Spencer was interrupted from washing a plate when Carly, Sam and Freddie traipsed into the apartment. Their slumped shoulders and gritted teeth told him something was up.

"What's wrong?"

"I've been judged by a nub," Sam replied as she proceeded to the kitchen and then poured herself a glass of milk and snatched up the jerky she left laying by the fridge the night before. Carly offered a more thorough answer.

"Remember that memoir about my family I had to write for English class?"

"Yeah."

"We all had the same assignment, and we got our grades today. We didn't do so well."

Spencer scrunched up his face in sympathy. "That's too bad. You'll have to tell me all about it when I get back." He grabbed his keys and headed towards he door.

"Where are you going?"

"The junkyard. I just got hired to build a model of a futuristic city for a student film project, so I'm going to find futuristic looking trash."

"Sounds like fun."

"Yeah. Check ya later."

The kids offered their "goodbyes" in broken unison as they headed upstairs to the studio. They walked inside and settled into their favorite beanbags. Freddie pulled out his math book and began doing his homework.

Sam still wasn't done talking about the disappointing grades. "How do you get a 'D' on your own life?" She grumbled as she gnawed off a chunk of her jerky.

"Your life, Sam?" prodded Freddie.

"Oh, and I suppose it's those weekly tick baths of yours that are throwing off the curve?"

Freddie shot Sam a glare. Carly broke the tension.

"Speaking of you, Freddie. You've been pretty quiet through all this. How did you do?"

"Fine. I mean a grade's a grade, right--hrmph. Sam!" Freddie was thrown off-guard by Sam's sudden assault. She was forcefully pressing his chest into the back of the beanbag and her knee was digging into his right thigh for balance as she reached over him to grab his backpack.

Freddie rubbed his pained thigh as she jumped off of him. He feebly reached for his bag in an attempt to keep it from her prying but he only succeeded in pulling the bag itself from Sam as she held onto his English folder and pulled out his paper. She jumped back to to her seat to examine her treasure. Freddie rose to snatch it back.

"Sam, give me my--"

"A B?"

Carly was surprised. "He said there were only two people with anything higher than a 'C.'" Carly was excited to be one of them, but she assumed the other was Karen Yamakao, not Freddie.

Sam was even more flabbergasted. "You're saying my tale of pain, heartbreak and the triumph of my fist over dorks everywhere is only worth a 'D' but your chilling tale of an overbearing mother is passing?"

"Well, it doesn't hurt that I can construct a sentence..."

"Hey! Kids! Play nice!" Carly turned to Freddie, taking a breath after once again acting as peacemaker. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Freddie answered as he slumped back into his beanbag, "but I honestly don't know why I got that grade. I didn't think my paper was all that great."

"Both your parents were Bensons? Before they got married?"

Carly and Freddie turned to see Sam focused on Freddie's paper.

"You're reading it, Sam? Come on!"

"I gotta read examples of good writing if I want to improve my grade, right?

Freddie rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's why you want to read it. It has nothing to do with all the potential insight into how to make my life miserable."

"Aw, come on Fredward."

"Why don't you read Carly's? She got a better grade than you, too, right?"

"Sure. Carly can go first." She emphasized her last word and set Freddie's paper down carefully next to her. "How 'bout it, Carls? Can I read it?"

"Why don't I just read it out loud?"

"Works for me. Easier than moving my own eyes back and forth."

"Alright," Carly began as she pulled her paper out of her bag. "It's called 'A Non-Traditional Family.'"