Bonnie POV

"I'm not saying don't date the guy," Bonnie said, slamming the car door. "I'm just saying take it slow."

"You're the one who said to go for it," Elena pointed out.

"Now I'm saying take it slow."

"Why the about-face?"

"It's not an about-face," Bonnie said, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. She'd slept badly for the past three days, and her head was pounding. "You're single for the first time in your entire high school career. It's the perfect time to play the field."

"Oh, because I'm so that girl," Elena said smilingly. "Seriously, what are you not saying?"

"It's stupid," Bonnie said, but her hopes of Elena letting it go were thwarted when her friend took her by the arm and led her off the sidewalk.

"What?"

"Spit it out," Elena said.

Bonnie took a breath. Sheknewhow insane this sounded, but if anyone was going to understand, it was Elena. "I accidentally touched Stefan. And I got a really bad feeling."

"Is that it?" Elena said incredulously and grabbed Bonnie before she could stomp off to class. "Bonnie!"

"It wasbadbad!"

"Is this the whole witch mojo thing again?"

God, Bonnie fuckingwishedit was witch mojo. She'd been seeing more than bad omens the past couple days—she found herself scribbling or tracing the numbers8 14 22on every available surface. Shapes would flicker in the corner of her eye. She'd hear nonexistent music and feel things that weren't there. The man she'd seen in her dream was a constant, but she was doing her best to ignore him. A few terrifying Google searches told her more about hallucinations than she'd ever wanted to know—there were auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, presence, and proprioceptive hallucinations, and over the past few days she'd experiencedallof them.

But there were some things you don't even tell friends, so instead, Bonnie replied, "You know what? I'm just concerned. This is me expressing concern about my best friend's new boyfriend."

"And I love you for it, I do." Elena said soothingly. "But I feel good. It's been a hard year, and I'm starting to kind of feel like things are getting back to normal again. And you know what? Stefan is a big part of that."

And speak of the devil—

"Good morning, Elena," Stefan cut in, nearly plowing Bonnie over in the process. "Good morning, Bonnie."

Nope, nope, nope, not today. She was not in the mood. "Hey, I got to find Caroline. She's not answering her phone. So I'll see you guys later."

"She doesn't like me very much," she heard Stefan say as she trudged to class.

"She doesn't know you—" Elena said.

You don't know him either, 'Lena,"Bonnie thought bitterly, but she didn't have any time to stew before class started.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls," Mr. Tanner said. Bonnie wasn't paying any attention, because the bastard who haunted her dreams decided that school was fair game too.

"Whoever said high school is the best years of your life was a moron," he said, lounging on one of the empty desks. Her hallucination was handsome—dark hair, darker eyes—at least until he opened his mouth. "High school sucks, unless you're in a movie. Ever seenFerris Bueller's Day Off?Dumb question, everyone's seen that, but remember that one teacher?Bueller? Bueller?"He mimicked.

"Ms. Bennett?"

"Huh?" She asked, snapping back to attention.

"How many casualties resulted in the battle?" Mr. Tanner asked, slowly enunciating each word.

"Um…a lot?" Bonnie answered, face heating. "I'm not sure. Like, a whole lot."

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett."

God, Bonnie wanted to sink so deep in the earth that it would take a thousand years to find her body.

"Are you going to let him talk to you like that?" Her hallucination asked, twirling a pencil. "That's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed. What kind of Bennett witch are you?"

Kai POV

It's a valid question,Kai thought as he followed the little witch throughout her day. He'd met admittedly few Bennetts before he'd been left to rot in the Prison World, but they had areputation. The Bennetts were the latest incarnation of one of the oldest magical bloodlines in the world, boasting a pedigree that could be traced back to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. They were proud, powerful, and unquestionably dangerous, so it was a bit of a bummer to see the Bennett who'd fractured his coven's magnum opus act like a human doormat.

"I bet you've got some gnarly grimoires," Kai said conversationally, watching his Bennett twitch. She was making a valiant effort to ignore him, but Kai could be persistent. "Some of my coven's grimoires—whoo, those spells were nasty. You could probably turn that asshole's skin inside out if you felt like it. Nobody would call you dumb, then."

He reached out to poke her, but the annoying blonde cut him off. "Comeon, Bonnie," she said. "Get in your uniform; we're gonna be late for the game!"

Now, Kai was not what you'd call a football guy. Before, he'd go to the occasional Superbowl party for the food, and support whichever team would piss off the most people, but for the most part, he couldn't be bothered to give a shit. However, football had one thing going for it…

Cheerleaders.

Kai settled himself on the bleachers and watched Bonnie flip and cartwheel and get thrown in the air as he felt the magic holding the prison world crumble around him. He hated her on principle, but he'd let her live just for helping him , and she's a total babe,Kai thought as Bonnie somersaulted into a crouch.

He lost sight of her after the game—some coach got mauled by a bear or something, and the entire student body gathered to watch the body bag get carted away.

Kai found her among the throng, hair falling out of its ponytail and eyes glistening with tears. She gasped when he brushed her arm, and something locked into place, one spell replacing another.

"Hi," he said, lips stretched in a toothy smile. "I'm Kai."

Notes

About Tanner's history class. I know that the discussion about the Battle of Willow Creek happened in the Pilot, but chronologically it makes no goddamn sense for a history teacher to jump from the Civil War to Pearl Harbor in a week, and also it's my fanfic so I can do what I want.