This is one of many Seddie one-shots that coincide with my previous fic, iProm. These one-shots take place after iOMG and before iProm.
Approximate date: early August
At the end of June, Freddie had gotten his dream summer job: working at the Brilliance Bar at the Pear Store. He only worked Mondays and Fridays, because they were a little over-staffed. Ashley, the girl he asked to be the dumb intern last year so the girls would fire Cort, was his supervisor for his first three weeks. After that, he was being supervised by Danny, who'd been working at the Pear Store for about a year.
The day after he gave Sam his answer, he got a call from the store manager, Glen. One of the girls named Savannah, who worked the Bar on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, had called in last minute about a family vacation to Fresno. She said she would be gone the rest of the month. Freddie would take over her shift and his Monday and Friday shift would go to Annie. Shane had also gotten a job at the store, and he got called in to help fill Savannah's spot when she left.
The following Tuesday, Carly and Sam had gone shopping. They popped into the Pear Store to say hi to Freddie. Shane saw them come in, and very quickly went into the back room until they both left. Carly quietly sneaked off to check out some random PearPhone accessories so Sam and Freddie could talk by themselves. With Freddie's new shift, they hadn't seen each other a lot. They hadn't even gotten a chance to go out together.
Freddie and Shane had a break at 1, so they decided to chill down at the food court for lunch. Shane opted for pizza, so Freddie stopped by Louisiana Fried Chicken, and, of course, fried chicken made him think of Sam when he was waiting on line.
He wanted to take her out soon. He wasn't sure where to take her, though. Sam might be a girl, but she wasn't a typical girl. He knew she'd gone to dinner with Pete and taken walks with him at night, but he also remembered that she'd once spent the whole day at the water park with Jonah. Sam contained multitudes.
Maybe if she picked the first date, he could see what atmosphere she was more comfortable in. After he picked up his order, he called her.
"Hey," Sam said when she answered. "What's shakin', Benson?"
"Not much. I'm on break at work, so I just picked up lunch." He found an empty table and set his food on it.
"What kind of lunch?"
"Fried chicken."
Sam made a huffing sort of noise. "And you're not gonna offer to share some with me?"
"Well, if you were here, I would've gotten you a bucket all to yourself, or else you would've eaten all mine."
"Really? Where are you?"
"Food court at the Crown Ridge Mall."
There was a pause. "No, it's not worth it. It's too far."
Freddie laughed a little. "Where are you?"
"Carly's. We had a girly movie marathon. Now, I'm bored and I spilled popcorn on one side of her couch."
Freddie paused for a minute. "Do you wanna do something tonight?"
"Hmmm," he heard Sam say. "Sure. Like what?"
"You pick. Just as long as it's something legal."
She heaved a huge fake sigh. "Oh, darn, I guess we can't go spray paint psychedelic spirals on the back wall of the school."
"Sam."
"What? I was kidding! When do you get off?"
"Five-thirty."
"Okay. I have an idea. I need to make a call. Later."
"Bye."
As he hung up, he had a small feeling of apprehension. He was excited to meet up with Sam and he wanted her to pick the first date. But, when she brought up spray-painting the school, even jokingly so, it made him a little nervous.
At five-thirty, he went to the computer in the back room to put his hours in before he left. Just as he finished up, there was a very high-pitched squeal from inside the store, and Shane raced into the back room, shutting the door really quickly. He leaned with the back against the door, panting.
"Dude, what's up?" Freddie asked.
Shane had his eyes closed. "It's her. Sh-she's in the store, by the PearBooks."
"Who?"
"S-sam."
"Oh, thanks, man." Freddie nudged him off the door, and went back into the store. Freddie took off his Brilliance Bar tag and stuck it in his pocket.
Sam was clicking away on one of the laptops. Freddie came up next to her to see what she was up to. She had logged into the iCarly twitter account. She typed in, "Sam Puckett cannot be held responsible for any popcorn spilled on Carly's couch," and hit "tweet". She turned to her left and saw Freddie watching her with a grin on his face.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing," Freddie said. "You're fascinating," he added emphatically.
"Whatever. Let's hit it." She walked towards the door.
"Where are we going?" Freddie asked, walking next to her.
"You'll see," Sam said, wearing her mischevious grin.
Freddie didn't really know what to say. He couldn't tell by the tone of her voice if her plan was too out there for him.
"Oh, relax," Sam said, shoving his arm. "You said to pick something legal."
Freddie did calm down a little, but he still didn't know what they were going to do that night.
When they reached the mall exit that lead out to Fisher Avenue, Sam asked, "So uh, since this is our first time... you know..." Her words trailed away and didn't come back.
"Going out?" Freddie finished.
She nodded. "Should we set up some ground rules?"
"Ground rules?" Freddie repeated.
"So that we don't go public when we're not ready and no one finds out before we want them to."
He nodded. "What did you have in mind?"
"No hand holding, hugs that last longer than three seconds, or kissing in public."
Freddie knew she was thinking of the iCarly fans in Seattle. If they saw the two of them being couple-y, they would post it online. Then it would spread all over the Internet and eventually reach the Creddie fans. He remembered how they attacked Adam at Webicon last year. Although Sam could probably take any Creddie fan that came her way, it wasn't worth her time.
"Okay, that's good. So, just no PDA in general?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Sam turned left on Avondale Road.
"Anything else?"
She thought for a while. "No, that's it. Just no PDA."
"Shake on it?" Freddie put out his hand. Smiling a little, she shook his hand.
Sam took Freddie to Pewterson's Indoor Rock Climbing Hall. Freddie was surprised. He didn't really know what to expect from Sam, but he had a feeling the night was going to be better than expected.
They reached the front desk, where a girl whose nametag read "Abby" was sitting. "Hi, welcome to Pewterson's," she said.
Sam said, "Hey. I reserved a climbing time for six."
"Name?"
"Sam Puckett."
Abby ran her finger down a list. "Okay, gotcha. Any valuables you have in your pockets should go in any of those lockers." She pointed to a wall of small grey-blue lockers. She turned to Sam. "Also, girls with long hair need to tie it up in a ponytail so it doesn't get caught in the rigging." She pointed to a jar of hair ties.
"Should I pay up front?" Sam asked, pulling out her wallet.
"Yeah, you reserved a climb time for two people, so..." Abby's voice trailed off as she punched some numbers in the register. "Twenty dollars."
Sam opened her wallet. Freddie looked at her in amazement. "You're paying?"
She gave him a look. "This doesn't cover food. There's a snack bar inside. You're paying for food."
Sam grabbed a hair tie as she and Freddie headed for the lockers. Each locker was open and had a key with an orange cap and an elastic strap coming out of the end. They stuck their wallets, cell phones, and Freddie's Brilliance Bar tag inside. Sam pulled her hair into a ponytail. Freddie looped the locker key around his wrist.
They entered a large room the size of two school gymnasiums. Three out of the four walls were the rock climbing walls. The fourth wall had the snack bar and some tables for people to sit down and eat. But Sam didn't seem interested in food yet. She'd grabbed Freddie hand and took him to one of the less crowded wall sections. Halfway there, she remembered the "no PDA" deal, and let go immediately.
This particular section they came to allowed two people on at the same time. There was only one other section that did that. They didn't have to wait too long on line to get a chance to go. When it got to their turn, Sam jumped forward to get harnessed.
"You've done this before?" Freddie asked her.
"I took Adventure Sports for gym class last year. This was one of the things we got to do." She took the harness from one of the spotters and fastened it.
Freddie picked up the other harness. He didn't have a clue how to get this on.
Sam looked over at him. "First time?" She was smiling a little.
"Yeah. I don't know if this is some convoluted sports bra or a thong."
Sam laughed. "Well, 'thong' wasn't far off." She walked over to him, and flipped the harness over so it was right side up. "Here, try it this way." She patted his head. He swatted her hand away playfully. He pulled the harness on, and started fastening the straps.
The spotter on Sam's side said, "Here, you guys need helmets." He tossed a red one to Sam and a blue one to Freddie. The spotter on Freddie's side pulled down a line with a carribiner on the end and clipped Freddie's harness after he got his helmet on. The spotter on Sam's side did the same for her. He turned to the both of them and said, "If you guys freeze up and want to come down, just let us know and we'll let you down really slowly."
Freddie nodded. Sam was looking over at him. "Wanna race to the top?" she asked.
He grinned. "Yeah."
They both went to the bottom of the wall and found their grip. The spotters tightened the rigging to support Sam and Freddie.
Sam looked at him. "On three."
He nodded. "Do it."
"One, two, three!"
And they were off. Sam was moving fast. She looked like Spiderman climbing up the side of a building.
Freddie expected rock climbing to be hard for him. But while Sam took Adventure Sports as her gym class, Freddie's gym class was Strength Training. If his upper body strength hadn't improved during junior year, he would have really struggled to even get up to the middle of the wall.
He was trailing Sam by only a little. She stopped halfway up and looked down to see how far Freddie had gotten. She was surprised when he popped up next to her on the wall and almost passed her.
"Are you letting me win?" Freddie asked.
"Never!" Sam quickened her pace. "No one can beat the Puckster!"
Freddie quickened his own pace. Sam was still ahead of him, but it was still only by a little. His head was at level with her waist. He was getting faster. His head was level with her stomach. He actually thought for a while that he was going to beat her to the top.
But, Sam was Sam, as always. She reached the top first, reached out her hand, and swatted at a bell that hung from the ceiling. "Oh yeah! Pucketts nevah lose!" She was wiggling a little in her harness, like she was dancing in midair.
Freddie realized when he reached the top that he had a giant smile on his face the entire climb. He was having way more fun than he expected to, and he just liked watching Sam be Sam.
"Do we climb down?" Freddie asked the spotters.
"We can let you down," one of them answered.
"Here, watch me," Sam said. She grabbed onto the line clipped to her harness with two hands and started jumping down the wall. Bracing himself a little, he did the same. It had kind of the same feeling of going down a steep drop on a roller coaster. When his feet hit the ground, Sam was already getting unclipped from the line. Her helmet was tucked under her arm.
"Well, lesson learned," Freddie said, taking off his own helmet.
"What do you mean?" Sam asked. She took her elastic out and shook her hair around.
"Pucketts can have a good time without ending up in a cell."
Sam shook her head a little and punched his arm. For once, Freddie didn't flinch. She must've done it a little lighter than usual, or Freddie was becoming immune to the pain. "Go get your wallet. I'm in the mood for nachos."
A/n: Adventure Sports and Strength Training were actual gym classes in my high school. I took Adventure Sports as a sophomore, and we did get to rock climb. My brother took Strength Training this year.
R&R!
Oh, and don't forget to watch iParty With Victorious this Saturday!