objective: try something new and do it with someone new

RULES:
1) cannot be someone you know well (you can be acquainted)
2) must be the opposite sex
3) don't get creepy, keep it cool

TIME: do one task each week, you have twelve weeks to knock off everything on the list (you don't have to go in order)

TASK LIST: (italics means need to be done, bold means completed)
1. hike somewhere neither one of you have hiked
2. listen to an entire album by an artist neither one of you have heard of
3. guys choice - it's his night for you to experience one of HIS hobbies
4. girls choice - it's her night for you to experience one of HER hobbies
5. game night - you each choose one game and one movie
6. 20 questions - get opinionated!
7. get creative! paint fight
8. friend swap! hang out with his friends while he hangs out with yours!
9. get out of your comfort zone and do something weird. keep it legal, or don't
10. picture scavenger hunt! have your friends come up with a list of 10 things to do, and take pictures, you don't have to keep it clean. you have 24 hours
11. try doing something neither one of you have ever done! be adventurous
12. BONFIRE! invite both groups of friends! (this one MUST be done last)

good luck. and maybe you'll find something you didn't before.


October 16th - October 22nd

October 19th

At school, there was an air of awkwardness between Lucas and Maya. It was obvious that there would be an underlying drift between the two, due to the fact that they had never talked to each other before the twelve week thing, but with the mention of Misty, due to his mother's running mouth, Lucas didn't know how to engage in a conversation.

Maya wasn't one to pry, and she had no right, anyway, considering him and her were barely friends. And he didn't dare ask about Josh, since she never brought him up in the first place, so she considered to never bring up Misty and let it be an elephant in the room, and perhaps survive through the twelve weeks and never speak to him again.

Lucas, however, had a completely different schedule than her.

"Maya," Lucas shout at her from across the hallway. The sight of Lucas and Maya interacting and hanging out in the halls were, albeit, an odd one but students had nearly gotten used to the fact. That didn't prohibit every student to stare at the pair like lost ducklings. "We need to talk."

Maya's head was in her locker, fiddling with her books absentmindedly as she tried to avoid any conversation with Lucas. She wanted to not have this conversation as long as possible, and primly, not to have it at all. In no situation did she want to make Lucas uncomfortable when they were just becoming friends.

"Maya!" Lucas said, again, ambling up to her lockers and touching her shoulder softly.

"I'm busy!" she grunted through the metal, feeling the warmth of his touch. She turned her head to face him, to tell him to go away, but she seemingly forgot her head was in a locker. Her head hit the side with a loud bang and she grunted loudly, feeling a sting on the side of her head. "Oooff," she groaned, holding the victim of her head with her hand as tears prickled her eyes dramatically.

"Are you accident prone around me?" Lucas asked, smiling at her cheekily. She rolled her eyes and rubbed her skin sadly, feeling the slight sting beneath her fingertips.

Maya nodded her head and swayed slightly on her feet, attempting to ignore the throbbing pain in her foot as well as her head. Time would tell if she'd break every other bone in her body as well. "What's up Huckleberry?"

"Are you on for Saturday?" he asked her, a slight bounce on his feet. He was excited, Maya could tell. And it was a good thing he neglected to mention Misty. Luckily, he probably forgot about it but Maya couldn't ignore that nagging feeling in the back of her skull. Or perhaps it was her goose-bump that was starting to form.

"Yeah," she said a bit raspy, swallowing her saliva to clear her throat. "You seem excited. Wait, don't you have a tournament that day?"

Lucas smiled widely, nodding his head. "I see you're keeping up with my baseball schedule."

Maya's cheeks flushed at his accusation. "Of course I'm keeping up with your baseball schedule," she spilled quickly. "The school's baseball schedule, I mean. You're my taxi driver, basically, for this twelve week thing. I need to know when you have tourneys."

"Cute," Lucas responded, scrunching his nose in admiration. "Nice cover."

"Thanks," she fake bowed in mock. "I try. And if you have a baseball tourney, then we aren't on for Saturday?"

"Wrong," Lucas tsked. "If you read up on the list, which is what I did, it's guys choice. You do one of my hobbies. It's a day dedicated to me," he clarified.

"I don't think that's what it means," she scrunched her eyebrows, rubbing her head in circles.

Lucas rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Minuscule details. And that's besides the point. During normal baseball tourney days we have one game, and two if we're reaching. I want you to come."

Maya's eyebrows rose as Lucas began to speak. She, out of all people, would come to his baseball game? That seemed random, and a bit odd. But he was correct, it was one of his hobbies, and if playing baseball was his hobby, it made sense to go to one of his games. "Are you sure you want me to go to one of your games?"

"Of course."

Maya nodded her head at his response, and regretted it because of the throbbing in her skull. She groaned, and rubbed her head in circles a bit more in a failed attempt to ease the pain. "I suppose I'll come if I don't accidentally break my leg or puncture my brain with the time in between."

Lucas smiled down at her, a quick flutter pounded through her stomach. Shitty reaction, she thought. She needed to stop - more so, he needed to stop - if she were going to maintain any control over their relationship. Control over what? She barely knew.

"Good, that's good," he stuttered, his hand rubbing over his backpack strap. "I'll pick you up at eleven on Saturday."

Maya scoffed, giving him a questioned looked. "Eleven PM? That seems a bit late, don't you think?"

Lucas rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Not eleven PM, Maya. Eleven AM. In the morning."

Maya's eyebrows rose and her eyes nearly shot out of her head. "Excuse me?" she sputtered disbelievingly. Her hand dropped from her head and shot up dramatically. "Eleven? Saturday's are my nights to sleep in, thank you very much. Sunday's are the days my mom comes home from her religious venture and spews me out some Christ shit and attempts to get me to go to church. It's the only free day I have, and I'm spending it on you. At eleven AM. In the morning!"

"Eleven AM," he confirmed, nodding his head as she continued to ramble on messily.

"Why is it even so early? Why do you have to play baseball so early? This is a form of harassment, or something. I'm a free person, you can't force me to do anything."

Lucas rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand that was flailing in the air like a fish on dry land. "Maya, stop being dramatic."

Maya's cheeks went flush with heat as he didn't let go of her small fingers. She stared down at their fingers interlaced, and then back up at him, and then back at their fingers. Lucas had an amused grin on his face. "What's the matter?" he asked her, neglecting to drop his hand from hers.

"Oh, nothing, you big Huckleberry," she grumbled out in an irate matter, yanking her hand away from his. He laughed to himself softly at her reaction. "You're going to fall asleep on the field, and I'll tape it and make you internet famous."

"Sweet," he joked, "I've always wanted to be internet famous." Maya rolled her eyes in annoyance, and Lucas was surprised at how irate she was today. It was too easy to get her annoyed with him, he almost enjoyed it. "Eleven AM isn't even that late, and that's not when I play. I play at four."

"Then why the fuck are you waking me up at eleven AM? Bullying is illegal, in some states."

A wide smile erupted on Lucas's face at her response; everything about her made him laugh. The way she called him Huckleberry, the way she grumbled about everything she had ever encountered, how she was so clumsy. He loved it. "You find this funny?" she sputtered out angrily, stomping her better foot on the ground next to his foot. "You won't be laughing after I beat your ass black and blue and throw you back to Texas."

"Calm down crazy lady," Lucas laughed at her again. He was probably fueling her anger, but he didn't care that much. "We leave at eleven, it's a three hour drive to the field - that's including the New York traffic, I checked. So we'll get there at two, get you a nice little lunch to fill your belly, and I have to be at the game an hour before it starts anyway."

Maya stayed silent for a moment, contemplating his offer. "You'll pay for the lunch?"

"Yes."

"I suppose I'll go. And don't think I'm going for you, since I always seem to hurt myself when I'm around you. Either physically, or emotionally, but more so emotionally since you're emotionally tiring. I'm going for the free food, that you're going to buy me."

"Thanks for the clarification," Lucas joked. "I'll see you on Saturday at eleven?"

"And not a minute later."

/

October 22nd

Maya was up at eight. She went to bed at only nine the night before, suddenly overdrawn with tiredness. She assumed she wouldn't have woken up until Lucas come and gotten her, but she had gotten a plentiful eleven hours of sleep, which could be enough to get her through the day and of Lucas's baseball tournament. She had at least hoped so.

So when Lucas came knocking at her door at 10:59, she feigned tiredness, but only a bit, since she was always tired. The drive would be fair, about two hours to three since they were driving all of the way to New Jersey. But she had planned to enjoy the long trek with Lucas, since she had decided to also buy the whole physical album of Oh Wonder the night before, conveniently the new album they had listened to only the week prior.

"There's my Huckleberry," she said in a joking matter as she opened the door. She was in an obvious better mood than the last time he saw her, which was certainly a plus. But it was also a down, since it'd be harder to get under her skin. But he always managed to do that, so he didn't think he would have to be trying in the first place.

Her hair was curled and wound up softly in her ponytail. A few stray pieces of hair poked out of it and Lucas had a serious, and disgusting (if you asked him, he would deny everything) urge to tuck it behind her ear. He nearly hated himself. This time, she was wearing leggings and a long sleeve T-shirt that she had to cuff around her wrists. She also had tied a light sweater around her waist, just in case.

"Your Huckleberry?" Lucas asked her curiously as he closed the door behind him. Maya took a steady pace next to his side as they walked down her apartment building.

"Yep," she responded gleefully, popping the p. "Does anybody else call you Huckleberry? If so, I'd like to talk to them. They'll regret ever taking my nickname for you."

Lucas rolled his eyes at her. He was dressed in sweats and a big T-shirt, even for him. Maya almost wondered what it would look like on her, probably almost eating her, but she shooed the thought away as soon as it came. "Did you already have breakfast?" he asked her, opening her door for her. Her hair whipped softly as she entered the car and strapped the seat belt over her body.

"Obviously," she grunted. "Don't tell me your Texas ass was going to buy me both breakfast and lunch. Because if you were, I accept."

Lucas smiled at her and hopped in the car, turning on the ignition. Once he turned out of her apartment parking lot, Maya popped out the country music from his car radio and put in something else. "Hey!" Lucas said, attempting to swat her hand while looking at the road. "I've got some quality music in there."

"What's this?" she asked curiously, flipping over the CD that she had in her hand to look at it. Her body was turned toward Lucas while his was focused on the road. "Cowboy Blues?" she giggled. "Oh, don't tell me you have the cowboy blues when you don't listen to your Cowboy Blues. Seriously, Lucas? Where did you get your music taste? I'm highly disappointed."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Then it's a good thing it isn't your music taste. Hey, handle that with care, it's limited edition."

Maya gagged, but put the CD carefully in its case anyway and set it in the car pocket to her right. "Don't worry, your music is safe and sound. Let's play a game."

"A game?"

"Yes. I know we're out of school but let's have a quiz. What did we listen to last week?"

"You seriously don't remember? That was like, a week ago."

Maya groaned and rolled her eyes. He could be so goddamn dumb sometimes. "Wrong answer. And duh, that's why I said last week. Answer the question, you annoying Huckleberry."

"That band called Oh Wonder, right? They were pretty good."

"Ding ding!" Maya said enthusiastically, tapping her nose for flare. The seat belt twisted around her hip uncomfortably, but she merely ignored it as her body faced his. "Seriously, sometimes I wonder how you're passing school," she muttered to him as a joke. Lucas's eyebrows scrunched.

"I'll have you know, darling, that I'm an all A student. Don't know about you, though."

Maya's mouth hung open in a joke. "How dare a Huckleberry like you say something so rude!" she laughed, hitting his bicep softly. "Who cares if I have all As, I'm not going to college anyway. I have other plans, you know, outside of New York." Maya turned her head towards the radio and pressed play, the soft lyrics from the band they listened to the week prior enveloping the car.

"What would those be?" he asked with genuine curiosity. It was a rare occurrence, really, for someone to actually listen to what she wanted to do outside of high school. Josh always talked about himself.

"You know," she muttered in a suddenly shy matter. She tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear as she moved her attention towards the passing cars in the other direction. "The usual stuff."

Lucas laughed. "I don't know, that's why I asked, but thanks." They stayed silent for a moment before Lucas egged on some more. "Come on, Maya. You can tell me anything, you know that, right? I won't laugh or judge."

Maya felt an odd feeling erupt in her stomach, it was something she felt only once at the very beginning of her relationship with Josh. She thought to ignore it and perhaps bring it up to Riley later. Or not, since she looked into everything as a romantic advance. "Sorry, you're right," she shook her head, paying close attention to the sharpie drawn fingernail on her thumb. "Josh never cared to listen to me when I talked about my future."

Lucas bit his lip as his hands stayed concentrated on the wheel. "You can tell me about him too, you know. If you ever need to vent."

Maya nodded her head and lied her head on the cold, glass window as she stared at the foggy polluted sky. "That's sweet Lucas, thanks," she responded honestly without a drop of sarcasm in her voice, which surprised Lucas. "How about we wait for him until twenty questions, alright? And what about you with Misty?" she said, regretting it almost immediately as Lucas tensed at the name.

There was silence for a few minutes, only the lyrics from the CD that was popped in filtered through the air. "We should wait for twenty questions, as well. And I'll answer anything you want then, alright?"

"Okay," Maya said, a bit too relieved with the fact that the silence was broken. "This is too weird, sorry." She shook her head. "Anyway, about my future, I want to be an artist, a big one. Like one of those ones that have their paintings travel state by state in galleries or whatever. You know, I want to travel the world, as cliche as that sounds, and maybe paint people and culture and what I see. It's all very stupid."

"No!" Lucas said hurriedly, getting off an exit and turning. "It's not stupid, Maya, and if you want to know a real stupid dream, you should hear mine."

Maya smiled at the thought. "Ooh, don't tell me," she said, bouncing in her seat. "I'm going to guess. Okay, um, a bull rider!"

"No," Lucas shook his head, smiling. "However, I did ride a sheep once."

Maya laughed, throwing her head back. "Now that's an accomplishment, Sundance. All I can think of in my head is, like, cowboy related stuff. I give up."

"I want to be a vet."

Maya was silent for a moment before she responded. "A vet? As in a veterinarian?"

"That's the one," Lucas snorted. "I know, it sounds very...childish. It's what I've wanted to be since I was a kid, so I suppose that makes sense."

She shook her head. "No, it's cute! Seems very Huckleberry-ish. It suits you, you know; saving one animal at a time. I can already see your business name, something like Friar's Animals, or Texan Taking Caring Of Your Animals, or Cowboy Cows, or something."

"I'm sure I'll contact you when I get my business up."

The two sat in comfortable silence for awhile as Maya tried to balance popcorn on her nose. She had come pretty successful at throwing and catching carrots in her mouth, as she filed through her phone and several snacks that Lucas packed. After an hour and a half, Lucas finally spoke up. He looked over at her for a moment, as she chipped off her nail polish and yawned. But his eyes quickly drifted back to the road.

"Halloween is in, like, nine days. Do you know what you're going to be?"

"Of course," she responded, rolling her eyes as if he should know that she would obviously be prepared for Halloween three months in advance. "You'll like my outfit, I think. Very appealing to men like you."

"What does that mean?"

"It's up for your interpretation. How about you?"

Lucas smiled. "That's a surprise, as well. I think you'll like it, too, very appealing to women like you," he mocked. Maya beamed at him happily, and then whipped her head around to attempt to throw some more popcorn in her mouth.

Lucas kept his eyes towards the road, and much to his disdain and probably his danger, he kept his mind towards Maya. She was just so...distracting. The way her eyes lit up when she talked about art, or food. Or sleep, or Riley. Something she really loved. And the way her eyes crinkled when her smile beamed. Perhaps it was the way she kept missing the popcorn from her mouth by a mile, and the way she came up with new nicknames to bug him. Perhaps the way her face would soften when she was genuine with him and when she would give him a compliment. How she was so clumsy around him, and the way her mouth would pout when she was sad, and the way her eyes would divert when they would talk about Josh. He didn't know what it was, perhaps it was all of them, he would have to figure it out though.

Lucas eyed his clock, noticing how much time had passed. It was almost two, and he was just about to pull into the local diner that he had planned to take Maya to. Not a date, of course. Maya was conked out on her side of the car, her head was lolling slightly as she drooled on his seat. He laughed to himself.

Lucas parked the car and gently stopped it. He pulled the key out of the ignition and hopped out, running over to Maya's side and opening the door. "Maya," he grumbled, shoving her shoulder slightly. She grumbled and rubbed her eyes with her palms.

"What year is it?"

"The same year it was the last time you were awake. We're at Shannon's, which is where we're having lunch."

Maya opened her eyes slightly and smiled, suddenly awake. "Yes! I love food," she hiccuped slightly, unbuckling her seat belt and bounding out of the car. Once Lucas caught up to her, she was already seated and pondering the lunch menu. The cafe had little people, as lunch began around three hours prior and dinner was in about three hours. It was a good time to come, too, since their lunch would be received quickly.

"Look," she said, her eyes scanning the menu for the third time over as he sat down, "I'm not a brat. I mean, I am totally a brat, but I'm not a huge brat so I won't buy the most expensive thing on the menu."

Lucas rolled his eyes and grabbed the menu out of her hand to look it over. She growled in annoyance and tried to snatch it back but he held it above his head. Unfair. "You can get anything you want, Maya. Don't pay attention to the prices, pay attention to the ingredients.

"That was deep," she teased, finally snatching the menu from his hand. Her eyes glazed over the menu for a final time; she handed Lucas the menu as the waitress walked over and poured them some water.

"Would you two dolls like anything to drink besides water, perhaps some coffee?" she asked. Maya noticed she had a slight southern twinge and kicked Lucas's foot under the table with her booted foot; he kicked just as quickly. Maya's head moved softly to peer at her name tag, Shannon.

"Woah," Maya said aloud, "do you own this place?"

Shannon shook her head as she grabbed her pad from her apron. "No," she drawled softly. "I do get that question a lot, however. My grandma made this place a few years back, she was named Shannon. My mama is named Shannon too, she's the one that owns here. It's like a whole line of Shannon's to keep the place and its authenticity."

"That's wonderful," Lucas said to her, his eyes twinkling at the story. Maya thought Lucas could get fascinated by any story that muttered out of any strangers mouth.

Shannon noticed the slight southern accent that laced underneath Lucas's voice. Maya had almost forgotten that Lucas had one, since she had spent so much time with him as of late. "Are you from the South?" she asked him. "I rarely see any of y'all up in these parts, anymore. My mama moved to Alabama when she was about twenty and gave birth to me there, while my grandma worked back here at Shannon's."

"Yes, ma'am, I lived in the South. Austin Texas, to be precise. I moved when I was thirteen to New York, because of my of my mama's job." Maya could tell Lucas held back some of the truth, with the way his shoulders tensed at the thought. She thought she could bring it up at twenty questions.

Maya decided to ease the tension Lucas caused by ordering. "Can we each get a cup of coffee? Wait, no, I'll only have a cup of coffee because I don't think you're allowed to drink coffee before a game, or something. So just get him some more water, because he's always thirsty," she snorted at her own joke. "Also, I'll have a veggie omelette and he'll have a meat lovers omelette."

Shannon tapped their order on her pen with a flourish and nodded at the both of them as she skipped away through the empty restaurant, placing the order to the chefs.

Maya swished her water around with her straw as she let the ice crunch between her teeth. Lucas payed mind to her closely, while Maya shifted uncomfortably under his heated gaze. "What, is there something in my teeth?"

"No," Lucas responded quickly, "how's that foot feeling?"

"Fine, I'll be sitting down for the entirety of your game anyway."

After a few minutes of them talking, Shannon finally pounced over with one cup of coffee and two types of omelette. "One veggie for the lady," she said, sliding her plate over to Maya on the other side of the table as well as her coffee. "And one meat lovers for the gentleman."

Once Shannon disappeared behind the Employees Only sign, Maya dug into her meal like she was an archaeologist searching for bones. In the process, some of her food got in her hair, and some of her hair got in her food. The food splayed out all over her face and Lucas laughed at her as he cut his carefully and neatly.

"I think you've got something on your face," he noted, stuffing another sausage in his mouth.

"Oh really?" she said after she gulped down her final piece and wiped her hair away from her eyes. "I couldn't tell."

"You eat like a wolf," he told her as she wiped away the stray food with a napkin. "You gulped that thing down in, like, five minutes."

She smiled at him widely, tightening her hair. "It's not my fault you Huckleberry decided to starve me for three hours."

"Hey!" he yelped defensively. "I brought carrots and popcorn to snack on. You're so tiny yet you eat so much, it's amazing."

After Lucas payed for the bill and gave Shannon a generous ten dollar tip, Lucas and Maya hopped in his car and they rode to the baseball field. Maya was almost giddy to see him in his baseball suit. She really hoped he had a good ass or her whole baseball fantasy/dream would be ruined.

"You better look good out there, or I'm never coming to one of your baseball games again."

Lucas turned the key and pulled it out of the ignition and smiled at her. "So you were thinking of coming to another one of my games, anyway?"

"Only if you bought me food, and then it was a fifty/fifty chance, so maybe."

Lucas pulled into one of the parking spots. Despite the game starting in an hour and fifteen minutes, the parking lot was already packed full of trucks and minivans. Lucas had to cram his small truck in the back; if he had come any moment later, he would have had to park in the back. "See," he said," pulling out the key, "we're lucky we're even an hour and fifteen minutes early."

Maya rolled her eyes and snapped her seat belt off while she hopped out of the car. Lucas trailed next to her, slowing down to reach her pace; he had grabbed his baseball bag that was full of his baseball gear from his trunk. Their arms were swinging next to each other and almost touched, but there was just enough distance to feel the wind on their forearms. Lucas almost wanted to reach out and take his hand in hers, but he quickly threw that thought away.

Once they approached the field, Maya could spot his gigantic team from a mile away. She could already see their baseball butts and she was bouncing on her boot. "Are you going to put your uniform on?" she asked him, poking at his bag.

"Yeah, in a moment. I thought you'd like to meet my team."

Maya smacked her lips in an excited matter. "Ooh, you know me so well."

Rather than Lucas and Maya approaching his team, his team more so bombarded Lucas in a dramatic matter. They came running down from across the field to greet him happily, slapping his back and chanting for him. "They seem excited to see you," Maya snorted.

With her words, the chanting suddenly stopped and their heads turned simultaneously, their eyes sparkling suddenly with the sight of a girl. Maya's body shrank back defensively into Lucas; she wasn't used to this kind of attention, especially from a bunch of men at the same time.

"Woah, woah, guys," Lucas said, his hand folded around her shoulders to assure her. Maya felt the heat from his hands travel up to her cheeks, but she attempted to ignore it. "You guys look like you're about to eat her whole."

"I sure would like to eat her whole!" one of the guys in the back said. "Did Lucas bring a little guest to our baseball game? Does little Lucas have a girlfriend?"

The rest of the boys started cheering at Lucas and slapped his back. "Nice job!" he heard one of them say.

"Slow down!" Lucas said, pulling Maya closer to him. He definitely did not want her to get eaten by the crowd. "No, this is my friend Maya Hart, remember?" he said, nodding his head slowly as if they were children. "Remember how I told you of the twelve-week thing we're doing?" They nodded. "This is week three, remember?"

"Oh!" one guy from the back shout at Lucas. Maya recognized him as Devin from her math class. "Isn't Maya Hart that - like - lonely artist that's really hot?"

"She's standing right here Devin," Lucas groaned, rolling his eyes and almost face palming himself.

"Ooh!" Devin yelped, sifting his way through the baseball team until he made his way to the front. "Devin Delong," he muttered saucily, giving Maya a soupy yellow smile. "Nice to meet ya."

"Dude!" one of them said, hitting Devin's shoulder and dragging him away from Maya. He made his way to the front and introduced himself in the same matter. "Name is Barack."

"Like the president?" Maya snorted.

Barack frowned and his eyebrows furrowed. "Everyone says that! I don't know why!" Barack was pulled back from the crowd and Lucas's eyes visibly rolled to the back of his head.

"Maya," Lucas said, facing her. "They're probably going to be super weird for awhile, so I think you should head up to the stands and I'll get dressed. Until my coach calls me over, I'll hang out with you."

Maya smiled and nodded her head, "Sounds good, Huckleberry," she said with a tint of sarcasm. She whipped her head and headed for the stands, her boot dragging along her as if it were an extra weight.

Lucas fully intended to escape his team so he could narrowly avoid the conversation about Maya he knew was bound to happen, but before he could run off and change into his uniform, one of them caught him by his elbow and pulled him back into the swarming sea of BO reeking baseball boys. "You two already have pet names? Now that's cute," Devin said.

"No," Lucas rolled his eyes, shaking Devin's arm off of his elbow. "It's not like that. We're just friends."

"I'm sure," one of the darker ones said to the right with a slight drawl. "That's what they all say."

"It's not like that," Lucas repeated. "We're just helping each other out."

"In bed!" one of them yelled and made a disgusting sign. Lucas grunted and quickly slid out of their grasp while they were whooping and hollering. Zay quickly followed behind him to the bathroom and he sighed in relief. Zay, he could handle.

He followed in his stride quickly, while Zay peeped back at the stand to look at Maya playing with her phone in a bored matter. "So, really, what's going on with Maya?"

"Nothing," Lucas promised. "I swear! Why does everyone thinking there's something going on with us?"

"Because the last time I saw you two interact was in the hall and she was yelling at you with her hand over her head like she had some headache, and now you and her are all lovey-dovey eyes at each other, and you're smothering her in front of your friends."

"Okay," Lucas grunted, annoyed. "I was holding her because I was certain one of the boys on our team would've tried to, like, I don't know... inspect her? Or something crazy."

"That doesn't explain the lovey-dovey eyes part."

"Maybe you're just thinking things."

"Maybe you are too."

/

After Lucas got dressed, he intended to avoid his team until his coach called him over. So, he spent a good twenty minutes with Maya until the opposing team, as well as his coach, showed up. As he went to leave the stands, Maya slapped his butt as a joke and Lucas's cheeks flushed up heatedly. His eyes pondered over to his team, who were all looking at him expectantly. "Play good," she told him warily.

During the whole three hour period of his game, Maya clearly didn't understand a dime of what was going on. Anytime someone from the opposing team got a, she supposed was a touchdown or something, apparently your side of the stand was supposed to boo. They also seemed to provide peanuts, so Maya spent a good half hour of the game in line. She also bought one of those number one mittens.

She was pretty sure Lucas's team won by the way they were hooting and hollering at the end so she yelled, "Yes! Let's go Huckleberry! That's my Huckleberry!" She could see Lucas smile at her through the crowd of his baseball teammates and she smiled back, waving at him softly. He gave her a thumbs up and she responded back with one.

The heat and energy from the crowd due to their win was too much for Maya, so she sat down next to a girl that looked about her age. She introduced herself curtly, and it gave Maya a serious mental image of Riley. She had brown hairs and big, doe eyes just like her. "Hi, my name's Jessica. Which one is yours?"

She assumed she was talking about the players on the field so Maya stood up on the stand seat and pointed him out through the crowd. "Number twelve, I think. I can't read it from here."

Jessica stood up on her stand and followed her gaze to where number twelve was cheering in the field. "Ooh," she said, "I was keeping my eye on him. He's really good."

"I wouldn't know," Maya laughed, "this is the first game I've been to."

"You haven't been to your boyfriend's games before?"

Maya's eyebrows rose in surprise at the mention of boyfriend. "Sorry—he's not my—uh—boyfriend. We're friends."

"Oh!" Jessica exclaimed. "Sorry, I just thought you two were..you know..doing it. Sorry to sound crass, but you do have a pet name for him."

"It's not a pet name," Maya said, annoyed. "It's a nickname. He's from the South, it works."

Jessica shrugged and sat back down. "May be, but from someone on the outside, sure doesn't look like it."

"Well, what about you? Why are you here?"

Jessica shrugged and rose her eyebrows. "I work for the school newspaper, I'm supposed to write on all of the games."

Ah shit, Maya thought almost immediately. She suddenly recognized that doe eyed face, which was just a feign for innocence since almost anyone would opened up to her. Jessica Wheeler, probably the biggest gossip in the school. "Jessica Wheeler," Maya noted. "Surprised I didn't notice you."

"Most don't, even though I'm the biggest gossip in the school. It's surprising really." And with that, Jessica bounced out of her seat and headed to her car. Maya checked her watch, it was seven fifteen. It would be late when she would get home, not that her mother would notice.

The field was starting to clear as everyone held up their capri-suns victoriously. Lucas was putting something in his bag and he smiled at Maya as she approached. "Hey there all-star," she said giddily, handing him the bag of her peanuts. "I heard you got like, six touchdowns or something."

"Home-runs," he clarified. "And it wasn't six, it was seven, but thanks." He popped a peanut in his mouth. The sun was starting to set and Maya remembered what the first night spending with Lucas alone was like. There were a beautiful array of pinks and purples, and it certainly made everything more appealing now that it was basically just Lucas and her alone in a gigantic baseball field. "You ready for the second part of this evening?"

"What?" Maya sputtered, surprised. "It's already past seven, Lucas, we should probably get heading home."

"Note, you should read the activities on the card Riley printed out for us closer. It's for you to experience one of my hobbies, not for me to do it and for you to watch."

"Then why'd we do this whole ordeal of me watching and you playing? God, you're such a Cowboy."

"Hey!" Lucas argued, "Is it a crime for me wanting you to watch me play?"

Maya rolled her eyes and grumbled under her breath, snatching the peanuts from his hands. "I guess not," she guttered under her breath. "What are we going to do now? I don't suppose you'll be making me bat." Lucas smiled at her mischievously and she automatically groaned at the thought. "You're going to make me bat!"

"C'mon, it's not that hard," he chastised, grabbing a bat from his bag. He led her to the batting mound and held out the bat for her to take. She stomped on her good foot like a whiny child and took the bat anyway. "Just, straighten your shoulders." Maya did just so but earned a laugh from Lucas.

"This isn't funny, you Huckleberry! I'm a small, broken-footed girl!"

"Spread your knees apart," he told her.

"Never thought I'd hear that from you."

"Stop being sexual for a moment and spread your knees apart." Maya rolled her eyes at him but spread her knees apart anyway. She planted her boot firmly in the mound below her and twisted her other foot so she'd be stable.

"How is that?"

Lucas smiled at her and nodded his head. "You could almost replace me on the team with that form."

"Good to know. Now throw that ball at me." Lucas stepped back slightly and threw the ball at a slight angle, so it'd reach her bat easily. And somehow, in someway in hell, the ball missed her bat completely. Her head turned as she watched the ball sag sadly in the sand. "That's just sad," she muttered.

"What happened to your form?" he asked her as he lopsidedly jogged over to her. "Let's try again." He pedaled back and threw the ball a bit softer this time. The ball hit her bat this time, but instead of it lunging forward, it hit downwards. The ball rolled to Lucas and he picked it up, looking at it curiously. "You don't seem much of a hitter."

"It's too hard!" she whined, letting the bat fall next to her legs. "You have to—like—swing it and stuff! And at the right time, and that's not including stupid stuff like velocity or whatever you call it, or wind speed."

"Stop thinking about the wind speed, Maya," Lucas laughed. "I'm thinking about the wind speed, I'm trying to pitch it to you perfectly so it's easy for you to hit."

Maya poked her boot with her bat. "See that? That's because of you."

"Your boot wasn't my fault," he stated, "plus, your boot has nothing to do with the wind speed and your arm strength."

"Then come over here and show me."

"Fine," Lucas grumbled, jogging over to her. Maya could distinctly smell him, he smelled like grass and dirt, and maybe a bit of grime and sweat. He turned over to her backside and reached over her body, grabbing her wrist in his hand. Maya tensed as his body almost enveloped hers in smell and physically. "Hey, hey," he said softly. "I'm not going to eat you whole."

Maya had nothing witty to say back in remark so she kept her comments to herself as Lucas placed her hands on the bat. He moved her biceps and her arms back and moved her feet as well with his. He was gentle with her, never giving her a rough attitude. He swung the bat a few times to indicate her form, before he stepped back from her.

Maya missed the warmth almost immediately before she shook the feeling from her head, squaring her shoulders. Lucas jogged over to the pitcher mound. He gave her a soft throw and Maya felt her arms swing forward. She watched the ball soar through the field and Lucas's eyes followed in awe. "You sure picked that up quick."

Maya's mouth rose as Lucas raced across the field to grab the ball rolling the grass. "I do have a pretty great teacher."

After Lucas and Maya threw a few balls at each other and raced around the field like children, they finally collapsed in a distressed heap, basically on top of each other. "I can't believe I won tag six times. That's a new record."

Maya rolled her eyes and shifted her body so she would face him. "Hey, I have a broken foot, thanks to you. Plus, I'm a whole foot shorter than you."

"Whatever puts you to sleep at night, Blondie."

"Nice one," she muttered sarcastically, a light laugh lacing her breath. "Almost as good as Huckleberry."

"Almost," Lucas noted, turning his body so he would face her. The wind lightly tapped their faces, and the sky was starting to turn a deep black. If Maya checked her phone, it would read eight. "Did you have fun today?"

She nodded her head. She turned her body again so her back was on the grass and her eyes facing the sky. "Yeah," she responded honestly. "Today was good, even if I devoted it all to you."

"Good, that's good," he responded back, turning his body so he mirrored her. "Have you ever been star-gazing?" he asked her, staring up at the light-less night.

"No," she responded simply. "I've only ever been to New York and Jersey. There's not much star-gazing out here."

"I should take you sometime, you know," he told her. "To Texas, to meet my family. We have the best star-gazing there is."

"Is that an invitation to a date, because I remember us promising to keep this whole ordeal platonic."

Lucas's cheeks heated up at the suggestion. "No! Of course not," he promised. "Just a mini-vacation, a getaway, perhaps. From the New York air. You know it isn't good for you."

"The air?" Maya snorted, her hand lying out next to her lazily as she squinted for stars. "Trust me, I know. I've lived here my whole life and if you have, it's impossible not to know."

Without her permission, his body scooted closer to hers and their heads touched. It almost looked picturesque, if you asked him. Her boot touched his cleat, and she giggled at the thought. "You see that?" Lucas asked, squinting his eyes and pointing to a random blot in the sky.

Maya's eyes strained for a moment before she gave up. "Nope. Nothing."

"Neither do I. This counts as the worst star-gazing ever, but I'm pretty sure the North Star is supposed to be right there."

"And that," she responded wittily, grabbing his hand in the air and dragging it along to another point in the sky, "is called Huckleberry. It's my favorite constellation."

"Actually," Lucas reiterated, "I don't think there's a constellation there, much less is it called Huckleberry."

"See," Maya groaned, "this is why I call you Huckleberry, because you say shit like this." Lucas helped himself up. After he cleaned the dirt off of himself, he grabbed Maya's hands and dragged his body up to hers. She stumbled for a moment before she finally regained balance, but his hand held hers nonetheless.

"You ready to get going?"

Maya nodded her head. "That's probably a good idea."

They walked side by side with each other as they made their way to the back of the parking lot. "Hey, look at you. Able to hit a ball with a crippled foot," he laughed, hitting her side softly with his.

"Asshole," Maya grumbled and hit his side back. The walk back to the car was comfortable and silent. It was nearly freezing out, and Maya had to wrap herself in her arms multiple times. Before Lucas opened the door, he approached Maya with a few pieces of papers and handed them to her. "What are these?" she asked him.

"Those are from my teammates," he laughed. "They wanted me to give you their phone numbers."

Maya filed through the papers and laughed at them. "I'll make sure to keep note of these."

They were finally off after a long day; the car ride was spent in silence beside the music since Maya was conked out in her seat.

Once he finally pulled up to her apartment building, Lucas jerked the car to a stop and gently woke her up with a slight shake of her shoulder. "Maya," he whispered. "We're home."

"Home?" she grumbled groggily, rubbing her swollen head. "What time is it?"

"It's about eleven fifteen." Maya nodded her head and smacked her lips. "I'll walk you up."

"Oh," she said softly, collecting her thoughts as she stretched. "You don't need to."

"But I want to," he responded. Maya nodded her head as he unbuckled his seat belt and hopped to her side of the car, unbuckling her seat belt as well. He handed her her bag of peanuts and her number one mitten, grabbing her by her armpits and helping her descend carefully from his car.

"There you go kiddo," he said with a cheeky smile.

Maya patted his back in response, clearly unaware of her actions. She held onto his hand tightly as he led her up several staircases and elevators, finally reaching her apartment number. He grabbed the key from her hand after she unsuccessfully attempted to stuff the key in its socket. He turned it once and the apartment door sprung up, opening up to what he saw over twelve hours ago, nothing had changed.

"Is your mom home?" he asked her.

"Probably not," she muttered, rubbing her eyes with the palm of her hand. She grabbed her elastic from her hair and ripped it out, letting her hair fall loose. She also managed to kick off one of her shoes before she set the key down on the table next to her door. She turned around to face him and gave him a groggy smile, her hair sputtered wildly around her head. "Thanks, Lucas. Tonight was fun, no matter how much I don't want to admit it."

"Glad I can hear it from you."

"Don't bring it up, because I probably won't remember." Lucas laughed at her sleepy state as she headed towards her room, completely forgetting to close the door. Lucas closed the door for her, not before he heard her yell, "Thank you!" for the last time.

In her room, Maya took off her clothes and put on her pajamas in a sloth matter, slowly. She picked through her coat and noticed the stuff of papers in her pocket. It was thee collection of papers all of those boys had given her with their number. She looked back on her bed for a moment, where the number one mitten and the bag of peanuts hung out, and then back at the papers.

She decided to throw the papers away.


sorry for all of the spelling mistakes and grammar whatevers i didnt feel like correcting it a bunch zhzhz