Happy Dannyversary! I finished this way back in March of 2024, and I'm so glad we've finally released it for the 21st anniversary of the show's first airing!
You can watch my piece alongside everyone else's hard work HERE! My part is also on YouTube individually:
Sara likes to read classical literature. She's always trying to connect things in her life to whatever book she's read most recently, and occasionally this lets her help Lee find a clue or solve a problem.
This would take place around the beginning; Lee's "bad boy" reputation hasn't yet sunk in for our new student. What could he have done that got him in so much trouble?!
She didn't originally have a purse but then all the Glamazons have a little itty bitty bag + I drew Lee with his backpack so I was like I WANTTT A PURSE TOO
Lee: Sara, your purse is so small. You can't even fit your phone in there.
Sara: Yeah, well, at least it's not so big someone can stick a can of paint in there and frame me.
Lee: Ouch.
Sara: But, yeah, I can only fit, like, two and a half lipsticks in here...
Character bio and process art under the cut :)
Name: Sara Smart
Likes: pink, cats, Orange Splat, living in Canada
Dislikes: honey, low ceilings, the prank song, indecision
She's the "new student" trope who arrives shortly after the start of the school year, towards the end of September/beginning of October
She doesn't really fit in with any of the cliques (despite a good effort); Kimmie and the Glamazons eyed her as a potential candidate but after a week or so, Sara decides she dislikes the way they're treating Brandy and makes her exit
Brandy and her become really quite good friends after this (but can't hang out a lot at school because of Kimmie)
She likes Lee right away because he was kind and polite to her when she was new, unlike everyone else (doesn't last long; to be elaborated) but wasn't aware of his "bad boy" reputation until it's explained to her, which makes her a little wary of him
Sara is ACTIVELY trying to hide the fact that she gets very, very good grades and is super hardworking because she wants to be seen as a nice, pretty, popular girl (did NOT work out) but literally everyone can tell she's teacher's pet, Barrage lets her get away with pretty much anything, and, in the words of someone she hasn't met yet, she's a "Miss Goody Two Shoes" 🐍
Lee 🤝 Sara: "we're going to pretend we're not that high-achieving even though we're good at math and other subjects because we want to avoid pressure + don't want to be put into that 'nerd' box"
Unfortunately Lee's kindness runs out NOT because of anything Sara specifically did but because Lee's like hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wow a suspiciously "perfect" student shows up all of a sudden after the prank and genuinely seems to like me? sus
Here I imagine there's one episode dedicated to Lee following her around with the help of his friends and absolutely terrorizing her trying to figure out what she's "hiding" (spoiler: nothing. that she knows of)
Eventually she's like WHY ARE YOU BEING SO MEAN TO ME I THOUGHT YOU WERE NICE AND COOL AND I WANTED TO BE FRIENDS!! EVERYONE AT THIS STUPID SCHOOL SUCKS!!!
"I'm so, so sorry. Sometimes I get so paranoid I just, forget to be nice, for once. Can we start over? My name is Lee."
Lee also explains the "bad boy" thing that's been making her avoid him (hence making him more paranoid that she's up to something) and Sara's relieved, like, oh okay, I believe you. He's like, you do?!?
Cue the slow process of Sara and Lee becoming increasingly co-dependent (Sara trusts that Lee will take care of her; Lee trusts that she won't judge him for his theories) but they won't realize how close they've gotten until Sara meets her inevitable fate (and disappears)
"Guys, she doesn't have any friends. We should ask her to hang out with us."
"We're inviting a chiquita into our friend group?!?! .....niceeeeeeeeeeeee"
"Ooh! Holger make traditional welkom-cake for Lee's friend who is girl!"
Sara does have one secret that she hadn't told yet Lee and it's that hearing the prank song affects her embarrassingly badly
If it makes Cyrus go crazy, it makes her, uh, throw up.
So she develops an irrational(?) fear of hearing it and neither she nor Lee have any clue why, he promises to help her get to the bottom of it
Sara and Lee are both extremeeeely paranoid except Sara has anxiety and wants to control the outcome of any situation and can't handle uncertainty or failing or doing anything "wrong," whereas Lee channels his paranoia and overthinking and checking (and re-checking) into something positive: solving conspiracies!
Sara helps him a lot (having a positive reputation among staff, she can charm or distract any malevolent actors so Lee can get away with things or sneak into places he otherwise couldn't)
The problem is she's squeamish and not very active
"Sara, get in the vent."
"N-no, it's dusty."
"SARA, BARRAGE IS AROUND THE CORNER—"
She always sticks by him, but she flies too close to the sun trying to help Lee and this will eventually lead to their long-term separation
Once she meets the Serpent, it is so, so over for her happy life in Toronto and she won't see Lee again until college. She gets spirited away, not to Coral Grove, but to an even further place, where nobody can contact her.
