Inside Out; Teenage Years

Thank Goodness for the Weekend

Riley had missed the next two days of school and Mr Mackin and Mrs Tootley had been suspended following an investigation into a breach of rights. Riley was, to her surprise, happy about this. It was Joy who found relief in the fact that it was one step closer to Riley recovering from this ordeal. Anger was happy that something was being done about the situation. He claimed,

"I'm glad they've got suspended. There is nothing else anyone could do."

"You're being very mild about this whole situation," said Fear

"I've been trying to control myself outside of my Time Out room," he stated in a calm voice.

"Come on guys, lets not talk about this last week shall we? It's the weekend and you know what that means?"Joy said excitedly.

"HOCKEY!!" the emotions yelled.

Riley had recently dominated the San Francisco hockey league, being the top scorer in the league, helped her team get promotion by becoming first and beating second place by 12 points, won the Player of the Year award and qualified for the state championships. It had been such a good year in terms of hockey for Riley that Hockey Island got an upgrade. It was a much larger island than the rest and it was even bigger than Broken Trust and Family Island. Of course she couldn't get to where she was without a few altercations between other players. One game she had to sit in the sin bin twice for five minutes each and one of the last games of the season saw Riley get sent home for starting numerous fights. Her teammates gave her the nickname 'Reckless Riley'. This was a pre-season friendly match so she wouldn't be so feisty.

It was a nice and positive way to end a week of misery. Joy had never seen so many blue and red Memory Orbs, and especially not two blue and red core memories. It was a week to forget but one that would set the emotions up for life. They were all certain that Riley's team would win. Even Fear was confident. There was no longer any input from him during Hockey. A company had started to sponsor Riley and the team was getting noticed. Numerous opponents had approached Riley's teammates but all had declined their offer. If they can wipe the floor with a league once, why couldn't they do it again? It was the question everyone asked the scouts and all of them said,

"Because we have been in this league for a lot longer and we have more experience with the other teams."

While it may have been true, Riley's team had been on fire. No-one had struggled, nobody hogged the Puck and everyone was on the score sheet by the end of the season. No player was moving to any other club anytime soon. There was not a single scout that pull them away from the Fog Horns.

While preparing for the game, one of her teammates came over to her. It was the girl that fell into the machine when Riley ran home from school. Her name was Laura Middlewood. She was slightly taller than Riley and had pixie cut brown hair and bright Emerald Green eyes that shone under the floodlights. She seemed to be walking a bit stiff and only had some of her kit on. She always started the game but it seemed like she wouldn't this time. Riley had wondered why she was walking the way she did until Laura told her. Riley was extremely apologetic towards her. She explained what had happened and asked Laura if she'd missed anything. She said,

"The only thing worth telling you is that nobody missed Mr Mackin but was quite shocked at Mrs Tootley being involved. Do you want to know what is going to happen to them both?"

Anger dismissed the opportunity to wade in. He knew that this weekend was important to Riley and he didn't want to mess it up by making her think too much about the previous week. Laura then went back to the team box. Joy was looking a little giddy. She was happy that she had finally found someone who had the same hair as her. Disgust was quick to compare.