Reyna

CHAPTER TEN

              Whap! Whap! Whap whap!

The sounds of Val's fists and feet hitting the punching bag were loud enough to rise through the thumping bass in her ears. Sweat drenched her skin, causing it to shine in the sun filtering through her open window, the soft breeze from the Virginia autumn a relief over her heated body. The stereo in the background was blaring Queen, her fists hooking, upper-cutting, jabbing and crossing to the rhythm of Another One Bites the Dust.

A blaring alarm startled her from her workout, and she saw that it was already 6:30; it was time to get ready. The soccer season was basically over, and she had to finish planning the farewell party for the players with Joe.

At the school, she was only there for two hours before she first noticed something was up. Mystic Falls High was notoriously small; she could easily recognize over half of the students just by their faces. She'd seen Caroline, Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, and even the new history teacher, Alaric.

But Elena was nowhere to be found.

At first, she simply shrugged it off, and started keeping a closer eye on Bonnie. The young witch was looking more and more scare and shaken up as the days went on, and it was concerning the huntress. Finally, after she'd seen a student brush against Bonnie accidentally and watching the girl jump at least five feet in the air, she decided to check in on her.

"Bonnie?" She said softly, but it still startled the teen again. The mocha-skinned witch whirled around, breathing erratically, but relaxed at the sight of her favorite staff member.

"Oh, hey, Ms. R." She responded, her voice cracking a little. The teacher felt her concern grow as the girl shifted from foot to foot, picking at her fingernails and biting her lip.

Bonnie was obviously very anxious and even downright afraid of something.

"Bonnie, hey," she said calmly, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders, "What's wrong? Are you ok?"

The girl only looked at her for several seconds before her eyes started to water and she shook her head, looking at the ground before back up at the adult and running a hand through her hair. "No, no I'm not, Ms. Rodriguez. I don't know what's wrong with me, but my powers are-are-"

She started to hyperventilate, and Val led the girl over to a bench, rubbing a hand soothingly on her back. "Bonnie, it's ok, just breathe, honey. Deep breathes, ok?"

The witch took several deep, albeit shaky breathes before she had calmed down enough to speak, and she looked up at Val. "It's my powers. They're not working, and I don't know why." Her eyes started to water again. "Ms. R, what if something's wrong with me, like what if Emily permanently damaged something or-" Her breathing began to speed up again, and Val immediately cut her off.

"Bonnie, hey, stop it for a sec. You have to go to take deep breathes, I can't help you too much once you pass out." She paused. "Well, actually I'm an EMT and CPR certified, but still, it'd be less complicated if you just talked." She joked, and Bonnie giggled softly as she calmed down. Val made sure she was breathing ok and had stopped shaking before she spoke again.

"Look, Bon, I'm not witch so I think you should take this to someone who is. Is your grandmother home? You said she was one, right?"

At the teens nod, she got up, pointing to her car. "Ok, that's mine; the red 2007 Camry. Go wait by it, I'm going to get my keys and some water for you, and then we can go to her house."