A little tense moment from meeting Paul again...this time at City Hall. A sign for total nervousness.

Chapter 5: Tense at Work

Later that afternoon, Ned was in his office, sitting at his desk, keeping his mind on work and for taking notes. The intercom buzzes and it asked, "Mr. McDodd?"

He quickly replied and asked, "Yes?"

"You have a meeting coming up in an hour. It'll start at around 1:30 and be here a little early."

"Yes, thank you, Ms. Yelp."

"You're welcome, sir."

He sighed heavily and was able to keep his mayoral duties on his mind. The thought about Paul beating his own stepsons and working at the city hall was just eating his mind and he tried everything to block it, but his mind was scattered across, because they were kids. He covered his face and just groaned in frustration that he just wanted to focus on work. He closed his eyes and eased down on his chair, just thinking.

"Why did he have a job here?" asked Ned.

The knock on his door startled him and he asked, "Who is it?"

"It's Paul."

The name sent shivers down Ned's spine that Paul could actually be in his office. He cleared his throat and politely said, "Come on in, sir."

Paul went in the office with a cart of mail coming in. He reached down and said, "Four messages for you."

He hands Ned four letters, but Ned just stared at him in the eye, looking nervous and petrified that he harms his stepsons at home, after witnessing that with his son and it was horrifying for him to see. Paul cleared his throat and asked, "You want them or what?"

Ned went back to reality quick and saw Paul holding four letters on his hand and grabs them and puts them in his desk. Then, he looked at Paul and said, "Thank you, sir."

"You feeling all right, Ned?"

"Um...sort of. What makes you ask me that question?"

There was a long pause between Paul and Ned and it seems as though the way Paul looks actually terrifies him to know that his stepsons were victims of child abuse. He cleared his throat again and said, "You know, your kids were...actually nice of us to come around our house and have dinner with us."

"Yeah, I got the text from Jonah yesterday. I don't text back, because I don't know how texting goes."

"I wish I knew how to text."

"That kid of yours-Jojo, right?-does he give you any trouble?"

"Well, not really. For some reason, he just stays quiet mostly until the ever famous Horton incident that occured a few months ago and we have a good relationship, so no. He doesn't give me any trouble at all."

"That's kinda weird. My father never actually spends time with me and he would always take out his anger on me. When I have a tough day at work, I just get so ticked off that I just try to take my anger out on something I can take at."

"No surprise at all." Ned said, softly.

Paul chuckled and said, "It's funny, because if I take my anger out on my stepkids, people would think I harm them."

Ned chuckled nervously and said, "Well, that sounds absurd."

Paul nodded his head, but then got into Ned's face and asked, "You would never say I beat up my kids, right?"

Ned knew it was something in his eyes that made him want to get more furious. He chucked softly and said, "Of course not."

"You got a problem with me, McDodd?"

"Um...no. You're...you're doing a...a very nice work here at City Hall."

"Good. Well, I guess that's it, then."

"Yeah."

"If I'm intimidated you, you'd tell me, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that. As far as I know, you're not that intimidating at all."

"Okay, good. Cause I have a short temper and I would flare at my stepsons for no reason, maybe even be a tiny violent towards them, but why would I do that? They're my stepsons after all. They respect me."

"I'm sure they do." he said, chuckling nervously.

"Good then. Have a good day, sir."

"You too."

Paul walks out of the door, leaving Ned sitting in his desk, just being intimidated by Paul's expressions and looks on his face. He shuddered silently and said to himself, "If they respect you, why do you beat them up?"

He doesn't know whether to keep silent about this or tell someone he knows about Paul when he's not at work. He groaned silently and laid his head down on the desk for a while. Another knock came in the door and he said, "Come in."

The door opens and it was one of the principal of Whoville High and he comes in and asked Ned, "Mr. McDodd?"

"Yes, can I help you?"

He sees Ned's head laying down on the desk and then, the principal said, "You might not remember me, but I'm Marshall Scott, Jojo's principal."

Ned opened his eyes, then looked at him in the eye and asked, "Is there something wrong there? Jojo's not getting in any trouble, is he?"

"No, sir. He's not in any trouble."

Ned breathed a heavy sigh of relief and said, "Oh, good. Then, what can I do for you?"

"I actually came to tell you that we have a little issue we're trying to settle with the new kids that moved from Whereville."

Ned's heart sank and asked, "The Mosley boys?"

"Yes, sir. One time when Jonah walked past me as I headed for the office, I saw a huge scar on his elbow that looks like something or someone has been injuring him. We don't know what the cause is, but I can tell that it might be a possiblity of child abuse. Then, later on, some boys were picking on him along with Sam, Travis, Cyrus and Hawk. When the coach came in to break up the fight, he sent them all to the nurses' office, and she saw scars, cuts, bruises, beatings and wounds in all parts of their bodies. She called me up in panic attack mode and I actually saw it in my own eyes. When I told them who did it, all they can say is that it was skateboard injury, fell down a tree or something like that, but I can sense that they're hiding something differently."

"What do you mean?"

"When those boys made excuses for their scars, Jojo was the first to tell me that their stepfather was responsible for it. I just wanted to know that was true that you witnessed it with him, too?"

He didn't want anyone else to know about, but Paul's not here and that he saw it unravel last night. He looked at the principal in the eye and said, "Yes. I actually saw it with Jojo last night after we dropped them off in their house."

"What made you notice it?"

"Well, when we we starting to walk back home, we can hear loud noises and screaming from there and we wanted to see if everything was okay, but then to our surprise, Paul literally-excuse my language-beat the living crap out of these young kids and I was shocked to see it coming. I asked myself, 'Why would he do something like that?' Now, I'm faced with a real dilemma-how to deal with Paul working as a janitor and mail clerk here."

"I can't tell you what to do, but if he worked in this high school and that I would see him beat his kids up-my students, of course-I would fire him and report him to the police."

"Well, thank you for telling me this, sir."

"You're quite welcome, sir. I know you have some mayoral duties to do and I don't want to keep you long enough."

"That's quite fine."

"Also, your son has been watching over these boys and he helped the coach stop the fight back at the gym. He seems like a good friend to them."

"He always relies on his friends and they rely on him, so."

"Anyway, I gotta get back to the school."

"Sure thing, sir."

"Goodbye, Mr. McDodd."

"Have a nice day."

"You too."

As soon as the prinicipal walks out of the office, Ned breathes heavily and he started to work on some important documents that Ms. Yelp left at his desk and started to sign it. Then, the intercom buzzes and Ms. Yelp comes up and said, "Mr. McDodd?"

"Yes, Ms. Yelp."

"It's about 1:15 and the meeting begins in 15 minutes."

"Okay, thank you for telling me."

As soon as he was finished with his duties, he rushes off to the council meeting to attend the meeting. This time, his job and the meeting was the main focus and he'll worry about the issue later on. But deep inside, he's struggling to think what's gonna happen to those kids now.

Paul is a strange and tense dude, but violent between his stepsons. So, what gonna happen next? Find out later on! Stick around!