A/N: As you lot have probably realized by now, I'm one of those people who updates sporadically and with no real schedule. This is because I am basically bone-idle. I'm truly sorry, but don't expect updates to come as promptly (and I use the term loosely) as this one has.
TWEEEEEEEET! "Alright, everybody, time to pack it up!" That was the coach blowing the whistle, signalling that practice had come to an end. All the members of the Fog Horn team skated over toward the door and made their way to the locker room.
Riley Andersen took off her helmet as she stepped off the ice. Meanwhile, inside her head, her five emotions stood at her console, celebrating yet another successful practice.
Inside Headquarters, Sadness slumped over as she pressed three small buttons on the console. "Aww, practice is over," she whined. "That's sad."
Riley began to feel a bit bummed out that she had to leave after such a fun day of practice.
"Cheer up," said Joy, pressing some different buttons. "We did an awesome job today! Besides, we've still got another whole week, and then we're gonna win the final game of the season!"
With these thoughts, Riley felt good again.
A wide smile spread across Joy's face. "What do you guys say we spread the love, huh?"
There was a collective nod of assent from the other four, and Joy pushed a lever forward.
"Hey, great job today," Riley said to Mandy Newport, the girl in front of her.
Mandy looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Thanks! You too!"
A gold-coloured memory ball rolled its way into Headquarters. "She just complimented us!" Joy gushed. "We're on a roll! Let's continue the conversation."
Disgust rolled her eyes. "You better not make it awkward this time, okay?"
Joy waved her hand. "I got this." She pushed another lever forward.
"So, uh, do you think we're ready for the final match?" asked Riley.
Mandy shrugged. "Let's hope so. We've made it this far."
In Riley's Headquarters, there was a gulp from Fear. "Uh, guys, I'm picking up some implications of losing," he whispered.
"Oh, stop worrying," said Joy.
"Failure is a part of life," sighed Sadness.
"Please. Like we're gonna allow ourselves to get humiliated like that," scoffed Disgust.
"Shaddup!" snapped Anger.
"You kidding? We've totally got this!" chimed in a player named Brett Curtis, who had overheard Mandy. "Long as we got the great Riley Andersen and the mighty Mia Sanchez, we can't lose!"
"Hurray! Another compliment!" cried Joy, clapping her hands as another yellow memory ball rolled in.
"The great Riley Andersen," Sadness repeated to herself. "I like that."
"Ya see that, stupid?" said Anger, accosting Fear. "Even Brett the Busybody knows we aren't gonna lose!"
"Who says 'busybody' anymore?" said Disgust, giving her famous eyeroll.
"Nobody asked you, Prima Donna," Anger shot back.
"Don't call me stupid," muttered Fear.
"What did you say?!" His short red colleague demanded.
"Nothing," he squeaked.
"Hang on, guys," said Joy. "Coach is talking again." Everybody's ears perked up lest they miss something important.
"Alright, Fog Horns, listen up," said Coach Evans once all the players were off the ice. "Before you leave, I just wanna remind you that since our last game of the season is this Saturday, so all of you have to show up at each and every practice until then. Practices will go an hour later than usual, and there'll be one additional on Friday."
In Riley's Headquarters, Disgust was heard to groan. "Seriously?"
"Like I expected," said Sadness with a helpless shrug.
Fear twiddled his fingers, as was his custom whenever he got nervous. "Oh, no," he whispered, shivering. "The coach in Minnesota never did anything like that! What if we fall behind on homework again?" Before anybody could answer, he'd pushed several buttons on the console, making Riley more and more worried with each thought he put into her head. "Our grades'll drop! The teacher'll get angry! Mom and Dad'll kill us!"
A purple memory ball made a clunking noise as it fell into place.
Joy put her hand across Fear's. "It's okay. I'm sure we can get some homework done during practice."
The purple memory that had just come in gained a thin strip of gold down the middle, and Riley was comforted somewhat.
"Goodnight, Mom, goodnight, Dad," Riley said to her parents that night after supper and homework were finished.
Mom hugged her. "Goodnight, Riley. We love you."
Dad gave her a thumbs-up. "You get a good night's sleep now, hockey star!"
On Joy's initiative, Riley giggled and pretended to score a goal. Then she went upstairs to her room. After reading some chapters out of a book that kept Tragic Vampire Romance Island running (much to Sadness's satisfaction), Riley fell asleep.
"And...we're out!" Joy announced.
"I guess it's my turn for Dream Duty tonight," said Sadness.
"Hang on. Group Meeting first," Joy told her.
"What? Why?" Anger demanded.
"Is something wrong?" asked Fear.
Disgust groaned. "Honestly, Joy, can't it wait? We're all tired."
"Now come on, you guys, this is important. It's about the upcoming hockey match," the lead emotion explained.
"Oh, okay," said Fear. "Well, in that case, I guess I'll say goodnight!" He began making his way to the stairs.
Anger grabbed him by the arm. "You're gonna stay put," he growled at the purple emotion, who grinned sheepishly and tried to make himself smaller.
Joy told everybody to sit down on the sofa so she could tell them her plan. "Okay, guys," she addressed them, "now I know that this game seems a little nerve-wracking-"
"There's the understatement of the year," Fear interrupted, looking as though he'd make a break for the stairs at any second. Anger dug him in the ribs.
Joy continued. "But the way I see it, if we divvy up the work, we can get through this and have fun with it. So all of us are gonna have our own special jobs to do during the week to help Riley be the best that she can be at the game. Alright?"
"Okay," said Sadness.
"Yeah, alright," said Anger.
"Whatever," said Disgust.
"Can I go to bed now?" squeaked Fear.
"Uh, don't know if you've noticed, but there's a meeting going on," Disgust snapped at him.
"Come on, guys, stop fighting," Joy said, a bit sternly. "Now, we've got to take this seriously. Everybody's counting on us - Mom, Dad, Coach Evans, and all our friends, too. So we gotta work together and show 'em what the great Riley Andersen is made of!"
She punched the air with enthusiasm. The others followed suit, excepting Fear, who was preoccupied with what could go wrong.
"Alright, now here's how we're gonna do this," said Joy. "I'm going to be the one to keep Riley optimistic and confident in her skill. And just so I don't get out of control, you, Sadness," she turned toward Sadness, "are going to be there to make sure Riley's hopes don't get too high and keep her from getting overconfident. Got it?"
Sadness nodded, eager to help.
"Next up, Anger," said Joy.
"Yo."
"You're going to make sure Riley stays determined. Keep our goal in sight. And remember to play fair, okay?"
"Yeah, well, everyone else better play fair too, or we're gonna have a problem," the red emotion said with threatening emphasis on the word "problem."
"Disgust?" Joy said.
Disgust looked up from her nails.
"Your job is to help Riley stay in top form. Basically make sure her skills don't go rusty."
"Within the confines of our hygiene, I hope," Disgust said back. "You just leave it to me."
Joy turned towards Fear. "And last but not least, you, Fear, are going to be in charge of deciding when to remind Riley of the possibility of losing the game and scaring her with it so that she won't let her guard down."
Fear was about to agree when Anger interrupted. "Yeah, only we aren't gonna lose, so there's no point in having old Nervy Dervy do anything!"
Fear was taken aback. No point in him doing anything? "H-hey, that isn't-"
"He's right, Joy," Disgust said curtly, taking no notice of the fact that the purple emotion was trying to say something. "Losing isn't exactly something we can really think about at this point."
"It's okay...I'm sure everyone will understand even if we don't win," Sadness offered.
"No, no!" Fear protested. "They won't, I just know it! They're gonna get get upset! Especially Coach Evans! He's so scary when he gets mad! He'll call Mom and Dad, and then they'll get in trouble, and then we'll-"
Joy put up her hands. "Hey, Fear, chill! Save it for when we need you, okay?" She really didn't mean anything bad by it, but something about that statement hurt him just a bit.
He sighed. "Yeah. Okay. Sorry." What else could he say?
Later that night, Fear found himself wide awake, still worrying his head about the game and what Joy had told him to do. He thought about how nobody really wanted him to do anything, because everybody was so set on winning and any thoughts of the worst-case scenario - losing - were not allowed. He thought of how much the entire prospect of playing their first final match in San Francisco scared him. It was all just so...new. And Riley should be at least a little nervous, but she refused to be so. And one question lingered in Fear's mind: What would happen next?
I'm thinking too hard, he decided. Maybe I should go get some coffee. Yeah, that ought to calm me down. Following this logic, Fear got out of bed and stepped outside. He always left his bedroom door open just in case there were ever a reason for him to rush out of his room in a panic.
Downstairs, he got his coffee and went back to his room. Just then, he heard voices. Not from the console room, where Sadness was on Dream Duty, but outside Anger's room. He recognized the voices as Disgust's and Anger's. Curiosity piqued, he snuck out of his room and drew closer, hugging the wall so as not to be seen.
"...a shower every day now," Disgust was saying.
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't obsess over it, okay? After all, hockey's what we gotta focus on. Hygiene comes later," Anger said firmly.
"Whatever," muttered Disgust. "Though I've gotta say, I like this new system of Joy's. Nice and organized."
"And fair," Anger added.
"Yeah, Riley'll get through this perfectly. She's gonna win, and she's gonna do it with style."
Let's hope so, Fear thought to himself.
"There's one thing that bugs me, though," Anger said. "Why did she think Fear was gonna do us any good? All he ever does is make Riley a worrywart when she should be focusing on other things."
"But that's my job!" Fear nearly shouted, but for some reason, he kept his mouth shut.
"It isn't right," Disgust agreed. "Riley loves hockey! She shouldn't have to worry about it!"
Fear tried to think of a comeback for this, but he couldn't. She was right. Riley shouldn't need to worry about something she loved so much.
"One thing's for sure," said Anger. "We can't afford to lose. We can't even think about losing. There's just too many people counting on us!"
"Well, obviously, but what are we going to do about the King of the Cowards back there?" She tossed her head behind her in the direction of Fear's room, totally unaware that he was just behind them, taking in every word.
"Look, until the match is over, we've gotta keep him away from the console no matter what, understand?"
Disgust started to protest. "Hey, but Joy said-"
"I could really care less what Joy said," Anger cut her off sharply. "The point is, if Fear gets control of that console, he's just gonna screw everything up."
"And what makes you so sure?"
"You remember what he did when Joy and Sadness went missing! When the going was smooth, he said he was gonna keep everything under control, but the second the crap hit the fan, he ran like a sissy! And he almost got away with it, too!"
She nodded. "That's true. I couldn't believe him! That was both annoying and stupid!"
Steam and a few sparks emerged from the firebrick's head. "Ohh, just thinking about it makes me wanna strangle him, the..." As a strong, steady flame emerged, every swear word he could think of was spewed out of his mouth as he held his arms out in front of him making as though to wring someone's neck. Behind him, the object of his fury began fearing for his life.
"And you're convinced that he can't be trusted to protect Riley?" asked Disgust, interrupting the tantrum.
"'Course I am! I mean, what sort of protector tries to bail on the one he's gotta protect? A worthless one, that's what."
Fear's heart dropped. Worthless? They thought he was worthless? Was this actually the truth? How could it be?
"I'll say," Disgust said with a scoff. "And what's to stop him from failing her again, with all that stuff about losing the game he wouldn't shut up about?"
"Exactly my point," said Anger. "So, we agreed?"
"Absolutely," Disgust replied. "He touches that console, he'll live to regret it."
Unwanting to hear any more, Fear ran back to his room as fast as his feet would take him and closed the door tightly. Breathing heavily, shaking all the while, he thought on what Anger and Disgust had said. Their words crushed into his heart and made it sting. How could they say such awful things? Of course, they'd had their differences with him, but for all Fear knew, they were still his friends. Why did they hate him so much? He'd known that they weren't exactly thrilled with how much of a coward he was, but until now, he hadn't known just how much reproach they bore him for it. And now, because of his cowardice, they wouldn't even let him do the only thing he was born to do: protect Riley. He felt trapped. He had no idea what to do. Should he tell Joy? No, he thought. If Joy found out about what Anger and Disgust planned to do, she'd surely call them out on it, making them even madder at Fear, both for eavesdropping on them and telling on them. No, no matter how betrayed or hurt he felt, Fear could not risk facing any further wrath from Anger or scorn from Disgust.
He was just too scared.
A/N: Sorry for its length. Please tell me how I can improve! And a big thanks to everybody who has supported me so far!