Driven by Emotions (10 page)

Life as we knew it had come to an abrupt end.

I did the only reasonable thing to do. I curled into a ball, shut my eyes, and wished the day away.

I felt very good about that decision. It seemed like the mature, sane way to handle things.

Anger and Disgust, however, didn’t agree. They got me to my feet and, after Riley sat back down in her seat, I started driving the console. Riley slouched in her chair and hid behind a big
text book. I wanted her to stay there for the rest of the day. Well, maybe not there, but possibly
under
her desk, which would give her protection in case of an earthquake—but
apparently we had to get up and get through the rest of the school day
without Joy’s help
!

Personally, I think we did okay. Riley was able to avoid interaction with all the kids and faculty—the last thing we wanted to do was talk to someone after what had happened. She wisely
walked down the middle of each hallway, so the lockers wouldn’t fall on her if there was an earthquake. She survived lunch without getting poisoned. She was able to find the one stall in the
bathroom that was relatively clean. And she used that antibacterial stuff every time she went back to her locker (which had cobwebs in the corners—
cobwebs)
.

Once school was over and we were away from all those prying kid eyes, I felt a little better. Well, not better—I actually felt worse than ever—but I felt
responsible
. Without
Joy, the three of us left inside Headquarters had to step it up. And I, as the most brilliant of the three remaining Emotions, just happened to have a genius idea.

“Until Joy gets back, we just do what Joy would do.”

We’d been with Riley a very long time. We could handle this. When Mom told us about a junior hockey league in San Francisco and asked Riley what she thought, I gave some sage advice.

“You pretend to be Joy,” I said as I pushed Disgust up to the console.

She rolled her eyes at me, then put her hands on the controls.

“Won’t it be great to be back out on the ice?” Mom asked Riley.

“Oh, yeah,” Riley said, rolling her eyes. “That sounds fantastic.”

“What was that?” I scolded her. “That wasn’t anything like Joy.”

“Uh, because I’m
not
Joy,” she said.

“Yeah, no kidding,” I shot back, which I guess was the wrong thing to say because then she pushed
me
to the console and said, “
You
pretend to be Joy.”

“What?” I said. “Uh…okay.”

I know I said I was feeling responsible and all, but running the console under direct questioning from Mom was not my area of expertise. I tried, though. I took the controls, and when Mom asked
about the first day of school, I tried to give as straightforward and brave an answer as I could.

“It was fine, I guess,” I had Riley say. “I don’t know.”

“Oh, very smooth,” Disgust said. “That was
just
like Joy.”

She didn’t have to be so mean about it. I was trying.

When Riley’s parents had more questions, Anger took the console. I have to say, he was the least Joy-like of all of us.

“Riley, I do
not
like this new attitude,” Dad said in response to Anger’s steering.

“Oh, I’ll show you attitude, old man,” Anger said.

“No!” I warned him. “No, no, no. Breathe.”

Anger was leading us down the path to “Getting in Trouble” and, along the way, we’d probably make a stop at “Disappointed in You.” I didn’t want to be
anywhere near that horror.

“What is your problem?” Riley shouted at Dad. “Just leave me alone.”

Uh-oh.

A minute later, Dad had sent Riley to her room.

What were we thinking?! There was no way we could handle being Riley’s entire personality! Our whole world was going down in flames!
Flames!

When Dad came to visit Riley before bed, I was sure he’d see right through us and realize our desperate state. But he didn’t. He tried to make things better by acting goofy with
Riley. Normally I’d think that was cute. This time, though, it wasn’t cute at all, because Riley couldn’t play along. Goofball Island was down. It was dark. So Riley didn’t
respond to Dad’s silliness. She just lay still. And that was totally unlike her, which gave me a very bad feeling. I knew something terrible would happen…and it did.

Goofball Island crumbled to the ground.

“Oh, Joy, where are you?” I cried.

It was the beginning of the end. Sinking into despair seemed like a sound idea, but Disgust and Anger were able to keep going, so I did, too.

I even got excited when Meg chatted with Riley. The two had been friends and hockey teammates forever. Maybe talking to Meg would make everything all better!

Then Meg said something about a new girl on the hockey team. And how cool she was.

“A
new girl
?” I screeched. “Meg has a new friend already?”

If Meg could dump us,
anyone
could dump us. Riley might not have any more friends
ever
! How could we know anyone was a true friend if the one we’d thought we could count on
could disappear that easily?

If Meg could replace us that quickly…maybe she had
never
been a friend at all!

The knowledge hit me like a ton of bricks, which was pretty much what Friendship Island became as it crumbled to pieces and disappeared into the Memory Dump.

After the Meg disaster, waking up to face another day of school seemed like a very bad idea. Why even try to go and make new friends when they’d only dump us one day? At first I wanted
Riley to stay under the covers and play sick so Mom would take care of her, but then I thought about how the power of ideas is very strong, and if Riley
said
she was sick, she might
become
sick, and then we’d have to deal with a cold on top of everything else!

So we went to school. Disgust had Riley’s nose in a book most of the day to show she didn’t need anyone else. That took care of the friend thing. And to make her seem even less
approachable, Anger had caused a bit of a meltdown in computer class. The other kids must’ve thought Riley was nuts!

But, honestly, none of this really concerned me too much. I was preoccupied with all the potential disasters at this school! At one point Riley noticed that one of the fluorescent lights in math
class was flickering. Not only did it give the whole room a creepy vibe, it was really bad for our eyesight. No one should have to multiply fractions in poor lightning conditions.

And then there was the girl who was sitting beside us in history class. She was secretly painting her nails an awful bloody red color under her desk. The nail polish she was using smelled
terrible! Those fumes, especially in an enclosed classroom, were sure to be toxic! Riley wanted to open a window, but thought it was best not to draw attention to herself. So she just sat there
inhaling the formaldehyde, which was probably killing tens of thousands of brain cells every second.

And just when we thought we had escaped the dangers of the day, Riley spotted the most horrific thing of all! A janitor was waxing the floor.
Waxing
it! Do you know how slippery floors
are when they’re waxed? She could easily fall and break a leg just getting to class!

I was thrilled to get out of that place, but after school we had even more problems. Mom took Riley to tryouts for a hockey league. Riley still had Hockey Island, but without the core memory, it
wasn’t powered up. There was no way she’d be able to play the way she used to. I was terrified of what might happen. I didn’t even want to imagine losing another island. I knew I
had to do something. Then I had a brilliant idea!

“I’ve recalled every hockey memory I can think of,” I told Anger and Disgust. The three of us were practically swimming in hockey-oriented memory spheres. I figured one of them
could work in place of the core memory. I just had to load them into the core memory holder and see which ones took. I waited until Riley was about to play, then I started shoving the spheres
inside the holder.

It worked! Oh, sure, Hockey Island was struggling and sputtering, but it was starting up and Riley was playing!

“We did it!” I cheered. “It’s working—”

That’s when the core memory holder blew out the memory spheres, slamming one into Anger’s stomach.

I still thought we could make it work. I tried jamming another memory into the holder, but that one shot out like a cannon and slammed me into a wall. I was hurting, but I could see on the
screen that Riley was doing even worse. Nothing worked for her on the ice, and the coach was really coming down on her. Anger didn’t like it one bit. He stormed to the controls.

No good would come of Anger taking the console right then.

“Wait,” I said. “No, no, no! Use your words.”

He wouldn’t. I knew he wouldn’t. I threw myself on him to keep him away, but he’s a lot stronger than I am, and he has that fire brewing on the top of his head, and that rage
of his packs a lot of power, you know? Plus, I bruise very easily. I have to be careful.

What I’m saying is, I didn’t win the battle for the controls. Anger steered, Riley raged at the coach, at Mom, at the entire sport of hockey…and the next thing I knew, Hockey
Island was sinking like the
Titanic
.

By that night, I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to quit, and I said as much to Anger and Disgust. “Sure, it’s the coward’s way out,” I admitted. “But this
coward is gonna survive.”

I stomped on the memory flush button and a vacuum tube lowered. I wasn’t sure where the tube would take me, but if it had whisked Joy and Sadness away from Headquarters, it could whisk me
away from my troubles, too.

Unfortunately, the tube sucked up a memory sphere at the same time it sucked
me
. And it wasn’t wide enough for the two of us. I ended up mushed against the side of the tube, the
memory squeezing into my back. Then the tube spit me out onto the floor where I landed in a crumpled heap.

Ow.

“Aha!” Anger cried. He had been rummaging through a bunch of idea bulbs, and now he held one up triumphantly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing…just the best idea ever,” Anger declared.

“What?” Disgust scoffed.

“All the good core memories were made in Minnesota,” Anger said. “Ergo, we go back to Minnesota and make more. Ta-da!”

“Wait, wait. You’re saying we run away?” I asked in disbelief.

That was exactly what Anger was talking about. I couldn’t believe he was serious!

“Hey,” said Anger, “our life was perfect until Mom and Dad decided to move to San Fran Stinktown.”

“But it’s just so…drastic! Shouldn’t we sleep on it or something?” I asked.

I was on Dream Duty that night, and I honestly figured something pleasant from Dream Productions would help calm my nerves, and I’d be able to handle everything better in the morning.
Anger and Disgust agreed we wouldn’t decide anything until then, so later that night, after Riley shut her eyes and went to sleep, I settled in with a nice hot cup of tea—not too hot,
wouldn’t want to scald my tongue—for some relaxing viewing.

The dream that night wasn’t one of the studio’s best. They were reenacting Riley’s meltdown in front of the class, but the woman playing the teacher was totally unbelievable.
While the dream was supposed to be scary, and believe me, I know scary, this was nothing. It was full of old clichés I could see coming a mile away. The actress playing Riley was speaking in
front of the class…and then her teeth fell out.

Of course they did. “Who writes this stuff?” I asked. “Let me guess, we have no pants on.”

Sure enough, a second later, someone cried, “Hey, look! She came to school with no pants on!”

Amateurs. They should get me down there to write and direct. If they could only harness the intensity of my fears, they’d have an endless supply of scares.

I leaned back, eager to make fun of the rest of the dream, when something unexpected happened. A puppy came flouncing out onto the set. I was intrigued. The writers usually stayed pretty
literal. This was a nice departure.

“Woo!” cried the dog—also a nice touch, making it a
talking
dog—“Let’s party! Let’s dance. Woo!”

The air filled with balloons and confetti. A puppy party in the middle of what was supposed to be a nightmare? I liked it! I bounced around in my seat to the music, then took a big happy sip of
my tea…

…which I spit all over the console when the cute puppy
split in half
!

“Aaaaaah!” I screamed.

I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn’t. The confetti and balloons were still everywhere, but now the front half of the bisected puppy was racing around and chasing the bottom half. I
felt the tea churn in my stomach.

“It’s just a dream,” I told myself. “It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream…”

A second later, a huge animal that was part cat and part elephant bounced in front of the screen. He leaned in close, like he was trying to steal my soul. “Hi, Riley, it’s
me!”

“Bing Bong?” I said in disbelief. That was Riley’s imaginary friend from when she was little. Okay, now the director was just getting crazy, which she proved by panning over a
second later to Rainbow Unicorn eating a donut at a buffet table.

“Boo!” I yelled at the screen. “Pick a plot line.”

Well, it didn’t get any better. The dream turned into an inane dance party full of glitter, sheep, cupcakes, and that ridiculous Rainbow Unicorn. And just when I thought things
couldn’t get any worse…they did.

I was dozing off when a giant clown with a bloodthirsty red mouth and piercing evil eyes crashed through the set with a giant hammer.

“WHO’S THE BIRTHDAY GIRL?!” it roared.

I screamed so hard I blew out my voice…then I passed out. I don’t even remember coming to. The next thing I knew, I was tucked under the console, rocking back and forth and hugging
myself. That’s where Anger and Disgust found me. I guess my screaming woke them up, and they were both so annoyed that they couldn’t even get a good night’s sleep anymore that
they didn’t want to wait until morning to decide about running away. They made the choice immediately. I didn’t say no.