Inside Out; Teenage Years

The Unfortunate Tale of the First Day of School

Riley was quite bewildered when she walked into class on her first day back at school. Although not many people looked different there was a different sound and air to the room. The low mumbling of her classmates felt odd compared to what it was like before the holidays. There was an aroma of deodorant that almost made Riley splutter. One of the boys passed her on his way out and when he said hello to her her it hit her. The boys voices had got deeper. What she didn't know was that some of the boys had started to go through puberty. All she thought was that some of them had decided to talk deeper for a day and that it was some sort of game to see who could go longest with a deep voice.

"Right class could you all settle down, I hope you all had a glorious holiday and are ready to get down to business yet again," Mrs Tootley said in an upbeat tone, something that doesn't happen often.

"Ha, I was born RED-y! Anger said. All the other emotions turned and looked at him and shook their heads. "What? It is true." But the others ignored him.

Mrs Tootley spoke in a quieter voice now. "Now this year I will be taking you for Ethics and the first subject will be... Let me have a loook... Sex Education and Puberty!"

The classed looked in awe and the boys almost immediately started to get giddy. Riley seemed a little confused. She was told that she wouldn't start sex ed until at least Christmas. She knew what puberty was, as she had done some sex ed in her old school but she couldn't really remember much of what was said, as Joy thought it would hinder her happiness and that it wasn't too important at the time. Now, Joy thought it was a good opportunity to teach Riley about what was going to happen in the years to come. The Mind Manuals didn't state what would happen to Riley physically, only emotionally. And what they had said, wasn't enough. There was a lot more to this puberty lark than they thought.

The hours rolled by and Ethics grew ever closer. This would be where the emotions could learn more about puberty and make a better decision as when to press the puberty button. Mrs Tootley settled the class down and began to speak.

"Now the videos that i'm about to show you are what will happen to your bodys, if not starting to happen already. If you feel that you can't sit through these videos without laughing or giggling then you can excuse yourselves from the classroom now and I will show you them in your own time," Mrs Tootley said. Naturally, everyone stayed seated.

"Good. We shall now start."

She played the video. Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Fear looked on in shock as the video rolled. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing. Protect Riley. They immediately took control of Riley and whisked her out of the classroom as quick as they could without even getting her to look back at the video. When they got her out into the hallway they sat her down and left Sadness to take full control. It was all too much for Joy. Her sweet, innocent, young Riley going through the physical, emotional and mental changes scared her. She was growing up too fast. The possibility of her getting to a stage where Joy could try her hardest but wouldn't be able to show her happiness to other people didn't seem possible. The emotions had shaped Riley's personality to be one of showing emotion and not to hide it away from anyone. Disgust also felt worried for Riley and wondered whether she would cope. But Disgust's main trouble with the video was what was down below on everybody.

"I mean, what IS that thing? It's like a very wobbly sausage!" She claimed.

Sadness didn't want it to happen to Riley and continued to keep her crying until Joy had found out what to do. Anger was more bewildered at why the boys didn't have to go through the pain that Riley had to.

"This isn't at all fair. They should go through equal amounts of pain, if not MORE!" He gruffed.

Fear was also affected badly by what he had seen. Originally he wanted to press the puberty button so Riley would grow out of boy bands. Now he wished he lived on Boy Band Island. The thing he feared the most was if they did decide to press the puberty button any time soon, that Riley would ditch her childness and start to grow up too fast. He feared that the outside world would want to control Riley and that they she would be a mere puppet. But somehow out of all their doubts and fears that she wouldn't be their Riley anymore for long, they all knew that Joy had to press that button sooner or later, otherwise Riley would fall behind everyone else and not initiating puberty would be worse for Riley than going through it. It was all down to Joy being ready, as lead emotion, to take her Riley forward through adolescence and into adulthood. And hopefully, Joy would come out of the other side still glowing and the other emotions would become closer.

Later that evening, the train of thought stopped by and delivered another Mind Manual. Except this one was a completely new manual, and not a new volume. It was simply titled 'Puberty', and as if the sex ed class hadn't scared Fear enough, he fainted at the sight of it. Anger tried burning it on his head but had nothing to be angry about so gave up almost instantly. Just as Joy started to read through it, she looked up at the ceiling of headquarters. It had lit up like it had at school. She then looked across at the memory wall. She noticed one pure blue memory that stuck out from the rest of them. It was the first pure memory that she had seen in a while. She looked at it and then picked it up and held it in her hand. There was no danger of it changing colour. What had occurred in that lesson could never be changed. She was glad that very soon it could be stored in long term memory. Riley had to go back at the end of the day to finish watching the rest of the videos. Although none of the emotions wanted to take her back, they had to. It was safe to say that Riley couldn't handle growing up. She didn't want to. It hadn't even been a year since she tried running away and now she was being told that things were going to change again. It was too much to take in. It was only then that Joy realised that Riley's mum was speaking to her.

"I had a phone call from Mrs Tootley about your Ethics class. What seems to be the matter?" She asked in a soft and caring voice. Anger and Disgust were about to respond by telling her mum to go away but instead Fear and Sadness took control as they realised it was better to get Riley explain it to someone than keep it locked away.

"I don't want to grow up mum. All those sex ed videos made me feel upset with all these changes that will happen and that i'll start thinking more about boys and other non kid things. I'm just afraid that my childhood will be up so quickly. It's all happening too fast for me." She started to weep which broke into a cry. Joy never liked to see Riley upset, and rightfully so. But she knew that it was the only way for Riley to get better. Her mum talked with her for two or more hours, saying how she never wanted to grow up and that you find ways to get around the fact that you are no longer the innocent little child that you were before becoming a teenager but still have the same fun that you had before by just embracing your new attitudes and opinions and you will still love some of your childhood pastimes. Some you just grow out of with age.

As the emotions put Riley to bed and then went themselves, Joy noticed that the pure blue memory and the purple and blue memory had been moved to a new rail she hadn't noticed before. She quickly got out the Mind Manual that had arrived earlier that evening. Joy brushed through the pages and found one that contained reference to a new memory rail. The page read; 'Any memory that has significant ties to puberty alone shall be kept separate from long term memories and core memories at the end of the day. Should you wish to store them elsewhere you can send them off to long term memory'. This gave Joy a little spark of happiness. She decided to send them off to long term memory as it was her Dream Duty that night and she didn't want to be distracted by sad memories. Joy started to make up a plan for the next day, and how to get Riley back to her usual self. It would take some time. She needed Sadness to get her to come to terms and keep Riley away from conversation all day to allow her to recover better. Then on the third day back, Riley should be fine. She was sure that the other emotions would agree with her. They all wanted to forget that this first day back at school ever happened.