A/N I forced myself to write this to overcome my writer's block. Auugh, it's driving me crazy. Anyway, this is what I like to think happened after the end of my favorite Season 2 episode of iCarly, iOweYou, the one where Sam gets a job. I tried to get the dialogue to be more true to the character's voices. Please read and review, thanks!
Five hours later and Freddie was still jumping in the Shay's living room. Well, he'd stopped, of course, to eat dinner with his mom, but he came back after the required thirty minutes of digestion, and started to jump again.
A trampoline in the living room might not have been the most responsible way to spend five hundred bucks, but it wasn't the worst way, either. And although the couch was pushed out into the back hall, blocking fire exits, if Freddie didn't tell his mom about it, nobody would be the wiser. He unbent his knees on the way down, sank deep into the surface of the trampoline, and pushed hard to spring back up as far as he could. His arms flailed a bit to keep his balance.
That morning, Carly and Freddie were cramming for a history test when Sam came dancing into the school. Freddie was really excited, not just because he was going to get his share of the money back, but also because his plan had succeeded. He knew that Carly knew Sam well, but she had been entirely off about how to give Sam that amount of cash. Freddie had figured out why later that day, when Carly and Sam were discussing the evidently spectacular manner in which Sam had quit her job.
The two girls had been jumping on the trampoline while Freddie was taking a breather and getting a drink.
"Did you really stuff the money in your bra and do cartwheels through the parking lot?" Jump, jump, jump.
"You bet I did! Afterwards I was so thirsty, I went back in to get myself a soda, and my boss kicked me out again." Spring, spring, spring.
"Don't you mean your EX boss?"
"I mean my EX boss kicked me out." Sam's smile grew even wider, and she kicked her legs out at the top of her jump.
"You ate their chili, danced on the counter, stuck a plunger in your EX boss's face, and screamed at the customers. You have no shame!" Carly laughed through her recounting of Sam's story.
"You're darn right I don't. But I still have my pride, and a trampoline! Good thing that rich guy loved my chili so much, right?"
Freddie watched Carly and Sam's heads going up and down in alternating rhythm. He quickly chugged the rest of his juice.
Carly stopped jumping for a moment. "Yeah, about that, Sam..." She was going to blow it! Carly was going to tell Sam the truth and they'd be out of a trampoline and Sam would be angry enough to kill a moose!
"Hey girls, check this out!" Freddie scrambled back onto the trampoline, and quickly attempted a flip in midair in order to distract Carly from spilling the beans. The flip failed spectacularly, with Freddie's limbs askew, but Carly got the message. She resumed jumping. Sam laughed at Freddie's flailing arms, and reached out for his hand to help him up.
"Fredward, don't even try to best the master." And Sam executed a messy but powerful flip, tucking her slim legs beneath herself and landing comfortably on her feet. She tried to bow, but got jostled off-balance by the wobble of Freddie and Carly jumping on either side. "Woah!" Sam tumbled off the trampoline. She stood up, brushing herself off, and tried not to look embarrassed. "Well, it's time to eat some more of your food, Carls."
While Sam busied herself with a sandwich, Freddie hissed to Carly.
"Don't tell her yet! She'll get mad and return the trampoline and hate us forever!" Then, in a louder voice, "We should start planning iCarly for this week, don't you think?"
"Okay, but I don't get this pride thing. What has she got to be proud of? She just accepted a tip." Carly whispered, her hands not quite staying on her hips. In a louder voice, "Yes Freddie, do you want to do an instructional segment on how to do flips?"
"This totally sweet trampoline, for one. And her principles, and iCarly, and her improving grades, and," Freddie cut himself off, seeing Sam come back with a sandwich in her hands.
Sam contemplated the sandwich, and contemplated the trampoline. After a few seconds, she decided that she could jump and eat at the same time.
The rest of the afternoon was spent planning iCarly while flinging themselves around. There was a brief interlude that involved pounding a choking Sam on the back until she hocked a bit of turkey onto Carly's face, but after that, it was pretty much all jumping and throwing out ideas.
Freddie tucked away his newfound knowledge that Carly didn't think Sam had anything much to be proud of into the back of his mind. He guessed it was because usually, Sam didn't care what people thought of her. But that wasn't the case. She just cared what certain, particular people thought of her, and tossed the rest of humanity into the gutter. That Freddie was evidently among the people Sam wanted a positive opinion from still baffled him.
It's after dinner now, and Carly's gathering her school things for homework. "Aren't you tired of jumping?"
The fact is, Freddie isn't tired of jumping at all. He's lived his entire life in an apartment building, and even if his family had the means to afford a giant trampoline like this, and a yard to put it in, his mom likely wouldn't have let him have one, on grounds that he could fall off and hurt himself.
"No, not tired!" Freddie grins a winning smile at Carly, and keeps jumping.
There's the sound of something going bang and then crackle coming from Spencer's room. His door opens, and Sam plus some smoke comes out. She coughs a little. Spencer's voice says "I'm okay!" from inside his room.
Before Carly can ask, Sam buffets her imaginary question away with a hand and says, "everything's fine, nothing's on fire, nobody's bleeding."
"Well, I guess I just won't bother to investigate. But I hope he opens a window." Carly tucks her notebooks under her arm. "I'm going upstairs to do math. Want to come and copy me?"
"Nah, I need some more of that fruit punch. I'll come up later." Sam waves Carly up the stairs, and busies herself in the kitchen.
Freddie's contentedly bouncing on the trampoline still, wondering where it's going to end up. It's not like they can keep the couch in the hallway forever. What happens when they want to watch tv? He's going over the options in his mind when Sam throws him off balance by sitting cross legged on the surface of the trampoline.
"What's up, Fredwina?"
Freddie regains his balance and shoots her a glare for the new nickname. "Just enjoying my one half of the trampoline you bought for Carly and me."
"It isn't yours, it's mine! I'm the one who got the money. I'm just borrowing Carly's living room."
"So why aren't you copying Carly's math homework?" Freddie changes the subject. He tries to get Sam's glass of juice to spill out by jumping randomly and hard, but she's too well-balanced.
"If I copy, I won't learn anything, and then I'll fail the test next week, and I won't be able to pass on to the next math class, and then I won't have Carly in my class to copy off of."
"Ah, so you have it all planned out, then."
"Well, that, and I promised myself I'd get a B average this semester." Sam says this in a quieter voice, and swigs down her juice. "What is in this stuff, pineapple? Or is it guava?" She muses nervously into her glass.
Freddie stops jumping and lands with his legs out on the trampoline, sitting beside Sam. He takes a few deep breaths to get his heart rate down. "Why the sudden concern with grades?" He makes a grabbing motion, and Sam lets him borrow her punch for a few gulps.
"Ah, well, I don't know." Sam starts to whine a little. "If I can't get into college, I'll probably end up working at places like Chili My Bowl for the rest of my life, you know?"
Freddie raises an eyebrow at her and she blows her bangs up out of her face with a sigh. He hands back her empty glass and teases her. "What? You don't want to work around something you love?"
"Oh please." Sam lightly punches Freddie on the shoulder. "It's not like my friends are gonna arrange for five hundred dollar tips every week, either." Sam stands up and starts to jump before Freddie can respond, knocking him off the trampoline.
"You mean you knew it was us? When did you find out?" Freddie picks himself off the floor where he rolled. He gnaws his lip waiting for Sam's response while she flings her arms and legs out as wide as they can go.
"Spencer told me, when I went into his room looking for Fudge Balls for dessert. He told me where they all went."
"And, you're not mad?" Freddie climbs back on and starts to jump, timing it so he alternates with Sam, pushing each other higher.
"Nah. I mean, my boss would have fired me by tomorrow, anyway. And the way you arranged it was kind of... sweet." As Sam's face moves up and down past his, Freddie can see her blush a little. Probably just all the exertion. "Still craving some Fudge Balls, though. I might have to go buy some from those girls over by the supermarket."
Freddie rolls his eyes. "With what cash? You spent it all on this!" He points down as he jumps up.
"Hey now, I've got the five bucks left over, too!" Sam pats her back pocket. "Anyway, I've got to return this thing soon."
Freddie stops jumping. "Return it? But I thought you wanted one so bad?" He wants it so bad, too. Who cares about silly things like couches or three hundred dollars, he's got half a giant trampoline.
"What happens when we want to watch tv?" Sam retorts. "Besides, it's mine, not yours, and I can do with it as I please."
"Will it please you to give me my cut of the money you owe me?" Freddie inquires, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
Sam settles, cross legged again, on the trampoline. "That depends. Are you gonna bounce me or what?"
"Bounce you?"
"Yeah. Jump up and down, make me bounce. It's like I'm jumping, without any of the work."
"Oh." Freddie starts to jump, depressed about his trampoline leaving soon.
"You can bounce me better than that. Put your back into it, man!"
"I'm bouncing, I'm bouncing..." Freddie times his jumps better, and Sam is smiling a chesire grin as she's tucked into a ball, hopping into the air from Freddie's exertion.
Between involuntary squeaks and laughter, Sam says, "This was the best idea I ever had!"