I didn't expect to see her here.
It's Friday, and I'm sitting on the low brick wall outside the main gate, waiting for my driver. The school's letting out early for staff meetings, and campus is buzzing with people in uniform. I've got one earbud in, my blazer tied around my waist, and a half-eaten protein bar in my hand.
Then I hear it.
A scream.
Then another.
Laughter.
And a voice - her voice - yelling, "No powers in public, Auggie! You'll expose us!"
I turn just as Senna barrels into view.
She's running - actually running - across the grass in her school shoes, long curls bouncing behind her like a cape. Two boys are chasing her, both small and wild and loud, with identical grins and eyes that sparkle like trouble.
Senna dives toward a bench, hides behind it, and when they pounce, she grabs the littlest one and spins him around like he weighs nothing.
"Gotcha!" she yells.
He squeals. "Unfair! Bear distracted me!"
The older one - Bear, I'm guessing - is clutching his stomach, laughing so hard he nearly trips.
I just watch. Speechless.
This is a different Senna. A light version. Open. Loud. Glowing.
And I can't look away.
---
She spots me a second later, still half-tackling her brothers on the grass. Her face freezes for half a beat - like I've caught her doing something she never meant anyone to see - but then her eyes soften.
"Hey," she calls out.
I stand, awkwardly brushing crumbs off my pants. "Hey."
The younger boy, Auggie, tugs on Senna's sleeve and whispers something that sounds like, "Is that your husband?"
I choke.
Senna shushes him, but she's laughing. She pulls herself off the grass, dusting off her skirt.
"Luca, meet Bear and Auggie. The chaos goblins who live in my house."
Bear gives me a long, suspicious once-over. He's got big eyes and a look like he's smarter than he lets on.
"You're weird looking," he says.
Senna blinks. "What?"
"Bear," Senna warns.
He shrugs. "Still weird."
"I like his shoes," Auggie announces, poking at my sneakers.
"Thanks?" I say.
Senna rolls her eyes. "Sorry. They're... a lot."
"No, they're great," I say. And I mean it.
Watching her with them - barefoot now, hair frizzy from running, skirt crooked, grin wide - I feel something click in my chest. A puzzle piece sliding into place.
This is her.
Not just the quiet girl under the stairs. Not just the playlist and the poems and the things she doesn't say.
This is her, too.
The protector. The big sister. The sun they orbit.
And I get why she fights so hard to hold her walls up. She's not just protecting herself.
She's protecting them.
---
Bear narrows his eyes at me. "You rich?"
"Bear!" Senna hisses.
I smile. "Kinda."
He nods. "Don't mess her up, okay?"
And just like that, he turns and chases Auggie toward the school gate, screaming about invisible lasers and chocolate frogs.
Senna groans and sinks onto the bench beside me. "They're feral."
"They're awesome," I say.
She smiles. Not a big one. Just a soft curl of her mouth, tired and proud all at once.
"They're my heart," she says. "All of it."
I nod. "Yeah. I can tell."
And I mean it.
Meeting them feels like stepping into her favorite memory. Like being trusted with the part of her that matters most.
And somehow, I feel even luckier now than I did under the stairs.