"And now we're trying to be a couple," Disgust finished.

"That's amazing," Joy cheered, "I knew things would work out for you two."

"I didn't," Anger grumbled.

It was morning. Riley was just resting, so the emotions had some time to kill.

"We kinda owe what we have now to Burger Beard," Fear admitted, "He was the one who got Disgust to talk to me again."

"I'm actually kinda surprised none of us noticed you two ever had a thing going on," Sadness thought out loud.

"You and Joy had a thing going on for who knows how long," Disgust argued, "And nobody ever noticed that."

"Yeah, but you guys probably didn't look too hard for odd behaviour," Joy stated, "I, however, am pretty good at noticing things."

"Hello," Burger Beard greeted.

"Aaayyyggguuuhhhhyyyaaahhhh," Joy screamed.

Turns out Burger Beard had been standing behind her for the past minute.

"Glad to see I've been neglected," Burger Beard moaned, "Again."

"Actually," Joy countered, "We owe you a thank you."

"Say what," Burger Beard questioned.

"If it weren't for you," Sadness explained, "Me and Joy wouldn't have told everyone about us."

"And I wouldn't have even considered giving Disgust a second chance," Fear added on.

"Well," Burger Beard blushed, "I'm glad I could make you all feel so distracted."

"What," Fear questioned.

"So," Burger Beard jumped, "Riley's still stuck in here, huh?"

"Yeah," Anger growled, "And it's really starting to grind my gears. How much longer are we going to be stuck in this bed?"

"Well," Burger Beard added on, "You all must be pretty bored. What do you do to entertain yourselves when Riley's like this?"

"Blast my music," Joy cheered.

"Mope in my room," Sadness groaned.

"Find something nobody would miss and punch it," Anger growled, eyeing Fear.

"Well," Burger Beard stammered, "That all sounds well and good, but I actually have a few stories I've picked up over the years. How's about we pass the time by listening to those?"

"Yeah," Joy cheered, "Come on, guys."

All of the emotions then proceed to sit around Burger Beard as he sits on the couch and starts reading from a mysterious book.

"Alright," Burger Beard stated, "Let's jump right into this."

"This is gonna be good," Joy whispered, "I can tell."

"The story has been titled, by me, 'The Girl Gets Dull'," Burger Beard announced, "It all started with a young girl, about twelve years old..."

Her name was, err, let's call her Kaitlyn.

Now, Kaitlyn was quite a happy girl. Very happy. Really happy. Maybe even a bit too happy. Like, "squeeze her stuffed animals so tight, the heads would pop off" happy.

Because she actually did that one time. Her teddy bear got decapitated. Maybe therapy should have been considered at some point.

Anyways, Kaitlyn always felt fit as a fiddle, which actually means trick. Little fun fact.

And they say that kids who always felt well were destined to remain in perfect health for the rest of their lives.

But, they were proven to be wrong. For, one dreary afternoon, Kaitlyn was a bit too eager going down the stairs. She ended up tripping and hitting her head very hard on the handrail.

She was out cold.

Everyone around Kaitlyn was doing what they could to help her. Her parents were rushing her to the hospital and her emotions were trying to wake her up the best way they knew how: pressing every button and going as extreme as possible.

It, unfortunately, didn't work.

Meanwhile, while Kaitlyn's emotions were scrambling, trying to figure out what was going on, they didn't notice a mysterious, evil figure outside of her trying to get in.

Now, most human vessels are equipped with multiple different lines of defense to protect the human from intruders: antibodies, mucous membranes, white blood cells, etc.

But, what the body is unprepared for is when somebody tries to invade the brain.

One particular disease had been sitting on the family's coffee table, seeing if anybody would ever get low enough for him to invade their head.

And, it looks like Kaitlyn had satisfied his requirements.

So, he grabbed a paraglider he had fashioned out of old scraps of paper and a handkerchief. With it, he was able to leap from the coffee table and slowly soar towards Kaitlyn. He was closing in, a malicious grin forming on his face.

Then, a fan blew him into a nearby smaller table.

He smacked against the table with a kerthunk and slid to the ground.

After picking some small splinters from the legs of his pants, he put his focus back on Kaitlyn. By now, her parents had realized she was unconscious and were fussing over her. Our disease knew he had a short amount of time before Kaitlyn was moved to a hospital. He had to take action.

He tried running as fast as his legs could carry him. But, Kaitlyn was being picked up. There was only one option left.

Our disease ran as fast as he could, jump as high as he could, and tried to grab a hair from Kaitlyn's head.

He grabbed a small handful and held on for dear life as he was carried away with Kaitlyn.

After Kaitlyn was secured in her parents' car, our antagonist decided that now was the time for him to strike. After a few powerful swings on the strand of hair, the figure leapt into Kaitlyn's ear canal. An unconventional method of entry, and a rather tight pinch, but it would have to do.

He got stuck only once, for a minute or two. Until he stuck his head out and saw that he was at the highest point of the brain. From where he was, he could see everything. Including the control center. He crawled on some glass tubes and, once he reached the control center, snuck in, never not looking menacing.

But, before he could expose himself to the unsuspecting emotions, they heard a loud voice yelling out, "Clear!"

That's when Kaitlyn's eyes opened.

She was now awake. But someone was in her head with her.