Thursday, November 20 - Emotions

 

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                  Moving to a new area can be very hard and frustrating, especially for a young girl. With the pressures, fears and anxiety that come with this transition, other emotions such as joy, excitement, and happiness can come trailing just behind. Although the darker emotions usually are the ones that arrive first, joy can be there to help lift their spirits and change the outlook of the situation.

                “Alright, almost there! All I have to do is make this turn, I’ve got this!” Joy was running late today. Although she had made it to the headquarters on time a few times this week, the majority of her Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and even Thursdays were filled with her just trying to make it to the HQ. Today was a Friday and most kids are usually crammed to the brim with joy as they eagerly wait for their refreshing weekends to come. So, obviously today wasn’t a day that Joy could possibly be late on.

                “Almost, almost!” Joy sang as she continued to sprint down halls and take sharp turns left and right. “Riley’s is going to be waking up soon, and I’m going to be there when she does!”

                Just as Joy saw the double doors leading to the inside of the main headquarters, she could see light slowly peeking through the small windows. Knowing that Riley was just starting to awake from her slumber, Joy rushed there faster than she ever had before.

                “I’ve got this, I’ve got this!” Joy screeched as she launched herself through the heavy doors leading inside HQ. “Yes!” Joy laughed and jumped up in the air, twirling around excitedly as she landed back to the ground. “Made it just in time, exactly how I planned!”

                Joy picked up her yellow card and hurried over to the emotion scanner and activated her card. Looking at one of the many monitors, Joy watched as Riley leaped out of bed excitedly.

                “It’s Friday!” Riley cried as she ran towards their kitchen. “Mom, Dad! It’s finally Friday!”

                Joy smiled contently as Riley happily talked with their parents about the upcoming weekend. She was quickly shaken out of her thoughts as she felt a small bump on her side.

                “Oh sorry, excuse me,” a timid voice called out. Joy turned and moved out of the way as she saw a small blue girl come bumbling by.

                Sadness was her name, an emotion that Riley has been feeling a bit more of lately. Joy turned and looked to the monitors as Sadness punched her card into the emotion scanner. Joy watched Riley’s parents talk about how they were going to drive around the new area they had moved in to see what there was to do. Of course, Riley’s smile began to disappear as Sadness’ card took effect.

                “Hey, yeah move over.” A nasally voice erupted from the room as Disgust walked in with a disapproving look on her face. She pulled out her green card and stuck it in the slot as Sadness and Joy moved out of her way. As Disgust waited for her emotion to kick in, she stared at the two other girls through squinted eyes.

                On the monitors, Riley’s face twisted up sourly, very similar to the face that Disgust seemed to make more than half of the time.

                “I don’t want to do that!” She cried to her parents. The three emotions looked on as they watched Riley’s mood change. “That sounds awful! Please don’t make me go!”

                “Alright, my turn. Move to the side!” The three twisted their heads towards an angry male voice. Anger marched through the open doors, his stout red body waddling slightly as he walked. “That’s right, out of the way ladies.” Mumbling and pulling his card out of his pocket, Anger jammed the emotion card into the scanner and watched it work its magic on the monitors. 

                “That’s so dumb! I hate it here; I just want to go home!” Riley yelled at her parents as she ran back up to her room.

                “There, that’s how it’s done,” Anger said as he eyed the monitor, almost proud of his work.

                “That was pretty mean,” Sadness said with a sniff, “bit I guess we can’t feel Joy all the time.”

                “Now now, it’s fine,” Joy said, cutting into the conversation. “I’m sure she’ll just need a little time then I’ll reactivate my card. Humans do say that time is a virtue.”

                “Yeah and did you ever hear the expression ‘Patience is thin’?” Anger grumbled.

                “And happiness is fleeting?” Sadness sighed.

                The three turned their heads to Disgust, waiting for her to contribute something to their chat. She stood there texting, her face contorted in strong distaste. She then looked up and squinted her eyes at the group. “What are you all looking at? I’m busy so don’t even bother.” She resumed texting.

                “Well, I’m sure things will start looking up for her soon. Maybe she’ll calm down a little at school.” Joy said with a smile. “Actually, I’m sure of it!”

                “Wait!” A scream erupted from the halls as Fear scurried hurriedly into the open room. “Wait, wait, wait! I’m here I ran late today!” The thin purple man stopped and screamed as he saw the group standing near the monitors and machinery. “Oh, wait no time for that!” Fear anxiously cried out as he made his way over to the emotion scanner. After fiddling with his card a few times, he finally stuffed into his slot. With a large sigh of relief, he fell dramatically to the floor.

                “Ew,” Disgust said as she walked to the other side of the room, away from the others.

“Well, I guess everyone is accounted for,” Joy laughed awkwardly. Shaking her head, her usual large smile appeared on her face. “Okay, now that everyone is in check,” she paused and slowly looked at the others in the room.

 Disgust stood in a corner on the opposite side of the white room, texting with a scowl as usual. Sadness cleaned her glasses beside Joy, Anger being in front of them grumbling to himself, and Fear was curled up on the ground, probably on the verge of having a panic attack.

“Right, like I was saying,” Joy continued, “Now that everyone is in check, we can start today like we normally do!” All of the emotions looked towards the monitor as the young girl sitting sadly on the edge of her bed. Joy frowned slightly.

“We can’t have it your way all the time,” Sadness said unenthusiastically. No one said anything as they got to work on their usual routine.