Ten year old Cole Redfern has heard stories of the recent bout of soulmatage his family has suffered. He then decides, mistakenly, that fellow classmate Katie Summers is the one for him. Poor girl. OnexShot.
Cole Redfern was sick and tired of it. The waiting was unbearable.
He wasn't stupid, he'd heard the stories. His cousins all finding true love in humans. His parents began to watch him more closely; they began to monitor who he played with, who he kept in company.
He knew why they watched. They expected him to be next, though they prayed each and every hour of the day that he wasn't.
The waiting was unbearable.
Why couldn't fate just get it over with?
It was then that he decided he would make fate get it over with.
So, 7 year old Cole made Katie Summers, the girl who sat in the desk in front of him, his true love.
-0-
"Hey, Katie," He made his first move at the beginning of the day, when everyone was still arriving and getting settled.
"Hi, Cole," Katie gave him a small smile. "Is there something you need?"
"No," Cole rocked on his heels. "I just wanted to talk."
"Oh, okay," Katie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find that attractive. He should have, right? Soulmates loved everything about each other. Or, at least, that's what he'd heard. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Ummm…" Cole couldn't find a topic. "I don't know. What do you want to talk about?"
"I don't know," Katie shrugged. "It was you who came to me. Shouldn't you have to think of the topic?"
Cole bit his lip. "I guess." Wasn't this supposed to be easy? Soulmates could read each other's mind, so shouldn't they be able to carry out a simple conversation?
Cole finally decided, when the teacher walked in, he would revisit the matter later- after he'd thought of something more than "Hey, Katie" to say.
-0-
Cole had it.
It was brilliant.
It couldn't fail.
But he was too eager to test it out.
"Katie," He leaned forward in his seat, calling for her attention.
"Be quiet, idiot," Katie hissed. "The teacher is talking!"
"But I finally thought of something to say!" Cole protested.
"Then say it later," Katie suggested, venomously.
"What if I forget it?" Cole complained.
"Then write it down." Katie was a hairsbreadth away from turning and showing him just how angry she was. She couldn't afford to miss this lesson, she was already too far behind in handwriting. And besides, if she was caught talking in class, to a boy, her friends would never let her hear the end of it.
Especially a boy like Cole Redfern.
"I don't have enough space on the paper to do that!" Cole explained.
"Then get another sheet of paper." Katie jotted down the different cursive letters as shown on the board, already falling behind everyone else.
"What if the teacher sees it?" Cole asked.
"Hide it," Katie suggested. "I don't know, just stop bothering me!"
Cole huffed. Shouldn't soulmates want to talk, even if it was during an important cursive lesson?
-0-
True to his word, Cole forgot what he was going to say. So much for that plan.
So, walking up and sitting next to Katie at lunch, Cole once again had no idea what to say.
He held her hand.
She choked on her sandwich.
"Cole," she said slowly. "What are you doing?"
"Um," he pulled his hand away, disappointed. Where was the shock? The chord? The pink mist everyone talked about? "You didn't feel anything?"
"I felt you holding my hand." Katie said.
"But nothing else?" Cole asked, hopeful she had caught what he'd missed.
"Nope." Katie said. "Why?"
"Aren't we supposed to feel more?" Cole asked.
"What do you mean," Katie set her sandwich down, perplexed and creeped out simultaneously.
"I mean," Cole said. "We're supposed to feel like we really know each other."
"But, we do know each other." Katie said. "Not very well, but we've sat by each other all year, so we know each other a little."
"But, it's supposed to me more than that." Cole said, frustrated.
"What do you mean?" Katie asked, for the second time in less than a minute.
"I mean, I'm supposed to be able to read your mind and stuff, you know? We're supposed to click." Cole sighed. "But I can't even think of something to talk about with you…" He trailed off, then his face brightened. "I've got it! Maybe this will help."
He leaned forward and kissed her.
She jerked back. "COLE! What are you doing?"
Cole sighed. "It didn't work."
"What didn't work?" Then Katie shook her head and stood up, walking away. "Never mind- I don't even want to know."
"Wait!" Cole called. "Katie!"
Katie looked back once to scream, "I'm telling on you!"
-0-
"Cole," The teacher said sternly. "Now, Katie said you creped her out, then kissed her. I want your side of the story, start from the beginning."
"All of my relatives are falling in love," Cole said dismally. "My parents expect it to happen to me any day now; they're always watching over my shoulder and monitoring who I spend time with. I figured I would just get it over with."
"So, you decided you were in love with Katie?" The teacher guessed.
"Yeah," Cole sighed. "But, I'm just not feeling it. Even with the kiss, and that always seems to work- with everyone else, at least."
The teacher, surprisingly, laughed. "Cole, you can't just decide you love someone."
"Why not?" Cole asked. "People do it all the time."
She shook her head. "Love isn't something you can decide. You can't tell what girl you want to spend the rest of your life with using your brain, especially not when you're ten."
"I'll be eleven in January." Cole said, as if that would make a difference.
"Cole," his teacher said. "Patience is a virtue. You have to learn to wait for the good things in life to happen." She shrugged. "Katie doesn't want to be one of those good things, and you just have to accept that."
Cole sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
The teacher grinned at that.
"So…" he said. "What am I supposed to do in the meantime?"
The teacher thought on that. "Have adventures, make friends."
Cole thought on that, "If Katie won't be my true love, do you think she'd at least be my friend?"
"Well, you'll have to talk to her about that," The teacher answered. "Don't be surprised," she warned, "if she wants an apology. In fact, it's probably best if you start with that."
-0-
Cole, honestly, didn't fully comprehend all the things his teacher had told him, but he did know one thing: Making Katie his soulmate was no longer his mission. Making her his friend was.
But how to do that when she kept sending him weird looks and avoiding him, guarded by a herd of giggling friends.
Cole sighed, narrowed his eyes, and bit his lip. How to do this, indeed…
-0-
"Katie," He hissed.
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times!" Katie whispered back with a vengeance, "Don't talk to me in class. Especially not after what you did on the playground yesterday!"
"Look," Cole tried to explain, "I'm sorry about yesterday. I was just really confused."
"'Really confused' doesn't cut it." Katie told him unapologetically.
"It's just that all of my cousins are falling in love with people the rest of my family hates and they keep looking at me like I'm next. I just wanted to get it over with, and I decided, you know…"
"You decided me?" Katie guessed.
"Yeah."
"You don't think your family would like me?" Katie asked, sounding a bit hurt, even though she really didn't care about Cole and his family.
"Don't take it like that, I don't mean to say…" Cole huffed. "They're just really picky and have weird… somewhat different standards."
Katie scowled. "Whatever."
"But, you see, I was wrong. I was really wrong, and I'm sorry for creeping you out." Cole looked down at his hands. "When I talked to the teacher, she told me that I should try to be friends with you, soooo…."
Katie didn't answer for a while, and when she finally did, it was a simple, "We'll see."
Yeah, kinda odd. I couldn't resist writing it down, though. I might go back and make it longer. You know, add in some more awkward 'conversations' and stuff.
EDIT: Hey, again! Fixed some major issues. Katie is no longer a philosophically advanced seven year old :D