‘I’m sorry sir,’ he said in a mouse-like tone.

‘Excuse me?’

‘I said, I’m really sorry sir. I didn’t mean for this to happen!’

‘How can you not have meant for it to happen, Boy? The can of spray paint was in your hand, goodness knows where you got that from, and it was you who wrote the rude words on that wall! Look!’ he pointed to outside of his window with an accusing finger where the wall he had written on was clearly visible. It looked even worse from up here than it had done from the playground. The paint had now dried, which meant that it looked even brighter than it had done when he had first sprayed it onto the wall, and the words which were printed on the wall seemed all the more offensive.

Nitram silently wondered why it was he had decided to write those particular words in the first place. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure where it was that he had learnt them.

The headmaster broke his trail of thought.

‘I’m going to have to call your parents.’

Nitram gulped and zipped his coat a little higher as though trying to hide his face.

‘My,’ he stumbled on his own words, ‘my parents?’ he stared at the floor in disbelief. He began to worry what his Mother would say to him when she found out what he had done. In his opinion, the silent disapproval from his mother might be even worse than if she shouted at him for hours.

‘Well I need to inform them about my course of action,’ the headmaster explained with a glint in his eye that could not be described as friendly by anyone’s standards.

‘And what might that be?’ asked Nitram nervously.

‘Wait and see.’

He picked up the telephone and punched the eleven digits into the keypad. Each digit punched brought Nitram closer to the edge of his seat.

‘Hello Mrs Renrut. I’d like to talk to you about your son.’

Nitram entered his kitchen and stopped suddenly as he noticed his Mother sitting at the table with her head in her hands.

‘What’s the matter Mum?’ he asked nervously.

‘I can’t believe you did this Nitram. After all we’ve been through; I thought we could all trust each other by now.’ It would have been better for Nitram if she had been angry, for the tone of disappointment that he could hear in her voice was much worse than any amount of yelling could have been.

‘I’m really sorry Mum. I didn’t mean to. It just happened, I wasn’t thinking, I.. .’ he trailed off, and stared at the floor beneath him as though he expected it to do something out of the ordinary.

‘Nitram. I don’t think you understand just how serious this is. Do you have any idea what the Headmaster said to me?’

‘No.’ he gulped. ‘What?’

He took his bag from off his shoulder and put it quietly on the table. He began to unpack it, almost as though to distract his attention from what his mother was trying to say to him, but she placed her hand on his and stopped him from carrying on. He paused for a second, and then looked up at his mother. He was alarmed to see that she had tears welling in her brown eyes.

‘It’s a little more serious that you think, Nitram. The headmaster has already decided on your punishment.’

Scared about what was going to come next, Nitram loosened his grip on the bag, causing it to hang slightly off the edge of the table.

‘He wants you to go away for a while.’

‘No.’ Nitram gasped, ‘Not to Highwaters.’ He closed his eyes.

‘I’m afraid so, Nitram,’ his mother said, her eyes beginning to fill with tears, ‘you will have to leave tonight.’

The bag fell to the floor.