13 Reasons Why Imagines & More

"Smart Talk" Zach Dempsey Imagine

Requested by anon on Tumblr: "Hellooo c: could you write a fic on zach dempsey from 13 reasons why? Specifically the reader being a biology nerd and has aspirations of becoming a doctor some day, and zach being interested in her because he wants to be a marine biologist? Thanks! Love your blog btw ^^"

A/N: Heyo! I just wanted to pop in and see how y'all were doing and to say that I kind of switched it up and made the reader want to be a biochemist when she graduated so I hope you don't mind that little change!

Warnings: mentions of death due to disease, absolutely sad backstory about a father with ALS

Guide:
Y/N - Your Name
Y/L/N - Your Last Name

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The first day of school was always filled with nerves and excitement. But I am new, and a sophomore and that didn't make this transfer any easier. I had moved away from Ohio with my mum at the beginning of the summer, my father passed away after a long and tough battle with ALS. I'm 16 now, he was diagnosed when I just about turned 10. He always wanted to live in California, it was his dream to have a beach house with just the three of us. I was always his little girl. Even when his ALS progressed, he was always working so hard to stay as long as he could. He was such a fighter. Mum and him worked hard on finding a house in California before he would pass, get to live out his dream. We had found a house, the house mum and I now live in, a year ago but had to finalise the selling of our other house before we could move. But that hope soon cam tumbling down due to my father quickly getting worse. We were so close to moving, but it got put on hold. He was deteriorating faster than ever before and it was hard to watch the fighter I once knew look so defeated. Before he lost the ability to speak he told us,
"Well if Stephen Hawking can do it, so can I."
He was always so strong in front of me and mum, but we knew better. Every day after school I went to my dads hospital room and told him about my day and school and do my homework with him. I came in one day, a big smile on my face as I looked him in the eye and said,
"I know what I want to be when I grow up dad. I want to be a Biochemist. I want to make medicine that will help you and the others that come after you. I want to do this for you dad."
He smiled as best as he could and got out a shaky, "I love you so much", and then he couldn't speak after that. As days turned to weeks, he just got worse and worse. We had the hope that he could wait until after Christmas, but there were no Christmas miracles this time. He passed away the day before Christmas eve, and I was heartbroken. My dad, my biggest supporter was now gone. Gone but never forgotten. I held his cold hand before the coroner and doctors shuffled him away from us and said through broken sobs and tear stained cheeks,
"I'm going to make a medicine that cures ALS. I'm going to make it for you, daddy. I love you so much."
I finished the rest of the year and we finalised the selling of our, now old, house and we made the flight to California. A few weeks in and we were finally settling and making this house our new home. I sat out on our enclosed balcony with a cup of tea and cozied up in my hammock chair. I listened to the birds chirping as I took a sip of my tea. My mum came out a few moments later with her own cup of tea and we both stared upon the city for what seemed like an eternity until I decided to break the silence,
"Dad would've loved it here."
"Yes he would've sweetheart. Yes he would."

Mum drove me in for the first day, mainly because she wanted to pick me up especially if I had a rough first day. We had our usual conversations and I went over my schedule out loud with her.
"Honours Chemistry AND Honours Biology huh? Why didn't you get put in the AP sections of those?" Mum asked, noticeably a little insulted that I wasn't placed in the AP classes.
"Relax mum, they don't allow sophomores taking AP classes, and this was the best I was getting with them. I could've gotten regular Bio and Chem." I reassured her.
She reluctantly calmed down as she pulled up to a parking spot in front of the school. Mum kissed me on the cheek and said our 'I love you's' as I got out of the car and headed up to the front of the building. I tried to blend in and just seem normal. My first class was English so I immediately made my way to the classroom located in the second floor. I sat in the front row like I always had in my previous schools. The teacher went through attendance and stopped on me,
"Y/N Y/L/N? Are you the new student?" The teacher asked.
"Yes I am ma'am" I replied, all eyes on me.
"I was wondering if you would be here today! Please come up in front of the class and introduce yourself! Say your name, where you moved from, and your favourite book."
I made quickly got up and walked the short distance to be next to the teacher.
"Well, I'm Y/N. I moved here from a small town in Ohio at the beginning of the summer, and my favourite book is The Theory of Everything by Famous theoretical physicist, cosmologist Stephen Hawking." I said to the class with a smile.
"That's interesting Miss Y/L/N! And why is that your favourite book?"
"I look up to Mr.Hawkings work and I want to be a Biochemist."
"That's quite interesting. You may sit down now dear." She said with a smile as she started to clap, the rest of the class followed suit.
I sat down and the girl next to me tapped my shoulder, "Nice to meet you. I'm Jessica. I think we could be great friends!" She said with a smile on her face.
We talked after class and she said she would meet me after my Bio class to have lunch with me. I'm so relieved to have a friend, or someone I can consider a friend at least. It's still early to tell. Next up I had maths, and pretty much the same thing happened with going in front of the class and explaining who I was. I was pretty much creating and reading a script for the beginning of every class. After maths I had my Honours Biology class. I sat at the work bench like I normally did, as I watched all the students pour in they all looked so much older than I did. The class began at the ring of the bell and the same thing happened like all the other classes before me. I made my way up to the front of the classroom and smiled as I introduced myself,
"I'm Y/N, I moved here from a small town in Ohio at the beginning of the summer and I'm a sophomore. An-"
"A sophomore? I don't normally have sophomores in my class." The teacher interrupted me, and I just gave an "are you serious?" look and some of the class laughed.
"Yes, the school wouldn't let me take AP Biology and AP Chemistry so I had to even fight to get honours." I replied.
"AP Bio and AP Chem? What would you want with those courses? They're pretty difficult on their own, let alone together."
I cleared my throat, "I want to be a Biochemist."
"And where would your concentration lie?"
"Degenerative diseases."
"Wow that's incredible Miss Y/L/N! I look forward to seeing your work. You may sit down."
I took my seat and a few of the "nerdy" kids started to chat me up and we all had a great conversation about what we wanted to do in the future. The bell rang and almost immediately Jessica was outside my classroom waiting for me. 
"Honours Biology? Girl, you've got to give me your study tips!" 
We walked to the lunchroom as she talked my ear off about the school and everything I would need to know. We sat down at a table and a boy joined us, him and Jess kissed and then a bunch of other guys started to swarm the table we were at.
"Y/N this is Justin, my boyfriend! Justin this is-"
"You're Y/N! We have maths together." Justin said as he stuck his hand out.
Justin started to introduce me to all the boys at the table, all his teammates on the basketball team.
"Y/N why did you move here all the way from uhm..." Jess started to ask.
"Ohio." I replied with a chuckle.
"Right! Why did you move here from Ohio?"
All eyes were on me now and I smiled just thinking of the memory of my dad, "I moved here because my dads dream was to move out to California with my mum and I."
"Oh that's so sweet! Why did he want to move out here?" She asked.
The smile fell from my face and just the thought started to burn my eyes, "That's a bit of a touchy subject. Can we not talk about that?"
"Oh my God of course! I'm sorry, I didn't know girly." She said as she shot me a reassuring smile and rubbed my knee. 
Eventually I went to the rest of my classes and met some really great people. I knew I had nothing to worry about, it seems like I'll fit in perfectly. The dismissal bell rang and I made my way to my locker. I got all my stuff I needed and closed my locker, Jess was standing right next to my locker with Justin.
"Did you have a good first day?" She asked.
"It was great, especially because of you. Thank you for like, accepting me and being nice. And thank you as well Justin." I said with a smile.
"That's great! We definitely need to keep in touch, hand me your phone and I'll give you my number so we can hang out soon!" She said enthusiastically as she took my phone from me and punched her number in. Her and Justin walked off and waved and said their goodbyes and we parted ways. I made my way to mums car. I placed my backpack in the backseat and hopped into the front and we drove off.
"So..?" Mum started.
"It was great! I already made a bunch of friends and they're all so nice there!"
"That's awesome honey! Celebratory dinner tonight? And you can tell me absolutely everything, you can even spill all the deets!"
"Ew mum, don't ever say that again!" I said as I joking slapped at her arm.
"What?! I have to stay hip somehow!" We both erupted into a fit of laughter.
"Oh by the way, the piano got to the house and is all tuned." Mum said, almost full of sorrow.
That night we went out to a fancy restaurant a few towns over and I told her everything about my day and how excited I was for school and making new friends.