The Secretary {Once-ler x Reader}

The Legend of the Greedy Greed-ler (Chapter 1)

     "This valley used to be covered with truffula trees, all of different heights and colors. But one day..."

     "What? What happened?" asked the small circle of children, leaning forward in their seats, a hunger for excitement in their eyes.

     "One day... They were chopped by the nasty GREED-LER!" N exclaimed, shaping her hands into claws. In reply, shrieks and laughter united as some children cowered and others clapped. N leaned back with a smile, satisfied with her storytelling.

     "Yeah, do you think it's really wise to talk about your boss that way?" FN, her roommate, asked, cleaning a mess that one of the children she was babysitting made. She looked at her dirty rag and sighed.

     "What? Don't tell me you don't think the same way," N teased, getting up and stretching. She looked down at the expectant children, feeling a tad bit guilty about scaring some of them. "I was just kidding, guys. No worries."

     "Yeah yeah, can you give me a hand?" FN asked, tossing a small towel in her direction as N walked toward her.

     N caught the towel and threw it back at her.

     "Look, I can help with other things, but there's no way I'm touching that goop," she said, pointing at the mess on the ground. "And in any case, I have to get going."

     "But you don't have to be at work for another hour."

     "I know. But I'm cooking up a plan to defeat that tyrant."

     N put her coat on and headed out the door before FN could stop her, thinking about everything that had changed over the years. For one thing, Greenville was now Thneedville. Not only that, but the air was much worse than before and she could only guess that it was due to the deforestation of the nearby truffula trees.

     But nobody seemed to care. They were all more obsessed with those thneeds than with the surrounding ecosystem, just like N had been long ago, long before getting a job as the Once-ler's secretary, long before seeing the hurt animals affected by the pollution from the factory.

     It's only been a year, yet he seems to trust me a lot.

     As she pondered that thought, N realized that she could use that against him. If she could find some way to slow down the tree cutting machines, then she could have more time to come up with a better plan, all while not being a suspect. But that seemed too difficult.

     Finally, a plan came to her: she could just vandalize his "Too Big to Fail" picture in the hallway near his office. It wasn't much, but it could surely lower morale and make workers paranoid, thus lowering work performance. It was the perfect plan for someone who never comes up with plans.

     While she was walking, lost in thought, N arrived at the building and opened the door.