A/N: ahhhhh okay so I've written a few jonnor one shots but here is my fist multi chapter. It's basically an alternative meeting/baseball camp AU inspired by movie called jongens (or 'boys'). Here's the link if you want to watch it It's got really bad English subtitles but you can figure out what's going on and I really liked it. I definitely tweaked it a bit to make it fit the jonnor story line a little better and then I randomly added some surfing too b/c why not? I think Connor's a little OOC (think Gus from TFIOS) but that's what AUs are for I guess.

Anyways, I've been working on this for like 3 months now so I'm really excited to finally be posting and having people start reading. I really hope you like it and I'd love to hear from you!

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Chapter 1
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Jude squinted as he stepped out of the car and tilted his baseball hat further forwards. It didn't help much though. The sun was still low in the sky. It was so low that he still hadn't quite shaken off the morning yawning fits and yet thanks to good old Southern California, he was already sweating.

"Ready?" Lena asked walking around the car.

"For bed maybe," he mumbled.

"Hey." Lena playfully smacked him in the shoulder. "You like baseball. Right?"

Jude didn't answer. Instead though, he reached back into the car and grabbed his backpack. She was right. He did like baseball. He was good at it too. It was summer that Jude didn't like. The quintessential American childhood longing of school free days in the hot sun, capped by carefree evenings out with friends long after the sky had darkened but before the earth had really been able to cool had never really captured him. Probably because he'd never really experienced one. For Jude summer meant destruction of whatever sense of normalcy he'd managed to build for himself over the school year. Because in the summer, there was no escape. No escaped from the vile chaos that festered in the booze and Tabaco soaked houses that some bureaucrat decided he should consider home. Meals were unpredictable. Sometimes there were chips and cheese wiz in a cupboard. Sometimes someone would come home well after midnight with McDonalds bought in a drunken state with only themselves in mind. His sister quickly learned how to distract them so Jude could steal a pack of fries or chicken nuggets for them to share. But those nights were the good ones. Whenever they were finally pulled from a house, they left behind scratch marks on the floor from frantically pushing desks, end tables, dressers, sometimes even beds up against their bedroom doors. Home was never safe; it was never really home. School had become Jude's home. It wasn't ideal either really. They got moved around so much that he never got the chance to make friends but the adults didn't hit him at school. The teachers cared about his school work and future. The administration cared that he got at least one proper meal a day. And the coaches taught him how to channel his frustration into something constructive, if you can consider swinging a wooden bat to hit a ball and then running around a pre-drawn circle constructive. For two months every year though, that was all taken away and with it, Jude's ability to pretend everything was okay.

There was a chance it could be different now. It had been eight months since they were placed with Stef and Lena. Nineteen was the record but still, something felt different about this one.

"Yeah, yeah," he said with an eye role but he smiled and Lena smiled back. That was the something different about this place; stuff like that, was just suddenly easy. "Thanks for the ride."

"Uh. Oh, right. Sure." She waved and Jude waved back heading towards the field. He couldn't help but think that even with her black blazer and curly hair, frizz free and done to perfection she looked a little lost stepping backwards the few steps she had taken from the car. That too was the something different.

The field was unlike one Jude had ever seen up close. The grass was actually green and as he walked across it water droplets left over from its early morning watering tickled his ankles. He'd never lived in community that could afford to keep fields and parks from browning in the summer heat. Nor one that would even consider watering the dirt infield so you wouldn't choke on the dust as you ran the bases. He passed third base and followed the chalk line towards home plate where a group of boys his age were all huddled about. The line was crisp and even whiter than the new shoes Stef and Lena had bought him.

"You must be Jacob," boomed a scratchy voice from the shade of the graffiti free dugout. Jude nodded and veered around the group of boys towards the older man. He looked about sixty to Jude, skin wrinkled with sun spots. The edges of his baseball hat were frayed along the brim and the colour looked washed out as if he'd warn it for years, summer after summer, out on the field coaching instead of on a cruise in the Bahamas or whatever it was that retired people do. His smile was friendly though and so Jude supposed he didn't mind. "Good, good. I'm Will. Will, Coach, whatever. Kid in the bandana calls me Shakes," he said nodding over to the group of boys. Jude turned to look but turned back quickly when he saw the kid in the bandana looking back at him. "Never figured that one out." Jude didn't know if he meant the kid or the nickname but he didn't ask. "You can just drop your bag there and we'll do introductions. It's exciting getting fresh blood out here. Haven't had anyone new in years."

Jude felt his stomach lurch. He tossed his bag in the pile with the others but a part of him wanted to crawl in there with it and hide. Lena had mentioned it was more of a skill clinic than a summer camp but trying his best to keep the approaching summer off his mind back in May, he hadn't though much of it. If he had maybe he would have foreseen that once again he was going to be the new kid. Jude clenched his fists, digging his nails into his palm. He was too old and had been in the system for too long now to allow an eight month run get his hopes up. Clearly though, if the thought of being once again left out of every inside joke or having to listen to constant whispers while being avoided like the plague made him physically ill, he had. Sometimes Jude thought that was the worst part of it all, the way it revealed his own stupidity over and over. Controlling others and their nimrodic minds was impossible but his own mind was another story. Or at least it should be. Once again though, he seemed to be failing.

"Okay, I guess we'll get started, boys," Will said stepping onto the field. "This is Jude Jacob. Jude, these are the guys. I trust you'll all introduce yourselves at some point today." Most of the guys nodded polite hellos before turning their attention back to Will. Jude nodded back, thankful for the short and sweet version. There was nothing he loathed more than the standard 'Tell us a bit about yourself.' In and out of court, bounced from one form of abuse to another, there just wasn't much room for anything else and not having anything to say made standing up at the front of the class with thirty pairs of eyes sizing him up even worse. Besides, no one really cared. The new kid was invisible unless he was a punching bag and neither of those required the knowledge of how many siblings one had or what their favorite colour was.

The kid in the bandana though seemed to have that very question on the tip of his tongue. He was tall, and muscular, his dirty blond hair flopped out of the blue bandana that he had tied around his head like a sweat band. Even as Will continued talking, Blue Bandana kept his eyes on Jude. When Jude looked back at him, he wouldn't even look away and just shifted his jaw from side to side. "Now, let's start with a lap. And no cutting corners. You should be an arm's length from the fence the entire way. Then we'll buddy up for stretches. Alright let's go. Let's go."

Jude fell in line and the group began to make their way around the outfield. They moved as a group at an almost laughably slow pace. There was safety in numbers though and so Jude happily plotted along with them, glad that at the end of the lap he wouldn't be the wheezing in agony kid as well as the new kid. It had been far too long since he'd done any sort of real exercise. He supposed he'd need to change that though. Blue Bandana wasn't the only one here with muscles. The group of boys in front of him looked more like men. Their arms had shape to them, their shoulder blades bulged through their shirts, and their legs hardly looked like his own spindly twigs. They may not have been moving fast in that moment but they looked like they certainly could if they wanted to. Looking down at his knobby knees, Jude thought he looked like he would snap in half if he tried to go any faster.

Hearing footsteps gaining on his as they rounded the first bend, Jude picked his head back up to try and seem less pathetic. Spotting blue out of the corner of his eye, Jude tried to keep his face neutral as the boy passed him, running backwards, eyes still glued in his direction. Trying to keep his own eyes directly forward so as not to encourage whatever it was that was going on, Jude watched as Blue Bandana weaved his way to the front of the pack, only turning around once he was a head of everyone else. Suddenly Jude thought being invisible wasn't going to be his biggest hurdle.

When they made it back to home plate, Jude watched everyone begin to pair up. He looked around trying not to feel lost but as everyone began to spread out he spotted eyes on him again.

"Partner," Blue Bandana said, grabbing his arm and tugging him towards the grassy outfield. "So," he began, kicking out his left leg slightly and digging his heel into the ground. Jude did the same, a little too caught in the whirlwind that was this guy to think for himself. He did notice however, that the grass was no longer damp. The sun it seemed, was in full force before nine. "I'm Connor by the way. And I'll be your personal guide to a baseball intensive summer."

"Intensive?" Jude winced. He'd played on school teams but they were never that serious.

"Oh yeah," Connor nodded. "Everyone here's gunning for a scholarship." Jude's eyes widened in surprise. They were fourteen. College seemed so far away that it wasn't even on his radar. Maybe that was another setback of being a system kid though. These kids could plan years in advance but that had always been impossible for him. Connor switched legs and Jude mirrored him. "It's fine though. We find ways to make it fun. Can't waste a whole summer out here getting yelled at by Shakes."

"Is he bad?" Jude didn't like yelling, particularly from adult males.

"He snaps but I just have to work my charm on him and he rolls over like a puppy," Connor said with a wink. "Here, I'll do your arms."

Jude looked around at the other pairs and stretched his arms out wide like a scarecrow like they had theirs and felt Connor step up close behind him and pull them back.

"What do you play?"

Jude shivered in the hot sun as Connor's breath tickled his neck. "Second base."

"So not a prude but not willing to give it all up either. A little tongue action, little hip action, clothes mostly on. Good to know."

"What?" Jude could feel his cheeks heat up. He forced out a laugh to try and brush it off. Connor seemed like the type who liked to get under peoples skin although it wasn't in a malicious way. It was in a way Jude had never really experienced before. He dealt with others and their malice by ignoring them, pretending that what they said didn't bother him and he'd had years of experience there. He knew what sort of jabs to anticipate and he built up walls to counter them. He didn't have walls for Connor's flirting assault though. It was flirting, wasn't it? He blushed like it was. His heart beat fast like it was. But Jude didn't really have anything to compare it to. "You're insane." He was. Or maybe he wasn't. Stef and Lena were clearly liberal thinkers and so maybe this was a community where Connor could be that open and forward. Stef and Lena had only been eight months of Jude's fifteen years though and the rest of it would have crucified the boy standing behind him closer than any of the other boys were standing behind their partners for simply just that never mind what came out of his mouth.

They switched after what felt like a very long minute to Jude and as he stepped up behind Connor he notice blue nail polish on his left hand. He glanced to his right hand but the one was bare. He wanted to ask. And hell, Connor didn't seem like someone who would mind the question. And he had the opportunity and everything. But he didn't. Jude didn't know why exactly but he had never been one to ask. Somewhere inside him Jude thought that was probably why he didn't have friends but he buried that far beneath his experiences within the foster care system.

"Alright, alright, this isn't the circus," Will called when he decided they'd all done enough stretching. "Since it's the point and how you're going to win games, we'll start with hitting. Connor, why don't you pitch?"

Of course he was the pitcher.

"Sure thing, Shakes. That way you can sit back in your lawn chair a little longer," Connor agreed with a smile.

Jude's eyes went wide at the comment but looking around no one else seemed shocked. "Yeah, yeah," Will gruffed tossing Connor the ball. "Just pace yourself. Don't want to run out of smart comments before the summer ends."

"No worries, Shakes. I feel like this will be a very inspiring summer."

"You leaving too?"

"Yeah," Jude nodded, paddling his board back to shore. Gently rolling in, the evening tide was doing most of the work for his tired arms even if it was seemingly settling in for the night. They hadn't seen a white, foamy crest in over twenty minutes and the breeze off the Pacific had just begun to bite as the sun dipped beneath its darkening surface off in the distant West. These days, out there on the ocean, where the sun disappeared behind the Earth, this was the new Wild West, the new last frontier, and everybody is South Cali knew it. "Aren't you?" Jude asked, craning his neck back to Connor where the boy sat a drift his board, peaceful in his solitude as the water cleared of the day's riders.

"No," He answered simply. "Never."

Jude laughed to himself and continued to shore. Connor was nothing if not eccentric. He'd met the boy only ten hours ago and the answer already didn't surprise him. Jude continued towards the beach, following the handful of other boys from the team who had joined them in an after practice ride. Or really, Jude figured, he had been the one to do the joining, not them. He watched as they clambered to shore and began the uncoordinated dance of trying to right themselves on their bikes while holding their surf boards. It was definitely a skill and Jude determined that most kids got their driver's license before ever mastering it. Just managing to stand up on his board a few months ago, Jude resigned to walking for the next two years. No use making an even bigger fool of himself.

Once he had made it back onto the dry sand, he helped the few stragglers get going, holding onto their bikes until they got peddling fast enough that they could balance on their own.

"It's Jude, right?" Marc called back to him.

"Yeah," he answered, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He would never admit to how good it felt to have someone remember his name.

"Alright. Thanks man. See you tomorrow."

He waved and sat himself down on a log to brush the sand off his feet, another science he didn't think he'd ever quite figure out. He listened as their voices grew quieter and quieter. When he couldn't hear them anymore Jude listened to the water rush in rhythmically over the beach, each time creeping just a little higher, bringing relief to the thirsty sand that had baked all day in the sun. But even the waves weren't loud enough to break the quiet that had settled over the beach. They had been the last of the surfers out in the water and now it was just him on the beach with a few seagulls and Connor, who still sat looking west, legs straddling his board.

Since waking up this morning, this was the first time Jude had been able to really stop and think. And that was probably the point really. Summer skill clinics weren't about developing ones inner self. All Coach cared about was hitting the ball the furthest and it was all go, go, go until you passed the mark. For some of the other guys who were hunting scholarships that was probably okay for them. He wasn't really there for baseball though. Jude knew enough his inner self to know that. Stef and Lena just wanted him to make friends and find some sense of belonging. And it had been eight months. Eight months of something different so back in May, he'd agreed to baseball and after practice he'd agreed to spend the late afternoon surfing with the team and now, well now he was faced with another choice.

He'd already said goodbye but there was something tugging him to stay. He didn't know what it was exactly and he hesitated. It wasn't that he'd get in trouble or anything; Lena had told him not worry about dinner if he was having fun with his friends. But even Jude knew this wasn't really about that. He was scared to say what it was really about though, to let his mind venture down that path and into the unmapped woods on either side. This wasn't the first time the fork had presented itself to Jude. Cute boys had always held his interest over cute girls. Being the new kid though, the freaky foster kid with the dad who had killed his mom, had never leant itself well to positive interaction with anyone really, let alone a crush. And Jude didn't really know if that tug he felt even was a crush or simply the appreciation of acknowledgement and inclusion. That was the thing though, Jude never really knew because he never let himself ask.

Watching the seagulls down the beach take off towards the open water, their fill of crumbs had, Jude realized that for once, he wasn't locked behind some broken system. He hadn't been for eight months. He was finally free to do as he pleased and he owed it to himself at least get his feet wet.

He stepped back onto the sand and sighed when he realized he'd just finally managed to get it off his feet. A quickly building thumping in his chest told him it was going to be worth it though. He walked down to the water's edge and waded in. It felt even warmer now, an ever constant heat sink against the ever changing air above. Once the water lapped against his waste, Jude took a breath and dove head first out into the blue.