When Carly finds out that her father will be returning home for an entire summer and is taking Carly and Spencer to Europe from the first week of July until September, she leaves with these parting words for Sam and Freddie... Just please don't kill each other while I'm gone, and try not to totally forget about iCarly. But nobody, least of all Carly, expects what will happen between two enemies when Carly is gone. However, no summer lasts forever... Can they overcome the colder nights? Or will they be as lost as the summer they were 16?

Based on "Blame It On September" by Allstar Weekend.

Oh and one more thing- Valerie and Jonah are no longer antagonists. The Wedgie Bounce made Jonah see the error of his ways, and he sincerely apologized. Both Freddie and Sam have forgiven him, though Sam made it clear she would never think of being in a relationship with him again. Carly is more leery and although she forgave him, she is not on the same terms of friendship with him that Sam and Freddie are now. Valerie, who once tried to thwart iCarly and become the most popular show on the web, only for her webshow to fail miserably, apologized as well, and admitted honestly that she was not only dating Freddie to get him on her webshow, but she had honestly liked him, and honestly thought what she was doing was ok. Again, Sam and Freddie forgave her and started over (except the relationship thing, Freddie also made it clear he would not be dating Valerie again) and Carly forgave her, but is not on the same terms of friendship that Sam and Freddie are (and Gibby is friends with Jonah and Valerie who are dating now).

Oh, the not-so-central-but-still-there pairings:

Jonah/Valerie

Tibby (Tasha/Gibby)

Jake/Terrene

Barly (Brad/Carly)

And of course, Seddie (Sam/Freddie) the main pairing.

xxx

June 30

Sea-Tac Airport

"And you guys are SURE you'll be fine? Freddie, you'll remember to feed Sam when she shows up randomly? And Sam, you'll remember to eat other places than Freddie's on occasion? His mother might go after you with that broom... AGAIN... If you eat all their food again! Oh, and PLEASE don't kill each other! I know you guys fight a lot but can you try being nice just for this one summer... And don't forget to upload stuff to iCarly every once in a while, I mean of course you guys won't do regular full length webshows but just putting up some funny pics or changing the poll question every once in a while, or maybe just little segments that you guys can do by yourselves, don't forget that because we don't want the fans to think we don't care about them," Carly Shay worry-rambled to her best friends and partners in their webshow, iCarly.

Sam rolled her eyes. Her prissy best friend was such a worrier. Carly was like a mother figure in their little group (which was odd, since she was still only 15 and would not turn 16 until July 26, making her the youngest of the group, as both Sam and Freddie had already turned 16). She always had to make sure Sam and Freddie, her "children", were alright.

Even Spencer, who was the king of ridiculous behaviour, seemed to think Carly was being a little over-dramatic. He poked his little sister in the shoulder and said, "Carls, I know you're concerned for the well-being of Sam and Freddie while we're gone, but they are 16 now, you realize, not 6. I think they'll be able to fend for themselves until we get back in September. Besides, we all know you'll be video chatting with them every night, and you can check up on them then. For now, we've gotta get going through security or we're gonna miss our flight. And Dad will kill me if we miss our flight."

Carly nodded, and quickly jumped forward to envelope her best friends in a group hug. Sam, who hated sappy goodbyes, especially public ones, hugged her back awkwardly. Freddie, who was much taller and musclier than either girl now, also returned the hug stooped uncomfortably over. When the little hug fest ended, Spencer offered fist bumps and cheery smiles to his sister's best friends, and (though he would not admit it as a respectable adult, not that Spencer was remotely close to a respectable adult, but he liked to pretend sometimes) his own best friends, other than Socko of course. As Carly turned to walk through the metal detector, giving her friends a subdued wave, Sam yelled, "BRING ME BACK SOME BOLIVIAN BACON!"

Carly grinned. Sam could always be counted on to lighten up any moment, any time with a comment like that. Carly yelled in reply, "BOLIVIA'S NOT EVEN IN EUROPE!"

With that, Carly followed Spencer through the metal detector, leaving the blonde haired demon Sam Puckett and the dark haired technology nerd Freddie Benson, standing beside each other on the other side of the security check point. They remained there, silent, until they could no longer see Carly and Spencer walking away from them and towards an adventurous and exciting summer touring Europe with their father, Colonel Steven Shay, on leave for the rest of the summer.

As the Shay siblings turned around the corner, disappearing from view, Sam turned to Freddie and noticed he was still staring absently after them. Annoyed, she punched him in the shoulder. He winced and grabbed his arm, which would surely bruise, shouting, "OW! What was that for!"

"For being a dork. Come on, let's go, unless you want to just stand there and stare into space a little longer. If so, I'm taking your keys and your wallet and driving to Inside-Out Burger."

Not being a stranger to the things Sam would do if she was in possession of his keys and wallet (the 2 camera speeding tickets and the camera ticket for running a red light that just about gave his mother a heart attack when they arrived in the mail had taught him that lesson, not to mention the fact he'd just been paid from his part time job at the Pear Store in the mall, and would prefer for Sam not to spend all his money on burgers and Fat Shakes) he hurried after her.

They didn't really speak on the trek through the busy airport and the parking lot, although the quiet wasn't really noticeable or strange until they climbed into Freddie's car and he started to drive. Sam, stretched haphazardly across the passenger seat, put her feet up on his dashboard (he had long since learned against complaining about all the germs on Sam's sneakers that she was getting all over his car) and leaned the seat back, staring out the window at the passing buildings.

After five minutes, with still a twenty minute drive back to Sam's house ahead of them, the silence was unbearable for Freddie. He was going to go crazy if it continued. Desperate for a sound of any kind, he reached out and turned the radio on. Immediately, a Hot 100 song started to play. It was a catchy, typical Radio Dingo pop song. Freddie didn't mind it, he actually kind of liked popular music, but Sam, meanwhile... She smacked her hand on her arm rest and groaned.

"You're not really going to play this chiz for the next twenty minutes, are you?" she spat. Secretly, Freddie grinned. The music had the effect he'd hoped for... Sam had broken the silence.

"And so what if I do, Puckett? It's my car, I can play any kind of music I want," Freddie smirked.

"Not if you want to live..." and here the song in the background changed, to something softer and very different from the Ginger Fox 'comeback' single that had just been playing, "Oh, hey, this is Allstar Weekend, they're not bad. I like this song, I'm so glad they're not with Dingo Records anymore. Whatever, turn this one up."

Surprised that Sam liked a Dingo (or rather, ex-Dingo) band, Freddie complied with Sam's request. He smiled absently as he heard her start quietly singing along to this Allstar Weekend (a band he'd never heard of before) song. Sam has a lovely singing voice, Freddie realized suddenly. He came to that realization as simply and easily as coming to the conclusion that he hated prune pops or that his mom was crazy. It was just a fact. There was nothing wrong with thinking his frenemy was a great singer... It was a simple fact. You could hate a band as much as you wanted, and the singer could still be great.

I can still see you standing there

Summer tangled in your hair

First week of July

First day of my life

My voice shook when I said hello

From that word we couldn't take it slow

I still can't believe

The way you looked at me...

"Hey, you're right, this isn't a bad song," Freddie acquiesced, bobbing his head lightly to the sound.

"Is Momma ever wrong? Of course I'm right, Freddork. Allstar Weekend is cool, for a band that used to be with Dingo, that is."

After that, the quiet that settled was a familiar one. A comfortable one, even. The silence present when you simply didn't need to talk (of course, the silence only fell after Sam's small temper tantrum when a song by another Dingo artist came on, and Freddie's allowing of Sam to plug her PearPod in and choose the music, under fear for his life).

Neither said another word for another fifteen minutes, until Freddie was nearing the neighborhood where Sam lived, when she looked at him and said, "Even though Carly's not here... We're still gonna hang out this summer, right? Like, me and you?"

Freddie was, to say the least, a little shocked, and, raising his eyebrows, said, "YOU want to hang out with ME. YOU. ME. Really?"

Sam glared at him and growled, "I never said I wanted to hang out with you. I was just wondering if we would be... Like, to update the iCarly site and stuff. Didn't Carly make sure to say to us that we're not allowed to forget that?"

Freddie laughed. Even if Sam actually did want to hang out with him, she would never admit it. So he smiled and said, "Right, of course. Of course we'll be hanging out... And stuff. We do all the time anyway, to film those clips like Wake Up Spencer and stuff. Carly never does that with us, and Gibby only does sometimes. So, yeah. Speaking of whom, Gibby asked me if I wanted to go to the beach with him and Tasha, Terrene and Jake, and Valerie and Jonah, tomorrow, but obviously everyone is all coupled up except me, so I don't wanna go alone and be the seventh wheel, so do you wanna come with? We can hang out and be single together."

Sam shrugged, and said, "Yeah, I'm down with that. I love the beach..." here she giggled, and started singing, "well you're a long walk from the beach, and I'm dyin' in this summer heat... Sorry. Sure, I'll come be the girl you're not dating but bring anyway so you don't look quite so lame."

He rolled his eyes, and muttered, "I do have SOME pride, you know. It would be nice if you respected that once in a while."

Sam stuck her tongue out and smirked, "It might be nice, but it wouldn't be me."

Freddie shook his head as he parked in front of Sam's house, and watched his friend get out of his car and wave to him before sprinting up to her front door. He thought to himself, no, it certainly would not be you.

xxx

Umm, yeah... So review I guess, and tell me if you like it, hate it, whatever :3

~ Jess-Says-Summer ~