I Left My Heart In San Diego

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.