False Bravado: Science Fiction

You don't have anybody fooled, girl. It takes just one look at you to know where you came from and what you're trying to do, she thought, watching the bravado with which the girl walked into the room, head held high as if she belonged there, but her scuffed boots bearing tell-tale traces of the grey dust of the underlevels. Behind that bravado was a fear that she'd be spotted and thrown out before she had a chance to do--whatever it was that she'd come here for. The lady watched with interest. The girl wouldn't make it, of course, but it reminded the lady of the day that she'd walked into one of the higher circles with just that same thin shield of bravado. Better boots, of course, but then she'd--

Inspiration: "Secondhand (Justice League 7)" by Bob Marley
Story Potential: Medium
Notes: And so she takes her in under her wing--but what is the reason the girl showed up? Also, science fiction, some sort of colony world after it's been mostly terraformed, perhaps.