The first thing people noticed about Sienna was her stillness.
She wasn't quiet in the way shy people were. She was quiet in the way trees were, present, patient, and oddly self-contained. Her gaze never darted, never wandered. It settled. On people. On objects. On silence.
She transferred in the middle of the week. No big announcement. Just a new face in homeroom and a folded note on the teacher's desk. No one knew where she came from, just that she suddenly existed here now.
Some kids whispered "boarding school" like it explained everything. Others thought she looked like the kind of girl who lived in bookstores and forgot to eat lunch.
Sienna didn't correct them. More like she doesn't feel the need to. She picked a seat near the back, opened her notebook, and started writing. Not texting. Not doodling. Writing. Pen to paper, every word carefully tucked into the margins like they weren't meant to be read. Putting down the observation of her surroundings as she always does. She felt out of sync with the room. Like she was trying to move at the speed of the world around her but kept arriving a few seconds early. At lunch, she sat under the old oak tree outside, knees tucked up, sandwich untouched. Her eyes scanned the courtyard like she was studying more than just people like she was reading them, observing them seeing a pattern. Invisible threads. A group of girls tried to pull her into conversation. She smiled, answered politely, then drifted away without even moving. It was like watching someone exist in a parallel version of the same school.
By the seventh period, she crossed paths with Riley. Just a hallway moment. Riley walking with her head down. Sienna walking with her head up. They passed each other, silent and steady. But Sienna's eyes lingered, just for a moment. Like she saw something. Like she knew. Who she really is. And when she reached the end of the hallway, she paused. Tilt her head slightly.
The air felt wrong. Just for a second. The kind of shift most people would ignore. But she.....Sienna noticed. She always noticed. And for the first time since arriving, she didn't write it down. Like she didn't felt the need to, more which she knows. She kept walking, but something in her steps had changed,like she was no longer just observing. She was waiting. Waiting for more. But what is she waiting for exactly.....