It really doesn't hide that much. A little, maybe, but there's still fluffy legs sticking out the bottom. Ugh.

The people all have different reactions. Some shrink back when Rue steps forward, some look belligerent, but some look merely dubious, and one parent who brings her little boy to the library every week to be read to actually looks a little shamefaced. It's something.

"Let's get you somewhere inside," Winter suggests after a moment of glowering at the whole mess of them. "It's been temporary every time this happened before." Which doesn't mean it will be this time, but he can hope.