AMP Imagines

- Having zombies at Seabrook was a big change, and not everyone was happy about it. You were sort of indifferent- sure, they could go berserk and eat half the student body, but they seemed nice enough. Especially the one who had joined the football team, Zed. - Zed had come over to your lunch table one day. You had noticed them staring at you and whispering back and forth to one another for a few days, and it was starting to weird you out. He smiled at you, but when he opened his mouth to talk, nothing but a bunch of gibberish came out, awkward and halting. After a few seconds of staring awkwardly at one another, he turned and walked back to his own table. You couldn’t help but listen in to their conversation. “What was that?” Eliza said, laughing. Zed couldn’t even respond, just stared at the table with his hand covering his face. - You couldn’t help but wonder what the issue was- it’s not like you were threatening. If he had something to say or to ask you, why couldn’t he just say it? You spent the last few minutes of lunch a bit dejected before packing up and going to your next class. - On the way to your next class, you felt a hand grab your shoulder. You stopped and turned around, expecting it to be Zed. But it was Eliza. “Hey. Sorry about Zed. He can be a little awkward at times.” She rolled her eyes, and you nodded for her to go on. “Anyway, you should talk to him. Or not. I’d understand if you didn’t. Who needs that stress, you know?” The two of you parted ways, and you left wondering what she meant. - At the end of the day, you went to your locker to get your bag to go home. When you did, you found a note that had been crammed through one of the slots on the door. It read, 'Y/N- Sorry for the weirdness at lunch today. Meet me outside the gym after school? –Zed' - You decided to go. After all, Eliza had said you should talk to him. You went to where he said to meet him, and you found Zed pacing back and forth and muttering to himself. You said hi, and he looked up and froze, a big dopey grin across his face. - He tried to say something back to you, but more stutters and half-finished words came out, and nothing else. You sighed. He took a second to compose himself, and finally looked up. “Hi. Okay, so before I chicken out again, I wanted to say that I think you’re pretty cute and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime?” You were taken aback slightly at how fast he had said all this, but you said yes. He grinned, and the two of you parted ways, both still smiling.

- Being held to the kind of gold standard Seabrook puts on you feels impossible to bear. The right hair, the right clothes, the right friends- every facet of your life has to be perfect, or you’re nothing. That kind of pressure ate away at you constantly since you were little, and eventually you couldn’t handle it anymore. - The scars that littered your arms and legs kept you from doing much- there was no joining the cheer squad, no summer outings with your friends, nothing that would risk letting people see what you so carefully hid under your clothes. - When the zombies came to Seabrook, you were indifferent at best- sure, less attention on you so you could ease up a little, but really, they were just more people to hide from. You met Zed at lunch one day- you were sitting alone, and he offered you a seat at his table. You accepted, a little surprised that he would ask, and a little shaken by the glares of the other Seabrook students. - You sat with him and his friends daily after that, and walked to class with him every chance you got. Nothing else had changed- you still kept yourself separate from the other students, and you still felt alone, but now you knew there were others who felt the same. - You felt at ease around Zed, enough to let your guard down. And when you did, he noticed the lines across your wrists. He asked you about them, and you tried to cover them up out of shame and embarrassment. He wasn’t disgusted or mean like you had expected people to be if they ever found out- he just asked if there was anything he could do to help you. - You finally broke down and told him about your insecurities and the stress Seabrook’s expectation of perfection put on you. He wrapped his arms around you in a shielding embrace while you cried. - From then on, whenever you had a particularly bad day, you went to him to talk about it. He helped, acted as a shoulder to cry on and someone to talk to, and although that didn’t fix everything- Seabrook was still a hard place to live in- it was enough for now.

- No matter how hard you worked, how long you practiced, how much you tried, Bucky always had something to say. Your kicks weren’t high enough, your stance was weak, you were sloppy, ill-timed, unprepared. You were never enough to suit him. And you had no idea why he kept you on the team. - When the zombies came to Seabrook, he got even stricter- only the best could be a part of his team, no flaws or failures allowed. Naturally, you figured you wouldn’t be on the squad much longer. - After a while, with the help of one zombie, Zed, on the football team, things slowly went back to almost-normal. You and Zed became friends, and your place on the cheer squad went back to its semi-stable position. - One day at practice, you were feeling a little off. You couldn’t quite keep your balance, and you had trouble keeping up with the choreography. Bucky was furious at you for ruining practice and making his team weaker. And, since you weren’t feeling good to start with, you broke down and cried. - You fled the gym and hid from the team in the hallway outside. Someone tapped you on the shoulder, and you looked up to see Zed. He looked worried about you, so you told him what happened with Bucky at cheer practice. - He told you to wait just a second, then walked into the gym where Bucky and the rest of the cheerleaders were finishing up practice. You stood by the door and listened for whatever he was planning on doing. For the next couple of minutes, all you could hear was Zed telling Bucky how you were a better cheerleader than he would ever be, and that he should stop treating his team like that or he won’t have a team for long. - When Zed finally finished on Bucky, you were smiling and your tears had dried. He found you in the hall, and the two of you started walking as you talked. “Hey, even if Bucky kicks you off the cheer squad, you’ll always have a place in the Z-squad.” That made you laugh, and you didn’t really care about staying on the team anymore.

- In a place as perfectly planned as Seabrook, you always felt out of place amongst the petite, perfect girls. They never said anything outright, but you got the idea pretty clear. There was, uh, how to put it- a little too much of you to fit in well. - You were grateful, in an odd way, when the zombies came to school. They drew the attention away from you. You felt bad for that, of course- the attention being taken away was negative, and they didn’t deserve it any more than you did. - One zombie in particular caught your eye, a tall boy who smiled at you whenever you passed him in the hall. You never actually saw him go into a classroom, and you eventually started to wonder why he walked down that hall when his classes were somewhere else entirely. - One day, when you were already running late, someone slammed into you in the hall, and all your books and papers fell to the ground. Your classmates scurried away, leaving you to gather up your notes and assignments alone. - As the hallway emptied, the zombie boy who smiled at you every day squatted to help collect the papers. You thank him when he hands you the half he collected, and you introduce yourself. He tells you that his name is Zed. Since you’re already late, and so is he, you decide to take your time getting to class. The two of you make small talk, classes and football and life at Seabrook, until he stops and looks at you. “Hey. So. I was wondering… Would you maybe come to my next game? Cheer me on?” - You tell him football games aren’t usually your scene, since you sort of ruin the image of perfection Seabrook is supposed to give off. He seems confused, and asks you what you mean. “You seem pretty perfect to me.” He quickly tries to cover up this brief, candid moment, but he’s too embarrassed to think of anything else to say. - You laugh and blush at the compliment- you don’t get them a lot from anyone outside your family- and he smiles at you again. You agree to go to his game, then glance at the clock. You’re really late. You agree to talk again later, and the two of you run off to class, still smiling. Note: A lot of this is based on my personal experience (as a fat person). None of it was meant to be mean or derogatory. I’m really sorry if it comes off that way. I’m still dealing with a lot of body confidence issues myself, so that might have rubbed off on this particular bit of writing.

working on it now :) this is adorable

- He thinks you’re pretty for a while before finally getting the courage up to talk to you. When he does, he flirts a little more than you’re used. Well, more than a little more. You’re super embarrassed and can barely get a word out in response. - He thinks it’s adorable the way you stutter and blush when he talks to you, and it only makes him like you more, so the cheesy pick-up lines keep coming. And you keep tripping over your words. - He’s funny and keeps smiling at you, and your heart flutters nearly as bad as the butterflies in your stomach. - Even though you’d like to say something clever to make him laugh, you feel like your brain is buffering. You can’t think of anything, so you just giggle awkwardly and avoid eye contact. - Since you can’t really find words, Zed takes it as you trying to brush him off. But, since he isn’t one to give up easily, he gives one last line a shot: “Girl, you look delicious. Oh, I mean gorgeous.” - That one makes you laugh and grin, rather than just blush and stutter. When you smile, so does he, and the two of you start laughing. You think his smile is adorable, and he thinks the same of yours. - He finally asks you out, and you manage to find the word, “Yes,” somewhere in your brain.

- You’d always felt like people liked your cousin Addison more than you. She was pretty and peppy and was destined to be on the cheer squad, something you had never shown interest in, much to your family’s dismay. - After the zombies came to Seabrook, it seemed like even more attention than usual was on her and the cheer squad. It wasn’t that you weren’t happy for Addison- she needed to feel accepted with her hair the way it was- but sometimes you wished some of that attention could be on you. - You met Zed when he was on his way to the football tryouts and someone pulled the zombie alarm. He was trying to escape the angry mob of students coming after him, and you helped him get away from them. - The two of you hide out in a room no one usually uses, and you talk while you wait out the mob. You start talking, and eventually- inevitably- your cousins on the cheer squad come up. You’d never say being compared to them upsets you, but talking to someone like Zed about it makes you more upset than usual, since you think he’s cute and charming. - When he sees that you’re upset, Zed apologizes for bringing it up. You break down and tell him that no one pays as much attention to you as them because you aren’t into cheer like they are. He asks what you do instead, and you tell him about your hobbies. He says that sounds a lot cooler than cheer to him, and for the first time in quite a while, you feel better about being yourself. - At his first football game, your family is surprised to see you there, since watching whole adoring crowds dote on your cousins isn’t usually your scene. But when Zed sees you in the stands, he waves at you like the cheerleaders aren’t even on his radar. - After a while, you and Zed start walking to class together and sitting together in the cafeteria. Bucky, your other cousin, hates it, but not enough to stop you, as that would mean having to associate himself with you. Addison is happy for you, and you never hear a bad word from her. And never in your life have you been more proud to be a little weird.