It's rude to say someone's name incorrectly.
Nolan was looking for ways to aggravate his rival James.
Nolan wants to annoy James.
Nolan decides to focus on getting better grades than James.
"Nolan started calling James ""Maims"" and starts running away from him in the hall."
Nolan studies hard and annoys James by beating him in the exams.
James thinks it's funny at first but it gets old when years later people still call him that.