Thirteen, an unlucky number. She should have left last year when another school had offered her a position, but she’d refused. She couldn’t abandon her third-graders in the middle of the school year. And now, they had shown her no such loyalty.

Her train, the one carrying her to the interview that was supposed to fix everything, was gone. And here she sat, with a broken heel, mascara streaking down her face like black tears, and a heart full of shattered hopes.