Hello my fellow SOA and Jax/Tara addicts!

This is my my second fic, after taking a few months to grieve from that devastating season 6 finale, I have finally gained some inspiration to start writing again. Although, I am still heart broken and probably will never get over that ending, I find escaping in the Jax/Tara fics helps. My favorites to read are the first love/teenage year stories, when they were crazy in love, specifically in Jax's words "i need to be with you every second, or I want to kill myself kinda crazy". So here is my attempt on how that love came to be. I try my best to stay true to the characters on the show seeing as Kurt Sutter has masterfully made them perfect. And I try to keep it all as realistic as possible, so all your opinions are very much appreciated and encouraged.

Thanks to my friend, Pitstrukin for editing and the encouragement and for anyone who hasn't read her story, Beginnings, read it asap! Great story!

I own nothing.

June 1985

Jax was excited bouncing in his seat, on his way to the playground with his brother and his best friend, to be able to run around and play and use their new water guns to attack the girls they usually bickered with at the playground.

They arrived and Jax darted from the car to the water spout to meet up with Opie who was already filling his own water gun. Gemma and Thomas followed behind him, Gemma warning him to stay close by and told him she would be pushing Thomas on the swings.

Jax and Opie went on their search for the group of girls to attack them. Their 6 year old minds still thought of girls as an enemy threat with cooties that were trying to overrule "their territory/playground". They were sure their plan to soak them would be the solution to stop the "princess club" (as the group of girls referred to themselves) from constantly chasing Jax and Opie to coerce them to play the parts of "Prince" in their dumb games.

Jax split up to go on the hunt to find the group. They knew the "stinky club" (as Jax & Opie referred to them) would be there, they were always there on Saturdays. Jax spotted the girls in a huddle, giggling and pointing. As he snuck up closer behind, he heard them giggling saying, "Hehe she really thought she could join us princesses." Another girl said, "Yea she can play the wicked witch." That's when Jax looked over to where they were pointing and his stomach did a little flip.

A little girl about his age was sitting off by herself with her knees to her chest looking sad. She had long silky brown hair down her back. Vibrant green eyes that looked like they might sparkle. Jax thought all girls where ugly and gross but this girl really did look like she could be a princess. He looked closer at her face and his heart sank, she was crying. He didn't like girls but he never liked to see them cry, especially not this girl.

He snuck back over to another tree that was closer to her not wanting to blow his mission of attack. He whispered as low as he could to the little girl. "Hey you." She looked over at him startled. He put his finger to his mouth to let her know to remain quiet and then he waved for her to come over by him. She wiped her face, then looked over at the group of girls to see if they were paying attention to her. He liked that she had caught on easily to why he was trying to remain off the "stinkies" radar and was checking to make sure she wouldn't give him away. She got up slowly and walked towards him, standing behind the tree with him so she wouldn't be seen either. Getting a closer look at her made his stomach do another flip, he wondered briefly if he was getting sick or something. When she looked at him shyly, he felt nervous for some reason. "Were you crying because of the cootie clan?" He asked trying to cheer her up. She looked down and he felt nervous again worried he said the wrong thing.

She answered softly, "I just asked them if I can play with them and they made fun of me. Said I can only play if I was the witch because that's what I looked like." Jax was angered by what she just said and his detest for the "stinkies" just deepened.

"Don't worry, they're just jealous because they want to be princesses but are too gross, and you look like a real princess." Jax blurted without thinking he couldn't believe he was telling this to a girl. The little girl looked up at him and blushed as a brilliant smile crept on her face, causing Jax's stomach to do three more flips back to back.

"I got an idea, you can join me and Ope, we're gonna soak 'em to take over the playground once and for all. You help us get 'em and you can have claim to the playground too." Jax didn't know how Ope would take Jax allowing a girl to join their side but it was too late now.

Her smile widened and he reacted with his own smile that made her blush again. "Ok. Deal." She said holding her hand out to shake his.

He felt nervous again but not because he was worried she had cooties. He shook her hand quickly. He was feeling weird around this girl and he didn't understand why. "Ok deal. Let's go find Opie. My name's Jax by the way. What's your name?"

"My name's Tara." She said shyly again.

They snuck off to look for Opie on the other side of the playground. When they found him, he gave Jax a confused look. Jax understood his expression immediately. "Don't worry she's cool, she's not one of the stinkies." Opie just nodded in response. Jax introduced them, looking to Tara. "This is Opie, he's my best friend." Opie just waved he wasn't as outgoing as Jax. "Ope this is Tara. She's gonna help us get the stinky club and rule the playground." Tara smiled politely and waved back. Ope's eyes widened realizing a girl was gonna help them. He relaxed a little more at this revelation that they had another person on their side.

Jax ran to his moms car to grab his old water gun for Tara to use and they came back to form their plan.

It went on without a hitch. Tara went up to the girls with the gun behind her back while Jax and Opie stood back behind the tree waiting to attack. Right as the girls went to open their mouths to tease her again, she interrupted them, "There's only one princess of this playground!" And she sprayed them as fast as she could with the water gun right as Jax and Opie came from behind and soaked them too. Jax laughing yelling over their whining and screaming, "You cootie girls stay away from us and our playground." The girls took off running to their parents, whining to go home because they were all wet. Jax, Opie, and Tara busted out laughing together and they decided they made a good team. They played with each other the rest of the afternoon. Until Tara's mother called for her to leave. She gave Jax his water gun back, he told her to keep it to have in case the stinkies came back. She smile brightly, "Thanks for letting me join up with you guys. See you next time." Jax's stomach did another flip when she mentioned there would be a next time. He smiled back at her, "Sure, see you around." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek not even thinking about what he was doing. Opie looked at him like he grew another head. Tara flushed a bright red and giggled uncontrollably. "Bye Opie." She waved quickly and ran to her mom.

Opie looked at Jax and started laughing and pointing, "Hahaha ohhhhhh you kissed a girl."

Strangely Jax didn't feel ashamed. He finally realized why his stomach was feeling weird since he saw Tara. He liked her. He never cared about girls before, always much rather play with his friends, talk about superhero cartoons, watch his dad work on cars or bikes. He never thought about girls but he liked Tara. He thought when he saw her again he would ask her to be his girlfriend. Jax just smiled and shrugged. "I like her." Opie couldn't believe his ears and didn't understand.

Jax couldn't wait until the next time they went to the playground with hopes to see Tara. But he didn't. He looked eagerly for her each time but didn't see her. He was disappointed each time. Weeks passed and still no Tara. He finally got so anxious to see her again he decided to ask the stinkies if they knew what happened to her. "Hey stink faces, what happened to Tara?"

They looked annoyed that he was asking for her. They all had crushes on Jax for as long as they could remember, always wanted him to play their prince charming, but he never would. Finally one girl spoke up. "She doesn't live here dumb dumb. Her grandma lives next door to me, she was only here with her parents because old lady Knowles has been sick."

Jax's heart sunk. The first girl he ever liked didn't even live in Charming and he probably would never see her again. He hated this weird feeling he felt, he knew there was a reason he stayed away from girls, girls were stupid. He walked away from the group and back to his mom. "Mom can we go home, I don't feel good."

"Okay baby." She grabbed Thomas and went to the car, wondering what had gotten into her son.