Inside Out; Teenage Years

Calm Before the School

August had given Riley an opportunity to reflect on her first year in San Francisco. The boring useless classes, reuniting with Meg and her ever growing interest in boy bands, to which she said to her parents 'it's not a phase, it's life!'. Meanwhile, inside Riley's mind, Fear wasn't so sure. He was certain that she would eventually grow out of it.

"I know it's a phase. It has to be a phase. Oh I hope to DEAR GOD it's a phase!" he screamed, whilst seemingly clawing at his own face. While Fear was busy finding all the possible times in Riley's life where she would go off boy bands (again), despite Boy Band Island existing, Disgust was fiddling around with the controls, trying to make Riley comfortable on the family's new sofa.

"Ugh, why did mum and dad have to get THIS sofa. It's not comfy, it's not bouncy and what is that colour? Red? Seriously?!"

"Hey what's wrong with red? It's a perfectly natural colour compared to something like purple!"

"Hey, purple would work really well with the wallpaper. Besides, what do you know about colours clashing, Anger?"

"You think I don't know about what colour goes well with another? I spent my Dream Duty last night reading up about Fashion Island you know."

"Fashion Island won't help with wallpaper and sofas, Anger. If you were in charge of fashion for a day, Riley would look stupid."

"Agh i'm done with this. You can make Riley comfy by yourself."

Just as Anger started to walk away from the console, Joy had other ideas.

"Erh, Anger. I thought I said that you two had to work together and not be so argumentative with each other?"

"Joy, how do you expect Anger and Disgust to ever work together? We've been trying for the past five months."

"It won't work, Joy," Disgust chimed in.

"What do I always say?" Joy said, guiding Riley to a more comfortable position.

"Think positively," Anger and Disgust droned.

"That's the spirit!" Joy said excitedly as she turned away from Anger and Disgust, who swapped sides of the console to do their own business. 

Joy had everything worked out. Anger and Disgust would work together as much as they could. Joy was very happy with their progress. Sadness would work on reading the Mind Manuals, as a new volume for each manual had come through within the last week. She was already half-way through them. Fear, well there wasn't really anything Fear could do apart from his own tasks that he set himself. And Joy? Joy was the overseer of all of this but also had her own tasks. She took the centre of the console where the main controls are. This would enable her to take more control over Anger and Disgust should they mess up, provided that Anger and Disgust didn't push her out of the way to fight.

"It's school in a couple of days, Riley. Have you bought everything you need?" Riley's mum called from upstairs.

"Yes mum, don't worry. Everything is sorted. Everything I need is in my bag. Including my Austin Powells signed picture."

"Is he another one of them cool boy band kids you're always on about?"

"Yeees mum," Riley said in a fed up voice. She wasn't tired of her mum thinking she was 'down with the kids', as her mum described it, but it had started to take it's toll.

"Hey, Fear. I found something about Boy Band Island in one of the Mind Manuals," Sadness said.

"Where where!" Fear asked in desperation, "because I have been looking everywhere for something to do with it."

"It says here that Boy Band and Tragic Vampire Romance Island are a new type of island. They still form part of the personality but can be changed as Riley gets older and goes through...pub..er..ty. Well how does she go through pub..er..ty?"

"I think it's pronounced like this. Say it like pew..bert..e!" Fear said.

"Pew..bert..e. Pew.bert.e Puberty!" Sadness repeated.

"That's it! Now try supercalo..."

"Does it have anything to do with this big red button here!" Disgust interrupted.

Joy, Sadness, Fear and Anger all looked over at Disgust and the big red button labelled 'PUBERTY'. It seemed dormant yet necessary. Fear reached out to press it. He seemed mesmerized by it. Almost as if it was drawing him in.

"FEAR, NO!" Sadness shrieked, pulling Fear away from the console. "We don't know what it does."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Nothing bad has ever happened to Riley before. Not while i've been in charge"

"Right. Nobody touches the puberty button until we know exactly what it does,"Joy said in an authoritative voice. "Sadness, find out what the puberty button does. Anger, Disgust, keep Fear away from the console until we know for certain what would happen if one of us was to press it. But carry on with your current jobs as well."

"Yes, Joy," Anger and Disgust replied, like soldiers.

Later that day, Sadness found out what the puberty button did. People like you and I wouldn't notice the change from sweet, innocent child to sleep deprived teenager but the emotions would. It could split them apart, alienate other emotions or bring them all closer to working in harmony. That was down to the emotions. The types of situations that Riley would find herself in over the next five years would affect how long her mood swings lasted. In other words, how long the other four emotions would stay away from the emotion that caused the mood swing in the first place. All the other emotions always saw Joy as a strong emotion as she had always been Riley's lead emotion. But she found out that she would be easier to push away from the console and a new emotion (or two) would take over and it would be harder to regain control immediately after a memory other than fear was created. This all came as a shock to the emotions. They vowed to never touch the puberty button unless they all agreed that it was the right time and that Joy was the one to press it, as the emotion that starts the process of puberty has more willpower to change Riley's mood than the other emotions. When the time comes, it has to be Joy, for Riley's sake.