Carly Shay sighed and sat down on the sofa in front of the TV. It had been a long day at school, and before she started her homework she NEEDED to relax to a little girly cow. No sooner had her half hour of relaxation started, however, when a once, sometimes twice daily occurrence happened; a familiar face walked through the door, made his way towards the living room, and said, "Hey can I come in?"
"You're already in," Carly said, groaning. "You always already are."
"Aww, come on, Carles!" Freddie said, giving her a little nudge to the arm as he sat beside her with a bowl of oatmeal in hand. "How can you not be excited right now?"
"What are you talking about?" Carly asked, rolling her eyes; no matter how long each day at school was, Freddie always had some perky shenanigan that he thought would cheer her up. But, as she always did, she heard him out; she knew that if she didn't, she would hurt his feelings, and she valued their friendship too much for that.
"The Spanish class Field Trip!!! HOW CAN YOU NOT BE EXCITED?!?!!?"
"Oh right. Leaving for Spain in a week. Staying there for a week. Returning to this place in a week. Yea, I'm excited."
You don't sound excited," Freddie replied, his voice mixed with anticipation and confusion.
"Idk," Carly said, rolling her head on to the sofa throw cushion. "I just don't feel excited today. Maybe tomorrow. Let's just go upstairs to rehearse for tomorrow's show."
Carly and Freddie headed upstairs to look over the scripts they had written regarding the various stunts they were planning to pull on their upcoming web show. "Sam is late," Freddie said.
"She's always late," Carly said, completely emotionless.
"OK, WHAT is wrong with you?!?!?!?" Freddie exclaimed. "I haven't seen you like this since that actor from girly cow joked and said the show was canceled and you believed him!"
"UGH… you're right. I guess I need to lighten up. Why don't you txt Sam and ask her where she is," Carly proposed; although a hint of angst remained in her voice, she attempted to make the best of their upcoming rehearsal. She barely heard Freddie's reply as she made her greatest effort all day to clear her mind of the emotions that kept welling up inside ever since the guy she had liked for three weeks now blatantly had told her today, in his exact words, "I'm not interested."
"She says she'll be here in a minute, she's at the groovy smoothie with Wendy and some others," Freddie said, glancing at Carly apprehensively, but as he looked at her face, he was relieved to see a bit of sunshine peer through her cloudy demeanor.
"Cool," she said, that old spring in her step restored. "And yeah, I am excited about going to Spain! Actually, I think it's exactly what I need right now."
"I think it's what we ALL need right now," Freddie replied; the three of them had recently been through a relentless barrage of standardized testing, which only complemented the other teen-angst related issues they were experiencing. As the two of them reflected on how pumped they were for a little Spanish sunshine, they heard a DING come from the elevator, and Sam's slim and perky figure appeared, complemented by a half-finished smoothie. "THERE you are!" Carly said, exasperated with her friend's bad habit of tardiness. "All right party people, you ready to rehearse?!"
Sam exclaimed. Although the tests and peer pressure had come down the hardest on her, she was the toughest, and thus was best at hiding it.
"Yeah, we're ready," Carly said, forcing a smile.
Freddie took his position and counted down; "In five, four three two…"
