complicated → zaya (hiatus)

o1.

"when you believe you can do it, you
spend less time worrying on how
complicated the world really is"

• • •
maya

focus. if you focus, nothing can distract you. you are one with the prize, you can win. you can win, or die trying. my name is maya penelope hart. I'm 16 years old and i have many obsessions. school, music, art, and ballet. I've never really dated, I've never had time for boys. ballet and music had taken up most of my life. art was something I did on the side, it looks good on college apps and it's fun. as for school I was in clubs like model UN and DECA, along with being the student body president, and I'm only a sophomore.

I am passionate about lot, primarily ballet, but also more. I'm fascinated by the art of learning, intrigued by the effort and uniqueness it takes to write music, and blown away by the beautiful works of art done by people I admire such as Da Vinci and Van Gough.

I've been told I need to let loose, but going to wild parties isn't going to get me into college. I'm a lot different from my best friend. she's the wild one. her name is riley matthews, she's also 16, and is interested in art and music as well, she isn't the most coordinated, so dance isn't really her thing. but she is a big feminist. she talks about it so frequently, I've become a feminist, not like it's a bad thing. I think it's wonderful, women empowering other women, I just don't have the time to preach it. she goes to pride parades, rallies, and has ever given a speech at the United Nations building on feminism. she's a sensation, unlike me. I'm just maya. little, teachers pet, maya. I'm just the sensations best friend.

but I've learned to accept it. I've embraced that I'll never be as spontaneous as my best friend, I'm just glad she has a boyfriend to drag to all her events, because she knows how busy I always am. I have a thing with a kid, but I don't see it going anywhere. he's on the baseball team with riley's boyfriend, lucas. his name is charlie. as for me, riley, and lucas, there are two other people in our friend group. farkle minkus and isadora smackle. they've been a thing for almost as long and riley and lucas, and that's saying something.

back to me, I've decided to attend a prestigious dance camp over the summer, at least for the beginning of it. the end of it I'm going to hati for two weeks to help build houses and such, but over course, riley and the rest of the gang scheduled four free weeks for us to just relax and prepare for the return to school. I love my friends, but they know I like to keep busy. we already planned a road trip from New York to Maine to Maryland, and back to New York, making stops along the way.

this summer is going to be p e r f e c t.

• • •

dance camp. as i step out of a blue jeep and see my four best friends swarming me for goodbye hugs, I can finally relax. after we all hug, riley gets my bags and hands me a few of them, helping me carry them to the sign in area, then helping me to my room with the other three behind us. we give farewell hugs once more and I then watch as my four best friends climb back into riley's car and pull out of the camp entrance.

as I always say, I like to keep busy, so of course I started unpacking right away. we would be at this camp for a little over a month, so I had brought a lot. I had a bare bed, an empty desk, and a couple shelves along with a dresser, and it being identical on the other side. I figured we would have roommates. I can only wonder what mine will be like, will she be nice, mean, relax, driven? who knows I just can't wait to meet her.

"hi, I'm Isaiah Babineaux, I'm your roomate."

I hear words coming from the entrance of the room while I'm putting my sheets on my bed, when I quickly spin around to be face to face to some gorgeous boy.

"these rooms are coed?" I ask simply and he just nods. "fabulous."

I continue putting the sheets on my bed, then my blankets, then plugging in my charger behind my night stand. I grab my phone and plug it in, resting on the table and I walk over to my dresser.

"what's your name?" I here the same voice question as i start grabbing clothes out of my bag and opening drawers.

"it's maya. maya penelope hart." I say, continuing to roll my shirts up and gently placing them in my second dresser.

"are you rolling up your shirts?" the boy asks, slightly confused. "well, yes. yes I am, is that a problem? it saves space, Isaiah. and I happen to have a lot of clothes."

the boy chuckles. "it as just a question, not an interrogation." he carries his bags to his dresser and kneels down as I do, and continues, "call me zay. you know maya, I like you. you're feisty. ballerina, I suppose?" I nod. "well isn't that fantastic. I'm a ballerina as well." he says.

I let out a small giggle, "you're a ballerina?" he nods his head and continues to shove random clothes in his drawers. as a very organized person, it bothered me dearly. "could you be any less organized?" I speak again.

"why, does it bother you, darling?" he speaks, teasing me. "as a matter of fact," I say, walking over to him, "it does. if you simply," I speak once again taking everything out of his drawers, "roll up your clothes, it saves space and time looking for things pilled under something else." I start rolling a few shorts as an example, then hand him a shirt. "it's not exactly rocket science, women have been doing it for years."

• • •

after two hours of teaching zay how to be organized, setting up my makeup and hair supplies on my desk, placing my books on shelves, and hanging up my photos, I'm finally done. I grab my phone and carefully observe my theme on my photography Instagram account, @hartography . I take pictures of things I've drawn, seen, experienced, I take my camera everywhere. I decide to take a 30 minute nap before dinner.

"I am taking a nap before dinner starts, Isaiah, please try not to be to disorganized while I'm asleep." I say, practically dozed off already.

I could make this work.

• • •

"maya. hey maya, I brought you dinner."

crap. I get out of bed to see the time is 7:45 pm. dinner ends at 7:30. I fully open my eyes to see Zay on the floor eating a plate of spaghetti and meat balls, and a second plate next to him. "good morning sunshine, I brought you dinner. you slept through it, I tried to wake you up but you were dead asleep." Isaiah says, motioning for me to sit on the floor. I reluctantly stand up and sit on aforementioned floor and eat my food. it's silent for a while.

"so, other than ballet, what's your thing?" what's my thing? that's an odd question. "well, I am an artist, musician, and photographer along with being student body president and ballet. not really much to me, I'm sure any other person here is more interesting than me."

Isaiah laughs and eats another bite of food before continuing to speak, "well, I play baseball. I also dabble in hip hop and acting. I've been the lead in a couple school plays, thanks for asking."

and that's basically how the night continued. ridiculous questions followed by sarcastic, yet real answers.