This is my first multi chapter fic for this show and couple. I prefer one shots but this idea popped into my head so I'm attempting it. It's set four months after iOMG. I don't own the characters, they belong to Danwarp. It sucks, I warn you before you embark on this reading. It's probably terribly OOC and I apologize for that in advance.

Read if you want, review if you wish. But enjoy either way. :0)

T U R N I N G T A B L E S .

Avoid, avoid, avoid. Deny, deny deny.

This was her mantra and the reason she signed up for five clubs the first day of her senior year. After the disaster that was Rideway's annual lock in, she did what she could to avoid and or deny any opportunity that Freddie tried to present himself as anything more than the nub that she had known most of her life. With the exception of the webshow rehearsals and actual webshows she did a pretty good job. They were still friends on the surface but she didn't pick on him as much as she use to and she kept her verbal jabs to a minimum. Sometimes it was hard to keep herself in check but the knowing smirk Freddie provided her anytime she said anything remotely mean to him was usually enough to keep her from doing it very often. To say they got along more than they use to would be a stretch. She still wanted to punch him in the face more than not, she just couldn't do it now.

After a long talk that she tried to tune out from Freddie, she played the whole thing off as much as he would let her. Which wasn't much, but they remained the trio. She vowed after that horrible conversation it was done, and she did everything she could to make it be that way. He watched her more now, was always trying to catch her eyes but she didn't let him. He text her more the first few months after the talk, but she didn't respond anymore than she use to, so he quit with text messages and showed up at her house a few times to "watch a movie". She aways claimed to be busy and she sent him on his way.

She wished still to take it all back, to go back to things before. Before he got the upper hand, before he smiled at her just because he knew it affected her, before he sat closer to her on the couch at casa de Shay. Before he made sure to let his presence known by invading her space every single time he came into a room she was in. Before the smell of his cologne sent her head into a tizzy.

She wanted to beat the shit out of him, to beat the horrific last few months out of his brain and make it like it use to be. If it wasn't for his constant purposeful presence she wouldn't be stuck at the bake sale sitting in front of the local mall-mart. People annoyed her. Pretty much every person in the world annoyed her today. At least she had Carly, who she forced to sign up with her, claiming it was for her sanity because she needed to escape the nub.

Carly. Her best friend. She had thrown a shoe at her when she finally spilled the secret that she had been keeping for far too long. She claimed it was only fair that she get to do something, because they were best friends and best friends didn't keep secrets and how could she possibly keep it a secret this long, and why didn't she tell her before, and oh my God she had kissed him. She had somewhat dated him and she had no idea and she was the worst friend ever. How could she have been so blind and Freddie didn't really love her, she hoped that she knew that. It was just a crush and she would make it happen, she would talk to Freddie and she would make him see how perfect him and Sam could be. After numerous of similar conversations happening, Sam had convinced her best friend to leave it alone. She didn't know if she ever talked to Freddie about it, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

A knowing smile always graced her features when Freddie would purposely split the two sitting on the couch so that he could sit in between them, much closer to the blonde than the brunette. She did what she could to avoid any confrontations though. She had Carly as her back up, always by her side, always her safety net. Thank God for Carly. She even tried to pay for some of her stuff now, and she tried not to eat Spencer out of house and home because of how clingy she had become to her best friend. She tried to steer clear of being by herself, always having someone with her. Her mom had noticed that she was at home even less than she use to be and she felt kind of bad for abandoning her since the therapy sessions were working wonders on their relationship. Melanie was always telling her she should hang out with him, that she didn't know it but she had to be driving the guy crazy. Good. He deserved to go crazy. She didn't really believe that though. He was in love with Carly, while it wasn't as evident as before, it was something that she clung too. The familiarity that Freddie loved Carly, and Carly didn't reciprocate his feelings. It was easier to believe this than it was to believe that things had changed drastically because of her actions. It scared her to think things were different, and she didn't like fear. Fear wasn't something she did.

So there they sat, bored and annoyed with the two girls on the right of Carly.

"So you and him aren't?" The blonde girl asked Carly. Trying to gauge what was really going on with her and the technical producer. Sam rolled her eyes. This was about the fourth, maybe fifth girl that had asked Carly or her what "Freddie's deal was?" How was she suppose to know? She did what she could to make sure she didn't have any more contact with him than was necessary.

"No we aren't, but he kind of has a thing with someone." Carly lied.

"Oh really? Do I know her?" Jessica Linncey asked with a fake smile.

"How would Carly know who you know?" She rudely interjected with an annoyed tone.

"It was just a question Samantha" the red headed girl beside Jessica rolled her eyes.

"Look, Freddie is single. Do with that what you will."

"No he's not." Carly lied again.

"Yes he is." Sam was getting more irritated as the day dragged on.

"No he's not, Sam isn't around him as much as me, I would know." Carly smiled at Jessica.

"We get it, he's taken." The red head had to put her two cents in.

Sam rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Not only had they not sold much at this stupid bake sale but they also had to put up with these two girls asking all sorts of questions about iCarly and more specifically Freddie. Sam sighed, everyone wanted him now.

She wanted him first. A thought that crossed her mind a lot. He hadn't dated anyone but girls propositioning him at his locker which was in between Sam and Carly for their senior year was a regular occurrence. She hated it. She couldn't act like it bothered her so she often buried her head in her locker, looking for whatever book that was probably already in her backpack for her next class. He would grin at her when another girl went off dejected. His claim was that he didn't really have time to date right now, and he had to focus on school if he wanted to get into Stanford. He was already in, not many knew that, but he was accepted early so she knew he was lying. He was always trying to spare her feelings and she wondered if he would say yes if she wasn't around. She didn't let herself dwell on these thoughts, but she couldn't help when they popped up.

They still had an hour when he showed up claiming he needed brownies to help him study. He walked up in his jeans and orange polo shirt. She wouldn't have looked up from her phone had she not heard the girls to Carly's right say "Damn."

She had to look up because if they thought Freddie was hot than she would probably agree with their taste in guys, her eyes drifted towards him as he walked towards them. She was thankful for her sunglasses hiding her eyes. He stood in front of them now, his hands in his pockets, a stance she was familiar with.

"Sorry we don't sell to nubs." It was out of her mouth without much thought and she wanted to kick herself for making him raise his eyebrows.

"Hi Freddie." Jessica beamed with a smile that would stop most boys in their tracks.

Freddie had to think, who was this girl? He didn't want to seem rude but he had no idea who the girl was. He was there to annoy the blonde on the left of his best friend, not meet a new girl.

"Hey..." He couldn't think of her name and didn't really care to know.

"Jessica, Jessica Linncey. We have AP English together."

"Right, yeah sorry, there are a lot of people in that class."

Sam had to stop herself from laughing at his oblivious dig at the girl.

'Yeah…" she finished lamely and pulled out her phone to appear important.

Freddie shifted his attention to his best friends.

"When is this gig up?" He asked both girls knowing fully well that Carly would be the one to answer.

"About an hour. Then we are going to Jake's party later tonight." Carly let him in on their plans hoping he would tag along.

"Oh yeah?" Freddie aimed the question at Sam but she ignored him like he knew she would. It was one thing to be rejected outright by one of his best friends but it was completely different with Sam because she didn't even acknowledge him most of the time. So instead of being rejected, he was ignored. It sucked, and Brad had told him to give it up, that there were other girls practically throwing themselves at him, but he couldn't. He wanted her. It might have taken her attacking his face to recognize it, but he knew it now. Which was why all of his efforts towards gaining her friendship back, or more was practically the only thing that mattered to him. He intentionally invaded her space, and stared at her during the webshow. On the rare occasion that he gets a smile from her he knows it's worth it to keep trying.

A party at Jakes could be fun but he would probably end up dodging girls to try and get any form of interaction with Sam. He was pathetic, he had accepted this long ago when he thought he was in love with Carly and nothing she did or said made him give up. Now it was Sam. She was his conquest, as horrible as it sounded that was what it felt like. His feeble attempts to hang out with her outside of Carly failed and he wondered if she could really avoid him until he went off to Stanford. It had been four months, four months since she had knocked his entire world upside down and made it spin. It took him a month to figure it out, all it took was her smiling at him and telling him he did a good job on a video that he made for his stomach to drop to the ground and his heart to race. He had tried to tell her she meant something to him, that he didn't know what it was yet, but if she could just give him some time. That was three days after the lock in and they never spoke of it again. She was nicer, less violent, but also more quiet, and avoided him like the plague most days. Carly was convinced that he needed to just show up at her house and kiss her, he attempted it twice but chickened out before he could do it. She claimed she was busy and they couldn't hang out. It didn't stop him from texting her good morning sometimes or asking her a stupid question just to get a response from her. His life had become consumed with all things Sam. The picture on his laptop background was one of her and Carly, he took the picture and she was smiling at him while his best friend was smiling at the camera and not the photographer.

He noticed she tried more, whether she knew he noticed or not, it didn't matter because she was making an effort. Whether it was the days she would straighten her hair or wear a tshirt with his favorite band on it. She did it for him. And it was because of small displays like this that he couldn't give up. So that's why when girls like Jessica, Katelyn or Arabella were giving him more attention than usual, it didn't phase him. Had they shown such an interest a year ago things would be different, but they didn't, and things had changed.

For instance, when Carly and him were alone, most of the time their conversations were about Sam. Carly assured him that she just needed some time, that Sam still wanted him but she was scared so she avoided him. She was constantly trying to reassure him that Sam was in love with him. She didn't act like it most of the time but then how did he know when Sam was in love because if before was any indication she was pretty good at hiding how she really felt.

"Yeah, his parents are out of town, first of school bash type of thing, you should come with us." Carly smiled knowingly at him and when that use to make him mush she had little effect on him now.

"It's at the lake house, he didn't want to have to clean up the house at Creek Bend and they wanted to be able to take the jet skis out."

"How far away is that?"

Carly looked to Sam who was pretending to be enthralled with something on her phone. Sam pretended to ignore the brunette but her quirked eyebrow gave her away and Freddie came around to the back of the table to stoop down beside the girls in the chairs.

"Whatcha doin?" He questioned Sam who seemed oblivious to his change in stance.

She looked up from her pear phone which was her pride and joy, bought by Carly for her birthday, to meet his eyes. Her mouth parted slightly and she had to stop herself from attacking his face again. It was moments like this when she wanted to pound his face in. When he smiled at her like that and he smelled so good.

She glared at him and went back to her phone.

"Sam how far is the lake house from here? We'll need to time it right."

Without looking up from her phone she responded. "Not quite two hours but if it's anything like the one this past summer, it will be worth it."

Sam recalled the party at the same place of residence two months prior.

"If you don't drink as much it will be just fine." Carly said disapprovingly.

"It was a rough week, and the guys I worked with were hot."

Freddie rolled his eyes, he wasn't there for that party, but he had heard plenty about it. Sam had made her rounds with all four of the guys that she worked with at the rec center in Seattle. He had picked her up, she mentioned something about how they didn't kiss like him and she had puked on his shirt. He had forked over his hoodie for her that night and hadn't seen it since. He claimed that night as a small victory and left her some ibuprofen and a lime gatorade for her on her nightstand for the next morning. He text her good morning and she said thank you for coming to get her, he tried to say something else about it but she ignored him.

"Yeah, it sounds like fun." He was attending if she was attending.

"Yay, roadtrip" Carly clapped her hands together excitedly and Sam sighed outwardly,

Freddie paid for some brownies and went into the store.

"Are you sure there isn't anything going on between you two Shay?" Jessica questioned again

"I'm sure. He's not into me like that anymore." She said this directed towards Sam and she kept her head focused on her phone. When was this stupid thing going to be over.

"If you say so," Was the girls reply.

A few minutes later, Freddie came back out the doors with two peppy colas and a box of fatcakes. He handed Carly the first peppy cola and sat the other as well as the box of fatcakes in front of Sam.

"Give me a call when we are heading out, I need to get back to the apartment before my mom calls me again." He smiled sheepishly before walking off.

When he was out of earshot, Sam complained. "Why'd you do that?" She scowled without looking up from the phone.

"Because it will be fun." Carly shook Sam's shoulders some.

Sam wasn't about to go to a party that would put her in the presence of alcohol and a boy she may or may not be in love with but Carly didn't need to know that yet.

She sighed for effect, "I guess."

"Yay! Now eat your fatcakes!." Sam hadn't noticed them before.

She smiled at the box in front of her. Damn him.

Why did he have to do stuff like that? It made it so much more difficult to maintain the status quo. As much as Carly had tried to tell her the status quo was already gone, she held onto the idea that she was wrong. Things didn't need to change, things didn't need to become any more imbalanced then they already were. He was Freddie, she was in love with him and had been for too long but he wasn't ever suppose to know. He was suppose to cling to Carly and his "love" for her. But he didn't do that. He changed gears, and all his attention was on her. Mel told her repeatedly all she had to do was just accept that he felt the same, but that wasn't something she let herself believe. She couldn't. So Carly and Freddie would go to the party tonight and she would stay home and paint her toenails instead of drowning her sorrows with underage drinking. The last time there was a party, it was bad. It was a month and three days after the "talk". He needed time, he loved Carly, that was all she heard and all she got out of the conversation. Somewhere in her mind she knew that he hadn't really said that but the idea of changing things stopped her from trying to remember what was really said. He had been Freddie like and drove almost two hours to pick her up from Jake's house. His willingness to drop everything for her scared her, but she didn't let him see that. She didn't let him see much.

When she had told Melanie about the party, that's the first time she had out right said that he was in love with her, explaining that guys didn't get up in the middle of the night to go pick up girls 2 hours away that they didn't love. Sam had laughed it off but since then, every time she ended a phone call with her sister, Melanie made it a point to tell Sam, Freddie loves youuu much like she said in second grade about Quentin Wiley, who did in fact like her at the time and sometimes made Sam wonder what if, but it was a brief thought that she didn't let herself linger on.

She had started wearing her hair straight more often than not and made it a point to buy shirts that she knew he would like. As she bought them she tried to convince herself it wasn't for him. She just liked the color, or her hair looked better when it wasn't so frizzy, she wouldn't try and change herself for him. Change was stupid. Change was not something she wanted. So she tried her best to maintain the weird par that they had reached. She didn't talk to him more than she needed to, and he tried to get her attention more than Carly's now. But she maintained that he loved Carly, that Carly didn't love him, and her feelings didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. She needed to believe this. That's why on the rare occasion that she was left in Freddie's presence and he tried to talk to her she ignored him or made a beeline for the door. She was afraid of how long she could keep it up though. Which is why under no circumstances would she be attending Jake's party with Freddie Benson. It wouldn't happen.