Sam Puckett awoke with a start. Her heart was racing from the nightmare she'd just had. This time it was not the monster that ate her soup - that one had vanished since Spencer cured her -, this one was way worse. She had dreamt of death and walking zombies, no ham at the stores and a breakdown of Wahoo-Punch-Industries. The blonde shuddered. She kept dreaming weird things, since she started that programme. That stupid, stupid programme that made her lose her precious sleep. Although it had gotten better. She had to admit that at least. Sam groaned and rolled over to take a look at her alarm clock. 4:13 AM. She groaned again. In those one and a half years since she and Carly started the programme Sam had lost her ability to drift into sleep effortlessly and sleep as long as she wanted to. Sure, she still took naps whenever she could, but that was necessary if one considered that she hadn't slept a whole night through for 1.5 years straight. Sam sighed and got up from the couch. At least the nightmares had become less. While they hunted her every single night a year ago, they had now been reduced to monthly occurrences. The blonde opened the Shay's fridge and took out a bottle of Wahoo Punch. At least you're still there. She thought and gulped it down quickly. Sam threw the empty bottle away and paused for a second. Should she go upstairs and look if Carly was awake? She had those sleeping problems, too, but if Carly was actually sleeping, Sam didn't want to wake her. She knew, sleep had become a rare thing for both of them. Hadn't Carly dragged Sam along to her silly "self-defense-lessons", that her father, Colonel Shay, had come up with, she wouldn't be in that kind of trouble. But on the other hand, Sam knew that she couldn't be angry at the brunette for taking her. If she had to face this whole mess alone, she would have gone crazy a long time ago. This way Sam could share the madness of the events and make her feel better when she thought she couldn't take it anymore. To have someone to talk to was a gift, that the two girls had discovered to be the greatest they were blessed with. Other members of the programme couldn't just talk to their friends about the things that were troubling them, like they did. Sam was glad she and Carly were in this together after all. Lying down on the couch again, she grabbed her phone. 2 new messages. Lazily she opened them. One from Freddie and one from Carly. Sam frowned. What would the nub want? She looked at the time he had sent it. 2:00 AM. What was he doing up at a time like this? Sam sighed. He must've been watching Galaxy Wars for the bazillionth time. Or even the bazillion and first. The blonde opened the message.
From: Nub - 2:00 AM Stop making fun of me, Puckett! Galaxy Wars IS amazing and there's nothing you can do about it! Ha! The iCarly-viewers just decided that! Hahaa! You lose! :D
Sam snorted. He was just such a geek.
To: Nub - 4:18 AM Oh get over it, nub. Our normal viewers must've been out, having a FUN TIME on a FRIDAY NIGHT. Only the geeks and nubs of the world seem to have answered that. :P You lose, I win.
She texted back, grinning evilly. Now what did Carly want again? Sam switched conversations.
From: Carly - 4:16 AM You up?
Sam sighed.
To: Carly - 4:19 AM Yes. Be right there.
She sent her and got up from the couch, stretched and tiptoed up the stairs, not wanting to wake up Spencer. Sam grinned at the thought and got her phone out of her pocket.
To: Nub - 4:20 AM We gotta do WakeUpSpencer some time soon. Didn't do it in a looong time!
Sam stopped in at Carly's door. Quietly, she gribbed the doorknob and turned it. The room was dark and Sam carefully tippled into it. "Carly?" She whispered. Nothing. "Carlyyy." she said, a bit louder this time.
"Sam?" Sam heard a rustling of blankets and a millisecond after that, bright light invaded the room. When her eyes adapted to the light of Carly's bed light she could see her friend sitting bolt upright in her bed. "Did I wake you?" the blonde asked cautiously, "You sent me that text, I didn't suppose-"
"No!" Carly interrupted her quickly. "No, I was awake. Did I wake you up?" She asked, a tiny hint of guilt in her voice and her eyes.
Sam shook her head no. "Good." Carly sighed in relief. "I can't sleep."
Sam grinned. "I figured as much." She went over to her best friend and sat down on the bed beneath her. "Why can't you sleep?"
Carly sighed again, defeated. "I don't know. It's like my body wants to but my mind says no. It's running about you and Freddie and Spencer and Gibby... I just can't figure out what bothers me."
Sam laughed humourlessly. "I know what's keeping you awake. Could be those weird things that we were told a year and a half ago."
Carly nodded. "Yes, maybe you're right-"
"Of course I am."
"- But I it's gotten worse lately." she ended her sentence, ignoring Sam's interruption. "I know what you mean. I had a new nightmare just few minutes ago. It's my third this month. They were down to one, man!" Silence engulfed the two girls. It was not an uncomfortable, but a heavy silence. Could Sam's repeated nightmares and Carly's nervousness maybe hint something? Something that was about to happen soon? Could it be that what they feared for over a year would happen? Sam gulped. "Y-" she cleared her throat, "You wanna watch a movie?"
Carly nodded. "Love and Glitter?" Sam nodded. "Sure."
Tss. She thought to herself. A year and a half ago I would have nearly puked when looking one of that terrible chick-flick movies and appreciate rather a zombie or splatter movie. Something Samish. But now... I can't bear it.
It was true. She had always hated to watch those girly movies with Carly - although she did watch them with her, because she ate Carly's bacon and could crash there whenever she wanted - and even enjoyed movie evenings with Freddie and Gibby, because they would watch action movies with her, but she couldn't bear it anymore. Since a year and a half ago, she was told something, that required absolute discipline not to freak out about and those action movies seemed too real to her now.
Sam sighed as Carly shoved in the dvd and climbed back into bed. They snuggled under the blankets and watched as Ashton Kutcher and Channing Tatum tried to impress a girl that would never talk to them while their true loves where right beside them. The usual bla bla. "Oh if life would be just as easy as they make it seem." Carly sighed. Sam looked at her friend. Carly had changed much since she entered the programme. Sure, she still looked the same and they were their sparkly and cheery selves whenever they were live on iCarly, but apart from that, Sam noticed that she had changed. She was more serious. Not as giggly and even not as happy anymore. Carly was trying, really trying to keep her giggly-ness up, but you could see that she was not in it with all her heart when she laughed at Spencer's sculptures and Freddie's nerdiness. The spark in her eyes had vanished. And it was exactely that what made Sam worry. Carly had always seen the good in people and only she herself had seen the bad in people as well, but now... Now Carly saw things different. She looked at the world with sadness and even nostalgia in her eyes. As if she always had the thought of how long the world would stay the way they knew it in the back of her mind. Sam thought so herself very often. But she had always been the one to see the bad things, not Carly. No, never Carly.
Said brunette swallowed. Carly didn't exactely pay attention to the movie they were watching. She knew it anyways. She had watched it a bunch of times with Sam, Freddie, Spencer, Gibby and most likely every boyfriend she had ever had. It was her favourite movie after all. No, Carly was thinking. She was thinking about how her blonde best friend had changed. She would never have directly said yes to that movie without complaining a year and a half ago. Furthermore, she would never look at her and Freddie, at Spencer and Gibby and even at Mrs. Benson and T-Bo so often, a sad look in her eyes. Carly knew she had changed pretty much herself, but what was expected of you, if you got those kind of news? But Sam's behaviour worried her. Sam had lost her spicyness. She didn't fight with Freddie as much as usual, didn't give as many wedgies to Gibby and the other geeks at school and wouldn't make as many feisty comments during rehearsal. Those news had gotten Sam Puckett to worry. She wasn't her open, free minded, self-confident self anymore. Sam Puckett had never worried about anything before it had happened for as long as she had known her. But now, that was different. What could they do? It wasn't like their doomsday was sure to happen. It could be that they got old and died before their worst fears came true. Could they really stand a life full of worrying? Carly gulped. Or would the worrying about everything wear off with the time? Possible. But not for sure. Carly snuggled against Sam and she actually snuggled back. The girls had grown a lot closer since their attendance at the programme. Sam had gotten more emotional and Carly enjoyed that. Carly on the other hand had gotten less daffodil-ish and Sam liked that. They had a big secret to share that had changed their lives forever, having only one another to help to comprehend and manage to live with it.
The morning came sooner than they wanted it to come. And it came in the form of Freddie Benson barging into Carly's room. The brunette boy stopped a second to see his two best friends snuggled up in bed together and smiled. They looked angelic. Not that they weren't pretty when they were awake, but everybody looked angelic when asleep. Well, almost. He had spent the night with Mr. Henning on the Root and Berries Retreat in eigth grade and that man was not angelic when asleep but rather sheer disgusting. Freddie shook his head and shuddered at the memory. "Sam? Carly?" He asked quietly, trying to wake them not as brutal as Sam would. He supposed he'd have to ask several times again, but the girls surprised him. They shot up in Carly's bed, turning heads franticly. "What?!" "What happened?!"
"We're awake!" "Where are they?!"
Freddie raised his eyebrows at them, clearly amused. "Are you guys all right?" he snickered, his laptop tugged under his arm, eyeing them suspiciously. "Freddie?!" Carly asked confused. Sam's head shot in the direction Carly was looking.
"Benson?!" Freddie gulped. "Y-Yeah?"
"What did I tell you about waking Momma?!" she growled.
"'D-D-Don't wake Momma up unless you want her to rip you into pieces or somebody actually died.'" he repeated her words.
"Correct." Sam said. "So, who died, Freddisson?"
Carly laughed as Freddie fled out the door at high speed. She loved their constant bickering. She knew, she shouldn't approve of it, but sometimes it was just too much fun to see what would happen next.
"You trained him well." She giggled. Sam's curls flew around, as she turned her head to look at her best friend, a spark of hope in her eyes which disappeared as soon as she locked eyes with the brunette. "Sure." She shrugged. "Since you seem to have lost your spell on him."
Carly was a little surprised, but as she thought about it, she had to admit, that Sam was right. Freddie seemed to have gotten over his crush on her. The puppy-dog-face hadn't worked in a long time and in arguments he had stated his honest opinion instead of trying to please her. "It was about time. The boy is 17!" She said also shrugging. The girls got up, dressed and went down for breakfast. "Morning girls!" Spencer greeted them as they came down the last few steps.
"Morning." They both mumbled, yawning. "What time is it, anyway?" Sam asked. "10 AM." Spencer said from his place at the stove. "What?!" Sam yelled. "Where is that nub?! If I get my hands round his neck-"
"We're having ham and bacon for breakfast, you know..." Spencer trailed off. He knew how to avoid Freddie getting hurt and tame Sam in one sentence. She was like his second little sister and little brother at the same time. "Well... if that's so... bring the ham!" Sam demanded celebratory.
Carly and Spencer grinned. This was so Sam.
Right after breakfast, Freddie stuck his head into the Shay's living room.
"Yoyo." He said insecure.
Sam's golden curls flew through the air again, as she faced her frenemy and shot him a glare.
"You're lucky, Benson, Momma has eaten so much, she's too lazy to hunt you down now." She said and turned around again.
Freddie exhaled deeply. "Good, then I can tell you what I wanted to tell you this morning." He said and stepped in.
"Oh noo." Sam said, Carly elbowed her.
"What do you have for us, Freddie?" she asked sweetly. Same old Carly. But Sam knew better. By the look in her eyes. This was just her being polite. Her head was already stirring again with the troubling truth and the fear she knew just as well.
"Last night's iCarly broke our records again!" He said cheery, showing them his laptop. "What?! Wow!"
"That's great!" Carly and Sam exclaimed and smiled at him. If he just knew, how unimportant that actually was to the world. They spent the day with Gibby and Freddie, planning the next iCarly, hanging out at the Groovy Smoothie where T-Bo desperately tried to sell them burritos on a stick (of course, Sam made Freddie buy them and finished them off alone) and watching Girly Cow on the Shay's couch. They were only interrupted by the usual. Spencer setting something on fire and Mrs. Benson who stormed in to have Freddie - and surprisingly today Gibby, too - instructed about the emergency exits of their appartment, because she would be off to her night shift at the hospital. Carly eyed Freddie questioningly. "Gib's spending the night." He said shrugging. Carly nodded and turned her head. Sam had zoned out again. She could tell by her glazed eyes and the fact that she was not laughing at her favourite Girly-Cow-joke. Carly nudged her lightly. Sam's head shot up and she looked with big, confused eyes at her best friend. "What?" she mouthed.
"You were zoning out." Carly whispered. Sam nodded and sank back into the couch. Freddie and Gibby were soon saying their goodbyes, the next day was school after all.
"Why does your Mom approve of Gibby spending the night on a sunday?" Sam asked surprisingly curious.
"My Mom's visiting my grandma with Guppy and won't be back until tomorrow." Gibby said. Sam and Freddie raised an eyebrow at him, looked at each other, then Sam shrugged. "Whatever. Get out now, Momma needs her sleep."
Freddie and Carly rolled their eyes and grinned while Gibby looked taken aback.
"Just trying to be helpful." He muttered and turned to leave.
The two brunettes laughed at their friends. "Night. Don't let Sam eat you." Freddie joked.
"Not gonna happen." Carly said and closed the door behind him.
