thanks to everyone who reviewed/ faved/followed! Here's a new chapter, let me know what you think!
Fear woke up, and got a cup of tea. He hadn't slept well last night, for whatever reason, probably because of that scary movie Riley watched. So he was up early, even more early than Joy.
He walked over to the console where Sadness was slumped over the chair. He sipped his tea carefully as the lights began to flicker when Riley woke up.
"Um... Sadness?" Fear said, his eyes widening with horroras he looked at the console.
Sadness jumped at the mention of her name "huh? Oh. Hi Fear," she said as she registered his slender, purple face.
"Sadness... What are these buttons?"
"Oh. Disgust pushed puberty last night after everyone was in bed."
"What!" Fears hands began to shake and hot tea sloshed around and out of his cup " No. Nononono!" He looked at the buttons in sheer horror "There has to be a way to undo this. Maybe we can... Try this... or maybe this...um" he clicked a few buttons rapidly before letting out an anxiety filled sigh. "This isn't permanent. Nothing's permanent. Except death. It's just a faze. Before we know it, puberty will have worn off, all these scary little buttons will have gone away, and Riley won't be closer to death." He let out a breath, barely believing his own story.
"Actually there's no way to undo it. I read about it in the manuals."
Sadness said running her fingers over the buttons softly.
"Who am I kidding?! I know we're gonna die. It's inevitable. But it wasn't supposed to happen so fast!" Fear wailed as his big purple eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell backward, spilling his tea all over his sweater.
"Fear?" Sadness poked his slender leg with her foot. She sighed and sat back down.
"Morning, morning, morning!" Joy bounced into the room. "Where is everyone?" She turned a cartwheel as she grabbed her trumpet and played a wake up call.
Anger came out of his room, tiny sparks flickering above his head "Did you really have to do that?"
"Yes Anger, it was a hundred percent mandatory in order for me to keep existing for me to wake you up with my trumpet" Joy tried to grab Anger into a hug, but he swatted her hand away with a "whatever"
"Alright everyone let's make today an awesome day! Let's start with a revisiting of last night. I know a lot of you wanted to start puberty, (just disgust and anger) but when we're all ready, Riley's ready and I know that's all we all want for Riley. So I was thinking some of us could read the puberty manual when we're not on duty and-" Joy stopped walking when she almost stepped on Fear "Anger what did you do to Fear?"
Anger glared at her from his newspaper "I-"
Sadness interrupted him "Anger didn't do anything. Actually Disgust-"
Joy's eyes widened as she saw a whole new keypad of buttons "What? What is this? Who did this? Did Fear do this?"
"Fear didn't do anything. Actually Disgust-" Joy cut Sadness off again and she narrowed her eyes.
"Disgust! Oh, I should've known she'd cheat!" She turned on her heel and stormed into Disgust's room.
"Disgust!" She screeched, pulling the bright green door open.
"Wha?" Disgust said half sleep, peeling her frilly pink sleeping mask off of her eyes.
"I need you to come see this," she grabbed Disgust by her arm and yanked her to the console.
"Joy, what are you-"
"Explain... This... This madness!" Joy pointed to the whole new set of buttons
"Last night, after you went to bed, I pushed puberty. Technically, I won because I had Sadness vote. three against two. It's simple math, Joy, come on."
"But Disgust!- "
"Hang on, Joy," Disgust said walking to the console. She clicked a few buttons and Riley held an outfit out in front of her "Ew. Ew, no. How about..." She clicked a few more buttons before Riley pulled out a shirt and some jeans "That's better. Now, what were you saying, Joy?"
"I said, Why did you push Puberty? You haven't read the manuals and you have no idea what it could do to us!"
"Joy! Why would I even need to read some dumb manuals? As I said before I actually paid attention when we had the sex and puberty talk. I know what I'm doing. Puberty isn't going to kill us, it'll make us better. Right after we get gross. Did you ever hear the girls talking about their breast? Or whatever those things are. Or how they try to pressure Riley to stuff tissue down her shirt? I mean since she's smart and since it's itchy she won't do it. I just think it might be nicer to have real breast than wearing that nasty itchy tissue."
"You don't get it!" Joy protested
"What don't I get Joy? I get what's best for Riley, so that's obviously not it,"
"You don't get to push the button till everyone is ready! I'm not ready! Fear and Sadness aren't ready!"
"Actually Sadness voted yes.." Disgust pointed out making a 'duh' face.
"Actually, NO she didn't!" Joy said slowly, an annoyed smile toying at her pale pink lips "And that's why you shouldn't have pushed it. We want Riley to be physically and emotionally ready."
"The last time Riley wasn't ready was when we moved to San Francisco. And she had a breakdown. That was one story, I tell you!" Fear said, regaining his conciseness
"Or the time she got dizzy playing hockey?" Sadness chimed in " She sat off for ten minutes, but mom wanted her to stay longer. But she didn't. She she fell. And she broke her arm. And we couldn't okay hockey for a few weeks. Maybe a month. And that was sad"
"Exactly! Acting on impulse hasn't gotten anyone anywhere in this life! So why does that change now?" Joy waved her hands in the air as if to prove a point.
"Uh, because starting puberty is different than being clumsy and breaking your arm. Starting puberty is different than leaving all your friend and memories behind and moving somewhere else. " Disgust leaned back and folded her arms.
"But we were ready for all those things! We didn't see it at the time, but we were ready for it. Puberty is gonna change us a lot! We might even get new emotions! The way we look is gonna change, the way we think and act!" Joy said
"Moving changed us, Joy. And guess what? We're still alive, we're still breathing, and the Earth is still turning! We're even better than before. Why do you think this is gonna be different?" Disgust challenged
Joy shrugged with a rueful smile on her face "I really don't know. I guess I don't like not knowing what's going to happen. Maybe I'm scared. That things will end up like they did last time." She paused and glared at Disgust. "What really bugs me is that you clicked the button even though you lost"
"Joy, I still don't get why you're going on about that. I clicked the button, you can't unpush it, and theirs nothing The Mighty Joy can do about it. So I suggest you drop it, and make sure Riley's day at school doesn't suck" Disgust put her hands on her hips and glared back at Joy
"You know what? You're actually right. What's done is done. No undoing it. And That's okay, we'll just roll with it" Joy cracked a few of her knuckles as she grabbed a hold of the console and looked at the other emotions " Alright everyone! Grab your hats and hold on tight, cause this is gonna be one heck of a ride!"