A few kilometers away, there was no such thing as even thinking about taking a break for Mrs. Andersen.
That particular, all too fateful day, she had too many meetings to attend and paperwork to solve, one bit after another.
With every passing minute, she had to take one heavy breath, each heavier than the last. Simply just so she wouldn't collapse at all, let alone at a time and place where she definitely shouldn't.
Thankfully, there was one single break, 30 minutes in length, where she could just sit in her office, prepare herself for the rest of the already too long a work day.
It was exactly during that much-desired pause, as she was checking her laptop for what duties there were left for her, feeling frustrated at the sheer abundance of job to do...
...that her phone rang.
"Andersen here."
"Hello, Mrs. Andersen," spoke the voice at the opposite end of the call.
Mrs. Andersen immediately recognized the voice. It was that of the principal overseeing the school Riley went to - went to, past tense.
"Is something wrong?" Mrs. Andersen asked, instantly becoming concerned.
"Yes," the principal said firmly, not even attempting to sugarcoat the situation. "It's very simple; your daughter didn't show up to school today."
After hearing those words, Mrs. Andersen felt like time had stopped for her specifically.
She ran literal thousands of possibilities as to what her daughter could've possibly seriously done instead of simply just coming there that day. Including scolding herself for refraining from putting all this work off for some other time, so she could take Riley to school herself.
Of all the scenarios she could've conjured up, none of them seemed to her, even close to remotely, like something Riley might actually decide to do. Especially not simply staying at home.
She had not yet found out about Eileen.
"Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" the principal asked.
"Uh..." Mrs. Andersen trampled over her own thoughts, "Uhm... no... no, I don't."
"Is she currently at home?"
"I don't know; I'm at work. And..." she paused. She knew that what she'd say next was going to be hugely detrimental to everyone involved. But it was the principal. She had to be honest. "I won't be home for a rather long time."
For a few seconds, the principal said nothing.
"You do know what happened yesterday at school, don't you?"
In addition to concern, there was also a considerable amount of confusion, and even fear, gargling up in Mrs. Andersen's mind.
"No..." she answered honestly. "What was it that she did?"
The principal told her everything.
Two minutes later, Mrs. Andersen just left her mouth wide open, in nothing but complete devastation.
But she made so sure Riley never became... like that.
"I want you to listen very ca-" the principle began - but Mrs. Andersen hung up.
She wasn't gonna stay at work any longer!
She very quickly packed all of her stuff, and - without so much as saying goodbye to her surroundings - promptly left the building.
Riley had already moved far, far away from the hockey complex.
She was just walking down some really crowded street, uttering nothing, but having so, so many raging, furious thoughts inside her head.
"Haven't I told you, too many times-" Fear began to lash out at Anger once more, but at one moment, he caught a cough.
He lost energy to yell at Anger.
"But seriously," Anxiety continued on Fear's words, "it was too many times. And you still couldn't hold back."
"I don't care-" Anger began doing one more round of justifying himself, but he was stopped right at the start.
"Well, you should have cared!" Envy was now the one doing the lashing-out. "Look where your lack of care has got us!"
"And where is that, exactly?!" Anger did eventually find the right words. "Didn't they all get exactly what they deserved?!"
"ALL THREE PLACES!" Fear screamed at him. "All three places that were the basis of her everyday life! The school, home, and hockey training! And you made her lose it all at all three of those places! And you think you did everything right?"
"Of course!"
To this, Anxiety began laughing. Unpleasantly.
"'Of course', he says," she exclaimed. "Congratulations! You ruined your life!"
Anger was unconvinced, thinking she was exaggerating.
"How much more exagg-"
"NO!" she yelled at him. "YOU ACTUALLY RUINED HER LIFE!"
Anger wanted to make just one more response to what he just heard. But he couldn't.
He did not have an answer to that.
There was exactly one sentence heard from the main screen, as Riley stood at one corner of a four-way crossing, watching all the traffic flow and flow and flow.
"I should've stayed on that bus," was all she said.
The emotions just looked at the main screen, right then, in utter despair.
Most of them just groaned really loudly, and went each in their own direction.
Ennui started to clap, clearly sarcastically.
"Shut up, Ennui!" Anger told her.
But Sadness carefully watched what was to happen next.
It was just about the time she saw one of the buses stop at the nearest station - that Riley stared straight at it.
Yes, she genuinely considered getting inside that bus. No matter where it was gonna take her.
She didn't even take the first step towards it.
Sadness watched all this, being the only one trying to make sure Riley didn't do anything else horribly reckless. All other emotions were in the midst of a profoundly aggressive argument.
All except one other emotion.
Despite the fact that the choice to stay in the middle of the street was Riley's and no one else's...
...her phone rang.
Before seeing who was calling, the feeling that was occupying Riley's mind was fury.
That was until she saw the name of the caller.
Mom.
It was this exact time that Sadness felt like she was the one who had to pull the levers this time.
Immediately after she did - Riley dropped her phone.
And just burst into tears.
And fell on her knees.
It was at this exact time that all the memories that were surrounding the headquarters - all those little balls on all those shelves - came crashing. Fell off the shelves. Got spread all around the floor.
The emotions stopped arguing. And just looked around.
For this whole time, there were so many different people that Riley had become inexplicably angry with. Eileen, her dad, Jean. To an extent, even the principal and the coach.
But it was never her mom who was involved in any of those.
She was, more or less, the only person to whom Riley felt even remotely confident telling most of what was on her mind.
But not this.
During this entire series of escapades, how her mom - the one person who was always on her side - was going to react to all this was something that had not crossed her mind for even one millisecond of this entire day.
Once she saw the call, she was fully sure the days of them two still being on the same side... were over.
Her mom had probably found out about everything.
...
She got right up from her knees, and ran across the unwarily wide street, tears pouring down her distorted face.
She didn't look where she was going. She didn't even pay proper attention to what kind of ground it was that she was setting her steps on.
She just ran. And ran. And ran. And ran. And cried so, so, so much.
This was happening.
This was actually happening!
This was actually happening to her, Riley Andersen!
Sadness kept holding the levers. She couldn't let any other emotion touch it. Not right now.
At one moment, Riley even closed her eyes. She was trying to slow down the excretion of the tears, but it wasn't doing the trick.
What she also began to do was slow down. Not too fast. Gradually.
At around the same time, the same thing was happening to the flow of tears from her eyes.
She was still walking quite fast, but it became slower and slower...
The tears, too, were still running fast, but no longer so fast as just moments prior...
...
Six or seven minutes later... she suddenly felt sand beneath her shoes.
Opening her eyes, she saw more of it around.
Looking in front of her, she realized that she was on a beach.
She was walking so unthinkably fast and so unthinkably far - that she ended up on the shore.
She just fell on her knees once again.
Sadness pressed one button, and Riley's only words were:
"What have I done?"
After which Sadness let her cry out whatever she had left to cry out.
Until the tears were dried.
There was just one other emotion who watched all this in absolute silence.
That emotion had not interfered in any single second of any single moment of this whole horrendous day - simply because it was never the right time.
Now, it was.
"Let me try something," Joy said.
And she pressed one button.