A/N: Do you know what I can't seem to find? A story about Sam Puckett and Beck Oliver. Do you know what I can't seem to do? Get this idea out of my head. Do you know what I don't own? Neither iCarly nor Victorious, so please don't sue me. Please. Think of the children.
CHAPTER ONE: THE FALLS
He could still hear the ferocious crash of Niagra Falls, but Beck Oliver had trekked far enough away from the bustling tourists to feel a sense of peace. He sauntered a familiar path that ran alongside the river, a secluded trail that Beck and his father had discover when Beck was a little kid. They would often take vacations to the national park and lose themselves in the wilderness.
An entire summer away from Hollywood was like a dream. Beck knew there were some great perks to living in L.A., predominantly the opportunity to pursue his love of performing, of assuming another identity and getting in another person's skin. That was part of why he loved acting - other people fascinated him.
That said, there were definite drawbacks to Hollywood. While many people adored the perpetual sunshine, Beck itched to witness the seasons changing, to feel the cold bite of winter or crunch through a russet flurry of leaves in the fall.
He quickly grew bored of beaches and cookie-cutter starlets who flashed their impossibly white teeth at him. They cared only for advancing their careers for fame and money, and the utter falseness of them depressed him. At school he was thankful to have a group of friends who genuinely cared about performing simply for the thrill of it, and for the chance to share their joy with others. Well, his friends and Trina.
Jade had once been the antidote to the cheesy manufactured glitz. She had immediately caught his attention with her pale skin and subversive clothes, and maintained it with the fact that she didn't care whether or not people liked her artistic endeavors. If she liked it, that was enough.
Jade West was real. If she didn't like you, she wouldn't pretend to, or even say things behind your back. She would outright say it. If you annoyed her, she'd make sure you'd pay. If you upset her, she cried - though never in public. Feelings were private with her, and if you wanted to share them you'd have to earn it.
At just over two years, it was the longest and most intense relationship that Beck had ever committed to, and he would never forget it. But a few months ago he had sensed that things simply weren't clicking anymore between himself and Jade. What had been flirtatious banter and gentle snark had turned to tension and snappiness, from both of them. He hated it - to feel any dislike for someone he cared about so deeply.
The night when she had been stood out on Tori's porch counting down the demise of their relationship, a big part of him had wanted to wrench the door open and hold Jade in his arms as tightly as he could, spinning her and laughing with her.
But something had broken. Things were not like they used to be. The idea of sticking with Jade and committing to the bitter arguments, the awkward silences, the veiled hatred...he wouldn't do that to her. He'd seen how a strong bond of love could rot. He remembered his parents being deliriously happy when he was younger. Not so anymore. They remained married and they lived together, but they were living as strangers. They rarely spoke to one another and, if they did, they voiced comments injected with poison and bile. If they would only divorce he was sure things would be better, but they were stubborn, and remained together out of spite.
Beck was so pleased to have the R.V. He could no longer live in a household under such pressurized stress, and rarely ventured into the main house for anything other than food and the use of the bathroom. His trailer was a sanctuary. Also, rather handily, it was a sanctuary that had wheels and could go anywhere he wanted and so, with his parents' permission, he had driven it to a little-known campground in Niagra Falls National Park and set up there for the summer.
There were only a couple of other R.V.s dotted around, some of them currently empty as they were used as vacation places all year round. As he arrived back in the fading sunlight, he inhaled the cool air happily and closed his eyes to listen the sounds of the birds, coming in to rest for the night in the wooded areas surrounding the camp.
The calm, and his meditative state, were interrupted, however, as the sound of angry cursing invaded his ears. Beck frowned slightly before opening his eyes, and searching for the source of the noise.
Sam Puckett officially decided that she hated tents. No, in fact, hate wasn't strong enough a word. She flat-out loathed tents. Especially this tent. She'd gotten the gist of the instructions before spitting her gum into them and tossing them aside. She had stuck a bunch of poles together, as advised, but making them taught without them springing out of position and thwacking her painfully in the arm was proving impossible. She growled and hurled the metal frames aside, deciding instead to unfurl the actual tent material and see if she could somehow prop it up from underneath.
Beck watched the blonde, and found a smile of amusement traced across his face as she got tangled up in the tent canvas, flailing around and yelling muffled obscenities before tripping on a bag of tent pegs and landing in the scattered pile of poles. He felt bad but couldn't help but chuckle at her situation. Still, ever the gentleman, he decided to go and give her a hand.
As he reached her, Sam was oblivious and continued to kick and fight against the tent until she finally managed to free herself, panting and glowering at her captor. She was so preoccupied with thoughts of tearing the thing to shreds, when a voice made her jump and she whirled around, looking flustered.
"Uh…hey," Beck said with a friendly smile and an awkward wave. "You alright over here?"
Sam blinked at him, looking dazed, then spouted a bunch of incoherent bits of words before staring at her sneakers in embarrassment, defeated.
Beck raised an eyebrow and yet again found himself battling the urge to laugh. "I noticed you were fighting with your tent, there. And…I think the tent was winning."
Sam shot a narrow glare at the unassembled pieces on the ground. "It won't be winning when I smash it up and throw it in the river," she said in a low voice, as if for the tent's benefit.
"Hmm, I think the park rangers might frown upon that," he said, crouching down to begin collecting the poles together.
Sam simply stood there, feeling her cheeks burn red. It wasn't enough that someone had seen her lose her pride completely (and look like a total idiot in the process), but that that someone also had to be the most handsome boy she'd ever laid eyes on.
Even in the best of situations she didn't really know how to act around attractive boys. It generally involved not speaking to them, and leaving the effortless flirtation to Carly. She'd only ever had one proper relationship – with Freddie – but even then she'd felt hugely out of her depth and it had lasted barely a month. She'd pretty much resigned herself to being single forever. It was so much less work. So why exactly was she feeling self-conscious? Suck it up, Puckett.
"Stupid thing won't do what I tell it to," she grumbled as she passed him a pole. It wasn't quite admitting to needing help, but he seemed to be happy helping anyway.
"Tents aren't really known for their obedience," he winked, making the girl avoid eye contact and pretend she hadn't been looking at his butt as he was bending over. "Do you have the instructions?"
"Um…" Sam searched around her and then fetched the screwed up piece of paper.
Beck raised an eyebrow as she handed it to him, unfolding it and finding strings of sticky bubblegum hindering the process. He wrinkled his nose and she offered a nervous smile when he looked at her.
"Did you get mad at the instructions too?" he smirked.
"They were in cahoots."
"Ah, I see," he laughed. "Well not to worry. Seems like a pretty standard dome tent, I shouldn't have a problem getting it up."
Sam looked at him, and he paused, thinking over what he had said.
"The tent," he backtracked hurriedly. "I meant that I can get the tent up, not that-"
"-It's cool," she laughed it off and he chuckled uneasily before clearing his throat.
"Yeah, so, how come your friends aren't here to help you?" he asked as he began fitting the poles together.
She frowned. "Um, because they're not here. I came on my own."
"Oh," Beck replied, surprised. "I guess I just assumed, 'cause, y'know…this is a three man tent."
"Well maybe I'm going to bring back three men later on," she said, before blushing yet again. "JOKE," she added quickly.
Her perceived mistake wasn't lost on him, but he chose to ignore it since she'd been so kind to let his own faux pas slide. "Well I guess you need the room for your stuff, too," he said, gesturing over to where a suitcase and a checkered rucksack sat on the grass with a rolled-up sleeping bag.
"Oh that's mostly just snacks," she explained. "Do you need me to do anything?"
"Oh no," Beck said with mock concern. "I think it's best for everyone if you don't touch the tent until it's pitched."
"Ha ha," she said, completely deadpan.
Another thick cloud of awkward fell on them as Beck worked and Sam shifted her weight from foot to foot, simultaneously watching him and pretending not to watch him. It annoyed her because she felt like a pathetic damsel in distress.
"Well, I guess I'll go and check out where everything is," she suggested. "Gotta know where I can take a waz, right?"
He let out a short laugh from under the tent canvas, and Sam smiled as she began to wander away.
"Don't get lost in the woods or anything!" he called to her, poking his head out from under the material. He was slightly worried that this little blonde girl who got beaten by a tent might be a hazard to herself.
"I won't!" she said, irritated by his concern.
"Try not to get eaten by bears, Goldilocks!" he added playfully, before going back to his work.
She stiffened and shot a warning glance back at him, but relaxed when she found he wasn't paying attention. Still, it riled her, and she confirmed to herself that silly ideas of romance were definitely not something to dwell on with this guy.
She stretched as she walked, gazing up at the sky and noticing that the stars were already starting to burst through the decreasing daylight.
Sam had decided to spend the summer away on a whim more than anything. Carly and Spencer were gone visiting their dad anyway, so the webshow was on its annual hiatus. Gibby was on some family trip to Yerba or something, which left her and the nub.
Freddie wasn't going anywhere this summer since his mother was still so low on funds after her ill-advised chicken investment. Sam couldn't stand the idea of hanging out as just a twosome, acting like things were just as they were a year ago and suffering through agonising silences.
Instead she just took off one night, leaving a note for her mother (who wouldn't care too much anyway) that explained how to reach her if she needed to.
She hopped on a series of buses and decided that Canada was where she wanted to be. Her stomach was crying out for a fix of their fat cakes anyway - they'd been on her mind since her trip to the factory, which had totally been worth being accidentally shipped to Malaysia (though Spencer, Carly and Freddie hadn't been impressed with the paperwork that was necessary to get her back).
At the border she had pretended she was with a middle-aged couple because she knew they wouldn't let her through as an unaccompanied minor. From there she stocked up on fat cakes, snuck onto a tour bus, and ended up wandering aimlessly along various trails around Niagra Falls until she found a campground with the least amount of people. She never really liked people.
She hadn't been camping since she was younger, when she'd sometimes snuck out to the nearest wilderness she could find and pitch up for the weekend, just to get away from her mother more than anything. Whenever her mom had a new boyfriend over, Sam wanted to be elsewhere. Nowadays she had Carly's apartment to escape to - but even that seemed less of a haven with Freddie across the hall.
She whistled as she reached the small breeze-block building at the other end of the site. The block was separated for men and women, with a single tap sticking out from the outside wall for drinking water.
Her sneakers squeaked as she entered, checking out the facilities. There were five bathroom stalls, five shower stalls, and a row of sinks down the middle, separating them. There was some paint peeling from the wall, some mold dotting the ceiling, and a few spiders in the corners, but none of it bothered Sam. She wasn't paying for five-star luxury.
But she was paying for a place on the site, and she didn't have access to a whole lot of cash. The only way she would be able to stay for the whole summer, would be to get a job. She shuddered at the thought, and crushed a spider under her foot angrily. She stared at its smooshed body on the ground and sighed.
"Sorry, man. Bad day," she murmured guiltily, before dragging her feet back to camp.
When she returned, she was amazed at how quickly the boy had managed to get the tent actually looking like a tent and not just a bunch of random pieces.
"Wow, you're like the camping master!" she praised, before yawning theatrically. "Well, I guess I should hit the hay."
"Um, I'm not finished yet," Beck explained, chuckling. "That's just the inner."
She looked at him, frowned slightly, and cocked her head on one side.
"We gotta cover it with the outer and peg it down, otherwise if it rains, you're gonna get soaked."
"Oh..." she muttered, back to feeling like an idiot girly girl. "I knew that," she added defensively, grabbing hold of the outer canvas.
The boy took the other side of it and together they hauled it over the frame and hammered the pegs and ropes into place.
"There. That should hold her," he said with a proud smile, twanging one of the ropes.
"Yup."
They stood there for a few moments, admiring their work. Sam felt pretty awkward. Was he expecting something in return? She certainly wasn't going to invite him in, if that was what he was hoping for. Heck, if that was what he wanted, she would-
"Right, so I better be getting back," the boy interrupted her thoughts, and pointed a thumb back to his trailer. "You try not to get into any more trouble with the tent, alright?" he grinned.
She narrowed her eyes, but coupled it with smirk before saying, "I think it's tame now."
He hovered a moment, and Sam remembered how 'thank you' had never really been in her vocabulary. "I owe you," she decided. It wasn't a fluttery, flirtatious 'you saved me!'. More a friendly 'I appreciate it, bro' that said she was just a friend. Just one of the guys. She hoped it was enough to repel any crush he had.
He waved her down. "Gotta make my time as a boy scout worth something. Besides, it gave me something to do," he assured her. Anything to take his mind off Jade. And at least this girl wasn't fawning after him. He liked her for that. He began to saunter back to his trailer.
"Night," Sam called, smiling.
"Sleep well," he replied brightly.
A/NII: I don't really know what to christen this ship. Um...Bam? Seck? Olivett? Puckiver?
Ha! Puckiver! At least I crack myself up...
Tune in next time, when they'll actually find out what each other's name is. Oh, and there will be some stuff that's way more exciting than just that, because a whole chapter about names would suck.
Also this story takes some inspiration (but not much) from a little-known-but-still-awesome TV show called 'Wonderfalls'. Look it up on YouTube: funny stuff.
So...thoughts?