Hey guys, so this is my first crack at a fanfic, and it's Seddie! :L
It was the only way i could somehow get my own fix of them after they ended the arc. So if you don't mind, read and review :D
Disclaimer: The iCarly name, characters and show belong to Dan Schnieder. I own nothing.
Chapter 1: iGet Wonked.
iGet Wonked.
"…thirty seconds till show!"
Three young teenagers bustled quickly around the 8th floor loft of Bushwell Plaza, rushing to their respective positions. Freddie, a boy of 17, in a red polo shirt, the sleeves of which were filled with the triumph of his recent work out routine, was running last minute server link tests at his technical station. Opposite him, Carly, a pale, 17 year old brunette, with the slim body of a 12 year old girl, and her best friend Sam, a lightly tanned, sapphire eyed misfit, oddly carrying a full sized ham, were running over the final outline of tonight's show. Freddie, the man behind the red polo and the stocky arms, easily hoisted the camera, and pointed it at Sam and Carly. As soon as he began to countdown, they turned towards the camera, ready to entertain millions of live viewers around the world.
"And we're on in... 5, 4, 3, 2..."
"Hey! I'm Sam, and this is my ham!"
"And I'm Carly, and that is in fact, Sam's Ham!" gesturing unusually at the raw ham in Sam's arms, with a wide grin.
For a moment, they both stopped, acting like they were puzzled by something.
"Carls, did we forget something?" asked Sam.
"…we totally did!"
And in perfect unison, the two hosts of the most viewed webshow on Earth announced,
"And this! is iCarly!"
"…and we're… clear!" announced Freddie, as he put down his camera. "Good job, as always, girls." he said, complimenting Sam and Carly on yet another successful broadcast of iCarly.
"Benson, tell me something I don't know! …actually, don't do that, you'll bore me." jeered Sam.
"Sam!" exclaimed Carly, playfully slapping her shoulder.
"Its fine Carly. I'm a grown man, I can handle it." he said, shrugging off the bajjillionth insult that Sam fired at him. Normally, he'd actually mean that it didn't affect him, but lately, it's been hitting harder than usual.
"You? A grown man? Oh Frednub. You make me laugh!" she declared, pushing right past him. "I'll be in the kitchen!" she stated, leaving Carly and Freddie in the studio.
"I wonder if Spencer can cook that ham..." trailed Sam's voice, not surprising either of them.
Freddie walked sulkily over to the bean-bag chairs, and sunk into the blue one, letting go of the exhausting facade.
"She'll come back around eventually." said Carly, leaning over to place her hand on his hunched shoulder.
"Yeah? And when will that be? When cows fly?" he moped.
"You mean pigs." corrected Carly.
"I know what I meant!" he burst.
Taken aback, Carly took her hand off of his shoulder, and sat down cross legged directly in front of him.
"It must be hard for you. After the split and all."
"You have no idea. I'm around her almost every waking hour! I can't believe I ruined something like that, and it hurts so much more when I see her. I mean, it was easier when we broke it off, I completely understood it. I'm not saying I didn't regret doing it, but with Sam, I felt like it was…" Freddie paused to gather the right words. "the absolute wrong thing to do. Sure, we had differences-"
"And that's why you did it, because you two didn't have enough in common?" cutting in on his ramble.
"I didn't care about the differences though! We should've tried to make it work! Not go to you to fix our fights! I loved… love her." the last words just barely escaped his mouth. Freddie knew that it was stupid to say something like that out loud, and to make it about Sam? She'd harass him with this into the ground if she were here. They left it on good terms, but after a few months of trying to play nice for iCarly, there were just so many unspoken things. Things that were left untouched all because they both came to the conclusion that they were too different. Freddie couldn't speak on Sam's behalf, but the bottling of those feelings caused some rips in his heart. The torment that she gave him lately didn't help. He was weakened, and to let that show was not on his to-do list. Nor did he dare show that he was in love with her still. It was the hardest of loves. Unrequited. Much worse than the love he had for Carly, from the start Freddie understood that that was simply a crush. With Sam though? He actually had a chance with her, that he completely blew, and now, after they've broken up, he's the one with the over-bearing love. You wouldn't see Sam in a situation like this, she was much too tough. He loved that though, he loved that her predominant emotions were mostly anger, mischief and indifference. He loved the way her dainty mouth curled in joy when she saw a large plate of bacon. One of the memories he stubbornly clung to was the sweet face she made when she eats a plate of Pini's lasagne, perfect eyes and dainty mouth completely shut, completely savouring the taste. Carly could see he was horribly deep in thought, and felt the need to say something.
"Look. You made her happy, I could see it in the way she looked at you, like you were a fresh Fat Cake." she said, with a completely sincere face.
Freddie raised his head slowly, sensing that there was a lot more to be said.
"but…"
"But, you two have separate interests! She likes punching, and you like punch. You like model trains, but she likes blowing them up."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. We went through that.'
"Listen to me!" squealed Carly. He tensed up, surprised at her sudden outburst. "I'm not saying that won't let you be together. It's just not going to be now."
That cut Freddie deep. Having his fears made real by Carly. It harrowed his very soul.
Meanwhile, downstairs, in the kitchen, Sam was busy. Not with the ham though. But with her second informal therapy session with Spencer.
"It's frustrating Spence! This whole thing makes me wanna…" with a scream of discontent she picked up a banana that was on the counter and hurled it at the back door. Spencer ducked quickly, yelping loudly and hugging his head. There was a large thud as the banana ricocheted off of the door and onto the ground. Cautiously, Spencer rose up, looking back at the mildly smooshed fruit that lay on the ground. Slowly, he looked back to Sam, who was resting face first on the tabletop.
"Sam come on now. You don't need to feel this wa-"
"You think I don't know that Spencer? You think I haven't tried stopping this whole situation?" scowling faintly at him. "God, you're as stupid as you look!" she yelled, getting out of her seat and stomping away from the kitchen.
The couch was the only place she wanted to be, face down, head buried in a pillow, completely oblivious to anyone and anything around her. The moment her face hit the couch though, she knew that it was harsh of her to say something like that to Spencer. Still, she didn't dare lift her head. There was only a muffled apology, and the sounds of her exasperated grunting into the pillow. Her blonde curls fell all around her head, acting as the veil between her and facing Spencer. It was then to her surprise, when his large, comforting hand was placed on her shoulder.
"I know why you're like this, Sam. Acting out a lot more than normal, frustrated at everything."
"Oh, really." with all the sarcasm that she could muster, face still dug deep into the cushion.
"Really, really. You're used to having the control in your life. I mean, before all the pizzazzle with your mom, and you moving in here, you headed straight for the food, not letting anyone tell you otherwise. I even hear it from Carly, she always gets worried about you. Goin' on about how you're always getting detentions for not following what Mrs. Briggs and Mr. Howard are telling you to do. And now, you have no control over what you wanna feel, and that only makes you feel angry,… frustrated."
Spencer was completely right. Sam knew that, but the more she accepted it, the more she wanted to reject it.
"When Carly came back from the lock-in, she told me about what happened between you and Freddie." he paused, letting her sit up straight. "I think I may have been the only one to notice, but before the lock-in, and after you tried to save that kid Nevel's reputation, you were acting exactly the same way that you were now. Overly frustrated, and picking on Freddie a whole lot more."
"Yeah, well that was because after all the chiz we did for Nevel, he had to go and screw it all up again by yelling at that old lady. I had to take it out on someone." said Sam, in a matter-of-factly tone.
"We both know that's not true." he said, with a look that seemed to see right through her lie. "You know, a great person once said 'In order to observe, you must cast yourself out of the clique', and being Carly's older brother, I've always been able to see what's going on, all the subtle things that the three of you put out. I saw the slight glint in your eyes when you lashed out at Freddie back then, like you instantly regretted it. Like you wanted to take it back."
"Well if it's so clear to you, then why didn't Carly see it? Huh? Tell me that!"
"She trusts you. Carly trusted you when you told her it was all about Nevel. It wasn't though, was it?"
Sam was losing it. Part of her actually wanted to admit it was Freddie, but another part of her kicked herself in the stomach for thinking that, but she truly needed to get it out sometime.
"Fine! It's because of Freddie, okay? You happy? I knew, even before I made the mistake of kissing him, that we weren't going to work out! That didn't stop me from being all… pansy and thinking that 'I love him'" putting the last three words in air quotes. It was clear that she was even more vexed by it all. "I can't stop! No matter how much I want to, I can't stop caring for him! I even tried being all sweet and nice around him! But that just got me deeper into the chiz. Before the lock-in, it was so easy! I had an alibi."
"But..."
"But now! After we went out, and split up… it just makes me realise how out of my control this all is. And momma does not like that! We tried to force something that wasn't natural, he was the tech-dork, and I'm… well… I'm Me! We just can't be together! I was wrong to think that we could. So, yeah! Maybe I am just pushing him away. So I don't have to deal with all of it!"
The entire time she was talking, she hadn't looked at Spencer once. Looking at him now, she saw something entirely different, not the zany sculptor that dropped out of law school for a more relaxed life, but a concerned older brother, the kind that she wished she had. His mouth was pressed into a worried line. Just when he was about to say something, the elevator bell dinged. On impulse, Sam grabbed Spencer's face, prying his right eye-lid open and acted like there was something in his eye.
"…Yup, there it is. Just let me-"
Both Freddie and Carly were looking at her like she was a hobo holding a million dollars. They stepped awkwardly out of the elevator, standing still as the pale green metal door shut behind them.
"Sam. Sam. SAM!" yelled Carly, grabbing her attention.
Still feigning surprise, Sam threw Spencer aside, warranting another yelp as he fell off the coffee table that he sat on.
"Oh, hey Carls! Spencer had an eyelash in his eye." lied Sam, trying to make her way past her and Freddie and towards the fridge. Unintentionally, she bumped into the both of them, shoulders connecting in an accidental shove. In a knee jerk reaction, her hand jolts straight up to her chest. For a moment, her own hand almost closed around Freddie's as they brushed, sending buzzes around her body.
"Jeez! Watch where you're going, dork! You're in my way!" pushing him as violently as she could without hurting him.
"Sam!" Carly scolded. "Stop being so mean to Freddie! He's… having a hard time."
"Yeah? Like I care." said Sam, the icicles on her breath almost visible.
Spencer jumped up to cut through the hostilities, the two of them obviously needed to be separated for the time being, the tension in here was almost tangible. In all honesty, he was doing this for Carly, it was clear that she was going to try fix this, no matter what she'd do to herself. Care was her fatal flaw, there was too much of it when it came to Sam and Freddie. Now that there was some unspoken issue between them, sparks were going to fly, and Carly would be caught in the cross-fire, just trying to do right by her friends.
"Freddie, dude, come with me to the Groovy Smoothie, hmm? I feel like some Strawberry Splat." offered Spencer, herding Freddie towards the door. "I'll get all of you your usual orders, sound good? Yeah? Okay. Good." just before he left, he shot a glance at Carly, that seemed to say 'take care of Sam, and make sure she doesn't break anything.' With a nod of acknowledgement, she turned her back on Spencer, and looked at the hurt face of her best friend, noticing a blob of mustard on her face.
"Umm, Sam?"
"Carls, no. I don't need your talk, not right now okay?"
"But Saaaam…"
"No! I said no! It's frustrating enough to have Benson parading around me with those stupid muscly arms, and that irritating cute smile he has! I thought you'd understand what I'm dealing with!"
"I didn't say that I did! I just wanted to tell you… that you have mustard on your chin." rubbing her own chin as an indicator of where it was.
Sam's eyes widened in embarrassment, not because of the mustard, but because she just blurted out something that Carly would never let go of.
"So…" said Carly, plonking herself next to Sam on the couch.
"yeah." she replied, in a monotonous tone.
"Still love Freddie?"
"yup." Sam surrendered.
Again, if y'all want the next part, R&R, it'll help me heaps with editing. :)
