Freddie grinned from ear to ear and high-fived Brad, his running back. They had just won against their enemies from Richmond Highschool, resulting in a close 45 - 40. Brad had crossed Freddie, faking a run and Taylor, wide receiver and the Football team's actual captain had caught his pass right in the end zone of Richmond High. The two-point-conversion had been a piece of cake and the Ridgeway-fans had errupted in cheers.

Carly hopped towards Freddie in her cheer-outfit and hugged him, then Brad, congratulating them on their success.

"That was some awesome last play!" She smiled at them, then she turned a little more serious.

"Listen, Freddie," she said slowly.

The brunette boy frowned, he didn't like where this was going.

"I know, I said I'd pick Sam up from her game, but Spencer ate too many things and I really need to bring him home before he starts vomiting into the car, or anything else for that matter." Carly looked behind her worriedly. Freddie could see Spencer sitting on one of the benches, slumped over, clutching his stomach.
He sighed. "It's okay, I'll pick her up."

The peppy brunette looked up to him and smiled. He had grown to be about 5 inches taller than her since they started High School and grinned back down at her.

"Thanks!" She said and ran off with her pompoms still in hand to take Spencer home. Freddie looked after them, furrowing his eyebrows and shaking his head slightly. Brad chuckled next to him.

"He's such a manchild. He just doesn't know when he's had enough." The iCarly-intern grinned and Freddie nodded.

"Yeah. Come on now, let's hit the showers, I have a long drive coming my way."

"Want me to come with?" Brad asked, being the good friend that he was.

Freddie smiled. "Nah, thanks, I'm good."

When Freddie entered the gym of Winchester High School, he couldn't keep himself from frowning. He didn't really like in-door-plays. The gym was hot, the air smelled terrible and thick and it was loud as hell.

Everyone was cheering the Winchester-girl's volleyball team on, only few - in comparison to his footballgame - had come to cheer for the Ridgeway girls.

Freddie made his way to the front line of the seats, where he could see the field. He checked the score-table and noticed with surprise, that Ridgeway led by an amazing count of 24 - 10 in third set. He knew Sam's girls were strong, but that strong? He was impressed, Winchester had won the Washington Championship three times in a row, after all.

He searched the field for his blonde friend and found her at the net. Her eyes were focused on the ball, her hair up in that ponytail she rarely wore. One of the Winchester girls hit the ball and started the most likely last round of gameplay. Wendy, one of Sam's friends catapulted it back into the air, the girl next to Sam let out a short shout, passing it straight over Sam's head. The blonde jumped into the air, rising much higher than one would think, considering she was rather small. Her top lifted, revealing her flat stomach and porcelain skin as she raised her arm. Winchester High was not prepared for the early scoring, their blocks were too late, because Sam's hand had already collided with the ball, smacking it on the ground with a force, that Freddie knew all too well. Ever since the blonde she-devil had started to cheer - shocking, isn't it? - and play volleyball he had been the victim of one of her service-and-score-practices more often than he could count.

The score-table beeped sharply.

"And Ridgeway High School wins with 3-0 sets!" The speakers announced half-heartedly.

Freddie smiled, as he saw Sam clapping her hands and hugging - yes, Sam Puckett started to hug people - her girls. She was their captain and also the most powerful and skilled player in the team. The former captain, Savannah, had announced her captain without second thought as she graduated, although Sam had only been a junior.

The girls moved to the showers and Freddie turned to go and wait in his car. He didn't know if Sam would be surprised to see him, or not, depending on Carly texting her.

After twenty minutes Freddie saw the first girls coming out of the gym, meeting their friends, parents or boyfriends that picked them up. Freddie sighed. Why was Sam captain again? She was always the last to leave. She said it was her duty to work hardest and to make sure everyone on her team left the cabins, not inviting their boyfriends in and fooling around. Another ten minutes went by, as Wendy, another girl who's name was Clarisse or something and the blonde-headed demon emerged through the doors. Sam seemed to not have seen his car, because she stood still in front of the doors and chatted with her friends.

The brunette boy looked at her closely. She was beyond tired, he could tell. She was her babbling happy self, but just from the way her legs twitched and her smile didn't really reach her eyes, he could tell that she was exremely tired. And he couldn't blame her. It was friday and they had had school this morning. Sam had went to cheer practice with Carly, worked on game plan for the night and even came to watch the first quarter of his game and cheered with her cheering-team. Wendy had picked her up and they had driven to their own game. It had been a long day for her.

Eventually, he got out of his car, walking over to the still happily chatting girls.

"Oh, that brunette Winchester-girl was so upset when you smashed the ball directly into her face." Wendy laughed and Sam grinned.

"Hey, girls." Freddie said from behind Sam before he stood beside her.

The blonde shot him a confused look. "I thought Carly was coming to pick me up?"

"She was, but Spencer ate too many sweets and got sick, she had to take him home."

Sam rolled her eyes. "That's so Spencer-ish."

Suddenly her left leg gave in, but she quickly covered it up by lifting her weight on her other leg. But she wasn't quick enough for Freddie, who now put a hand on her lower back to support her, invisible for the two girls facing them to see for they were now standing rather close.

"Carly's brother?" Wendy asked as if nothing happened.

"Yeah. He's such a manchild." Sam grinned and rolled her eyes again.

Wendy giggled. "I like him, he's fun."

"We should get going, Wendy, my Mom's waiting." Clarisse - or whatever her name was - said and nudged Wendy.

"Yeah, sure, see you monday, Sam! Bye Freddie!"

"Yeah, thanks for waiting with me!" Sam waved.

The two remained standing still until Wendy and Clarisse were out of sight, then Sam let out a deep breath and leaned into Freddie. He rubbed her back comfortingly.

"You know you don't have to do that, right?" He asked her quietly.
"Do what?" It wasn't really a question. He answered it anyway.

"Act tough. They are your friends, too, you know."

Sam shrugged. "I'm their captain, if I'm not strong for them, who else will?"

Freddie shook his head. Sam's loigc.

"Come on, let's get you into bed."

She looked at him funny, her eyebrow raised, a playful smirk on her lips.

"Oh really, Benson?"

Freddie was confused, but on second thought he understood her interpretation of his words and he frowned.

"Shut up, Puckett." He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards his car.

"Oh, you couldn't even bring a comfortable car? You had to bring your Twilight-Truck?" Sam groaned as Freddie opened the door for her, helping her to climb in, because her legs were still trembling.

He frowned again. Ever since he got his rusty red truck, that was parked in the far corner of the parking lot, Sam was teasing him about how much of a Bella-Swan-Twilight-Truck it was. Actually he didn't care at all, that it may looked like the truck from the movie. He loved his car. He had bought it with his own money. It was his.

"Shut up, Puckett, before I leave you here."

Sam fake-gasped. "Oh no! But what if a murderer would come for me?"

Freddie rolled his eyes as he got in behind the steering wheel. "You'd beat him to a pulp."

He started the car and the engine roared to life.

"No chizz." Sam yawned and stretched her arms. "So how's your little girlfriend? What was her name again? Megan?"

Freddie's look darkened. "Mary. We broke up two weeks ago."

The blonde's head shot around to look at her friend. "What?! You didn't say a word!"

The boy shrugged. "Didn't feel like talking. Carly would've been all sorry and worried. Worried-Carly is too exhausting to have around, so I didn't say a thing."

"Well, then why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, firstly, because it wouldn't be fair towards Carly," he paused and began smirking, "and secondly, because you would have laughed at me or tied me in a headlock! Probably both."

"I would never do that!" Sam exclaimed.

Freddie laughed at her. "Sure, I saw that last time I broke up with Jessie."

Sam's eyes narrowed and her look was pure poison. "Those were congratulations. I hated that bitch."

Sam and Jessie had been enemies since the first day they had met, when they both had started playing volleyball in 10th grade. Jessie had been the one who wanted to be captain and had been prepared to do anything for it. When Savannah had announced Sam captain, Jessie had been bummed and had started making Sam's work on the team as hard as possible. Eventually, Sam had build up the new team to act like a team and play rock-hard matches against other schools, Jessie had been the second best player and when she quit it was actually kind of sad for the team. Seeing that Sam had clearly won the fight over the volleyball team Jessie had given up and started to bug her in new areas. She had dated Freddie.

It wasn't like Sam had been jealous or anything, but seeing your enemy every day in and after school with her false behaviour and sugar sweet voice, smooching your best, innocent and terribly stupid friend? Too much for Sam. She had stepped back and abandoned Carly's house until Freddie had finally decided that Jessie wasn't the girl for him to be together with for longer than two weeks and that his friendship with Sam was way more important than some girl he didn't even have feelings for.

Sam had laughed at him for being his nubby self and then put him in a headlock. Carly had only rolled her eyes and he had only laughed, knowing it was her expression of pure joy and happiness.

"I know." Freddie sighed.

"But I kind of liked Megan." She said quietly. "Why'd you break up?"

Freddie thought back. Why had he broken up with her? He didn't really know.

"Mary. I don't know. I just figured she liked me more than I liked her and thought it wasn't fair to keep her hopes up."

"Ohh, Lord Nubcelot, you hero in shining armor." Sam scoffed.

The brunette boy shrugged, turning his vehicle onto the dark driveway.

"Be nice, Sam, I'd be home by now, soundly asleep in my bed, if I hadn't made the effort to drive 20 minutes to pick you up."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She waved.

"How long is the drive home?" Sam yawned again.

"Another 50 minutes."

She groaned and fell onto the bench sideways, her head slightly touching his leg.

He was about to argue that she was supposed to sit up, that it was dangerous to lay around like that, but then he saw her face. Her eyes were closed and she snuggled closer to his leg and into her vest, ready to go to sleep.

"You want my jacket?" He asked quietly, softly stroking her hair once or twice.

"Give it to me, nub." She said, her voice already a little thick with sleep.

He smiled and pulled the car over to the side, to take off his jacket and wrap it around her small body securely. It was almost a blanket for her. Thank god, puberty had been good to him and he had started playing football. She would've complained that the jacket was too small or too stupid or too uncool. But now that Freddie was quarterback, even Sam couldn't deny that he had gained some coolness.

"Thanks, nub." Sam mumbled quietly.

Freddie grinned at his friend and started stroking her hair again until he could hear her deep, balanced breathing.

A knock on the door made Carly jump.

She had sat on the couch for ten minutes after she had dealt with Spencer and his sweets-problem for about two hours. Groaning, she got up and went to answer the door.

In front of her stood Freddie, a sportsbag on each of his shoulders, carrying a sleeping blonde in his arms that safely snuggled into his chest, wrapped up in his jacket.

"Freddie!" Carly whisper-yelled. "Can I help you?"

Freddie shook his head. "No, not really. Where should I put her?"

"Take her to my room, would you?"

The boy nodded and walked towards the stairs after Carly, who jumped up, two steps at a time to get Sam's bed ready for her.

"Did she overdo it, again?" Carly asked as Freddie layed the blonde down and put the sportsbags down.

"Maybe a little."

"Did she collapse again?" Carly asked and worriedly looked at Freddie.

"No, no. She did great. She just fell asleep in the car and I didn't want to wake her."

Carly grinned. "You mean, Bella's car?"

Freddie rolled his eyes at her. "Good night, Carly."

Carly giggled a little and told him good night.