It was ironic, he would chuckle half-heartedly.

His mother always worried about him wherever he went, she nagged him day and night when she saw him doing anything more dangerous than playing bingo, she always told him to brush his teeth with extra-strengthening authentic mint paste for exactly 6 minutes and 39 seconds. Twice. She would no doubt jump in front of a car just to keep him from being splashed by that mud filled with 'so many disease-ridden germs!' In fact, in terms of keeping an eye out for his health, she would probably win a provincial plaque to hang up on the wall along with all his baby pictures.

But, she didn't listen to him. And look where it got them both now. She would never be around to give him lectures about the dangers of food coloring, or force him to her mother-son quilting clubs again. And as far as him? He was ten years old and already filled with more bitter emotion than anyone twice his age would start worrying about. He was living a life with people who constantly berated and insulted him. But, he was also Freddie Benson. He was already smart enough then to know what something like that could do to a person, so he got over it.

At least, he hoped.

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"Hey, did you hear the news?" A slightly chubby boy raised his eyebrow to his friend beside him, who had his full attention at his chemistry textbook. Both of them were seated near the corner of the school cafeteria, ignoring the snickers from some of the more popular kids around them.

"News?" Freddie lowered his book for the first time the whole lunch, revealing his dark black colored eyes hidden under thick glasses. Inwardly, he rolled them when he heard a girl walking beside him turn away in disgust.

"Wow, where've you been, man?" his grin only grew wider as Freddie only gave him a deeper look of confusion. "You ever heard of iCarly before?"

"Yeah, everyone has. What about them?"

"Those two girls, Carly and Sam; super hot and super rich…right?" Again, Gibby wiggled his eyebrow suggestively. At his friend's silence, he took it as a cue to continue. "Well, Carly's older brother found a permanent job as a Creative Sculpturer here in Seattle, so they're moving here. And guess which school's gonna have two new transfer students?"

"I don't know, Gibby. Who?" Freddie asked with an amused smirk on his face.

"US! That's who!" At this proclamation, Gibby proceeded to take off his shirt and jump on the table they were at, only to be stopped by Ms. Briggs' booming voice.

"GIBBY! Absolutely NO stripping in this cafe, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, m'am."

"GOOD!"

The two watched as Ms. Briggs stormed away from them, stepped on a passing kid's shoelace, thereby tripping him and causing his lunch to splatter over another kid, and continued out of the room like nothing happened. Once they were sure she was out of seeing range, Gibby and Freddie both threw looks of distaste at each other.

"Man, what is up with her?"

Freddie sighed. "It's just how she is, I guess. We can't always understand the crazy."

"You're one to talk, Benson." At the realization that someone had heard their short conversation, they both looked up to see the unwanted sight of four taller boys standing in front of their table, one of which was smirking at them. For the second time, Freddie sighed.

"What do you want, Jonah? Don't you ruin my life enough at home?"

"Hey, what's wrong with wanting to come talk to my little step-brother at school?" Jonah looked at the ceiling innocently, while two of the other guys behind him laughed. The third one stayed silent, but none of them noticed. As Freddie only chose to respond to this by turning his attention back to his textbook, and Gibby settled for silently glaring at them, his anger flared. Seeing something silver stick out of Freddie's bag, he smirked and swiftly reached a hand out to grab it away from him, staring curiously at what it was.

After a moment, a smile reappeared on Jonah's face. "A portable pearpad?"

Freddie abruptly stood, but tried remaining calm. "Jonah, give that back. Please."

Seeing his brother's reaction, his smile only grew wider. "Since when were you allowed to have one of these, anyway? Since I recalled, you-"

"Hey, just leave Freddie alone, would you?" Gibby stood as well, throwing his shirt off without hesitation seeing as Ms. Briggs had left. Jiggling his stomach slightly, he made his way beside Freddie. "Or you'll have to face GIBB-BEH!"

"Gibby, it's okay. I'll handle this myself." Freddie raised an arm to stop his friend, before turning back to his brother. "I'm just asking you, Jonah, to please give it back."

Jonah only continued eying the boy in front of him with a smirk. From head to toe, everything about him screamed out 'ugly' and 'nerdy', and that fact only succeeded in making him happier. Beginning from Freddie's head, his brown hair was an unfiled mess, the strands which weren't stuck to his forehead with gel went every which way to resemble somewhat of a small afro. His dark black eyes were empty and contained no attractive spark which usually sent girls fainting, if they even could even get a chance to see them under those cartoon-like glasses. It only seemed to get worse as his eyes trailed down. The sweater and pants he wore were at least twice his size, hiding all his limbs under an overwhelming layer of clothing.

It was disgusting, but that wasn't his problem. "And what makes you think you have a right to get it back?"

"Because I'm asking you nicely." Freddie replied, completely serious, which only sent the boys behind Jonah and everyone within hearing distance into snickers. "You only pick on me so much because you hate not being the most popular around here," he added in under his breath, which went unnoticed by everyone except one person.

"What was that, little bro?" In a second, Jonah was only inches from him, lifting the slightly shorter boy up by his collar. Automatically, his other hand which held onto the pearpad carelessly was at his throat, throwing the device onto the floor as it crashed into several pieces. Freddie could only wear a look of horror on his face, not at the threat of his brother, or the death of his computer, but that the machine was probably the only thing he had lef-

WHAM!

In an instance, darkness overcame him.

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He woke up on the floor of the cafeteria an hour later, blood dripping down the side of his mouth and onto the floor. He looked at the small red puddle, noticing drops surrounding it, probably from before Jonah had dropped him on the ground. 'Wow, what a mess I made…' was all that processed through his mind as he continued recounting the events of what happened in his head.

Gibby was crouching next to him. "Hey man…you okay?"

Freddie only nodded slightly without removing his face from the floor. Looking up, it took another moment for him to realize that they were the only ones left in the room. Everyone, the students, the teachers, the custodians, and even the cafeteria ladies, had all gone to class, apparently. As if nothing happened.

A moment of silence ensued, only filled with the sounds of Gibby lifting himself off the floor to begin picking up the pieces of Freddie's destroyed pearpad. Suddenly, he spoke:

"That was pretty awesome back there, you know." He kept his back to him.

"Huh?" Freddie raised an eyebrow as he slowly dragged himself into a chair. "What do you mean?"

"Well, normally when Jonah or Pete or anyone else starts picking on you, you sort of have this 'let's ignore them' policy. You just sort of do whatever they want. But, I can see it you know."

His look of confusion only increased, "see what?"

"You want to one-up them, to say something so badly, kind of like I have the urge to take off my shirt all the time." Normally, Freddie would've chuckled at his friend, but he didn't. Instead, he turned his vision to the ground, finding that small puddle of blood interesting once more. "But hey, that's the real Freddie Benson, isn't it?"

The chubbier boy, who now had his shirt back on, finally turned around to face him. "But you know what?"

A pause and no answer.

"This school is messed up." Freddie looked up at this, and only then did he notice a swollen bruise resting beneath Gibby's eye. He frowned.

"Gibby, you didn't have to-"

"But thanks for trying, Freddie." With that, he walked over to him and placed whatever pieces of the pearpad he could find into his hands, and started making his way to class.

As soon as he was gone, Freddie delicately rested the pieces onto the table, calmly walked to the closest wall, and effectively punched it with everything he had.

Freddie Benson normally wasn't a violent person, and he didn't care if he was hurt by Jonah; a few punches, a kick or two, they were all normal. They were just injuries and that was it. He still had one or two bruises to prove for it. They healed eventually. His pearpad, if it was any old pearpad, could be fixed. Knowing his tech-geek knowledge, it probably wouldn't take much more than a week.

But, it wasn't just a pearpad, and neither was a punch to the eye for Gibby just any old injury. Freddie could only sigh, resting his back on the same wall he pummeled, and slide down. His brothers always hid behind a façade of violence because it just seemed the most comfortable for them and gained them some popularity, even at the expense of others. Not only so, but they dragged him down along with them and enjoyed doing it. He didn't want to sink to their level.

'But somehow, I feel that I already have.'

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"You know, Carl's, it's just the first day of school." Sam looked at her friend, her elbows resting on the railing of the balcony to the room. Sam Puckett was clearly bored; sure, being rich was fun for once in a while, but in the end when your stomach's full, you're too lazy to go out, and the gold lining the ceilings became more of a nuisance than inspirement, it was boring.

"Yes, Sam, it is just the first day of school…" Carly calmly replied, before grabbing her best friend by the shoulders. "The first day of school for the girls who star in the most popular webcast of all time and must make a good first impression for!"

"Yeah, bu-" Sam started.

"Oh my gosh! What if I slip on something and fall right on my face in front of everyone!"

"Well you could-"

"Does my hair look okay? Or is it too puffy? You can't have puffy hair on the first day of school!"

"Carly…" She sighed, stuffing a handful of chips into her mouth.

"Sam! Don't tell me you're wearing that! I mean, it looks nice and all, but you have to have special clothes encasing your body if you want to-"

"Carly!" Effectively spewing some crumbs of those chips into Carly's general direction, Sam spoke up while pointing at her watch. "It's time to go, you know."

"Oh no! We can not be late! Not today!" Grabbing Sam by the wrist, Carly ran outside the room and down the long staircase which led to the car waiting outside. Of course, they could've gotten a limo, but Carly reasoned that no one would want to approach girls if they thought they were showing off.

Before Sam could completely comprehend what was happening, they were already on their way to the small building. It really confused her, why Spencer had decided to enroll them into a normal high school. All their lives, she and Carly had either been attending high-class facilities for classes, or were tutored by a well-known professor. Not that she paid any attention to those classes, but this was all fine for her as long as she could eat as much bacon as she wanted.

But of course, that was when Carly's strict grandfather came in. He ranted on and on about how 'worried' he was for Carly. He told them that simply doing iCarly wasn't enough, that it wasn't a job that they could do forever and still expect to keep living with as much money as she did.

Eventually, the old man finally came out with the point of his whole chizzing visit. Apparently, it wasn't deemed appropriate if the ladies of the house remained without a career plan and unengaged after high school. Particularly, if Sam didn't fill out at least one of those requirements by graduation, she and her mother would not be allowed to live with them anymore; not that grandpa Shay told her granddaughter the last part.

Pfft, what kind of rule is that?

Not that Sam wasn't attractive; no, quite the opposite. She wouldn't have any trouble finding a boyfriend if she wanted. Heck, all she had to do was look at one of those upper class boys and ask them sweetly, and he'd say yes in a heartbeat. But the problem was, none of them ever stayed as her boyfriend. Sure, she held them by the collar and pushed them against walls once in a while when she got mad, she always made them pay for her lunches despite being rich, and one time…just one time, pushed one of them off a tree, but a lot of them managed to make it through. The funny thing was though, after all of that, she would be the one to dump them. She didn't know why completely, but having boyfriends never worked out for her.

But hey, enough of that cheesy stuff about her love life. Anyway, that was when Carly's crazy older brother just had to step in. Since they were already being tutored at home, he suggested that they go to a normal school concerning the un-married thing. He told Carly's grandpa that maybe they would find someone if they tried living as "normal teenagers", before proceeding to add a ketchup pack to his sculpture of William Shakespeare made out of condiments.

So now, here she was. Sitting in a normal SUV Van with her best friend nervously yet excitedly chatting at her side, and their usual formally-dressed driver uncomfortably adjusting his casual clothing. Oh yeah, and if she didn't find a steady and presentable boyfriend by the end of next year, she would be kicked out of the house. There was that little gem of a fact too.

Stopping in front of the school's front doors, the two girls stepped out; one gaping happily at the new sight, while the other just looked at the building blankly. Hey, it's not like Sam's never seen an average high school before. Before moving in with Carly…but, she didn't feel like thinking about that right now.

After about 5 seconds, the first kid turned around to look at them, gaping the same way Carly was at the school just moments before. Then, it was a domino effect, more and more students stopped to stare at them. Some were amazed to see the oh so famous iCarly girls, some were drooling, and others even took out their cell phones to take a picture of the sight.

Scoffing, Sam glared at them. "Yeah yeah, show's over! We transferred to this dump of a school and everyone's amazed. Now move along!"

Some obeyed but most stayed and laughed at the girl they were used to laughing at on screen. Sam only groaned, while Carly put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

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"Hey, sorry about yesterday." Was the first thing Freddie heard when he reached his locker the next morning. After finally trudging his way to class with a newly cleaned-lip last afternoon, the teacher had given him a detention, not bothering to ask about the sudden swollen lump on his jaw. He went through the school day normally, and when it was time to return home, he simply walked to Bushwell Plaza just as he always had. Luckily, when he opened the apartment door, no one was home. And no one came home until really late at night, he suspected, as neither Jonah nor Pete appeared before him until this morning.

Freddie gave the other teen a questioning look, raising an eyebrow. He recognized this guy as one of the boys who was with Jonah the other day.

"Look, you can talk to me you know. I don't bite." At that, he just shrugged and resumed picking at his lock, the bag hanging from his shoulders wrapped tightly around him. "You're not much of a talker I guess, but I don't blame you. After what Jonah did yesterday and all that."

"It's not just that." Finally, Freddie spoke.

"Oh?"

"It's a part of who he is…to be like that, I mean."

"So, I'm guessing this isn't the first time?"

Freddie shook his head slowly, finally getting his locker open and grabbing one of his notebooks from it. It was awkward, to say the least. No one ever really willingly talked to him like this, other than maybe Gibby. Even the other nerds found him a bit creepy to be around most of the time.

"About your pearpad," the other boy shook his head as well, slight guilt coming to his eyes, "I know you don't need it, but do you want some help fixing it?"

Seeing the strange look that came on Freddie's face, he simply laughed. "I'm a bit of a tech-geek too myself."

"B-But you're one of Jonah's group."

"Yeah," he shrugged, "so don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Wait. Why are you telling me this?" Freddie finally asked him, suspicious and slightly bewildered.

"I don't know, you seem like someone that I can trust."

"Oh."

"The name's Brad, how about you? Jonah just calls you 'Benson' all the time since he's a bit mad that you kept your last name, so I never really caught your-"

"Freddie." He interrupted.

"Huh?"

"My name is Freddie. Freddie Benson." And for the first time, Freddie smiled at him; a genuine smile. "Nice to meet you."

Brad shot a friendly smile back, holding his hand out which Freddie willingly took. The two exchanged a shoulder-bump, before letting go as the both of them laughed slightly. "You're pretty cool, Freddie. I don't understand why everyone at this school…you know."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"This one guy told me that you ate diced bats for lunch while listening to study tapes just so you could hear the 'undertones' of the speaker or something like that."

Freddie made a face. "Are you serious?"

Brad laughed, making a face as well. "Yeah, but people are pretty crazy like that."

"You're telling me."

Silence engulfed the two, as Freddie made a move to stuff his needed books in his bag, and Brad began playing with the headphones of his mp3 player. After some more shuffling, the former of the two closed his locker shut and turned back to him. "So, I guess I'll see you then."

"Yeah. See ya, 'Benson'." Brad made an attempt to imitate Jonah's voice when he uttered the last word. Freddie only chuckled, looking at the ground and shaking his head with a smile. "Bye, and don't worry about what happened yesterday."

"You sure?"

"Positive." And with that, Freddie left Brad in the hallway, making his way to the staircase. For the first time since the incident, he felt alright. No emotions of guilt for getting his friend beaten up, no urges to kick something down ten blocks in order to subside his anger, almost nothing.

Almost.

But hey, he can't be greedy and ask for everything. It was nice to be regarded by someone as an actual person, and not just the freaky nerd of the school who could assemble a high-tech cam recorder system in less than an hour. Well yes, he probably could do that…but still, that wasn't all there was to him. Gibby talked to him, but Freddie couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty if he went up to Gibby and just started a chat to make himself feel better. It didn't work that way.

Lost in his thoughts, Freddie didn't notice when he accidentally tripped over a ledge on the floor, sending him forwards with a sudden acceleration. He took another step to avoid falling, only to crash into something, or someone, else and send the both of them to the ground anyway.

"H-HEY! What the CHIZ!" the other person yelled as Freddie snapped his eyes open. In all the commotion, he had closed them in fear. When he did, he found himself staring at the side of the face of a blonde-haired girl. A small blonde-haired girl with a slender form, curly hair, and blue eyes. Possibly the bluest eyes he had ever seen…

Freddie mentally slapped himself, effectively bringing his body back to reality and jumping off of her before she had the chance to push him off. "I-I'm sorry…" he stated with concern and his hands held out in case she was hurt, only to feel himself lifted by the collar for the second time in two days.

In front of him and who had his throat in their hands, was not the blonde-haired girl anymore, but the much larger figure of Pete. Immediately, fear filled him at the sight of his second step-brother glaring at him with eyes that clearly showed that he was just recovering from a hangover. Figures, Freddie thought despite himself. "Never, and I mean never, touch Samantha Puckett like that again." He breathed out, throwing Freddie to the floor harshly. Sam sat there, watching the scene with a blank expression on her face.

"Pete! I swear I wasn't going to-" was all he managed to yell out before he felt the blow of a hard kick to his stomach. He brought his hands to the area where he was kicked, losing another breath of air when he felt a second shot on his knee. Feeling tears of pain threatening to fall from his eyes, Freddie attempted to crawl away, but was trapped by the grip of Pete's hand on the back of his sweater. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? He looked around desperately, realizing that Pete, the girl, and him were the only ones occupying the hall.

It nerved Pete how his brother was still conscious. With each time he beated on him, it seemed to get harder and harder to bring him to submission. Freddie knew that, and that his brother was going to do much worse than throw a few kicks, but was stopped when they both heard a yell from the girl behind them. "Hey, Pete! Having some trouble beating up a little nub like him?"

Pete instantly turned around, looking at her in slight disbelief. "Don't worry about it, Samantha. I'll take care of him for ever touching you like that!"

Sam seethed slightly. She hated being called Samantha. "Oh come on. I've seen better moves from an elephant on a mouse. Let me show you how it's really done."

Before either of them knew what was going on, Sam grabbed Freddie by the collar, lifting him up and away from Pete. Then, she rested her hands on the front of his neck in a strange way so the other boy did not see. Almost automatically, Freddie felt himself getting sleepy. Just as his body slumped to the realm of unconsciousness, she threw him on the ground roughly, yet not enough to wake him up.

Pete's eyes widened, "h-how did you do that?"

Sam shrugged, "Mama knows her moves."

The boy made a move to laugh, shaking his head. "You're Samantha Puckett alright, and you're no fake from what I've seen on the show. But hey, that's why I lo-"

"Yeah…listen, I'm going to go to the bathroom for a second. All that yahoo punch, you know."

"Sure thing, Samantha." He smiled innocently at her, void of any violent actions he had displayed to his brother just moments before. His eyes following her as she walked away, he finally turned around in order to stare at the unconscious body on the floor. He had to admit, he had done quite a number on Benson this time. But hey, normally when he kicked or punched him, it was for something like throwing a rude comment, or spilling soda on his iPod. This time, it was Samantha Puckett. Falling on her was a much more unforgiveable crime than any of that stu-

BOOM!

Before Pete could tell what was going on, the impact of his chest to the window in front of him sent sharp pain throughout his body. What-Was he pushed by somethi-

SQUEAK!

The feeling of a hand forcing his face against the glass harshly and sliding his whole figure against it grazed over him. Then, with his face still up against the glass, he felt his body being lifted up in a strange position so his arm was bending backwards. Another smack against the window, a strange crack resonating from his arm, and he found himself unconscious.

Dropping his body to the floor, Sam shrugged.

"He had it coming."

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Well, there's the first chapter…hope you guys liked the story so far!

And yes, I am well aware that Freddie's eye color is brown and not black. But, I have a good reason for why they're black late on. You know, if this story continues past chapter 1.