“Miss?”

Haley snapped her head towards the woman addressing her.

Thin.

Older.

Glasses.

Nice clothes.

Badge.

Someone in charge.

Any one of these would have put Haley’s defenses up. But this morning it was the last one. Someone in charge.

“Yeah?” she said, warily.

The woman’s eyes opened wider for an instant before she covered her surprise with a smile. She gestured to the bins lined up along the coat check counter where Haley’s classmates were laying down their purses, coats and backpacks. “Will you please put your backpack in the bin?”

In Haley’s world, please didn’t matter. Please got you laughed at. Or worse. She slipped the backpack from her shoulders and hugged it to her chest. “No,” she said.