Chapter  5

The next morning Joy was bursting with sunshine and positive energy. She played her accordion¹ throughout Headquarters, trying to rouse the rest of the Emotions with a tune². "Hello! Did I wake you?" Joy yelled over the piercing sound of her instrument. The others were not so enthusiastic.

"Okay, first day of school!" Joy said, tossing her accordion aside. "Very exciting!" Riley was starting her new school today, and Joy had to make sure it went perfectly³. Right away, she began getting everyone organized by assigning tasks. She asked Fear to come up with an extensive list of all the possible negative outcomes on the first day of school.

"Way ahead of you there," Fear said, scribbling⁴ in his notepad. "Does anyone know how to spell ‘meteor'?"

"Disgust," Joy said. "Make sure Riley stands out today… but also blends in."

Disgust was on it. "When I'm through, Riley will look so good the other kids will look at their own outfits⁵ and barf ," she said.

As Joy continued to prepare Headquarters, the Train of Thought chugged by and dropped off a bag. "Right on schedule," said Joy, smiling. "Anger, unload the daydreams⁶. I ordered extra in case things get slow in class."

"Might come in handy if this new school is full of boring, useless classes, which it probably will be… ," Anger said as he walked toward the bag.

Sadness came out of the break room. "I have a super important job just for you," Joy said, approaching her.

"Really?" Sadness said.

Joy led Sadness to the back of the room and placed her in a special spot. "What are you doing?" Sadness asked.

Joy knelt down and used a piece of chalk to draw a circle around Sadness's feet. "This is the circle of sadness," Joy said. "Your job is to make sure that all the sadness stays inside it."

Sadness was confused. "So… you want me to just stand here?"

"Hey, it's not MY place to tell you how to do your job," Joy said, nudging Sadness's foot so that it was inside the circle. "Just make sure that ALL the sadness stays in the circle."

Joy knew that if the day was going to go well she had to keep Sadness as far from the controls as possible.

Sadness stood inside the circle, looking a little lost and confused. "You're a pro⁷ at this!" Joy cheered. "Isn't it fun?"

"No," Sadness said quietly as Joy walked back to the console.

"All right, everyone, fresh start!" Joy sang. "We are going to have a good day, which will turn into a good week, which will turn into a good year, which turns into a good LIFE!"

Riley was ready to go to school. She had her backpack on and was walking toward the front door.

"So, the big day!" Mom said, encouraging her with a smile. "New school, new friends, huh?"

"I know! I'm kinda nervous, but I'm mostly excited! How do I look? Do you like my shirt?" Family Island was lighting⁸ up and working like crazy as Riley chatted away.

"You want us to walk with you?" Mom said.

Disgust quickly made the call on that one. "Mom and Dad? With us in public? No, thank you."

Joy took care of the situation by pressing a few buttons on the console.

"Nope! I'm fine," Riley said, upbeat. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!"

"Have a good day at school, monkey," Dad said. Riley and her mom made monkey sounds as she walked out the door, which caused Goofball Island to power up.

Riley walked to her new school and stopped in front of the gate to take in the scene. There were tons of students, and the school was so big. "Are you sure we want to do this?" Fear said.

"In we go!" Joy said, totally ignoring Fear.

Riley smiled and walked up the steps to the school. Once she got inside, she found her classroom and sat down at a desk. The Emotions checked out the different groups of kids scattered⁹ around the room.

"Okay," said Disgust. "We've got a group of cool girls at two o'clock."

"How do you know?" asked Joy.

"Double ears pierced, infinity¹⁰ scarves…"

"Whoa," said Joy. "Is she wearing eye shadow?"

"Yeah, we want to be friends with them," said Disgust, who actually seemed excited.

Fear approached Joy. He was almost finished with his very long list of potential disasters. "Worst scenario¹¹ is either quicksand, spontaneous combustion¹², or getting called on by the teacher," he said. "So as long as none of those happen…" His voice trailed off as the teacher addressed the class.

"Okay, everybody," she said, motioning for Riley to stand. "We have a new student in class today."

"Are you kidding me? Out of the gate? This is not happening!" Fear yelled.

Then the teacher asked Riley to introduce herself in front of everyone.

"Nooooooo!" Fear cried, flipping¹³ out. "Pretend we can't speak English!"

 

第 5 章

第二天早上，乐乐充满阳光和正能量，她在情绪总部里拉着手风琴，想用音乐唤醒其他情绪小人。“哈喽！我把你们吵醒了吗？”伴着手风琴富有穿透力的声音乐乐高声叫着，其他情绪小人可不像她这么有活力。

“好了，上学第一天！”乐乐将手风琴扔到一边并说道，“真令人激动！”今天是莱莉第一天去新学校上课，乐乐必须保证一切完美。她立即开始组织情绪小人，给他们安排任务，要求怕怕详尽列出第一天上学可能遇到的任何麻烦。

“早就想好了。”怕怕一边说一边在记事本上狂写，“有没有人知道怎么拼‘meteor’这个单词？”

“厌厌，”乐乐说，“确保莱莉今天的打扮出众……当然也要合群。”

厌厌开动脑筋，说道：“等我装扮完毕，莱莉一定美极了，其他孩子只有看着自己的衣服吐的份。”

在乐乐继续忙着情绪总部里的事情时，思想火车咔嚓咔嚓地经过，扔下一个包裹。“来得正是时候。”乐乐笑着说，“怒怒，拆开包裹，里面是我预订的白日梦点子，我特意多订了一些以防上课时间太难熬。”

“如果新学校里都是些无聊又没用的课——这是很有可能的，确实该多备着些……”怒怒说着朝包裹走去。

忧忧从休息室走了出来，乐乐一边朝她走过去，一边说：“我有一项非常重要的工作要交给你。”

“真的吗？”忧忧问。

乐乐把忧忧带到房间后面，让她待在一个特定的地方。“你要干什么？”忧忧问。

乐乐蹲了下来，用粉笔在忧忧双脚周围画了一个圈。“这是忧伤之圈，”乐乐说，“你的工作就是确保所有的忧伤都待在这里面。”

忧忧不解地问道：“这么说……你要我做的就是站在这儿？”

“嘿，怎么做好你的工作可轮不到我来管，”乐乐说着把忧忧的脚轻轻地推到圆圈里，“你只要确保所有的忧伤都待在圆圈里就行了。”

乐乐知道这一天要过得顺利就必须让忧忧尽可能地远离控制台。

忧忧站在圆圈里，看上去有些失落和困惑。“你可是这方面的专家！”乐乐想令她振作起来，“不是挺有趣的吗？”

乐乐往回走向控制台，忧忧小声地说了个“不”字。

“好了，各位，全新的开始！”乐乐高兴地唱了起来，“我们将度过美好的一天，然后是美好的一周，再然后是美好的一年，这就是美好的生活！”

莱莉已经准备好去上学了，她背起书包朝前门走去。

“那么，重要的日子到了！”妈妈笑着鼓励她，“新学校，新朋友，是吧？”

“可不是嘛！我还有点紧张呢，不过主要还是激动！我看起来怎么样？这件T恤好看吗？”莱莉闲聊的时候家人岛亮了起来，快速地运作着。

“要不要我们陪你走过去？”妈妈问道。

厌厌迅速做出反应，“妈妈和爸爸？和我们一起在公共场合？谢谢，还是不要吧。”

乐乐按下控制台上的几个按钮，解决了当前的困境。

“不用！我自己可以的。”莱莉乐观地答道，“妈妈，再见！爸爸，再见！”

“上学愉快，小猴子。”爸爸说道。莱莉出门的时候和妈妈一起模仿猴子叫了起来，于是耍宝岛亮了。

莱莉走到新学校，停在大门前，看着校园中的景象。宽阔的校园里有成群结队的学生。“确定我们必须这么做？”怕怕问道。

“让我们进去吧！”乐乐完全无视怕怕，开口说道。

莱莉微笑着走上学校的台阶，一进去就找到了自己的教室，找了个座位坐下。情绪小人们审视着一群群分散在教室各处的学生。

“好了，”厌厌说道，“两点钟方向有一群看起来很酷的女生。”

“你怎么知道的？”乐乐问道。

“两只耳朵都打了耳洞，围着可无限变换的围脖…… ”

“哇，”乐乐说道，“那个女生是不是涂了眼影？”

“是啊，好想和她们做朋友。”厌厌好像挺激动。

怕怕走近乐乐，他差不多完成了那长长的有关潜在麻烦的单子，“最糟糕的设想莫过于流沙、自燃，或是被老师点名。”他继续说道，“既然这几样都没发生……”话音未落，老师的声音就在班上响了起来。

“好了，各位，”她一边说一边示意莱莉站起来，“今天我们班有一位新同学。”

“开玩笑吧？一开始就来？这不是真的！”怕怕叫了起来。

接着老师让莱莉当着全班同学的面进行自我介绍。

“不——！”怕怕叫了起来，他已经失去了理智，“假装我们不会说英语！”

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