Birdhouse In Your Soul - Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
It was a nice morning in May when Carly peeked out her window. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt more at peace with the world. Even with the prospect of not getting into the college of her dreams, she was still pretty happy. Her plans were coming together nicely and things were progressing, as she’d noticed.
Her poor unsuspecting best friends didn’t know how much work she’s put into their ‘relationship’, yet they both continued to make it harder.
Sighing she glanced over and noticed that it was nearing ten and the faint smell of something new and delicious picked her nose.
Saturdays were her favorite time of the week, especially when it was the start of a new month.
Today had to be the day, she continued to tell herself. She’d been informed that the ‘acceptance’ letters had been mailed out a week ago and should arrive around the fourth or the fifth. If it didn’t show up today then she would have to wait until Monday, she couldn’t.
After the time she’d spent working on iCarly, she realized what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. That’s why Syracuse University of Journalism was the place for her, she just knew it. If not the there were others that she had to fall back on. Though she wished and hoped that she got into that particular school, it had to happen; she’d live with whatever happened.
Once she found herself in a sitting position she stretched and flipped to the right of her bed and grabbed a midnight blue remote with dozens of random buttons. The television that her father had bought her for getting straight ‘As’, even though she really didn’t, had eventually worked its way into her bedroom.
Pressing play a video feed started up from the a few nights ago that made her smile. She’d watched it twice and then showed it to the other ‘conspirators’ in the ‘Operation: Seddie’. They would have called it something less obvious but no one spoke of it outside of their meetings. It had come way before the idea to get them together even happened. The group had gathered around to read some of their fan’s emails and messages and a large number of them asked about ‘Seddie’ and they soon found out what that stood for. There were a smaller number of ‘Creddie’ fans as well; Carly just smiled and thought of the date that she and Freddie had attempted.
It was a nice little funny memory that she’d treasure, it was after all the moment he ‘woke up’ from his infatuation.
She started the video over and shook her head while smiling.
Sam and Freddie were in the studio with Hammy, the date in the corner told her it was on the last day of April that it took place. The video continued with Hammy rolling around crazily, limbs flying around like Sam when she dances. Freddie was laughing really hard while dangling his fingers above the pup while Sam mimicked his antics, rolling on her back and looking like she was righting off something invisible. It was a special little moment that they thought no one knew about.
She felt kind of skeevy for spying on them in their intimate moments but she needed hard evidence, which had stacked up over the months. Who knew that her plans would work so well?
She smiled even bigger as Sam started to make weird squeaky noises at the back of her throat. For some strange reason Hammy was selective with the sounds that bothered him. The name ‘Jessica’ freaked him out, especially when pronounced ‘Jess-cah’ in a high pitch voice. He jumped to his feet and leaned into his front paws, like he planned to pounce onto her face as he growled playfully at her. Sam covered her face with her hands while continuing to move around and make noises. This really got him going and he started nibbling on her hands that still remained on her face. She peeked through and he looked happy for a moment and then she squeaked again and he started moving back and forth in front of her face.
Carly turned it off and sighed, they were so cute together when they weren’t being snippy or hurtful. It hadn’t been so current lately and Sam even seemed to be giving in, slightly. She wouldn’t tell that to her friend though and pretend she didn’t notice a thing.
Deciding it was time to actually get out of bed; she yawned and stretched before allowing her bare feet to come in contact with the frozen ground.
Sam frowned as she tried to focus all her attention on this recipe that was sent to her a week before. Some fan wanted the iCarly gang to try foods from their countries, mainly breakfast. The details were a bit sketchy and required patience; which she was steadily losing. Normally she would be up for cooking but she’d been up for hours and was still tired from the night before.
Freddie had insisted that they go have some of the most amazing cupcakes in Seattle, at nine at night. It was completely random and didn’t make any sense at the time. He busted in and looked really excited about something. He spotted her, since she was the only one downstairs at that time and came over to her.
His excitement didn’t die, even when she told him that he was being even ‘nubbier’ than usual. The joy on his face was almost contagious because she cracked a small smile and he pounced on his heels and kept trying to convince her to come with him. He wouldn’t say where or why, just that he needed to take her, at that very moment.
Yeah it did sound that dirty at the time and she had a good laugh with herself as she sat in his car, while he shook with excitement. It was just scary and it almost seemed like he’d injected something that ‘hyped’ him up. It was just like the first time that he had coffee, except he went overboard and was a mess for days.
This reminded her of that but she kept it to herself as they arrived at their destination.
Cupcakes.
That’s right; the crazy dweeb drove her thirty minutes from home to get cupcakes, in the middle of the night.
She shook her head at the memory and went back to the breakfast she’d been working on for hours. It was from some guy from Turkey and the dish was called ‘Burek’ or something like that. It took her a while because of the dough, which was ‘foreign’ to her. She laughed at her horrible pun. Surprisingly enough it was also found in the Arab culture, which was how she intended to make it. Her stomach told her to make something meaty with potatoiness. That’s right potatoiness.
Once she’d fried up the dough and cooked up everything all that was left was the assembly.
Sighing she cut up the large creation and started placing it on plates as she heard Carly coming down the stairs. Spencer was still in his room, sleeping most likely.
Freddie and Sam had decided to do a much needed ‘Wake Up Spencer’ since they hadn’t done one in months. This of course happened hours after Freddie ate a bunch of cupcakes and was on a sugar high. He was immune to anything she said the entire time. She tried every insult under the sun but got nothing in return, he was just so giddy that nothing could bring him down. She thought this until he hit his ‘crashing’ point and sluggishly worked his way into her bedroom and passed out. She lay down with him for a while and then woke up at eight to try out the recipe. She had a bunch of others that she needed to try as well.
She found herself looking down at him that morning, when she woke up and smiling despite her better judgment. Her lips found his forehead and she planted a gentle peck there. No one would ever know it but she’d have it in her memory bank as long as she lived. She wasn’t known for showing any sort of ‘affection’ of that nature. In fact someone once said that she was ‘afraid of affection’. That wasn’t the case at all but she’d never correct anyone. She just chose the persons who got to receive her affection.
Speaking of which, he should have been up already, he had made sure to disappear before she even cracked an eye open. What was surprising was that Mrs. Benson hadn’t broken down the door, looking for her precious son.
Her suspicious nature was starting to kick in, as well as the caffeine that she’d tanked down that morning.
“Morning.” Carly grinned at her as she grabbed a mug and got herself some coffee. Sam couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at her ‘best friend’ who seemed way too happy. Maybe she was being way to paranoid but something was definitely up with Carly.
Her brunette friend had been a nervous wreck the past week and then bam she’s all sunshine and sprinkles. Where did that make any sense?
She remembered Carly going on a rant about how she wouldn’t get into that journalism school and then she’d have to become a hobo. It went on for minutes, which felt like hours until she got tired and went to bed.
“Yeah, what are you up to?” Sam asked shifting her eyes over to her best friend who continued to sip lightly on her coffee, seeming to try very hard to look innocent.
“Nothing, why?” her voice rose a little and Sam wasn’t in the mood to even get into it with the girl. “I’m just looking forward to getting my rejection letters is all.” she laughed a little crazily as her mug started to shake in her hands.
“You’ll get into your dream school and be fine, chill Shay.” Sam sighed and shook her head as Carly sat down to start eating.
“What’s this one?” she asked, after tasting some interesting things the past few days.
“Burek, it’s some sort of ‘pastry’ except that you can also make it with meat and potatoes.” she shrugged and began to munch on her own meal.
It wasn’t until the fourth bite that a tousled Freddie came downstairs looking as though he’d walked through a hurricane. He grumbled something incoherent and went straight for the coffee, but was stopped by Sam who shook her head and set a hard glare on him. He glared right back and went to try and go for the coffee again but she pushed him and he fell to the ground. It was easy to tell that he was getting annoyed as he stood up and nudged her out of the way with his shoulder.
“You didn’t just do that did you?” her voice went down a few octaves and she got within range and pushed him down again, this time with more force than before.
“What the hell, Sam?” he snapped at her and for a second she wondered where all this was coming from. He wasn’t this bad when he got over his coffee crash.
“You can’t just go for the coffee after all that sugar you had last night.”
Carly hadn’t been awake for whatever they were talking about but her mind went straight to the gutter.
“Should I be worried about the sugar Freddie had last night?” Carly giggled and took a nice gulp of coffee.
“Shay, that’s just…” Sam looked like she was about to rip out her hair and explode all at once. Her face lit up brightly with embarrassment. The very idea of that was just scary. She’d never admit that to anyone but that was the last thing she wanted at the moment. “I….you….just…” she couldn’t seem to for a decent sentence nor did she notice Freddie sneak up to the coffee machine and get himself a nice steaming cup of coffee.
“Wow Sam I didn’t know you could actually blush like that. Maybe I should bring up ‘it’ more often.” she grinned and put the last of her breakfast into her mouth. “Well I’m going to take a shower.” Carly stood and practically skipped off upstairs. Freddie didn’t seem at all phased by what Carly had said and just continued to drink the coffee in his hands.
She didn’t even bother to take it away from him, he’d learn soon enough.
Hammy trotted over after all the nonsense was over and tugged at Sam’s sock with his mouth.
“You’re finally awake too?” she gave the pup a bored look but he didn’t seem bothered by it as his tail began to wag. He’d grown over the past few weeks and now came up to the middle of her lower leg. “I already put food in your bowl, go eat.” she pointed to the bowl sitting in the kitchen and then went flop onto the couch.
Freddie seemed to perk right up after he finished off his coffee but Sam wasn’t in the mood to deal with the nub. He came over and plopped himself down as well, she ignored him the whole time, as Girly Cow played reruns on the television.
He frowned at her as she continued to watch television as if he weren’t there at all. This went on for a good ten minutes until he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Why are you ignoring me?” he was getting kind of annoyed with her by this point. “What’s your problem this morning?”
“Shut up, would ya?” she snapped out without taking her eyes from the television.
Without an answer he got up and left the Shay’s apartment. Sam was mildly surprised that he actually left. She’d grown used to him just sticking around and taking her attitude, but obviously he wasn’t in the mood either to deal with it.
Sighing she laid down and attempted to banish the weird feelings building up in the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t disappointed at all that he left, no not at all. This was what would become of them once he was off in California or Boston or even Canada. She had no clue where he planned to go; she always avoided the conversations when he and Carly would bring it up. She wasn’t prepared to tell the two that a few schools wanted her Physics brain at their school. It was a once in a lifetime deal, who knew if it would be there in a few years. It made choosing between that and the school she’d signed up for in Seattle difficult.
Then there was a few culinary schools she’d signed up for and went through all the proper channels, but they hadn’t sent her rejection letters in so she just kept her place at Seattle’s best culinary arts school. She just assumed they’d reject her and her dreams to become a master in the kitchen.
These musings would have gone on for quite a while, if not for the loud scream that erupted from across the hall. The shrill anguish-filled voice of Mrs. Benson could be felt through the walls. All that was heard was “Fredward Benson!” followed by a scream and then a thud, like something heavy had fallen over.
She sat up quickly and found herself rushing to the door, only to be met by Spencer, who was wearing only boxers and Carly who was in a robe.
The trio went next door, not bothering to knock at all. They found a shirtless Freddie bent over his mother, trying to get her to wake up.
Carly and Spencer at first hadn’t taken notice to the ink on Freddie’s back until he made a movement.
“Oh my gosh, what is that on your back?” Carly gasped out, eyes bulging, body frozen in a strange position.
Freddie froze for a moment and then stood up while he mother mumbled, coming to.
“Way to go Freddo!” Spencer grinned, with very enthusiastic thumbs up.
Sam on the other hand didn’t look as shocked, but it went unnoticed by her two companions. Freddie laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.
“When did you get that thing?” Carly looked kind of put off, like she was meeting Freddie for the first time. It was almost like she was seeing him in a new light, like Fred Benson had finally returned to ‘bad boy town’. It was a pretty interesting tattoo as well.
The first thing you noticed was the medium sized shield, which dominated most of the tattoo. Above it was a fencing mask, much like a knight’s helmet on a family crest. The entire shield piece was nothing but a detailed microchip. It was just so Freddie that it was laughable, if not for the fact that it looked amazingly done. To add to his ‘technical’ ways, he had what looked like phone cords, but larger swirling around like a snake would. In fact that’s what it sort of looked like, two Ethernet cords with snake characteristics creating a border around the crest. The final touch was the fencing swords, which looks as though they were dug deep into the flesh. They created a crisscross design on either side of the shield and exited out the bottom part.
There was also something written in it but it was too small to make out from far away, but it looked like a name or a word.
Carly had to remind herself that this was Freddie, who was by no means a boy of interest to her. It was just shocking to see it there on his back, something she thought she would never witness. Best friends were allowed to admire how ‘badboy’ it was to get a nice sized tattoo on his back.
“I still can’t believe you got that.” Sam shook her head while smiling, her arms crossed over her chest.
“You liked it before when…” he stopped himself, blushing ten different shades of red. He could see her getting a little flush as well and a bit angry.
“What was that, Fredward?” Mrs. Benson snapped crazily, springing to life. She jumped to her feet and towered over him with a deadly glare set in.
“Uh…nothing…I was just…nothing….” he stuttered out backing up a little.
Her attention turned to the other people in the room and they all flinched. The look on her face was nothing they’d ever seen before, especially on Mrs. Benson’s crazy face. Her eyes were wide while the left side twitched, her mouth set in a disgusted scowl, the lip on the left also twitching. It was a sight to see, but not when you were the target of its steady glare.
“You did this!” she pointed a finger at Carly, who looked dumbfounded by this. She glanced to her left and right at Spencer and Sam, who looked just as surprised. “You told me I should give him more space, that it would make things less stressful, now look at what he’s done!” she shrieked like a banshee. “I can’t believe I even took advice from you young lady!” she was breathing heavy now while everyone else looked at Carly in confusion.
“I…” Carly wasn’t sure what she should say to that.
“Carly.” started the blond “Why’d you want to give Freddork more time to himself for?” Sam asked suspiciously raising an eyebrow at her best friend.
“I figured that he’d like a break for a year from having his mom all up in his snowflakes.” Carly blurted out throwing her limbs around her in a crazy fashion. Her friends and her sibling looked at her as if asking ‘snowflakes’? She shrugged as Mrs. Benson kept her gaze lock on the younger Shay.
“Well I guess that didn’t work now did it. My son is a hooligan! A delinquent! Just look at that disgusting mess on his back!” she ranted on with hand gestures. “We’re going back to that doctor and having it removed this instant!” she turned her eyes back to a shirtless Freddie who looks nervous, embarrassed and ready to implode in on himself.
“Mom!” he half whined half yelled out, flabbergasted. “I’m not going to get it removed!” he stated in his ‘I mean business’ voice. Mrs. Benson’s facial expression changed dramatically. She looked like she was about to cry as she turned her complete attention to her son. He didn’t look too menacing without a shirt on, but still seemed to deliver the right effort to his mother.
“Yo, Benson, why are you running around the house without a shirt on? No one wants an eyeful of that.” snorted Sam smirked at his still red face. She really didn’t mind the view she had at the moment. She never noticed the small bulges in his biceps. It wasn’t very noticeable to the naked eye but she knew they were there. She had felt them for herself when they’d ‘play fight’.
“Oh yes you are, you practically defaced your body young man!” cut in Mrs. Benson, ignoring the comment made by Sam.
Something inside Freddie clicked together and he found his spine somewhere, probably in his mother’s grasp. He practically ripped it from her and placed it back where it belonged.
“No, I’m not. I wanted it and I love it, so I’m keeping it!” he yelled back at her, surprised by the fact that he’d done so.
She stood up from her hunched position and looked on wide-eyed at the young man before her. Not only did she see more of his father then that moment but also a stronger and confident Freddie. The combination was stifling and she knew that he wouldn’t bend to her will this time.
“Are you trying to put me into an early grave?” she pouted losing all posture again, looking defeated.
“What, no mom, I just don’t want to get something that I care about, removed. I took the time to design it and make it perfect. I’m not going to destroy it because you disapprove. If you love me then you’ll accept it and move on.” he had a set face on and she looked him in the eyes and sighed.
“Fine, but I don’t want to see it.” she told him glaring.
“Then knock before you barge into my room.” he rolled his eyes and went back inside his room to put a clean shirt on.
Bored by the events that transpired, Sam turned around and headed back across the hall, Hammy who had stayed right at the door started to dance around her feet as she entered.
“You ready to start the day?” she didn’t sound as peppy as she would have liked but it didn’t extinguish his excitement. She remembered not to utter the words he knew so well, ‘Bath time’. He detested baths with a passion. She made the mistake of saying it once and had to go chasing after him for an hour around the house. Freddie had assisted her at that time, managed to get him to come out of his hiding place with a piece of ham and the promise of ‘going outside’ which he seemed to love to do.
All it would take was a ‘Who wants to go outside?’ He’d come running, leaping and tugging to get there. After that she’d decided to just scoop him up before he became wise to her intentions.
Once he was in her arms she made her way to the downstairs bathroom near Spencer’s room. His doggy soup and such items were all there waiting for them. She made sure to close the door so he couldn’t escape and started up the water, picking a lukewarm temperature that suited Hammy.
With many slips and attempted escapes pretty soon there was a clean and wet Hammy outside the bathtub. She grabbed the biggest towel she could and began to dry him off while he wiggled underneath, trying to self dry. When he managed to get out of her hands he shook his whole body causing water to splash all over her, like she’d walked through the rain.
She gasped and looked offended by his actions and he began to get into ‘play-fight’ position. With his tail up in the air and his head low to the ground he started to growl, wagging his whole butt, waiting for her to make her first move.
“Don’t even think about it Hams.” she warned squinting her right eye at him. He began to make a sound that was a cross between a bark and a whine. “No.” she told him shaking her head. He started to move back and forth on the floor with his tail still in the air.
Just as she was about to tell him ‘no’ again the bathroom door opened and he shot out of the bathroom yipping in victory at his sudden escape. The person accused of the prisoners escape looked confused standing there in all his striped shirt glory.
Freddie looked scared, like he’d just met up with a tiger right before meal time.
“Wait…Sam…I’m sorry…I thought…you…you know….needed help…” he stuttered, he’d done that twice so far that day. It was barely noon and he was already a stuttering mess.
“Now I’ve got a wet dog on the loose!” she pushed past him and started after Hammy. “Get back here you little demon!” she yelled shaking her fist in the airs as a wet Hammy zoomed past her and into Spencer’s room. He proceeded to jump up on the bed and flip on his back, rolling about in a spastic happy puppy mode.
Once he saw her enter, with Freddie behind her he perked up and darted out of the room, under their legs.
“I can’t believe he’s doing this again!” cried out Freddie turning around and running out of the room after the little demon.
“It’s your fault you know. You could have knocked first.” she gave him smug look as she joined him in the living room. Hammy was rolling on the carpet at this point.
The two didn’t even bother to wonder what happened to the Shay’s who hadn’t come back from the earlier incident. Even his mother didn’t bother poking her head in.
Once they both took opposite sides, surrounding him in front of the television, they moved closer slowly. He seemed aware of their plan but didn’t make a move to get away.
The pair gave each other the signal to tackle the pup and followed through. What they weren’t expecting was that Hammy was waiting for them to do it and darted toward the coffee table as the two crashed into one another. Freddie was the one to collide with Sam first, landing on top of her.
They froze, looking at one another, Freddie’s legs tangled in hers.
“We really need to stop ending up in situations like this. People are going to start thinking there’s something going on.” he joked, only being able to see his bright chocolate eyes. Speaking of chocolate, that hair of his wasn’t helping her out either, it led her mind to naughty thoughts of a Freddie dipped in chocolate.
“You have amazing eyes…” he muttered not turning his eyes away from hers.
She looked thoughtful for a moment, as though the words he had spoken meant something to her.
He brought his hand up and brushed away her bangs from her eyes and smiled the most beautiful smile she’d ever seen on another human being. It was almost heartbreaking to see all that untapped love in his eyes. The sight of it was blinding and intense, her heart couldn’t take it as it beat hard, trying to escape its bone cage.
The reactions that she got from the supposed ‘dork’ weren’t normal. Then again they could never be normal when it came to ‘love’. The two would always find a bump in the road and they’d have to find a way to compromise or fail.
She wasn’t going to give in though. She told herself that she’d at least let him go. It wouldn’t be too hard; she didn’t really have him anyways to give away like some prize. She also would never admit it out loud but he was special, she could clearly see that. Maybe she’d always known it, no, she had always known. Even in the days when she wanted to dislike him for just existing on the same planet as her. Even in the beginning she could lie to everyone but herself. She learned though that Fredward Benson was a stubborn boy, even when it came to friendship. He was far too difficult to give up on anything he put his mind to. She only saw it as another ‘fight’ for them, a constant struggle they went though. He’d pull and she’d push, though he still had a firm grasp.
She saw it a new challenge that she’d easily overcome. But if the end result was a broken-hearted Freddie, could she really do it? Her favorite past-time was once to torture the nub until he broke, but that was before she realized that she actually cared about him. It was foreign for her to put her own heart out on the line and take another’s in to care for. She had a short list of people who had all of her, even then there were restrictions.
Freddie didn’t know how much of her heart was already his; he probably would never know it either. The words wouldn’t leave her lips and trail off into his ears, they were hers to keep.
But he’d have her heart for as long as she lived, even if it sounded cheesy and overly done. It might not have been ‘her’ to hold such feelings toward another human being but that was just it, she was a human being who knew what actual feelings were. That didn’t change the fact that she was as tough as nails and would take you down if you stepped a toe out of line. But this dorky guy who wasn’t so much a dork anymore managed to remind her that she was in fact a female with feelings, other than her usual brand of emotions.
It was good thing there weren’t any mind readers around to invade her thoughts. Pushing all of it aside she came back to reality, it felt like hours passed, but they were only a few seconds, maybe even minutes. Freddie’s big brown eyes were still looking at her and she could feel a slight tug on her lips, which she tried to fight off. She refused to smile up at him like a lovesick teenage girl, refused!
“Get up would ya?” she snipped out, her hands on his chest, pushing on it.
His smile didn’t vanish though, but got bigger as she attempted to get out from under him, again. They couldn’t have a normal relationship. Wait, not a relationship, friends-with-benefits, but even that sounded stupid in her mind. He seemed to have realized how ‘uncomfortable’ she felt having him that close to her and moved his hands a little so that he was holding her head in his hands.
“You know, I like you like this…” he mumbled looking into her eyes still, smiling wistfully.
“Huh?” she was truly confused by his statement and the way that he was looking down at her. She never thought a boy or male would ever look at her the way that he always seemed to, even when she made him mad and a little crazy at times.
“Stunned…” he smirked and she found herself glaring up at him. “And my other favorite part of you is back…” he laughed and took off some of his body weight from her person.
“I find that hard to believe you nub.” she frowned looking off to the side, not wanting to meet his eyes. He was momentarily distracted by her sudden aversion so she flipped him off of her. This only caused Hammy to come over to them and attempt to break up the fight by getting involved. It made no sense to her why he thought that if he bit them they’d stop fighting. The dog had issues.
“Ah! Hammy, no not that!” cried Freddie, still on his back. Sam had managed to put some distance between them and gather herself. Why’d he have to go and say crap like that for? Was he just doing it to mess with her mind, like some stupid teenage boy.
Then it dawned on her, he was a stupid teenage boy.
Something else was brought to the forefront of her mind; Carly and Spencer were nowhere to be seen. Even Mrs. Benson hadn’t come in to continue her crazy rant.
Looking around she found that the apartment was eerily quiet and the door was closed shut. Freddie must have done so when he showed up.
“Yo, Fredduccini Alfredo, where’s Carls and Spence?”
He paused, holding onto Hammy who continued to nibble on Freddie’s long-sleeved shirt.
“They said they had to go somewhere.” he stated looking bored by their conversation and shrugged. “Didn’t say where and then they left. My mom stormed off into her room before they left and she locked the door.”
“I don’t know what to even think about what happened over there.” she shook her head. “So they didn’t say where they were going?”
“Nope. They said they’d be back in an hour though.” He returned his attention the Hammy who demanded to be paid attention to.
If it were at all possible Carly Shay was elated by the envelops gripped tightly in her hand. It might have been a little odd that she was excited over the possibility of getting rejected by any of the schools she’d applied to. For someone like Carly that thought in itself should have been sending her over the edge into crazyville. But she held onto the very thick envelop with her name and address printed on it, with Syracuse’s logo printed nicely in the corner.
She just knew that inside her whole future would be set, her dreams were only a tear away. It was around five that Saturday afternoon when she found herself back at home. The morning events still ran through her mind, which brought an even bigger smile to her face. Everything was going according to plan and even her conspirator managed to up-play their role well.
From the video feed she’d watched earlier she felt like the randomness of that scene was worth it. Her two best friends were none the wiser. It’s how she liked them, clueless and walking right into her little traps. When she thought about it she sounded almost like a villain in a really cheesy superhero movie. She wasn’t the villain though; she was doing this for their own good as well as for mankind. No other human being should have to suffer with either of her friends; they should suffer happily with one another.
With a skip in her step she walked into the loft/apartment, who knew anymore. Sam was nowhere to be seen and Spencer was also gone, said something about meeting up with Socko, hours previous. Though Sam did state that Roger wanted to take her out for some lunch and just to hang, which seemed to make the brunette even happier, if that were at all possible. Sam finally had a chance at a normal relationship with one of her parents.
What she noticed though when she got to the island was that there were two envelops for Sam. One was really thin, with hard to read cursive on the corner. The other was very thick and had a symbol on it. She could clearly read what it said on the front, the place in which it had come from.
Sam was holding out on her, avoiding ever talking about school, but this was proof that something else was up. She didn’t want to pry into her friends’ mail so she pushed the thoughts away and decided to put it up in her room for her.
Freddie sighed as he flipped through Sam’s Physic’s textbook, the pages were worn and some were marked with bent corners. Even if he thought about it over and over it still wouldn’t sink in, Sam Puckett was a crazy Physics lover. The question was how and why? What had caused her to love something that was so unlike her?
Nothing in it caught his attention so he put it back on her night stand and flopped back onto her bed, which smelled of her. He always used to assume that she didn’t shower regularly or follow normal society’s views on hygiene, he was dead wrong. The girl smelled amazing. Then again she just might smell good to specifically him.
He read somewhere about how some people give off a scent just for another person. Did Sam have that same reaction to his scents? Something like the scent of cherry lollipops shouldn’t send him into a dizzy hazed trip into Samland. But he was there and practically swimming in it, everything seemed brighter whenever he was in her room.
As he sighed and sat up he heard a weird crinkling noise come from the mattress. Curiously he got off the bed and bent down on the right side of the bed and found a manila folder poking out. It was nicely squished between the mattress and the box spring, as though it were being hidden.
After he lifted the mattress a bit he was able to pull it out and allow the mattress to fall back into place. Some part of his cranium told him not to intrude upon Sam’s privacy, she didn’t want anyone to find out about whatever was inside, but curiosity got the better of him.
Plopping his butt onto the bed he got comfortable and laid it down on top of the comforter. The bed was made, due to his need to keep things clean, especially in her room. She told him to leave her bed alone or he’d have to leave. So he did as she asked until she left with Hammy, then he made the bed, smirking the entire time.
The entire thing was filled with applications to some of the most prestigious schools in the United States. Not only that, but there was already acceptance letters attached. As if the schools just wanted to follow protocol and have her ‘apply’. It was a huge eye-opener to Freddie as he read each one, coming to the realization that each wanted her because of her intense love for Physics. He wondered though for a moment how they all knew about that if no one else in her life did.
She had a few sticky notes attached to some of them and even on the inner side of the manila folder.
‘This looks interesting, they have a culinary arts school close by’ one said that was attached to ‘Harvard’. Another that was attached to the same application said ‘Might consider, close enough to Syracuse, can visit Carls on the weekends’.
These made him smile one; because she already figured that Carly got into her dream college and two; because she was still thinking about culinary arts school.
Then it all seemed to sink in, as he read the rest of the sticky notes.
On the few for California she had in jet-black marker ‘Fredweird might go to these school’ and ‘I can’t go here if Freddork is’.
She planned to get as far from him possible, even if that meant going to Massachusetts. She just assumed he’d be going to Berkeley, because he once loved mathematics as much as she loved Physics. But what she didn’t know was that his dreams changed and he wished to pursue film school. He just never felt the need to share this with his two friends, may as well let them assume what they wanted.
When the thought that she wanted to put distance between them really sunk in he felt like someone had cut off his oxygen. It was like someone told him that the sun and moon decided to swap jobs and the moon was in charge most of the time. That whole thought didn’t even make sense in his mind.
The point of his thought process was that Sam had it in her mind still that she’d be a burden on him. Her plan became quite clear to him as he sat there looking at all the schools she approved of, in Massachusetts. What she hadn’t realized was that she unknowingly chose the one place he’d hoped to end up as well. He applied to a few film schools and hoped to get into Boston University for film study.
With a smirk he closed the manila and placed it back into its hiding place. Just as he fell onto the bed Carly entered and was surprised to see him there.
“Hey Freddie.” she said with a surprised smile. “I didn’t know you were still here.” she looked at him suspiciously.
“Yeah, I didn’t feel like going home until my mom leaves for work night.” he shrugged and continued to look up at the ceiling. The smile on his face said ‘I win’ and Carly seemed to notice this, but kept it to herself. Whatever had Freddie happy, she’d find out later when he did something.
“I was just bringing up Sam’s mail, I’m tempted to just read them.” she laughed. She placed them on the table and was about to leave when she stopped at the opening and looked over her shoulder at him. “You know what?” she asked looking thoughtful.
“What?” he asked sitting up.
“We haven’t gone down the Groovy Smoothie in a while, what do you say? We don’t just hang out anymore.” she smiled sadly.
He jumped up off the bed and headed towards her.
“Let’s do this.” he nodded with a serious look on his face, as though they were about to embark on an epic mission. She fought the urge to roll her eyes as they headed toward the elevator and down to the lobby.
Carly couldn’t remember the last time that she’d just hung out with Freddie on his own. With the stresses of the new year of high school along with the events over the past few months it seems like ages.
“It’s so great that we’re doing this.” Carly grinned at her male best friend in the elevator.
“Seriously, we need a good hang out session. We hardly get to see you as it is.”
She pouted at his statement and looked off into the distance, which wasn’t much considering that they were inside of the elevator. She should have felt a little guilty over the fact that she’d been keeping her distance over the course of six months. There was no guilt though, not when her reasons were for her two dearest friends. They couldn’t know this of course and by chance she met David as well and he managed to take up a chunk of her time as well.
“Hey.” started Freddie, realizing something. “Did you open it?” he smirked over at her.
She wondered if he was picking up some of Sam’s mischievous nature, with the way he kept smirking. He had grown up a lot, that she could see and it was all thanks to Sam, in her opinion.
“Not yet, I’m going to wait until later, when Sam and I can open them together.” she grinned as the stepped off the elevator. “Did you get yours yet?”
“Yeah I got mine yesterday.” he shrugged.
“Well?” she prodded waiting for an answer.
“What?” he wanted to laugh as they bypassed a sleeping Lewbert and made it outside the Bushwell Plaza. She always got impatient when she wanted an answer from someone.
“Did you get into Berkeley?”
The question made he want to laugh, but he held it in, Carly also knew that he used to want to go to Berkeley, they had an amazing mathematics department where might have excelled.
“Nope.” he smirked again and just rolled her eyes. This was going to be hard to get used to, a Freddie who was more confident and bold. He was still a spaz though and constantly did things that remaindered why he wasn’t for her, but they made the greatest best friends.
“You are going to tell me, right?” she poked his side and he wiggled from her reach as the headed across the street.
“Maybe.” he smiled.
Sam grinned as she stood next to Roger in line. She couldn’t believe that they were going to do this. Of course he brought along one of his ‘assistants’ who were really interns to watch Hammy. She made sure to warn the guy that if anything happened to Hammy that he’d find out why she was arrest multiple times in fact, his kids would feel it as well. Hammy was important to her and she realized that it was almost like having a kid, except that he liked steals Spencer’s socks and laying on them.
She glanced over at Oliver, who was a pretty scrawny guy who had a nice hold on Hammy’s leash. He looked nervous that he’d mess up but Sam had also given Hammy specific instructions to stay put and to be good.
Hammy yipped when she looked over and she grinned at him and bobbed her head side to side. She cold tell from her place in line that his tail was wagging happily.
“You ready for this one?” he asked finishing off he ice cream cone.
Roger had promised to take her to Fun Forest Amusement Park, since neither of them had ever gone before. Sam had always wanted her mom to take, like a normal family would do on the weekends but it never came up. Once her mom agreed to go but told her they’d go another time, it never happened.
“Oh yeah, the Orbiter is so going down!” Sam did a little happy dance while they moved to the rope, finally reaching their destination.
She raised her head up toward the green beast known as the Orbiter. It looked like a robotic octopus from where she was standing. Yet she was actually excited about going on it. They stood there watching it about three times while in line.
“You ready old man?” she jabbed dancing past the guy collecting tickets for the ride. Roger handed over four to him and joined his overly excited daughter. As they waited for the ride to start up the just sat there staring at each other with excited grins on their faces. Roger reached over to strap her in even though she could do it herself and secured it.
“So are you going to tell me what you decided yet?” they had been talking on their way to the Fun Forest Amusement Park as well as the past week or so about what her teacher had done.
Since he wasn’t involved with her friends she felt like she could tell him about the whole ‘university’ thing.
“Kind of, I just don’t think I can do it all, you know?” she was being quite candid with him and it almost took him by surprise. He kept his cool though and just nodded. “I got a letter in the mail last week about that school I was planning on going to here but it fell through. I guess they filled up their roster. So now I’ve got to wait for a bunch of other schools, just to see if I’ll get into any of those.”
“What if you don’t end up getting into a culinary arts school?”
“Then I guess I’m going to have to just accept Harvard’s offer and go there.”
“You make it sound like it’s a death sentence.” he laughed. “Harvard is a really good school after all.”
“But it’s not for me though. I mean it’s great and all that I got in but can you see me at some fancy-for-the-rich-kids school?”
“Actually I can.” he grinned as the machine started up and they were off.
Once off the ride and laughing their heads off they headed back toward Oliver who seemed calmer. It appeared that Hammy had done as he was told and didn’t move.
Sam snatched up the leash from Oliver and told him to go on a few of the rides. Her dad walked along side her as they searched for something to snack on.
“Do you really think so?” she asked after about five minutes of silence between them; Roger stuffing his face with cotton candy. He looked over at her and looked confused for a moment.
“Huh?”
“You said you can see me at a school like that.” she reminded him.
“Yeah I can.” he nodded and finished off his treat.
Hammy pulled them along the concession stands as Sam took in the words her father had stated.
“Why?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking as the sun started to head closer to the horizon. The skies were turning a cool orange color as well as light fluffy pinks.
“Because you can pretty much do anything you put your mind to. Why not show the world that you are more than some abrasive girl? You don’t have to live up to everyone else’s expectations other than your own. I know that you’ll do what makes you happy.”
Sam stopped walking which caused Hammy to trot over to her legs and stare up at her in confusion. Roger turned from his position a foot away and raised an eyebrow.
“I…how can you…” she looked really lost and confused while her wide eyes stared into his.
“How can I what?”
To say he was confused by her would be an understatement. He was just plain floored at that point. The look on her face was odd to see there, given that it was Sam, the girl he’d had months to get to know and they really had bonded. Yet she made sure to protect herself from being hurt. He’d already made that mistake once and it cost him the world. It just amazed him that she was letting him in slowly and trusting him with things that she wouldn’t even tell her best friend. They had fun together just hanging out or joking around. She was coming around though and she even considered him her father on some level, it touched him greatly to have that little piece of knowledge.
“How can you just believe in me when I don’t even believe in myself most times?” she managed to say, with an embarrassed blush creeping along her cheeks.
“Because I love you…” he also looked kind of embarrassed but not because of what he said. He meant it and he wasn’t going to take it back.
Her head fell forward a bit and she looked down at Hammy who’s big eyes were still locked onto hers. A small smile started to form and then she looked back up at her dad who was still looking at her with a look of confusion.
“Let’s get going old man, I promised Spencer I’d cook dinner tonight.”
“Is that an invitation?” he asked followed after her, still a bit shocked by the moment they had just had.
“Duh.” she rolled her eyes smiling as they headed to his little car. It wasn’t until they were at the light that they realized they forgot Oliver.
It was a nice morning in May when Carly peeked out her window. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt more at peace with the world. Even with the prospect of not getting into the college of her dreams, she was still pretty happy. Her plans were coming together nicely and things were progressing, as she’d noticed.
Her poor unsuspecting best friends didn’t know how much work she’s put into their ‘relationship’, yet they both continued to make it harder.
Sighing she glanced over and noticed that it was nearing ten and the faint smell of something new and delicious picked her nose.
Saturdays were her favorite time of the week, especially when it was the start of a new month.
Today had to be the day, she continued to tell herself. She’d been informed that the ‘acceptance’ letters had been mailed out a week ago and should arrive around the fourth or the fifth. If it didn’t show up today then she would have to wait until Monday, she couldn’t.
After the time she’d spent working on iCarly, she realized what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. That’s why Syracuse University of Journalism was the place for her, she just knew it. If not the there were others that she had to fall back on. Though she wished and hoped that she got into that particular school, it had to happen; she’d live with whatever happened.
Once she found herself in a sitting position she stretched and flipped to the right of her bed and grabbed a midnight blue remote with dozens of random buttons. The television that her father had bought her for getting straight ‘As’, even though she really didn’t, had eventually worked its way into her bedroom.
Pressing play a video feed started up from the a few nights ago that made her smile. She’d watched it twice and then showed it to the other ‘conspirators’ in the ‘Operation: Seddie’. They would have called it something less obvious but no one spoke of it outside of their meetings. It had come way before the idea to get them together even happened. The group had gathered around to read some of their fan’s emails and messages and a large number of them asked about ‘Seddie’ and they soon found out what that stood for. There were a smaller number of ‘Creddie’ fans as well; Carly just smiled and thought of the date that she and Freddie had attempted.
It was a nice little funny memory that she’d treasure, it was after all the moment he ‘woke up’ from his infatuation.
She started the video over and shook her head while smiling.
Sam and Freddie were in the studio with Hammy, the date in the corner told her it was on the last day of April that it took place. The video continued with Hammy rolling around crazily, limbs flying around like Sam when she dances. Freddie was laughing really hard while dangling his fingers above the pup while Sam mimicked his antics, rolling on her back and looking like she was righting off something invisible. It was a special little moment that they thought no one knew about.
She felt kind of skeevy for spying on them in their intimate moments but she needed hard evidence, which had stacked up over the months. Who knew that her plans would work so well?
She smiled even bigger as Sam started to make weird squeaky noises at the back of her throat. For some strange reason Hammy was selective with the sounds that bothered him. The name ‘Jessica’ freaked him out, especially when pronounced ‘Jess-cah’ in a high pitch voice. He jumped to his feet and leaned into his front paws, like he planned to pounce onto her face as he growled playfully at her. Sam covered her face with her hands while continuing to move around and make noises. This really got him going and he started nibbling on her hands that still remained on her face. She peeked through and he looked happy for a moment and then she squeaked again and he started moving back and forth in front of her face.
Carly turned it off and sighed, they were so cute together when they weren’t being snippy or hurtful. It hadn’t been so current lately and Sam even seemed to be giving in, slightly. She wouldn’t tell that to her friend though and pretend she didn’t notice a thing.
Deciding it was time to actually get out of bed; she yawned and stretched before allowing her bare feet to come in contact with the frozen ground.
Sam frowned as she tried to focus all her attention on this recipe that was sent to her a week before. Some fan wanted the iCarly gang to try foods from their countries, mainly breakfast. The details were a bit sketchy and required patience; which she was steadily losing. Normally she would be up for cooking but she’d been up for hours and was still tired from the night before.
Freddie had insisted that they go have some of the most amazing cupcakes in Seattle, at nine at night. It was completely random and didn’t make any sense at the time. He busted in and looked really excited about something. He spotted her, since she was the only one downstairs at that time and came over to her.
His excitement didn’t die, even when she told him that he was being even ‘nubbier’ than usual. The joy on his face was almost contagious because she cracked a small smile and he pounced on his heels and kept trying to convince her to come with him. He wouldn’t say where or why, just that he needed to take her, at that very moment.
Yeah it did sound that dirty at the time and she had a good laugh with herself as she sat in his car, while he shook with excitement. It was just scary and it almost seemed like he’d injected something that ‘hyped’ him up. It was just like the first time that he had coffee, except he went overboard and was a mess for days.
This reminded her of that but she kept it to herself as they arrived at their destination.
Cupcakes.
That’s right; the crazy dweeb drove her thirty minutes from home to get cupcakes, in the middle of the night.
She shook her head at the memory and went back to the breakfast she’d been working on for hours. It was from some guy from Turkey and the dish was called ‘Burek’ or something like that. It took her a while because of the dough, which was ‘foreign’ to her. She laughed at her horrible pun. Surprisingly enough it was also found in the Arab culture, which was how she intended to make it. Her stomach told her to make something meaty with potatoiness. That’s right potatoiness.
Once she’d fried up the dough and cooked up everything all that was left was the assembly.
Sighing she cut up the large creation and started placing it on plates as she heard Carly coming down the stairs. Spencer was still in his room, sleeping most likely.
Freddie and Sam had decided to do a much needed ‘Wake Up Spencer’ since they hadn’t done one in months. This of course happened hours after Freddie ate a bunch of cupcakes and was on a sugar high. He was immune to anything she said the entire time. She tried every insult under the sun but got nothing in return, he was just so giddy that nothing could bring him down. She thought this until he hit his ‘crashing’ point and sluggishly worked his way into her bedroom and passed out. She lay down with him for a while and then woke up at eight to try out the recipe. She had a bunch of others that she needed to try as well.
She found herself looking down at him that morning, when she woke up and smiling despite her better judgment. Her lips found his forehead and she planted a gentle peck there. No one would ever know it but she’d have it in her memory bank as long as she lived. She wasn’t known for showing any sort of ‘affection’ of that nature. In fact someone once said that she was ‘afraid of affection’. That wasn’t the case at all but she’d never correct anyone. She just chose the persons who got to receive her affection.
Speaking of which, he should have been up already, he had made sure to disappear before she even cracked an eye open. What was surprising was that Mrs. Benson hadn’t broken down the door, looking for her precious son.
Her suspicious nature was starting to kick in, as well as the caffeine that she’d tanked down that morning.
“Morning.” Carly grinned at her as she grabbed a mug and got herself some coffee. Sam couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at her ‘best friend’ who seemed way too happy. Maybe she was being way to paranoid but something was definitely up with Carly.
Her brunette friend had been a nervous wreck the past week and then bam she’s all sunshine and sprinkles. Where did that make any sense?
She remembered Carly going on a rant about how she wouldn’t get into that journalism school and then she’d have to become a hobo. It went on for minutes, which felt like hours until she got tired and went to bed.
“Yeah, what are you up to?” Sam asked shifting her eyes over to her best friend who continued to sip lightly on her coffee, seeming to try very hard to look innocent.
“Nothing, why?” her voice rose a little and Sam wasn’t in the mood to even get into it with the girl. “I’m just looking forward to getting my rejection letters is all.” she laughed a little crazily as her mug started to shake in her hands.
“You’ll get into your dream school and be fine, chill Shay.” Sam sighed and shook her head as Carly sat down to start eating.
“What’s this one?” she asked, after tasting some interesting things the past few days.
“Burek, it’s some sort of ‘pastry’ except that you can also make it with meat and potatoes.” she shrugged and began to munch on her own meal.
It wasn’t until the fourth bite that a tousled Freddie came downstairs looking as though he’d walked through a hurricane. He grumbled something incoherent and went straight for the coffee, but was stopped by Sam who shook her head and set a hard glare on him. He glared right back and went to try and go for the coffee again but she pushed him and he fell to the ground. It was easy to tell that he was getting annoyed as he stood up and nudged her out of the way with his shoulder.
“You didn’t just do that did you?” her voice went down a few octaves and she got within range and pushed him down again, this time with more force than before.
“What the hell, Sam?” he snapped at her and for a second she wondered where all this was coming from. He wasn’t this bad when he got over his coffee crash.
“You can’t just go for the coffee after all that sugar you had last night.”
Carly hadn’t been awake for whatever they were talking about but her mind went straight to the gutter.
“Should I be worried about the sugar Freddie had last night?” Carly giggled and took a nice gulp of coffee.
“Shay, that’s just…” Sam looked like she was about to rip out her hair and explode all at once. Her face lit up brightly with embarrassment. The very idea of that was just scary. She’d never admit that to anyone but that was the last thing she wanted at the moment. “I….you….just…” she couldn’t seem to for a decent sentence nor did she notice Freddie sneak up to the coffee machine and get himself a nice steaming cup of coffee.
“Wow Sam I didn’t know you could actually blush like that. Maybe I should bring up ‘it’ more often.” she grinned and put the last of her breakfast into her mouth. “Well I’m going to take a shower.” Carly stood and practically skipped off upstairs. Freddie didn’t seem at all phased by what Carly had said and just continued to drink the coffee in his hands.
She didn’t even bother to take it away from him, he’d learn soon enough.
Hammy trotted over after all the nonsense was over and tugged at Sam’s sock with his mouth.
“You’re finally awake too?” she gave the pup a bored look but he didn’t seem bothered by it as his tail began to wag. He’d grown over the past few weeks and now came up to the middle of her lower leg. “I already put food in your bowl, go eat.” she pointed to the bowl sitting in the kitchen and then went flop onto the couch.
Freddie seemed to perk right up after he finished off his coffee but Sam wasn’t in the mood to deal with the nub. He came over and plopped himself down as well, she ignored him the whole time, as Girly Cow played reruns on the television.
He frowned at her as she continued to watch television as if he weren’t there at all. This went on for a good ten minutes until he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Why are you ignoring me?” he was getting kind of annoyed with her by this point. “What’s your problem this morning?”
“Shut up, would ya?” she snapped out without taking her eyes from the television.
Without an answer he got up and left the Shay’s apartment. Sam was mildly surprised that he actually left. She’d grown used to him just sticking around and taking her attitude, but obviously he wasn’t in the mood either to deal with it.
Sighing she laid down and attempted to banish the weird feelings building up in the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t disappointed at all that he left, no not at all. This was what would become of them once he was off in California or Boston or even Canada. She had no clue where he planned to go; she always avoided the conversations when he and Carly would bring it up. She wasn’t prepared to tell the two that a few schools wanted her Physics brain at their school. It was a once in a lifetime deal, who knew if it would be there in a few years. It made choosing between that and the school she’d signed up for in Seattle difficult.
Then there was a few culinary schools she’d signed up for and went through all the proper channels, but they hadn’t sent her rejection letters in so she just kept her place at Seattle’s best culinary arts school. She just assumed they’d reject her and her dreams to become a master in the kitchen.
These musings would have gone on for quite a while, if not for the loud scream that erupted from across the hall. The shrill anguish-filled voice of Mrs. Benson could be felt through the walls. All that was heard was “Fredward Benson!” followed by a scream and then a thud, like something heavy had fallen over.
She sat up quickly and found herself rushing to the door, only to be met by Spencer, who was wearing only boxers and Carly who was in a robe.
The trio went next door, not bothering to knock at all. They found a shirtless Freddie bent over his mother, trying to get her to wake up.
Carly and Spencer at first hadn’t taken notice to the ink on Freddie’s back until he made a movement.
“Oh my gosh, what is that on your back?” Carly gasped out, eyes bulging, body frozen in a strange position.
Freddie froze for a moment and then stood up while he mother mumbled, coming to.
“Way to go Freddo!” Spencer grinned, with very enthusiastic thumbs up.
Sam on the other hand didn’t look as shocked, but it went unnoticed by her two companions. Freddie laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.
“When did you get that thing?” Carly looked kind of put off, like she was meeting Freddie for the first time. It was almost like she was seeing him in a new light, like Fred Benson had finally returned to ‘bad boy town’. It was a pretty interesting tattoo as well.
The first thing you noticed was the medium sized shield, which dominated most of the tattoo. Above it was a fencing mask, much like a knight’s helmet on a family crest. The entire shield piece was nothing but a detailed microchip. It was just so Freddie that it was laughable, if not for the fact that it looked amazingly done. To add to his ‘technical’ ways, he had what looked like phone cords, but larger swirling around like a snake would. In fact that’s what it sort of looked like, two Ethernet cords with snake characteristics creating a border around the crest. The final touch was the fencing swords, which looks as though they were dug deep into the flesh. They created a crisscross design on either side of the shield and exited out the bottom part.
There was also something written in it but it was too small to make out from far away, but it looked like a name or a word.
Carly had to remind herself that this was Freddie, who was by no means a boy of interest to her. It was just shocking to see it there on his back, something she thought she would never witness. Best friends were allowed to admire how ‘badboy’ it was to get a nice sized tattoo on his back.
“I still can’t believe you got that.” Sam shook her head while smiling, her arms crossed over her chest.
“You liked it before when…” he stopped himself, blushing ten different shades of red. He could see her getting a little flush as well and a bit angry.
“What was that, Fredward?” Mrs. Benson snapped crazily, springing to life. She jumped to her feet and towered over him with a deadly glare set in.
“Uh…nothing…I was just…nothing….” he stuttered out backing up a little.
Her attention turned to the other people in the room and they all flinched. The look on her face was nothing they’d ever seen before, especially on Mrs. Benson’s crazy face. Her eyes were wide while the left side twitched, her mouth set in a disgusted scowl, the lip on the left also twitching. It was a sight to see, but not when you were the target of its steady glare.
“You did this!” she pointed a finger at Carly, who looked dumbfounded by this. She glanced to her left and right at Spencer and Sam, who looked just as surprised. “You told me I should give him more space, that it would make things less stressful, now look at what he’s done!” she shrieked like a banshee. “I can’t believe I even took advice from you young lady!” she was breathing heavy now while everyone else looked at Carly in confusion.
“I…” Carly wasn’t sure what she should say to that.
“Carly.” started the blond “Why’d you want to give Freddork more time to himself for?” Sam asked suspiciously raising an eyebrow at her best friend.
“I figured that he’d like a break for a year from having his mom all up in his snowflakes.” Carly blurted out throwing her limbs around her in a crazy fashion. Her friends and her sibling looked at her as if asking ‘snowflakes’? She shrugged as Mrs. Benson kept her gaze lock on the younger Shay.
“Well I guess that didn’t work now did it. My son is a hooligan! A delinquent! Just look at that disgusting mess on his back!” she ranted on with hand gestures. “We’re going back to that doctor and having it removed this instant!” she turned her eyes back to a shirtless Freddie who looks nervous, embarrassed and ready to implode in on himself.
“Mom!” he half whined half yelled out, flabbergasted. “I’m not going to get it removed!” he stated in his ‘I mean business’ voice. Mrs. Benson’s facial expression changed dramatically. She looked like she was about to cry as she turned her complete attention to her son. He didn’t look too menacing without a shirt on, but still seemed to deliver the right effort to his mother.
“Yo, Benson, why are you running around the house without a shirt on? No one wants an eyeful of that.” snorted Sam smirked at his still red face. She really didn’t mind the view she had at the moment. She never noticed the small bulges in his biceps. It wasn’t very noticeable to the naked eye but she knew they were there. She had felt them for herself when they’d ‘play fight’.
“Oh yes you are, you practically defaced your body young man!” cut in Mrs. Benson, ignoring the comment made by Sam.
Something inside Freddie clicked together and he found his spine somewhere, probably in his mother’s grasp. He practically ripped it from her and placed it back where it belonged.
“No, I’m not. I wanted it and I love it, so I’m keeping it!” he yelled back at her, surprised by the fact that he’d done so.
She stood up from her hunched position and looked on wide-eyed at the young man before her. Not only did she see more of his father then that moment but also a stronger and confident Freddie. The combination was stifling and she knew that he wouldn’t bend to her will this time.
“Are you trying to put me into an early grave?” she pouted losing all posture again, looking defeated.
“What, no mom, I just don’t want to get something that I care about, removed. I took the time to design it and make it perfect. I’m not going to destroy it because you disapprove. If you love me then you’ll accept it and move on.” he had a set face on and she looked him in the eyes and sighed.
“Fine, but I don’t want to see it.” she told him glaring.
“Then knock before you barge into my room.” he rolled his eyes and went back inside his room to put a clean shirt on.
Bored by the events that transpired, Sam turned around and headed back across the hall, Hammy who had stayed right at the door started to dance around her feet as she entered.
“You ready to start the day?” she didn’t sound as peppy as she would have liked but it didn’t extinguish his excitement. She remembered not to utter the words he knew so well, ‘Bath time’. He detested baths with a passion. She made the mistake of saying it once and had to go chasing after him for an hour around the house. Freddie had assisted her at that time, managed to get him to come out of his hiding place with a piece of ham and the promise of ‘going outside’ which he seemed to love to do.
All it would take was a ‘Who wants to go outside?’ He’d come running, leaping and tugging to get there. After that she’d decided to just scoop him up before he became wise to her intentions.
Once he was in her arms she made her way to the downstairs bathroom near Spencer’s room. His doggy soup and such items were all there waiting for them. She made sure to close the door so he couldn’t escape and started up the water, picking a lukewarm temperature that suited Hammy.
With many slips and attempted escapes pretty soon there was a clean and wet Hammy outside the bathtub. She grabbed the biggest towel she could and began to dry him off while he wiggled underneath, trying to self dry. When he managed to get out of her hands he shook his whole body causing water to splash all over her, like she’d walked through the rain.
She gasped and looked offended by his actions and he began to get into ‘play-fight’ position. With his tail up in the air and his head low to the ground he started to growl, wagging his whole butt, waiting for her to make her first move.
“Don’t even think about it Hams.” she warned squinting her right eye at him. He began to make a sound that was a cross between a bark and a whine. “No.” she told him shaking her head. He started to move back and forth on the floor with his tail still in the air.
Just as she was about to tell him ‘no’ again the bathroom door opened and he shot out of the bathroom yipping in victory at his sudden escape. The person accused of the prisoners escape looked confused standing there in all his striped shirt glory.
Freddie looked scared, like he’d just met up with a tiger right before meal time.
“Wait…Sam…I’m sorry…I thought…you…you know….needed help…” he stuttered, he’d done that twice so far that day. It was barely noon and he was already a stuttering mess.
“Now I’ve got a wet dog on the loose!” she pushed past him and started after Hammy. “Get back here you little demon!” she yelled shaking her fist in the airs as a wet Hammy zoomed past her and into Spencer’s room. He proceeded to jump up on the bed and flip on his back, rolling about in a spastic happy puppy mode.
Once he saw her enter, with Freddie behind her he perked up and darted out of the room, under their legs.
“I can’t believe he’s doing this again!” cried out Freddie turning around and running out of the room after the little demon.
“It’s your fault you know. You could have knocked first.” she gave him smug look as she joined him in the living room. Hammy was rolling on the carpet at this point.
The two didn’t even bother to wonder what happened to the Shay’s who hadn’t come back from the earlier incident. Even his mother didn’t bother poking her head in.
Once they both took opposite sides, surrounding him in front of the television, they moved closer slowly. He seemed aware of their plan but didn’t make a move to get away.
The pair gave each other the signal to tackle the pup and followed through. What they weren’t expecting was that Hammy was waiting for them to do it and darted toward the coffee table as the two crashed into one another. Freddie was the one to collide with Sam first, landing on top of her.
They froze, looking at one another, Freddie’s legs tangled in hers.
“We really need to stop ending up in situations like this. People are going to start thinking there’s something going on.” he joked, only being able to see his bright chocolate eyes. Speaking of chocolate, that hair of his wasn’t helping her out either, it led her mind to naughty thoughts of a Freddie dipped in chocolate.
“You have amazing eyes…” he muttered not turning his eyes away from hers.
She looked thoughtful for a moment, as though the words he had spoken meant something to her.
He brought his hand up and brushed away her bangs from her eyes and smiled the most beautiful smile she’d ever seen on another human being. It was almost heartbreaking to see all that untapped love in his eyes. The sight of it was blinding and intense, her heart couldn’t take it as it beat hard, trying to escape its bone cage.
The reactions that she got from the supposed ‘dork’ weren’t normal. Then again they could never be normal when it came to ‘love’. The two would always find a bump in the road and they’d have to find a way to compromise or fail.
She wasn’t going to give in though. She told herself that she’d at least let him go. It wouldn’t be too hard; she didn’t really have him anyways to give away like some prize. She also would never admit it out loud but he was special, she could clearly see that. Maybe she’d always known it, no, she had always known. Even in the days when she wanted to dislike him for just existing on the same planet as her. Even in the beginning she could lie to everyone but herself. She learned though that Fredward Benson was a stubborn boy, even when it came to friendship. He was far too difficult to give up on anything he put his mind to. She only saw it as another ‘fight’ for them, a constant struggle they went though. He’d pull and she’d push, though he still had a firm grasp.
She saw it a new challenge that she’d easily overcome. But if the end result was a broken-hearted Freddie, could she really do it? Her favorite past-time was once to torture the nub until he broke, but that was before she realized that she actually cared about him. It was foreign for her to put her own heart out on the line and take another’s in to care for. She had a short list of people who had all of her, even then there were restrictions.
Freddie didn’t know how much of her heart was already his; he probably would never know it either. The words wouldn’t leave her lips and trail off into his ears, they were hers to keep.
But he’d have her heart for as long as she lived, even if it sounded cheesy and overly done. It might not have been ‘her’ to hold such feelings toward another human being but that was just it, she was a human being who knew what actual feelings were. That didn’t change the fact that she was as tough as nails and would take you down if you stepped a toe out of line. But this dorky guy who wasn’t so much a dork anymore managed to remind her that she was in fact a female with feelings, other than her usual brand of emotions.
It was good thing there weren’t any mind readers around to invade her thoughts. Pushing all of it aside she came back to reality, it felt like hours passed, but they were only a few seconds, maybe even minutes. Freddie’s big brown eyes were still looking at her and she could feel a slight tug on her lips, which she tried to fight off. She refused to smile up at him like a lovesick teenage girl, refused!
“Get up would ya?” she snipped out, her hands on his chest, pushing on it.
His smile didn’t vanish though, but got bigger as she attempted to get out from under him, again. They couldn’t have a normal relationship. Wait, not a relationship, friends-with-benefits, but even that sounded stupid in her mind. He seemed to have realized how ‘uncomfortable’ she felt having him that close to her and moved his hands a little so that he was holding her head in his hands.
“You know, I like you like this…” he mumbled looking into her eyes still, smiling wistfully.
“Huh?” she was truly confused by his statement and the way that he was looking down at her. She never thought a boy or male would ever look at her the way that he always seemed to, even when she made him mad and a little crazy at times.
“Stunned…” he smirked and she found herself glaring up at him. “And my other favorite part of you is back…” he laughed and took off some of his body weight from her person.
“I find that hard to believe you nub.” she frowned looking off to the side, not wanting to meet his eyes. He was momentarily distracted by her sudden aversion so she flipped him off of her. This only caused Hammy to come over to them and attempt to break up the fight by getting involved. It made no sense to her why he thought that if he bit them they’d stop fighting. The dog had issues.
“Ah! Hammy, no not that!” cried Freddie, still on his back. Sam had managed to put some distance between them and gather herself. Why’d he have to go and say crap like that for? Was he just doing it to mess with her mind, like some stupid teenage boy.
Then it dawned on her, he was a stupid teenage boy.
Something else was brought to the forefront of her mind; Carly and Spencer were nowhere to be seen. Even Mrs. Benson hadn’t come in to continue her crazy rant.
Looking around she found that the apartment was eerily quiet and the door was closed shut. Freddie must have done so when he showed up.
“Yo, Fredduccini Alfredo, where’s Carls and Spence?”
He paused, holding onto Hammy who continued to nibble on Freddie’s long-sleeved shirt.
“They said they had to go somewhere.” he stated looking bored by their conversation and shrugged. “Didn’t say where and then they left. My mom stormed off into her room before they left and she locked the door.”
“I don’t know what to even think about what happened over there.” she shook her head. “So they didn’t say where they were going?”
“Nope. They said they’d be back in an hour though.” He returned his attention the Hammy who demanded to be paid attention to.
If it were at all possible Carly Shay was elated by the envelops gripped tightly in her hand. It might have been a little odd that she was excited over the possibility of getting rejected by any of the schools she’d applied to. For someone like Carly that thought in itself should have been sending her over the edge into crazyville. But she held onto the very thick envelop with her name and address printed on it, with Syracuse’s logo printed nicely in the corner.
She just knew that inside her whole future would be set, her dreams were only a tear away. It was around five that Saturday afternoon when she found herself back at home. The morning events still ran through her mind, which brought an even bigger smile to her face. Everything was going according to plan and even her conspirator managed to up-play their role well.
From the video feed she’d watched earlier she felt like the randomness of that scene was worth it. Her two best friends were none the wiser. It’s how she liked them, clueless and walking right into her little traps. When she thought about it she sounded almost like a villain in a really cheesy superhero movie. She wasn’t the villain though; she was doing this for their own good as well as for mankind. No other human being should have to suffer with either of her friends; they should suffer happily with one another.
With a skip in her step she walked into the loft/apartment, who knew anymore. Sam was nowhere to be seen and Spencer was also gone, said something about meeting up with Socko, hours previous. Though Sam did state that Roger wanted to take her out for some lunch and just to hang, which seemed to make the brunette even happier, if that were at all possible. Sam finally had a chance at a normal relationship with one of her parents.
What she noticed though when she got to the island was that there were two envelops for Sam. One was really thin, with hard to read cursive on the corner. The other was very thick and had a symbol on it. She could clearly read what it said on the front, the place in which it had come from.
Sam was holding out on her, avoiding ever talking about school, but this was proof that something else was up. She didn’t want to pry into her friends’ mail so she pushed the thoughts away and decided to put it up in her room for her.
Freddie sighed as he flipped through Sam’s Physic’s textbook, the pages were worn and some were marked with bent corners. Even if he thought about it over and over it still wouldn’t sink in, Sam Puckett was a crazy Physics lover. The question was how and why? What had caused her to love something that was so unlike her?
Nothing in it caught his attention so he put it back on her night stand and flopped back onto her bed, which smelled of her. He always used to assume that she didn’t shower regularly or follow normal society’s views on hygiene, he was dead wrong. The girl smelled amazing. Then again she just might smell good to specifically him.
He read somewhere about how some people give off a scent just for another person. Did Sam have that same reaction to his scents? Something like the scent of cherry lollipops shouldn’t send him into a dizzy hazed trip into Samland. But he was there and practically swimming in it, everything seemed brighter whenever he was in her room.
As he sighed and sat up he heard a weird crinkling noise come from the mattress. Curiously he got off the bed and bent down on the right side of the bed and found a manila folder poking out. It was nicely squished between the mattress and the box spring, as though it were being hidden.
After he lifted the mattress a bit he was able to pull it out and allow the mattress to fall back into place. Some part of his cranium told him not to intrude upon Sam’s privacy, she didn’t want anyone to find out about whatever was inside, but curiosity got the better of him.
Plopping his butt onto the bed he got comfortable and laid it down on top of the comforter. The bed was made, due to his need to keep things clean, especially in her room. She told him to leave her bed alone or he’d have to leave. So he did as she asked until she left with Hammy, then he made the bed, smirking the entire time.
The entire thing was filled with applications to some of the most prestigious schools in the United States. Not only that, but there was already acceptance letters attached. As if the schools just wanted to follow protocol and have her ‘apply’. It was a huge eye-opener to Freddie as he read each one, coming to the realization that each wanted her because of her intense love for Physics. He wondered though for a moment how they all knew about that if no one else in her life did.
She had a few sticky notes attached to some of them and even on the inner side of the manila folder.
‘This looks interesting, they have a culinary arts school close by’ one said that was attached to ‘Harvard’. Another that was attached to the same application said ‘Might consider, close enough to Syracuse, can visit Carls on the weekends’.
These made him smile one; because she already figured that Carly got into her dream college and two; because she was still thinking about culinary arts school.
Then it all seemed to sink in, as he read the rest of the sticky notes.
On the few for California she had in jet-black marker ‘Fredweird might go to these school’ and ‘I can’t go here if Freddork is’.
She planned to get as far from him possible, even if that meant going to Massachusetts. She just assumed he’d be going to Berkeley, because he once loved mathematics as much as she loved Physics. But what she didn’t know was that his dreams changed and he wished to pursue film school. He just never felt the need to share this with his two friends, may as well let them assume what they wanted.
When the thought that she wanted to put distance between them really sunk in he felt like someone had cut off his oxygen. It was like someone told him that the sun and moon decided to swap jobs and the moon was in charge most of the time. That whole thought didn’t even make sense in his mind.
The point of his thought process was that Sam had it in her mind still that she’d be a burden on him. Her plan became quite clear to him as he sat there looking at all the schools she approved of, in Massachusetts. What she hadn’t realized was that she unknowingly chose the one place he’d hoped to end up as well. He applied to a few film schools and hoped to get into Boston University for film study.
With a smirk he closed the manila and placed it back into its hiding place. Just as he fell onto the bed Carly entered and was surprised to see him there.
“Hey Freddie.” she said with a surprised smile. “I didn’t know you were still here.” she looked at him suspiciously.
“Yeah, I didn’t feel like going home until my mom leaves for work night.” he shrugged and continued to look up at the ceiling. The smile on his face said ‘I win’ and Carly seemed to notice this, but kept it to herself. Whatever had Freddie happy, she’d find out later when he did something.
“I was just bringing up Sam’s mail, I’m tempted to just read them.” she laughed. She placed them on the table and was about to leave when she stopped at the opening and looked over her shoulder at him. “You know what?” she asked looking thoughtful.
“What?” he asked sitting up.
“We haven’t gone down the Groovy Smoothie in a while, what do you say? We don’t just hang out anymore.” she smiled sadly.
He jumped up off the bed and headed towards her.
“Let’s do this.” he nodded with a serious look on his face, as though they were about to embark on an epic mission. She fought the urge to roll her eyes as they headed toward the elevator and down to the lobby.
Carly couldn’t remember the last time that she’d just hung out with Freddie on his own. With the stresses of the new year of high school along with the events over the past few months it seems like ages.
“It’s so great that we’re doing this.” Carly grinned at her male best friend in the elevator.
“Seriously, we need a good hang out session. We hardly get to see you as it is.”
She pouted at his statement and looked off into the distance, which wasn’t much considering that they were inside of the elevator. She should have felt a little guilty over the fact that she’d been keeping her distance over the course of six months. There was no guilt though, not when her reasons were for her two dearest friends. They couldn’t know this of course and by chance she met David as well and he managed to take up a chunk of her time as well.
“Hey.” started Freddie, realizing something. “Did you open it?” he smirked over at her.
She wondered if he was picking up some of Sam’s mischievous nature, with the way he kept smirking. He had grown up a lot, that she could see and it was all thanks to Sam, in her opinion.
“Not yet, I’m going to wait until later, when Sam and I can open them together.” she grinned as the stepped off the elevator. “Did you get yours yet?”
“Yeah I got mine yesterday.” he shrugged.
“Well?” she prodded waiting for an answer.
“What?” he wanted to laugh as they bypassed a sleeping Lewbert and made it outside the Bushwell Plaza. She always got impatient when she wanted an answer from someone.
“Did you get into Berkeley?”
The question made he want to laugh, but he held it in, Carly also knew that he used to want to go to Berkeley, they had an amazing mathematics department where might have excelled.
“Nope.” he smirked again and just rolled her eyes. This was going to be hard to get used to, a Freddie who was more confident and bold. He was still a spaz though and constantly did things that remaindered why he wasn’t for her, but they made the greatest best friends.
“You are going to tell me, right?” she poked his side and he wiggled from her reach as the headed across the street.
“Maybe.” he smiled.
Sam grinned as she stood next to Roger in line. She couldn’t believe that they were going to do this. Of course he brought along one of his ‘assistants’ who were really interns to watch Hammy. She made sure to warn the guy that if anything happened to Hammy that he’d find out why she was arrest multiple times in fact, his kids would feel it as well. Hammy was important to her and she realized that it was almost like having a kid, except that he liked steals Spencer’s socks and laying on them.
She glanced over at Oliver, who was a pretty scrawny guy who had a nice hold on Hammy’s leash. He looked nervous that he’d mess up but Sam had also given Hammy specific instructions to stay put and to be good.
Hammy yipped when she looked over and she grinned at him and bobbed her head side to side. She cold tell from her place in line that his tail was wagging happily.
“You ready for this one?” he asked finishing off he ice cream cone.
Roger had promised to take her to Fun Forest Amusement Park, since neither of them had ever gone before. Sam had always wanted her mom to take, like a normal family would do on the weekends but it never came up. Once her mom agreed to go but told her they’d go another time, it never happened.
“Oh yeah, the Orbiter is so going down!” Sam did a little happy dance while they moved to the rope, finally reaching their destination.
She raised her head up toward the green beast known as the Orbiter. It looked like a robotic octopus from where she was standing. Yet she was actually excited about going on it. They stood there watching it about three times while in line.
“You ready old man?” she jabbed dancing past the guy collecting tickets for the ride. Roger handed over four to him and joined his overly excited daughter. As they waited for the ride to start up the just sat there staring at each other with excited grins on their faces. Roger reached over to strap her in even though she could do it herself and secured it.
“So are you going to tell me what you decided yet?” they had been talking on their way to the Fun Forest Amusement Park as well as the past week or so about what her teacher had done.
Since he wasn’t involved with her friends she felt like she could tell him about the whole ‘university’ thing.
“Kind of, I just don’t think I can do it all, you know?” she was being quite candid with him and it almost took him by surprise. He kept his cool though and just nodded. “I got a letter in the mail last week about that school I was planning on going to here but it fell through. I guess they filled up their roster. So now I’ve got to wait for a bunch of other schools, just to see if I’ll get into any of those.”
“What if you don’t end up getting into a culinary arts school?”
“Then I guess I’m going to have to just accept Harvard’s offer and go there.”
“You make it sound like it’s a death sentence.” he laughed. “Harvard is a really good school after all.”
“But it’s not for me though. I mean it’s great and all that I got in but can you see me at some fancy-for-the-rich-kids school?”
“Actually I can.” he grinned as the machine started up and they were off.
Once off the ride and laughing their heads off they headed back toward Oliver who seemed calmer. It appeared that Hammy had done as he was told and didn’t move.
Sam snatched up the leash from Oliver and told him to go on a few of the rides. Her dad walked along side her as they searched for something to snack on.
“Do you really think so?” she asked after about five minutes of silence between them; Roger stuffing his face with cotton candy. He looked over at her and looked confused for a moment.
“Huh?”
“You said you can see me at a school like that.” she reminded him.
“Yeah I can.” he nodded and finished off his treat.
Hammy pulled them along the concession stands as Sam took in the words her father had stated.
“Why?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking as the sun started to head closer to the horizon. The skies were turning a cool orange color as well as light fluffy pinks.
“Because you can pretty much do anything you put your mind to. Why not show the world that you are more than some abrasive girl? You don’t have to live up to everyone else’s expectations other than your own. I know that you’ll do what makes you happy.”
Sam stopped walking which caused Hammy to trot over to her legs and stare up at her in confusion. Roger turned from his position a foot away and raised an eyebrow.
“I…how can you…” she looked really lost and confused while her wide eyes stared into his.
“How can I what?”
To say he was confused by her would be an understatement. He was just plain floored at that point. The look on her face was odd to see there, given that it was Sam, the girl he’d had months to get to know and they really had bonded. Yet she made sure to protect herself from being hurt. He’d already made that mistake once and it cost him the world. It just amazed him that she was letting him in slowly and trusting him with things that she wouldn’t even tell her best friend. They had fun together just hanging out or joking around. She was coming around though and she even considered him her father on some level, it touched him greatly to have that little piece of knowledge.
“How can you just believe in me when I don’t even believe in myself most times?” she managed to say, with an embarrassed blush creeping along her cheeks.
“Because I love you…” he also looked kind of embarrassed but not because of what he said. He meant it and he wasn’t going to take it back.
Her head fell forward a bit and she looked down at Hammy who’s big eyes were still locked onto hers. A small smile started to form and then she looked back up at her dad who was still looking at her with a look of confusion.
“Let’s get going old man, I promised Spencer I’d cook dinner tonight.”
“Is that an invitation?” he asked followed after her, still a bit shocked by the moment they had just had.
“Duh.” she rolled her eyes smiling as they headed to his little car. It wasn’t until they were at the light that they realized they forgot Oliver.