Bull Law

The new student, James, sat at his square, wooden desk and wrote his name on a name tag taped to the top left corner. All students were instructed to do so and to be sure to have made it unique.

Just as James slid his marker and slab of stickers into the open slot beneath his desk, a boy with parted blonde hair and thick glasses tapped on the wooden surface. It startled James, for being the new kid in school, he did not know any of the other students. And, being home schooled up to 3rd grade hadn’t allowed him the experience to immediately indulge in conversation.

With a fixed expression, the boy said, “Welcome. I am Michael.” He spoke softly.

He shook James’ hand firmly as if they were adults. “I’m James,” James murmured, those having been the first words he had uttered since his mom ushered him to his seat.

“I don’t mean to rush you, but you must do something before the bell rings…in –” Michael glanced at the clock, counted on his fingers, and muttered to himself while doing so. “2 minutes.”

“Okay?” James squinted and gave the classroom a quick eye-sweep to see if any of the other students were seeing this.

“Please go to the last desk in your row. You’ll know which desk because there will be a bull drawn on the name tag.” With that, Michael left. James shuttered as if he had glimpsed a ghost and then thought to himself – how strange. Is this how all schools were?

However strange it was, James did as the boy asked. He pushed his chair back and, having squeaked the linoleum floor, distracted the curly-haired brunette girl behind him. After the initial frown she gave, she smiled and waved as if she were sitting on a float in a parade.

James forced an uncomfortable smile and passed her without a word.

He arrived at the last desk and matched the name tag with Michael’s description.

His eyes trailed from the name tag all the way to the small boy’s hazel eyes who sat behind it. He had tan skin, dark black hair, and he did not even look up at first. “James,” the boy said as if he knew him – as if they had been tracking him throughout his elementary school years up to this point. He clasped his hands and rested his elbows on the desk.

“As you can see –” the boy guided James to the name tag with his eyes. “I am Rafael. But call me, Bull.” He quickly looked at James’ eyes. “This must be brief. Meet us on the black top for a game of kickball at recess.” He lifted his chin and once-overed the room. “Along with Michael, there will be a few others with us to decide the teams.”

“Okay?” James responded. “Sounds good.” Uncertainty had kept James from smirking. This must be some joke, he thought.

The classroom door opened. “Go,” said Bull. As James spun towards his desk, Bull said quietly, “Do not let anyone hear you call me Bull.”

A light chill ran down James’ spine. This reassured him that not smirking at Bull had been a good decision. This was no joke.

From there, teacher after teacher had made James stand to introduce himself. Each time, he did, rather than screening the students, his eyes drifted to Bull. But Bull had looked downward for each introduction as if James were of no interest to him. It didn’t make sense, thought James.

Recess came.

James dared not dismiss the fact that he was summoned. All the kids sprinted out to the yard, playground, and black top.

James peered curiously at each group of kids who were bouncing around like escaped hamsters. Shouldn’t he be doing something similar? he contemplated.

After being lost in thought for a moment, James stumbled up to Bull, who was practically hiding behind Michael and another larger boy. This group was standing face-to-face with two other sets of boys, both again, larger than Bull. These boys hadn’t been in the classes with James, however seemed to be about the same age as they were.

Bull stepped to the left side of Michael, using him as a blockade from the teachers. “Welcome, James.” He nodded to James and the others did the same. “I will remind everyone as to why we are here.” He glanced back at the teachers. “Boys, be sure to randomly act angrily, or pout, while Michael acts thrilled and celebrates. Put your hands in your pockets, or even move from side to side, like kids. We cannot have them disturb this meeting.” All of them nodded very seriously.

Bull continued, “This is my 3rd term as Bull of Bull Law…we’ve established this to prevent bullying within all three teams.” Michael laughed, clutching his stomach while the others pouted and stuffed their hands in their pockets…just as Bull had ordered. “We have two chiefs and three acting chiefs. And James, you will be our Informer.”

James winced and raised an eyebrow, “An Informer?”

“Yes,” Bull curtly affirmed and then kept going as if James did not have a choice.

“Woa, woa, woa.” James stepped ahead and removed his hands from his pockets. “Look…thank you for this. Really, I appreciate it. But this is my first –”

Another boy, the largest one, stepped forward cracking his knuckles. “You don’t get to –”

“Easy, Ian. Easy.” Bull circled around Michael and leapt up to pat Ian’s shoulder. “We’re not the bullies.”

Bull looked at James and bit his top lip. “You’re new,” he opened his palms. “And usually, I would let you decide.” All of the chiefs and acting chiefs fell back and started kicking the ball to each other. Still, blockading the teachers from seeing James and Bull’s exchange.

“You want me to tattle tale?” James stopped and asked him.

“In a way, I do, yes. But you must be anonymous. When we provide the information to you, being the new guy…” James thought, I get it now. “…You would relay this to a teacher. The only reason for this, and it is very important, is to prevent a bully from succeeding.”

“Why did this need to happen today?” James asked understandably.

“Look at the playground…that’s Kimball.” Bull pointed to a larger girl with shoulder-length brown hair whom James did not recognize. She shoved a smaller boy about the size of Bull and then pushed a girl, the curly-haired brunette from earlier, from the swing set. “Because I’m going to need you today.”

“Before we arrive to lunch, you must inform our teacher of this.” He placed his hand on James’ shoulder. “This is not her first offense today.”

The bell rang. Recess was over.

“We must not let it get worse. The threat must be prevented before it becomes uncontrollable,” said Bull.

James understood.

The teacher had been ruffling through her desk when James entered the room.

“Hi, James,” she exclaimed. “It’s lunch time now. I’ll walk you over.”

James paced, somewhat ashamed, to her desk. He was not one to tattle tale. It had seemed so easy, so purposeful, when Bull had described the importance of his duty.

“Everything okay, James? Your first day going well?”

“Everything is fine,” James exhaled. “I, um…” He looked from side to side, then wandered his eyes around the room. He was practically shaking.

“James?” She pressed on, clearly seeing he was befuddled.

“Nothing, I’m sorry.” His shoulders slouched. He couldn’t do it. “Thank you for reminding me it’s lunch time.”

The teacher stared at him with a raised brow. “Okay then, let’s go.”

They walked together to the cafeteria down the quiet corridor, having passed lockers on either side for the older students.

Just as the teacher opened the cafeteria door, she was called over to an office. “Go ahead, James. I will join all of you in a moment.”

As James set foot in the cafeteria, his chest tightened from the scene that was just ahead of him.

Across the room, Bull was lying on the ground with his eyes closed. Kimball was standing near him clutching her lunch tray while Michael and the other acting Chiefs tried to settle her. “I know it’s him pulling the strings,” she glared. “You little punk. Get up!” She was seething.

Something must have gone wrong with his plan, James’ heart was pounding. Was Bull okay?

Michael stepped forward. “Kimball –”

“You weak little wingman!” She lunged towards Michael with her tray wound up. “I didn’t hit him. He’s faking!”

James kicked the cafeteria door open and yelled. “Hey!”

Everyone in the lunchroom stopped what they were doing as their eyes shifted to James who was shaking so badly he could barely even stand.

A small stampede of squeaking shoes ran towards him, teachers. Why had none of them been in the cafeteria?

“James?” The teacher ran through the door to see Kimball with her tray in hand and Bull lying there. Michael and the other acting chief had joined the crowd in the mean time.

“Everyone out of the lunchroom, now!” yelled a male teacher. Kimball dropped the tray.

James’ teacher placed her arm around him. “What happened James?”

The male teacher went over and knelt by Bull. Another calmly walked Kimball out of the cafeteria.

James realized in that moment that to prevent something like this from happening again, although he did not see the actual event, he had to lie. James spilled out, “She hit him, Miss Kiersten. I saw it.” James panted. “She was shoving kids on the playground earlier, too.” He was on the verge of tears. He had not realized the magnitude of Bull’s plan and how truly important it was. Unfortunately, he was too late.

After the traumatism of Rafael (Bull) being delivered to the nurse’s office and James to the last class of the day, James was not sure he was ready for this. His first day was nothing short of a nightmare.

He sat in class wondering about Bull. The teacher’s voice was distant and time seemed to inch by. The class wasn’t even told whether Bull was okay or not. The teacher addressed the situation almost like it was a script, reminding students of the dangers of bullying – without mentioning Rafaels’ or Kimball’s names.

The last bell of the day rung. As students squished their way through the doors, Michael calmly tossed his backpack over his shoulder and joined James at the back of the exit line. He patted James and whispered, “You did well today, James.”

James breathed in. “I was late, Michael.”

Michael smiled at James and patted him once more before leaving the school through a different door. “Not at all, James.”

As James was about to leave the building, Bull emerged from the nurses’ office. The nurse squeezed his small shoulder and waved him off.

Bull walked up to James and passed through his outstretched arm holding the door.

Bull seemed fine. “You okay?” James asked quizzically.

“Of course.” Bull smiled a toothy smile. “I’m very good. They’re going to keep a close watch on Kimball…they promised.” He puffed his chest out. “We did it, James. Your timing couldn’t have been better.”

“You were hit, Bull. You were lying unconscious on the floor,” said James.

“I was lying on the floor. But I was not unconscious, and I most certainly was not hit.”

James’ heart sunk into his stomach. “You faked it?”

“Had to. You saw how she was. This will buy us plenty of time with her in a month of detention.”

“A month?” James’ mouth dropped.

Bull parted from James and headed for his ride. He pulled on the handle of his mini-van and was greeted by an overly excited mother. “How was your first day?” she exclaimed.

Before lifting his leg into the vehicle, Bull turned around and said to James. “If you have a better plan for next time, you let me know.”