The sun rose over the college on a sunny spring morning. The six emotions slowly roused from their beds in the room they all shared, got their morning coffee, and headed downstairs into the control room. Fear was on Dream Duty last night.
"Morning Fear," Joy called out warmly. He was the first one down the stairs as usual. The others repeated after him.
"Morning guys!" Fear replied. Everyone saw that he was staring out the window into the mindscape. He had spoken without turning to face them. Clearly he was deep in thought.
"What are ya thinking about?" Disgust asked.
Fear turned to his coworkers. "Assembly everyone!"
Everyone shuffled to their assembly table where they usually had their conferences. Anger let out a slight grumble, annoyed at having a conference this early.
"Alright," Joy asked. "So what's this about?"
"Boys," Fear began, "I was thinking last night, mueling over a few things, and I had an idea!" He held up an idea light bulb he had been holding onto for everyone to see. "We've had the idea that college is the time to experiment and try new things, such as different hairstyles. We see others do it sometimes, but we don't. We've been sticking with our typical short-cut hair and clean-shaved face-"
"As were your instructions," Anger stated.
"Yes I know," Fear muttered. "But anyway, I think we should take advantage of that perception, that college is the time to experiment. Because once we're out of college, we might not have that much freedom, or-"
"Just get to the point man," Anger huffed, reminding him.
"Okay, okay," Fear stammered. "Now I had this idea, but I wasn't sure if we should go through with it, which is why I want your guys' opinions. I mean that's what conferences are all about. Of course now you don't have to agree with me-"
"Come on man!" Disgust growled. "What is it? Spit it out!"
"Boys," Fear spoke hurriedly, "I propose we grow a goatee."
Everyone was silent for one moment, processing the suggestion, trying to picture what Andrew would look like with a goatee.
"I'm on board for that!" Joy exclaimed, breaking the silence.
"A goatee?" Disgust repeated.
"Yep," Fear nodded confidently. "I just thought, why not?"
"You sure that's a good idea?" Disgust asked.
"I'm never sure about anything Dude," Fear chuckled.
"We can't really say for sure if we'd look good with a goatee," Disgust continued.
"I see no reasons why we shouldn't," Logic stated. "And if we decide we don't like it, we can always shave it off."
"Yeah," Anger nodded. "I'm on board!"
"But um…" Sadness spoke up. "Having a beard would mean more work, wouldn't it? Having to keep it trimmed and stuff?"
"Yeah, I thought a little about that too," Fear nodded.
"Well, we'll never know unless we go for it," Joy said. "YOLO, right?"
Everyone nodded and hummed in agreement.
"Alright then," Fear said. "Let's give it a go." He headed over to the console to plug in the idea.
A few days later, Andrew had grown out his beard, shaving only his cheeks, neck, and sideburns. There was a blob of short hair growing out on his upper lip, around his mouth, and down to his chin, almost in a perfect circle.
He looked himself in the mirror after shaving one morning, giving his emotions a good look as well.
"Lookin' good, big guy!" Fear exclaimed.
"Looks great!" Joy added.
"We look kinda like Walter White!" Anger grinned.
"Yeah, way better than that full-grown lumberjack beard we tried two years ago." Disgust added.
Even though Disgust, and therefore the other emotions, thought Andrew looked decent and like a rugged woodsman with a full-grown beard, Mom, Laura, and most of his aunts said it was hideous, mostly because of how he never trimmed it and never shaved the neck.
They all agreed now that Andrew's current goatee looked way better than that beard. Later that evening, Andrew texted a picture to Mom and Laura, and they both said they thought he looked good.
"So what do we say people?" Fear asked after the call. "Is this look a keep?"
He heard mostly murmurs of agreement.
"I don't know," one voice said, slightly louder than the others. Everyone turned to Sadness.
"I mean," he continued, "it just seems like so much work. We gotta be careful not to break the line when we shave, we gotta go out and buy an electric razor to trim it..."
"It's not really that much more work," Anger stated.
"Alright," Fear said. "Let's put it to a vote." He pulled out a gavel from his spot at the center of the console. "All those in favor of keeping the goatee?"
Four hands rose.
"Against?"
Sadness raised his hand. Logic abstained.
"Alright, the motion carries," Fear announced. "We're keeping the goatee!" He banged the gavel down on the wooden stopper on the console.
Suddenly, all of their faces began to glow a bright yellow. The flash vanished just as quick. Each emotion found that they had a goatee that matched Andrew's.
"Alright!" Anger cheered. "I'm loving this new look!"
"Me too!" Disgust shouted in agreement.
"I need a mirror!" Joy exclaimed, getting up from his seat. "I gotta see how I look." Anger and Disgust followed him.
Sadness looked a little mopey, having lost the vote. Fear got up from his seat, went over to him, and gently patted the shorter emotion's back.
"Ah don't worry about it, Sad," Fear said in an assuring tone. "I'm sure it won't be so bad. We'll get use to it… I hope."