You are loved

I haven't been this proud of a picture since I drew the beach one. I'm also thrilled that the scanner didn't murder this like usual.

In my lovely AU, Dana and Zim have been in the same high school together without realizing it. One day, Zim drops his English class to get into the advanced one since they put him in the wrong class. He gets sent to the advanced class, which Dana happens to be a part of. When he gets there, he asks Lexi why the female diagonal from him is sleeping and she tells him that Dana is always sleeping in class and could care less about school. Zim's new personality gives him the title "Teacher's Pet", which means he wants to change Dana's outlook on school...and soon her life. She gets easily annoyed by him at first, saying he needs to just leave her alone. And when he compliments her, she brushes it off, saying she isn't worth it.

This Dana has no self-confidence and doesn't have faith in others. She has even attempted suicide. So she doesn't understand why anyone would like her or say she's pretty. We come to find out that Dana was once a happy little Smeet who liked to play dress-up and talk to stuffed animals. But this all changed when her mother started staying out late and taking the Irken equivalent of alcohol (except this stuff was completely illegal). She poisoned her husband (Chad) because of it and Dana was told he died in his sleep...nothing else. After this, her mother treated her like garbage and would always tell her she wasn't pretty and would never be loved by anyone. When you're told things like that for years, you start to believe it. Anyway, Zim keeps pestering her until she slowly opens up to him. The scene above is when she finally let's him in. Though she isn't magically transformed overnight, she does begin to see the universe in a new light. ^^

I'm a sap for happy endings.

[link] - for those of you who want to see this without words, click here. I've also typed the lyrics in the artist's comments in case you can't see the ones here.

You Are Loved (Don't Give Up) lyrics © Written by Thomas Salter and sung by Josh Groban
Invader Zim © Jhonen Vasquez
Dana © Me