Sold!

"What?" Joi felt a pang of shock at the sign outside of the house.

"AHHH!"

-

Bill slammed the trunk, packed with suitcases.

-

"AHHH!"

-

The car pulled out of the driveway along with the moving van, beginning the trip to San Francisco.

-

"Okay, not what I had in mind," Joi admitted quietly.

Silence.

"AHHH!"

-

It took a few days for the family to find from Minnesota to San Francisco, passing different areas such as a desert and a bunch of different highways. A few days into the trip, they got to San Francisco, passing on the Golden Gate Bridge. Riley looked up at it, shielding her eyes from the sun.

-

"Hey look! The Golden Gate Bridge! Isn't that great?!" Joi exclaimed.

Y/n crossed her arms with a sour look. "That is not made out of gold."

"I know, but still!"

"I sure am glad you told me earthquakes were a myth, Joi. Otherwise I'd be terrified right now!" Fear chuckled.

"Uh, yeah..." The other emotions eyed each other from behind him, Anger setting down his newspaper about earthquakes.

-

Cars stuck in traffic began to blare their horns, yelling out the windows at everyone.

-

Anger put his hands on his hips with a grin. "These are my kinda people!"

-

"All right, just a few more blocks. We're almost to our new house!" Bill said cheerfully as they drove down the final street.

-

"Step on it, Daddy!" Anger spat.

"Why don't we just live in this smelly car?" Disgust asked sarcastically. "We've already been in it forever."

*Which, actually, was really lucky, because that gave us plenty of time to think about what our new house is going to look like! What?!" Joi interrupted and to out the daydreams, handing them to Y/n. "Here, plug in the top five."

"Alrighty!" She began to plug them in, the first one being a bouncy house.

"Ooh, that looks safe."

"That looks nice..."

"Oh, this'll be great for Riley!" Joi exclaimed as Y/n flipped the slide.

"No, Joi, hear me out: this one!" A gingerbread house.

"Y/n. For the last time. She cannot live in a cookie!" Disgust scoffed ass the castle slide showed up with Riley riding a dragon.

"That's the one! It comes with a dragon!"

After reviewing, Bill began to slow down, his blinker on. "Here it is!" Y/n exclaimed, pushing the buttons on the console for some excitement. "Our new house! Here we go!"

-

Riley hopped out of the car and ran excitedly to the house, her face falling when she saw an old, run-down, Victorian-style house.

-

"Maybe it's...nice on the inside," Joi suggested.

-

Carrying her hockey stick, Riley stepped inside, face contorting into disgust as she sniffed around.

-

"We're supposed to live here?"

"Do we have to?"

"I'm telling you, it smells like something died in here."

"CAN YOU DIE FROM MOVING?!"

"Guys, you're overreacting. Nobody is dying -"

"A DEAD MOUSE!" Disgust screamed, pointing into the corner of the room, where a mouse lay dead. "I'm gonna be sick..." [My mom saw a dead mouse while she was looking for a place and referenced this without a second thought. Love you, Mom.]

"Great, this is just great."

"Ahhhhh!! It's the house of the dead! What are we gonna do?! We're gonna get rabies!"

"GET OFFA ME!" Anger blew fire out of his head as Fear jumped into his arms, setting his bum on fire. He ran around in a panic while Y/n calmly extinguished him.

Joi, meanwhile, tried to direct their attention away. "Hey, hey, hey, all through the drive Dad talked about how cool our new room is. Let's go check it out!"

"You're right, Joi."

"Yeah!"

"That's right!"

"Yay!"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

-

Riley ran upstairs excitedly.

-

"No, no, no, no, no."

"I'm starting to envy the dead mouse."

"Get out the rubber ball. We're in solitary confinement."

"Oh, Riley can't live here."

"She's right."

Everyone except Joi and Y/n reached for the console, sending a flood of emotions and negative memories to Riley.

"Really bad."

"It's the worst. Absolute worst."

"This house stinks."

Joi stepped forward, blocking the console. "Hey, it's nothing our butterfly curtains couldn't fix. I read somewhere that an empty room is an opportunity."

"Where did you read that?" Anger demanded.

"It doesn't matter. I read it and it's great. We'll put the desk over there..." He began to project a sample of what the room could look like.

"The hockey lamp goes there..."

"Put the chair there..."

"Well, the trophy collection goes there..."

"Posters..."

"Don't forget the stars, Joi!"

"Now we're talkin'! Let's go get our stuff from the moving van!"

-

Riley ran down, finding Bill on the phone. She stopped at the bottom, listening in. "Alright. Goodbye." He hung up and turned to Jill, who was bringing in boxes. "Well, guess what. The moving van won't be here 'till Thursday."

"You're kidding."

-

"The van is lost?! This is the worst day ever!" Fear screamed, reaching past Joi for the console.

-

"You said it would be here yesterday."

"I know that's what I said. That's what they told me."

Riley stood frozen, watching her parents civilly argue.

-

"Mom and Dad are stressed out! They're arguing!"

The others reached for control along with Fear.

"What are we going to do?"

"This is so stressful."

"What is their problem?"

Joi watched helplessly until Y/n ran past him with an idea. "Lightbulb!" she exclaimed and plugged it in.

-

"Did you even read the contact?"

"Honey, you act like this is my fault."

Her hockey stick still nearby, Riley threw a piece of paper on the ground and began to bat it around. "Andersen makes her move. She's closing in!"

Her parents stopped arguing, Bill grinning and taking a broomstick. "Hey! No you don't!"

"She's lining up for the shot!"

"Coming behind you! Watch out!"

"She shoots and she scores! Yeah!" She shot the paper into the fireplace.

-

The emotions cheered. Behind them, Family Island started up.

-

"Come on, Grandma," she taunted her mother.

"Ha. Grandma?" She pulled her hair back with a rubber band.

-

"Uh-oh, she put her hand up. We're in for it."

-

Jill used a pillow to block the fireplace, Bill picking her up instead while Riley shot. "Hey! Put me down!" she laughed while he picked Riley up, holding them both in the air.

-

The emotions laughed, Joi elbowing Y/n. "Good job, N/n."

"Thanks, J."

-

Bill's phone beeped and he put the girls down to answer it. "Ah, sorry. Hold on, hold on."

-

"Dad!" Y/n whined, crossing her arms.

-

"You're kidding. ...Alright, stall for me. I'll be right there." He hung up, then addressed Jill. "The investor's supposed to show up Thursday, not today. I gotta go."

Jill tried to hide the disappointment in her voice. "It's okay. We get it."

"You're the best. Thanks, hon." He gave her a kiss, then waved to Riley on his way out. "See you, sweetie."

She watched him go, unsure how to feel in the moment.

-

"Dad just...left us," Fear realized in shock.

"Oh, he doesn't love us anymore. That's sad. I should drive, right?" Sadness asked, reaching over. But Joi held her back, surprising the others. "Joi...what are you doing?"

"Um...no, we're not sad because...because..." He racked his brain, trying to think of something positive.

"Because we're going to have pizza!" Y/n interrupted, projecting a yellow memory of a pizza place they had passed.

-

"Hey, I...saw a pizza place down the street. Maybe...we could try that," Riley suggested.

Jill brightened, smiling at her daughter. "Pizza sounds delicious."

-

"Yeah!"

"Pizza!"

"Good idea, Y/n."

She caught Joi's eye, who mouthed a thank you to her.

-

Jill handed over her card, receiving a few slices of pizza from a lethargic teenage girl, covered in broccoli.

-

"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?"

"Who puts broccoli on pizza?!"

"Booooooo."

Disgust sauntered away, throwing up her hands in a surrender. "That's it. I'm done."

"CONGRATULATIONS, SAN FRANCISCO. YOU RUINED PIZZA! FIRST THE HAWAIIANS. AND NOW YOU."

-

"What kind of a pizza place only serves one kind of pizza?" Jill asked a disappointed Riley on the walk home. "Must be a San Francisco thing, huh?"

-

Joi sighed on the couch, looking up at all the bad memories. Y/n was at the foot of the couch, coloring with her tongue out. He chuckled watching her, then looked back to the screen.

-

"Still. It's not as bad as that soup in Nebraska."

"Oh yeah," Riley giggled. "The spoon stood up in the soup by itself. That was disgusting."

-

Family Island started up.

"Oh, good. Family is running."

Y/n stopped coloring to look back, relieved that Riley seemed at least content for the moment.

-

"The drive out was pretty fun, huh? What was your favorite part?"

-

The others had begun to pay attention.

"Spitting out the car window!"

"Definitely not when Dad was singing."

"Wearing a seatbelt!"

"What about the time with the dinosaur?!" Joi pushed a few buttons and called up the memory.

-

"Say cheese," Bill said, aiming the camera at Jill and Riley in front of a dinosaur statue."

"Dad. Dad! Look behind you."

"Honey, the car. The car!"

"Hold still...huh?" He saw the car heading for the tail of the adjacent dinosaur and ran after it. "Stop! No, no, no!" The tail smashed through the window, Riley and Jill laughing.

-

"Nice one, Joi," Fear said.

-

"I liked the time at the dinosaur. That was pretty funny."

-

While the emotions gazed at the memory, the yellow hue turned blue.

-

Riley frowned at the memory, looking down a little.

-

"Wait, what? What happened?" Joi looked back and saw Sadness reaching up, touching the memory. She got down, but the memory stayed blue.

"She did something to the memory," Fear gasped as Joi took the memory down.

"What did you do?"

"I just touched it."

"That shouldn't make it change." He rubbed it, trying to change it back.

"Change it back, Joi!"

"I'm trying."

"You can't change it back?"

"No, I guess I can't."

"Good going, Sadness. Now when Riley thinks of that moment with Dad, she's gonna feel sad. Bravo," Disgust scoffed.

"I'm sorry Joi I don't really know I thought maybe if you if I if I mean -"

"Y/n? We've got a staircase coming up," Disgust interrupted.

Y/n looked back at Joi, who nodded and tossed the memory back. "Just don't touch any other memories until we figure out what's going on," he said to Sadness.

"Okay."

"Okay, everyone move over, I gotta see this!" He shook Y/n, her hands on the levers.

-

Riley jumped onto the railing, but got off immediately, hands in her pockets as she walked down.

-

"Wait, what? What happened?" Joi saw Y/n blankly staring at the screen, hands still in place. Something being him fell and he saw Football Island's core memory rolling at his feet.

"A core memory!" Fear cried.

He picked it up and ran back to the holder, pushing it in. "Sadness! What are you doing?" he demanded, seeing Sadness was the only one by the holder.

"It looked like one was crooked so I opened it and then it fell out!"

Y/n's head jerked up and she finished pulling the lever.

-

Riley stopped walking and jumped back onto the railing, sliding down. "Woo-hoo!"

-

"It's just that...I wanted to maybe hold one?" She reached out and the memory began to turn blue.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Joi pulled her away, the blue quickly fading from the memory. "Sadness! You nearly touched a core memory! And when you touch them, we can't change them back!" He pushed down on the holder and let it retract.

"I know, I'm sorry, something's wrong with me. It's like I'm having a breakdown." She rubbed her face under her glasses.

"You're not having a breakdown. It's stress."

"I keep making mistakes like that...I'm awful..." she sighed, turning away from Joi.

"No! You're not!"

"Annoying..."

"Well, uh, you know what?" he asked, trying to change the subject. "You can't always focus on what's going wrong. There's always a way to turn things around! To find the fun."

"Yeah, find the fun...I don't know how to do that."

"Okay, well...try to think of something funny!"

She thought for a moment, then gave him a small smile. "Oh! Remember the funny movie where the dog died?"

Y/n looked back at her, horrified. "That wasn't funny! That was horrible!"

"Yeah, I know..."

"Yeah, that's not...oh! What about that time with Meg when Riley laughed so hard, milk came out her nose! I mean come on..."

"Okay, that one was funny," Y/n agreed, joining them.

"Yeah, that hurt. Felt like fire."

"Okay, okay, don't think of that! Let's try something else." He paced on front of her. "What are your favorite things to do?"

"My favorite? Well, I like it when we're outside."

"Yes!" Y/n cheered. "Running around in the sun, jumping off swings, oh! Remember that time we buried Dad in the sand up to his neck?"

"I was thinking more like rain..." [Same, girl, it's so pretty.]

"Rain..." Joi repeated, thinking for something positive.

"And jumping in puddles!" Y/n giggled.

"Yeah!" Joi jumped around like there were puddles. "And there's cool umbrellas, lightening storms -"

"No!" Y/n exclaimed, shrinking back. "Too scary..."

"Um did I say lightening storms? I meant...clouds are cool?"

"More like when the rain runs down our back and makes our shoes soggy," Sadness interrupted. "And we get all cold and shivery...and everything just starts feeling...droopy!" She fell on her face on the floor, sobbing.

"Oh, hey, hey, easy," Joi tried to comfort her, rather uncomfortable, while Y/n gave her a pat on the back. "Why are you crying? This is really the opposite of what we're going for here?"

She picked her head up, eyes lidded. "Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems." Her head went back down with a thud.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying not to sigh. "Ugh, you know what? Let's think about something else." He picked her up and guided her to the small library in the back of headquarters. "How about we read some mind manuals, huh? Sounds fun!"

"I've read most of them..."

"Well have you read this one?" He reached back and grabbed one without looking and placed it in her hands. "This seems interesting. Long-Term Memory Retrieval, Volume 47?"

"No..."

"Ooh, a real page-turner!"

Sadness opened it and read a section title out loud. "Long-Term Memory Data Selection via channel sub-grouping?"

"See? Fun already! Ooh, you lucky dog, you're readin' these cool things I gotta go work life is so unfair." He guided Y/n back, letting the pent-up sigh release.

A green memory rolled down and clinked against the one next to it. He groaned, Y/n slinking away from him. "Joi? Can I be real with you? I'm happy we moved."

"Really?!" he asked, sounding surprised, but pleased. "Thank goodness! I really thought I was the only one trying here!"

"I think it'll be good for Riley. We can go back to having fun without trying to fit in. And I'm so glad we don't have to go to that party now. Pizza and music is not a party! It isn't even a playdate!" She looked back at the screen, smiling a little. "We'll find our people here."

-

"What can we do? We've only got capital to last a month, maybe two. If we can't find investors by then, we're going to have to lay people off."

Riley stopped at the bottom of the stairs, then called out. "Mom! Dad! Come kiss me g'night!"

"Be right there!"

"I know, I know! We've got to land this, okay?"

-

Riley laid down, waiting for her parents to come upstairs.

-

"Did you hear Dad? He sounded really upset," Fear noted.

-

Headlights flashed across Riley's room. She sunk deeper into her sheets.

-

"What was that? Was it a bear?! It's a bear!" Fear lightly tapped on the console.

"There are no bears in San Francisco," Disgust said...well...disgustedly.

"I saw a really hairy guy. He looked like a bear," Anger commented.

"I'm so jumpy, my nerves are shot!" Fear took his hands away and held them out, Disgust jumping away.

"Ew! I don't want to hear about your nerves!"

"I'll tell you what it is. This move has been a bust."

"That's what I've been telling you guys! There are at least thirty-seven things for Riley to be scared of right now!"

"The smell alone is enough to make her gag."

"I can't believe Mom and Dad moved us here!"

Joi, studying the day's memories, turned away, forcing a smile. "Look, I get it. You guys have concerns. But we've been through worse. Tell you what. Let's make a list of all the things Riley should be happy about! Y/n, back me up here."

"We can hang from our feet on the monkey bars without being judged."

Disgust rolled her eyes. "Yeah, buy people we know. People here aren't all sunshine and rainbows, Y/n."

"No, no. Let's indulge him," Anger said with a calm smile, then dropped it. "This house stinks. Our room stinks..."

"Pizza is weird here..."

"Our friends are back home!" Sadness called, peeking her head around the corner.

"And all our stuff is in the missing van!"

"Oh, come on, it could be worse."

"Yeah, Joi. We could be lying on the dirty floor in a sleeping bag."

-

Riley looked up from her sleeping bag as thoughts clouded her mind.

-

"Okay. I admit it. We had a rough start. But think of all the good things -"

"No, Joi," Anger cut off, holding his hand up. "There's absolutely no reason for Riley to be happy right now. Let us handle it."

"I say we skip school tomorrow and lock ourselves in the bedroom!"

"We have no clean clothes. I mean, no one should see us."

Sadness had come out of her corner, clinging onto Joi. "We could cry until we can't breath!"

"Or watch cartoons?" Y/n suggested, no one listening.

"We should lock the door and scream that curse word we know!" Anger suggested with a devious smile, rubbing his hands together. "It's a good one!"

"Now hold on!" Joi blocked the console from the rest of the emotions. "Look, we all have our off-days. You know, I -"

-

Jill came into the bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her. "Hi, honey."

-

"The Mom-Bad-News Train is pulling in!" Anger yelled and pulled his arm in the air. "Toot-toot!"

-

"Still no moving van. Now they're saying it won't be here 'till Tuesday. Can you believe it?"

-

"Toot-toot-toot!"

-

"Where's Dad?"

"On the phone." She rubbed her face, pushing up her glasses. "This new venture is keeping him pretty busy. Your dad's a little stressed. You know, about getting his new company up and running..."

-

"I rest my case!" Anger exclaimed.

Joi turned away, his shoulders slumped. Y/n watched him go, reaching out for him, then looked back at the others by the console.

"Now for a few well-placed withering scowls." He pushed a few buttons.

-

Riley's eyes narrowed, mouth in a line.

"I guess what all I really wanna say is...thank you."

-

"Huh?" Anger let go of the controls.

-

"You know, through all this confusion you've stayed...well, you've stayed our happy girl. Your dad's under a lot of pressure. But if you and I can keep smiling, it would be a big help. We can do that for him, right?"

-

"Whoa..." Joi stepped back to the console. "Well."

-

Smiling, Riley agreed, "Yeah. Sure."

"What did we do to deserve you?" She leaned over and gave her a kiss on the head, then got up to leave. "Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight."

-

"Well, you can't argue with Mom. Happy it is!"

"Team Happy! Sounds great!"

"I'm totally behind you, Joi."

Y/n hugged him from behind, making Joi tense up. "Nice work, J."

As Riley fell asleep, headquarters' background dropped to night and Y/n letting go. "Looks like we're going into R - E - M. I got Dream Duty, so I'll take care of sending these to Long Term. Great day today, guys! Sleep well Team Happy!"

Everyone went except Y/n, who pulled up an extra chair. "I wanna watch before I go to bed," she explained.

He chuckled, nodding. "Sure thing. I'd rather you, anyway." Whispering, he added, "Between you and me, I think they're just going along with it for Mom."

"Probably."

They giggled together, harp music beginning to play as the screen turned back on. Joi leaned back in his chair. "Alright. What's on tonight, Dream Production?"

-

The family car flew out of the sky and landed in front of a building. "Well, this is it. The new place!" Bill said and the camera panned to a haunted house, organ music replacing the harps, accompanying the wailing ghosts that came out of the house.

A mouse rose into a sitting position, arms extended. "Come live with me, Riley," it said before gagging, keeling over dead.

A bear came in a pizza delivery uniform, holding a pizza box. "Somebody order a broccoli pizza?"

Slices of pizza jumped around taunting from the open box. "Eat me! I'm organic!"

-

Riley groaned, shifting in her sleep.

-

"No." Y/n reached down and pulled the plug. She met Joi's gaze guiltily. "I'm sorry, but Riley doesn't deserve that."

"Hey, if you didn't, I would've."

"...I have an idea." She typed a few things on the console and recalled a memory that played: very young Riley Bank in Minnesota, skating with her parents. Joi felt his gaze soften as he watched and his heart leap when Y/n got up, following Riley's movements around the floor perfectly. He watched her longingly as she glided and twirled around.

-

Riley smiled as the memory played, falling into a sounder sleep.

-

"Don't you worry. I'm gonna make sure that tomorrow is another great day. I promise..."