miles and zig but they have a college romance arc about growing up and how similar they actually are as people and realize that they were both irrational and selfish and blame themselves for something and losing people and doing dumb shit but instead of internalizing that pain they grow together
So this is sorta my pet ship? Like... I dunno, it just felt right for these two. Going back to pre-bus crash Maya was fun. The reckless girl who just did things because it felt right, but wasn’t always the right answer? Zoe is still squarely closeted and has no intention of coming out.
However Zoe is also a character who does things because they feel right. Her POV allowed for a lot more judgment in the narration that I enjoyed, especially with Zig there (who has a Maya Matlin sized blindspot in him).
Some anon gave me a gift by letting me pick my first analysis... ish.
saw your most recent post, don't know if you can make this work, if not, that's fine but here: if zoe hypothetically came out earlier in the show, and wasn't with Rasha, which of the females (from s13- nc s4) do you think zoe would click best with romantically?
So three characters immediately came to mind for this. I dismissed the idea of Imogen/Zoe as an analysis because I didn’t have a really good hook for how that would help Imogen grow. S13-14 Imogen is pretty solid. The second one I’m not doing is Lola/Zoe, although there are so many ways to go with this. I might do it later on.
No, no if I’m doing a ‘romance that isn’t Rasha’ there’s really only one choice. Maya frickin’ Matlin.
Zoe Rivas
So we’re starting off at the best place for a new narrative for Zoe, end of Season 13. I’ll be using some of my ideas for how to tweak where characters are to make this happen. Zoe picked Maya’s side when Tris ended his friendship with Maya over Yates. For some reason Zoe fresh off a sexual assault and the trial, isn’t siding with the sexual predator! Who would have thought. And instead makes amends with Maya, the girl to flock to defending Zoe in the immediate aftermath. And after Thunderstruck, the two are pretty close to BFF territory.
Zoe isn’t out, or even considering gay, but she’s feeling a lot more... something, for Maya than she thought she should. And anytime Zig is gets close to Maya Zoe grinds her teeth a little.
Maya Matlin
Maya’s at her most vulnerable, her boyfriend and best friend ditched her. She’s got Zig (who she rebuffed), Zoe (who tortured her a bit), and Grace and Tiny (who are more Zig’s than her’s). In this version her and Zoe in Thunderstruck involve telling her about Cam. Maya is genuinely trying to be Zoe’s friend and Zoe is one of the few people to know how messed up Maya is. And who else does she have right now?
Maya for this is already pretty sure she’s bi, or at least she wants to be sure by kissing a girl and seeing if she likes it.
The Set-up
This will steal a few notes from Zaya in S14. Friends becoming more attached to each other as they spend time together. After Maya’s initial freak-out over the Cam Miles Dream, Zoe and Zig are both taking turns minding her. Inviting her into Rubber Room antics or keeping her involved in cheer music planning. Zoe is very protective of Maya, and when the Maya-Tris dance plot happens... Zoe’s the one that goes and explains, clearly, to Tris how he will be nice to her.
Because I stand by Maya being forced to apologize in that plot as bull.
Maya and Tris patch things up, and when she asks why he changed his mind, he’d say ‘Zoe made it clear that whatever I was dealing with I had to be nice. It’s like she’s in love with you or something.’ This causes Maya to think a little about how Zoe’s acted in the past, and Maya makes a move on Zoe while they’re studying one night. Of course, this is Maya, queen of subtle gestures and testing the waters.
She asks point blank. And throws her shirt at Zoe. And then her bra. Look she is a year older but not any wiser than last time Maya did this. Zoe, who has been noticing her attachment to Maya, tries to play it off but between Maya confronting her on this and Maya’s... directness, There is a definite make-out that happens. Both definitely accepting the feelings of each other. But in the aftermath both realize the problems that come up.
The Individual Journeys
So Zoe’s journey is the more interesting, as she’s basically living a double life. By day she’s doing the school queen act. Head Cheerleader, popular, flirting with boys. And by night she and Maya are hanging out, being themselves, and a lot of making out. Zoe becoming more and more sure of who she is now, and less and less sure what to do about it. Because, to her, she can’t be gay. She just can’t, she’s normal! And her mom will never forgive her for this. So Zoe’s in the closet, Maya’s secret is for another reason. Later on that.
Now Degrassi Nudes didn’t happen here, mostly because... it’d feel like an odd plot if the ending was ‘Zoe found love and stopped sending naked photos to guys for money’ without any huge dramatic explosion of drama at the end. Instead her hiding herself from the cheerleaders is the plot. They (mostly Lola and Frankie) are sure Zoe is at Maya’s most of the time for Zig. But the character to find out Zoe’s feelings first is Miles.
Miles, after his break-up with Tristan over his feelings for Maya, asks Zoe (Maya’s ‘friend’) if she thinks he has a shot with her. She says something along the lines of ‘go near her and I’ll end you’ and Miles pretty quickly picks up on why that is. Zoe and Maya are a thing. The two talk through the ins and outs of switching teams (Miles avoiding the word bi still because he’s still a mess), Zoe pretty sure now more than anything what she had with Miles and Drew wasn’t real.
We’ll get back to Zoe’s being outed once we cover a bit of Maya’s plot.
Maya’s keeping this secret because she’s living with Zig, and she’s more than aware that Zig’s interference wasn’t good for her and Miles (even if Miles and Maya ended Miles and Maya). She’s really trying to focus on being more healthy and so everything with Zoe is also paired with Maya’s going to therapy and needing help. With warnings maybe she should stop worrying about others and really focus on herself.
A thing Maya cannot do, so she helps protect her secret with Zoe, and keeps getting dragged into Miles’s damage, and Tris’s drama, and Zig’s issues. Oh her side the first to find out about her and Zoe is Grace. Grace has noticed Maya’s been different lately, and weird about keeping track of what Zig’s up to. Grace assumes (like the Cheer girls with Zoe) that Maya and Zig are a thing. Maya comes clean to her.
However Zig keeps trying to figure out why he and Maya aren’t a thing, Maya’s mental health is still not improving with her trying to save everyone, and she snaps and tells Zig so he lets go and moves on.Zig is hurt, and Tiny confronts Zoe about this. In public, and the school finds out, and their parents find out. The plot fragments into three threads here.
Zig and Grace confront Tiny about how he never wanted this, and how this wasn’t what he wanted.
Maya’s confronted by her mom and sister, they have the coming out talk and the positive uplifting ‘we never wanted you to feel afraid of us family moment.’ The happy fun good ending moment.
...mirrored darkly by Zoe’s mom threatening to send her to a boarding school for troubled children and basically doing everything wrong. Zoe runs off and is rescued by Jack and Miles. Jack (who is still in the closet) talks her down and tells her she isn’t alone, Miles offering her a place to stay. If she promises not to date his sister.
Zoe and Maya kinda... divide there, the damage is done and Zoe blames Maya for having that perfect goddamn family and just can’t deal. Reverting to classic vindictive biting words Zoe from S13 for a bit. Maya kinda crumbles at this point and starts moving toward Depressed Maya for a bit (she gets better before NC1... with Zig’s help).
Endgame?
Well, certainly not this chapter. Zoe and Maya are so charged and both so hurt they would destroy each other without some space to cool down and so Zoe can really focus on finding her own family and Maya can really focus on her mental health.
Now, I can see a version where they spend the first part of Next Class on different paths, but once the bus crash happens Zoe is the one there for Maya. Or they go their separate ways as friends, mulling over what if. Either way, I really like the idea of exploring the space those two have.
