Fear considered the recent dream; he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something uncanny about it. It wasn't the fact that Dream Productions had included a Thrawn character; Long John Silver had cameoed in a "Where is my Homework" sequel after Riley read the first chapter of Treasure Island. He downed the dregs of his tea, and then slouched back in his chair. Then he sat up. Of course! It reminded him of how Joy, Sadness, and Bing-Bong had interrupted-
*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP*
"Ahh!" Fear jumped up, dropping his mug, flailed about, and pulled a lever on the panel. This had the effect of pulling max adrenaline, which automatically activated emergency wake up procedures and a klaxon in HQ. Riley's eyes shot open, her hand shot out-
And she turned off the alarm clock. Fear and Riley hyperventilated in sync for a moment; then Fear pushed the lever back up. Suddenly, Joy was at her station, having bolted from the sleeping
quarters as soon as the clock had sounded. Morning person that she was, Joy worked quickly, bringing Riley to chuckle at being so startled by her alarm, then to slowly get up.
"Good morning Fear!" She nearly sung.
Anger, Sadness, and Disgust filed down the ramp far more slowly. Disgust, bleary-eyed, went into the bathroom to do her makeup, muttering something about calling her when it was time to get dressed.
Sadness just dutifully walked over to her station, stretching and yawning. Anger, on the other hand, marched with an irritated step. Fear cringed; he knew what was coming.
"You just couldn't stand it could you!" Anger boiled, fire in his eyes but only hot air over his head. "Just had to use the emergency setting, even without a nightmare!"
"Come on, Anger, at least he got us up fast," Joy placated.
Anger was not ready to simmer down. "Not all of us are morning people like you." He whirled back on Fear, who at this point was standing behind his chair, putting whatever flimsy barrier he could between himself and the volatile brick. "Would it kill you to use the regular way?"
"W-w-well, you c-c-can't blame me. There was this w-w-w-weird dream-" Fear stammered.
"Oh yeah? How weird?"
"Um-" Fear hesitated.
"That's what I thought. You have no excuse!" Anger turned to the rest of HQ from where he had backed Fear into a corner. "Why do we let this pansy do anything?"
A silence followed, as no one quite agreed with Anger's wrath, but no one wanted to face it either.
Then, Joy saw an opening. "Breakfast!"
"Ooh, what's it today?" Anger immediately diffused. Some might call him petty, or easily distracted, but really he just took an opening to get out of following his own temper to its logical conclusion. Anger marched over to his place at the console, grabbing his paper on the way.
"Marshmallow cereal." Sadness yawned.
"Again?"
"What did you expect?"
Rather than answer, Anger looked at the screen and grinned. "At least there's orange juice."
Fear crept back to his place. "Don't forget the vitamins!" He pressed a button, highlighting the appropriate cabinet in Riley's peripheral vision.
Once Riley had her dry cereal, orange juice, and vitamin supplement gummy, she sat down at the table. Sadness and Joy got to work, helping Riley alternate spoonfuls of pure cereal and pure marshmallow; a great improvement, they agreed, over the old method of eating all the marshmallows first. As they finished and downed the high-pulp orange juice (one of the reasons Disgust stayed in the bathroom during breakfast), Mom entered the kitchen.
"Good morning, Riley!"
Joy twirled her general control. "Mornin' Mom!"
"Before you head off to school, make sure you get all your stuff off the floor!"
"Okay, Mom!"
Riley put her bowl next to the sink; she then bolted around the corner and up the stairs, barely missing Dad on his way down to breakfast.
"Mornin' Dad!"
Meanwhile, Disgust came out of the bathroom, hairbrush in hand. She stalked over to the console, getting there just in time to make sure Riley went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair.
Soon she had Riley ready to head out, and Disgust and Fear made sure the room got picked up per Mom's instructions.
Finally, it was time to head out. Joy twirled her control and Riley got under way.
"Bye Mom! Bye Dad!"
"Bye Riley! Have a good day at school!" The parents said in unison.
As Riley ambled down the street, Fear remembered something. "Guys, you need to see the dream from last night."
Anger scoffed, "Oh, the 'weird dream.'"
Sadness turned to look at Anger in a pretty good imitation of Disgust.
"What? I'm just saying." Sadness continued to stare at him, eyes half lidded. "Okay, fine, see if I care." Anger then pulled his newspaper back in front of his face.
"Besides, it could be fun. We almost never look at the dreams in the morning!" Joy agreed with Fear enthusiastically. Disgust didn't object, so Fear called up the last bit of the dream in memory. Unfortunately, dream memories tended to get lost or fade extra quickly, so the memory that came up wasn't quite right.
Anger chuckled slightly. "Newberry bushes. I get it!"
Joy laughed more enthusiastically, and Sadness cracked a smile. Disgust rolled her eyes at the lame joke; Dream Productions had better things to do than make lame puns.
"Uh, wait, I'm sure the rest is in here." Fear tried to stay calm, but as he worked the controls, he just got more frantic.
Disgust finally had enough of the incessant clicking, whirring, and hyperventilating. "Here, let me try," she said, reaching for her controls. Not to be outdone, Anger joined in, and Joy started helping just for fun. Sadness could see where this was going, and kept her hands off the controls.
On the Outside, Riley was trying to remember the events of her dream the night before. She got to the end of the Newberry sequence, which prompted a smile, then started to remember something about sitting on the front step. She lost it though, as suddenly a tune rose up unbidden:
"Triple Dent Gum
Will make you smile!"
Turning into the schoolyard, she could have sworn that her mental picture of the commercial was engulfed in flames for a moment; what an imagination!