Free Driven by Emotions by Elise Allen Page A

but let me try…”
    I made the dumbest face I possibly could. “Duuuuuhhhhh.”
    That put him over the edge. His head became a blowtorch of flames as he screamed, so I picked him up and used his head to cut a hole in the glass.
    Bingo—Joy and Sadness were in. And, yes, I am brilliant. Thank you.
    It was good timing, too, because we all saw what was going down on the view screen in Headquarters. The bus was driving away with Riley on it. I was sure Joy would start driving the console and
make everything all right. But Joy did no such thing.
    “Sadness,” she said, “it’s up to you.”
    And Sadness…
Sadness
, of all the Emotions, took the console. She drove, and Riley’s face got all misty and, well…sad. A second later, Riley jumped up and told the bus
driver to stop so she could get off. Riley went home and poured her heart out to her worried parents, and, I’ve got to say, Mom and Dad did okay. They didn’t do any crazy parent stuff
like yell for no reason. They let Riley talk and they cried and hugged, and I wasn’t even grossed out when their faces got puffy from the tears.
    That was a bunch of months ago, and now things are different for all of us Emotions. Even Headquarters is different. The core memories are a mix of different colors now—yellow, blue, red,
purple, and even a little green for some healthy disgust. I thought the colors wouldn’t blend well, but it totally works. And Joy isn’t so much in charge anymore. We all drive together
on a brand-new, upgraded console. Yeah, sure, it’s great, but as I said earlier, driving together means very little personal space. And I need my personal space.
    Big picture, though? Things are good. And Riley’s killing it at school. Her friends are massively cool—way cooler than the cool kids I thought she wanted to hang with at first. Plus
the house is super cute now with all of Riley’s stuff in it. I’ve made sure she has the right posters on the walls. We even found a pizza place that serves the real deal—nothing
green on it whatsoever.
    And can you believe Riley’s twelve now? Twelve and fabulous! It’ll be smooth sailing from here. Sure, there are a few things on the new console that we don’t understand yet,
like a little warning light labeled P UBERTY . Joy doesn’t think it’s important, though. And, honestly, I’ve taken care of the hard stuff already. Riley is totally set for an
awesome life with great friends, awesome parents, a way-cool fashion sense, and impeccable taste in just about everything…thanks to
moi
!



Oh, man. It’s my turn to tell you our story…the story about moving to San Francisco and how it all
got crazy, and Riley was nearly kidnapped and whisked away forever to end up living in a sewer and begging for change on the street…
    Okay, I’m running away with myself. I do that sometimes. Sorry. I just get so nervous when I think about what could have happened and how bad it could have been…but again, getting
ahead of the story.
    I’ll start from the start. Riley’s start. Well, I wasn’t there for the
very
start. I came a little later, when Riley was a toddler. You wouldn’t believe the
disasters she almost got into every day. I was working overtime, I promise you that. She’d just run with complete abandon—if I hadn’t been steering, she’d have slammed into
every table leg and tripped over every toy she had. But with me there, it was all good. I’d be steering at the console while I talked it out.
    “Very nice,” I’d say. “Okay, looks like you got this. Very good. Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa
…sharp turn…look out! Look out!”
    There was always stuff just waiting around to jump out and skin Riley’s knee. But I was a pro at keeping Riley safe. She never got hurt with me around. Well, she did get some scrapes from
hockey. I warned everyone time and time again that hockey is a
contact sport
! People lose teeth playing that game! It was not a safe choice!
    I was outvoted, though. And