“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!” shouted Fear as he watched Riley and her mother standing at the pizza counter, staring at a slice covered in broccoli.

“That’s it. I’m done,” said Disgust.

Anger fumed. “Congratulations, San Francisco, you’ve RUINED PIZZA! FIRST THE HAWAIIANS AND NOW YOU!” he shouted, shuddering as he thought about the pineapple that Hawaiians liked to add to their pizza.

As Riley and her mom walked home, the mood was somber. “What kind of a pizza place only serves one kind of pizza?” Mom asked.

Joy sighed as she glanced at the day’s wall of multicolored memories and noticed there were not a whole lot of golden ones.

Then Riley and her mother started to talk about the long car trip to California. “What was your favorite part?” Mom asked Riley.

“Oh! What about the time with the dinosaur?” Joy said as she ran to the console to pull up the memory.

The happy memory was of Riley and her mom posing in front of a big cement dinosaur on the side of the road in Utah. As Dad knelt to get the shot, the car started to roll down the hill behind him! Riley and Mom tried to tell him, but he was too busy trying to take the perfect picture. By the time he finally noticed, it was too late. Dad ran after the car as it rolled in reverse and crashed into the tail of a cement stegosaurus!

“I liked that time at the dinosaur,” Riley said, smiling. “That was pretty funny.”

The Emotions chuckled as Riley enjoyed the memory. But then something strange happened. The memory turned BLUE and Riley’s smile faded.

“Wait. What happened?” Joy asked as she spun around, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Her gaze landed on Sadness, who was standing right next to the memory.

“What did you do?” Joy asked.

“I just touched it,” Sadness said.

Joy tried to rub the memory to see if she could change it back to gold, but the blue color wouldn’t come off!

“Good going, Sadness,” Disgust said. “Now when Riley thinks of that moment with Dad, she’s gonna feel sad. Bravo.”

“I’m—I’m sorry, Joy,” Sadness stammered.

Joy told Sadness not to touch any memories until she figured out what was going on. Then she turned her attention back to Riley.

Riley and her mom were coming up to a set of stairs that led down a hill. The stairs had a railing. “Get ready! This is a monster railing, and we are riding it all the way down!” Joy said as she took control of the console.

Goofball Island, one of Riley’s Islands of Personality, lit up with life as Riley sat on the banister, about to fly down. But then Riley changed her mind. She walked down the stairs instead.

“Wait, what? What happened?” Joy asked, confused. She gasped as a memory rolled over her feet.

“A core memory!” cried Fear. Core memories powered Riley’s Islands of Personality. If Riley’s core memories weren’t in the core memory holder, what was controlling her personality?

“Oh no,” said Joy, picking up the memory. Everyone looked out the window to see a lifeless Goofball Island, completely dark and still.

Joy rushed to the core memory holder and saw Sadness standing right next to it! “Sadness!” she shouted. “What are you doing?”

“It looked like one was crooked, so I opened it and then it fell out! I…” Sadness said, referring to a core memory. She had a hard time explaining herself.

Joy placed the memory back in the holder and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Goofball Island started running again.

Riley ran up the stairs and jumped back on the railing. “Woo-hoo!” she cried as she slid down.

“I wanted to maybe hold one,” Sadness admitted. She reached toward a core memory and it started to turn BLUE! As the other Emotions gasped, Joy grabbed Sadness’s hand before she could remove it. The memory turned back to gold.

“Sadness!” Joy scolded. “You nearly touched a core memory. And when you touch them, we can’t change them back.”

Sadness felt terrible. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Something’s wrong with me. I, uh…It’s like I’m having a breakdown.”

“You are not having a breakdown,” said Joy. “It’s stress.”

Sadness sighed. “I keep making mistakes like that. I’m awful—”

“No, you’re not,” Joy interrupted, but Sadness continued.

“—and annoying.”

Joy wanted Sadness to stop focusing on what was wrong. “There’s always a way to turn things around, to find the fun,” Joy said.

“I don’t know how to do that,” Sadness said.

Joy suggested that Sadness think of something funny, but she couldn’t seem to do it. Sadness constantly focused on the negative. While Joy saw the rain as a fun opportunity for Riley to jump in puddles and carry a cool umbrella, Sadness liked when the rain made Riley feel soggy, droopy, and shivery. Sadness even started to cry as she thought about it.

“Oh, hey, hey…easy. Why are you crying?” Joy asked softly.

“Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life’s problems,” she said.

Joy put her head in her hands to think of a way to keep Sadness out of trouble. “Let’s think about something else,” she said, leading her over to the manual shelf. “How about we read some mind manuals, huh? Sounds fun.”

Joy left Sadness among the stacks of books and marched back to work.