«Hello, dear,» she said gently as he entered the room. «It’s a bit warm in here… would you like to take off your hat?»
The boy flinched, gripping his hat tightly with both hands, as though terrified it might be taken from him.«No, thank you,» he mumbled, his voice barely audible. «I… I need to keep it on.»
Sofia didn’t press the issue. She continued with her check-up quietly, though a sense of unease grew inside her. The boy was stiff, his body tense, flinching at the slightest movement of the hat. It was as though something dreadful was hidden beneath it.
When the nurse finally removed the hat, she was horrified by what she saw 
Continued in the first comment below 
Later that day, at lunch, she spoke with his class teacher.
«I’m worried too,» the teacher admitted. «He’s been wearing that hat every day since spring break, but not before that. During gym, when the coach asked him to take it off, he had a meltdown. We decided to stop pushing him about it.»
Sofia nodded, her mind racing. That evening, she called the number listed in the medical records.
«Good evening, this is the school nurse,» she began.
«He’s not sick,» a man’s voice quickly interrupted. «We don’t make a habit of running to the doctor for every little thing.»
«I’ve noticed he wears the hat all the time, even in the heat. Could it be that he has scalp sensitivity or another condition?»
