into Riley in the hall, then picking up her papers that had fallen. It was like hypnosis for them; there they were, inches from the monitor, staring right at the looping memory as if it were the most wonderful thing in the world.
And, of course, Fear tried talking Joy out of it, but she wasn't listening.
In the end, the most say Fear had was the occasional splotch of purple on one of the yellow orbs (a steady stream had begun rolling in). He sighed in frustration.
"Done!" Joy shouted.
Fear yelped.
His gold peer leapt from the console and darted around the room. She chucked whatever it was she'd been working on at her four friends; a piece of cardboard paper bumped Sadness's glasses, another landed in Disgust's hair, another interrupted Anger's reading, and a final one smacked Fear in the face. Each was accompanied by a rapid-fire "Happy Valentine's Day!" from Joy.
Fear looked down at the Valentine's Day card he'd received:
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
"I love you all!"
"-Joy"
"Also, PS: sorry about the 'Core Memory' thing!"
"-Joy"
"PS PS - I really really mean it."
"PS PS PPS - I mean that I mean both things - Love you all, and still sorry about the Core Memory accident. Just so we're clear."
"Okay, thanks. That's all. Happy Valentine's Day!"
"-Joy"
Fear - try as he might - couldn't stay upset with Joy. He even managed to smile through his anxieties as he picked up the candy that was taped to the card.
She always got enthusiastic about holidays, and this was no exception. Besides, it was so many months later, and yet she was still a little shaken up from the core memory thing. Once in a while the lightbulb of an emotion would get into these moods where she felt the need to "make up for it." She'd done that ten times over, and then some, by that point. But that didn't change how dead-set she occasionally was to make things better. Other than that, it was just like any other Valentine's Day, really.
Well, almost. The only other difference being that Riley actually had a crush... which made Fear worry. A shudder rolled down his spine.
At school, the tensionous atmosphere was only multiplied. There they were, surrounded by a sea of lovestruck, drama-filled peers, some with friends, some with those they considered more than friends, and all of them with their intrusive eyes on Riley. At least, that's how she felt. That's how Fear felt. "Slow down! We're walking too fast, Joy!"
Fear reached forward and grabbed the levers, pulling them back as much as possible with Joy's forceful pushing. Not mad, but clearly eager, Joy offered an "Oh, come on, Fear!" in response. He didn't care.
"No, Joy, seriously! We go too fast, we'll bump into someone or trip them or-or- draw attention to ourselves!" Joy looked like she wasn't buying it, so Fear used a lifeline. "Disgust, come on, back me up on this!"
"He's right, Joy," the green one confirmed (though she still had a smile), "Just... calm down a little; we'll get to Jameson soon enough, and-"
"There he is!" Sadness said.
But nobody looked at the monitor. Instead, they all turned to look at their little blue friend. Her voice had cracked when she spoke, and now tears were gathering in her eyes. Disgust's smile was gone.
"Oh my gosh, Sadness, are you okay?" Joy asked, running over to her.
Sadness managed to keep her trembling hand pointed right at the monitor. "J-Just look!" she sobbed, melting into a puddle of tears. Finally, everyone looked up and felt a heavy blow. There was Jameson, exchanging Valentine's Day cards with another girl! Not just any other girl, mind you, but Hannah - with her oh-so-perfect green emerald eyes and perfectly-brushed hair and witty humor and bright smile, and... and... and by the looks on their faces and the way they were holding hands...
Riley couldn't compete with that.
It felt like the world locked up, frozen. Riley nearly dropped her card as she went slack-jawed, brain unable to process what it was she was seeing. And when she finally did, Sadness was up at the controls, crying, while Joy moped back to the couch, numb eyes staring in shock at nothing in particular. Fear looked to Joy, then to the console, then to Joy, then to the console...
He ran over and pressed a button. Riley, realizing she was about to tear up in public, went to the restroom, kept her composure until she was alone in a stall, then let her eyelids break like dams, tears erupting out. Content that the situation was under control (or, as much as it could be), Fear and Disgust went to Joy's side. She, too, was struggling to keep it all together. This whole... fixation... on Jameson was her doing. That's how she saw it, anyway. So she felt that Jameson being with another girl was somehow her fault, and that the pain Riley was feeling was somehow brought on by Joy's influence. Fear and Disgust both knew that wasn't even remotely true, so - doing their best to fill in for Sadness (who was obviously occupied) - they attempted to soothe their golden friend.
Meanwhile, Anger hadn't moved. His eyes were still aimed at the monitor.
If looks could kill.
Anger threw down his paper and crushed it on the floor, like a bug. He glared at it for a while, staring at its brand-new headline: "STABBED IN THE BACK!" He gritted his teeth, breathed in, breathed out, and muttered something under his breath, something that he probably would've been scolded for could anyone else hear it. But they couldn't. So that's that. He repeated it quietly, just to let off some steam, before wadding up the paper and kicking it across the room.
"Joy worked so hard..." he said to himself, taking brisk steps up to the console's blue light, "Disgust and Sadness were looking forward to it... Fear tried to warn us... and now..." He stopped next to Sadness, arms folded. She was still crying. Anger's scowl gave way to puzzled eyebrows. He wasn't good with this kind of stuff. He adjusted his tie, cleared his throat, and, "Uhh... Sadness. So, uh... I'm... I'm sorry. I feel bad for Riley, too... Uh..."
"Why won't it work?!" Sadness bawled, "Sh-She... she..." she composed herself (for any given definition of "composed"), then said, "Riley should feel better now! But it's not... I'm not working!" This was followed by more waterworks.
Anger analyzed it all. He looked at Sadness, then at the screen, where Riley was staring numbly at the now-useless Valentine's Day card. The red brick nodded. "'Scuse me, Sadness," he said. He firmly pressed a button, and the console swirled blue and red.
Hurt, Riley decided to repay the pain on whatever she could, and - currently - it was that card. She ripped it.
Anger pressed the button again.
She ripped it again.
Again.
And again.
As the paper became more and more ruined, Riley felt the tears slowly slack. She hopped off the stool, then flipped up the lid, and dumped the scraps into the bowl. She sniffed once, then flushed the scraps away. They went smoothly down the drain, vanishing forever.
Riley was satisfied with that. She walked to the mirror and turned on the sink, then inspected her face for traces of tears.
Inside her head, Anger and Sadness stood at the console, arms now dangling by their sides. Their work was done. "Uh... Anger?" Sadness said.
"What?"
"Thank you."
"Yeah, sure..."
"Yeah, but, also, um..." She pointed back. Disgust and the others were watching.
It took a moment for Anger to process it, but when he did, his tone instantly became more apologetic. "Oh! J-Joy... I'm sorry! No, really, I am! Jeesh, I forgot... you and Riley worked so hard on that... but - y'know, in- in the heat of the moment..."
"It's okay," Joy said, the faint ghost of a smile still there, "I get it. No, really, I do... it was just a shock, is all."
Anger nodded, then walked back to the others.
"I, uh... I should probably make sure she looks fine," Disgust said, moving to the console.
Riley cleaned her face up in no time. She took a moment, breathing in and out, as she steadied her breathing and as her heartbeat wound back down. The eleven-year-old stared into her reflection. No signs of tears. No worries. Nobody would notice. She adjusted her backpack, and her hair.
Then she noticed that she didn't feel upset anymore. No anger, either. Jameson was just a stupid crush... and the strangest part of it all? Riley didn't feel any more sorrow. Jameson could befriend or be more-than-friends with whoever he wanted, even perfect Miss Phillips. All this "love" stuff wasn't for Riley, not yet. She could wait, and actually felt like it. Besides, it would probably help to avoid this drama nonsense altogether.
She smiled and walked out.