(A/N: Ok, so I have a little bit of bad news. Well, not bad, just a little disappointing. Due to the workload I'm facing at my job, it's getting difficult updating every week. Therefore, I will now be updating every two weeks instead unless I say otherwise. Sorry about that, but it can't be helped. It'll make you looks forward to the next installment even more. So, this one turned out a little shorter than I wanted. This chapter and next were going to be on chapter, but I decided to split it into two.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 5: Emotional Debates

School had let out, and Riley and Jordan were on their way home. Riley's house was along the way to Jordan's, so he would normally walk with her. It was an enjoyable time where they talked about their day, both being in different classes.

"I was totally unprepared for that test," Riley was saying. "If the teacher had just given me one more day to study, I know I would have passed."

Inside her head, I.B. was fulfilling his new role as a relationship advisor to the Emotions. "Ok, now, a good boyfriend would be listening to what she's saying. Check to make sure he is, and Anger, be prepared if he isn't. Disgust, get ready in case he's only pretending to listen."

"I'm sure you did fine," said Jordan. "You always get good grades. At least better ones than I do. My math score is never higher than a C average."

"Looks like he was listening after all," Anger reported.

I.B. nodded. "Yes, she should feel happy about that, but also a little sad that he's doubting himself. Sadness, Joy, do your thing."

"Right," the two Emotions replied.

Riley gave him a grateful smile. "You know I can always help you study for your math if you need help."

I.B. smirked. "Nice job with the studying idea, Joy. Now if he's a good boyfriend, he'll jump at the opportunity to spend more time with her."

"I'd appreciate that," said Jordan, "but my dad has already decided to hire a tutor until my math grades improve."

I.B. tsked at that. "Ooh, he blew that one. Anger, let him have it."

The red Emotion grinned. "You got it."

Joy's hand grabbed his, stopping him. "Wait, wait. Isn't that a little harsh? Riley shouldn't get mad at him over that. He's not really turning down her help, his father decided he would get tutor."

"That's irrelevant," I.B. told her. "We still need to make Riley's disapproval evident so he'll remember for next time. And besides, if Jordan were the perfect boyfriend, like me, he wouldn't be struggling in any of his subjects."

Joy cut her eyes at him. "He's human," she insisted. "Humans are flawed. They're supposed to be. That's how they learn, grow, and adapt to life."

"Precisely. So we must have Riley show disapproval so Jordan will want to better himself for her. No more struggling in math means no more tutoring means more time to spend with Riley. Now do it."

"Joy, stop arguing with I.B.," Sadness whispered to her.

"Yeah," said Anger smugly as he pressed a button, "he's the 'relationship advisor' you felt we should have."

Riley's eyes narrowed as a flash of irritation ran through her. "Oh, fine. Thought we could spend some time together." Though she had said it calmly, her tone contained a hint of the irritation she felt.

Jordan seemed to pick up on it. "Once my grades improve, I won't need a tutor, and then we'll be able to spend more time together."

Joy smirked and glanced at I.B. "See. If he gets help from a professional tutor, his grades will improve even more, and much faster. Then there won't even be a need for one, and the two of them could have even more time together."

I.B. didn't say anything, but he appeared to be displeased. For some reason, this satisfied Joy, and she sent a feeling of happiness through Riley.

"Ok, cool. But if you still need any extra help, feel free to ask."

Jordan gave her a grateful smile. "Oh, you know I will."

They walked along some more, talking about random things. Eventually, the topic of conversation turned to Riley's hockey team, the Foghorns.

"You're going to come to our practice tomorrow, right?" she asked.

Jordan frowned. "Sorry, but I got practice too, with my band. Nathan's been scheduling a bunch of rehearsals lately. He says we got a chance for a big gig coming up that he's trying to get for us, so he wants us to be in top form."

I.B. shook his finger at the screen. "See, now that's a major loss in points right there. A man should always put his girl first and foremost."

"What?" Joy cried. "Don't you think you're going a bit too far? I mean, I agree with the putting her first and foremost thing, but Jordan has a life too. He should be able to spend some time with his friends too, just as Riley does. His band is important to him too. Not to mention Riley loves it."

"She's right," Disgust agreed. "We don't want Riley to be one of those selfish, spoiled, annoying, clingy, needy girls. Jordan should be able to pursue his own hobbies."

I.B. just waved this off. "I'm not saying he can't. But when Riley needs him to be there for her, he should be, no questions asked. Trust me, I know what I'm doing; I am the perfect boyfriend."

Riley frowned slightly at hearing he had practice. "Oh, ok. Sorry I can't come."

Jordan shook his head. "No, it's fine. You've got the semi-finals coming up, so I know you've got practice. Not that you need it; you guys are awesome. I'll be rooting for you at the game."

Joy motioned to the screen. "See that. That's how a relationship should work. You compromise. Give and take. Make time for each other, but also have time for yourself and others."

I.B. cleared his throat. "And having never been in a relationship before, you would know this because…?"

She gave him a confused look. "What do you mean? It's common sense. And you've never been in a relationship either, pal."

I.B. held his chin up high. "Of course I have." He smoothed his hair back. "An imaginary one with Riley."

Joy's mouth dropped open. Was he serious right now?

"And, of course," he added, "with my dear Sadness over here. Isn't that right, my blue beauty."

Sadness blushed. "Blue beauty? Me?" She giggled. "Oh, I.B."

Joy resisted the urge to gag. While watching Riley be lovey-dovey with Jordan was sweet, seeing it with Sadness and I.B. was nauseating.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was beginning to regret allowing I.B. to join them. While he did offer relationship advice, she didn't always agree with the things he said. He seemed to have unrealistic expectations of Jordan as Riley's boyfriend, and whenever he didn't met them, I.B. would order either Anger, Disgust, or Sadness react.

Joy may not have any relationship experience, but she knew that what I.B. expected one to be was not how things worked in the real world. And how could he claim to have relationship experience from an imaginary relationship? That was like saying you knew how to fly a plane because you imagined doing it.

As the days went by, I.B. spent more and more time reading through the mind manuals and learning whatever he could from the Emotions. But whenever Riley and Jordan were together, he took an active role in what Riley was supposed to be feeling. And Joy couldn't help but notice that ever since he had gotten involved, Riley and Jordan's relationship seemed kind of strained.

And speaking of relationships, it seemed that I.B. was neglecting Sadness. He spent nearly all his time learning how things worked in Headquarters, or "helping" with Riley's relationship with Jordan.

"He's just learning everything he can right now so we can have more time together later," Sadness explained whenever the subject was brought up.

But Joy didn't feel like that was acceptable. For all his talk of being the "perfect boyfriend", I.B. sure seemed to be failing as Sadness'.

"Well, nothing is more important than Riley," Sadness pointed out. "Not even us."

That much at least seemed to be true. For Emotions, nothing was more important than their person. As was the case with I.B., who would repeatedly remind them that he would die for Riley.

All the same, Joy had concerns of how things were going with I.B. as a co-worker. Therefore, she had decided to have a meeting with the other Emotions to discuss how they felt things were going with the imaginary character working with them. She was just worried that Sadness might have her heart broken if they had to kick I.B. out of Headquarters.

As Riley fell asleep and everything powered down, Joy walked over to the wall of memories for the day. She couldn't help but notice that a lot of the ones involving Jordan were either red, blue, or green, as seemed to be the norm the past week they allowed I.B. to offer them advice. Before he began… interfering, they had almost all been yellow all the time. Something was definitely wrong and needed to be addressed.

With a sigh, she sent the memories down to Long Term and turned to the Emotions. "Hey, guys, we need to have a talk." She glanced at the imaginary character. "Um, a private Emotional talk. Uh, would you mind stepping out for a bit, I.B.?"

He flipped his head back. "Not at all." He turned to Sadness and tickled her beneath her chin, making her giggle. "See you in a bit, babe."

The blue Emotion swooned as Joy sent up a prayer of thanks that they didn't have to eat, or else she surely would have puked. As I.B. sat down by the control panel, placing his feet up on the board as he watched tonight's dream, Joy ushered the others out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"So, what's up?" Disgust asked as she began filing her nails.

Oh boy, how to start? "Well, I.B. has been working with us for about a week now, and I just thought that we should discuss how things are going with him. You know, a first week review of sorts."

A blue hand rose in the air. "I think he's doing great."

Well, no surprise there, Sadness was smitten with the guy.

"I don't like him," Anger growled. "He keeps interfering. It's annoying."

Fear had begun chewing his nails. "He's freaking me out! He makes me feel inadequate, like I don't know how to do my job or something. And what if he actually doesn't know what he's talking about and ruins everything? He's not qualified for this job. We could be leading Riley to her doom!"

Joy didn't think it was quite that serious, but she did have her concerns. "Disgust, what do you think?"

The green Emotion just kept filing her nails as she nonchalantly shrugged. "Meh."

All relatively predictable responses. "I see. Hmm, well, as for me, I have a few concerns myself. I'm sure I.B. is doing the best he can, but there have been quite a few times where I've disagreed with his suggestions, but he made us convey those feelings to Riley anyway."

"But don't forget," said Sadness, "we're inexperienced in relationships. I.B. isn't."

Disgust scoffed. "Sadness, he doesn't have any experience. Riley imagined him to be the perfect ideal boyfriend, and any time Jordan acts like anything less, I.B. makes us give Riley a negative response. But this isn't some perfect fantasy world where everything works out exactly the way you want, and it's unrealistic to expect that of Jordan. I.B. doesn't have relationship experience, he just knows how to act like Riley's idea of a perfect boyfriend that she thought of years ago, and he holds it against Jordan whenever he doesn't act as such."

The others stared at the green Emotion. It wasn't that often that she spoke for so long, or was so insightful.

"Thank you, Disgust," said Joy, completely flabbergasted. She shook her head and regained her composure. "In any case, has anyone noticed that Riley's memories about Jordan since we started listening to I.B.? There used to be a lot more happy ones before we began taking his advice."

There were nods and muttered agreements from three of the Emotions while Sadness just looked at the ground sadly.

Joy sighed as she looked at the blue Emotion. "Sadness, you must have realized it. Things between Riley and Jordan were better before I.B. started interfering."

The blue Emotion sniffled. "Yeah… I noticed…"

"And you know that Riley's happiness and well being is what's most important," Fear added.

"I know," Sadness admitted, and began balling. "But I don't want to lose him!"

Anger grumbled and shifted away from her. "Oh, great, there she goes again."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sadness!" Joy cried, waving her arms. "We're not saying that you can never see I.B. again. He can still hang out, and the two of you can get together after Riley goes to sleep. He's just not allowed to interfere with our jobs anymore."

Sadness stopped wailing, but her tears kept falling. "Really?"

"Of course he can. Right, guys?"

"If it'll get her to stop crying," Anger growled.

Disgust just shrugged. "I don't care."

Fear tapped his fingers together. "Well, hmm, I guess it'll be ok."

Joy threw her arms in the air. "Great! We're all in agreement. I.B. is no longer allowed to interfere with our jobs. We'll just let Riley's relationship with Jordan flow naturally. No more advice from imaginary characters."

It was a relief when she received nods of agreement from the others, even Sadness. They then headed back into the control room to tell I.B. of their decision.

(A/N: So things didn't work out with I.B. assisting the Emotions. Things rarely do when someone else is telling you how to feel. Since I.B. was what Riley imagined a boyfriend would be like, every time Jordan acts differently, I.B. holds it against him. That's not to say that Jordan is being a bad boyfriend, it's just that the expectations I.B. is putting on him is unrealistic. It's no one's fault really. Having never been in a relationship before, Riley could only imagine what having a boyfriend would be like, and I.B. is the result of that thought. Not to mention Riley was only 11 at most when she thought it him, so her expectations would have been unrealistic too. See where things go from here next time.)