Here's how the magnitude of reality sets in quick.

Chapter 4: The Real Truth

The next day, Jojo was all ready to go to school after seeing what had happened to his new friends last night. It was all he can think of and he felt as if the reason they made those excuses when they first came here were just to cover up the hurt and pain that their stepfather gave them. Ned stopped him for a sec and asked, "You think they'll be okay?"

Jojo sighed heavily and said, "I hope so."

"Well, have a good day, son."

"You too."

Jojo walks out the door, leaving Ned a bit anxious about seeing Paul at City Hall that day. He sighed heavily and asked himself, "Why did he ever became their stepdad in the first place?"

He's totally unsure about him working at City Hall, but he's got other things to worry about as he leaves for work. Ned said, "I'm gone, Sally."

"Have a good day, sweetheart." Sally said.

"You too."

He walked out of the door, feeling total anxiety and muttered only, "I hope so."

As Jojo went on his way to the school, he saw Jonah walking to school by himself and he caught up with him and said, "Hi, Jonah."

Jonah turned around and there was Jojo behind him. He said, "What's up?"

"Not much. Where are your brothers?"

"They're coming too. I was the only one who woke up early this morning, because of that fiasco last night between me and my stepdad."

"How early?"

"About 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, because Paul leaves for work early in one of those times. So, we only fend for ourselves to get ready to school and everything else."

"I'm sorry that this really happened to you. I wish you would've told me this when you first came here."

"I couldn't. Because if I did, you wouldn't want to be my friend or something like that and I made stupid excuses about my scars and cuts so everyone would think that I made those little s."

"You could've been honest at first."

"I know."

"You know, you should tell Marcus, Cody, Caitlyn, Mike and Misty about it."

Jonah had this worry expression on his face and asked, "But what if they reject me as their friend?"

"They won't. They'll pretty much understand."

"You think so?"

"Of course. How else would they be my best friends?"

All of a sudden, in comes Mike, Cody and Marcus, who's walking on the other side of the sidewalk. Mike turns around and sees Jojo and Jonah and they waved at them and it caught Jojo's attention. He smiled and waved at them back and asked, "How's it going?"

"Pretty good, dude. You guys walking, too?" asked Cody.

"Yeah, we are."

"Hey, J-2! Where's your brothers?"

Jonah felt surprised that Cody actually gave him a nickname for the first time. He turned to Cody and replied, "They're coming."

"That's cool."

"So, what's with J-2?"

Cody chuckled and said, "Since you're new here, I might as well give you a nickname and 'J-2' seemed like a great one, because we call Jojo 'J-man' or 'Jo-dude' and maybe even 'J'.

Jonah felt like Jojo's friends are accepting him and he's a little confident that he'll be friends with these guys. He smiled silently and said, "I'm cool with that."

A few minutes later, Travis, Cyrus, Hawk and Sam were coming in from behind and caught up with Jonah and Jojo. When they all reached the school, Marcus saw a medium scar in Sam's arm and asked, "What's with the scar in the arm?"

Sam looked at it and asked, "You noticed?"

"Yeah, I did. What happened to it?"

"Well..how can I put this?"

Suddenly, the bell rings and they had to be in class and Sam said only, "I'll tell you about it at lunch."

"Okay."

Everyone dispersed to the classroom and Jonah followed Jonah to first period and hopes that the situation would not be mentioned to the teacher, hopefully. As the afternoon came over, it was already lunchtime and Jojo and Jonah sat down for lunch and Jojo was a little curious about how this started.

Jojo turned to Jonah and asked, "How many scars have you had?"

"Numerous. Most of them were mine, but most were from my stepdad."

"How often does he beat you up?"

"Whenever he gets stressed, angry or just had a tough day, he just takes it out on us for no reason. When we get in trouble or something, then he'll pretty much strike on one of us."

"What possessed him to do something like that?"

Jonah sighed heavily and asked, "I wish I knew. He gets so angry with us, but mostly at me."

"Why?"

"Well, we don't have a good relationship and he always lashes out at me, both physically and verbally. My brothers don't have a good relationship with him either, because we're quiet and often times shy and sometimes even the smallest things that happens to some of us, he beats the crap out of us."

Jojo felt like it wasn't really safe in that house, which leads to the next one. He asked, "So, what was the real reason to come over to my house?"

Jonah breathed heavily and said, "To see where you live and be away from our stepdad, because we know it's not a safe environment here, but we live here, so."

"Hey, guys."

"Just then, Jonah and Jojo saw Marcus, Caitlyn, Misty, Travis, Sam, Hawk, Cody, Cyrus and Mike coming by to join them. Cody asked, "Is there room?"

"For you guys, there's always room." Jojo said.

Everyone sat down and Caitlyn asked, "So, what are we talking about?"

"Not much."

Jonah focused on eating and Misty stared at him and asked, "Is there anything interesting that I might want to hear?"

"What's it to ya?" asked Jonah.

She could sense that Jonah's being a little tense and said, "Sor-ry! I was just asking."

"Misty, I don't think we should push his buttons." Jojo said.

"Who's pushing buttons? All I want to know is what is up with him."

"Everything's cool." Jonah said, angrily.

Then, she could sense something's wrong with him and asked, "No, it's not. You're being irritable."

"I'm not irritated." he said, getting irritated.

"Yeah, you are. I could hear it in your voice."

"I'm not irritated!"

"What is your deal?"

"There is no deal, all right? Just don't want to talk about it."

"There is something going on and you're not telling me. I'm not an idiot, you know."

"Misty, I think we should just-" Jojo began, but Misty already stopped him in his tracks. Misty is starting to grow irritated that Jonah's keeping something a secret that he's not telling.

"Either you tell me what's wrong otherwise I might have to force it out on you."

"Like what?"

"I'll keep talking until you tell me the deal-io."

"There is nothing wrong! That's all I have to say."

"Dude, what is your deal? Just tell me now!"

Jonah grew compulsively mad and he couldn't take it anymore, so he slammed the table down hard and shouted, "I'VE BEEN ABUSED BY MY STEPFATHER!"

That drew all of the students' attention and turned to where Jonah was sitting. Misty was at a loss for words and answered, silently, "What?"

Jonah panted hard and said, "My stepfather abuses me a lot."

Misty's face suddenly softened and Cody, Marcus, Mike and Caitlyn were totally unaware of this ordeal. Caitlyn said, "I thought you guys had-"

"We didn't injure ourselves. Our stepfather did it."

"We made it up because we were afraid that you guys would reject us as friends." Travis said.

Mike turned to Travis and asked, "How come you didn't just tell us about it?"

"It was our first day and we didn't anyone to know about it."

"Plus, we were scared, because if our stepfather told us if we tell anyone about this, he'll literally hurt us." Sam said.

Jojo figured that that was the real reason for those excuses and said, "You could've told us about it in the first place."

"I know. My real dad died when we were younger and my mom married our stepfather, but she left him because of his violent behavior towards us and her before we moved here."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"I don't understand why he would do that." Cody said.

"We don't know, but he has a very short fuse and a huge temper towards us."

"Your mom left you guys?" asked Caitlyn.

"She had to. She couldn't deal with him anymore, so she walked out on us without even telling us 'goodbye'. A couple of weeks later, Paul shot her with a gun and threw her body into an ocean and left us with him."

It was a real shock and a wake-up call for them and their new friends were suffering for it. Misty looked at Jonah and said, "I'm sorry for pressuring you about this. I should've kept my mouth shut."

"Yeah, you would have." Marcus said.

"Put a cork in it."

"No, I'm sorry for blowing up at you and the rest of the cafeteria. I just had so much anger bottled up inside of me that I just wanted to let it out and it comes to a point where I can just vent, but I can't." Jonah said.

"How often does he beat you guys?"

"Everyday."

"I actually saw it unravel. Me and my dad were looking through the window of their house and actually saw it. My dad was more nervous that he has to deal with him while he works in City Hall." Jojo said.

"He works for your dad?" asked Cody.

"Yep."

"What kind of idiot would take him in for a job?" asked Caitlyn.

"If I was his boss, I would fire him in an instant for beating the crap out of those kids." Misty said.

"You don't know Paul. He can literally throw you in a wall and leave bruises and cuts all over your body." Hawk said.

"I wish he would put his hands on me. I would do the same thing to him."

"You couldn't even take me on in basketball." Mike said.

"Shut up, otherwise you'll be next."

"Shutting up."

"Well, don't worry about it. You guys have something that Paul doesn't."

"What's that?" asked Cyrus.

"You got us. We're your friends and we'll always be here for you." Jojo said.

That really touched their hearts and Jonah asked, "How do you know?"

"Because I can relate to you guys, except my dad doesn't abuse me. At times, I feel lonely and sad and whatever, I always have my friends with me to give me their support and they're always there for me when I need them the most."

"J-man has been our friend since our brother Alex died the past year. It's been a traumatic time for us, but since then, me and Cody became close friends with Jojo and we're like brothers than friends." Mike said.

"Being the only two s who are friends with Jojo, we're always there for him and each other too." Misty said.

"We're like a tight group and the bond keeps us stronger." Cody said.

That brought tears to Jonah's eyes and he wiped them quickly and said, "You guys are pretty good friends. We've been longing for someone like you guys for so long."

"We've never had friends like that in...seven and a half years." Travis said.

"Well, it's seven and a half years too long now. You're one of us now."

"You've just joined the Whoville Outcasts." Jojo said.

"Welcome to the party." Mike said.

Jonah and his brothers definitely feel like they're accepted into being one of Jojo's friends and they felt like they're kinda like family, almost. It's possible that they feel like they really belong with their elements and they definitely fit in with them.

Was that sad or what? It gets more dramatic in the next chapter! Stick around! You do not want to miss this!