Not too long before this, but not too short, either - two days earlier, maybe two and a half - the Andersen family was getting a great rest for a long day for them all, as they were doing a celebration of an eerily too special occasion.
As Riley sat on her chair at the dining room table, the closest light to it being the only one lit, she was feeling excited for what was about to happen.
More-or-less the same thing was happening inside Riley's mind - all five of her main emotions - Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger - were watching this scenery, getting ready to celebrate with her. Well, some emotions more than others.
"Here it comes... any moment," Joy was containing her excitement until the perfect moment.
"Yayy..." Sadness whimpered, barely waving her flag.
"I just hope we don't get jumpscared," was the only thing Fear had to add.
At one moment, they finally showed up.
"Happy birthday to you..." Riley's parents sang in unison, as they got closer to her, with a medium-sized cake in their hands.
That's right; it was Riley's 13th birthday.
It was this exact moments that the emotions finally jumped upwards in celebration.
And so, Riley too jumped in her seat, feeling vividly happy.
It was just then that her parents finished singing the birthday song.
"Here's to another year with our best little girl," Riley's dad said, with a firm smile on his face, as he cut out a piece of the cake for her to eat.
Naturally, she devoured the piece.
Joy's reaction to this was light laughter.
And the rest of the evening, both for the Andersen family and for Riley's emotions, went on in a quite similar tone.
"Come on, Riley; tomorrow's another long day," Riley's mom pointed out, letting her know they all stayed up a while past bedtime.
"Yeah," was all Riley said, as she was already on her way upstairs to her bedroom.
Since she had just turned 13, this meant that all things puberty would strike her life soon.
How soon, exactly?
Yeah... that soon.
The entire household was fast asleep that night.
And so were all of Riley's emotions. That she, by then, had.
The night was rather peaceful for them all. Some were deep inside their own dreams; some were even snoring.
But their "bedrooms" were stationed in another room, different from the headquarters.
That notion did not prove so helpful in one cause.
That particular night, some blinking could be heard every few seconds.
BLINK!
...
BLINK!
...
BLINK!
"Ughhh," Joy murmured, finally getting out of her bed, due to the constant blinking disrupting her sleep.
But alas, the exact same reaction was present in all the remaining emotions. They too could no longer bear that sound.
All five of them went up to the headquarters, and what they saw was... odd, to say the least.
The thing blinking was some sort of alarm light.
The only word written below that light was "Puberty".
"Puberty?" Fear said out loud.
Just then, someone suddenly showed up at the back part of the headquarters. And all five emotions were frightened by that sudden appearance.
Some sort of construction workers, who had been lifted up there from the further-down part of Riley's mind.
"Alright, guys," the one who must've been in charge called out, as his workers nonchalantly entered the headquarters, "tear it all down."
The emotions', almost unisonous, reaction to these words were:
"WHAT?!"
"Hey, guys, wait a second," Joy immediately continued, "what do you mean, tear it all down?"
"We got orders," the "boss" responded. "All of what you see must go!"
Disgust was gonna ask something else, but it didn't matter anymore, since two of the many workers were already halfway through modifying the deck.
"Hey, hold on!" Fear shouted.
"No holding on," the "boss" said to that. "We gotta make room for the newcomers.
For a fraction of a second, all five emotions went silent.
"What newcomers?!" Anger exclaimed.
The "boss" didn't respond to that, as that was the exact time for:
"Lunchtime!" he shouted. Immediately then, all of his workers just stopped whatever they were doing, and just... walked away.
The five emotions just stood there, watching the direction in which those men went.
"What just happened?" Sadness quietly wondered.
Riley felt somewhat tough, and slightly (but not too) dizzy, as she woke up several hours later.
Her breathing was heavier than usual. She had never felt that out of breath in the morning prior to that, so she was mildly confused as to what could've been happening to her.
The same reaction was present in her five main emotions.
"She's not feeling well, either," Sadness pointed out.
"I see," Fear said in agreement. "What can we even do to help her?"
Joy was walking around the room, trying to think of an answer to that answer. But nothing she could think of did she think would be effective.
She walked up to the main screen again, to see what exactly Riley was seeing in front of her.
The first thing Riley checked out was the time. Turns out, she was gonna miss her classes if she were to stay in bed for any longer! She immediately panicked.
Right then, Joy noticed that the main deck had turned orange.
"Orange?" she exclaimed. "Why's the deck orange?"
"I'm not orange," Sadness responded.
"Me neither," Fear added.
"Orange is not my type," Disgust added.
"I didn't touch it," Anger also replied.
Only then, all five emotions saw someone else behind them. And all five of them suddenly got frightened.
"Oh, hi, guys," a new emotion greeted them. "I'm new here. I already know how things are working here. Where do you want me to put my stuff?" she finished, as she pointed out her suitcases.
All this was just too much information for the five emotions to handle at once. So:
"Hold on for a second," Disgust interrupted her. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry," the new emotion went on, excitedly. Too excidetly. "I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Anxiety."
That was when it all clicked for them. Why the event from the previous night took place.
A number of new emotions were about to appear in the headquarters.
"A new emotion..." Joy called out, trying to appear welcoming, but with visible concern in her body language.
"So, where should we put out stuff?" Anxiety asked again.
"Woah, woah, woah," Disgust immediately interrupted her, still in disbelief. "What do you mean, we?"
"Don't you know?" Anxiety responded, and then turned to the opposite side. "Come on in, guys!"
In an instant, some more emotions came up to them.
"Hi there," one of them came up way too close to them. "I'm Envy," she said. The moment she noticed Disgust, she got amazed. "I like your hair-"
"No touching!" Disgust immediately snapped her back to reality.
It was around then that Riley realized her clothes had been rather smelly!
That was definitely not the way she could've gone to school!
And just as another button was pressed on the main deck, Riley facepalmed!
"Who pressed that?" Fear asked.
"Oh, that's Embarrassment," Anxiety pointed out to the bigger, pink guy left of her. He was the one who pressed that last button.
"Will you stop messing with the whole system?!" Anger finally snapped at the new emotions, and pushed them away.
Riley immediately went to change her clothes.
But as soon as she opened her drawer - someone else in the headquarters gave her a bored look to it.
The main deck turned purple.
Even though nobody had physically touched it.
"Now what's happened?" Joy asked, being stupified by this.
"That would be me," someone else answered, lying on a nearby couch, with a cellphone in her hand. "I'm Ennui."
"Ennu- huh?"
"It's what you guys call boredom."
"But how are you controlling the deck if you're not even-"
Ennui's response to that was just showing the front screen of her cellphone.
Joy, unfortunately, understood.
"Great," Anger exclaimed sarcastically. "Just brilliant!"
Riley barely found the right clothes to change into.
Just then, her mom came into the room.
"Riley, you'll be late for school," she told her. "Do you want me to drive you there?"
Anxiety immediately reacted; she pressed one of the buttons.
"Yes, please!" was Riley's instantaneous response.
"Then hurry," her mom warned her.
And hurry is just what Riley did.
"See, guys?" Anxiety stated, quite proudly. "If not for me, Riley would be late for school today. You're welcome!"
"Oh, yeah..." Disgust spoke to that, still really concerned. "Thank you sooo very much... No clue what we'd do without you..."
Riley was ready for school within a minute of her mom's insistence.
"Before I forgot," her mom added before taking off, "your coach called; hockey training is tomorrow instead of today."
Riley sighed.
She might have wanted to be late for school that day, though...