Inside Out; Teenage Years

Recovery

Fear made Riley reluctant to go to school and was hard to pull away from the console. Once he was eventually taken away from it, Joy and Sadness took over, glad that it was new start but gloomy thinking about puberty. The videos had made it seem like a hellish few years to experience. Riley's mum had explained the previous night that the videos often scare kids into thinking that it will be the worst years of their lives. She also explained more deeply into growing out of certain childs things. About how it didn't matter how much she tried, she couldn't hold on to all of her  favourite things. Riley had come to terms with this and Joy was pleased. This gave Riley a sense of relief, that something, albeit not that pleasing, had been confirmed. It wasn't at the top of her list of what she wanted to keep from childhood so it was easier to accept. But like all enjoyable pastimes, it was hard to think of life without them.

As Riley got into class that morning she looked around the room. Only a few kids had looked at her as she came through the door and sat at her seat. She half expected to hear some of the girls say, 'oh my god. That's the girl that cried at in the sex ed class and had to leave' but Fear dismissed the idea as watching too many American High School films. 

"I hope you all enjoyed the sex ed class yesterday? I know the boys did." There were boys looking around at each other, giving each the 'if you know what I mean' grin at the same time. Joy didn't want Riley to be reminded about it. It would affect her recovery that was crucial to her well being. She turned Riley's attention to the title of a book on the spine of it. Toy Story: A Book of the Film. She'd never heard of the film before. By the time she had finished staring at the book Mrs Tootley had finished speaking about sex ed. None of what she said had was remembered by Riley or her emotions, thankfully. 

There were no Ethics classes to attend for another two days so Joy had time to help Riley recover and prepare for it again. She had to rethink her plan as she seemed to have cheered Riley up before she could start the second part of the recovery as the emotions still hadn't come to terms with what was going to happen. Joy didn't want to put Riley in to a state of sadness all of a sudden but it was what she had to do. Then something clicked. If she got Sadness to do her job as planned then the sudden change in emotions would count as a mood swing. It would be like Riley had entered a mood swing before she had hit puberty. She thought it through once, and then again and on the third time she realised that all children have mood swings, just not as frequent as a teenager's mood swings. She remembered how drastically Riley's mood had changed when she and Sadness got sucked away to Long Term Memory. But it had to happen for Joy's plan to be successful and for the recovery process to happen properly.

Joy and Sadness took Riley through the rest of the day, keeping her happy but also having the little niggle of not quite knowing what was for certain when Joy pushed the button. After Riley got home, Joy and Sadness waited for tea to be over and then when Riley had finished would start the next phase of recovery. They didn't know how long it would take but by judging how long it took her to come to terms with something before, they were aiming for round about the two hour mark. It would give Sadness enough time to plant the ideas, worry over them and then her and Joy would fix her thinking on the matter, and then Riley could get an early night and be ready for the next day. She would still be recovering but also preparing for her next ethics lesson with Mrs Tootley. After that, Joy had planned to keep Riley under her control for a few days, just to say goodbye to childishness. It would take a few more days for it to kick in, so Joy had about a week left of her old Riley. After that, Riley wouldn't notice the change but the emotions would. And they knew it was going to be a bigger change than getting a new console. But Joy still saw this as an opportunity, rather than a challenge.