As the school buzzer rang for recess to begin, all the kids bolted out the door. All the kids except James Kent. As Miss Delilah managed the chaos of the flood of children washing past her, she turned her attention to James. As she walked over to him he looked up at her, his lip quivering. “Miss Delilah, can you call the other boys by their middle names? I’m a little embarrassed by mine now.” Miss Delilah took a moment to think of the other boys and what their names would be: Harry Dicks, Ronald MacDonald, Benjamin Dover and Seymour Butts. As Miss Delilah patted him on the head she smiled. “I can try calling you James K. if that’ll help at all.” James nodded in agreement. “I just felt like you wanted to make fun of my name was all.” Miss Delilah shook her head and laughed, “Actually I thought your parents did the best job naming you, so I thought I’d use your middle name.” As James leapt from his desk and toward the door, he stopped suddenly and spun around to face Miss Delilah again. “Who is superman?”

After his talk with Miss Delilah, James found himself with very little recess left. As he stepped outside the door, he began unwrapping the chocolate bar his mother had given him for lunch. Suddenly it was yanked from his hands. “Hey that’s mine!” As he turned to face the thief he realized that it was the kid from his class who called him Superman. “Give it back!” James reached for the bar while he was held at bay. Other kids pointed and laughed but no one would help him. The bully pushed James backward and watched at he tripped and fell to the ground. “What’s wrong Clark Kent? No tights, no powers?” The bully laughed and ate the chocolate bar in front of everyone. James sat on the ground staring at everyone. This definitely wasn’t the best of first days, and he was glad he had told Willow about his imaginary day at school. Finally the bully polished off the bar and tossed the wrapper at James. “You’ll always be a Super Zero loser!” As the bully and his gang walked off, James rose to his feet and dusted himself off. The buzzer finally sounded as an end to recess for the day.

The classroom was full by the time James got back, and Miss Delilah hurried him to his seat. Much to his dismay, the bully had switched seats with one of the other kids and was now directly behind him. James stared out the window and saw a girl with a tangled mess of hair, like hay, playing on the playground all alone. As he watched he felt compelled to tell Miss Delilah, but instead didn’t. After all, that girl looked way happier out there than he was in the classroom. As the teacher handed out small paint sets, James knew this wouldn’t end well. He looked at his nice brown pants, and his white shirt. All I’ve got to do is be extra careful. No spilling it. As James painted his name he found himself far more advanced than most of the other children. Some of them couldn’t write their name at all, especially his bully behind him. As James marvelled at how well he was doing, suddenly his back felt damp. As he reached back to touch it, he pulled his hand back soaked in blue paint. The bully pointed and laughed, and then tried to argue that it was an accident. The class was all laughing by this point and James could barely take it. He got up and walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Miss Delilah sent the bully to the office and gave James the time he needed to calm down. As the bell for lunch tolled, James emerged from the bathroom and into the concerned gaze of his teacher . “James are you all right?” James sat down on the floor and sighed. He wasn’t all right. His best friend in the world wouldn’t be at home to make him feel better and he would have to spend the entire school year with this bully. “No Miss. I’d like to go home.” The look on Miss Delilah’s face showed her heart was breaking for him. “It’ll be ok. I can have him moved to another class or even move him away from you in this one if you’d like?” James nodded and looked out toward the playground. The girl with the tangled hair was gone. James knew his only chance would be to wait outside after the bell to see if she came back. “I’ll go eat my lunch Miss Delilah. Thank you.” As James left the room Miss Delilah shook her head. She knew how hard it was to go through bullying, maybe it was time to fight back.

James walked into the cafeteria and the smell of delicious foods teased him. He knew he only had a ham sandwich, but after recess he was really hungry. As he looked around for a seat, he found one at a table with a bunch of other people. As he sat down however, the table emptied. Do I look sick or something? What’s wrong with me? Suddenly a shadow loomed over him, and he just knew who it was. “I’m not giving you my sandwich, so go away.” The bully wasn’t about to ask. As he grabbed for the sandwich, James thrust half of it into his mouth. The bully wasn’t very happy about that and punched James in the face. Tears welled up in his eyes and he found himself crying before he could try and stop it. The bully stood up on the seat beside him and pointed him out yet again. “Poor little Super Zero, can’t stop crying long enough to finish his stupid sandwich.” James sat there humiliated. The sandwich tasted terrible, kind of like the taste the time he bit his lip. As the bully ran off a teacher stormed in to see what the commotion was. James dried his eyes and tried to pretend nothing was wrong. “Oh my, you’d best come with me young man.” The teacher pulled James from his seat and headed toward the Principal’s office.

As they hurried along Mrs Stein opened the door to her office, “Oh my gosh, what happened?” The teacher looked to James for an answer. “I… I bit my lip.” The teacher shook her head and the Principal waived her off. After the door closed behind the teacher, Mrs Stein looked to James again. “You didn’t bite your lip that hard. It looks like someone hit you.” James didn’t want to open that door. He knew that if he told her who it was, it could be worse next time. “It was a friend, he hit me by accident.” He looked to her to see if she bought it, which she didn’t. “Well where was this friend of yours when the teacher found you crying?” James winced as Mrs Stein dabbed a cloth on his lip. “He didn’t mean to and he knew he was in trouble. So he ran.” Mrs Stein still wasn’t buying it, but she didn’t want to press it further. “James, you know you can come and talk to me any time and about anything, right?” James nodded. Suddenly the bell rang ending lunch and Mrs Stein stood up, helping James out of the chair he was sitting in. “I’ll take you back to your class.” James looked around frantically, he wanted to meet the girl at the playground!