All I've Ever Needed

Chapter 3

October 6, 2013

Zendaya sat on her bed, a sketchbook situated on her lap. Her fingers were messy, with different shades of coals smudging the white paper and leaving permanent marks. She was drawing a rose. A beautiful flower that is full of contradictions, known for being both delicate and strong. Her mother often said the same of Zendaya. That she was full of contradictions. She was strong willed and passionate, delicate and insecure. That she was a force to be reckoned with but also that she had a softer side. A side she never allowed anyone to see. A version of herself that she tried to hide behind a mask. She was a rose that had yet to blossom.

Her mind wandered to the past week. 6 days had passed since she had been chosen as the lead in the school musical, something she had dreamt about for years. Nothing should be able to bring her down. This was her moment but if there was one thing Zendaya had learned it was that nothing was ever perfect. If Zendaya was a rose, Val Chmerkovskiy was the thorn in her side. A cocky, devil-may-care ass with an absolutely unintelligible New York accent. She had had a hard time understanding what he was saying all week in rehearsals and that wasn’t a good thing since he was playing the other lead character. She knew he was playing it up, trying to make her angry. Trying to make her so upset that she’d make a fool of herself in front of the other students and Mrs. Hooper. But she wasn’t gonna let that happen. She wasn’t gonna let him win. She had wanted Spencer to get the part. She knew it was mostly for selfish reasons. She loved Spencer. She had thought that maybe she would’ve been able to get closer to him if they were both playing the lead parts. That maybe he would start looking at her the way she had spent the last two years looking at him. She knew thinking about this was pointless. She laid the sketchbook on her nightstand and crawled under the covers. It was Monday tomorrow. Another day of rehearsals would be upon her soon and she really needed to be well rested another round of ‘battle of the wits’ as Val had nicknamed their interactions in rehearsals. Tomorrow was going to be a good day. She could forget about everything when she was singing and dancing. She could forget about her pain.

 

October 7, 2013

The bell rang and Zendaya slowly picked up her math book. Rehearsals would start in 5 minutes but her chest was filled heavy with dread and she silently prayed for any reason not to go. Her prayers were answered but not in a good way. As she was about to leave the classroom a voice called after her.

 “Zendaya, would you mind talking to me a bit?”

Zendaya turned around and headed in the direction of her math’s teacher, a young man named Colin Platt. According Coral and her gang he was the hottest teacher in the whole school, which frankly wasn’t difficult. The school was overflowing with overweight, bald and fashionably challenged teachers so Zendaya could understand the obsession with Mr. Platt. She just didn’t see it herself.

 “What is it Mr. Platt?” She smiled, trying to make it seem like she didn’t know what was going on but she knew. She knew her work had been even more horrible lately and she knew that it was only a matter of time until Mr. Platt would have that talk with her.

“Well, first of all I want to praise you for the work you’ve put in these past few weeks. I know you’ve been working with Spencer, -that he’s been tutoring you-, and it’s paid off …”

Zendaya could smell the ‘but’ coming.

“,,, but this past week has been, how should I say this .. Frankly, you’ve declined and your work is getting even worse than it was in the beginning of the semester.”

Zendaya’s face fell. She knew she hadn’t been handing in her best work but she had not realized how bad it had truly gotten.

“I know you’re participating in the school musical. And my concern is that it’s too much for you. You’re extremely talented, I’m a theater enthusiast myself and I’ve sneaked into the rehearsals a couple of times. You’re doing a wonderful job.”