The living room of the Shay apartment, Seattle, Washington, Thursday evening

[hurtingzeebo]

Carly sat on her couch, a pamphlet in her hands, pouting down at it. Sam lay back next to her, her feet over the back edge, examining her toes.

"How much do you wanna bet I can play Violin Hero with my feet?" Sam asked.

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[randomspanish]

It was a rare occurrence for Freddie to just come in the front door of Casa Shay, but today was one of those days. He opened the door and shut it behind himself, even latching the security chain.

"Hide me," he said, exasperated. "She's trying to give me a full set of vaccine boosters before I leave. And not in the arm."

[hurtingzeebo]

"You're not even leaving the country," Carly pointed out.

Sam, of course, was diplomatic as always. "Awwww, is widdle Fweddie allergic to the East Coast?"

[randomspanish]

"I am not," Freddie protested, relaxing a bit when he didn't hear the voice of his mother right outside the apartment door.

"But apparently aggressive parenting dot com told her that it was important private school preparation. Don't even get me started on--"

He sniffed the air.

"Did Spencer set something on fire again?"

[hurtingzeebo]

"He made me a going away present," Sam explained.

"I can't believe you're both leaving me!" Carly flopped back melodramatically on the couch. "I'm going to have to spend all my time hanging out with Gibby!"

[randomspanish]

"It wasn't my idea," Freddie said, walking over. "Believe me, I tried everything to stay in Seattle. I even tried to argue that my mom wouldn't be able to make sure I double-poo during each shower if I'm in Virginia. But even that didn't work."

[hurtingzeebo]

Sam snickered. "'Double-poo.'"

"Sam, you're not helping," said Carly.

"So what else is new?" Sam shrugged, kicking her feet up on the coffee table again. "'Sides, at least this way we can still do iCarly, right?"

[randomspanish]

"That's true," Freddie reluctantly admitted. "All we have to do is get one of my friends from the AV Club to do camerawork in the studio, and we could hook up a connection to voice-chat via Zaplook so we'd be able to coordinate better than that time you two refused to perform in the same room."

He headed towards the kitchen. "Anyone else want a Peppy Cola?"

[hurtingzeebo]

"Sure," said Carly.

Sam worked her hand like a puppet. "Blah, blah, nubby blah. Don't need the details, Fredward. Just need to know it'll work."

"You should be nicer to him," Carly said. "He's going to be the only person you know at that school."

"But making fun of Freddie relaxes me!"

[randomspanish]

"It'll work," Freddie said, coming back from the fridge. He handed Carly one of the two Peppy Cola cans he'd grabbed. "And Carly, don't worry about it. It's not even like it hurts my feelings. You know how you get a callous on your foot when you keep walking on the same part? Well I've got a Sam-callous. She has to go above and beyond her obnoxiousness to actually hurt me."

[hurtingzeebo]

"Duly noted," said Sam. Really, it was as if Freddie had just issued her a challenge.

[randomspanish]

"Oh great," Freddie said. "I just doomed myself."

He sighed and shook his head. "Are you sure you can't come too? I mean, Spencer can probably take care of himself for... okay, no, he probably can't."

[hurtingzeebo]

"NOOOOO!" Spencer's voice wafted out of his room. He came running out, flaming sculpture in hand again, and barreled through to the sink to put it out. "Hi Freddie! Noooooooo!"

"He really can't," Sam said. She moved over to throw an arm around Freddie's neck -- more chokehold than hug. "Guess we're stuck with each other."

[randomspanish]

A very worried expression crossed Freddie's face.

"Yaaaaaay."

There was no enthusiasm in his voice.