Free The Roar by Clayton Emma Page A

knew she wouldn’t do anything about it. Mr Grey was the boss.
    Mr Grey looked smug now he was clean. He was holding his tablet in one hand and an object Mika recognized in the other – the detention collar. The last time Mika had seen the detention collar was on the neck of a boy called Detroit Pippin who’d tried to burn down the school when he was seven. The fire didn’t take because the school was too damp, but by the time Detroit Pippin was eight, he was living in a prison complex off the north coast of Ireland.
    ‘Your parents will be here soon,’ Mr Grey said, placing the detention collar gently on his desk so the weight didn’t dent it. ‘We’re going to have a nice little chat.’
    Mika groaned inside. He was beginning to realize throwing Fit Mix in Mr Grey’s face was a far worse crime than trying to burn down the school.
    ‘Right!’ Mr Grey continued in a businesslike manner, standing with his back straight and his feet together. ‘Punishments!’
    He delivered them as if he was reading a shopping list. ‘A seven-day exclusion starting tomorrow,’ he said, looking up briefly from his tablet to gauge Mika’s reaction. Mika stared ahead and refused to give him one. ‘The detention collar to make sure you don’t go anywhere or have any fun during your exclusion; the sorting beads, ten thousand, six colours; and last but not least the hundred-credit fine . I’m sure your parents will be absolutely delighted.’
    Mika glared at the detention collar and bit his tongue. He didn’t care about the exclusion, the collar and the stupid sorting beads, but he did care about the hundred-credit fine – he deserved punishment but his parents didn’t. It wasn’t fair.
    The collar was made of two pieces of hinged metal. Mika felt his body compress as its weight was fixed to his neck. Mr Grey turned the screws with alarming enthusiasm until Mika was fighting for breath and could feel his head swelling up like a tomato. He wondered whether he should say something, but remembered the fate of Detroit Pippin and stopped himself.
    ‘I don’t think he can breathe,’ Mrs Fowler said, watchingnervously and biting her thumbnail.
    ‘Really?’ Mr Grey said, looking at Mika’s face with a furrowed brow as if he hadn’t noticed his eyes were popping out of his head.
    ‘He does look a bit red in the face,’ she added.
    Mr Grey reluctantly loosened the collar.
    It pressed into the skin on Mika’s neck and cut into his shoulders. Mr Grey explained that the collar would give him an electric shock if he tried to leave his apartment.
    ‘One foot outside your fold-down and you’ll get a shock powerful enough to make you wee your pants,’ he said, with a nasty smile. Then he went to one of his cupboards and took out a large container of sorting beads and dumped them in Mika’s lap.
    ‘Those should keep you busy,’ he said.
    Mika looked at the container blankly. The beads were so small they could only be picked up with a pair of tweezers, and Mika would have to separate the six colours into six smaller containers before he went back to school.
    ‘Do you have anything to say?’ Mr Grey asked, with an eyebrow raised.
    Mika shook his head. Any thoughts about apologizing had vaporized.
    ‘Fine,’ Mr Grey said. ‘Save it for your parents, eh? Right. I’ve got more important things to do. I’ll see you in a week’s time when you come to my office to tell me how sorry you are and drink the Fit Mix.’
    Mika gritted his teeth.
    You’ll be lucky , he thought.
    * * *
    The Headmaster talked to Mika’s parents in the hallway outside his office, and Mika sat waiting for them to finish, chewing his nails and imagining all the terrible things Mr Grey was saying about him. Mr Grey looked pleased when he re-entered the office, and Asha and David were speechless with anger; Asha’s eyes wereso hard and glittery, Mika couldn’t look at her, and his father’s face was pale and taut and his hands were clenched in bloodless