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He's scared to death of going to school. Donna says there is an alien that lives in the basement and when you're bad you're sent down there to have reconstruction surgery. James doesn't know what reconstruction surgery is exactly, but it sounds scary and when his mom heard what Donna said she'd made her apologize. But that doesn't mean it isn't true and he is not at all sure he wants to spend all day at the scary brick building on the hill.
He's still scared the first day even though he wore his extra special trenchcoat that gives him invisibility powers sometimes. Donna walks him as far as the door to his classroom and then she is swept away in a rush of chattering girls that stop first to pet his head and exclaim about how "absolutely adorable" he is which makes him stick out his tongue. But once they've disappeared he remembers he is still at school and he really wants to go home. He's just turning to dart down the hall and run home (he is almost positively sure he remembers how to get there) when a small girl brushes by him.
He is caught by the smell of strawberries and he follows her because that's what his feet decide to do. She is tiny, but she doesn't stop once, marching straight to the teacher and saying her name "Rose Tyler" and then she turns and gives him a grin, like she is sharing a secret. If she can do it, he can do it and he tries to copy her exactly, but when he gets to the "s" in James, it doesn't come out right and a boy in the front row laughs. Before he can do anything Rose swings her head around, her blonde hair flying about, and glares. Both the boy and James shrink away, but Rose skips backwards, grabs James' hand and drags him to the seat next to hers. The teacher doesn't argue, just plops a big paper that he already knows says his name on his desk and winks at him.
By the time school is over for the day he's determined that Rose is going to be his best friend for life and he's probably just going to marry her someday. He also guesses he'll be back tomorrow, but only to see Rose and maybe because the teacher says they are doing an experiment and he wants to know what that is.