"GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE!" Joy shouted excitedly as she ran up the out-of-place staircase to the Emotions rooms "Let's wake up for another incredible day!" She continued to say excitedly to rouse them.

Some of the emotions put their faces out through the large window in the room: "Joy, why do you always do that?" Disgust complained once again. Every day, almost every day, it was the same racket caused by the blue-haired golden emotion. And it was almost always Disgust who complained: "I need to finish my beauty sleep." She commented.

"Not that you need it." Envy then said, "I wish I could wake up as beautiful as you." She said again, looking at the still pretty and tidy appearance of Disgust's pajamas.

"Come on! Cheer up, today is Riley's second day at school! We need to start the day with excitement!" Joy said to them, running down the staircase handrail and jumping over the edge to run to the panel "Anxiety and... Fear?" The feeling stopped its greeting to the orange feeling when it saw that the purple one was already there, next to it on the panel.

"Ah, good morning Joy!" Anxiety greeted, Fear waving behind her.

"Hmm. Did you wake up before me?" Joy asked Fear in surprise.

"Ah, yes! Yeah! I woke up early and came to see Anxiety!" Fear began to lie nervously and Anxiety nodded to help him as he began to ramble on with his lies and excuses. It would be embarrassing for both parties to reveal that they'd been up all night taking care of the dream; especially if they had to quote the conversation they'd had. And despite the attempt, Joy could clearly see through Fear's lies "and then I decided to make some coffee so that Anxiety would wake up and... we're here!" He finally finished speaking, sweating.

Joy kept her smile on her face, finding the scene of the two of them smiling and sweating nervously almost cute. If they weren't doing anything wrong, which she hoped they weren't, she wouldn't mind.

"Well, anyway..." Joy walked past the two of them to the console "Are you excited? Have you made any plans or... disaster lists?" She asked the last part with a slight hope that maybe, just maybe, they hadn't.

But she knew them both well enough: "Of course we have!" Medo held up a list of possible disasters, placing it on the console "I made it in no time, and I only took some of the sheets I made yesterday. We'll be prepared for whatever happens today." He spoke with pride of his work.

This brought two reactions; an excited smile from Anxiety, who began to review Fear's work, so as to also be on the lookout for problems. A slightly forced smile from Joy, who didn't really like how many problems Fear could think of that could happen in just one day, but wouldn't complain if it kept them on their toes so that the others could focus on the other aspects of the day.

Apart from that, the day started much the same as yesterday.

Riley got out of bed, Joy giving her a positive boost to get up and shower, Disgust taking over when it was time to get dressed and Envy helping her with some personal suggestions. It only took long enough for her parents to call her down for breakfast when they had finished.

They all sat down in their seats and started eating, Riley opting for a cereal.

"Joy." Anxiety caught the attention of the lead emotion as Riley continued to eat "We should talk to the parents about the team, you know? About hanging out with them, bonding, stuff like that." She brought up something they had talked about the night before, trying not to sound rushed or eager to talk about it.

"But wouldn't it be risky to bring it up out of the blue? We should leave it until we're invited again." Fear raised the point.

"What if we are invited and our parents say no because we didn't talk about it before?" Anxiety countered: "They'll say no, we'll be embarrassed in front of the team because our parents will say no, they'll see us as if we were children and stop wanting to invite us out as a group." He continued.

The other emotions began to reflect on Anxiety's words. Disgust and Envy would already agree with Anxiety's idea, wanting to avoid Riley's social death as much as possible, especially in front of the team. There was logic behind it, talking would be a good option. But the final decision would be made by their leader: Joy.

Joy analyzed the situation.

It would be a serious matter to talk to her parents about right now, in a laser moment, and it would be important for Riley. She would like to wait a little longer to talk about this kind of thing with her parents. But when would be the right time?

"Well..." Joy flashed a smile confident enough to convey what she had already decided, exciting Anxiety "Let's go. But let's take it easy. We can't be aggressive and we have to be ready for any response." He warned, snapping his fingers, starting to press the console to start the conversation on the subject "Anxiety, if you want, you can help me." He offered.

Anxiety perked up at this, quickly moving even closer to the main controls, ready to support whatever was needed.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Mom, Dad." Riley called out to them both, a small smile of excitement on her face "I wanted to ask you something."

The mother was the first to pay attention to her daughter, while the father continued distractedly eating, noticing the girl's small smile and that made a small smile appear on her face too: "I know that smile." He joked/provoked that he had seen that smile on the girl before, when she was going to ask her parents for something and then let out a fake cough to get her husband's attention, gesturing to his daughter "What did you want to ask us?" He asked for both of them, the father realizing that his daughter wanted to ask something.

Riley's smile faltered a little (an Anxiety thing, unintentionally): "It's just that the field hockey team..." She returned with her excited smile, now even bigger, settling into her seat: "They go out together every now and then. Yesterday they went out, but I didn't go. Of course, because I didn't have your permission and it was last minute. And I want you to know that before I ask. Because I really care about your opinion..." She unintentionally started rambling (Ennui interrupting when Anxiety looked ready to lose control and stopping her) "Anyway, what I wanted to ask is: When the team goes out like this again, can I go with them?" She asked her parents.

The question was thrown like a grenade at the older pair.

Her parents stared at her and then focused their gaze on each other. For a moment, they both seemed to be having a mental conversation. Discussing the decision they should make. Riley, in the middle of it, getting nervous as the seconds ticked by and waited for an answer.

And after that, they stopped staring at each other and went back to focusing on the girl: "Riley." The father coughed, straightening his posture.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Oh, no. The posture would be." Sadness realized. It was the stance his father took to say no and ready to argue with Riley about his decision. Legendary were the discussions or times that Riley managed to go against the decision made by his father when he took that stance, so rare were those times "They'll say no." He thought sadly, already imagining his father's response.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Actually, we had already thought that you might ask such a thing. That's why we discussed it." The father revealed, pointing at himself and his wife, revealing such a thing.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Have you discussed it?!" Anxiety went into despair and her hair stood on end and she began to gnaw on her fingers.

"It's not a good thing." Fear shared Anxiety's concern, never liking it when she heard that her parents had talked in secret about something to do with Riley.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"And we made the decision to..." His father took on a more serious expression.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Be careful with your next answer, my brother." Anger fumbled with his tie, snapping his fingers, ready to hit the console and take over in a fit of rage.

{X}-[World]-{X}

Dad's serious expression fell and gave way to a friendly smile: "Trust you." He said.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

The words surprised every emotion, paralyzing them.

"What?" The emotions said at the same time.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"What?" Riley showed the same surprise outwardly.

"Riley, darling." "You're at a new school, with new people and a new team. We already imagined that you might want to interact with them and hang out. But we also know that some of them are much... older than you." He said, talking about some of them being between eighth and second grade.

"And with these new school schedules, activities. We thought we'd give you a bit more freedom." His father continued, speaking in a way that sounded like they were following a script they'd discussed before, which they did "So, we're going to give you freedom to go out with the team."

Riley's smile grew from ear to ear.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Uhuuu!" Joy and the other emotions celebrated excitedly.

"That's it!" Anxiety began to jump up and down in excitement.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Fear also began to jump a little.

"Parents are the best!" Anger shouted, straightening his tie, a smile plastered on his face and his earlier fury dissipating.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"But..." This made the girl's smile falter "We're going to set some rules." And that dispelled the smile, diminishing the girl's excitement (courtesy of Anger and Ennui) "There won't be that many, I assure you. But it's necessary if you really want to go out with the girls, understand?" He said in an authoritative tone, which showed that there would be no answer that would change his decision.

"Got it." Riley agreed, even though he didn't seem to like rules very much.

This made his father's smile grow even wider: "First rule: You have to let us know beforehand. It doesn't matter if it's 1 hour, 30 minutes or even just 1 minute before you go out with your friends. You have to let us know." He pointed out.

"Second rule: We want to know who you're going out with or where you're going. As much as we trust you, we want you to be safe. You don't have to have a responsible adult or anything, but we'd like to know just to be safe." The mother then said to complement the father's words.

"Third rule: No going to places above your age range, understand?" Dad didn't say what that was, but Riley understood what it was about. Places with alcohol, for people over 16 or 18, or too far from the house or even the city, where there wouldn't be an adult to supervise. And she nodded, confirming her acceptance of the rule "Fourth and final rule: You can't stay out until 9:30. When it gets close to that time, I want you to call me. I'll pick you up wherever you are, whether you like it or not. And that rule is indisputable, and will never be changed, unless it's to go to a colleague's or friend's house." He said seriously, his voice becoming more authoritative on the subject.

"Those are the rules we want you to follow." Riley's mother took over, standing in a posture as serious as her husband's. "If you agree, we can, in the future, think about making them more flexible. But for now, you can only go out with the girls if you follow them. Is that clear?" He asked.

This made Riley think.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Urgh. Time to go home? Really, Dad? We'll be embarrassed if the others see this, even worse if they think we have a bedtime." Disgust commented with disgust at the thought of the girls making jokes about it.

"They're giving us a chance to go out with the girls and we just have to follow a few simple rules. Come on, we've already been through this with Bree and Grace. And they're even taking it a lot easier, because they don't even know the girls on the team." Joy said in defense of the patriarchs, understanding their concern for Riley.

"Besides, it's dangerous to stay out late. We could be mugged, kidnapped, both or worse." Fear began to list and tremble in worry about the things that could happen if they disobeyed their parents out of arrogance or foolishness.

"But I bet the other girls can stay until 10 or 11 pm. I wish we had schedules like that. I think even Val has more flexible hours..." Envy snorted with jealousy, thinking about how the other girls had more freedom than Riley would have now.

"Don't overdo it." Joy said to try and calm things down, before smiling, a thought running through her head "Now, what do you want: not to go out with the girls, Riley only hanging out with them when she trains, us not gaining any new friends and having a boring school year." He spoke in a bored, sad tone, before perking up again, "Or, or. Or follow the rules our parents gave us, which are reasonable, flexible, simple, and we can go out with the girls and become best friends with everyone!" She said the last part with her usual enthusiasm and excitement.

It had the effect she had hoped for. On the one hand, they would be following rules they didn't like, but they could go out and have fun, be part of the team Riley had always dreamed of. On the other, to be alone.

"Okay, I agree. But if they embarrass us in front of the team, Riley will never speak to them again." Disgust was the first to speak.

"I agree! I don't want Val to think we're children." Envy said soon after, always agreeing with Disgust's ideas.

Anger snorted, before finally speaking: "I agree too, I just don't want them to bother us with too many questions. We can make our own decisions now." He said.

"I agree." Ennui spoke from her personal sofa. She didn't want to make a decision, but she had to agree with someone and Anger was the best way to agree on what she wouldn't want Riley to go through. Too many questions would be annoying.

"I think it's nice how much the parents trust us to go out with the team... I think we can accept the rules." Embarrassment said as loudly as she could.

"I agree too." Sadness said after Embarrassment.

"I have no objections to the rules." Fear spoke soon after, liking the idea of boundaries that could protect Riley at all times.

The last votes went to Anxiety and Joy.

Anxiety thought, analyzing, again, again and again. As much as she wanted Riley to have more freedom in her schedule, so that the other girls would see her as cool, just like them, Anxiety couldn't help but see that she would have no choice but to accept. At least it would be an achievement.

"One step at a time... right?" Anxiety spoke to the yellow feeling, who nodded energetically "I agree too." He said.

"Perfect! With everyone agreeing..." Joy turned her attention to the control panel, pressing the buttons excitedly.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"All right." Riley finally replied as he accepted the agreement.

His parents relaxed, looking pleased: "Perfect." The father looked at his watch: "Look at the time! Girls, finish up quickly. We have to leave in a few minutes." He warned them.

After the warning, Riley went back to eating, a little more hurriedly now, but careful not to choke. She got up soon after to run upstairs to finish getting ready and her things. Now excited.

Her parents had agreed to her going out with the team. Her, Riley, going out with the Firehawks, as friends and not just as teammates. Her excitement was through the roof; even the most trivial things, like packing her backpack and books and going out with her parents (Joy taking control of the console the whole time).

Everything was going well that morning, everything was going well.

[-Later-]

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

But... only at home.

The second day of school was just as complicated as the first, if not worse. The school timetable for the second day (Tuesday) was: Physics (07:30 - 09:00), Arts (09:00 - 09:45), Computing/Technology (09:45 - 10:30), Life Sciences (10:30 - 12:00), Lunch (12:00 - 12:30).

It was totally... boring.

As it was the first day, they were given revision activities for some of the subjects and introductions to new ones, and to the new teachers. For example, Physics: Miss Petris; a short woman with long brown hair falling over her shoulders, wearing a pair of purple shoes and a purple suit with a print of black spots on the edge.

The activity was just a few revision questions:

Exercise 1: A car traveled 120 km in 2 hours. What is the average speed of the car? Show your calculations.

Answer: Average speed = 120km/2h = 60km/h.

Exercise 2: Imagine that you are on a bus that is stationary, and suddenly it starts moving quickly. Explain what has happened to your body and how this relates to Newton's First Law.

Explanatory answer: The body remains at rest because of inertia, the body being pulled back because the body resists the change of movement until the force of the bus pushes it forward.

Exercise 3: When you push on a wall, the wall also exerts a force on you. Explain this phenomenon using Newton's Third Law.

Explanatory answer: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The wall exerts a force equal in magnitude in the opposite direction, feeling the same pressure back.

Those were boring exercises.

The next classes were Arts and Computing. They weren't so bad, because there were no activities and the teachers weren't as... 'eye-catching' as the others, who stood out for some distinctive characteristics. The two of them (both men in each subject) weren't great.

But then it was Life Sciences.

It was another man: Mr. Truman. A tall, red-jawed man with green eyes and dark hair, he wore ordinary clothes that didn't stand out (in Disgust's opinion) and acted friendly towards everyone.

The exercises in the introductory lesson were more of the same.

Exercise 1: Define the terms 'gene', 'allele' and 'genotype'. Give an example of how these concepts apply to a physical characteristic in human beings.

Answer:

-Gene: A segment of DNA that codes for a specific protein or characteristic.

-Allele: Different versions of a gene.

-Genotype: An individual's specific combination of alleles.

Exercise 2: Explain the difference between producers, consumers and decomposers in an ecosystem. Give examples of each.

Answer:

-Producers: Organisms that produce their own food through photosynthesis, such as plants.

-Consumers: Organisms that feed on other living beings.

-Decomposers: Organisms that break down dead organic matter, such as fungi and bacteria.

Exercise 3: Explain a simple food chain that includes a producer, a primary consumer, a secondary consumer and a decomposer. Explain the role of each in the chain.

Answer:

Producer: Grass.

Primary Consumer: Rabbit (eats the grass).

Secondary Consumer: Fox (eats the rabbit).

Decomposer: Fungi (decompose the dead fox).

Explanation: The grass is the producer that captures the sun's energy. The rabbit, as the primary consumer, obtains energy by eating grass. The fox, as the secondary consumer, obtains energy by eating the rabbit. When the fox dies, decomposers such as fungi break down the organic matter, releasing nutrients back into the soil.

It was boring, very, very boring to do these activities. But they had to, not just Riley, but everyone in the class. Ennui and anxiety took over answering the questions in each activity.

But one thing that stood out in these classes was one person in particular: Evan.

He finished the activities proposed in each subject before Riley, finishing in a way that made it look easy for him. Something that really annoyed Envy. The little emo huffed in frustration whenever he did such a thing, always excelling ahead of Riley. Anger had to agree that it was annoying. The work they did seemed in vain compared to their colleague's fast work, even when they tried their best to finish before Riley.

Joy tried her best to calm them down. A job that, luckily, was helped by Disgust, who could easily calm Envy down and take care of her.

The only thing that kept them from making Riley freak out about the hassle and difficulty was the thought of playing the Firehawks afterwards, like the day before. And lunch came at just the right time. Riley could vent to Val and the girls on the team and talk about the day-to-day activities of the subjects they were each doing.

Anxiety used this chat time to find out more and more about her teammates. Every reaction, every name mentioned, everything, literally everything. For her, every piece of information is like a gold mine. To the point that most of the sheets on her clipboard were almost completely filled in by the end of lunch.

And the next class at the end of lunch was: Physical Education (12:30 - 14:30), which would be the final class and the emotions had a brief conversation with the other girls about this class.

"Hoho, go meet Mr. Thompson." One of the girls, Dani, one of the biggest girls and one of the most playful, which all the feelings realized, spoke with a certain degree of malice and provocation, and this drew some laughter from her teammates.

This made her worry, anxiety taking over at that point: "Who is Mr. Thompson?" Riley asked, already worried by her colleagues' tone and laughter.

"You're new here and you probably haven't heard of him yet." Val took over the conversation and the explanation, also with the same smile as Dani "Mr. Thompson teaches Physical Education with the coach, a school budget thing, and is captain of the basketball team. He's a legend at school. I once saw him smash a basketball with his biceps!" He raised his left arm to show his own biceps.

"Once, it was hilarious." Dani laughed before continuing, although she did let out a few giggles as she went on, "When I was in my first year here, some of my classmates pulled a prank: they took the underside of a mannequin, put pants and a pair of shoes on it, put it under a car and told the coach. And do you know what he did?" She banged the table excitedly "He lifted the front of the car using his arms!" She said, letting out a laugh at the end, and so did the others.

And the girls continued to tell these kinds of stories until the end of lunch. Each story seemed too fanciful and incredible to be true, at least they seemed to be exaggerated. Since the teacher, from the description, seemed like some kind of monster or impossible force of nature.

The thought vanished when they met the coach.

{X}-[World]-{X}

Priiii*

A whistle blew loudly on the court. A large basketball court, quite large, with retractable seats attached to the wall and a storage area, behind a pair of green doors, for balls and sports equipment. The students from Riley's class lined up in the center of the court. Wearing specific PE clothes; a white cotton T-shirt, black polyester shorts and gray sneakers.

"WELL DONE, NEW STUDENTS! MY NAME IS MARCUS COACHA THOMPSON, I LOVE ALL KINDS OF SPORTS, BUT I PREFER BASKETBALL! AND I'LL BE ONE OF YOUR PE COACHES THIS YEAR!" The teacher shouted in an energetic tone.

Thompson is a man of almost 40 years of age, two meters tall (1.90), extremely muscular and athletic, his arms being incredibly gigantic, dark brown, shiny skin, a defined jaw and trimmed beard, bright and intense eyes. He was wearing tight sportswear, a tight red shirt, white training shorts and high-performance sneakers, with a whistle around his neck.

Next to her, Coach Roberts stood with her arms crossed and a smile on her face, waiting for her turn to introduce herself: "And I'm Coach Roberts and I'll be one of your PE teachers." She said with a calmer tone.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"At least... we have the coach here." Joy said.

"What's worse! What if she thinks we're awful at PE practice and it starts affecting our field hockey practice?! She might start focusing only on Riley, she might want to make us train even harder!" Anxiety began to digress into worry.

"Or she might see how much better Riley is compared to the others and want us to play a more active role in the team!" Envy argued for a more positive side to the situation, but also thinking selfishly. Wanting Riley to be seen as better than everyone else.

"That's the energy we need." Joy said, without much conviction, wanting to encourage the positive side of the thought that Envy had.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"To get started with our lesson, I want each of you to introduce yourselves and say what sport each of you likes!" The teacher asked the students.

Again, a student presentation. And everyone had to do it. But this time the first student to introduce himself was a boy.

"I'm Tom Kyle and I like basketball." It was that other boy that teacher Jessica had mentioned; he's a little taller than Riley, about two centimeters, with brown hair and green eyes. Someone who looked pretty good to Riley "I joined the basketball team this year. It's nice to meet you, coach." He introduced himself.

"You too, Tom! We have our first practice today, so I hope you're ready!" The coach shouted to the student.

The presentations continued again and many didn't have favorite sports and few seemed excited to perform. Riley, who was in the middle, introduced herself when there were seven more students to go and gave the same presentation as in the classroom.

"You're the new girl Miss Roberts has been talking about! I've heard good things about you, that you're hard-working, a good player and quite aggressive!" Thompson spoke without a filter, causing the woman next to him to let out a small laugh.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"The coach is talking about us!" Envy shouted excitedly and jumped up and down, her eyes shining with giant stars. Tapping a few buttons on the console.

{X}-[World]-{X}

Riley cracked a cocky little smile at the coach's words.

The next was Evan: "I'm Evan Greenfield Ortiz and... I don't have a preference for any sport." He introduced himself nonchalantly. One thing that caught his eye was that he was wearing a jacket with a hood that covered his face.

"Are you okay? Why are you wearing a coat even in this heat?" The teacher asked the student, curious about the extra garment on him.

The coach approached the other: "Coach, he's the special case I was talking about." She muttered to the man, but some, like Riley, could still hear her words. The man nodded and gestured to carry on with the pre-class presentations.

The presentations only ended with the last girl, Heater, who said she didn't like any sport. She seemed to have a healthy physique, even though she said she didn't like practicing.

"Well done! Now that you've introduced yourselves, let's get to class!" Thompson held up his clipboard. "As it's your first day back practicing, we'll start light! You'll have some basic exercises to warm up and then you'll have the last half hour as free time to rest or practice whatever you choose!" He announced/explained simply.

Coach Roberts then went on: "But don't think it's going to be that easy. If any of you refuses to do any exercise, you'll get a warning and you'll have to do extra exercises, for as long as it takes." He spoke with more authority than the man next to him, his tone causing the students to wince slightly in concern.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Urgh! Training on the first day?" Disgust complained.

"Couldn't they just do an activity or something? We'll still have field hockey practice later!" Anger also complained with irritation.

"Guys, relax. It can't be that bad!" Joy tried to calm them down.

[-13:58-]

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, JOY?!" Anger exclaimed in frustration and discontent.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"ONE MORE LAP!" The coach shouted.

Riley ran around the court, in front of all the other students, finishing his forty-ninth lap. The coach had gone extremely hard on their training on the first day. Warming up with push-ups, squats, jumping jacks and sit-ups, only to be completed by running several laps around the court and passing through a line that marked the start and end of each lap.

None of them escaped.

Of all of them, Riley could at least boast that she was one of the least exhausted. And now she was running side by side with two others in second place; Tom and Evan. Tom was in the lead, running centimeters ahead of Riley, while Evan was behind them and following them steadily and without stopping.

They were finally on the last lap, finally close to ending the suffering.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Finally... we're finishing..." Ennui said in a tired tone. All the Emotions felt Riley's exhaustion, also feeling the muscle pain that had accumulated from the girl's effort to complete the race.

Some were already on the ground; Sadness, Fear, Embarrassment, Ennui, and Envy, lying down, unable to bear the fatigue. Anxiety, Anger, Disgust, and Joy were the only ones still standing.

"Yes... it's almost over..." Disgust celebrated through her exhaustion, fanning herself and wiping her face to get rid of the sweat that had built up.

"We're almost there, but we're in second place," Anxiety pointed out. Despite all the exhaustion and pain, she remained standing, focused, and still able to keep her mind on what was important for both herself and Riley. She approached the console. "Riley needs to push a little harder!" She pressed the buttons, giving the girl more speed in the race.

"Anxiety... Ugh! Please... we don't need to-"

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Good luck coming in second," the boy in front of Riley said to her mockingly as they neared the end of the lap.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

That was enough to ignite Anger: "What... did you say?!" He approached, making Anxiety step back, knowing full well what would happen next. He slammed the console to activate the levers. "LET'S GO!" He pushed them, flames shooting out from the top of his head.

{X}-[World]-{X}

Riley frowned, a feeling of irritation spreading through her body as she ran even faster than before, now side by side with the boy. They advanced relentlessly, bit by bit completing the lap. At the last moment...

"Andersen...!" the teacher shouted as he saw the pair pass by. "YOU CAME IN FIRST PLACE!" he announced loudly.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"Yessss...!" Joy and Anxiety were the only ones who managed to celebrate with excitement. Even the once-energized Anger was now breathing heavily from exhaustion. The yellow emotion was slumped over the console, leaving it tinged with a little bit of orange from Anxiety's touch.

{X}-[World]-{X}

The rest of the students crossed the finish line some time later, all stopping to catch their breath. Professor Thompson, seeing them resting after passing the marked line, said, "Congratulations, you've completed today's training. I'm glad none of you gave up along the way, and everyone seems to be in good shape." He spoke.

Unbeknownst to him, many of them wanted to verbally lash out at him, but they restrained themselves.

"You all did very well," Coach Roberts said, arms crossed and a smile on her face, also seeming satisfied with the results. Her smile came from a bet she had made with Thompson during the test on which of their students would finish first—not necessarily in the top three, but ahead of the other. She was pleased that Riley had finished in first place, ahead of Tom—a 'victory' for the hockey team over the basketball team in that small friendly competition. "As promised: You have the last half hour free to do whatever you want." She announced, receiving a wave of gratitude from the students.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"That's it..." Disgust, Ennui—actually, everyone—celebrated in Riley's mind and collapsed face-first on the floor, too tired to move properly to their respective functions. Ennui gave Riley one last command. The girl quickly headed to the benches and sat down to rest.

"Running... is awful..." Ennui said, voicing what everyone was feeling.

"At least we finished in first place," Anxiety pointed out a positive at the end of the race they had just endured. "Now, we need to rest as much as we can, so this doesn't affect our hockey practice later. Riley has to relax." The orange emotion approached the console and pressed the buttons to make Riley put her legs up on the bench and lie down.

"No, no, no. What are you doing?" Disgust approached, even though she was very tired, to try to prevent Riley from lying down. "We can't let Riley lie down, not like this, not in front of others, and not in such an embarrassing way." With a click, she made Riley sit up again.

"But, but... she needs to rest as much as possible! And she'll do that better if she lies down a bit, to rest her legs and back," Anxiety tried to argue.

"We are not lying down, not here, and not in front of the other students and Coach Roberts," Disgust continued to refuse the suggestion, unwilling to let Riley lose popularity points by lounging around in front of everyone.

A heated argument seemed about to erupt between the two emotions until: "Hey." A voice caught everyone's attention, including Riley's.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Riley, right?" The one speaking to the girl was Tom, approaching and stopping in front of her.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

The emotions exchanged a few glances: "Okay, a boy is talking to us. What do we say?" Fear asked the others.

"We can't seem nervous or too excited because this is the first of our new classmates to talk to us! We need to seem cool!" Anxiety quickly responded.

"Let's take it easy." Joy took the lead and pressed some buttons to start the conversation.

{X}-[World]-{X}

The rest of the students crossed the finish line some time later, all stopping to catch their breath. Professor Thompson, seeing them resting after crossing the line, said, "Congratulations, you completed today's training. I'm glad that no one gave up along the way and everyone seems to be in good shape."

Unbeknownst to him, many wanted to verbally insult him but held back.

"You all did very well," Coach Roberts said, arms crossed and a smile on her face, looking satisfied with the result. Her smile was due to the fact that, during the test, she had bet with Thompson on which of their two students would finish first, even if not in the top three, but just before the other. Happy that Riley had finished in first place, before Tom, a 'victory' for the hockey team over the basketball team in that small friendly competition. "As promised: You have the last half hour free to do whatever you want." She announced, receiving a barrage of thanks from the students.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"That..." Disgust, Ennui, actually, everyone celebrated in Riley's mind and fell face down on the ground, too tired to move properly to their functions. Ennui gave one last command to Riley. The girl quickly went to the benches and sat down to rest.

"Running... is horrible..." Ennui said for all who were feeling it.

"At least we finished in first place," Anxiety said, pointing out the positive aspect of the race they had. "Now, we should rest as much as possible so this doesn't affect our hockey practice later. Riley needs to relax." The orange emotion approached the console and pressed the buttons to make her put her legs up on the benches, lying down.

"No, no, no. What are you doing?" Disgust approached, even though very tired, trying to stop Riley from lying down. "We can't let Riley lie down, not like this, not in front of others, and not in such a shameful way." And with a click, she made Riley sit back up.

"But, but... she needs to rest as much as possible! And she'll do that better if she lies down a bit, to rest her legs and back," Anxiety tried to argue.

"We're not going to lie down, not here and not in front of classmates and Coach Roberts," Disgust continued to refuse the proposal, refusing to let Riley lose popularity points by appearing relaxed in front of everyone.

A discussion seemed about to break out between the two emotions until: "Hey." A voice called everyone's and Riley's attention.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Riley, right?" The person speaking to the girl was Tom, approaching and stopping in front of her.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

The emotions exchanged glances: "Okay, a guy came to talk to us. What do we say?" Fear asked the others.

"We can't seem nervous or excited, because this is the first of our new classmates talking to us! We have to look cool!" Anxiety said next.

"Let's take it easy." Joy took the lead and pressed some buttons to start the conversation.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Yes, and what's up?" Riley greeted.

"Tom." The boy extended his hand to greet her more politely while sitting next to her, the girl returning the handshake. "I wanted to congratulate you on coming in first. You're very fast!" He said.

"Oh, thanks." A smile grew on the girl's face, her cheeks having a slight pink touch (Joy and Embarrassment working together on this) "You weren't bad either."

"Really? Thanks, I worked really hard." He commented and looked at his legs. "My legs are killing me..." He looked toward part of the court, where some of his friends were grabbing a basketball and starting to play. "I don't know how they still have the strength to play," he commented, his tired tone also showing a hint of envy.

"Ugh, mine too." Riley put her left leg over her right knee. "And I still have more practice after school. I think they're going to fall off," she said with anticipated exhaustion from the effort she would have in the after-school hockey practice.

"Don't remind me. If the coach wasn't Mr. Thompson, I'd come up with an excuse to skip practice," Tom said in a joking tone.

This elicited a small laugh from Riley, who nodded in agreement. "I'd say the same... but Coach Roberts wouldn't let me skip..." She commented and looked in the direction of the woman who seemed focused on writing some things in her clipboard, which even slightly worried Riley. Was the coach making notes about her performance? It was a fleeting thought she pushed away, not wanting to worry about it now. "So... you're on the basketball team? I'm also new to the hockey team," she asked and revealed, trying to start a new topic still related to the previous one.

"Yes. I tried out for the team last summer. To sum up the story: I rocked it, they offered me a spot, and here I am," Tom told with a proud tone, a smile on his face. Riley couldn't help but laugh at the way he told the story. And that made him laugh too, but looking more nervous. "Okay... I didn't go in and boom, I rocked it. I might have slipped at the start of the game and, maybe, missed a basket by mistake. But I was still the best in my class, and I say that with confidence," he said, confident in the last part.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it," Riley joked and laughed a bit more.

Tom chuckled, before opening a mischievous smile. "And you, Andersen? How was your entry into the hockey team? Don't tell me it was all perfect for you," he teased.

With the question, she stopped laughing and blushed with embarrassment, her thoughts going back to the camp events. "I... might have... done some stupid things too," she admitted, embarrassed to remember how she acted with her friends and the team during her tryout.

"Everyone does, it's normal." Tom said to lighten the mood, successfully. His gaze then wandered a bit around the group.

A small silence formed between the two, sitting side by side, resting their legs and trying to regain their energy. "Do you know anyone in the class?" Riley asked suddenly (Anxiety, with Joy's permission, doing so to gather information and delve deeper into the conversation with Tom), a little nervous.

"Yes, yes. I know most of our class, there are my friends..." He pointed to a group of three boys who were playing. "We've been together since sixth grade. They also made the team, Carl was the worst of us. I didn't want to speak ill of him, but... speaking of it. He only barely made it to complete the team." He said, pointing to one who looked smaller among the other team members. "But he's a nice guy." He quickly added.

"Hmmm." Riley seemed to not pay much attention. She wouldn't judge him, but personally, she wouldn't offend or say anything like that about any of her friends if she were in the same situation.

"And also my least favorite trio..." Tom's voice had a bit of venom and disgust, before pointing to a trio of girls. The trio who had stolen Riley's seat in the center, who were at the top of the bleachers on the left side and talking animatedly. He sighed. "Heater, Holly, and Hopper. The Triple H. I wish last year had been my last year with them," he commented with clear disappointment in his voice.

"Why?" Riley asked (Disgust and Anxiety were the ones paying the most attention to the boy's next words).

"They're those annoying, spoiled, irritating girls. Holly is the typical airhead, open-mouthed. Hopper is smarter but just as clueless as the other one. And Heater... She's irritating. Beautiful, rich, smart enough to stay on top, and seems to only talk to others to start trouble; a rattlesnake." Tom spoke with clear anger towards the group of girls. "A tip: Stay off their radar and you'll spend the rest of the year well, happy, and without the urge to have a brick to throw at someone's head." He said in a more playful tone, but with a certain malice in the last part.

Riley cast one last quick glance at the trio before turning her attention back to the boy next to her. She already imagined they wouldn't be very good classmates or possible friends, but the way Tom spoke so bluntly. It would be good to stay away from them (something Disgust, Fear, and Anxiety agreed to prioritize).

Tom then looked to the other side, to the right, spotting another figure. "And Evan..." He spoke the name, but his tone seemed indifferent. Almost dead. Looking at the boy who was lying on one of the benches of the bleachers, the one closest to the doors, resting with his head on his arms. "He is..." He turned his face to look at Riley. "Weird."

"Weird how?" The girl asked, now focusing her gaze on the boy mentioned (in her mind, Envy, Anger, and Anxiety were highly focused on this, especially the smaller emotion, ready to grab any excuse to dislike the boy).

"Weird... weird." Tom said, unable to articulate a more succinct description.

"Wow. Quite informative." Riley joked, trying to lighten the mood of the strange response.

"He's a bit distant, reclusive, quiet." Tom's gaze returned to the colleague. "I've studied with him since sixth grade. I even tried to get along with him, but it was weird. He never takes off his hood, almost always reads, likes strange things, always wears that hood, and has some... tics. That make you nervous. And he's quite a nerd. I've never seen him score less than 95 on a test before, never. Even in physical education, he could do everything without even trying. He's also the teachers' pet, or at least he always was at our old school." He started, without realizing or not caring if he was making a list of negative things about the colleague, his tone also sounding unsettled while talking about him.

"Wow, you... seem to not like him very much." Riley spoke nervously, now uncomfortable hearing so many negative things about Evan without him being able to defend himself (the girl's self-sense shining and saying 'I'm a good person').

"It's not that I don't like him, but I get frustrated. He seems to be good at everything, just doesn't stand out in anything." Tom tried to explain and defend himself. "And he doesn't even defend himself. At our old school, a friend of mine, Bradley, who now plays for another team at another school, used to torment him all the time. But nothing made him lose his temper..." He paused and reflected a bit, before correcting himself. "Well, actually, there was one time when they tried to take off his hood, and he clung to it as if he was going to die. I never understood that, but after what his cousin did to Brad, hmpf!, no one ever tried again." He recounted, breaking into a cold sweat as he mentioned the last part.

"What did she do?" Riley seemed interested in the last part.

Tom remained silent, very silent, a shiver running down his spine. "Ugh. I don't even want to remember. Just that we learned the hard way not to touch the guy's hood." He commented, seeming unwilling or lacking the courage to say what had happened that day.

Riley looked at Evan a bit more from where she was. The boy was lying down, relaxed, not harming anyone. A slight tightening came over her. And the same tightening came again when she looked at Tom, but with a bit more nervousness. The boy's mocking and negative words about the other seemed too cruel, especially just because the other liked to stay away.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"I think we might have been too harsh on the guy..." Anger commented aloud, referring to the anger she felt towards Evan for finishing the assignments before them.

Almost no one seemed surprised by the comment or cared much. Despite being quite irritable, explosive, and bad-tempered in some cases, Anger was a fairly fair emotion in some of its judgment lapses. It wouldn't be fair to judge someone based on others' words and silly actions.

And she knew Riley wouldn't do such a thing; after all, she had seen the little girl grow up to be someone quite helpful, loyal, and friendly.

Evan was, at least out of pity and compassion, off Anger's personal target list. She wouldn't judge him further until there was, or if there was, a direct interaction with the colleague. Tom, however, was dangerously close to entering this red emotion's personal list, near but not quite crossing the line, as the emotion also didn't like people who might slander and belittle others behind their backs.

But this was something happening internally in Anger, who now refocused on Riley and the real world.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"Sorry if I made things awkward." Tom said to break the silence created by the last exchange of words, his tone trying to ease the situation from moments ago.

"No, no." Riley waved her hand, also trying to fix the problem and return to the conversational mood before Tom's words about Evan. "And who is his cousin, in case I run into problems and need to prepare in advance?" She joked, but also a bit curious about the person.

"Hm? You're on the hockey team, right? You should have met her already." Tom commented, which made her more confused and curious. "She's the hockey team captain, Val Ortiz." He revealed.

The revelation stunned Riley.

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

"WHAAAAAT?!" All the emotions screamed simultaneously in surprise, chaos erupting in the girl's mind.

"VAL HAS A COUSIN?! VAL HAS A COUSIN?! How did we not know this?! HOW DID WE MISS THIS?!" Anxiety began to panic, wondering if they had ever heard of it or if anyone had mentioned Val's relative. She started to spiral in her thoughts.

"How does Val have such a... different cousin?" Disgust wondered. Given Val's animated personality they had seen up to that point, they didn't imagine her cousin would be so different and more subdued. Also based on Tom's description.

"Ugh. I wish we were close to Val like that." Envy complained, jealous of the relationship the boy, whom she still felt a bit of anger towards from previous events, had with Riley's idol.

The emotions would have continued to discuss, until they heard a signal and the powerful shout of Coach Thompson: "Students, you are dismissed!" Signaling that the class and school were over. Now, there was hockey practice, and Riley automatically, even surprised, rushed to the locker room to change into her regular clothes.

"What do we do?! What if Val has talked about him to us and we didn't know? Does she know he's studying with us and expects us to talk to him?! And we've been slacking off?!" Anxiety continued to exclaim, struggling to absorb the newly discovered information.

"Look, maybe she mentioned it and we didn't hear." Joy's words only made Anxiety more nervous. "Or, OR... She hasn't said anything to us and doesn't even know we're in the same class as him. Probably. Most likely, she doesn't know anything, and we can use this to get closer to her. What do you think?" The yellow emotion suggested, trying to see the situation in a more positive light.

The other emotions exchanged some quick glances before quickly agreeing with the idea.

"You're right, Joy. You're right." Anxiety sighed and tried to regain her composure. "This is a good opportunity! We can start getting to know Val better, and by getting closer to her, she'll get closer to us, and this will make the other girls come closer to Riley, and she'll form more bonds and make new friends. This is good, very good!" The orange emotion got very excited seeing the new opportunity before them.

Joy was a bit nervous about this. She hoped it wouldn't bring more problems, especially from Anxiety. But she was staying positive about it, as she always had been with everything, and would embrace the idea of making new friends.

"Okay, we just have to wait for the right time to talk about it..." Anxiety commented, rubbing her hands together and tapping her thumbs several times in succession. "The right time..." She repeated again.

[-Later-]

"WHEN WILL THE RIGHT TIME BE?!" Anxiety exclaimed in a bundle of nerves, now sitting in her chair, drinking her third cup of tea to try to calm down and receiving a massage from her special seat, but nothing seemed to help with her bubbling worry.

After classes ended, Riley went straight to hockey practice. Even though she was still a bit tired and felt disgusting from all the sweat during physical education class. But the coach seemed to go a bit easier on her and her teammates, perhaps out of pity for it being her second day on the team and her first in the discipline.

But it wasn't that easy.

They still had to put in a lot of effort, repeating some drills from the previous day, and had a near semi-game. They had a friendly competition to see who could score the most pucks into the goal, each receiving ten pucks and having to surpass the goalkeeper.

And it was quite a challenge. Not only because of the goalkeeper's skill but also because of the exhaustion Riley already felt from the physical effort of the pre-practice class.

But she gave it her all.

Joy and Anxiety provided the necessary boost, Anger as an extra when the two weren't enough. Ennui served to stop them when they seemed to be pushing their limits. This happened halfway through the shots; when Riley had managed to score three goals in a row, they got excited and missed the fourth, which worried them and led to missing the fifth and sixth, prompting Ennui to intervene.

They scored seven goals. Val, with more grace and skill, managed to score all ten perfectly, in a display that made Envy drool and want to be like her. Fortunately, despite the errors, they managed to stay in second place; Riley scored just one more goal than the third-place finisher.

This earned praise from the other girls. A sense of pride and arrogance overtook the girl for a few moments, courtesy of Disgust and Anxiety working together on the responses. But they also had to be stopped by Embarrassment when Riley said something with excessive confidence at a certain moment.

Everything went very well.

The only problem was: They didn't find time to talk to Val about her cousin, or even to chat with her about anything, not managing to find a break in the middle of practice. And this left Anxiety more and more nervous, wanting to discuss the matter but not wanting to force or seem desperate to have a personal conversation with the team captain.

"Calm down, Anxiety. Eventually, we will get a chance to talk to Val about this, but we need to do it calmly." Joy said, trying to calm the orange emotion's paranoia. "We can't freak out now, okay?"

Anxiety nodded, becoming more downcast in her seat and taking another sip of her tea. She wanted this to be over soon. She wanted everything resolved quickly, so all the possibilities she was considering would also resolve in the same way. But nothing seemed to be going as she wanted. And she, like everyone else, knew that she couldn't take charge for now.

The other emotions would handle everything, and she had to stay behind, waiting for the situation where they would need her.

She then felt a weight on her shoulder and looked to the side; It was Fear, with a compassionate look towards the orange emotion. Though no words were spoken, she understood the meaning, that he would be there to support her and help with whatever she needed. Showing that he was on her side. She gave a grateful smile, calming down a bit more.

"Hey, Minnesota." A voice drew everyone's attention back to the real world.

{X}-[World]-{X}

"So, how was your first practice with Coach Thompson?" Dani asked, sitting down next to Riley on the bench while she was taking off her skates. "Did he make you run laps around the rink?"

"Yes, he had us run several laps." Riley answered.

"That's typical of him. On a good day, he usually asks for fifty laps. And when he's in a particularly good mood, he'll ask for a hundred." Dina said in a tired tone. "I thought my feet were going to bleed from all the running." She said, patting her legs to illustrate.

"That's because you don't practice regularly." Val teased, joining the conversation. She sat on the bench across from the other two girls but close enough to talk without raising her voice.

"Sorry, Ms. Athlete, if I don't spend half my week training non-stop." Dani retorted, joking.

Val laughed. "If you trained even a little bit, you'd be better. You only train when the coach tells you to. You should make more of an effort." She continued teasing her friend. "And how did you place?"

Riley seemed excited. "I came in first." She answered proudly.

"Look at that, congratulations." Val said, giving Riley a friendly punch on the shoulder in celebration. "It's good to know there's another athlete here." She said loudly to the other girls, receiving some playful boos from them.

"Yes..." Riley realized this was an opportunity to bring up what she wanted to discuss. "A classmate of mine, Tom, came in second. He almost passed me. He's on the basketball team." She mentioned, starting the topic with the colleague she had talked to.

"On the basketball team?" The other girls seemed more interested when Dani asked. "That's right!" She gave Riley's shoulder a more forceful punch than Val's, making her wince and rub the spot where she was hit. "I can't stand those guys on the basketball team. They're so arrogant, just because they bounce a little orange ball and shoot it into a hoop." She mocked in a malicious tone. "They're not as amazing as we are, hockey players." She said with pride, earning nods from the other girls.

"Is that because of pride or because one of those guys rejected you?" The other girls laughed at the captain's teasing, making the other girl blush and look embarrassed by the jokes about her failed attempts. "She's always trying to find a boyfriend but has been rejected by almost everyone. And she tried hitting on the basketball players... and got rejected by almost all of them!" Val laughed, accompanied by the others.

Riley joined in with a small laugh along with the others, while Dani huffed and crossed her arms, cheeks red, looking flustered by the jokes about her failed attempts. "It's not my fault if none of them want to date someone as... amazing as me." She said, trying to boost her confidence, showing off her trained arms.

"Sure, sure." Val suppressed her laughter to respond to her friend, turning her attention back to Riley. "You might not know this, but the basketball team and the hockey team are basically rivals. So, you can come in first, second, or even third place, but never be behind that classmate of yours. In anything. Got it? We have a reputation to uphold that hockey players are better than basketball players." She said, though her tone was more playful than authoritative.

"Okay, I won't let you down." Riley replied in the same playful tone, and amidst her laughter, she decided to bring up the main topic she wanted to discuss. "Oh, and Evan came in third. He did really well." She revealed as she finished taking off her skates and freeing her feet from the equipment.

A small silence fell over the group.

"Who is Evan?" Dani asked, curious to see Val in silence and still.

Riley noticed it too, growing a bit nervous. "H-He's Val's cousin. He's in my class." She revealed.

"Your cousin started studying at our school, why didn't you tell us?" Dani seemed excited, giving a friendly pat on her friend's shoulder, who remained still and silent. "You barely let us talk to him when he came over to your house." She commented.

And those words affected Riley. Even her close friends on the team didn't have much interaction with Val's cousin, so why didn't she let them? Val's neutral gaze focused on her made her even more anxious.

"Andersen." That rang an alarm in the girl's mind. Andersen? Not Minnesota? And the tone seemed devoid of much emotion. "How do you know he's my cousin? He didn't say he talked to you or anyone. Can you explain?" She asked.

Despite being a straightforward and simple question, her tone—neutral—still sounded threatening, even without anger. This also made the other girls on the team go quiet. Dani, usually the most lively and who lightened the mood in any situation, fell silent and alternated her gaze between them.

"Tom, my classmate, the one I beat in the race. We talked a bit, and he mentioned Evan and that he's your cousin." Riley revealed, trying not to stutter or get nervous under the girl's intense gaze (Anxiety being held back by the other emotions to prevent chaos in the console, but still able to press some buttons, while Ennui also acted to ease the nervousness).

Val's expression turned more displeased, slightly frowning. "Hmmm. Does this Tom know someone named Bradley?" She asked directly.

This only made Riley even more tense. "I—I think so." Riley stuttered, omitting a direct affirmative response about the boy when mentioning him.

"What did he say about my cousin?" Val's tone grew more intense, showing a bit more anger as she stood up from her bench, moving closer to Riley and looking down at her. Riley remained silent, swallowing hard, looking up at her. Val crossed her arms. "What did he tell you about my cousin?" She demanded.

Riley stayed silent, nervous, her gaze seeking support from the other girls in the room. None of them moved, and some even looked away. The tension was mounting as Riley remained silent, while Val's expression grew harsher and colder.

The silence was broken when the door opened: "Alright, girls. Today was a good second practice. I hope that..." The coach, who entered with a cheerful smile, fell silent upon seeing the scene of Val staring at Riley and the other girls silent. "Am I... interrupting something?" She crossed her arms, adopting a stern expression and looking at them with her own hard gaze.

Val huffed, going to her locker to grab her bag and heading towards the locker room exit. "Nothing, coach." She said before leaving.

Even with the girl's departure, the mood didn't improve. No one spoke about it, and they resumed getting ready to leave. Meanwhile, in Riley's mind...

{X}-[Mind]-{X}

The emotions were stuck at the console, with some still holding Anxiety, who was gripping some of the levers and pressing a few buttons the whole time. "Awkward..." Ennui was the only one to comment from his personal couch.