A “Bully”

Zach was starving. His stomach was making so much noise he was sure Principal Zoober could hear it all the way on the other side of the school. Skipping a snack had been a bad idea, but Zach had really wanted to get the fourth level of the video game coded. He was making it for his sister. Since he was the first of his Puppy Pack to enter the lunchroom, it was up to him to find them all the seats.

The cafeteria, while giant, seemed small since Zach’s grade shared the lunchroom with the oldest and biggest grade at Pine Grove. After scanning the rows of tables and chairs several times, he finally spotted a table with enough open spots to seat the whole Puppy Pack. He quickly ran over and spread his jacket, backpack and lunch around so no one else would sit there before his friends had filtered into the lunchroom. Zach took a quick look around and spotted Cora and Emily in the lunch line. They were normally the last to enter since they liked to chat, so he knew that the others must be right behind them.

Hungry, Zach opened his lunch box quickly. He grabbed the first thing he saw: a banana. He peeled it and shoveled it into his mouth as he inspected the rest of his lunchbox. Zach rolled his eyes as he pulled out the fruit, cut into numbers today, and his two peanut butter sandwiches in the shape of playing cards. Zach felt he was a little old for themed lunchboxes, but he did always admire his papa’s creative knife skills.

He dug around a little more and finally found his napkin. It was Zach’s favorite part of his lunchbox. In his papa’s perfect handwriting, it read:

The Nintendo Gaming Company has existed since 1889. Before video games, they made decks of cards! Maybe a game of Go–Fish with Marie and I tonight? You’re my favorite oldest child! Love, Papa

Zach smiled; game night with his little sister and his papa sounded like fun, but maybe he could talk them into a game of Pawio Kart instead. Go-Fish sounded a little old school to Zach who was a big fan of anything computer related.

“What was the fun fact today?” Zach’s best friend, Tess, asked as she shoved his jacket out of the way to set her lunch box down.

Cora, Scarlett, Jacob and Emily followed; they all opened lunch boxes or took bites of the school’s meal while Zach told them the fun fact.

“I’m so impressed. I feel like he’s never repeated a fact, even though he’s been doing this since we were in kindergarten together!” Emily said between bites of her chicken. “Oh! How is your video game coming along? Is it almost done?”

Zach was excited to share the progress he had made on his game.

Zach’s little sister Marie was in kindergarten at Pine Grove. Zach and Marie loved to play video games together. So, he had been working to make a video game to help her learn to decode one-syllable words and read “sight words.” While she loved school and learning, she was struggling with reading. Her letters would swim and move on her because she had something her teacher had called “dyslexia,” meaning it was hard for her to see the letters in the right order and sound out words. Since her letters would move, she would mistake her “d’s” for “b’s” and vice versa.

“Sight words are words you can’t sound out, so you just memorize them,” Zach explained as he filled the Puppy Pack in on his progress on the game. “Ms. Herd helped me code the fourth level. It’s all about silent letters! My papa thought it might be too hard, but I think she can do it,” Zach explained through oversized bites of his sandwich.

A hand reached over Zach’s shoulder and snatched his extra sandwich and napkin.

“What is this?!” mocked one of the older students, Craig, as he held the napkin and sandwich high up in the air, out of Zach’s reach. “Awww, this widdle baby still gets notes from his dada! Uh oh, does widdle baby Zach need a diapie change?” Craig mocked as he waved the note and sandwich in the air. Zach could feel his whole face get hot as it turned bright red. Everyone who sat at the surrounding tables turned to look at them and his themed sandwich.

“Cut it out, you bully!” Zach heard Tess say as she stood up and snatched the sandwich and napkin from Craig’s hands. “Go pick your nose, and leave us alone,” she added, sitting back down and throwing an arm around Zach’s hunched shoulders. Zach was usually the one to stand up for his friends, and it felt nice to have one of his friends stand up for him for once. A warm feeling rushed over him, and his body relaxed a bit into the chair, but his stomach started to hurt when he looked down at the rest of his lunch.

Zach packed the rest of the food back up and headed out to the playground, going straight to his favorite place and climbing all the way to the top of the play structure. He waved at his classmates down below before he sat down on his favorite dip at the top. Zach dug around in his backpack a little until he found his Switch. Powering it on, he started his favorite game and relaxed again, making sure to keep it low since they were not supposed to have video games on the playground.

The bell rang to head back to class. With his head clear, he decided that tomorrow he would make sure to sit all the way across the cafeteria from Craig.

Hiding Out

Even though his friends stood up for him, each day Zach felt worse and worse. No matter where Zach chose to sit that week, Craig came over to criticize his lunch. The first day he snatched a part of Zach’s lunch and started to make fun of it. On the second day, Zach was called a “daddy’s boy” and made fun of for getting notes in his lunch. On the third day, Craig grabbed Zach’s whole lunch box before he had even sat down. He started to make fun of the color, purple, picked out for him by Marie. Though Zach was typically outgoing and stood up for his friends, he wasn’t able to do the same for himself. Zach wished his papa wouldn’t write him notes anymore, that he could just have a plain, boring lunch like the other kids, but he immediately felt guilty, because he knew his papa worked so hard on them.

The next week Zach started hiding parts of his lunch in his backpack. At morning snack, he would sift through his lunch box and take out the stuff he thought Craig might make fun of him for. Nothing seemed to keep the bully away. After two weeks, Zach started to not want to go to school at all. He had tried to fake sick a few times, but Papa had just told Zach to try, and if he still felt bad, to go to the nurse and he would come to get him.

“Please, Mr. Flock!” Zach stood at Mr. Flock’s desk using his very best puppy eyes. “I only need like five minutes to eat, and I REALLY want to work on my video game! Ms. Herd said it’s one of the best she’s seen!”

Zach shifted on his feet. He didn’t like to lie, but he did not want to go into the cafeteria at all. Yesterday had been an especially bad day because Craig had gotten a few more of the older boys to make fun of him too.

“Zach, it should take you more than five minutes to eat lunch,” Mr. Flock responded as he looked over his glasses. “Is something going on at lunch? You can tell me, you know.”

“Nothing is going on! I just want to work on my project!” Zach said.

His stomach started to hurt even more; he hated to lie, especially to Mr. Flock, who was his second favorite teacher. He just felt he could not go into the cafeteria today without bursting into tears, an action he was sure Craig would love.

“Fine. I will write you a note for ONLY today. After today, you have to spend the required 15 minutes in the cafeteria, okay? I know Ms. Herd does not allow food in her computer room. You better head to the cafeteria first,” Mr. Flock said while he wrote out the pass.

“Thank you!” Zach grabbed the pass and ran for the door, intending to head right for the computer room.

“Ah, Zach, your lunch?” said Mr. Flock

“Haha, right! Sorry!” Zach said.

Zach jogged to his hook and pulled the lunch box from his backpack. He felt Mr. Flock watching him and turned toward the cafeteria. After he had counted 20 steps, he stopped and snuck back past the classroom to the computer room. Before stepping inside the computer room, he unzipped his lunch box and dumped half the contents into the trash, just in case Mr. Flock decided to check on his lunch. While Zach played through the first level to check for bugs, he contemplated the different ways he might be able to get out of lunches for the rest of the week.

The next day, Zach left his lunch in his papa’s car, but that backfired when two hours before lunch his papa dropped it off for him in the office. Craig called him a “monster baby.” Zach tried to stay in the bathroom for the required 15 minutes of cafeteria time before heading outside for recess. That worked for a few days before another adult noticed he was missing from the cafeteria.

Next, he tried talking to teachers until he could head out to recess. Zach even pretended to have a stomach-ache to get sent to the nurse. It worked for a little bit until his stomach grumbled so loud that the nurse deemed it a hunger pain and sent him to the cafeteria. That day after school, he was stopped by his Puppy Pack.

“Zach, you have to tell someone!” Cora said, hands on her hips and her face plastered with a frown.

He knew she was right, but he didn’t want to bother anyone with his problem.

“You can’t keep skipping lunch! It is not good for your brain. And I noticed you’re starting to get some bad grades in our afternoon classes,” Scarlett added as Zach kicked a rock and listened to his stomach gurgle.

“Why should I tell anyone? It doesn’t bother me. I think you guys are overreacting. I’ve just been busy these last few weeks is all.” Zach spotted his papa’s car and pushed past his friends. “Just leave it alone, okay? I’m fine. I have to go. I’m fine. Really.”

They all grouped around him again before he reached the car, blocking his door with their bodies.

“Look. If you don’t tell someone and you keep skipping lunch, I’m going to Principal Zoober myself,” Tess said, her arms crossed across her chest. “We care about you, Zach. We’re your best friends. We know that you’re upset by what Craig’s doing, and it is not okay for him to keep treating you this way,” Scarlett added. “We have tried to stand up for you, but it is time to tell an adult,” she said.

“I’ll figure something out,” Zach mumbled as he pushed his way into the car next to his little sister. He had really hoped it would just go away.

Zach smiled at Marie as she started to chatter about her day in kindergarten. His stomach interrupted her story and she frowned.

“Zachy is hungry, Papa!” Marie shouted. “We need snacks!”

Zach’s papa laughed and handed back a snack and water. “You’ve been hungry a lot after school recently,” he said. “Are you growing or something?” he joked, but Zach could barely muster a forced chuckle in return. “I’ll start packing you some extra food,” Papa said as he turned the car onto their street.

“Oh, uh, that’s okay, Papa. Thanks anyway,” Zach said. “I think my growth spurt is over.”

Quick and Boring

That Sunday, Zach took a deep breath and stepped into the kitchen where his papa carefully peeled an orange. It had to be for Marie’s lunch. She hated the white part of the orange rind. His papa used to peel Zach’s oranges the same way, until one day, when he was five, Zach figured out how to peel it himself and had demanded unpeeled

oranges ever since.

“Papa, can I talk to you?” Zach asked in a voice that came out smaller than he’d intended. He was going to ask his papa to stop making lunches. His papa had always said it was his favorite thing to do, and Zach didn’t want to make him feel bad. Deep down, Zach wanted to keep his themed lunches. But his friends were right. He had to start eating lunch again; his math grades were slipping. You needed at least a B+ to participate in the school’s extra computer class. Without it, he would fall behind on coding his sister’s game.

“Sure thing, kiddo, what’s up?” Zach’s papa said as he opened a drawer full of cookie cutters and selected a large circle.

Zach watched as his papa cut Marie’s bread and placed a thin ring of cheese on the outside.

“Does this look like Saturn to you?” he asked, holding up the bread to give Zach a better look.

“I think Saturn is more…brown,” Zach said, remembering the few weeks of planets they had studied in science class.

“Huh,” his papa said, glancing over at the stove. “Okay, toasted sandwich it is!” he exclaimed, turning on the burner and placing the sandwich into a pan.

“Can you make me a normal lunch from now on?” Zach asked. The words came out in a rush. “And no more notes!” he added, a little too loudly.

He immediately regretted it when his papa’s face fell and he paused what he was doing.

“Oh…well, sure, I suppose I can do that,” he said, pausing and staring at the Saturn sandwich fixings. His papa’s face scrunched up. “But why?” he asked. “I thought you loved my lunches.”

“I’m not a baby anymore!” Zach replied, suddenly feeling frustrated. “Only babies get notes in their lunchboxes,” he added, unable to look his papa in the eye.

Papa was quiet for what felt to Zach like a long time. Then he gently placed his paw on Zach’s shoulder.

“I don’t think that’s the whole story, Bud,” he said. “But I won’t put notes in your lunch anymore,” he said, “and whenever you’re ready to tell me the real reason, I’ll be all ears,” he said, wiggling his ears to cheer Zach up.

A lump formed in Zach’s throat. He wanted to tell his papa everything about Craig, but he didn’t. He just threw his arms around his papa’s waist and squeezed. They stood like that for a minute.

“We will have to find another way for me to show you I love you,” Papa said, breaking the silence. “What do you think: extra hugs in the morning?” Papa asked as he went back to making the lunches. “

Yeah,” Zach replied, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Sounds good.”

The next day, Zach opened his lunch box and pulled out his plain and boring lunch with an extra plain and boring napkin. He saw Craig looking at him across the cafeteria and held up his empty napkin. Craig raised an eyebrow and went back to his lunch.

“Hey, Zach! I’m glad you came to lunch today!” Tess said as she sat down next to him.

“Why is your lunch all plain?” Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.

“And boring,” Cora added, her nose scrunched up as if she were eating chopped liver.

“I told my papa to stop making me special lunches so Craig would leave me alone,” Zach said through a mouthful of plain and boring sandwich. He ate his lunch as quickly as possible. Even though there was nothing in it for Craig to make fun of, he didn’t want to give him a chance.

“But they were the favorite part of your day,” Emily said sadly. And how will I find research topics now?” she added.

The rest of the group laughed.

“I’m sure you’ll have no problem with that,” Cora said with a giggle.

“Anyway, the video game is coming along nicely,” Zach said, changing the subject. “I got a list of the sight words that Marie’s class is going to be working on next month, so I want to make her another level. She’s been really upset that she’s not as far along in her reading as the other kids.” He was looking forward to her birthday in a few weeks; the game was almost finished.

“I don’t know, I just feel like if you talk to someone about what Craig has been doing, you could have your fun notes and not be in such a hurry at lunch,” Jacob said. “We miss you,” he added quietly.

Zach shrugged and shoved in the last two bites of his sandwich. He could hear Craig

and his friends laughing and wanted to leave. He packed up quickly and headed to the computer lab. “We’ll catch up later,” he promised and left his friends at the table.

Zach’s new pattern of a quick and boring lunch followed by time in the computer lab seemed to be working. He hadn’t heard anything from Craig in two weeks! Zach’s mood was lifting, and he started to spend more and more of his lunch period with his friends.

“Marie’s class is working on small sight words like ‘or,’ ‘and,’ and ‘the,’” Zach explained to Jacob, who had asked about the progress on the video game Zach was coding for Marie.

Zach pulled his notebook out of his bag to show Jacob the notes he had taken when he talked to Marie’s teacher, Ms. Raft. He had enjoyed his conversation with Marie’s teacher. Zach had learned that about 15 percent of the population has some form of dyslexia. He also learned that some people mistakenly think dyslexia is about getting letters or numbers mixed up or out of order, but rather it is a sound processing problem that has visual factors, which is why the letters get mixed up. Ms. Herd also pointed out that people with dyslexia lead normal, successful lives. So, giving Marie helpful skills now would help her have systems and tricks to succeed. Zach thought he might want to design video games to teach kids one day.

“Hey, Zach!”

Zach’s stomach dropped when he heard Craig’s voice behind him one Monday in the lunchroom. Zach took a quick glance at his lunch. It was boring; there was nothing to make fun of. He had even talked his papa into switching lunch boxes so his box was now grey, not purple.

“What’s that?” he teased, grabbing the notebook from Zach. “Learning how to read?” he mocked. He laughed too hard at his own joke.

“Don’t you have anything better to do, Craig?” Cora asked loudly as the whole group stood to block Craig from Zach.

“Aww, the widdle baby needs his parents?” Craig laughed again and walked away.

The pups turned to Zach and gave him a big hug. Zach made a hard decision right there. He was no longer going to work on his video game. He would have to find another way to help his sister with her reading. Maybe instead of playing games on family night, they could have story time instead.

When Craig walked away, the pack grew silent. Then Emily pulled out her notebook and started to speak.

“Listen, Zach,” she said, “I’ve done some research.”

Zach raised his eyebrows. “That could be Emily’s Snoutbook status every day,” he thought, imagining her status updates starting with the phrase.

“That’s so you,” he said jokingly.

Emily rolled her eyes, but she smiled. “Thanks, I think,” she joked back. “Anyway,” she continued, “I was reading a government website on bullying,” she said.

“Em—” Zach started in an attempt to cut off the conversation. He was tired of talking about Craig.

“Let her talk,” Scarlett said, placing her paw on Zach’s arm.

“Changes in habits such as not eating lunch, not wanting to go to school, and avoidance of social situations are all warning signs that someone is being bullied,” Emily continued in a quiet but poised tone.

Zach winced at the word.

“Bullied?” he asked, like it was something disgusting like slime. “I don’t think it’s that bad,” he said, looking down at his paws.

He thought about how he’d been avoiding the cafeteria and eventually avoiding eating lunch altogether. He’d even stopped coding the video game for Marie. And he wasn’t feeling like going to school anymore either.

“Is it?” he asked, looking up into his friends’ concerned faces.

Scarlett nodded slowly, then looked down sadly. “Forty-nine percent of children are bullied at some point in their school careers,” she said into her lap.

A lump formed in Zach’s throat. Seeing his friends sad made him realize that he hadn’t been feeling happy lately either.

“What should I do?” he asked.

“Well,” Emily said, “the website says you should follow these steps.” She handed him her notebook. He looked down at the wrinkled page and the lump in his throat grew.

“You didn’t have to do all this,” he said, feeling guilty that the rest of the pack had spent so much time to help him.

“We know,” Jacob said, “but we wanted to.”

“We love you, Zachy,” Tess said, patting his shoulder awkwardly, then squeezing him in a side hug. The others nodded in agreement. A tear fell from Zach’s cheek.

“I love you guys too,” he said through a thick voice. The pack wrapped their arms around him.

“You need to tell someone what’s going on,” Jacob said firmly. “Some kids can become really sad, you know, like depressed, and stop doing the things they love,” he said, nodding toward Zach’s closed laptop on the table.

“We want you to be happy, Zach,” Scarlett added. “You haven’t talked about or worked on your video game at all since Craig started making fun of it,” she said.

“My mom always said it’s important to do the things that make you happy,” Tess said, putting her paw on his.

Zach knew his friends were right. It was harder for him to get up in the mornings and come to school. Before this, he used to love school. He really did miss his fun lunches and silly notes. Not to mention coding. He really missed working with Ms. Herd on his video game.

“I’ll talk to someone by the end of the week,” Zach promised, though he wasn’t sure who or when.

Speaking Up

Zach had read through all of Emily’s notes by the end of recess that day.

When Zach was finished reading, he was sure of two things: He had been bullied and he had to talk to someone about it, and Craig was bullying him, but he was still a real kid just like him underneath.

Zach felt a new sense of confidence from the information and support he’d received from his friends. Since they believed he could make a change, he started to believe it too.

“Zach! Hold on, honey!” Ms. Herd shouted across the busy parking lot as they walked

into school two days later. “Hey, I haven’t seen you in the lab recently. Did your dad get you the game editing program you were asking for?” Ms. Herd huffed, tired from the jog across the parking lot.

“Oh, uh, no,” said Zach. He looked down. He loved Ms. Herd and didn’t want to let her down.

“Well, did you hit a snag I could help you with? Your game is only a few hours of work from being playable. I’m excited to try it,” she continued as they walked together into the building.

“I, uh, I’m not sure I’m going to finish it.” Zach felt his body get hot like he was going to cry.

“Oh. That is really too bad. Why not?” she asked as they stopped in front of Mr. Flock’s classroom.

“No reason,” he said, feeling the tears well up in his eyes, threatening to spill over.

“Zach,” Ms. Herd said, placing her paw on his arm. “I know you. And let me tell you something,” she said. She led him over to her classroom and closed the door. “You’re my best student,” she said. “You’re very talented,” she continued. “Do you know that?” she asked, looking into his eyes.

“Well,” Zach said, his voice cracking; then he burst into tears. He couldn’t speak through the sobs that shook his body. Ms. Herd hugged him as he cried. Once he sniffled and the tears had stopped, Ms. Herd pulled back and looked him in the eyes.

“I know Craig has been bothering you in the lunchroom,” she said, her voice low but firm. “You don’t have to put up with that, Zach,” she said. “I’m open to having a

conversation with you two if you’d like to clear the air,” she offered.

Zach took a sharp breath, shocked. He hadn’t thought of that.

“I, I think I know how to take care of it myself,” he said, giving Ms. Herd a small smile. He hadn’t smiled in weeks, he realized. She smiled back.

At lunch that day, Zach didn’t go to the cafeteria. Instead, he went to Principal Zoober’s office. He held his head high and confidently told his side of the story. He realized he felt empowered by his friends’ and Ms. Herd’s confidence in him.

“I need help figuring out what to do,” he said after he’d finished.

“I’m glad you came in and opened up to me,” Principal Zoober said, placing a paw on Zach’s shoulder. “It was very mature of you.”

“Yeah, I guess it was,” Zach said, feeling proud.

“For today, you are welcome to eat lunch in the office. I will have to talk with your parents and teachers as well as Craig’s. Then we can have a conversation together about it and come up with a solution,” said Principal Zoober.

Zach felt his body relax; it felt nice to tell someone other than his friends. He was hopeful that Principal Zoober would be able to help him come up with a solution.

That night, Zach’s papa came to tuck him in. He pulled the covers up to his chin and turned on his alarm clock.

“I heard from your principal this afternoon,” his papa stated, locking eyes with Zach.

Zach’s stomach tightened.

“I’m so proud of you for standing up for yourself and getting help,” he added with a small smile.

Zach relaxed. “I did what I had to do, Papa,” he said, returning the smile. “And there’s one more thing I need to do,” he said, glancing at the notebook Emily had loaned him. “I need to make things right.”

Getting Help

The next morning Zach walked into the computer lab and went straight to Ms. Herd. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better, Zach,” Ms. Herd said, patting him on the back.

“I sure am,” Zach said. He was ready to reclaim the things he loved, starting with the computer game. And he had an idea of how he could make things right.

By the end of recess, Zach had come up with the perfect plan to finish Marie’s game. He could even give it to her a little early so they could try it out on game night that week.

Zach’s paws shook as he waited in the scratchy office chair next to his papa. Craig was already in Principal Zoober’s office with his father. It was the first time he’d seen Craig’s father, Zach realized. He was large, but quiet.

“They are ready for you now, Zach,” Mr. Clowder, the school receptionist, said.

Zach’s papa put a paw on his shoulder as they stood and walked through the door. They sat alongside Craig and his father. Zach felt all dizzy and his paws were sweating. He knew talking it out was the right thing, but he was worried that Craig would be mad at him for telling Principal Zoober.

“I’ve spoken with Craig and Mr. Buldug,” Principal Zoober began, “and Craig has something he wants to tell you.”

Craig stared at his paws, fiddling with them in his lap. He sniffled.

“Go on, Son,” his father said in a deep voice. “It’s okay.”

“I’m really sorry,” Craig said in a small voice, much quieter than Zach had heard him speak before. “It was wrong for me to make fun of you for your special lunches, and for the video game you’re making,” he said into his paws. “It’s just,” he continued, looking up at his father.

“You can tell him,” he said, placing a paw on Craig’s shoulder.

“It’s just that I was feeling a bit jealous,” Craig continued, his voice squeaking on the word jealous. Craig cleared his throat. “Jealous of the relationship you have with your papa and your sister,” he said, swiping at his face with his paws. “That’s why I was bugging you,” he said. “You see, my dad, he works late, and I’m alone a lot at home.”

Craig continued to tell Zach and his papa about how he puts himself to bed each night before his dad even gets home.

A lump formed in Zach’s throat. Suddenly he felt bad for Craig, not himself.

“It’s okay, Craig,” he said. “I’m sorry you have to go through that.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Craig said. “It’s not your fault; it’s mine.”

He burst into tears and buried his face in his father’s chest.

“I’m sorry too,” his father said, rubbing Craig’s back. “I’m going to try to change shifts so I can be home with you more.”

The next day at lunch, Craig walked over to the Puppy Pack’s table. The familiar ache started in Zach’s stomach. Jacob eyed Craig warily.

“I have something to give you,” Craig said to Zach when he got to the table. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small paper bag. “I didn’t realize how much work went into making your lunches. It was fun. Anyway, I made us matching lunches.”

Craig passed the bag over the table and then looked down. “I’m sorry for being a bully,” he added. When he looked back up at Zach, his eyes were red.

“You’re not a bully,” Zach said, getting up and going over to Craig. He put his paw on his shoulder. “You were bullying me, but that doesn’t mean you are a bully,” he said, referencing Emily’s notebook. “And I forgive you,” he said, holding out his paw to shake.

Craig sniffled and put his paw in Zach’s. “I think I know a way to make it right,” he said. “I know it can’t make up for all the lunches you didn’t get to eat because I was bullying you,” Craig said, “but I made you a consolation lunch.”

He held out a brown paper bag with a spider drawn on the outside.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Zach said, cautiously reaching for the bag. He peaked inside. There was a sandwich, cut into the shape of an S. There were two apple slices that looked like O’s, two brownies cut into R’s, and some kiwis cut into Y’s.

“Sorry about bullying you,” Craig said, then quickly pulled out a napkin that read, “A tarantula spider can survive for two years without food.”

Zach smiled at the fun fact; it was one that his Papa had given him at the beginning of the year. It had sent Emily to the library that recess to check; then she’d spent two months researching spiders.

Zach’s friends joined him at Craig’s table. He showed them his lunch and the fun fact.

“Remember this one? I think Emily knows everything there is to know about spiders now,” Zach said as he took a bite of the “S”-shaped sandwich.

Everyone started laughing as Emily started to spout out spider facts. Zach felt happy to be with his friends again, and somehow even happier that they could share their lunch with Craig and his friends too.

“Wait up, Craig!” Zach shouted as the pups filtered out of the cafeteria after lunch. “I was wondering,” he said, suddenly feeling a fluttering in his stomach. “If you want to come to my house for game night this week?” he asked over the voices of students whooshing past in the hallway.

A big smile stretched across Craig’s face. “I’d love that,” he said, his voice cracking on the word “love.”

Both boys giggled.

“Great!” Zach said, and they planned for Zach’s dad to pick them both up from school on game night. When Zach’s papa pulled up in the car, Zach excitedly opened the door and got his seatbelt on.

“What’s that smile about?” Papa asked expectantly.

“I invited Craig over for game night,” Zach said excitedly.

“Craig Craig?” Papa asked, emphasizing the first “Craig” to ensure he was thinking of the right one.

“Yep,” Zach said. “He doesn’t have a family to play with,” he said, “so I thought he could play with ours.”

“That’s very kind of you, Zach,” Papa said, putting his paw on his.

Zach smiled. He was glad to have claimed the things he loved back, but he was also happy that Craig wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

“Seems like speaking up for yourself worked out for the best,” Papa said.

A New Kind of Game

On game night that week, Zach sat at the dining table watching Marie and Craig play his completed video game.

“This game is pawsome!” Craig shouted from the other room.

Zach’s papa sat down beside him, placing a steaming mug of hot chocolate in front of him. His favorite.

“What, no sprinkles?” Zach asked, frowning at the plain whipped cream.

“I thought sprinkles might be too…baby-ish,” Papa said, winking.

“I’m not worried about that anymore, Papa,” Zach said, taking a small sip of the sweet, chocolaty liquid.

“Hey, Craig,” Zach called into the living room.

“Yeah?” Craig replied without shifting his eyes from the screen.

“Want some sprinkles on your hot chocolate?” Zach asked.

“You know it!” Craig said, giving a thumbs up with his free paw.

“I’m so proud of you for speaking up and getting help,” Zach’s papa said, patting him on the back. “And look,” he said, motioning to Craig in the living room. “You didn’t just help yourself; you helped someone else in the process.”

“Yeah,” Zach said.

He was starting to think he might be good at helping other kids speak up too.

“Sometimes we don’t realize what’s really going on until we talk it out,” Zach said with a small smile.

“You’re wise beyond your years, kiddo,” Papa said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Zach said.

“It’s okay,” his papa said.

“Is that why you wanted grownup lunches in my lunchbox?” Papa asked, smoothing the hair out of Zach’s face and grinning.

“Yeah,” Zach said, scrunching up his face. “I’m sorry. I know it shouldn’t have bothered me, and that I should always be myself, but it was hard.”

“Oh, sweetie; it’s really hard sometimes to be yourself no matter what. It takes confidence and bravery. You were so brave to tell Principal Zoober. You’re brave to talk about it now. And you were brave to invite Craig to game night,” he added, glancing at Craig and Marie, still zeroed in on the sight word game. “It can be hard to stand up for yourself,” Papa said, “and even harder to stand up for others,” he added.

“I learned from the Pup Pack,” Zach said with a smile.

“Well, just know,” Papa said, “that no matter who you are, I will always love you.”

Zach smiled as the tension from the last few stressful months left his body with a big sigh. He was finally starting to feel like himself again and was grateful for his Puppy Pack friends who read the signs and never gave up on him. Now Zach knew the signs and promised himself he would never give up helping others who needed it too.

With that, Zach skipped back to the living room, ready to enjoy a game of “Sight Word Skillz” with his sister and a new friend.

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