My New Years resolution is to finish this story which I have started. LETS DO THIS THING!

Of course we're going to ignore the fact that most New Years resolutions are broken within a week, right? Right. Glad we're on the same page here.

It was the end of the winter of sophomore year at John Quincy Adams High. In other words, baseball season. And even though he tried countless times to explain to his friends that he was more than a baseball jock, Lucas loved baseball.

Unlike the rodeos that Pappy Joe had always signed him up for, in baseball, there was nothing for you to fall off of, there was no one and nothing touching you period, and even better, he got to hit things with a bat. And as a youth with anger issues, this was an extremely exciting occasion.

He had played catcher on the freshman team last year and he was planning on trying out for the position again, but there were quite a few juniors and a senior also trying out for the position, so he doubted he would make varsity. But he was alright with that, so long as he made a team, he was thrilled that he would get to play the sport.

There were three days to tryouts, Wednesday through Friday after school on the baseball field. It was only Monday. It was only the second period of the day.

Needless to say, Lucas couldn't focus on Honors Chemistry.

The former Texan let out a grunt in frustration as he glanced at the clock and found that only two minutes had passed since he had last checked. He only noticed that he was tapping a pencil when suddenly a small hand had snatched the writing utensil from his hand. He turned towards the girl who the hand was attached to and met her glare with a questioning look.

"Huckleberry, I'm going to give this pencil back. But if you start tapping it on the desk again, I will be sure that you never get your pencil or your hand back, got it?" He gave an apologetic smile as he took back the mechanical.

"Sorry, Maya, I'm just a little antsy I guess." She tilted her head.

"For what? Spring break isn't for a while yet, you get spring fever early, Sundance?" He glanced at the board and then back at her.

"I'll tell you after." Maya rolled her eyes and started poking him in the shoulder.

"Come on, Hop-along, we sit in the back, the teacher doesn't care what we do back here. Spill. Come on. Tell me. Tell me." A sharp-nailed finger jabbed his shoulder to punctuate each word. It didn't take much prompting (he was dying to tell someone why he was so excited and her nail was really sharp) but he finally caved.

"Baseball season." He said quickly, flashing her a bright smile. She blinked slowly.

"That's why you're twitching like a rabbit drinking moonshine?" He snorted at her analogy.

"For the record, that would kill a rabbit, but yeah."

"That's all? Really?" she asked, staring at him incredulously. He shifted his gaze left and right before settling on her face.

"Um, yes? You know I like baseball, why are you so surprised?" She shook her head in confusion.

"I don't know, I guess its just beyond me why you like such a dumb sport that doesn't even take that much athletic ability." His eyebrows furrowed together.

"Baseball isn't dumb…" he said, disappointment clearly lacing his voice. Maya's passiveness faltered because she had expected a more angry response, but she shrugged.

"Well I mean, you hit something with a stick and then run around in a square. And its not like it requires that much athletic ability—"

"It does too! You need a lot of athleticism to play baseball!" The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, but no. I've seen some huge guys playing it on TV and if they can play it, anyone can."

"Not true!"

"Mr. Friar, do you have an assertion to make on the subject of hydrogen bonds? Because I can assure you that surface tension actually is why things float, it isn't exactly a debatable subject." Lucas' face went bright red in a matter of seconds after the teacher addressed him. He muttered an apology and the teacher went back to the lesson as Maya poorly concealed her snickering.

He glanced at the clock again. Arguing with Maya had taken up forty minutes of class time and the class only had ten minutes left by this point. He supposed it wasn't the best possible use of his time, but if it made it pass faster, he was all for it. 3:30 PM on Wednesday couldn't come soon enough.

The bell rang and he caught Maya's arm before she dashed out the door to art class. She looked at him questioningly.

"What do you want, Huckleberry?" she asked, turning to face him fully.

"So you think anyone could play baseball, hmm?" She nodded slowly with a sarcastic smile appearing on her lips.

"Yeah, Hee Haw, you make it look easy. It can't be that hard if you play it." He smirked playfully.

"Then I propose a dare." Her smile widened. She had never lost a dare that he had posed to her and she wasn't about to start now.

"I think I see where this is going," She got out a piece of binder paper and a pen. "Lets put this in ink, shall we? List the conditions for me, will ya, Sundance?"

"I dare you to try out for softball. To win, you need to: one, make the team, two, become a starter by the end of the season, and three, the team has to win at least half of the games during the season." Maya shook her head, her blonde curls bouncing around her shoulders. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I'll do you one better, I'll take the team to the playoffs," she said, confidence filling her smile. He returned the gesture, scratching the back of his head.

"Wow, looks like someone's confident." He waited for her to finish writing the terms they had agreed on in the fancy looping handwriting that she reserved for their dare contracts. She dotted the end of the sentence and looked up at him.

"Alright, some conditions for you then. When I make the team, you have to come to all the home games and the away games within a twenty mile radius. That means you have to come to the away games at Kennedy, Pioneer High, Liberty High, and Hudson Prep. If you miss any of the required games unless it is for an emergency, I win by default. So, what are the stakes?" She paused in writing down his requirements and thought about what she would demand from him. He rolled his eyes upward as he thought about what he could possibly ask for from the little blonde. There were so many possibilities and he had to pick the right combination so that it would be fair and word it just right so that she wouldn't be able to find a loophole.

"I've got mine! If I win, you've got to do whatever I say for a week, Huckleberry," She said, waving her pen in his face before she leaned over to scribble it down on the paper. He whistled loudly.

"Do whatever Maya Hart wants me to do for a week? Thats pretty harsh don't you think? I've gotta up my stakes then. How about… You have to throw out all my old nicknames forever and come up with all new ones—" It was Maya's turn to whistle.

"You've gotten smarter since we last did this. But not good enough, Lone Ranger, I've got a load of nicknames I haven't even used yet," she said with a snarky grin plastered to her face. He held up a hand to stop her.

"Hang on, I wasn't finished. I also get to call you Shortstack," He leaned down so that he was a mere few inches from her face, his smirk beaming down on her. "For a whole month." She shuddered when he backed away. She wrote in the last sentence.

"Looks like I'm rubbing off on you, Sundance…" she muttered to herself, not looking at him as she signed the dotted line she had drawn. She pushed the paper and pen over to him to sign as well. As he took the pen, he smiled.

"Oh, believe me, you haven't seen nothin' yet. Texas Lucas is worse than you'll ever be." When he handed the paper back to her, he could see the annoyance in her eyes, but curiosity and intrigue lingered just beneath. He didn't like keeping his past from his friends, but it was nice having this kind of effect on the blonde. She stuffed the "official" contract into the cover sleeve of her binder, Maya shot him a crooked smirk.

"You keep telling yourself that. Whatever gets you through the day." He laughed lightly. She had no idea.

The bell rang and broke the two from their stupor. The taller boy looked down at her with a shocked expression on his face.

"I guess we should get to class then." The blonde nodded in agreement before slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess I'd better run, the art room is across the quad. Later loser!" She called over her shoulder as she trotted to the door, throwing a salute his way. He shook his head in amusement before hefting his messenger back onto his shoulder and walking towards the English building.

Wednesday was here, and Lucas couldn't help but stare at the clock in anticipation as he tuned out Mr. Matthew's lecture. It was the last period of the day and there were five minutes left until he could run to the locker room and then warm up to play his favorite sport. He had noticed Maya had a gym bag as well and remembered that softball tryouts were on the same days as baseball tryouts, but they were on the softball fields on the other side of campus.

He wondered if she would even be able to meet the first requirement of the dare, making the team. He knew she was great at art and somehow had a lot of power packed into her little body, but the tall boy had never really seen her as the sporty type. She was a painter, a musician, an artist. And those all required a lot of sitting and not moving or getting exercise. And he knew for a fact that Maya was extremely lazy, but was that because she just didn't feel like doing anything or because she got too tired doing anything?

In all honesty, he actually hoped Maya would win the dare. The team had never been too great and when Maya Hart had her mind set on something, there was nothing that could get in her way. Perhaps this would be their year.

He was also looking forward to having someone else in their friend group that he could go to the batting cages with or even just talk about baseball or softball with (he actually really liked both but there was only a girls team for softball so he just stuck to the one). Riley and Farkle had never been sporty people and Zay played football, but his ballet schedule clashed with the baseball schedule so he couldn't be part of the team. But now if Maya played, there would be more of a reason for him to go to the softball games and someone that he could discuss other schools stats with.

Really, this dare was a win win situation. If he won, he would get to watch Maya struggle (not really) with finding a whole new set of nicknames for him and he would get to call her Shortstack all month. If he 'lost' he would still get to spend some time with Maya, something that he didn't usually get a chance to do.

Its not that the two of them weren't friends, they just never really hung out together. Hopefully, this would give them the chance to spend more time with each other.

Suddenly, he was startled from his daydreaming by the bell ringing. Maya turned around to look at him and their eyes locked. He merely blinked at her for a moment, before a smile split across the tall boy's face. He jumped up and grabbed his bag, practically running out of the room and pausing only to hop up and slap the top of the doorframe when he dashed out. The blonde shook her head and chuckled lightly, bending over to pick up her own drawstring bag. Riley looked over at her best friend, a slight smile on her face.

"Knock it out of the park, Peaches," the brunette said, throwing a double thumbs up. Maya laughed lightly and returned the gesture.

"Will do, Pumpkin." With that, she skipped out of the classroom and down the hall towards the softball fields.

Its my head cannon that Maya plays softball in high school because of Lucas. So, yeah, story.