


Alphabets

by doggodess04



Category: iCarly
Genre: Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-01-12
Updated: 2011-04-27
Packaged: 2013-07-27 04:14:20
Rating: T
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,264
Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
Story URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4788760/1/
Author URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1172178/doggodess04
Summary: Freddie's always believed in alphabets and their dependency. Watch as he figures out that somethings are just meant to be. Seddie all the way!





	1. Chapter 1

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Disclaimer: Don't own it!!

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AN: It's a three shot that will probably be moved up to a T rating. Hope you enjoy!

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Fredward Benson sighed as he opened the dusty old textbook. That amazing smell, the one that only comes to you in a library when surrounded by dozens of books that contain knowledge and wisdom, came bursting out from between the pages. He fought the urge to move his nose closer to the book and just smell it.

He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the smell and reached down to his laptop carrier, or as Sam had 'affectionately' termed it, his man purse of dorkiness. He scoffed at the thought of Sam and brought out his essential utensils. He laid them on the right hand side of his book in alphabetical order.

It was one thing he mother had drilled into him. Everything had to be in alphabetical order. Even as he began to re-arrange the utensils, starting with eraser and ending with sharpener, he thought about his insane attraction to the alphabet. It was also one of the secret reasons behind his attraction to Carly. Her name began with a C, and the very next letter was an A! It amused him to no end when he first met her, and the realization that together, her first name coupled with his last name would be two consecutive alphabet letters in reverse sealed the deal.

It also helped that she was pretty, smart, caring and-

No. He was not going down that road again. He refused to let himself fall in love with Carly Shay again, especially since he finally managed to convince all those around him that the stupid crush was over. That was all that it was, a stupid silly--

_Thud. _The slamming of another book brought Freddie out of his musings with a jerk. He scowled, cursing the person for not only treating the library books with so little respect, but also for sending another wave of that heavenly scent his way. He groaned, realizing that there was no way he could fight it. He had to inhale it, just once.

He looked around, thankful for the fact that his cubicle was snuggled into a back corner. He checked to see if there was anyone around who could possibly make fun of his insane attraction to the scent of the musky old books.

Good.

The coast was clear, so he closed the book. He opened it once again, to a random page, and the scent came gushing out once again. He breathed in deeply before moving in. He inhaled once, let the scent settle over his senses and was about to inhale again when-

"Yo, Freddork, where's the book the Randy Jackson lover….." Sam stopped mid-way.

Freddie tried to sit up straight but it was of no use. Samantha Puckett had seen him in yet another moment of weakness.

He looked at her defiantly, as though daring her to make her move.

Her face was unreadable for all of two seconds before she burst into laughter.

He shrunk back into his chair and attempted to disappear into the wall, or the ground.

"God, Dork, I did not realize that books were your thing," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "And here I was, thinking you were crazy about Carly."

He attempted to make sense of what was happening, when the words flew out of his mouth.

"I saw a bug and didn't recognize it," he said shakily. Could she see through his lies as easily as she could give wedgies?

"So you attempted to inhale it," she smirked at him, still laughing. "God, that's just creepy, even for a geek like you."

"Look, Sam," he shot back. "This is already humiliating enough. Can you just tell me what it is that you wanted, so I can get back to my report?"

"Calm down there, Fredweird," she replied, holding up her hands in mock surrender. "But, I gotta ask, why on earth would you attempt to smell a book? They're old and dusty." She dragged out the 'dusty', making sure he was aware of her feelings on the subject.

Freddie winced at the utter bewilderment that seemed to be oozing from her. Ever since the 10th grade, she had stopped with the wedgies at ungodly hours of the day, as well as most of her violent tendencies towards him.

That didn't mean she stopped being verbally abusive.

He sighed once again before raising his eyes to meet hers.

"I like the smell," he said. "It clears my mind, and …it forces my mind away from things."

"And….." Sam pressed on. There was no way she knew that there could be more reasons behind his liking of books.

"That's it," he crossed his arms defiantly.

Sam laughed once more before she reached for a nearby stool and settled down on it. She leaned forward, ruffled his hair, and held it in her grip before looking him straight in the eye.

"Look, Bug Inhaler, just because you can lie to Carly's face easily doesn't mean you can do the same to me," she said tugging at his hair harder.

Ow. It seemed that the violent tendencies that had been thought to be locked away were just lying dormant.

Freddie attempted to drop his eyes from her gaze, but a strong tug at his head forced him to stay connected to her eyes.

"I like words," he said finally. "Alphabets, in general, actually. And every old book that I open has its own unique scent. I like smelling them."

He managed to drop his gaze from hers, and looked at the ground. Sam appeared to be frozen. She let go of the tuft of hair she had grabbed.

"Look, Benson," she said. "There is nothing wrong with being addicted to an unusual smell."

Freddie's eyes shot up to meet hers, looking to see if it was a prank. It wasn't. She looked like she meant it, she seemed sincere.

"Yes," there was the arrival of her sarcastic side! "I know what you mean, because I smell ham. It's nothing bad, just personal preference. I know Carly even smells socks."

She nodded her head, as though lost in deep understanding, and swung her legs upon his desk.

He scowled before shoving her legs off. She shot him a look that clearly told him to back off and he made no further verbal issues when she returned her legs to his desk.

On top of his beloved book. Her legs were on top of it. He couldn't prevent his eyes from twitching at the sight, and prayed that she would be merciful enough to remove her legs. She laughed again as she removed her legs and grabbed his pencil.

She stood up, twirled it between her fingers and left. Her voice echoed back to her in the library.

"Don't think this is the last of it Benson," stated her voice. "I'm sure the iCarly viewers would love to find out about your book smelling tendencies."

He shook his head as the library erupted into whispers. Sam was like that. She was unpredictable, a puzzle that no one in the world had a chance of putting together.

He allowed a small grin to touch his lips before shaking his head. He looked down at his desk, and realized that not only had she walked away, whistling, with his pencil, but also had scrambled up his perfectly made up essential utensils.

He let a small chuckle escape from his throat before picking up his pen that had rolled off to the side. He held it in his hands before setting it on top of his book.

Maybe somethings could afford to be different, he thought as he gazed at the pen.

If he thought it through completely, even though the pen could create some blots on the paper, it looked and made much more sense than being in alphabetical order.

Go figure.

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AN: it's in the process of being done, and it'll probably move along faster in the next two chapters. Review, and don't be afraid to trash me!!!lol

PS: Anyone care to be my beta reader?? I really wish that I had one......


	2. Chapter 2

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Disclaimer: Don't own it, any of it!!! Wish i did, but sadly do not!

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AN: I promised myself that I would not update the story until the weekend because I need to study, but then so many of you added it to your story alerts lists!!Darn you people!!! Although, please do take the time to review, i get hundreds of hits and visitors, but like 4 or 5 reviews :(...ENJOY!!

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Freddie stared at the clock, hoping that if he stared at it hard enough, it would magically signal the end of class. He stared a bit more, turning his stare into a glare.

He had always hated his English class because of his teacher, Mrs. Smith. She always seemed to be caught up in dreams, and his stomach could not digest her aloof and often dream-like habits. It did not matter if he had just come into the class; it always felt like he had been there for hours.

So caught up in his silent contest with the clock, Freddie did not notice the spitball sent flying his way. It made contact with the nape of his neck, and he broke out of his trance with a grimace.

He made a face as he wiped the ball off his neck and flung it on the ground. His eyes searched the room, scanning the faces of his peers in an attempt to find the culprit before resting on Sam.

Sam was one of Freddie's only friends in the class. Carly had decided to take Honors English, while he and Sam opted for Academic English.

Although Sam had a legitimate excuse for not having taken Honors, Carly still did not understand Freddie's decision. Neither could he, for that matter.

Sam sat at her desk near the window, head burrowed into her arms. She appeared to be sleeping, but he had a feeling that she had indeed been the one to gift him with a token of her appreciation.

Sam spit, all wrapped up in a paper ball.

He scowled at her when she raised her head and proved him right in his suspicion that she had not been sleeping. She quickly took out another ball of spit from her mouth as her eyes darted towards the teacher. Freddie watched in fascination out of the corner of his eye as she took out a straw, and loaded the spitball with ease and precision.

For once he was glad that she did not feel the need to surpass her peers in education. He knew that if she had, there was no way he, or Carly for that matter, would be able to retain their top spots in their class.

She was deadly, always knowing what to do, and what exactly needed to be done in order to conceive the greatest results. If she applied herself, he knew that there was no way anyone or anything would be able to stop her.

Mrs. Smith's voice droned on as she read a piece of literature to the class. This was one of Sam's favorite times of the class, because Freddie knew that Sam used this precious time to wreck havoc on unsuspecting students. If the student even had the courage to tell Mrs. Smith about Sam's behavior, there was often no evidence, nor any more witnesses.

Sam's reputation as a formidable enemy preceded her. Although she had stopped beating students up, she was still known as a prankster, whose pranks were often…..quite Sam-like.

Like the time she managed to hack into the school's website and send out word that the school had been closed due to an 'unforeseeable disaster' to every student except for one that had chosen to get on her bad side.

She then called up all of her aunts and uncles, redid the entire school to make it look like a circus, because of the victim's insane fear of clowns, and proceeded to scare the poor student. Rumor was that the student had an actual heart attack at the age of 15.

Sam did take the student to the hospital, but that 'prank' had been legendary, because she did the whole thing without the help of anyone. She did the school herself, and requested her family members to show up in clown suits.

Freddie waved his hand frantically, trying to catch Sam's eye. She finally locked gazes with him, her face clearly displaying her boredom.

Freddie narrowed his eyes and pointed angrily to his neck. Sam's lips twisted into a smirk and she just stared back. He pleaded as best as he could with only his eyes and frantic hand movements, as she looked silently on, as though appraising his request.

She finally sighed, and mouthed something to him. He tried to read her lips, and managed to make out the word 'Jonah'.

_Jonah, _he mouthed back, eyebrows high on his forehead. He could not figure out why Sam would want anything to do with her ex, even after all these years.

Sam slapped her head with her hand and pulled out the loaded straw, the risk of getting caught rising significantly. She made a show of fake blowing it, and then mouthed the word Jonah to him again.

Oh. Freddie felt stupid and chuckled silently. He gave her two thumbs up, to which she responded with a quick eye roll, and returned his attention to the front of the room.

Mrs. Smith seemed to be done with the book, and was now explaining their next assignment. Freddie struggled to make sense of what was coming of her mouth, when he felt the sticky goo on his neck again.

Without thinking of the consequences, he turned around to yell at Sam.

"Sam!" his voice interrupted Mrs. Smith's.

Sam's eyes were filled with mirth, and she had trouble controlling her laughter. Freddie was practically seething, ready to begin another one of their verbal fights, when he heard Mrs. Smith's quiet voice float back to his seat.

"Well, Freddie," her voice began.

"Since you seem so intent on working with Samantha on this project, then I guess I have no say in the matter."

Freddie's anger quickly turned into confusion mixed with a slight dab of pain as he turned back to the front so fast he nearly obtained whiplash.

"Huh," was all that he could manage.

"Now the two of you will be reviewing Friedrich Nietzsche," her voice continued, "The actual report that is to be a minimum of 12 pages must be on my desk in exactly 3 weeks. A Power Point will be expected the day the report is turned in," her eyes seemed to twinkle behind her owl glasses. Freddie thought that she seemed a bit too pleased with the idea of him and Sam working together.

Freddie could not understand how he had gotten into this mess. A project and presentation on a dead guy he did not know with Sam would equal nothing but hard work and frustration.

He lost the ability to speak coherently but attempted to give it a shot nonetheless.

"But….But….But…" his eyes searched the room frantically, looking for a substitute.

There was no one to bail him out.

"Now, since both Sam and Freddie are working with each other, we need to pair everyone else up." Mrs. Smith continued as though she hadn't heard Freddie's weak attempt. Shuffling feet and chairs being dragged drowned out her voice, and Freddie could do nothing but despair. Sam plopped down on the desk in front of him and smiled brightly.

He looked at her with dismay before rising to his feet. He quickly made his way through the crowd that was surrounding Mrs. Smith when he heard her voice ring out clear through the room again. He nearly made it to her, when something told him to look back at his seat.

He turned around and saw Sam sitting in the same desk with Jonah now occupying his seat. He appeared to be talking to her in a low voice, but Freddie could not tell. His right hand was grasping her left hand lightly and Sam appeared to be nodding to her ex's earnest talking.

Something clawed at Freddie on the inside, and he suddenly felt the need to head straight back to the desk, knock Jonah over, drag him to Carly's place and then re-attach him to the Wedgie Bounce.

That would teach him to go around messing with his friends, Freddie thought satisfactorily.

The feeling remained, and Freddie stood in the midst of the slowly disappearing crowd. He didn't even notice the crowd disappearing, or the smile that lit up Mrs. Smith's eyes as she observed Freddie's stance and his protectiveness over the girl that, at one point, he NEEDED protection from.

"Freddie," Mrs. Smith's gentle voice broke him out of his reverie.

Freddie's head turned toward her slowly.

"Is there anything you wanted to ask me," her voice pressed on.

He looked at her stupidly before making his decision. If he had to stay with Sam forever to keep her away from jerks like Jonah, then he would gladly do it. Even if it meant tons of work coming from his side, and a gigantic amount of patience, he would gladly step up to the plate.

He blinked two times rapidly before answering her.

"Yeah," he said. "Is there anything we can't use in our report?"

Mrs. Smith seemed to pause for a moment before answering, as though running over the list mentally.

"Well, first of all," she began. "No Wikipedia, but other than that, you may use any other sources."

Freddie nodded to her. "Thank you Mrs. Smith," he said as he turned around to leave.

"Oh, and Freddie," Mrs. Smith's voice stopped him again.

"The library has an extensive amount of books on the subject, and don't forget to take the sheet of paper with the instructions on it from my desk."

Freddie thanked her again, and made his way to her desk. He picked up the paper, and began his way back to his seat. Jonah seemed to have disappeared, and he sat down quickly before he could come back. He looked at Sam, who was picking some dirt from underneath her fingernails.

He noted with some happiness that she was picking at her left hand, which could only mean that she clearly knew that Jonah was nothing more than dirt.

He continued to stare at her hand, only to snap out of it with a snap of her fingers in front of his eyes.

"Jeez, Freddie," she said.

"Do you get turned on by hands as well as books," her sarcastic voice stated.

Freddie looked at her face, about to officially begin the fight that had been postponed unceremoniously by Mrs. Smith, when the bell rang.

"Well, as much as I love chatting with book-smelling, hand staring, bacterial underwear-wearing tech geeks, I really must go."

And with that, she disappeared through the doors, leaving Freddie alone.

He sighed before rubbing his head quickly with his fingertips in an effort to extinguish his oncoming headache.

He packed up his things, and was contemplating a visit to the nurse for some Tylenol, when his eyes once again strayed to Sam's seat. He scowled as he realized that she had left without her things, and made his way grumpily through the desks. He packed up her things as well, and headed out of the classroom.

He knew that Carly was probably waiting for him, so he hurried along, as best as he could, given the two heavy backpacks he was carrying.

He could not realize why he gave Sam all of these allowances. He set everything aside for her more than once, and she just did not seem to care. He scowled, pulling the backpacks tighter to his chest, and quickly made his way to his locker.

He opened it and quickly thrust Sam's backpack in after noting Carly's absence. He re-locked his locker, knowing perfectly well that Sam knew the combination and left for his math class.

Sam knew him, inside and out. Perhaps that was the reason, he contemplated. Maybe it was because Sam just knew him too well.

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AN 2: I love making two AN's :D!....anyways on the bright side, I've decided to make the entire story longer than its original 3 chapters! squeal for joy! I know that there hasn't been much Seddie interaction yet, but trust me, that might just change in the library when Sam and Freddie go there to do their project...Because we all know that Freddie loves his books and his women!!!

DO not feel shy to review. I accept anonymous ones as well. Reviews make me happy. Happy writer=faster writer. I promise to update ASAP if i get more reviews...they make me happy when my inbox becomes crammed with them.......lol....


	3. Chapter 3

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Dislaimer: Don't own any of it.

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AN: Enjoy!

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Freddie pushed his way through the throng of high school students, trying to pave a path to his locker. He huffed in annoyance when his attempts failed, but refused to give up. It was the end of a horrific day, and all he wanted to do was go to bed. But instead, he had to work with Sam on that stupid project in the library. Fun fun.

His spirits rose for a split second when he came within viewing distance of his locker. They fell soon, marked by the new scowl that etched his face after he saw the two couples attempting to fornicate on either side of his locker.

His eyebrows furrowed together, and he thought of different ways to get to his locker when he saw meatballs flying towards the couples.

Shrieks were heard in the hallways, originating from his locker, as the couples tried to save themselves from death by a meatball. They covered their heads with their hands and ran away.

He looked after them and scoffed, wishing that it had been him with the handy meatballs. He made his way to his locker and carefully opened it.

God, he loved his locker combination. If he were true enough with himself, he loved pretty much everything about his locker, starting from its central location to the fact that his locker combination was 9-31-18, which spelt out I-CA-R. The rest of iCarly was spelt out on his gym locker. He always did believe in alphabets and numbers.

He shook his head, trying to distract himself, and loaded the books he didn't need into it. He thought for a second, before replacing them in his bag and then bringing out his planner.

He always did believe in planning for everything. Honestly, it was better to be prepared for the worst than to not be prepared at all.

He was so caught up in trying to get his stuff together that he failed to notice his blond prankster of a friend flying towards him through the halls.

As he was debating the pros and cons of carrying his calculus textbook home with him even though he had a study hall the period before his next class, Sam shoved him out of the way.

He fell to the ground and managed to get a quick indignant _Hey!_ Before noticing the possession Sam held in her hands.

He stared at it in awe, and was dumbfounded when Sam threw the item into his locker and made quick work of locking his locker right back up.

She smiled in satisfaction before looking around, as though making sure that no one had noticed her strange contraption and behavior. Her gaze finally rested on Freddie's figure that still lay on the ground, and her previously exuberant face morphed into something that resembled confusion. Her eyebrows knitted together, before she leaned over and offered Freddie a hand.

Freddie looked at the hand with mild suspicion before accepting it. He heaved himself up, and dusted himself off, all the while looking straight into Sam's eyes.

He relaxed himself into the locker next to his, and crossed his arms and legs before speaking.

"What on earth was that," he asked, confusion and bewilderment painting his every word.

Sam looked at him, and opened her mouth to reply when they both heard the voice of an angry Ms. Briggs.

"Where is she," sounded the voice of Mrs. Briggs.

"When I get my hands on her scrawny little neck, I'm going to haul her to the nearest jail and make sure she stays there for the rest of her life!"

Freddie's eyes grew wide with Mrs. Brigg's declaration, and he groaned.

"Sam," he asked. "What on earth did you do this time?"

Sam's eyes flew around quickly, as though assessing the escape routes. She grimaced then, and finally let the words out.

"Look, Freddie, I do not have the time to explain right now," she let the words fly out from her mouth quickly.

"All I'm asking for you to do is to just trust me and to NOT let the Randy Jackson obsessee find the thing I just kept in your locker."

Freddie's confusion overclouded his judgment, and he slowly began to nod to Sam. What happened next changed Freddie Benson for life.

Halfway through his nod, Sam grabbed his arms and spun him around. He fell on top of her, and her back was pressed farther into the lockers while both of their fronts were pressed together.

His eyes grew wide, and he struggled to get off before Sam could give him bodily harm. Sam hissed at him and made it clear that it had been no mistake.

He gulped quite audibly as he looked frantically around for any sign of Carly, who he knew would be able to get him out of this mess.

His arms were pulled off from their place on the lockers, and forced around Sam's waist, and his terror doubled when he realized the intimate nature of their position. He could still hear Briggs, but what she said did not register into Freddie's head.

"Freddie, move your head to the side, and bend down a little bit," hissed Sam's voice from the side.

Freddie looked at her stupidly, unable to comprehend her words, and unable to move his head.

She groaned in frustration before twisting his neck to the side so hard that he heard it crack. His head fell on Sam's shoulder, and his body somehow complied with the other half of Sam's command.

He heard the screeches that continued to erupt from Brigg's mouth when he felt it. And when he felt it, all else disappeared from his mind.

And by it, he meant Sam's mouth. Sam's mouth was on his neck. She had fastened her lips onto his neck and was now, _by dear god, _suckling on it. Like a pig suckling on….whatever it was that pigs suckled on.

Freddie groaned, and could feel himself become overwhelmed by the emotions that were now wrecking havoc on his mind. He struggled to make sense of what was happening, but his mind could comprehend no more than the fact that Samantha Puckett, prankster extraordinaire, his pseudo- best friend who doubled as his enemy, was nibbling on his neck.

Freddie groaned again, and tilted his neck slightly to the side. He thought the movement was subtle, but nearly groaned a third time when he felt Sam smirk into his neck.

Sam. Wait a second, this was Sam. Samantha Puckett.

Freddie's eyes popped opened, and he was about to let go of Sam and spin away, when he was pulled away from Sam by force. His head nearly cracked on the locker next to his, and he found himself re-acquainted with the ground for the second time that day.

He blinked, and struggled to get a firm grasp on his surroundings when he heard Sam's voice.

"…….. with Freddie this entire time," spoke her voice. "And trust me; it took a long time to get to where we were."

Freddie shook his head and stood back up next to Sam when he noticed Briggs. He rubbed the back of his head as a reflex motion when he realized that it had indeed been her who had unceremoniously pulled him off of Sam.

He fought against the need to scowl at her, and then looked at his shoes when his face began to take on a lovely shade of crimson. His mind seemed to finally catch up with him, and he forced himself to look down, begging God to open up a nice big hole underneath him.

His eyes looked up again, to see if the conversation between the student and the teacher was over yet, when he caught Ms. Brigg's stern face looking at him. She glared at him, before marching off, yelling something about teenagers, hormones, and protection.

Sam sighed, before letting herself slide down the locker she was leaning on. Freddie spun around to look at her, and rearranged his face into the angriest one he could manage.

"Do you mind telling me what that was all about?" he asked testily. "Because I so do enjoy being shoved against lockers and making it seem as though I'm trying to make fake babies."

Sam scoffed at him.

"Don't pretend as though you didn't enjoy it," she shot back, just as testily. "Heck, I'll even bet that that's the farthest you've ever been with a girl!"

Freddie's eye twitched and he fought to keep himself under control. He looked at Sam, and his eyes grew softer after he locked gazes with her for a few seconds. He let out another deep breath, and bent over and offered her his hand. Unlike him, she took it without hesitation, and pulled herself up.

Her eyes were still blazing, which meant that he wasn't totally forgiven for his comment. She opened his locker quickly and pulled out her weapon that she had stashed into it.

She shoved it into his arms before resuming her pose of leaning against the lockers. Only this time, she copied his habit of crossing her arms as well.

"Look at it," she ordered.

Freddie inspected it, and the only thing that came to mind was wonder. The thing was fashioned like a paintball machine, but apparently held meatballs in it. Freddie raised his wonder-filled eyes to Sam.

"Wh-what? How on earth did you manage to find this?"

Sam rolled her eyes.

"Of course I didn't find it, you nub. I made it."

Freddie could not believe it. It was obvious that the thing definitely had some thought put behind it, and it didn't look very easy to assemble, not to mention the difficulty of finding the exact parts.

"Ho-how on earth did you manage……………." Freddie trailed off. "You know, on second thought, I don't want to know. At all. Don't tell me."

Sam laughed before patting Freddie on the shoulder. She leaned in close to him, on the left side of his neck, and let her breath wash over his ear.

"Don't worry. If I told you, I'd have to kill you. Besides, I still need you around."

Freddie looked at her in wonder. Was she flirting with him?

Sam laughed again, before shoving him away from her. This time, he managed to keep his feet implanted on the ground, no doubt from practice.

"I still need your help for that English project." She said, before heading away from him, hand holding the meatball machine gun firmly.

Freddie stared after her, before cupping his hands around his mouth.

"Hey, Sam!" he yelled. "Make sure you're at the library at 6:30!"

Sam's reply was a backwards wave to him. He took that as an affirmation.

Freddie chuckled to himself before returning to his locker. He looked through his books again, when he felt a timid tap on his shoulder.

He turned around to find Georgia Calendar, the new student from LA. She was a pretty little thing, and shy to the upmost level. They had become friends after he broke through her exterior and he was pleased to find her to be a pleasant, mild mannered girl who dabbled in technology.

"Georgia, hi, how's it going?" he said, grabbing a few more textbooks from his locker.

"Listen Freddie, I know we haven't known each other for that long, but…….I was wondering if you would like to go with me to the Cheesecake Factory on Saturday?" her nervousness displayed itself clearly on her face.

Freddie looked at her, dumbstruck. Since when did any girl ask him out?

It was usually him asking out a girl, and then said girl would laugh in his face and or just say a flat out no.

Freddie's male ego swelled with pride and he opened his mouth to say yes, when he heard the whizzing sound of an object being hurled through the air. He looked to the right, as though trying to find the source of the sound, when he heard a splat. And then another. And then a couple dozen more.

He looked at Georgia in horror; sweet, shy, pretty Georgia, who was now covered in meatballs. He could not find the words to comfort the girl, and looked on in disbelief as the poor girl burst into tears and ran to the ladies' room.

Freddie looked around, trying to find Sam's golden hair in the near empty hallways and kicked his locker when he couldn't find it. He swore, and slamed his locker door shut.

Georgia was a much better person, he thought to himself bitterly. Her first and last names followed his respectively, and she would definitely be a better neck kisser-er - strange that he thought about Sam that way.

That funny feeling came up in his stomach again, the one that first appeared when he saw Sam and Jonah together in class, and idly thought about asking Sam about her conversation with her idiotic ex.

Freddie shook his head again, and headed out through the doors. Sam's attack on his neck had definitely held an impact on his life.

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AN: it's sorta a filler-ish thing that I'm not very proud of. like at all. ya...im really unsure about this chapter, and i would totally appreciate it if you guys could tell me what you thought about it because i'm really not too sure about this one. Sam seems was too outa character......but I promise the next one will be better. The next one won't have mindless confusion in it....i promise!!

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	4. Chapter 4

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AN: OMG guys!!! After the fabulous response I got for the last chapter, i just had to upload this one ASAP for you guys.....you guys r amazing....*wipes tears*.....

In my defense, I did try to upload it yesterday, but for some reason, the site wouldn't let me on....I tried till 10 pm, but then had to sleep...anyways enjoy!

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Disclaimer: Don't own it and never will!

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Freddie looked at his watch angrily before pounding the book he had been holding for the past 20 minutes onto his desk.

He was in the library. And had been, since 6:30 pm. He had not wanted to come in after he found out from a friend that Shane had asked out Georgia. And she had said yes to him. Even though she had asked him out earlier.

Word on the street was that they were going to the Cheesecake Factory. Yay.

Freddie scowled before leaning back in his chair, rubbing his temples furiously in an attempt to keep his migraine at bay. It seemed as though this day was just destined to become worse, when he felt it creeping in through corners of his head.

He closed his eyes and rested his neck on the back of his chair. Perhaps, if he just went to sleep, he'd wake up and he'd be able to do over this entire day. Well, at least from the part where he had just stood aside and let Georgia get pelted by meatballs, courtesy of one Samantha Puckett.

He'd rush in, after the first meatball, he decided, letting his fantasy play out in his mind's eye. He'd rush in, perhaps push Georgia out of the way and somehow end up falling down with her. He'd wrap his arms around her tiny frame in order to save her from falling down on the ground too quickly and then he'd lean in. Just a bit, enough so that she would have the option to kiss him or not, and then she would lean in as well.

And then they'd kiss happily, Freddie daydreamed satisfactorily. And for as long as they could, given the circumstances.

After their first date together, they'd do it again. And that time he'd be able to wind his hands into her luscious, long blonde hair before-

Freddie's realization made him jump right out of his haze. He shook his head once and then again for good measure. He counted to ten, hoping to avoid the oncoming panic attack.

_One…….two….three…..four….._

Somewhere between 6 and 7, Freddie managed to reign himself in. He thought about the absurdity of having the panic attack in the first place. After all, why would he?

Georgia also had blonde hair. She did. Of course it was overridden by the caramel highlights she had installed into her hair. But it was still blonde.

Freddie groaned again before shoving his heads into his hands.

He rested there for a minute before glancing back up at the clock and sighing in frustration.

There was no way he was going to keep waiting for Sam. He had a life as well, and it did not include him waiting for her at every moment in his life.

He refused to do it. It was not his job.

He stood up and stretched before glancing at the clock again. Frowning, he began to shuffle all of the books he had checked out at 6:15.

Freddie urged his hands to move quickly, but they refused to listen to Freddie's mind. They took as much time as they could, and he could see the faint outline of _Property of_ _Sam Puckett_ that had been written by the one and only prankster earlier that day, during lunch.

He laughed under his breath before dropping the books from his hands. He grabbed the hand sanitizer from his laptop carrier, and squeezed a pea sized amount onto his hands, and began to wipe his hands.

He rubbed the area that marked him as Sam's when a pair of hands covered his eyes.

He sighed before fastening his hands onto the pair that covered his eyes. He removed them, and turned to glare, among other things, at Sam, when he stopped dead.

She was dressed up.

Sam had never been one to dress up, but for some insane reason, she had come to the library dressed up. She looked beautiful.

Her face seemed devoid of make-up, and that suited her just fine.

Freddie continued to ogle her, starting at her face, which was framed by soft tendrils that had been put up into a bun. She had, for some reason decided to wear her glasses that evening, and that suited him just fine.

He had commented to her once, when they were 12, that she looked a lot more intellectual with her glasses on, and she had retorted that he would never see them with her again. The very next day she came into school with contacts.

His eyes made motion to move down, when Sam's hand gripped his chin.

She pulled his head to eye level with her, and her eyes were blazing. Again.

Freddie gulped quite audibly and closed his eyes. He hoped that if he closed them, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much.

"No," came Sam's angry voice.

"You are going to look me in the eye when I yell at you."

Freddie's eyes flew open, and he looked at her, scared. He nearly began to tremble under her gaze.

"Now, Dork," she began, with more malice than he was used to.

"Just because I have dressed like someone like Carly or Georgia does not mean I have become one of them." She all but snarled at him.

"I have already had to deal with enough guys ogle me today, and so help me God if you decide to join the band wagon."

Sam shoved Freddie's face away from him and fell down onto seat next to the one he had recently vacated. She mimicked the motions he did at 6:50, frantically rubbing her temples.

He stared at her helplessly; trying to string together some sort of…..sentence….

One that was filled with coherent words ranked pretty high on his list.

He cleared his throat, before shoving his hand in front of Sam's face once again. Sam looked at him with weary eyes and rejected the hand, closing her eyes with a groan.

Freddie looked at his hand, startled. This was the first time Sam had ever refused his hand. Even when they hadn't gotten along and were fighting, at the end of a rant, Sam always sat down and Freddie offered his hand to her. She would take it, and they would both walk away together.

Freddie's eyes softened. Whatever had happened to her before she had come obviously disrupted her. His previous thoughts of arguing with her flew away from his mind in a split second, and all he cared about at that moment was that his friend was suffering.

"Sam, I don't care what happened to you before you came here, but right now, we need to get started on our project."

Freddie's voice shocked him. His voice came out annoyed, the polar opposite of what he was feeling at the moment. It was as though he had no control over his vocal chords at all.

Sam's head shot up at the sound of his annoyed voice. She looked at him wordlessly before nodding her head absently and taking the hand he offered her once again.

Freddie pulled her up and turned his back to her, packing all of his books. He shoved all of his books into the bag hurriedly.

"I have been waiting for you for over a half an hour," his voice continued. "The least you could have done was to call me."

"I'm sorry, Tech-nerd." Shot her voice from behind him. The previous malice had disappeared, and it appeared as though him talking to her normally had evaporated any sort of awkwardness from them.

Thank god for his verbal diarrhea.

Sam fell into silence once more and stood behind him silently as Freddie finished packing his stuff. He finally turned to look at her, a smile bright on his face.

His smile morphed into a smirk, and Sam's face fell into a mask of suspicion. She narrowed her eyes at him, as though waiting for him to sign his death threat.

Freddie continued to smirk at her, laughter already clouding his gut. He could not wait to see Sam's reaction.

"So, since you're already so dressed up," his smirk was growing. He couldn't help it if he wanted to. "How 'bout we head out to grab something to eat before we head back to my place to get started on this project."

Sam's eyes narrowed at him, but the rest of her seemed frozen.

_Good, _Freddie thought. That meant that he was safe from her violence for just a bit more time.

"C'mon, Sam," his voice took on a slightly taunting edge. "You know you want to. A free dinner and my mom's going out for a bingo night. Besides, it seems as though your-"

Freddie didn't see it coming. But he sure did feel it.

And by it, he meant Sam's fist flying to his face at full force.

Freddie was slightly reminded of earlier that day, when Georgia was hit by Sam's meatballs.

He heard a voice calling his name frantically, and then all was still.

He blacked out. Sleep was good. Sleep was fine. Sleep had evaded him for the past few nights, favoring his mother, judging by the snores that had erupted from her room the past few nights.

* * *

AN: I know!!! Freddie was being such a jerk, so I had Sam hit him so hard that he.....got knocked out.....

Don't worry, next chappies going to be fun!PS in response to a review I recieved, sadly, no, Freddie did NOT get a hickey when Sam attacked his neck. I couldn't let that happen, because then other people would question Sam and Freddie's relationship, and the first people who have those rights in my universe are Sam and Freddie.

Therefore no hickey.....But do still review!

Love you guys so much!!!!


	5. Chapter 5

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AN: I know I promised you guys a 3,000 word chapter, but i couldn't bring myself to do it after the first copy of this got deleted after 1,500 words. It depressed me so much that I could only bring myself to write 2,200 words. i'm sooo sorry guys!!!

Shoutout to PamplemousseRose, my lovely Beta to be who I posted this chapter for! She couldn't beta this chapter because I refused to let her do my beta-ing during exams, but enough about my mundane life. On with the chapter!!!

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The first thing that registered into Freddie's mind was the soft breeze. It was casting itself over his face softly, forcing him to leave his dreams and face reality.

He groaned once before turning over on the bed. It was futile. He dragged the covers over himself and tried to go back to sleep when his claustrophobia kicked in.

He moved out from under his cocoon and shifted himself until he lay on his back once again.

His head was beginning to hurt, and he really was not ready to face reality. But he wanted to know where he was. He was clearly no longer in the library, and the bed he was on felt surprisingly comfortable.

Maybe Sam had dragged his unconscious form back to his house, or hers, and just left him there to die.

He sighed once again, the need to open his eyes and figure out his surroundings becoming too prominent to ignore. He cracked his eyes opened and was greeted by the soft glowing stickers he had put up on his ceiling when he was 7.

He blinked twice rapidly to get rid of the slight film that had settled over his eyes, and turned his head sideways to look at his alarm clock. Its luminescent numbers glared out 2:15AM.

Freddie sighed once more, turning his head back to his ceiling. On the bright side, he was in his familiar, comfortable room.

He closed his eyes once again, trying to will himself to sleep, when he felt another gust of fresh air fall through his windows.

Fantastic, he thought. There was no way on earth that he would be able to go back to sleep with the window open and he definitely didn't trust his limbs to carry him all the way to the window without waking his mother. Knowing her, she would probably rush into the room after he activated one of her motion sensors.

He opened his eyes once more, gazing at the ceiling. They had always managed to lull him to sleep when he was scared, or even had a bout of insomnia.

He grinned as he caught sight of the patches of clear, dried, fungus-like substance among the stickers.

Sam had been the one to help him put up the stickers when he had finally convinced his mother that he was old enough to have "cool" glow-in-the-dark stickers instead of his "lame" Share Bear nightlight.

_The nightlight was in his sock drawer, hidden from sight underneath his holiday pairs._

Freddie had invited Sam and Carly over the very next day to help him decorate his ceiling. He had been in a hurry to get rid of the nightlight.

Carly could not come because she had gone out with her father to buy Spencer a gift for getting into Law School. She returned with a pair of ridiculously funky socks that Spencer tried to return the minute she had her back turned.

That was until he realized that she had some sort of attachments to the socks, so he went out the next day to buy her a surprise gift, one that comprised of her very own funky-dunky socks.

_That was the day he met Socko._

Sam had come by early that day, and had been eager to get started on the ceiling. They had both piled boxes onto the bed, and then placed cushions, mattresses and pillows on the floor, in case one of them had an accident.

They had so much fun that day, putting the random stickers up. After some time, when Sam lost interest in climbing Mount FreSaBoxes, she thought up a brilliant scheme to get the stickers up and getting messy at the same time. She started to dunk stickers into a pot of glue and threw them up into the ceiling.

It worked out for all of two seconds. Then the stickers would come falling onto them. They adored the glue falling onto their heads for some weird reason.

Needless to say, his mother hadn't been too pleased with the results. She had ordered them to clean themselves up, forced them to help her clean everything that had been 'contaminated' by the glue and then sent them to bed without any cookies.

Sam had come over that night with the intention of sleeping over, so after their dinner filled with food that normal 7 year olds would detest but she cherished with a stomach that made Freddie sick, they had both collapsed on his bed.

Within minutes they had fallen asleep and when they woke up, they had somehow entangled themselves in each other.

Freddie, somehow, never minded it because he felt good. He felt as though he were able to fight off any of Sam's nightmares by just being near her.

She had woken up with a screech, and then pushed him off the bed and pummeled him with her pillow.

Freddie's eyelids began to drop slightly, and he felt sleep extend its arm towards him once more. His lips were curved into a slight smile, and he felt his eyelids close completely.

He sighed, snuggling himself farther into the bed, ready to embrace sleep. After all, he probably would have school the next morning. He couldn't escape it forever with the excuse of getting knocked out by a girl. Even if that girl was Sam.

He nearly drifted off, when he heard soft footsteps outside of his doors. His eyes shot open and he looked at the alarm clock incredulously. Who on earth would be awake at 2:24 AM?

He heard his door handle creak slightly as it turned, and quickly shut his eyes.

Maybe if the person thought he was asleep, they would leave him alone. He felt the light fall onto his face as someone entered, and prayed that he looked as though he were sleeping.

The person paused for a moment before walking again. He felt the footsteps go away from the bed, and nearly cried with relief when he heard the soft _slam_ of the window being shut.

At least he wasn't cold anymore.

He heard the footsteps shuffle around once again, so he turned to his side, drawing the blankets closer to his body.

The person continued to move, coming closer to the bed. He felt the bed dip on the left side and knew that whoever it was had come onto his bed. His covers were tugged out from beneath his hands and he felt the cold presence of another body within two centimeters of his own.

He wanted to open his eyes so badly, but could not.

_He was supposed to be sleeping._

He felt his arm being tugged around the cold body and couldn't suppress the shiver that arose from his own. On the bright side, he could open his eyes now.

He peeked through his right eye and couldn't control the quick intake of air when he realized that the person had long blonde hair.

_It was Sam._

He gazed at the hair dazed before pulling his arm around her tighter and pulling her body closer to his. She was absolutely freezing.

Her breath came out normally, and she didn't seem affected by any of it. He snuggled closer to her, and felt a sense of calm wash over him.

_It was strange how the person who ragged on him daily and had punched him out so recently could manage to instill calmness into his being._

Freddie nearly dozed off again, when a voice spoke out.

"I know you're awake."

Freddie groaned, pulling Sam closer and burying his face into her hair. He tried to snore lightly, hoping that she would get the hint.

Her hand came over the one of his that was wrapped around her torso and squeezed lightly. He groaned again before releasing her and moving back slightly. He sat up, placing his back against the wall and opened his eyes.

Sam turned over to look at him, seemingly apprehensive.

"Are you happy now," he asked grumpily, his voice coming out a bit husky from unuse.

She looked away before sitting up as well. She wrapped her arms around her legs before speaking again.

"I'm sorry." She said.

_She was speaking with genuine remorse._

"I'm sorry for knocking you out. I'm sorry for putting blue cheese dressing in your shampoo."

Freddie looked at her, shocked. By now she had turned her face to him and was speaking directly to him, instead of her knees.

"And for sending your cell phone to Cambodia. Everything. I'm just sorry."

Freddie looked at her once again, before bursting into laughter. He doubled over, laughing his gut out while Sam looked slightly uncomfortable.

He looked at her, wiping the tears away from his eyes, and just wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a pseudo-hug.

_Pseudo was a big word in Freddie's dictionary. It described Sam. She was his pseudo-best friend, his pseudo-worst enemy and the time they spent together laughing was also called his pseudo-fun time._

Sam's shoulders tensed as Freddie pulled her closer, nearly onto his lap. He brought around his other arm and hugged her closer, and rested his chin atop her head.

Freddie rubbed her arms, noticing absently that she was still freezing.

"Sam, don't ever be sorry for doing anything to me."

Sam's head shot up and she nearly banged her head on his chin. She looked at him wide-eyed, confusion written plainly in her eyes.

He looked straight at her, and continued on.

"Don't ever be sorry, because I know in the end, we're always going to be like that. It's just the way we are. Plus, you've outgrown your phase of doing random mean stuff to me. Now, you just give as good as you get."

He finished off himself confidently, nodding his head along to his words.

"Besides, it was wrong of me to be so rude when it was clear that you were irritated."

Sam's expression softened along with the rest of her. She smiled at him softly before opening her own mouth to speak.

"It wasn't you." She said.

"It was just that Carly had forced me to dress up after school for something, and then on the way to the library a whole bunch of guys started coming onto me and kept calling me a 'hot librarian'." the end of Sam's statement was worded carefully with venom.

Freddie looked at her once again before shaking his head. That sounded like Sam.

Except for, maybe, the hot librarian part.

"So you decided to let out all of your frustrations on me." his statement was threaded with hurt, but yet it was not from the fact that she had knocked him out.

If he was true with himself, it was because she hadn't told him. If she had, he would've gladly given her his sweater and his extra pair of sweatpants that his mother forced into his laptop carrier.

He sighed once again before re-opening his mouth. His mouth was blocked by Sam's hand as she signaled for him to keep quiet.

"Look, I already said I was sorry, okay? I didn't think that you would hit your head on the table and nearly die." Sam's words continued to be worded with a slight undertone of guilt.

He needed to change the subject. Fast, before Sam's guilt consumed her.

"So, did you get started on the project while I was out?" he asked stupidly.

Sam looked at him as though he were half crazed. He was beginning to think that the hit he took was harder than he had originally thought.

"Of course not, nub." her voice came out arrogantly. "That's one of the reasons I'm staying with you for it. So that I don't have to do that much work."

Freddie looked at her incredulously, sputtering over his words.

"Bu-but that's unfair!"

She looked at him, smirk imprinted upon her face as she spoke again. "Well, technically, it's for the better of man-kind. You get me an A and in return, I make sure that you don't inhale all of the books and leave them for future generations. Honestly, I don't get how you can't see that it is clearly a win-win situation." she rolled her eyes to accentuate her point.

Freddie just looked at her wordlessly before falling down onto his bed with a huff. He covered his head with his blanket.

"Just go to sleep, Sam." his voice came out muffled through the blankets.

Sam smirked as she jumped off the bed and made her way to the door. She turned before stopping once again.

"Aye-aye Captain Nugg-Nugg."

Freddie tore his head from beneath his blankets, trying to find her again before realizing that she had already slipped out.

He groaned loudly to himself, falling onto his covers once again with his arm covering his eyes. How in the hell had she seen his pajamas when he hadn't even known if she was wearing shorts or pants?

* * *

AN: Awww!! I loved writing the whole scene about 7 year old Freddie and Sam!! Sam was feeling really guilty about actually knocking Fredster out, so she climbed into bed with him. What a softie, lol!

O, and for those of you who noticed, I've taken a quote (slightly modified) directly outa iKiss ! I've decided to try and do that to ALL of my chapters from now on, the quote thing, and a first look at the next chapter is entitled to the first person who guesses the episode I got the quote from! isn't that soo cool! but not for this chapter, since iKiss is sorta legendary and I also told you about it! But be sure to look out for the quotes!!


	6. Chapter 6

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**AN: I'm really not normal, guys. Most people would be put off with a lack of response to a chapter, but me, I get another chapter out within 24 hours in a stupid attempt to boost the reviews and story alerts and stuff. See, not normal. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Also, another shout out to PamplemousseRose, who had an insanely delicious one-shot hidden on her profile. Go check it out!**

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Disclaimer: I own a pair of amazing gold heels, but that's about it. No iCarly stashed in my treasure chest.

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Freddie was furious. Livid was another term that could be used to describe his feelings inside. He stomped up the stairs of Bushwell Plaza, too angry to wait for the elevator; his rational side hoping that by the time he managed to get up to the 8th floor his anger would dissipate.

His anger mounted as he emerged from the stairwell and ended up at Carly's door. He yanked the door open and flew inside in rage.

The occupants of the room looked at him curiously, as though completely oblivious to the reason as to why he was so angry.

He glared at Carly and Spencer, his eyes narrowing as he observed the startled expressions painted onto their faces.

"Where is she." It came out more as a command for them to get her rather than a question. And at this point, he didn't really mind either way. He wanted her in front of him at that moment, preferably cowering in fear.

Even though she would probably look at him straight in the eye and laugh at his anger. Normally he'd be alright with it, because normally she refrained from making him homicidal. But at this moment, this very moment, he wanted to tear her apart, limb from limb.

Carly stood up and looked at him worriedly. Spencer just looked shell-shocked and slightly dazed.

"Freddie," her eyebrows creasing in worry. "What's wrong? Why are you so angry with Sam?

Freddie's fingernails screwed themselves into his palms, and he started to shake slightly.

"Where is she." He repeated his question. How could Carly not realize that he wanted nothing more than to hurt Samantha Puckett for destroying everything he had going for him.

She had torn apart his Share Bear, Cuddly-Poo, when they were 5. She had skewered his coveted Devaglio. She had turned his shorts red, forced him to get a tattoo of her face onto his arm. She reminded him on a daily basis that the girl he loved didn't and would never return his amour.

And he dealt with it all. He took it all within stride and laughed about it, albeit shortly, later. But this, no this had been too far. She had overstepped her boundaries, and he was sure that he was going to make her pay.

"Freddie, she's not here right now." Carly walked over to him, wrapping an arm around him in an attempt to get him to calm down. It didn't work. He was still shaking, and, by the looks of it, so was Carly now.

"Freddie, Freddie, just calm down okay?" Carly's voice took on a desperate note.

"She said that she was going to come over but then her mom grounded her, so I don't know where she went."

Carly somehow managed to maneuver Freddie towards the direction of the couch and placed his shaking body onto it. She signaled to Spencer to get some water before returning her attention to Freddie. She rubbed his temples in an attempt to alleviate the pressure he had been forcing onto himself.

"Freddie," her eyes filled themselves with even more worry when he refused to calm down. "What on earth did Sam do to you this time?"

Freddie looked at her, his rational side trying to win the fight again. She looked so scared, and so uncertain. So unlike the Carly he knew.

His anger began to slowly ebb away when the door flew open once again. He turned his eyes to the door when he heard her words fill the room.

"Carls! Sorry I'm so late, but I had to convince Mom that we needed to have an iCarly rehearsal today."

Sam breezed by the couch, Freddie's rigid form escaping her notice. Freddie glared at her as she grabbed the glass of iced tea Spencer had laid out for Freddie. She drank it all in one deep gulp and set the glass back on the coffee table, sighing out loud as she settled into the couch and stretched.

She turned her face to look at Freddie's and laughed at the expression. She poked his side with her finger, confusion marring her face when he grabbed her hand.

He couldn't help himself anymore. He snapped, and he was ready to snap Sam as well. He was not going to let her get away with crap like this anymore. He was tired of it and he refused to let it keep happening to him year after year.

"What's up with you, dork?" her hand was beginning to hurt underneath his steely grip.

Freddie didn't answer, choosing to drag Sam to her feet.

"What- hey! No, no, you do not get to pull me……" Sam's voice faded away as Freddie practically dragged her up to the iCarly studio. He wanted to take her back to his house, where he knew Carly wouldn't be able to hear the conversation, but knew that his mother was due at home any time now. And if she saw him like this, she would definitely force him into therapy again.

Sam's voice continued to protest at his actions. Freddie glared at her, shutting her complaints off effectively. She allowed herself to be dragged up the stairs by a still livid Freddie.

Freddie all but threw Sam into the studio, locking the door behind him. He counted to five silently before turning around to face Sam once again. By this time, she had settled onto a beanbag.

Settled, was thrown, what was the difference?

Freddie narrowed his eyes at her, his inside devil begging him to promise to Sam that he would always forgive her. He straightened up his back and spoke to her.

"Why did you do it." His question came out like a command once again.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sam looked at him as though he were crazy. She got up from the beanbag and walked over to the car. She leaned back against it, as thought taunting him. Waiting for him to break, waiting for his patience to run out with her, waiting for him to start yelling.

"Don't play stupid, Sam." his voice grounded out. "Why did you tell Georgia to stay away from me unless she wanted to get pelted by meatballs traveling at 32 miles per hour on a daily basis?"

Sam's eyes showed a flicker of recognition, and she looked at him dead on, her own eyes narrowing.

"So the little brat told you, didn't she?" she muttered darkly."Let's just see if she's going to get that free pass again."

"That is not the bloody point!" he shouted, exasperated. "The freaking point is that you threatened a girl that did absolutely nothing to you. The only thing she ever did was express interest in ME."

Somehow in the middle of his outburst he had ended up in front of her. His arms came down on either side of her body and there was hardly any distance between the two of them.

Sam's eyes continued to narrow until it looked as though her eyes had closed. Even though Freddie knew that she only looked as livid as he felt. Her hands came up to his chest and rested there for a minute.

"First of all," she said, anger and venom seeping in and coating her words with a fine layer of their essence.

"Back off." she accentuated her point by pushing him off. Freddie allowed himself to fall 4 feet away from her and looked at her, desperate for a plausible explanation for her ridiculous actions.

Her face morphed into one of disgust as she wiped her hands off on her shirt.

"Secondly, I don't need a reason for anything I do. Plus, she's fresh meat. Anybody's game. And she should have been thrilled to have gotten me as her bully."

Freddie looked at her incredulously. He had always thought that she was crazy, but this seemed to prove it.

"Of course you needed a damn reason, Sam." his voice shook slightly from his uncontrollable emotions. "I _liked_ Georgia. As a matter of fact, I still _like_ Georgia. She's a damn sweet girl, and she treats me as a flippin' equal, not like the damn gum underneath her shoe."

He turned away from Sam, pacing up and down, hoping to calm himself down before things really got out of hand. If Sam didn't realize that he was on the verge of losing control completely and continued to sprout nonsense from her mouth, he couldn't be expected to be held accountable for his actions.

"Look, it's no big deal Freddie." Her voice sounded from behind him.

"You can just go apologize to her tomorrow, and tell her that I said that I'll leave her alone."

Freddie turned around so fast he nearly lost his footing and face planted the floor. He looked as her in awe. "Really, Sam? You would do that for me?"

Her face was screwed up into that of deep thinking.

"Yeah, I promise to lay off of her." Freddie turned to her and smiled a brilliant, thousand-watt smile.

Freddie felt his anger wash out so smoothly, it felt as if he were taking a bath after playing in the mud all day.

"For a day. But that's all that I can promise."

_Of course, the time came when the mud clogged up the drain, and he had to sit and clean the entire bathroom up. That always brightened his day up._

Freddie looked at her angrily. "No jokes Puckett, this is serious chiz!"

He looked at her, expression filling with hatred before sighing and falling down onto a beanbag. He let his face fall into his hands, praying that he would somehow find a way to convince Georgia to like him again, without being afraid of Sam.

"You really like this girl, don't you Benson?" Sam's quiet voice broke through the silence of the room once again.

Freddie sighed once more before removing his face from her hands and looking at her once more. He patted the beanbag next to his own, signaling Sam to sit down on it.

She eyed the seat warily before settling down on it. She opened her mouth to speak again when Freddie's hand moved to the front of her face, cutting her off effectively.

His head was starting to hurt again. He focused his gaze on his shoelaces before speaking again.

_It was weird how even during their confrontations, Freddie always ended up being embarrassed. _

"It's not that." He said, sighing heavily. "She's just the first one who's really expressed a lot of interest in me since……I dunno. But I have a really good feeling about her."

Freddie felt Sam's hand touch his shoulder gently. She squeezed lightly before talking herself.

"Look, Freddie, even though we have our differences." she seemed hesitant now. "I still got your back. And trust me when I say that I've got a bad feeling about her."

Freddie's head snapped up to attention and he looked at Sam in the eyes.

She smiled wryly before continuing.

"Yeah, I know you find that hard to believe, but it's true. Besides, you can do so much better than Georgia. Just because her name comes after yours in the alphabet doesn't mean she's your soul-mate. It just means that she's got a pair of pathetic excuses for parents."

Freddie allowed himself to blush before smiling at her again. He was beyond mystified and mortified that Sam had figured out the main reason for why he was attracted to Georgia.

Red tainting his cheeks, he stood up and offered her his hand. She smiled softly before reaching up and grabbing it. He pulled her up and hugged her lightly.

She stood still in his arms, waiting for an appropriate 2 seconds before shoving him off and punching him. Not softly, but not too hard. It was like she punched him with his own special punch, one that was designed to help clear any sense of awkwardness left between them.

"Come on," he said. "Carly probably still thinks that she needs to call the ambulance for one of us."

"Not one of us." she replied. "There's no way in hell that you would be able beat me up. I'd wipe the floor with you if you had even tried any of that crap with me."

Freddie just looked at her and laughed. He unlocked the door and headed downstairs, Sam in tow.

"By the way, did you know that they were giving out authentic Captain Nug-Nug merchandise at the comic book store today? I thought that you might have wanted to go, seeing as you wear the pajamas to sleep."

Sam was unchangeable. Absolutely, positively crazy, 100% immature, and one of the best damn things that had ever happened to him.

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**AWWWW!!! I loved how Freddie readily believed Sam's assumption about Georgia with no questions asked....or did he? *wiggles eyebrows***

**I finally introduced Carly and Spencer into the story, and I'm thinking about making the next chapter in Carly's POV. No, it won't be a re-write of this chapter, but what do you guys think about that? **

**And a preview (and by preview I mean like about half the next chapter) is entitled to the first person to review and tell me what quote i used and which episode it was from. I'll send it out to you within 24 hrs, or at the most, 36. On with the reviews!!!**

**Oh, and one more thing. Not that I'm against people putting this story up on their story alerts lists and stuff, but could you please drop a line or two? It makes me feel sorta wierd when you just randomly put it up on your story alerts and I have no idea why you like it, or even if you think it's going in the right or wrong direction. **

**Oh, and one last thing (I promise!!!). Was my other story, Change, really that bad? I put it up last week, and it's gotten like the lowest amount of attention between Obsession and Alphabets. So the whole non humor thing was a really bad idea, eh? Do tell me, it's sorta bothering me.**

**Thanks so much for reading Alphabets! Mua Muah peeps!!!**


	7. Chapter 7

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**AN: To the reviewers, who's clouding up of my inbox forced me to get off my lazy bum and type this extremely long chapter up for you guys. You rock! And to my beta, who so kindly took time off of studying to beta this for me. I'm a horrible person for forcing her to do it, so here's a shout-out to the lovely PamplemousseRose (Who's one-shot is currently sitting in my favorites list so go check it out!!! I'm shameless.)**

**On with the show!!!!**

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Disclaimer: Am not a fat cat making tons of money off of iCarly, or my Freddie and Sam.

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Freddie looked around the classroom, wondering idly if the rest of his class was as impatient for the school day to end as he was. He thanked his lucky stars for granting him with a seat in the back of the classroom in Mrs. Deidner's class. She never looked past the front row as she was lenient with the studious kids and let them sit in the back.

His eyes rested on Carly, who was one of the only people he could stand in his class. She sat in the back as well, right next to him.

She was sleeping, and a tiny bit of drool dribbled down the side of her mouth. Freddie smiled at her, eyes softening as he took in her appearance. It was as though she felt his eyes on her as she shook herself awake, sleeve wiping off the drool that had marred her pretty face. She looked around sleepily, eyes resting on Freddie.

She smiled at him brightly, a smile that he was happy to return. Her eyes fell back to her desk, and she quickly tore out a piece of paper from her notebook. Freddie's eyes returned to the teacher, knowing that Carly had probably wanted to take notes. His eyes began to drop slightly, and he felt them becoming more and more unfocused, when a quick blur that was a piece of paper landed on his desk.

He blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to get rid of the sleep that had been left in them and opened the paper.

His eyes scanned the note, taking in Carly's handwriting.

_So, what exactly happened between you and Sam yesterday? She wouldn't talk about it, and I've given you a respectable 18 hours before pouncing._

Freddie sighed, looking at Carly once again before taking out a pencil and scribbling out his reply.

_Nothing. We just had a fight over the new girl, Georgia. It was really nothing, I was just over-reacting._

Freddie threw the paper back onto Carly's desk. He looked at her reaction out of the corner of his eye, and was shocked when her eyebrows flew up onto her forehead. She quickly scribbled her response and tossed the paper back onto Freddie's desk.

_I highly doubt that, Freddie. I've never seen you so angry with her! It definitely wasn't nothing. Plus, why on earth would you guys be fighting over Georgia? She's an absolute sweetheart._

Freddie nearly laughed when he read her response. That exact question had been repeating itself over and over again in his mind.

_Sam doesn't think so. She thinks that Georgia's bad news, and apparently threatened her when she was about to ask me out again._

Carly's previously bored face morphed into one painted with confusion.

_Again?_

_Yeah, Georgia tried to ask me out last Tuesday but was mysteriously pelted with meatballs when I was about to say 'yes'._

_I heard about that. Wasn't that the day Sam got caught with her paintball turned meatball gun thing?_

_Yeah._

_Figures Sam would do something like that. I'm still a bit intimidated over the fact that she actually made that contraption._

Freddie chuckled softly at Carly's neutral response to Sam's behavior. At that moment, the bell rang so he hastily put the paper into his pocket, making a mental note to trash it later on. His mother would throw a fit if she found out her precious "Freddie-Poo" passed notes during class.

He quickly packed his things and headed to the door where Carly was waiting for him. He reached her and raised his eyebrow at her readiness to leave the classroom.

"Aww, and I thought you liked this class." he said, laughing a bit at her.

Carly's arm came up and swiftly hit his arm. "I was ready to leave the class the moment I came in. I don't really understand why I even signed up for it." she said, shaking her head. She turned around and headed into the hallways, making a beeline for their lockers.

Freddie smiled before following her. Her voice emerged above the clamor of the students trying to get their books from their lockers and making their buses on time.

"So, are you coming to the library now?"

Freddie shook his head. The three of them had been planning on studying there after school since Spencer had decided to make a new art project that consisted of chainsaw, hammers and horns.

Needless to say, it was very noisy in the Shay's apartment. And at his own, for that matter.

"Naw, I promised Mr. Goslin that I'd help him out in the AV room after school. I'll head up after since me and Sam still need to finish our project. It shouldn't take any more than hour. Maybe you can even convince Sam to do her homework."

Carly giggled lightly at the thought of Sam doing her homework. "I'll try."

Freddie smiled, relief covering Carly's face as the duo reached their lockers. She opened it up and grabbed the textbooks she needed after depositing the ones she didn't need.

She shut her locker. "Okay, then, see ya soon."

"Bye." Freddie took a few of his unneeded books from his backpack and put them into his locker. He dragged his math book and a few more AV club cables out before locking his locker and heading to the AV room.

He was halfway there, when he heard Mr. Goslin's voice ring out from behind him.

He turned around and faced his teacher who had skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Hey, Mr. Goslin, I was just heading to the AV room to help out with the new video."

Mr. Goslin smiled at him before replying. "That's what I wanted to catch you for. I promised my wife but that I'd take her out for a picnic, but that was before Mrs. Deidner coerced me into promising to put away the new shipment of books today."

Freddie had a feeling that he was going to the library after all. He opened his mouth to reply when Mr. Goslin cut him off.

"Now, I know what you're thinking, but it would definitely help me out if you went in my place. I'll give you extra credit as well." Mr. Goslin looked at him so pleadingly that Freddie had no choice but to say yes.

"Okay, fine."

Mr. Goslin breathed out a sigh of relief. "Phew, thank god!" he said, wiped his forehead dramatically. "It doesn't help that it's a shipment of old books as well." he said as he walked away.

Oh well, Freddie thought. At least they're old books.

He headed towards the library, stopping once to greet Mrs. Deidner and to explain his presence instead of Mr. Goslin's. She didn't seem very displeased, and sent him off into the back room to get the books and stack them among the old section of the library that housed the antiques.

He staggered beneath the weight of the dozen books he had decided to carry and made his way to the back of the library where they were to be kept. Teetering along precariously, he slowly edged his way to the corner where the B.501's were to be kept.

"Carly, I don't know about this." Sam's voice came out from the dusty confines of the 'ancients' section of the library. Freddie's eyebrows furrowed, confused over why Sam and Carly would even be near the place. They didn't need any books from this section, hardly any students did. It was affectionately nicknamed the 'make-out joint' of the high school.

He strained his neck to catch a glimpse of the girls when he heard Carly's voice sound out.

"Shhhhhhh, Sam! I'm pretty sure that neither one of us want to be found here."

She was speaking in a low whisper, and whatever was happening, it was important and secretive.

He had to find out what it was.

He edged along the lines of the library, and found exactly what he was looking for. There, 3 stacks from the bottom, a book had been taken out and left him with a viewing hole, one that showed him Carly and Sam.

Carly was facing Sam, and her back to his peephole, which had effectively cut off his view of Sam. All he could see was Carly's torso, her hair and Sam's hair. He slowly edged his way closer to the hole and waited for the girls to continue their conversation.

"Sam, I really would appreciate it if you would do it for me. Ever since she pointed it out to me, I've been so confused over it." Carly's voice spoke once again.

Who was 'she'? And what was Carly so confused over? And most importantly, what did Carly want Sam to do for her? Freddie's mind ran through the possibilities, each one more ridiculous than the previous.

Silence ensued, and Freddie had a sneaking suspicion that Carly was trying her puppy dog eyes on Sam.

Finally Sam's exhaled loudly. "Fine, I'll do it. But you've got to swear that you won't tell anybody, and that you never try to do it to me again." she sounded slightly angry.

"Thank you so much Sam! But, I can't necessarily promise you about never doing it again, because, who know, you may just like it." Carly's voice had an edge of something to it. Was it flirtation?

Freddie's mind became even more confused and his eyes widened when he saw Carly's hands reach up and rest on what seemed to be Sam's face. She leaned in closer, just a bit closer, and he couldn't help himself.

His books dropped right to the floor, a dozen thumps loudly announcing his arrival. He stood there, horrified, as both Sam and Carly turned around to face him, their faces identical pictures of shock as they saw him, peeking at them through the hole in the stacks. They nodded to each other before coming to his side of the shelves, both becoming scarier by the minute. They stopped right in front of him, arms crossed and feet tapping.

Sam's voice was the first to break the silence. "So, Freddork, how long have you been standing there?"

Freddie couldn't help it. He screamed. A shrill scream that resounded off the walls of the entire library.

Footsteps could be heard running through the library as Freddie ended his seemingly endless screech. Carly and Sam's actions mirrored one another as they both held grimaces on their faces and covered their ears with their hands.

"Freddie, Freddie, what happened?" Mrs. Deidner flew into their spot among the stacks, hand over heaving chest as she fought to catch her breath.

Freddie looked at her flabbergasted. He couldn't bring himself to talk when he was so confused.

He tried to open his mouth and speak, words refusing to come out. Trying another angle, he swallowed hard and ended up choking on his own spit.

His hands flew around his throat, making the universal choking sign and Sam was by his side in a flash. She bent him over and gave him his required back thumps, straightened him out and turned to face Mrs. Deidner.

"Freddie just got scared when Carly and me jumped out from behind the bookshelves."

Mrs. Deidner's eyebrow rose. She turned to Freddie, who was still recovering from his choking fit.

"Freddie, are you sure you're alright?"

Freddie looked at her, attempting to pull together the will to stop coughing. "Sorry, I, err, lost my cool there for a second."

"You can't lose what you never had." Freddie wanted to tell Sam off, but thought better of it when he remembered feeling the strength she put into the blows as she delivered them into his back.

Some days were just not his.

Mrs. Deidner eyed the trio warily before bidding them farewell. She disappeared among the stacks of books as quickly as she had arrived and the trio watched her walk away; silence one more falling onto them.

Carly swiveled around to face a red-faced Freddie as soon as Mrs. Deidner had gone and she shoved a finger into his face, pointing at him accusingly.

"You!" she all but shouted. "What the hell were you doing, spying on Sam and I?"

Freddie shrunk back, trying to relive his coughing fit, hoping that if he did, they'd have a bit of sympathy for him.

"Oh, no you don't." Sam pulled him straight up and forced him to face the two girls.

He gulped hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down and he stared at the furious faces of his two supposed best friends.

Who were once upon straight. But were now finding their true selves with each other. The girl he had loved/stalked for nearly a decade of his live, and the only other……

Confusion settled upon their faces as Freddie realized that he had been thinking aloud.

_Damnit. _

He met each of their half angry, half confused faces before forcing his eyes down to his shoelaces. He took a deep breath and started.

"Look, I know we've had a pretty……long friendship and I know that the reason you guys may not have wanted to tell me about the whole 'trying out members of the same sex' thing because of our past," he rambled. "But, I just wish that you would have told me!"

He returned his eyes to the girls, watching as the anger evaporated and the confusion settled onto their faces completely.

_When all else fails, attempt the guilt trip._

"It's not like I was going to judge you or anything--"

Sam's voice cut through his own. "Wait a second, you thought that Carly and I were kissing??" her voice took on an incredulous note.

Freddie could feel his face continue to burn up as he meekly nodded his head.

Carly and Sam shared incredulous looks with each other before bursting into laughter. They just kept laughing, loud guffaws filling the air, and before Freddie could stop it, they had fallen onto the ground, arms interlocked amongst one another as they tried to support each other up. Tears began to flow freely from their eyes and Freddie flushed a deeper shade of crimson.

Just when he thought that his face could no longer redden anymore, he saw a small, ugly colored tube rolling his way from the girls. Idly interested, he picked it up, squinting slightly to read the inscription on it. Shock masked his face as he comprehended the writings on the tube and it fell from his hands back to the ground, making its way back to the owner.

_And here I thought that this couldn't become any more embarrassing._

The two girls sat back up, a mess of giggles as they attempted to straighten themselves out. Carly's eyes lit up with delight as she found the tube and held it up to Sam's face. Sam's visage once again fell into laughter as Carly hauled herself up and pulled Sam up as well.

Freddie scuffed his shoes. It was coming, it was inevitable and it was absolutely embarrassing. On the bright side, he could blame it on his hormones.

"I still can't believe that you thought that Sam and I were making out, Freddie." Carly's voice took on the note of a scolding mother.

_That was a first._

She waved the tube in his face, forcing him to zero in on the thing.

"Melinda gave this to me earlier, and she swore that it tasted just like beef-jerky if you mixed it with pina colada lip-gloss. And I couldn't feel it, so I forced Sam to do it."

"And I absolutely refused to scar my lips with sausage flavored chapstick in public, so Carly coerced me into doing it in the dingy library."

He was wrong. It was possible for him to become redder. He stupidly wondered if he resembled a tomato yet.

"I…I…..I….I'm sorry." Stuttering through his apology, he lifted his gaze to their eyes, only feeling slightly chastised as he took in their mischievous expressions.

Carly patted his shoulder. "Well, at least now I know what to get you for your birthday." Her smile grew wider and wider.

Freddie looked at her, shocked. Was she instigating what he thought she was instigating?

"I'll buy you a nice big tube of beef jerky lip-gloss for your birthday." She walked off, cackling sounds emerging from her slight frame as she left.

Freddie looked at her, dismayed. That wasn't even funny, he thought to himself childishly.

His eyes zeroed in on the books he had dropped earlier, and bent down to pick them up with a sigh. He heard a soft plop right next to him and took in Sam's posture as she gathered half of the fallen books into her own hands. He nodded to her smiling face, hoping that she remained in a good mood long enough for him to put the books away and to maybe take a few to get started on their project. She followed him, still chuckling as she handed him book after book.

He gestured toward her last book, pointing to its place on the bookshelf before turning around and grabbing the ladder from a few aisles down. He dragged it back and took his last book and set it on its respectful place. He looked at the shelves in admiration, eyes drinking it the books as he threw around the idea of grabbing a few for his project on Nietzsche.

Oh, who was he kidding? He just liked to be pushed around on the ladder.

He continued to gaze hungrily at the books when he felt a hard shove that sent him wheeling down the aisle. Well, it was supposed to, had he not had a foot on a lower shelf. So when the ladder flew to the side, he fell to the ground.

His breath wheezed out of him, and he looked dazedly into Sam's eyes. His eyes grew wide at the position they were in, her body cradled beneath his, before realizing that this might not be the reason why Sam would possibly castrate him.

His lips were. The fact that they ghosted over her own would most likely contribute to his potential unmanning as she gasped, taking in a deep breath of Freddie's air and shoving him off hurriedly.

Freddie immediately rolled over to the side as he took in Sam's reaction. She was quick to stand up and wipe her lips of any remainder of his and looked down at him angrily before releasing her threat.

"Tell Carly I'm going home."

And with that, she left, Freddie sending a silent prayer up to the gods, thanking them for their mercy.

Especially since their kindness today definitely held a hand in his future children.

He sat up and rubbed his fingertips across his lips, as gently and softly as his lips had done to Sam's, subconsciously looking around before doing something that surprised him.

He licked his lips. He was surprised when he tasted a faint trace of pina colada on them. So that's what Sam's lips tasted like.

He shook his head and quickly got up; fingers attached once again to his lips, making his way through the library when he slammed into another soft body.

"Whoa, slow down there cowboy." Carly's teasing voice brought him out of his stupor. She held him upright as she took in his appearance. Worry covered her forehead as she craned her head around him to catch a glimpse of Sam.

"Where's Sam?" she asked, quite kindly, all things considered.

Freddie looked at her, snatching his hand away from his mouth. He had to give out an excuse and soon.

"She, uh, went home." he rambled. "Something about her mom and, uh, her cousins." He looked at her, praying that she would believe his lies.

"Okay, then." She didn't sound completely convinced, and now Freddie had to go and tell Sam their story. She brightened up soon enough, though. "Well, do you want to stay and study here with me?"

Freddie looked at her, twisting his lips into what he hoped was a heartfelt smile. "Sure, why not?" He offered his arm to her and she happily threaded her own through it, chatting about something or the other. Freddie zoned out, his gaze resting on a book shelf, realization forcing an actual jerk to course through his veins.

"Freddie, what's wrong?" Carly looked over at him expectantly.

"Nothing, I just realized that we were in the 'Y' section of this part of the library."

Carly looked at him as though he were crazy. "Oh-kay……?"

"Nothing," he took a deep breath. "It was nothing"

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**Was it not better?!?!!?! also, another shoutout to xxjourneys who was the amazing winner of the contest last time. She was so sweet with her review of it!! **

**Also, I've been recieving a ton of remarks about the story that say it's not very interlinked. I'd like to take the time right now to clear a few things up. First of all, I'm not angry. I'm just slightly retarded and honestly, my true feelings never come out right on the computer. But that's cuz I'm a retard lol. Onto the more serious topic, now. The story does say in the summary and i quote "watch as Freddie realizes that some things are just meant to be." My story tells the story of how Freddie uncovers his feelings for Sam through a bunch of seemingly unrelated events, because Freddie does not want to feel that way about her. I'm sorry, but I can't just make it one thing and force Sam to dress up and then BAM! we all live happily ever after. That's not the case here.**

**Sam and Freddie are real tight with each other. They respect each other and are there for each other at all times. Which is why Freddie told Sam about the book smelling addiction and slight OCD in chapter 1 and Carly remains clueless to the fact, why he was worried for Sam when he saw her talking to Jonah in Chapter 2 and took on the challenge of working with her, why he allowed Sam to use him to avoid an inevitable detention in chapter 3, why Freddie couldn't bring himself to get angry with Sam for accidently punching him out in Chapter 4 and slept with her on the same bed in Chapter 5. It's also the reason why Freddie could not stay angry with Sam over her reactions with Georgia. I though that showcasing those qualities would help strenghten my overall story. Forgive me if I'm wrong.**

**PS: If you don't review, then I won't know if my story's crap :P I'm shameless, I know.**

**PPS: Sneak peak of next chapter to the first person to pick out the quote from this chapter!!!**

**PPPS: I've been re-reading my chapters and quite honestly, am not too sure about Chapter 3. Do you think that it would have made a better one-shot?**


	8. Chapter 8

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Disclaimer: Don't own a bit of it. Wish i did though.....*sighs dreamily*

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Freddie stood in front of Apartment 8C, hand poised in mid-air. He hesitated, thinking about the repercussions for avoiding Carly for the past week, wanting to turn around and head back into his own apartment. This week had just not gone that well.

After the whole fiasco with Sam, he had opted to stay out of her hair. Well, her hair, her face – he even avoided her in the hallways. And with that fantastic idea came along the job of avoiding Carly. His best friend, the one who had put a bandage on his knee after he fell down in the playground when his mother wasn't around.

He winced slightly, knowing that no matter what had happened, he needed to talk to her. Not explain exactly, but just talk to her. Apologize and try to tell her non-verbally that the topic was something he was just not able to approach yet.

Plus, he needed her advice on what to do for his date with Georgia tomorrow. Sam's absence from his side had prompted Georgia to ask him out once again, and he had accepted.

He knocked on the door. He waited silently, internally berating himself once more for avoiding Carly when he heard her voice call out, her hushed footsteps becoming louder.

"_I'm coming!"_

The door opened, and Freddie found himself face to face with Carly. She looked surprised for the entire half a second she kept the door opened.

Needless to say, she would have slammed the door quite nicely in his face had he not stupidly put his foot through the crack in the nick of time.

"OUCH!!!!"

The door swung back open, and Carly looked down at his pathetic figure cradling his left foot.

She sighed once before grabbing the material of his shirt and hauling him inside. She all but gently threw him onto the couch and stood in front of him, feet tapping impatiently.

"Well?" she asked, annoyance obvious.

Freddie whimpered pitifully as he held fast onto his leg, attempting to soothe the pain. "Can I…please….get a ….moist towelette?"

Carly let out a frustrated sigh before stomping to the kitchen, muttering darkly to herself. She ran a dishcloth underneath the sink for a few seconds before returning to the living room and throwing it at Freddie's face.

"There," she said. "If that's all you'll be needing today, I'll be up in the studio."

She turned around and made way for the stairs, when Freddie finally found his voice, hidden deep underneath his pain and humiliation.

"Wait," he croaked out. "Carly, let me explain."

She stopped on the first stair, frozen, as though contemplating his request. Turning around slowly, she fixed her steely gaze upon his frightened eyes.

"Go on," she sneered.

Freddie gulped; trying to find the words that would keep his best friend's rare angry side at bay.

"I'm sorry," He said. "I didn't mean to avoid you like that all week. Something just came up and I just wanted to be……alone…" he finished feebly.

At his statement, Carly's features morphed into that of pure rage. She stomped off the stair she was on and rounded the chair, looking very much like a predator. Freddie could even swear that he could see electricity cackling through her hair.

_This wasn't going to be good. _

"I just wanted to be alone!" she screeched, mimicking him. "Is that all you have to say for yourself??!?!?!"

Freddie cringed, trying to direct her attention to the fact that he was still injured, hoping to ease the blunt of the arrow.

"And now you think that just because your foot's a bit swollen, I'm going to forgive you, just like that?!?!"

Damn. That plan had clearly not been thought out very well.

Carly jabbed his chest with her accusing finger, poking him in-between words, intent on hurting him the same way he had hurt her.

"And as if that weren't enough." Another rough jab at his slightly sore chest, "Sam's also been avoiding me!"

She let out another frustrated sound, falling onto the couch beside him. Her fingers rubbed her temples rapidly, and she closed her eyes.

Freddie felt bad for his best friend. No one deserved to be treated the way she had. No one deserved to have their two best friends avoid them for a week because of freaky accidents.

He took her hands off her temples and held them in his own. He took a deep breath. It was now or never.

"Carly, this week's been kind of…….." he trailed off. "Unexpected."

Carly's eyes looked into his own, and he nearly jumped for joy when he realized that he finally had her full attention.

"I've just had a lot of thinking to do, and I thought it would be better if I did it on my own," he continued to hold her hands, absently stroking them gently. "And they were just some issues that I needed to figure out by myself."

Carly's silence enveloped the apartment as Freddie continued to rub little circles onto her palms.

It was strange though; he no longer felt a single spark when he touched her hands.

"I really am-"

"Don't you dare start," Carly growled viciously, tugging her hands out of his grasp. "Your stupid issues with Sam are not a good reason to abandon me." She stood up once again. "And her equally retarded issues with you are definitely not the excuse I expect when she's ignored me for a week straight!"

_Damn. She was smarter than Freddie thought. _

Freddie tried to defend himself, but his voice decided to bury itself once more. All that came out was a small squeak, minute, but heard by Carly's sharp, anger-induced ears, which seemed to blow the fuse to Carly's rage.

"That's it," she snarled once more. Hauling him off the couch she threw him out the door. "Pull your head out of your ass talk to Sam. And if you come back before doing so, so help me god….."

_WHAM!!_

At least this time Carly managed to slam the door in his face properly. Freddie groaned, picking himself off the ground, trying to stabilize his footing without applying too much pressure on his hurt foot.

Looked like it was time to visit the Puckett Residence.

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Sam's head whipped out through her open window, hair flying about her as she took in Freddie's form on the ground.

Freddie smiled at her sheepishly, waving his hand as he dropped the rest of the rocks in his hands on the ground. She looked at him in shock.

"Fredward! What are you doing here?" she growled, none too happy to see him.

Freddie imagined himself saying something suave, something cool. So what came out of his mouth turned out to be inevitably stupid.

"I have to talk to you."

Sam looked at him darkly, processing his request. Finally, she sighed and pointed to a cast away ladder before retreating back into her room.

Freddie made his way up, banging his head on the window as he crawled through the limited space.

"Ow," he said, rubbing the abused part tenderly. He gave a slight chuckle as he took in Sam's form on her bed. "You really need to get a bigger window, Sam."

"Freddie, you're so stupid."

"Ouch," he said, placing his other hand over his heart. "You really know how to shoot a poor guy down, Sam."

Sam let out an exasperated groan as she sat up, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"What are you doing here, Fredward?"

Her tone was composed of nothing but ice and malice.

Ouch.

He looked at her for a second before joining her on the bed. He let his entire body stretch out on her bed as he linked his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, trying to come up with an appropriate apology.

He sighed before turning his head to the right, catching Sam's eye.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was a jerk for ignoring you this past week. And Carly said that she refuses to talk to either one of us unless we work things out."

Sam flew off the bed in a huff and stood in front of Freddie, arms crossed over her chest.

She was angry.

_And hello there, other foot! It's so nice to see you! Thanks to you, I now have two hormonal teenage girls on my back._

"And so you only came because Carly told you that she wouldn't talk to you unless we straightened things out." her question was posed as a statement. She was livid.

Volatile Sam, Freddie could deal with. Raging Sam as well. But calm, collected Sam, the one that was probably planning his funeral, he could not.

He gulped loudly, cursing his stupidity.

"I…..I didn't mean it like that……." he said feebly. "I….I just meant that our ignoring each other has….affected more than just us two."

He hurried to her side when he saw her preparing herself for another tirade. He managed to envelope her shaking form into his arms as she fumed, her voice muffled into his chest.

"It didn't affect you from asking out Georgia even though I told you not to."

Freddie's heart plummeted to the ground when he heard her words. How on earth could he have been so stupid?

He had literally betrayed her.

But then, wait a second. He didn't have to listen to each and every one of her ridiculous commands. He had obeyed when she forced him into giving her a toe massage, and when she had awakened him up in the middle of the night, demanding beef jerky.

But he wasn't her servant!

He let go of her, moving away from her quickly as he made his way to the wall, leaning his back against it.

"Excuse me for wanting to have a life that doesn't include you and Carly."

Freddie's sharp words seemed to confuse Sam, and she looked befuddled as she took in his indignant form.

"And I say that I am allowed to go on a date with Georgia without your consent, _Mother._"

Sam's jaw dropped at his statement, but her confusion quickly morphed into anger.

"If only someone cared about what you say," she snapped back at him.

Freddie smirked as he pushed off the wall and closed the distance between the two of them once more. Their chests were nearly touching as he looked down at her.

"Georgia does."

Sam glared back at him furiously.

"Fine. Don't listen to me. Me, who you've been with for 14 years, forget the fact that we actually have a _history_ together. Go out with the nub."

She turned around. It was as though she felt that their conversation was over. Except it was far from it.

Freddie marched up to her back.

"Why do you feel the need to put me down all the time?" he raged. "I am freaking 17 years old, and I sure as hell can go out with whoever I want, whenever I want."

She whirled around and pointed a finger into his chest angrily.

"I don't command you," she shouted, punctuating her words with a jab at his chest. "All I'm saying is that I believe that we have enough of a past together for you to just trust me when I tell you that she's not good for you!"

Freddie grabbed her hands and gripped them tightly as he shot back his answers.

"Maybe if you actually gave me a half-assed reason as to why you're so against Georgia, then I'd freaking believe you!" his face moving closer to hers as he glared at her irately. "You're so freaking volatile; I don't have a flipping concept of what you're on half the damn time!"

"Stop using words I don't know!" she shouted back.

She tore her hands from his grip and stared at him furiously, her small chest heaving up and down as they stared each other down.

Freddie didn't know who started it, but the next thing he knew his hands were gripping her hair as he closed the distance between their mouths.

Her arms scratched at his back while his lips plundered hers abusively. There was nothing but the need to get closer to her. His hands grasped her hair tighter, trying to pull her into him, before abandoning the cause and wrapping around her waist instead, crushing her against him, eliminating any space there was left between the two.

One of her hands stayed on his back as the other flew up into his hair, grabbing it so tightly that it actually hurt. But Freddie barely felt it, overwhelmed by the feel of their mouths moving in perfect rhythm.

His hands began to lax as he slowed his ministrations on her. His tight grip lapsed into gentle caresses and her hands began to sift through his hair softly as his mouth planted tender kisses on her bottom lip.

Her lips began a soft trail down his neck and she settled for nibbling at his collarbone as he gathered her to his body. He felt as though he might just die if she weren't wrapped around him and he needed to feel her.

Needed to know that she was there. Needed to forget about the fact that even though she was not his girlfriend, or even his friend for that matter, he needed her completely.

As his eyes flew open, through his hazy vision he saw the soft outline of her wall. His eyes moved down, and he saw a soft bundle of golden hair that was spread all over him. There were strands over his shoulder, and he seemed to be wrapped in her hair, as much as she was wrapped up in his arms.

He felt at home in the most unlikely of places, with the most unlikely of people. Freddie ran his hands up and down her back and he felt her humming softly as she continued to gently nibble on his neck. Her actions stopped and he just stood there, embracing her in his arms. His hand found its way into her hair, petting delicately and she let out a soft purring noise.

He had always thought of her as cat-like.

Then reality flooded in, and one word ruined it all. It was the first word he spoke afterwards, within a minute of their impromptu make-out session. It was stupid of him, but his mind was running at a million thoughts per second, and it just slipped out.

"_Georgia." _

* * *

**Author's note: Stupid Freddie *wacks him upside the head* How could you have been so insensitive?**

**lol i know that most of you are probably gonna hunt me down with pitchforks for giving you a cliffhanger like that, but i couldn't resist!!! it was the call of the story!!!!!**

**On a more somber note, I have to say a few things about the quotes thing. It's turning out to be pretty much the main reason why my story's so irregularly updated. So I've been thinking about stopping it. I have used 2 quotes here, they're kinda obscure, and i sorta tweaked them, but I'm still unsure on whether or not I'll still have the contest. The main reason is that I need to PM the person, write half the chapter, get the email address and get the preview beta'd and then send it to them and it turns out to take like 5 or 6 days and it's just too much. And then afterwards, I have to get the other half done, and get THAT beta'd and then post it. I tried to write the entire thing in a stretch and it had a lot of glowing.  
****Enough said.  
****So, this might just be the last chapter that i'll do it for. I'm so sorry!**

**Phew, this is a looooong author's note, so I best end it now. Review, a ton of thanks to PamplemousseRose, my beta, who's put up with my inconsistent ass for the past few weeks, and Happy Valentines Day!!!!**


	9. Chapter 9

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Disclaimer: Don't own a bit of it

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Sam's eyes, filled with hurt, met his as she wrenched herself away from his embrace. She took hesitant steps back, staring at him hostilely.

Freddie's hand reached out to her, in a desperate attempt to gather her back into his arms, but it was too late.

She stopped once she was as far away from him as possible; given the tiny space they were encompassed in, and pressed herself into the wall, her eyes still on him.

Silence ensued and nothing was spoken as they looked at each other. Freddie tried to find his voice, but it refused to come back. He gaped at her hopelessly, and set his eyes down to stare at his shuffling feet.

Neither of them would talk. Freddie didn't know what to say, and Sam, _Sam, _was just staring at him.

Freddie couldn't tell how long the silence had lasted, but he knew he was in for it when he heard Sam's voice break through it - icy, and full of malice instead of hurt.

"What did you just call me?" she hissed his way.

His neck snapped up as he looked at her. She had abandoned her previous posture of attempting to fold into the wall and was now standing rigid in front of him, arms straight down her sides, hands balled into fists, eyes blazing in anger.

She was allowed to be angry, though. He had behaved like an insensitive pig, and he knew it. He steeled himself mentally for the onslaught as he caught her blazing eyes.

"Sam," the words left his lips softly as he took a step to her. She scrambled away and stood behind her desk, one that enabled to get even farther away from him.

"Sam, I didn't mean to say that," he said, gently. "It just slipped out."

At his words, she moved out from her fortress of solitude and took short, angry steps towards him. She looked at him bitterly as she stared him down before sighing heavily and moving aside, dropping onto her bed with her head held in her hands.

"Just leave," her voice came out muffled, barely audible for anyone who didn't know her well enough to be able to dissect each and every one of her words. "Leave now, Fredward."

She sounded…..dare he say it? Tired. Bone-tired.

Freddie kneeled down beside her, trying to get a glimpse of her face. His hands slowly pulled apart strands of her golden locks from her face and he gently held her face from her hands before pulling it up to level with his own.

His eyes softened, and he looked at the baby blues that often sparkled, full of mischief and life.

Now they stared back at him lifelessly and his heart fell out of his chest and fell into a dozen pieces onto the floor.

He struggled to find words once again, but once more Sam beat him to the punch. She pushed Freddie away and towered over him as he lay on the ground, awaiting her wrath.

"Don't you dare pity me," she screamed at him, her hair fanning out and creating quite a frightening picture. "The only person you should feel pity for is yourself, since you seem to be flippin' obsessed with Georgia!"

Freddie's head shot up as rage engulfed him once more. They were not having this conversation. Not after everything. Granted, the first words he had spoken after everything, it wasn't a wonder that the first thing to come out of her mouth abused the girl. But, in the end, Sam did not know Georgia.

Freddie pointed a finger at her accusingly, voicing his opinions. "You don't even know Georgia!" his voice matched hers in intensity. "Don't you talk about things you don't know jack about, Puckett!"

Sam looked at him, her face twisted in its inability to express the wide range of emotions she was going through at the moment. Finally, she seemed to settle on making the main attraction anger, before barking out a dry laugh.

"And you do, Benson?" she asked, words full of sarcasm and malevolence. She flipped her hair behind her shoulder impatiently as it fell further down, obscuring her face from his view.

"You don't know a flipping thing about the stupid chick other than the fact that she's the first one to ask you out in, what I'm pretty sure, is forever!"

Freddie, gaping at her tirade, brought himself up and off the floor. He drew himself up to his full height and towered over her slight frame, his body shaking from the pure rage.

"I know that I'm pretty sure I know a lot more about her than you," he shot back, stepping into her personal bubble, uncaring of the consequences.

She slapped him, leaving an angry red mark on his cheek. He didn't back down. She moved away and he followed, angrily stalking her.

She stared him down, before finally laughing once more. Her entire body shook with convulsions and Freddie looked at her, confused. She grasped at her stomach, trying to rein it in before finally looking at him once more.

Freddie was scared once more. Her eyes were not filled with mirth. They were filled with malicious intent. Her mouth twisted into a dark smirk and she stepped away from him, reaching around for her coat and car keys.

"C'mon, Fredward, looks like it's time for a visit to the library."

And with that she disappeared. Freddie looked after her hopelessly, wondering what on earth was going on. Why on earth were they heading to the library, at 9:30 at night for god's sake?

And what the hell did it have to do with Georgia?

Freddie couldn't figure it out if his life depended on it, and before he could comprehend what he was doing, his feet followed hers through the door. He barely heard the Sam's almost incoherent dismissal to her mother, and the completely incoherent reply she was given in return. His body found itself in Sam's old, rusty car, putting on his seatbelt as Sam bolted down the street, making a beeline for the library. Not daring to ask her what was wrong, he sat there in silence, bright lights washing over his face as they passed the several streetlights lining the sidewalk.

They finally reached the school, and Freddie's heart began to pump furiously, as though anticipating…..something……something big…..

Freddie clumsily unbuckled himself, listening to Sam's short and precise orders.

"Follow me. Keep quiet and if you make so much as a noise, I'll throw your ass into the Pacific Ocean. Near the sharks. "

Those were the only orders issued, disguised as words and he felt compelled to follow them.

He trailed after her quietly, letting her lead the way. They made it to the library, and took an abrupt right turn as soon as they entered. Sam opened the second door she saw on the right, and motioned for him to follow. Freddie nodded, going after her into a dark, musty, old storage room. One that had probably not been used for at least a century. Freddie heard a noise, and strained to make them out clearly before Sam enveloped his mouth with her hand. She made a motion with her free hand to keep quiet before leaning forward and whispering in his ear.

"I tried to keep you from doing this. But you're just too damn stubborn, so I give up."

She let go of him and pushed him forward slightly, to the darkened, cobweb-laden and dusty window that adorned the tiny space. She let herself fall back onto an old, forgotten stool and Freddie knew that she wouldn't have trouble hearing a thing from her position, choosing to sit so far away just so he could get the full impact of the words.

He stepped closer to the window, barely making out the words that came from the room right next to him.

"_So, when's Georgie gonna come ?"_ That sounded like it came from Marissa Nielig, a classmate of his.

"_I dunno, but I hope she comes here soon." _That sounded like Iris Jacobs.

Both those people sounded plausible, since Georgia was often flanked by them.

What Freddie wanted to know was why he was there, eavesdropping on them. He turned around to Sam, and let the question light his eyes, searching her face for an answer.

She looked at him, seemingly bored yet with an air of uncertainty about her. She made a shushing motion with her hands and gestured to the window once more.

Freddie sighed softly before returning to the window. The girls continued to talk, and he zoned out slightly before he heard them mutter his name among their topics of conversation. He straightened up pressed his ear closer to the window, trying to dissect their words to find any evidence as to why they would be talking about him.

"_I can't believe she's actually doing it." _Iris's voice took on a note of disdain. Did she not like him or something?

"_I didn't know she was that desperate for money."_ There came Marissa's voice, and her words were also laced with the same emotion. But on the bright side, it probably had nothing to do with him.

Freddie heard footsteps, and a loud moan from a chair as a person sat on it heavily.

"_What up, mes amigos?" _came Georgia's voice, sweet as sugar. "_Are you bitches ready to pay me now, or you guys gonna wait till after tomorrow?"_

Freddie's mind began to go at a thousand words per minute, and he couldn't believe it. His body began to tremble slightly as he prayed to God that his assumptions were not true.

"_Nope. We're gonna wait till tomorrow, after the date, because there's no way on earth you'd be able to spend an entire evening with Fredgeek."_

And his fears were actualized.

"_What can I say, ladies?" _came her voice_. "If there's money to be won, it'll be won by me."_

The three of them burst into laughter and Freddie turned around to look at Sam slowly. His entire body shook and all he wanted to do was leave. He pushed her aside, leaving the room in hurried strides and sat back into her car.

He looked out the front window blankly, confused, and turned to face Sam once she arrived.

She made no move to put the car in ignition, so he quickly re-opened the door and made his way to her side. Her face showed no surprise when he wrenched the driver's side open and stuck his hand out for the keys.

Freddie had only driven her car once before; when they had gone to the beach and she had been too tired to drive. Carly hadn't got her license yet, so Freddie had driven. She had made multiple death threats when he became the designated driver and proceeded to punch him every time she met him for the following week. He had never offered to drive her car again.

But he was going to take his chances this time.

She scurried over to the passenger's side, making it there seconds before he floored it.

The car peeled out from the parking lot, and they sped off into the night. Freddie drove and drove maniacally, swerving only at the last minute, making sure to accelerate whenever possible.

His vision was blurred, but somehow, something told him to stop. The red fog that had been covering his eyes lifted, and he could see that they were at the local park, just around the corner to his apartment.

He cut the engine, and sat there, his deep breaths making up most of the volume in the car.

He didn't look at her, but could feel her eyes on him, pitying him.

"How did you know?" his voice grated out. It was husky, full of suppressed rage.

"Jonah told me the day we were chosen as partners for the project on the dead guy." Her voice didn't miss a beat.

Freddie's head turned to face her incredulously, and through his anger, felt disgusted at himself. He swiveled back to stare at the steering wheel instead of her pitying eyes.

Jonah had known. _Jonah _had known and had told Sam. But Sam hadn't told him.

His grip on the stationary steering wheel tightened, turning his knuckles white. He slapped it before turning to face her once more.

"And you didn't think of telling me?" he hissed her way. "After everything, you couldn't have just told me?"

"Don't try to blame this on me," she said, her pity morphing into slight anger and annoyance in mere milliseconds. "I tried, you just didn't listen."

"And instead of not giving me a reason, you could've just said something." His hands took out his anger on the steering wheel once more.

"Bang my steering wheel again and make no mistake, Benson, I will throw you out of this car," her voice hissed back. "Did you really want me to tell you that the only girl to ask you out since Valerie only did it for a couple of bucks?"

"I expected you to tell the goddamn truth!" he exploded at her. "How was I supposed to know that she was using me for money? You made the entire thing sound like you were jealous!!!"

Freddie knew he had crossed the line the minute the words passed through his lips. Sam's body froze and her lips tightened into a taut line.

"Screw this," his voice continued, even though his brain was sending out warning signals. "I'm outta here."

"Get out." Her voice came out none too gently.

"Gladly," he said, opening the door and throwing himself into the night. He slammed it behind him, making no motion to turn around when he heard the squeal of the tires as she drove away furiously.

He faced the playground angrily, shoving his hands into his pockets, and kicking a lump of rock that had fallen next to him. He made his way to Bushwell Plaza, opening the doors, drowning out Lewbert's roars of indignation at his slightly dirty self, and went up to his apartment.

He let himself in and shoved his mother away when she threw herself at him. He didn't want to talk to her. He didn't want to talk to anyone.

He lay face down on his bed, arms spread out before hearing a voice.

"There's dog poop on your shoes," came the voice.

His head snapped up and he found himself locking eyes with Carly. He gave her a nod of recognition. Turning around, he took off his shoes stupidly, and threw them into his trash can.

Score.

He turned back to face Carly. She had settled herself onto his chair, staring him down.

"So want to tell me why Sam came over to my house, crying, and refusing bacon?"

Shit.

* * *

**Now everyone finally has a legit reason to hate Georgia!!! yay!!!! review people, i got like nearly 380 hits (which, btw, was the highest number i have EVER gotten) but 4 reviews...that makes me angry and sad.....no valentine luv for me *sniff sniff***

**Also just wanted to say that a lot of you missed out on the last chapter, since it was littered with quotes. And not one of you noted which ones they were. Shame on you!**

**Review!!! **

**BETA'S NOTE: hii. it's PamplemousseRose, the beta, here. doggodess04 told me i should leave something here as well, so, uhh...i dunno, review? yes, please do :)  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**OMG I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER FINISH THIS, BUT I JUST RECENTLY READ ALL OF THE LOVE PEOPLE HAVE LEFT ME AND I TEARED UP because I was so terrible to ALL of you! **

**I've not posted ANYTHING for years, and yet you still feel the need to read my stories? Review, even though I've not updated in FOREVER OMG gahh, words cannot explain. **

**Hopefully a new chapter will ;) **

When she finally calmed down enough for Freddie to get in a word, Carly seemed slightly more stable. Her eyes no longer seemed to want to make little Jell-O hearts out of his arteries and she even patted him on the head.

Well, smacked him upside the head, but her intentions were good. Well, she didn't kill him, which was a plus.

She even offered some kind words to him. A few good pieces of advice. A few more smacks upside the head, along with a vicious, "I always knew that girl was up to no good, I'm going to kill her." when Freddie told her about Georgia's true intentions.

Unfortunately, most of her talk did little to help Freddie. All he could think about was Sam's hurt face and her reminding him of the vicious blonde's refusal of bacon did little to help his aching head. All he could do was nod at her words, whilst absentmindedly thinking about the shit in his trash can and how his mom would probably make him use a wheel-chair to prevent 'such a terrible incident from ever occurring again to her Freddie-poo'

Yeck.

Long after she left, her words continued to play over and over in his head though. Freddie looked mindlessly at the stars that glowed faintly upon his ceiling while squeezing his stress ball tightly in his hand.

"_She's always meant so much to us, Freddie," she whispered._

"_Don't let her break apart when she's already so close to falling apart. We've always been there for her and I know you don't just want to be her friend."_

It wasn't his fault, dammit! It was supposed to be easy. He was supposed to be the geek on the outside, welcomed by his one and only true love and her obnoxious, insane and delusional best friend was supposed to just the maid of honor that he would desperately hope to not get too drunk during the wedding.

He closed his eyes. What on earth was wrong with him? Why couldn't he have just fallen for the less complicated girl?

Why couldn't his stupid adolescent heart stay true to his childhood dream of being with Carly forever?

Why couldn't he have just fallen for a girl with no problems?

He rolled over and saw the framed picture of the three of them that had been taken a few summers before. He was in the middle, with Carly on the left and Sam jumping on his back from the right. His face looked downright annoyed, he remembered being very much so because Sam had found out he had taken the last piece of chocolate truffle cake and proceeded to beat the life out of him.

Carly looked amused, her eyes twinkling in laughter as she looked upon the other two with mirth filled eyes. Back when he used to believe that him and Carly would magically end up together in their own fairytale romance, he would pretend that her gaze was directed directly towards him and not to the 'beast' that seemed intent on ripping out his innards that day.

So he saved that picture and framed it to keep on his bedside. For some reason though, now as he gazed upon it, he could only see the corners of his lips twitching up in a smile, and how brightly Sam's eyes seemed to reflect the sunlight.

He also remembered feeling regret for taking the last piece of cake. He asked, begged and pleaded with his mom for a final piece and offered it to the savage and when she took it, he remembered his heart was beating about 150 beats per minute that had nothing to do with fear. For some reason, his heart had been racing because at that time, he was in awe of Sam.

Exactly what, he wasn't quite sure of. Yet, there was something remarkable about the way she seemed to accept his offering and even let him have one forkful before shoveling the rest down her esophagus. She really was something else.

Even when he was determined to make her seem like the bane of his existence, which was true almost 95% of the time, she somehow managed to make that other 5% worth the torture she put him through.

His eyes opened again and looked from the stress ball he gripped tightly in his hands to the glowing stars that adorned his ceiling.

Maybe he wasn't meant to be with the princess who loved everyone. But maybe the other girl, that drunk bridesmaid?

She could definitely use someone to keep her lovely mane of hair from getting into the toilet.

She could use someone who could try to stand beside her, regardless of her insanity. She could use someone comfortable with being used as a punching bag.

She could use him. She needed him as much as he needed her in his life. She practically had a presence inside of them and seemed to permeate through the walls that separated him from her and all he needed now was her forgiveness.

He had to have it. Even if he couldn't stand beside her, he needed to be somewhere in her life and he had to let her understand that he was willing to do whatever it would take to earn him a place in her life again.

He finally smiled before getting off the bed and tossing the ball into the trash with his soiled shoes.

No stress ball could cure what was going to happen and for once, he didn't think that he would really need it anymore.

He'd take glowing stars over a stupid plush toy anyways.

**Another Author's Note: The final chapter's already written (it's also much longer than this one haha). I just thought that even though everyone's probably fed up with Freddie, he should have just one moment of... **

**Maturity?**

**Insanity?**

**I thought he deserved it. Oh, and I don't think I have a beta anymore either =/ I haven't spoken to my old super awesome one yet before uploading this chapter! So if anyone's interested in helping me out with the final few pieces of Alphabets...**


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