Controlling Our Fates

Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly!

A/N: To my readers, I want you to know that I'm not going to let my ex steal even my once favorite pairing of the show. It may be painful, it still is hard to cope with writing Sam/Freddie (for reasons you would probably not understand right now), so I'm taking my best friend's advice and doing "baby steps" first. The first baby step, writing a story with the main couple not Sam/Freddie, but they are a secondary and a strong focal point. This will be a Jonah/Valerie-Freddie/Sam story. Please, please read, and enjoy.

Chapter 1 (Game of Mortal Kombat)

"It's about damn time!" Jonah smacked Freddie on the back and smirked as his friend let out a sharp cough. He was proud of him for how he went about Sam's confession of her feelings. They'd talked about her kiss during the days she had gone missing, so it was a bit of a surprise when he spotted his friend on iCarly in a mental hospital. "So, what is this, the third time you've kissed her?" Freddie casually opened his apartment door and entered with Jonah, they were going to sit down and play a game of Mortal Kombat on the PS3.

"Third, unless Sam was really Melanie…"

"Seriously dude…I believe we've already talked about that."

"I know, I know, spare me the lecture, please." Jonah chuckled softly and moved over to the couch in front of the television. Back when Melanie had come to visit, Freddie had been so adamant in thinking she was Sam, so much so that Jonah actually dared to give her a call and confirm her existence for Freddie. Of course, by this time, she was already pretty close to gone, so Freddie hadn't ever been able to apologize to her. "You should know how it feels to be constantly reminded about something you're guilty for."

"Yeah…" He cleared his throat and pressed his lips together as he grabbed the remote and flipped on the television. "Do me a favor. Don't remind me, I deal with it enough at school." It had been three years since he dated Sam, and while he was certain he wouldn't ever make the same mistake again, the people at the school never let him forget. He felt enough guilt and pain over such a stupid act. He was only fourteen, going on fifteen, at the time, and was a stupid teenager. Now, he was on his last few months of high school before graduation. He was seventeen and would be turning eighteen in June. "I'm going to be glad to get out of that damned school, three months is too long of a wait." In Seattle, schools ran until the first week of June, so graduation was in the first half of the month. It was early March. Jonah had a good handle on things, as far as their treatment of him, the other kids in the school had backed off a bit in recent years as he usually retaliated aggressively towards them.

"It'll come by sooner than you think, bro." Freddie clicked on the game and tossed Jonah the controller. Jonah grabbed it and leaned back, resting his ankle on his leg and staring at the screen. Just thinking about all the hell those kids put him through after what he did to Sam, and despite her moving on and no longer caring, it made him queasy and nauseous. Why was it that he could be friends with Freddie, though they had been friends for some time before Jonah ever dated Sam, and why was it that Sam could forgive him to the point she just no longer cared, but the rest of the school refused to leave him be? He rolled his head back and thought back to all the people that iCarly either made or broke. One of the earliest people that seemed to be humiliated through iCarly was some girl that Freddie dated at one time. "Hey, who was that girl you dated a few years ago, I can't remember her name…"

Freddie kept his eyes glued to the screen as he pressed the buttons on the controller to select the two player option. "Valerie?" Jonah tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair and nodded as her face came to his mind, he remembered her now. Hell, he was there when Freddie told him Valerie had just tried to tear iCarly apart. "What about her?"

"Whatever happened to her?"

"I don't know…You remember I said she just wanted some friends or something…" Jonah lifted his eyebrow as the character selection screen came up. He leaned forward with a mild groan, recalling the memory of their talk. It seemed Valerie told Freddie some things that he, of course, told Jonah and told him to never repeat to anyone else, and one of those things was indeed of Valerie's lack of friends. "I haven't really heard from her since we dated, she wasn't as bad as the people in the school made her out to be."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't remember?" Jonah moved his cursor over to Kung Lao while Freddie clicked on Scorpion. Freddie sat cross-legged on the ground and leaned his back against the vanilla couch. "When she and I broke up, everyone started telling me how sorry they felt for me and always called her a bitch, but she wasn't, they just didn't really understand her." The story struck Jonah close to his heart, he wanted to know if this girl was doing all right now or if she was being bothered like he was. If she was, he wanted to see if he could make her feel better at all. "You're being Kung Lao?"

"Yeah, but I might go with Sub Zero next time."

"You know I hate when you use those two characters, right?" Jonah smirked with pride as Freddie clicked the start button. It pleased him that Freddie couldn't beat him whenever he played as either of those two of his favorites.

"I know. Good way to take out aggressions, you know."

"Unwarranted. At least when it's me you're beating up and not one of the jackasses at the school…" Jonah frowned and watched the screen count down, once it said to fight, he immediately began mashing the buttons and opening a can of unbridled fury onto Scorpion. Freddie could hardly escape the flurry of punches and kicks, so he just looked away and set the controller on the ground. "Of course…" Jonah's eyes lit up as the words "Kung Lao Wins" appeared on the screen. "You know, you can't be fighter in both realities, you need to put up all that aggression to good use."

"I put it into plenty good use. People mess with me, I mess with them, simple enough. Honestly, I wish you guys never put me on iCarly, I wouldn't have to deal with all the crap I've been putting up with."

"I know, man. You hassle me on that quite a bit." Round two began and this time Freddie quickly moved his character to the opposite side, successfully avoiding Jonah's forward lunge. He laughed and shot the hook out, grabbing Kung Lao and pulling him towards, unleashing a hell of punches and kicks. Jonah growled and quickly kicked Scorpion to the ground.

"I'll keep hassling you on it too, man. Until those idiots can learn to back the hell off, I'm going to keep hassling everybody about it." Freddie flipped his controller over his shoulder as the words 'finish him' appeared on the screen and it was his character that was awaiting death.

"One of these days, Jonah, one of these days I'm going to get you."

"In your dreams, pal." He set his controller down on the sofa and placed his hands behind his head, smirking with pride. He closed his eyes and breathed out gently from his nose. "So tell me, when's your first date?"

"I'm not sure. I like her, but I'm kind of nervous about it."

"That's normal."

"What was it like for you when you dated her?"

"Seriously?" He opened his right eye and felt his muscle tension increase. It wasn't like he dated Sam for long enough to form any kind of sense of relationship with her, was it? He only met the woman's mother one time, and it was difficult to get along with the woman. As for Sam herself, there wasn't much that Freddie didn't already know. She had her walls, she had her insecurities, and she had the father that left them when she was young. He'd also met Melanie. Freddie rose up and looked at him with curiosity. Jonah rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest. "I only dated her for one week, and then I screwed up. You know more about her than I do, Freddie. I guess she's not all that hard to get along with, but her mother's a bit difficult. Met her only once, knew her long enough to formulate the same basic opinion of the woman that you did when you met her."

"Right…I guess I shouldn't worry. So, if I date her, I guess I'm going to have to tell her that I'm friends with you."

"That's up to you. Sam kind of knows, don't know if she remembers." The girls knew Freddie had known Jonah at the time he dated Sam, but they never knew that the guys had gone way back. Sam asked him once how he and Freddie met, and he told her the honest truth. That was why she never questioned when Freddie helped Jonah out after the wedgie bounce incident. Freddie had been concerned when his friend was hanging for two hours, Carly was the only one a bit confused by Freddie's quick tempered actions at getting Jonah off of the thing. "I think the important thing is not keeping one of your best friends hidden from your other friends, but for some reason you decided not to tell them anything."

To know that Freddie didn't want to bother Carly or Sam with that information was somewhat burdening, it weighed down on him as it was just another thing that resulted because of one mistake he made. What the hell had he been thinking, trying to kiss Carly like that? Cheating on Sam in such a way. He blamed his dad for never being there for him or for his little sister, so he had been acting out constantly when he was younger. Eventually Sam and Carly would probably find out about their friendship, but chances were somewhat slim.

Freddie moved over to the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. "Hey Jonah, want anything to drink?"

"You have a root beer in there?"

"Got it." He reached in and grabbed two bottles of root beer, then headed back to his friend. Jonah took the cold bottle and nodded slightly.

"Thanks bro. So can you believe what they're making us do starting Monday?" He grabbed the cap of the bottle and twisted it off with mild effort. Freddie and Jonah were in a medical type class together that the school was putting up with the local hospital. For two weeks, they would be learning CPR and becoming certified in it, but the somewhat fun fact was, the medical teaching staff would be meeting in the back of the Home Economics room. "You'd think they'd use the main auditorium."

"Eh, free food if you ask me. What's to complain about there?"

"True, I'd shoot for that over the auditorium any day." Jonah put the bottle to his lips and drank the sparkling fluid, it was cold on his tongue and tasted sweet, as though he had not had a drink in so long. He licked his lips and lowered the drink. "Say, what do you think would happen if Sam's dad showed up?"

"I don't know, but one thing at a time. I mean, she just opened up and let me in." He set his root beer down and picked up the game controller. Jonah smirked deviously and did the same as Freddie flipped over to the character select. "So, another game? I'm sure I'll win this time around."

"We'll see." Jonah chuckled as Freddie chose his character, again he was confident in his ability to win. Freddie clicked on Kintaro, but sighed as Jonah skipped over Sub Zero and went for his actual best character on the game. Smoke. Jonah clicked the 'start' button and grinned. "Let's play. Since it's pretty obvious who's going to win this match, you'll be buying pizza."

"Shit."

I hope you enjoy the start of this, it's going to be good in the future, and I'll state again in case you're worried, yes Sam/Freddie will be focused on just as much as Jonah/Valerie. Let me know what you think, hopefully you'll support me as I heal here...