As James wandered the halls with Mrs Stein, he desperately wanted to go to the playground. What if that girl with the tangled hair was waiting for him? How could she, James thought, she didn’t even know he existed. As Miss Delilah met Mrs Stein at the door, the two had a brief discussion about bullying. Miss Delilah had her suspicions as to what may have happened, and Mrs Stein said she’d make a call. James stayed out of the conversation for the most part, his main focus was seeing if there was a girl outside on the playground. As he walked into the classroom, he saw that the bully had been moved from behind him to the opposite corner of the class. He also noticed that the bully was giving him the meanest look he had ever seen.

The window seemed like a nice quiet place, no bullies out there for now, barely anyone around the school yard. Barely anyone, except a young girl with tangled hair, playing in the mud. James looked behind him to see if anyone noticed her, but they all seemed oblivious. He stopped to look at the boy behind him, who was just staring at his blank piece of paper. “Hi, I’m James, I’m glad you-” The boy looked up with a grumpy look on his face. “When the teacher told me to switch seats, that kid told me he was going to make me pay for it. It’s not even my fault!” As James looked back to the bully, he saw him leering in his direction. He looked back to the boy behind him. “I don’t even know his name, all I know is he’s mean.” The boy nodded. “I’m Alex, and I think his name is James.” They both turned to look at him again and he made a fist in their general direction. Both boys sighed and turned to look straight ahead again.

Miss Delilah finally entered the classroom and apologized for the delay. “Sorry everyone, I just had a little talk with our principal, Mrs Stein. As we all know, bullying is wrong and if anyone is caught bullying another student their parents will be called and they will be sent home.” She looked around the room to judge the response from the kids. “That starts today, on the first day of classes. I want you to know I’m disappointed in those of you who would bully. You know who you are.” As the kids all looked around, even the bully played it innocently. “Miss Delilah looked unimpressed, but continued on. “Today we’re going to start counting, now who can count to ten?”

Counting and the order of numbers seemed to be the lesson for the afternoon as most of the children could barely count higher than five. Miss Delilah was having trouble paying attention to all the children who needed help. Apparently children weren’t learning at home any more, Miss Delilah thought, I suppose that was what teachers are for. As the final bell tolled for the day, James couldn’t wait to get away from school. As he put on his outdoor shoes, he felt something squishy inside. Upon closer inspection, he had found some gum on the inside of his shoes. He looked around and spotted the bully smiling to himself. James had enough at this point. He marched right over and brought the gum to the bully’s attention. “You put gum in my shoe?” The bully smiled coyly. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. There’s a lot of kids in this class who like gum.” James grew tired of the games and shoved the bully, much to the shock of the other kids. The bully leapt back tackling poor James to the ground and pulling at his hair. Miss Delilah burst into action, tearing the two apart. “What is wrong with you both, sit here, you’re coming to the office with me after everyone leaves.”

As the two watched everyone leave, Miss Delilah turned to them. “This is the first day, you should both be ashamed of yourselves. James Kent, why are you involved at all? I expected more from you.” She then turned to the grinning bully and smiled to herself. “James Ronald MacDonald, you too should be ashamed of yourself. Just because you have the same name as a clown doesn’t mean you have to act like one!” The bully sank into his chair and James laughed to himself. Ronald MacDonald and he had curly red hair. James wasn’t worried about being bullied for a little bit. As they went to the office, Miss Delilah went in ahead of them to talk with the principal. The bully suddenly turned to James. “Hey… I’m really sorry for bullying you.” James rolled his eyes, he didn’t believe him for a second. But then the bully continued. “In preschool I wore a yellow shirt one day, and someone just called me Ronald MacDonald. It stuck, it was why we moved here.” He looked at the ground and scuffed his foot around the floor. “I didn’t want to be bullied, so I started the bullying.” James turned and looked the bully straight in the eye. “If you didn’t like being bullied, don’t do it to others Ronald MacDonald.”

As the principal ushered them both in, James went in and climbed into the chair. The bully soon followed suit, looking noticeably distraught. Mrs Stein looked at both boys. “What happened today is not to happen again. Do I make myself clear?” James nodded and the bully agreed as well. Mrs Stein looked at the bully for a moment. “What’s wrong James?” The bully grinned quickly to himself and looked up at Mrs Stein. “He tried to start the rumour that I was Ronald MacDonald!” James was baffled by the accusation. As he looked at the principal he realized she had been informed about the bully’s being teased in preschool. “James, I don’t know how you got that information, but it is not to be heard around here, do you understand? If you say anything at all about it, you’ll find yourself in detention for a year!” James was stunned. “But he-” Mrs Stein cut him off. “No buts young man, now go, your bus cannot wait forever!”

James walked to his bus with rage inside. He couldn’t believe the principal had literally taken away the only leverage he had against Ronald MacDonald.  With that gone, the bully literally had free reign to bully him all year round and had an easy excuse to get James in trouble. Suddenly McDonalds as a fast food chain was much less his favourite, no matter if they had happy meals or not. Although he laughed to himself when he thought about why Grimace was rarely smiling, maybe Ronald McDonald was a bully too. The Hamburgler was probably stealing a new lunch to replace the one Ronald stole from him. Before he knew it, it was his stop. The bus driver nodded as James got off the bus and his mother was already standing there. She had tears in her eyes and hugged him ever so tight. James suddenly remembered that Willow wasn’t going to be home for him when he got there. After everything that happened today, he needed her most now. Finally everything caught up with him, and the tears forced their way through no matter how much he fought them.