A/N: *falls to her knees* Forgive my lateness! It's just that the exchange student I was hosting finally left back for her home country, and so I've been helping her pack and stuff. (Not to mention the fact that I was a bit depressed about her leaving) Anyhow, enough excuses. Here it is!

Monday, after school. Riley's parents had just dropped her off at hockey practice. Meanwhile, her emotions were all in a clutter.

Fear hadn't left his room all day. And while Anger and Disgust were both surprised and relieved, Joy was getting a bit worried. She hadn't had time to leave the console during the day, but by now she was seriously considering momentarily leaving to get Fear out of his room.

"If you ask me, it ain't worth it," Anger muttered. "That screamer's just gonna ruin it for us."

"Yeah, Joy," Disgust chimed in. "I should think you'd be happy to have a little peace and quiet around here for once."

Joy gave them a disapproving look. "That isn't nice, you guys."

"He probably just needs some alone time," suggested Sadness.

"But what about the plan?" Joy countered. "Riley needs all of us!"

Disgust and Anger exchanged a look that seemed to say, "All but one."

"Listen," said Joy, "I gotta find out what's with Fear today. There's still, like, two minutes before practice actually starts, so you three take care of things until I get back, okay?" And with that, she was out of the room and up the stairs in a flash.

Silently, she approached Fear's room, the door of which was still shut. That's not like him, Joy thought. "Hey, Fear, rise and shine!" she called, trying to sound as cheery as ever. She heard a squeak and a thud, probably Fear jumping at the unexpected sound of her voice.

"Oh, hey, Joy!" came his voice from inside, followed by a nervous, fabricated giggle. "Nice day, isn't it? Now, uh...goawayplease."

"Fear, don't you know what today is?"

"Sure, I do. It's Monday. We had one of 'em last week."

Joy began to get a bit cross. "Riley needs you, you know! We haven't had any rest trying to keep her safe down there without you! Now are you coming out or not?"

"Not!" Was the prompt reply.

The yellow emotion was becoming desperate. "Well, why?"

Fear was silent. She'd just asked why. Should he tell her the truth? Should he just let out with everything he'd heard last night? Should he throw all caution to the wind and trust her? Tell her, you wuss! he scolded himself, but he couldn't bring himself to say a word.

"Come on, Fear," Joy urged. Her voice became gentler. "Don't you wanna tell me what's up?"

Well, I've gotta tell her something, he decided. Wait, what am I thinking? I can't just come right out and blab everything! Yeesh, what they'd do to me... Oh, come on, wimp! Just say something, it doesn't have to be about what happened last night! But, but, I can't just lie! That'd be really bad! "It's...uh...well..." he started. "The...um...the other night, uh...Anger said...he said that if-if I m-messed up today, he'd...uh, strangle me. Yep." This wasn't entirely a lie, since Anger had indeed said something to that effect.

"You mean that's it?" Joy asked. "He says that kind of stuff to you all the time! We all know he never means it."

Dang it, I said the wrong thing! "W-well, uh," he scrambled, "this time he sounded really serious about it, so I think I'll just stay up here until the dust settles."

Joy chuckled. "Oh, Fear. Look, just come on out of there, we'll go downstairs together, and everything'll be fine."

The purple emotion sighed in resignation. It was clear that there was no way Joy could understand what was going on unless he outright told her, which he could not do. If this was all the solace he was going to receive today, he might as well go downstairs. Of course, he wanted to protect Riley. But the question was, would anybody let him?

...

"It's all good, everyone! I got him out!" Joy announced as soon as they were downstairs.

Fear waved sheepishly. "Hi..."

"Oh, how nice! Lookie here, Anger! Joy got Fear out of his room!" Disgust said with a smile as sugary and forced as could be.

"Of course she did!" said Anger, whose smile was just as sugary and forced. They both turned their grimacing faces toward Fear, who ducked back behind Joy.

"What kept you up there, anyway?" Sadness asked, looking concerned.

Fear shrugged. "Coffee hangover, I guess."

Joy called a brief group meeting. "Okay, Team Happy," she said, sounding a bit like Coach Evans (which Disgust spared no time in pointing out). "Today is all about determination. Which means that we're gonna need Anger to be in charge for most of practice. You up to that?" she asked the last part of Anger.

"Heck yeah, I am!" he roared, clapping his fist to his palm.

"Great!" Joy said excitedly. "Everybody else?"

The others nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright! Go Team Happy!"

"Go Team Happy!"

"You better not get out of control this time," Disgust said to Anger through her teeth.

"Yeah, yeah, I know!" he waved her away like a fly as he rushed over to the console. "What am I, an idiot?"

"Uh, Anger," Fear said in a timid voice, "I've been meaning to talk to you-"

"You shut up before I relieve you of those located limbs," Anger growled, showing his fist. Fear gulped and took a few steps backwards. That's what I get for trying to be brave, he thought.

Just then, Coach Evans blew his whistle. Riley finished lacing up her skates and went over with the rest of the team. On the way, she accidentally bumped into Mia Sanchez.

Fear slammed his hand on a button, and for a split second, Riley got scared.

"Watch it," Mia snapped.

"What did she just say?!" Anger snarled. "Oh, that is it!"

"Anger, no!" Fear shouted and slapped his hands away from the console. "I don't want a fight!"

"Too late!" Anger shouted back, and started punching Fear. Before either of them could reach the console, Disgust had already made a move.

"Alright, alright, sorry!" Riley said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"What the heck was that?!" Fear squeaked once he was able to escape Anger. "Why didn't you let me handle it?!"

"Uh, hello! You want the 'mighty Mia Sanchez' to think we're weak?!" Disgust flung back.

"There's nothing weak about being polite!" Fear protested.

"Yeah right!" Anger bellowed. "Just look at you!"

Joy came to the rescue. "Alright, everyone! Break it up!"

Once the arguers were separated, she said: "The thing is, we're all going to have to act responsibly if we want this plan to work. Now, we're going to listen to what the coach says and take it from there."

"This was a bad idea," Sadness mumbled.

"And remember," Joy went on, "the trick is to stay focused and not let things bother you."

"Yeah, Anger," Disgust butted in, "stay focused."

"That means you too, ya know!" Anger yelled at her.

"It means everybody," said Joy. "Now let's get to work!"

"Alright, Fog Horns," the coach addressed the team, "today we're gonna try something a little different. Mia told me that she'd do better in the game at the right wing, so today I'm gonna switch it up and see how it goes. Riley, today you're taking the left wing, got it?"

"Wait, what?" Sadness asked, a bit shocked.

"Come on!" groaned Disgust. "Is he out of his mind?"

"He can't do that! HE CAN'T DO THAT!" Anger raged.

"We haven't played left wing in ages! What're we gonna do?!" Fear panicked.

"Hey, hey, it's alright," Joy assured them. "It's always good to try new things." She pushed a lever forward.

Riley smiled. "Yeah."

"Good," said the coach. "Any questions?"

Lizzie Burke put up her hand. "Is anyone else going to be switched?"

"Not unless they talk to me about it first. Alright, Fog Horns! Practice positions!"

Everybody got out onto the ice and took their places.

Coach Evans blew the whistle, and they were off.

"If that Sanchez chick crosses us again, she's gonna get it and get it good," Anger vowed, rubbing his hands together.

"Hey, just 'cause you're in charge today doesn't mean you can do what you want to our reputation," Disgust told him.

"Focus!" called Joy.

...

Practice went on, with all the emotions having their turns, combined when necessary, except for Fear, whom Anger made keep his distance. Sadness tried to remedy this once or twice, but all Anger said was, "Joy said I'm in charge today!" So that was that.

Fear couldn't stop thinking about what he had overheard the other night and what he should do about it, or whether he should do anything about it. He looked over at Anger. He seemed to be in a controllable mood - for the time being, that is. Then he looked over at Disgust, who was filing her nails and occasionally glancing up at the screen that allowed them to see through Riley's eyes. Like Anger, she seemed relatively calm. Joy was busy looking over memories, and Sadness was brushing up on the recently-installed mind manuals. It was now or never.

Gingerly, Fear approached Anger at the console. "Uh, Anger?"

"What?"

"Can I talk to you?"

"We're in the middle of practice, stupid!"

Fear winced at the name-calling. "Please?"

Anger let out a groan. "Keep it snappy."

Fear suppressed a sigh of relief. So far, this was working. "Uh...uh..." Hang on, he didn't know what to say! He couldn't be too specific, then they'd find out that he had heard them! But he couldn't just stand there and say nothing! "Uh...um...I, uh..."

"Ya interrupted me to tell me that?" Anger said through the clenched teeth of a sarcastic grin, eyes still glued to the screen.

Say something already! "Uh, I just wanted to ask, uh...why you, uh, won't let me do anything today?" he tried, hoping not to offend Anger.

"You heard what Joy said. Today's all about determination!" Anger's hands stopped on a couple of buttons as Riley tried insinuating herself closer to the puck. "And if Riley's gotta be determined, she needs the spark and strength of somebody tough! So buzz off!" He said, only "buzz" wasn't the word he used.

There was a silence.

"I can be tough," Fear said, trying to make himself look a bit bigger and more confident.

"Oh yeah?" Anger challenged.

"Yeah," Fear retorted. "As a matter of fact, I can be just as tough as you if I want!"

"Ooh, I bet."

There was another silence. Anger pressed some more buttons, and the puck was in Riley's possession.

Fear reached out. "Uh, can I-"

Anger whipped his head around. "NO!"

Riley lost focus. She began to slip.

"Oh, perfect!" Disgust scoffed.

"See what ya made me do?!" Anger yelled.

Fear barely had time to think. He slammed his hand down on a random word - multiple times - from the curse word library and shoved a lever forward.

As Riley began falling, she let out with a rapid fire of the swear word Fear had put in. She landed on her back.

Everybody around her skated backwards.

Coach Evans came running when he heard the yelling. "What's the problem?" he wanted to know. He saw Riley down on the ice. "Was that you?"

"It was her, all right," Mia Sanchez said bluntly.

"TRAITOR! NUMBSKULL! ABSOLUTE IDIOT!" Back in Headquarters, Anger was holding Fear like a battering ram and repeatedly smashing his face into the wall, head burning up. Poor Fear was screaming in pain, begging for mercy.

Joy rushed over and placed herself between Fear and the wall. "Leave him alone!" She hollered. Fear wriggled out of Anger's grasp and fell sprawled out on the floor.

"Nice going, tough guy!" Disgust hissed, looking down her nose at Fear, who had squeezed his eyes shut and curled up in a ball to make himself as small as possible. Right now, he looked anything but tough.

"What are we supposed to do now?!" Anger demanded.

Riley's emotions, minus Fear, hurried back over to the console.

The coach narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you just take a few minutes to discuss things with me," he said to Riley.

Sadness moseyed over and placed her hands on the console. "Sorry, guys," she muttered.

Guiltily, Riley dragged herself off the ice.

A/N: Thank you for reading! And thank you guys for 20 reviews!