Jim set off to school, but he did not want to go. He did not have many friends and when he did get to play, the other boys picked on him. He was not ‘sporty’ and he was a little bit fat. Today, no one would play with him.

The teacher had noticed that Jim did not have many friends and asked a group of boys to get Jim to join them with a game. Billy and Jeff had played with Jim before but also had bullied him. They decided to have some fun, but it was not fun for Jim.

The boys decided to play ‘tag’ and Billy suggested that Jim went first and had to catch them. They did this because they knew Jim would be too slow and not be able to catch up with them all. Jim knew what they were doing, and it made him sad. He played along anyway because he was at least playing with someone.

Jeff started to laugh and call Jim names, and the others joined in. Jim decided this was too much and he left to sit by himself.

This was witnessed by an older boy named Frank, who all the boys liked because he was sporty and popular. Frank went up to the group and told them to apologize to Jim because they were bullies and they were not being very nice.

Billy and Jeff said ‘sorry’ but they did not really mean it, they just said it to impress Frank

sorry

Yeah, Sorry

Frank then asked Jim to join him and his friends. Over the next few days Frank kept an eye out for Jim at lunchtimes and made sure he was okay. This gave Jim some confidence and he started to meet other kids at school.

Through Jim’s new friends he ended up playing with Billy and Jeff one day. When they tried to pick on him, Jim’s new friends backed him up. Jim also felt confident with their support to stand up for himself and told Billy and Jeff they were not good friends, and that no one wanted to play with them because they were bullies.