[h1]Injae Park[/h1]
[hr]
[i]The next morning[/i]

"Shame we couldn't get Winnie to come with us," Ratchet said to Kate, walking down the sidewalk to the movie theatre. "At least I do things here other than play Smash on my DS."

"Oh, well," Kate replied with a shrug. "His loss."

Ratchet's eyes shifted towards the street. "I wish he would be a bit more social sometimes. He really isn't an outdoors person," she complained.

"It is what it is, Ratch'," Kate said. "Anyway, how was the party? You looked beat." Her face brightened. "Did you get drunk?" she added with a rasp in her voice.

"Why would I get--Kate, you cheeky little child," Ratchet started, before realizing that her cousin was totally kidding. Ratchet gave Kate a light shove in the arm with her wheel.

The two girls came up to a traffic light at a four-way intersection. Ratchet punched the "PUSH TO CROSS" button, then leaned up against the traffic light. "So, who's your favorite emotion? Just by the trailer," Ratchet asked.

"I think Fear is funny," Kate replied. The light turned green and the signal indicated "Walk."

"Me too, though I think Sadness is cute," Ratchet said. "Do you want to buy popcorn?" she asked. "I have money."

"Sure," Kate replied.

Ratchet and Kate strolled into the theatre and approached the ticket box. "Two, [i]Inside Out,[/i]" Ratchet requested, pulling out the two tickets that her aunt had bought at COSTCO. Ratchet and Kate got their tickets, before standing in line for concessions.

"Something did happen at the party, though," Ratchet said. "Some guy stole the host's jewelry box."

"Ouch," Kate remarked. The two girls moved up a bit in the line. "How much was it worth?"

"A lot."

"Well, duh, but how many dollars?"

"I don't know how to convert euros into dollars," Ratchet replied.

"Oh, OK."

Ratchet and Kate reached the front of the line. "Hi," said the guy at the cashier, "what can I get for you?"

"Can we have a large popcorn?" Ratchet asked.

"Of course, that'll be $9.75."

Ratchet dug a $10 bill from her pocket and handed it to the cashier, who gave her a quarter in return. Ratchet dropped the quarter into her pocket as the guy picked up a scoop and scraped several loads of popcorn, dumping it into the large bucket.

"Butter or no butter?" he asked.

"No butter," Ratchet replied.

As the two cousins walked into the theatre, Ratchet pulled her cell from her pocket and texted Jen. [i]You want to meet today after I watch Inside Out with my cousin?[/i]

--

[i]"Well, we did not die today,"[/i] declared Fear on-screen. [i]"I'd call that an unqualified success."[/i]

Ratchet and Kate cracked up.

In the back of her mind, Ratchet thought about the events that transpired the day before. The fight. The fact that the jewelry box was pinched. Verthaven was certainly no calm vacation spot. She wondered how the heck Kate managed to lived within all this chaos. Then again, Kate was young; she didn't have much chance to see the city's darker sides.

But for now, Ratchet and Kate immersed themselves in the tale of Riley Anderson's emotions and the turbulence of significant life changes.