I was eating cereal at Carly's house. Carly was upstairs putting on her makeup. I appreciated the sweetness of the cereal on my tongue, savoring it. At my mom's house all we had was Raisin Bran. I was also thinking about the night before. The kiss Freddie and I had… and I wondered if it would change anything between us. Somehow I thought the answer would be no. I mean, Freddie told me he hated me, and I told him the same thing. But I was wrong.

When I heard the doorbell ring, I nearly choked on my puffs.

"Sam, can you get that?" Carly yelled from upstairs.

"Alright." I came to the door. Oh no, I thought. It's going to be Freddie. This will be awkward. I dreaded answering the door. I just wasn't in the mood to see Freddie right it was Spencer. He was holding several cardboard boxes.

He walked in, precariously holding the boxes in his hands until he set them down on the coffee table. I looked inside and saw thousands of bright, colorful buttons. Like the kind you put on shirts."Why do you have six boxes of buttons?" I asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

"Someone was selling them! I thought I could make something cool for." He leaned in closer and whispered: "Carly's birthday."

"Oh, right." I said. Spencer always procrastinated on Carly's gift. Her birthday was tomorrow. I always liked it when it was Carly's birthday because Spencer always treated it like a national holiday. He made tons of food and sometimes decorated the apartment a little. If Carly had school that day, Spencer would call in with some bogus excuse. My favorite one to date was when he called in and said she sprained her hair and was at the doctors getting it fixed. Freddie could usually convince his mom he had some ailment that stopped him from going, and I usually just ditched. We'd go to Carly's apartment and watch girly cow all day. (Freddie doesn't really like that part that much.) After lunch we gave Carly our gifts. Spencer's usually was at least one sculpture and some clothes. I would give her some jewelry I bought with a little bit of money I saved each year. Carly graciously thanked us for our gifts.

"So where's your gift, Fredward?" I asked one year.

"My gift to Carly is my affection for her."

"Oh. Well thanks, Freddie." Said Carly looking a little embarrassed.

Carly came down the stairs. After questioning the boxes of buttons, and Me and Spencer telling her some excuses, we left for school. I hadn't seen Freddie all weekend. I pretty much stayed home with my mom which is really weird for me. When Carly and I got to our lockers I expected to see Freddie. But he never came.

"Where's Freddie?" I asked Carly. Then some rude, and might I add stupid kid said:

"I bet he's still to embarrassed to come to school!" I glared at him, causing him to run away in fear.

"Yeah, and don't come back!" I yelled.

"Oh! I just got a text from Freddie!" Carly exclaimed.

"You did?" I asked eagerly. I looked over Carly's shoulder to read his text.

Hey, can't come to school today. Mom's convinced I got pneumonia So I'm at the doctor's right now.

"Poor Freddie." Commented Carly right before the bell rang.

I don't really don't do all that much in school. So it gives me a lot of time to think. And all I could think about was Freddie. Was he staying out of school just to avoid me? I couldn't get that thought out of my head.

I didn't have detention that day so my mom drove us to Carly's house after school. Carly kept talking about something or other."So I was thinking for the show we could do something like a contest. We could give away something."I couldn't concentrate. My head hurt. I think Carly noticed, because she eventually stopped trying to communicate with me. "Well we're here." she announced as my mom pulled into the parking lot.

"Sam, are you alright?" asked Carly as we walked into the loft. She looked at me with concern.

"I'm fine, Carls. Just a little hungry." I lied.

She looked at me doubtfully but went into the kitchen anyway. I sat on one of the stools. Carly was digging through her fridge and returned with a shiny, red apple.

"Ew, an apple?"

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." She told me as she handed me the apple.

"But-"

"Just eat it!" She said, raising her voice.

I obeyed. "There. That's better." said Carly beaming. I think she actually thought she had helped me by making me eat fruit.

Knock knock. In comes Fredward. I felt my face get a little hotter as he walked in. I still was facing the kitchen.

"How'd your doctors appointment go?" Asked Carly. Freddie stood close to me.

"It was funny . My mom kept saying, 'Are you sure he doesn't have pneumonia? ' He called her crazy. Now she's looking for a new doctor."

Carly laughed. "I think Sam's the one who needs a doctor." Carly gestured towards me. She turned me in my stool towards Freddie. "Look how red her face is!"

"I'm not sick!" I told her. I took a bite of my apple. He looked at me but I couldn't stand to look into his eyes so I looked down and swallowed the apple. Thankfully Spencer came down at that moment. He was running down the stairs and nearly tripped himself at the end. "Ahhhhhhhhhh." he screamed dramatically.

"Spencer, are you okay?" Both of them went to see how Spencer was. I was just glad the attention was away from me. He quickly stood up. "I'm okay!" he assured everyone. "I just had a great idea for the show."

"Well tell us!" Said Carly. I walked over towards everyone else.

" I have this friend who owns a car dealership. He said he would donate us a car if we mentioned his dealership on the show. So… I was thinking that we could give one viewer a car!"

"That would be awesome!" Said Freddie.

"Yeah, we could give them a riddle or something and whoever answers it first gets the car."

"Cool" I said.

***

The next day was Carly's birthday. Freddie's mom would have let Freddie stay home anyway, and as usual I ditched. We all stood in the Shay living room, in our pajamas, as we did every year. I looked down at my worn striped pajamas and realized I needed some new ones. After making us Chocolate chip pancakes, Spencer called into the school. We gathered around him to listen.

"Yes, this is Spencer Shay." He could hardly keep from giggling. " I'm calling in about my sister Carly. She will be unable to attend school today."

I could faintly hear the woman on the other end say: "What is it this year?"

"She ate a bad batch of marshmallows!" He yelled. We all laughed, and Spencer hung up the phone.

"Happy birthday, Carly." Spencer said, wrapping his sister into a hug. "How old are you now again?"

"Fifteen." Said Carly happily.

We watched Girly Cow as usual. All four of us somehow fitted on the couch but it got harder each year. Spencer and Carly sat down on the edges. and Freddie and I awkwardly sat down in the middle. I can't tell you how uncomfortable it was for me to sit by Freddie for hours. I don't know why I felt so awkward to be next to him after we kissed but it did. I looked forward, watching the DVD of Girly Cow, trying to get over the odd feeling in my stomach.

It was even stranger when a certain episode came on.

"What trouble will she get into now? Watch out it's Girly Cow." Carly sang with the theme song. It was a normal episode, we watched it every year before. It involved Girly Cow giving Stanley (another cow) a kiss on the cheek. "I just want to stay friends." said Stanley.

"Okay!" Said Girly.

"Let's keep this a secret."

"Okay!" Said Girly.

And in the next scene she said to her friend Molly: "I just kissed Stanley!"

Spencer and Carly laughed. Freddie and I looked at each other and laughed nervously.

After a lunch of (what else) spaghetti tacos, we sat on the floor of the living room to give Carly her presents.

"I'll go first!" volunteered Spencer. He ran to the elevator and pressed the button about a million times. Inside was a huge box on it's side. It apparently was very heavy, because it took him a while for him to drag it to us.

"Oh my gosh, what's in here?" asked Carly. She opened the box, and pulled out something. It was a giant statue made of buttons. Carly put it upright and it read: "ICARLY"

"Spencer, this amazing!" Carly exclaimed.

"I had to do something with all those buttons. I thought you could put this in the studio."

"I will! Spencer, thank you!" She said effusively.

I looked at the statue of colorful buttons and doubted my gift would be better. "'Kay, here's mine." I handed her a small blue box.

She looked inside. It was a small, tiny necklace. In the center was little letters. I had to go to a place that made necklaces like that. It took me like a month to find a jewelry store to make little letters like that.

"See, mine says iCarly, too."

Carly smiled at me. "I love it."

Freddie stood up and grabbed his laptop. "Freddie, wha-" asked Carly.

"I asked on my blog for people to send you birthday wishes. You wouldn't believe how many people wanted to tell you happy birthday." He smiled. "I made a slideshow out of them."

We watched in full screen for about nine minutes of clips from well wishers. People held up signs, Sang her happy birthday, sent texts saying: Wow, Carly luv ur show! Happy Birhtday!!!111 There were people who made cakes for her, one odd boy who painted "Happy Birthday" on his stomach. (no, it wasn't Gibby) and many, many others. By the end it looked like Carly would cry. *sniff* "Thanks so much, Freddie! This was the best birthday ever!"

My stomach tightened in knots as they hugged. And I know shouldn't even care because I've been so mean to Freddie. And why wouldn't he love Carly, She's pretty and perfect and nice. I could tell from his smile he liked the hug.

So nothing has changed.

Except me.

We said we'd go right back to hating each other, and that means he goes right back to loving Carly.

A/N Oh that didn't seem very Seddie, did it? Well don't worry! It gets better for Seddie I promise.With this story I'll try to follow what happens in the show but it may differ slightly. This chapter is based on the blog Freddie put up. The next chapter is Freddie's POV.