Anger was on dream duty again. Anger hated dream duty. Why did he have to stay up all night just to watch some stupid ponies? They did draw lots of course like always, but still.

"Morning!", Joy said as if she was the rising sun itself. "Riley awake yet?"

"No. Almost time though. Three... Twooo... Ooooooonnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

Nothing happened.

"Hey", Disgust yawned.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Dammit off by a second!", Anger yelled, punching the console.

"Okay, all hands on station, where are Fear and Sadness?", Joy asked.

"Coming!", Fear yelled. He was dragging Sadness up the stairs.

"Can't we just stay in bed to day?", she asked. "Or forever?"

"Nope, rise and shine! Today's going to be a good day! Just..."

Joy punched the controls. Nothing happened.

"I think we didn't get enough sleep after yesterdays escapade.", Fear offered.

Riley turned off the alarm clock and turned around. Of course the alarm was here rather then her actual bed. Though this sleeping bag was not so bad. It was so nice and warm and...

"Riley!", Mom yelled. "Rise and shine!"

"Just five more minutes. Or hours."

She knocked, but came in without waiting for an answer.

"Come on, you are going to be late for school!"

Riley groaned.

"Fine. Then I'll just have to tickle you awake!"

Riley tried to hide under her sleeping bag, but by then it was too late, and she was already on her.

"Hahaha! Alright! Hahaha! I'm awake, I'm awake!"

Joy smiled over both ears.

"Guys, we only got 6 hours of sleep! I read somewhere that at our age we need at least 9! What if we just fall asleep during class? What if we get hallucinations?", Fear asked in his usual shaky voice.

"It's alright, we just need to get the blood flowing, and everything will be just perfect.", Joy said.

Riley got dressed and brushed her teeth, then joined her family for breakfast. She was eating her cereal while dad was drinking his coffee and mom her tea. No one talked and the atmosphere was dark.

"Oh I know how to brighten the mood!", Joy exclaimed. She punched around on the controls.

"Erm Dad?", Riley asked.

"Yeah?"

"So... when are we going back to Minnesota?"

Dad spit out his coffee. "What?"

"You both said you missed Minnesota too, so we are going back, right?"

Dad put his coffee down, while mom looked over in concern.

"Well sweetie, the thing is...", he said exchanging glances with Mom. "Of course I miss Minnesota, I do, but... we erm we can't..."

Riley laughed so hard she spit out her cereal.

"Bwahaha! You should have seen the look on your face, dad!"

Mom chuckled and shook her head. Dad grinned.

"I know we can't just go back. But we'll at least go for Christmas right?"

"You betcha.", Mom said. "Oh look at the time! You better hurry!"

Riley finished her cereal and grabbed her backpack.

"Oh and sweetie?"

"Yeah?"

Mom walked over to her and went down on on knee, so they were face to face.

"I know I said what a help it is for us when you are happy, but whenever you have problems it is important that you talk to us alright?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Because the greatest part of being a parent is helping your child through tough times."

Riley didn't know how to answer that.

"Erm, right. Anyway I really have to go now. Love you!"

"Love you!" Mom and Dad chorused back.

Riley fast-walked to school, arriving just before the bell.

"... and that is all that we have time for.", the teacher said, only to be interrupted by the lunch bell.

Riley realized that she hadn't listened to a word of it. She couldn't even recall what the subject was. History? English?

"How did we miss the entire lesson?!", Anger bellowed.

"Ow, I'm sure all of that will be on the test.", Fear exclaimed. "We are gonna fail! We are gonna fail the test, and then we will be held back a year, and then we will never get a good job, and we will have to live in Oakland! Oakland!"

"That would be so sad.", Sadness said.

"No... It would be … great! No one can call us a nerd if we fail a test right? Right? There's more important things then acing every test anyway."

Riley gathered her books and got her lunch. She walked towards her bench with her tray.

"Hey! Hey Riley! Over here!"

It was one of the girls from her class, Sarah. She had long blond hair and green eyes.

Riley looked around and cautiously and then sat down next to her. Sarah moved a little and made some space for her.

"So how are you finding San Francisco?"

Anger jumped at that question.

"How I find San Francisco?! I'll show you how I find San FrancisCOOO!"

"Nononono!", Joy shouted, but Anger was already hammering at the controls.

"More like San Fran-Stinko."

Sarah chuckled.

"It is pretty dumb at first, but you'll get used to it. We Northerners have to stick together!"

"Northerner?"

"Montana born and raised. I used to play Hockey a bit too, but I wasn't in a team or anything."

"Really? What position?!"

"Well it was just me, my brothers and a few other kids messing around. We didn't have positions. We even played without a goalie sometimes."

"Oh. That's cool."

"Do you ski?"

"A little. Minnesota is too flat for much skying though."

"Yeah, I guess. So you gonna join the hockey team?"

"I don't know. I went to the tryouts, but I really sucked for some reason."

"Oh, I don't worry about that. Just between the two of us, there is no way you can suck worse then the rest of the team anyway. And once you acclimatize, I'm sure you will do better. I mean you're from Minnesota after all. It's in your blood or something."

"Acclimatize?"

"It means getting used to a new environment. It's usual that you take a while to get used to doing things as well as you did them at home. I remember when I came here, I sucked at my guitar for a while. On the first day here, I couldn't even remember how to play a G-Chord! I almost broke the thing, I threw it down so hard."

"I guess you are right. I'll try again."

"That's the spirit! You eating that?"

Sarah pointed her fork towards Riley's broccoli.

"No. Here."

Sarah shoveled it onto her plate.

"Wanna hang out after school?"

"I'll have to ask my parents."

"Awesome! I wish I had made friends with you sooner."

"Friends?"

"The best! Oh, we have to go back to class!"

Sarah took her tray and stood up.

"THIS GIRL IS AWESOME!", Anger exclaimed.

"Yeah, she is sooo much cuter than... what was her name again?", Disgust said.

"She is so cool.", Fear agreed.

"What do you think Sadness? Isn't she great?", Joy asked in a high-pitched voice.

"I guess. Now there is no more reason to be sad. That makes me so sad."

"Which means now you have a reason! Isn't that great?", Joy exclaimed. "Oh, look the memory is coming in. I bet it's a core.

Indeed, a yellow glowing Orb rolled in. Joy took it and held it above her her head.

"Friends?"

"The best!"

Joy hugged the Orb fiercely.

"We did it, our first core Memory in San Francisco!", she sung as she entered the core Memory. Joy looked out of the window excitedly.

"Look guys look, friendship Island is back!"

Indeed, the Island reappeared where it was before.

"I told you today was gonna be a good day! Oh this is so great, we have a new friend and a core memory and the island is back and look they almost repaired the train and everything will be just great!", she continued, dancing around the room and finally leaning on the console. "After all she's not even twelve, what's the worst that can hap..."

Joy found she had, in her carelessness pressed the big red button that said "Puberty".

"I don't think we're supposed to press that.", Fear said.

"Well it apparently doesn't work anyway. Nothing happened. And..."

"Hey we are back in class!", Fear interrupted.

"Alright focus! We gotta send all these facts to long term!", Joy ordered.