[-Friday - Fifth Day of School - 16:51-]
To say that Joy was positive by nature would be an understatement, because it's part of her to think of the best scenarios for Riley's day. And on the third day of school, she imagined that every situation with Val would be resolved...
But, as you might expect, it wasn't.
Many things had happened over the three days, but some of them had nothing to do with the subject in question. That's why it's enough to summarize the important things that happened to Riley and the Emotions during that time in relation to Val and his cousin.
Let's start with the third day:
Everyone woke up with their emotions (ironically) running high. Worried, nervous. And Joy motivated them to act as positively as they could. It didn't go as she expected, since she always expected reactions like hers, of excitement, but the most she got was an excited shout from Envy when she talked about restoring their friendship with Val and becoming even closer friends.
The problem, as Joy saw it, was when Anxiety began to take over the console. Making Riley look at various scenarios where her conversation with Val ended up going wrong and only making matters worse. And even when they tried to control it with the usual measures, tea and the massage chair, it backfired.
Since the console itself released those sparks that called her to take control of Riley.
And there was nothing Joy could do about it. She had already learned her lesson twice, never to interfere with the function of other emotions when they were needed. And if Riley felt anxious, she wouldn't do anything about it. Which actually had only one positive point. They began to use Anxiety's energy to create negative and positive scenarios for Riley's conversation, all focused on preventing chaos from spreading and Anxiety from losing control.
When they arrived at the school, it was strange. The atmosphere seemed a little more frightening. And that was due to one of the possibilities created by Anxiety's scenarios: where Riley would be excluded from the team, would be talked about badly by the girls, everyone in the rest of the school would ignore her because she had distanced herself from the others and she would become the most unpopular person in the school.
"Riley will go through eighth grade alone, then ninth, then high school, college and the rest of her life." That's what Anxiety had said to everyone in despair and in a state of panic attack.
And Ennui had to step in when it looked like it was about to get out of hand. She managed to reduce Riley's nervousness, while Fear had to pull her away from the console, which was no longer calling her, and put her in the seat, taking care of her with the anti-stress methods. The others took over when Riley arrived in the classroom and went to her seat.
That's when a small event happened.
"Hey, Riley, what's up?" They saw Tom approach and sit down next to Riley to talk.
Anger and Envy snorted with annoyance at this, not liking the boy's closeness to Riley: "It's his fault that Val doesn't want to talk to us anymore!" Envy shouted.
"Yeah, that's it. We don't need to be around him!" Anger took over the console by tapping and pressing a few buttons.
This caused Riley to glare and turn her face away with a frown and Tom was confused by this: "What?" he asked, dragging his seat closer to her and her personal seat. But Anger continued to make her ignore him. The boy didn't give up, getting up to walk around and get within sight "What's wrong? You look like shit." He pointed.
"Urgh! Hasn't he understood that we don't want to talk to him?" Disgust took over with anger, clicking a button. Riley rolled his eyes, huffed, again looking elsewhere and letting him out of his sight.
And all the emotions thought that would be enough. Only it proved to be a failure, because he kept trying to talk to her; always moving to stay within her sight. Most of the room's attention was on the scene of the pair, Tom's friends making jokes in the background.
Disgust and Anger's last attempt to stop his advances was to make Riley cross her arms on the table, slap her forehead on them and look down. A final tactic to ignore him. And it seemed to be working, and to Disgust and Anger's happiness, it would also make the other students stop paying attention to the embarrassing scene.
But it didn't work. Because they felt a sudden, continuous sensation of something poking the back of Riley's neck, which made them feel the same sensation on the back of their necks. And they realized what it was.
Tom was poking them.
"Oh, no... AH, NO!" Raiva was furious and about to explode in the way he always did. He undid the knot in his tie, the others moving away the moment they saw him do it, and he hit the console and the levers came out. He pulled up his sleeves, grabbed the levers, squeezed them hard "Don't... FUCK OFF!" He shouted and pushed the levers at the same moment, an explosion of flames at the top of his head happening.
In the real world; Riley gritted her teeth, frowned and when Tom touched her on the back of the head again, she slapped the boy's hand away and raised her face to glare at him, now with an expression that showed how angry she was: "Don't touch me!" She said angrily, but stopped herself from shouting (Ennui acting quickly when Riley was about to speak.
"Wow, what bit you? I thought we got on well yesterday!" Tom complained as he stared at her with an almost similar expression of anger.
"You thought wrong!" Riley replied just as angrily "It's your fault... I..." She noticed the other people's gazes on them, waiting for the confusion to escalate even further and turn into something worse. Quickly; Embarrassment, at the behest of the others, pulled Anger and Disgust took over the console. That made Riley stop, "You know what? Forget it." She went back to ignoring him.
Before he could continue, Miss Kim arrived in the class. And that stopped them. Tom went to his corner, still confused, but also appearing to be angry himself, given his clearly furious look and frown. Riley, at Disgust's command, ignored him throughout math class.
Disgust and Envy also took the opportunity to keep an eye and ear out for what their classmates might say about the scene before class. And they also paid attention to another important figure in the plot: Evan.
But the subject itself wasn't difficult at all for Riley when she concentrated enough:
"In the last lesson, you went over how to simplify fractions, convert decimals, solve operations with fractions and calculate percentages. So today we're going to continue. I saw that some of you were able to handle it, but I see that others still have certain difficulties with this subject..." His dry tone and gaze went to the group of four boys at the back of the room, who seemed nervous about this "So: Let's revise fractions and remember their resolutions." And that made Riley's Ennui take over for the entire lesson.
They were distinctly easy questions to solve, at least some of them.
[Addition:
Example 1: With the same denominator.
3/5 1/5 = 4/5
Example 2: With different denominators.
2/3 1/4 = ?
Where you first have to find the MMC, the number that the two meet. In this case, 12. And multiply the numerator and denominator by it:
2/3 = 8/12
1/4 = 3/12
Then add them together:
8/12 3/12 = 11/12.]
And the subtraction was the same.
[Subtraction:
Example 1: With the same denominator.
5/7 - 2/7 = 3/7.
Example 2: With different denominators.
3/4 - 1/6 = ?
Find the LCM: 12.
3/4 = 9/12
1/6 = 2/12
And then subtract:
9/12 - 2/12 = 7/12.]
But that was the easy part. When the Multiplication and Division revision began, Anxiety insisted on stepping in to help revise this part of the subject. Which Joy supported; after all, concentrating on the subject would be a good distraction from the problem with Val.
[Multiplication:
Example:
2/3 x 4/5
Where the numerators and denominators are multiplied:
2 x 4 = 8
3 x 5 = 15
Result: 8/15].
And then.
[Division:
Example:
3/4 2/5
First, invert the second fraction and turn into X, from division to multiplication:
3/4 x 5/2
And just by doing what you did in the previous exercise:
3 x 5 = 15
4 x 2 = 8
Result: 15/8].
It was quite a fervent revision. And when she asked someone to offer to solve an equation on the board, the exercise was: 3/4 (5/6 x 2/3) - 7/8 1/2. An extremely difficult problem to solve.
Normally, no one would offer to do that.
Except one: "I'll solve it..." Evan offered to do it.
First by multiplying the fractions: 5/6 x 2/3 = 5x2/6x3 = 10/18 = 5/9.
Second by dividing the fractions: 7/8 1/2 = 7/8 x 2/1 = 7x2/8x1 = 14/8 = 7/4.
Thirdly, with the equation complete: 3/4 5/9 - 7/4, it was necessary to find the MMC, which of 4 and 9 is 36.
This leaves
27/36 20/36 - 63/36 = 47/36
47/36 - 63/36 = -16/36
-16/36 = -4/9.
A calculation that took him a few seconds, almost half a minute, to solve on the board. Emotions couldn't help but feel very impressed. Not that Riley wasn't capable of solving the exercise, but the speed with which he did it, they would admit, was much faster than they could manage. And that seemed to get a small smile out of Ms. Kim when she saw the problem being solved.
"That's correct. Thank you very much, Ortiz." Miss Kim had spoken in a clearly more energized tone than before.
"Pfft! Nerd..." Riley heard one of the boys next to him speaking in a mocking tone, and the laughter of the group.
This made Anger curse them in Riley's mind.
The class went on as normal and ended shortly afterwards. Evan's demonstration was the highlight of the lesson, which seemed to cheer up the teacher enough for her, the only one, not to give the students any homework or study.
They then had two new materials after math: Physical Science and Social Studies, with two new teachers.
The other classes ran until 12 noon. They were released for lunch and Riley went out with excitement and energy to meet the team, but saw the table where they sat with only Dani and a few other girls. No Val.
"She... wasn't up for lunch in the cafeteria today..." Dani said, but she was clearly trying to cover up the fact that the captain didn't want to see Riley after the argument the day before. Which she did horribly, since it was more than obvious. And it was worse because she and the others tried to cover it up with various conversations that didn't refer to the field hockey team.
It was no surprise that Sadness tried to take over the console. The other emotions had to stop her, Disgust and Envy especially because of the embarrassment it would be if she cried in front of the team. Embarrassment was the one who had to pull out the blue emotion and hold it for the duration of the conversation, only releasing it when the buzzer sounded, allowing Riley to feel the emotion. Which almost everyone felt.
It was a frustrating lunch to say the least.
And at training it was worse; Val totally ignored them. She was distant, didn't talk to her, in fact, to almost anyone on the team. The captain only spoke to the coach and only when she was talking to the girl. It was a cold practice, and not just because they were on the ice, but because of the cold look that Val cast in Riley's direction.
This continued until the end of practice. Val was the first to leave, both at practice and on the way out. Which put everyone on the team in a bad mood.
"The girls must already be blaming Riley for this..." It was a comment from Anxiety that made everyone worry.
And when they got home, they had another argument like the other two nights. Joy had to keep calming the arguments between them and keep them in line so that they wouldn't get any stupid ideas. She would still insist on the original plan: explain the situation.
To sum up the third day: Nothing different happened and it looked even worse than they thought. But Joy tried to keep them upbeat for the fourth day. She continued to believe that they would be able to sort everything out, and that Val would be Riley's friend again.
And off they went to the fourth day of school:
Another day, again they reviewed content from previous subjects and a new one: Foreign Language. This subject covered languages other than English and Spanish: French, German, Mandarin and even Japanese. One thing that caught the emotions' attention.
It's obvious to know that almost all the emotions were attracted to French, especially Ennui, who is more fluent in this language than the others.
The teacher was a very distinguished figure: Professor Michael Harris, with brown hair and eyes of the same color, with a very lively smile. Very athletic, even though he said he was 45. And he was wearing button-down pants and a sports jacket, with dark shoes. Someone of youthful appearance for his age.
He gave a short introduction to the students and even started presenting the subject in a fun way: presenting the forms of greeting around the world in different languages (French - Bonjour, Spanish - Hola, German - Hallo, Japanese - Konnichiwa, Mandarin - Nǐ hǎo) and wrote them down, and how to greet him (the teacher). He gave them the task of reading it and greeting him in the same way he did, saying it in the same way and tone as he did.
Everyone had to greet him in at least two languages, saying: Hello, teacher!
French: Bonjour, professeur!, Spanish: Hola, profesor!, German: Hallo, Lehrer!, Japanese: Konnichiwa, sensei!, Mandarin: Nín hǎo, lǎoshī!
It was a subject that, unlike the others, Riley didn't do so well in. Even though she managed to handle Spanish, she wasn't so good at greeting him in French. In fact, she was luckier in the latter. She had some knowledge, having read some novels and seen some movies that had such a greeting, which helped, but not enough not to make a mistake.
Many of her colleagues didn't do as well as her, but of course they had their exceptions: The three main ones.
Tom (who managed to greet her in Spanish and French in almost the same way as Riley, where if they had a grade: He would have gotten a 3/5 and Riley 4/5).
Heater (who not only greeted him perfectly in Spanish and French, but also greeted him in German in an enviable way and seemed to have a lot of knowledge about her. Envy and disgust deducing, from Tom's chic appearance and knowledge, that she must have traveled to France or Germany to be so familiar).
Evan (who stood out for being able to greet the teacher in all languages, and in such a natural and easy tone that it seemed he was already used to foreign languages. Even Joy couldn't help but feel jealous of her classmate's perfect pronunciation, and the others couldn't help but hide their admiration for such an act).
If he had a ranking, Riley, for the first time, came third, while still managing to stay second in the other subjects. Her only relief was that she was still ahead of Tom. What annoyed her were the comments made by her classmates, Tom's friends and the boy himself, about Heater and Evan, insulting them behind their backs.
It seemed that them standing out made them the butt of jokes and mockery for having made an effort. But she and her emotions wondered why she wasn't included in the jokes. She quickly realized that it was because the group had known the others for longer.
Even so, a feeling was beginning to grow inside her about the group of boys.
But that thought had to be put off until later; they still had to get back to their studies. The teacher, at the end of the lesson, explained that his subject would be freer for the students.
And what did that mean?
That if the students agreed, they could cut out the English and Spanish lessons, since they were taught by different teachers. So it would only be a small reinforcement in the languages mentioned. And if the students chose, they would focus only on the other languages and could ask him to help them with any tutoring they didn't understand. Where he would be like a tutor for those who chose to ask him for help with both.
Needless to say, the majority chose to agree.
It was hard enough having the two of them separately, the two of them together would be annoying. Add the other languages on top of that. It was a good opportunity that the classmates grabbed. And the teacher, as he had offered, said that he would continue to teach the subjects relating to the two languages until the end of the first month and would cut them again if everyone agreed that it was unnecessary to keep them.
And that was all the important stuff that happened regarding the subject. A new teacher, a new subject, Riley making an effort, Evan proving himself superior and once again the group of boys making jokes about him. It was getting repetitive, even though it was only the fourth day of school.
The other subjects before lunch flew by.
Part, if not almost all, of the memories were created by Ennui so that they wouldn't miss anything important that could be covered in class. Since none of the other emotions were able to concentrate on them as it got closer and closer to break time. And when the bell rang, Anxiety commanded Riley to leave as quickly as possible.
But it was different.
Today the number of girls had decreased, with Dani and a couple of girls being the only ones present. Which made Anxiety, Envy and Disgust worry that Riley's popularity was falling; and Anxiety, Fear and Sadness worry that Riley was already being abandoned at the start of the school year.
This time, Sadness managed to reach the console before the others could stop her. It only took a few simple touches. It didn't give Riley time to become sad enough to cry, but she was clearly showing it, as the other girls seemed to have noticed. And that only made them even more desperate.
And the rest of the lessons went by like a blur. Riley's concentration and emotions towards Val and the team. A growing despair at the increasing decline in popularity and friendship they thought they had with the team, a despair that they would be abandoned and the others would only interact with them out of obligation at practices and games.
What was worrying was the chance that Riley would be kicked off the team if the girls asked the coach to do it.
"They're not going to do that, guys." That's what Joy always said when someone said something like that and desperately tried to keep them focused on keeping Riley under control. She herself was afraid that Anxiety would make the girl suffer another panic attack.
But her words began to fall on deaf ears after training on the fourth day. Once again they were ignored by Val at practice, who seemed even more distant than the day before. And whenever they tried to talk to the team captain, Val either walked away or ignored her and focused on the exercises given by Coach Roberts.
Once again, they had to discuss their methods of approaching the girl when they got home in the evening. This time, Anger didn't hold back in saying how unfair Val was being in ignoring them when they tried to talk; even Envy agreed, on the grounds that: Because Val ignored them, the others did the same thing. And they would be alone because of a mistake that had nothing to do with them and Riley.
And now they were on day Five:
Another normal day of boring, repetitive lessons for the first few days, and once again they were left aside by Val and part of the team at lunch. Something that now made Anger want to take over the console. They were being abandoned before they had even completed a week's lessons, all because of a misjudgment made by the girl they admired.
And now they were finishing the second match between two teams formed by the girls, just like on the first day.
Just as on the first day, Riley and Val were on opposite teams. This led to a fierce dispute. Ortiz, during the game, seemed to focus on the girl and to take the puck away from her every time she was dominating and preventing her from scoring. And what about her performance? Val seemed to play as if possessed; dribbling, scoring, scoring. The score at the end of the match was: 51.
5 goals scored by Val and 1 by a joint effort from the team and Riley, who only managed it at the end of the match, when the captain was tired from all the work she had put in to score the five points.
After that, the coach released them to go back to the locker room to leave; Riley was sitting on a bench, taking off her skates, trying to look anywhere but at Val. Her coolness made all the girls, even Dani, turn away and not bother her. Clearly as nervous as the girl herself who is the focus of Val's anger. She heard her remove her equipment with speed and violence before slamming the locker at the end.
"Val, see you..." Dani tried to call out to the captain, but couldn't. Val left the room after changing and walked away. This automatically made the other girls start muttering, while Dani shifted her focus to Riley and noticed her sad expression.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
Sadness was face down on the console, crying, "She hates us!" She screamed and let her tears soak the buttons and the device, Embarrassment, who usually takes her away, trying to give her a few gentle pats on the back to try and calm her down.
"Hey, Minnesota." They heard Dani's voice and saw her approaching.
"No, no, no. She can't see us sad!" Disgust was quick to act. Although disgusted at having to do such a thing, she pulled Sadness and pushed her into Embarrassment's arms, leaving him with his sweatshirt soaked by the tears of the minor emotion. And quickly acted by pressing the console.
{X}-[World]-{X}
Riley quickly wiped away the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes, adjusting his expression to look at Dani who sat next to him: "Are you okay?" The girl asked the newcomer.
"I'm fine, don't worry." Riley tried to answer without showing the sadness she felt before.
"You don't have to lie if you are. I understand how hard it must be." Dani said. Despite being the most playful and fun-loving of the team, even she knew when to have a serious conversation with someone else when necessary. "Val can be a bit difficult sometimes when it comes to her cousin," she said. She revealed.
"Why?" Riley asked in clear curiosity (Anxiety taking over alongside Envy to find out more).
"..." Dani looked thoughtful, "What do you know about Val's cousin? Just to give me a little idea." She asked.
"B-Good. All I know is what my classmate Tom said; that he was a bit of an outcast at the school they went to before this one, that his friend Bradley used to play pranks on him and one day Val got in the way and ended up causing a fuss between them." Riley revealed briefly, nervously, but saying everything she knew "Can you tell me the whole story?" She asked.
Again the player remained silent, thinking and assessing the situation and what had been said.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
Her emotions remained restless, waiting for an answer.
{X}-[World]-{X}
"... I can't say anything." Dani finally said.
"What?!" Riley said a little louder than he meant to, getting a few stares, and making her cheeks turn pink with embarrassment "Why?" she asked, controlling her tone to keep her voice down.
"Look. Believe me when I say that I wish I could help you, but you started this mess by doing the very thing you're asking me to do. Through gossip. And it's only going to get worse, especially as it involves such a personal matter of Val's; it took me a long time to find out, and I've known her for a long, long time." Dani explained, "Only she can explain everything properly. So you'd better talk to her and sort it out yourselves." She said.
Riley sighed: "I want to, but she won't even listen to me." She said in a sad tone, almost mumbling.
Dani nodded, knowing better, having seen it over the last few days, and then she remembered something: "Well... There is a way." And that got Riley's attention: "Tomorrow all the team are going to the mall to celebrate the end of the first week and your joining. Besides Val, you were one of the first rookies to get three points in the test. We thought Val would let you know, but... It doesn't matter. You're on the team and if you want, you can go and try to talk to her." He revealed.
Hope shone in Riley's eyes: "Is Val really going?"
"Yes. It doesn't matter if it's an illness or a test, she never misses an appointment." Dani replied and Riley's hopes only continued to rise: "It's tomorrow morning; the mall downtown, the Westfield, it opens at 10, but we'll be there at 11. We'll meet you at the center of it." She said: "Don't be late! We've thought of everything, and don't even think about not going." Dani warned, now in a 'threatening' but also playful tone, to try to lighten the mood of the conversation.
"I won't! I promise!" Riley replied quickly and cheerfully, perhaps even more than she should have. And she quickly changed with more excitement.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"You heard: Riley's been invited to hang out with the team!" Joy got excited and had her hands on the console, boosting Riley up, looking at the others expectantly "And Val's going too, which means...?" She raised the question, but everyone knew what she was already thinking.
"That we're going to be left out again. And worse: in the mall." Anger was the one who answered for the others.
Her expression fell for a few moments and she was about to speak, but someone quickly cut her off: "Don't even think about telling us to stay positive, Joy. We're tired of hearing it! It's not working!" Disgust said, clearly already irritated by the events of the last few days.
"But we can't give up now. Otherwise, we'll be like this for the rest of the year!" Joy argued and, even though she didn't like it, she had to play on their fear of Riley being alone and ignored by the rest of the team "Besides: Let's go out with the team! We can have fun together, strengthen bonds, and I'm sure that by the end of the day everything will be sorted out!"
"And if not?!" Anxiety took over "If we just make it worse?! If we try to talk to her... and Val hates Riley even more?! If she fights with us in front of everyone at the mall?!" She raised the questions with desperation, approaching the console. Joy now felt trapped against the console as the orange emotion approached: "I don't think we should go." Anxiety suggested, "Nothing we've tried has worked! We're just being ignored more and more! Everything can only get worse if we go!" He went on to say.
"But not if we do anything, nothing will change." This time it was Ennui who spoke from his sofa "I don't like insisting on something that seems pointless... but it would also be boring to give up after trying so hard." He commented in a more motivated tone than he usually used, even though his eyes were still focused on the screen of his device.
The words of emotion seemed to affect the others: "It wouldn't be bad to keep trying." Embarrassment managed to gather the courage to speak after Ennui.
"And the others must want Riley there. I'm sure!" Envy said in support of their plan to go out with the team.
"And it would be nice to get out of the house for a bit and with someone." Sadness said. The truth was that that week, all they had done was go to school or stay at home. And when they got close to the start of the school year, Riley stopped going out and isolating herself and not hanging out with her friends.
Soon five of the nine emotions were agreeing to leave, with only Fear's opinion missing to complete the vote. The emotion realized this when it received a look from everyone.
Fear swallowed before speaking: "It wouldn't hurt to go out and have a bit of fun, would it?" He stuttered his reply. He received a betrayed look from Anxiety, which hit him hard, but he tried to remain convinced of his answer.
"Perfect!" Joy was pleased to see the support of the majority "We just have to tell the parents first!" She said, refocusing on the console and the real world. Pushing the buttons as they got into the car to talk to their parents.
She was confident!
[-Saturday - Shopping - 10:43-]
She wasn't confident!
To tell the truth, now that Riley was in front of the mall, she and her other emotions were almost paralyzed with dread and anxiety. Joy stood in front of the console, her arms stretched out evenly at her sides, just like the others.
{X}-[World]-{X}
"Riley." The girl turned and looked at her father, who was in the car watching her from the open window "Be careful and call me to come and get you, okay? I love you." He said.
Riley nodded "I love you too." He answered, and saw him start the car and go away. She was now alone at the entrance of the place and looked at the huge structure.
The Westfield San Francisco Centre; A nine-story complex located in the heart of the city on Market Street, having a mix between modernity and elegance. The entrance is grand with large glass windows.
Several people came and went, while others just walked around the huge building. He looked much, much, much bigger now.
Riley swallowed dry, feeling her heart beat faster, while she began to sweat by the forehead and hands. Getting nervous. And it was the first time since she came to San Francisco that she came to this place alone. Since she was either coming together with her parents or came with her other friends. For the first time, she was there alone. Of course. She would meet the other girls on the team and spend time with them, but it was her first experience going out with people different from the ones she usually came in with.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"What if the other girls give up coming? What if they only called us for it? If it's a prank that Val planned?! Let's be alone in the Mall full of strangers!" Anxiety was almost hyper-venting.
"C-Calm, Anxiety. It's not like..." Fear swallowed dry "We were to be alone, full of strangers, even if some of them may be kidnappers... murderers... abusers... Or the three at once!" The emotion itself also began to despair and hyper-vent.
The two began to press the button, their fears and concerns going to Riley, before Joy comes out of her nervous stupor and stops them: "Guys, relax." Asked again, almost turning into a standard phrase when it came to the two, and took back control of the console "Let's not us demotivate, not now. We have to at least have a modicum of hope." With that said, she made Riley move motivated.
The girl took courage and went forward, to the entrance.
{X}-[World]-{X}
By pushing the glass revolving doors at the main entrance, Riley was immediately enveloped by a wave of air-conditioning coolness. The contrast between the rushed movement of Market Street and the controlled calm of the mall is instantaneous.
At first, the atmosphere is more intimate, with moderately wide corridors flanked by clothing and electronics stores. As she entered; The girl can feel the soft aroma of coffee coming from a Starbucks near the entrance, and the whisper of conversations, subtle, fills the air, mixed with the distant touch of ambient music playing by the mall.
As you start to walk deeper down the corridor, the space seems to begin to expand in front of you. The surrounding stores become wider and more sophisticated, with glass windows extending from floor to ceiling, displaying products brightly lit. The lighting is more intense, but still soft, with LED lamps that create a luxurious atmosphere.
Then she reaches the point where the corridor opens to the central atrium.
As soon as her eyes lift, she is immediately captured by the majestic Rotunda in front of her. The glass dome-shaped ceiling rises above it, allowing natural light to flood the space from above, creating a sense of amplitude and grandeur. The soft glow of daylight fills the space, reflecting on the light marble under your feet, making the floor almost shiny.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"Wow!" The eyes of emotions shone with the view. Although, as said before, they had already come to that place, the experience of being on a different context made everything seem brighter and more amazing to them. And Joy gave more cheer to the feelings and thoughts of the girl.
{X}-[World]-{X}
In the center of the lobby, she can see people resting in the elegant living areas, some with shopping bags, others just enjoying the view. Some families take pictures of the glass dome, while others head to surrounding stores such as Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom, which dominate the space on two of the upper floors. The open space feeling is impressive, but not intimidating.
Riley can stop for a moment, admiring the glass ceiling and classic architectural details mixed with modern design around. Looking up, he saw the sunlight penetrating through the dome, bathing everything in a soft and natural glow.
A beautiful view that made her distracted while walking, excited, not realizing she was close to bump into someone leaning against a pillar, until she bumped: "Oh, sorry." Riley quickly turned to apologize to the person.
"No proble-" The person lost their voice. Val was dressed in a different way than the times Riley saw; wearing a navy blue graphic t-shirt with a short sleeve professional team logo that allowed to show her arms, with skinny black jeans slightly faded at the knees. A very beautiful style.
The two stared at each other for a moment, Val with a frown and Riley with a nervous expression.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"We have to say something, folks. We're looking like fools." Disgust warned them.
"Okay, okay!" Anxiety took the lead without asking for permission and began to hit the buttons in rapid succession.
{X}-[World]-{X}
"H-Hum, ahm. What about it?" Riley greeted with clear nervousness and stuttering, making a strange hand movement, as when he first met her. This did not elicit any reaction from Val that stared at her with a frown without change. And that made her cheeks warm with embarrassment with the perception of what she had done (courtesy of Embarrassment), and got worse when the other girl changed his look to his own cell phone, back to lean against the pillar next to him "So, it seems we were the first to arrive..." Tried to talk.
"Yeah, isn't it? Congratulations on getting it." Val commented in a dry tone.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"How is...?" Anger was starting to get angry, his head letting out smoke.
"Control yourself." That was a comment from Disgust for red emotion.
"Let's try to have a more normal conversation, how about? A boring, relaxing chat." Joy suggested and took the console to try to do such thing.
{X}-[World]-{X}
Riley took a deep breath, taking courage, before touching the same pillar of the captain: "Have you been here before?" He asked trying to start the conversation with something simple.
"Hmmm." Val seemed to ponder the question "Yes." He answered with the same difference as before.
The blonde girl gave a little whimper, a bit frustrated, before getting back together: "Cool! I've come here with my friends and family. I couldn't come much on vacation before the school year, since I had to prepare. New school, new people, you know?" He also wandered in an attempt to start a friendly conversation between the two.
As if to answer, the captain gave him a piercing look and seemed to throw daggers at Riley: "I come here too... with my cousin and my parents." His tone sounded quite irritated when having to name his family, clearly because he had to mention the subject that was distancing them.
That made her swallow dry: "Oh, I get it." She scratched behind the head and was sweating, even in the cool air, nervousness making it warm even more by Embarrassment. The two were silent again. The conversation did not relieve the mood, it only seemed to worsen (to unhappiness of Joy), and whenever Riley cast a glance at Val, could feel the anger she felt towards the newbie.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"Now... ENOUGH!" Anger hit his foot and began to heat up "We try to talk, we try to be understandable, and what we get?! NOTHING! I'll take it!" He advanced to the console.
"Anger, please try to be-" Fear tried to stop him and got a punch that threw him away.
Sadness, Envy and Nasty moved away, while Embarrassment tried to stand in front of Rage to prevent it, but when he touched him his hands burned and made him shake his hands to try to cool them, while the minor emotion skied by the larger side.
"Anger, anger, anger. Don't overdo it, okay? Why don't we relax? I can give you one of my tea! Or want a coffee! An ice cold drink?!" Anxiety tried to negotiate with the emotion, but the angry look of Rage made her jump away.
Only Joy remained between him and the console: "Anger..." She cast a look of reprobation to him, trying to make him stop his actions.
But Anger did not stop his advance: "Listen, Joy. We tried to go for good, but we got nothing. If we want a change: We have to cut the evil at its roots and tell her the truth! It doesn't matter is Val Ortiz, it's not fair she's ignoring us like this!" She shouted her arguments to golden emotion "Let me take over!" He approached the giant console and hit it to activate it, lifting his levers "Let's solve this at once!" He stroked his hands, preparing for the fight that was coming.
{X}-[World]-{X}
In the real world; Riley frowned, feeling the frustration and anger of being ignored despite her attempts to resolve. She clenched her fists and looked at Val with a new determination, not for excitement but for irritation.
And I was about to say some nice rude words to Val when: "Minnesota." Val spoke the nickname and turned his intention to girl who lost her expression of anger instantly upon hearing him "I'm sorry." Said, now in a more compassionate tone and... aEmbarrassmentd.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
Anger automatically lost all his anger and released the console automatically: "What?" Asked what everyone meant.
{X}-[World]-{X}
"What?" Riley asked surprised.
"In the last few days I... have been treating you badly." Val scratched behind his head, while keeping his braces in his pocket "Since you talked about my cousin in the locker room, and said that he heard about him through this guy, Tom, I was... Very angry and acted like a real asshole to you. I'm sorry about that." Said with clear Embarrassment for his attitudes to the girl in recent days.
Riley was surprised, speechless, before quickly responding: "No, no. No problem! I... hummm." Although she wants to answer everything is fine (Anxiety dominating her to continue on the good eyes of Val), she did not know what to say "I'm sorry too. You should not have mentioned your cousin without first mentioning him."
"It wasn't you who spoke of him, Minnesota. But it was because whoever you found out about him..." Val crossed her arms "I don't know if this Tom told you, but a friend of his, Bradley, was my cousin's bully at the previous school. It was hell for him. To save some details of what was happening; I only discovered the things that happened in the middle of the year and went to solve... the way I thought best." He told without giving too much detail, but his anger was clear when he started talking about the guy named Bradley "And I thought you... Well..." She was clearly nervous and embarrassed "I thought you had spoken ill of my cousin or heard that he was some kind of weirdo. And I was automatically angry with you, even though I didn't know if you had done it." he explained.
"No problems. I already knew that it could be something like this... Well, I didn't really know, but I figured it could have been that and I kept trying to explain, but..." Riley gestured to finish the explanation that she had failed because she was ignored.
"And I'm sorry for that." Val again apologized for the incident "I should have asked or tried to talk about what happened..." Rubbed his arm in nervousness, before sighing "Can you excuse me?" he asked.
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
The emotions could not stop smiling, Joy assuming.
{X}-[World]-{X}
"Sure, no problem!" Riley replied excited.
Val seemed to be happy about it, opening a small smile on the side before returning to a more closed expression: "Could you tell me what he said to you?" Asked. Riley instantly shut up, worried. Getting a lighter expression "Please, Minnesota. I believe you must have done nothing wrong, but... I would like to know what he told you about my cousin."
Riley pondered the request, wondering whether or not to speak what had been told him by Tom, but realized that it could be worse if he did not: "Okay." He said accepting the captain's request "He told me..."
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
The red and orange memory came to mind with all the things Tom had said after his PE workout.
{X}-[World]-{X}
"He said his cousin is reclusive, quiet and a nerd who's good at everything but stands out in nothing, and never took any grade under 95. These things. Saying he's a recluse, smart, teacher-sweetheart." Riley summed up everything he heard "That kind of thing..." Revealed, nervously taking a step back. She was worried about the girl's outburst of anger.
"Hmpf!" Val just snorted and showed his disgust "And what do you think of him?" he asked.
"H-Hum? Me? I haven't talked to him or been with him long enough... but he doesn't look bad. He seems pretty smart, pretty smart. He finishes all activities before everyone else! Like, not that it was a competition, but I always get second place when I try to finish the activities before him. I'm even a little jealous..." Riley said, trying not to sound mean or seem like it.
Val had a little laugh at that, funny:"He's pretty smart. No, super-smart. Even I ask for some tips in the subjects when I study for exams." Revealed with renewed courage.
"Really?" That really surprised the girl.
"Yes. I ask for help to study. To review some subjects, understand things that I don't understand. Especially when there is a math test." Val said, not seeming embarrassed about revealing such a thing and more seeming proud of her cousin "If ever you need help studying, he's your guy." Completed.
"Thank you, I'll write that down." Riley replied.
"Look at it~~!" One screamed caught the two. Dani and the group of girls from the team approached each other together, until they were facing each other. The bigger girl quickly wrapped them with her arms, each one with each arm "Ohw, the two are friends again! That's good. I thought I would have to deal with you brigades for a whole year, and that would be... Urgh! Chaaato." He spoke with complete honesty.
"It's good to know you didn't have to suffer this, Dani. It would be horrible to upset you." Val scoffed into the joke.
"Yes, it would be too much chaaat!" Riley repeated the other player's words.
"Hoho! Okay, I'm glad you care about me." Dani joked and let them go "Now yes, our weekend was saved! All thanks to me." Said pointing to himself with pride, talking about the fact of having invited Riley and forced her to come "Then let's enjoy!"
Riley and Val laughed together at Dani's lively way of acting. The two followed the group, Riley talking to the girls while her emotions...
{X}-[Mind]-{X}
"That was much better than I imagined..." Anxiety said with relief and his posture relaxing.
"That's it! We came back with everything!" Joy shouted with excitement and dancing, the others celebrating with her "What did I say? What did I say?!"
"Good job, Joy!" Fear approached and offered a high five.
"Thank you!" She returned, ending the greeting with purple emotion and did it with the others "Now we are good with Val... the team accepted Riley again... and let's enjoy an amazing day with our new friends at the Shopping!" Celebrated even more by jumping up and down "Arrr. That's life, folks." He said and then directed a look at Rage "And you had said what...?" He said with mockery.
Rage was silent, looking at his feet: "Okay... I may have been wrong." Admitted with a certain Embarrassment and the cheeks a little more rosy "It was bad..." Apologized in a low voice.
"Oww, thank you, Anger." Joy said with a friendly smile and mocking for making him apologize "Now, let's enjoy it!" He spoke.
As she said, all the emotions were focused on making Riley's day perfect and happy! That was done. It was the best first Saturday after the start of the school year, the best first day with the team. Everything seemed to be working out.
