Joy and Fear: An Unexpected Connection

Chapter 1

JOY'S POV

I stretched my arms up with a smile on my face. "Another perfect day to make Riley happy!" I cheerfully stated. I skipped out of my room and around the corner. A loud yelp shrieked as I bumped into him.

"Oh, sorry, Fear!" I apologized quickly and I continued my way, Fear followed.

In the main console, Anger, Sadness, and Disguest were all waiting. Anger was reading his daily EMOTION NEWS. Disgust was flipping her green dress for absolute perfection. Sadness was moping across the floor. "GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE!" I threw my hands up with excitement. Everyone returned the gesture.

I approached the main console and switched on Riley's daily morning routine. "First day at a new school! Let's do this!" Then, I began giving orders for the perfect day.

"Anger! Make sure to find awesome day dreams in case classes get boring."

"Disgust! Make sure Riley sticks out, but not too much!"

"Sadness! Keep reading those EMOTION manuals!

"Fear!" I called the last emotion. He jumps and drops his notepad and pen. I grab his shoulders and forced him over to where Sadness was standing. "You will be Sadness's partner today! We can't have Riley being scared today! She has to be confident!" Fear waved me off. "Yea, yea. I got it." He pulled one of the white binders off the shelf with a long sigh.

I gave him a double thumbs-up and a grin. "Awesome!"

Then, I returned to my duty.

Riley arrives at school and so far makes a great impression of herself, thanks to yours truly. She arrives in class and is asked to introduce herself to the class. I pumped my fist. "Yes, my favorite part!"

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to find Fear shyly holding an open book to me. "I just had a question about one of the manual's topics." I nudged him away from the console and tried to focus on the important scene. "Not now, Fear. Go ask Sadness if you have a question. I'm busy."

Riley's teacher's voice sounded over Fear. "Riley, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a few things about Minnesota?"

Fear shrieked. "What?! Riley has to stand up in front of the WHOLE class?!" He frantically started pushing buttons, causing Riley to hesitate.

"Don't be shy, Riley." her teacher said.

"Fear! What are you doing!" I quickly shoved Fear away and he hit the Core Memory Console, knocking all 5 core memories out. "Oh no!" I frantically gathered the memories in my arms. I turned and saw Fear screwing with the console. "Fear! Stop it!"

On the screen, Riley began to get nervous and squirms in her seat. The kids in her class began to snicker and whisperto each others and muttering under their breath. Riley's facd formed into a frightened expression.

Disgust and Anger tried to pull Fear away, but ended up activating the memory tube. Fear scurried towards me. "We have to put these back!" I wrenched them away from his grasp. "Don't touch them!" Suddenly, both Fear and I were sucked up into the tube.

I clung to the core memories as the tube looped downward outside Headquarters. Fear's screaming filled my ears. Finally, we were dumped down onto solid ground.

I raised myself and counted all 5 memories, and let out a relaxing sigh. "Phew, that would've been a disaster if we lost a core memory."

"That's great, Joy." Fear interuptted, his voice trembled. "But we have a new disaster to deal with." I faced the challenge ahead.

"Long-Term Memory."