He stared at it.
He was back in that hallway again. The one at the boarding school. The marble floors and the high ceilings and the other boys who never let him forget where he came from. He'd been on the floor that day. Barely conscious. His face was bleeding and his ribs screamed every time he breathed.
Then a girl had crouched down beside him.
She hadn't said anything at first. She'd just taken out a handkerchief and pressed it gently to the cut on his cheek. No disgust. No hesitation. She'd helped him up and walked him down the hall to the nurse's office and stayed until he was sitting in a chair.
He hadn't been able to see her face clearly. His vision had been blurring in and out. He only remembered the yellow dress. And the little bears embroidered in the corner of the cloth.
La
