'Not a problem Anni. I won't tell anyone else that you can mind-read and no one probes my mind anyway. Be off now. You don't want to miss dinner to be on time to your training session with Cole. Do you?'

Chapter Nine – Cole's Mind

After dinner, I jumped back to my room, got changed and walked downstairs. It was too early to go to training, but Cole had said be prompt so we could fix the wall, so I walked very slowly to the training room. I was five minutes early, but it was getting cooler outside as it neared dawn, so I stepped inside the warmth of the training room to find Cole there already fixing the dent.

'Oh. Anni's here. Woah. She's wearing midnight blue. That's my favourite colour. It looks really good on her though.' thought Cole and then he sighed in deep thought.

"Hi Anni. I knew you'd come early. It's getting very cold outside so I thought you'd need this place open." said Cole.

"Thanks Coach." I replied, "Can I help with the wall?"

'Yeah. I could do with some help. I need to move the bags of cement from over the other side of the room, to here.' he thought to himself.

"No. I'm pretty much done here. There's nothing you can do." he said.

"Oh really? So why don't I go get the bags of cement and bring them closer to you so we can actually start?" I replied and moved to get the bags of cement.

"No. I'll get them. They're really heavy." he protested.

"Aren't you meant to be really heavy?" I asked and walked over, picked up all three bags of cement and carried them over to where Cole was watching helplessly. "Let's get started!" I said enthusiastically, "What do we do?"

"We slit open a bag of cement, mix the cement with some water, grab a trowel and dollop it on the wall. Easy peasy."

"Okay. Let's go."

It took fifteen minutes to finish the job. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the training room now, except Cole. His clothes were drenched in cement because he wanted to show me how slow it dried. It still hadn't dried, so he scraped it off. "See. It dries that slowly." he said triumphantly.

"Yeah. It dries that slowly, but you should go and get changed into some clean clothes before they really dry. It'll hurt. I'll clean up in the meantime and I have to tell you something when you get back. Now go." I ordered and he left thinking, 'Woah. She can be really bossy sometimes.'

"Please!" I yelled after him and he laughed.

When he returned, he was wearing a midnight blue top and scruffy, old jeans with sneakers. I'd cleaned up and the cement on the wall had dried so all that was left was to tell Cole about my psychic powers.

"It's good to see you fixed your heel." he said.

"Yeah. I took your advice. When I got back home, I fixed it straight away." I replied.

"That's right. You said you needed to tell me something?" he asked.

"Yes. But don't tell anyone else. The only people who know about it are my friends and Professor H." I pleaded.

"Okay. I won't. I promise." he swore.

'I can mind-read.' I thought.

'What?!? Since when? That's so cool!' he thought getting excited.

'Since this morning. I'm sorry I read your mind before. That's how I knew to get the cement and why I said please coz you said I sounded really bossy.'

'Oh, it's no big deal. It's not like I thought of anything very important. Thanks for all your help today anyway. You proved really handy in the end. It would've taken me hours to finish that wall by myself. Thank you. And congratulations on your mind-reading.'

'There's more though.' I thought.

'More?' he sounded puzzled.

'Have you heard of the bonds from the Goddesses?' I asked.

'Sure. What about them.' he paused, thinking. I could hear every piece of his mind click together, 'You and Mel have been given a bond?' he asked.

'Yes. Well, Professor H. and I think so. She said it's a very plausible idea. Mel and I are going to work on it in bio.'

'Woah. That's wicked awesome! I wish I had a bond with...' his mind trailed off to distant thoughts of the future, 'no one.' he amended.

"Anyway. Whadda ya think? The wall's all dry now." I patched up for him.

"Yeah. It looks good I s'pose." he was dreaming of me and the wall couldn't hold his attention much longer.

'Cole,' I used his name for the first time which snapped him out of his dream, 'do you really think my hair suits me? My ex back at home told me it looked like shit when I had it like this.'

'No. I think it looks beautiful. Just like you.' he answered and tipped my face upwards so I could see his eyes. They were going all wavy and bottomless and my mind went fuzzy. I felt the warmth of his entirety, even though the only thing that touched me was one finger, holding my gaze. It was as if I looked into his eyes and saw straight to his heart. It felt like everything else in the world dropped away. Then he bent and kissed my forehead. 'You'd better get some sleep. We have training first thing tomorrow. After breakfast of course. Take care Anni.' he thought in a whisper accompanied by feelings of love, care, compassion and sincere concern.

'You too Cole.' I whisper-thought back and then he let go that one finger, and I felt like all was lost.

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