So this is my second iCarly story. I got a lot of good reviews on my last one so I thought I might as well post this one too. This one, unlike the last, is more set in I guess the cannon iCarly universe. It's based on the line in iOMG where Freddie mentions his birthday card.

I hope you enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly.

iBirthday Card

"Sam."

"Sam, are you listening to me?"

"SAM!"

"What?" Sam tore her eyes away from the turkey leg she was currently consuming and looked at her best friend. Carly was standing arms crossed and foot tapping; it occurred to her she was probably supposed to be listening to her friend.

Carly sighed. "I asked if you were coming over tonight for spaghetti tacos?"

"I thought Wednesday was spaghetti taco night?"

"Spencer is making them for Freddie's birthday dinner tonight,"

Sam froze for a second then quickly replied with an "oh, right."

"You forgot it was his birthday didn't you?" Carly accused.

"Maybe."

"Sam,"

"Well I know now so I didn't completely forget." It's not like he would have been surprised that she hadn't cared enough to remember his birthday. And it's not like she didn't care about him, though she would never admit that out loud, it was more that she didn't care to remember anyone's birthdays. She knew her birthday and she knew Carly's birthday off the top of her head. And Melanie's, but she often claimed she forgot it because she didn't get her a present.

"But you did forget, you know I told Freddie I didn't have to invite you, it's just us eating and I thought he might like to not be insulted or abused on his birthday," she turned to her locker to collect her books for the day. "But he insisted it was fine, said it wouldn't be the same without you their making trouble."

He would say that, that stupid dork. Now she did feel sort of bad about not getting him a present or even a card.

"Okay, I promise I'll go easy on him today." Sam tossed the turkey leg in her locker. "See you after class."

Sam was bored. She couldn't even pretend to listen to her teacher drone on about whatever subject it was she was supposed to be learning. She started flipping through her notebook looking for a clean page to doodle on. As she turned each page she looked at her old scribbles; a chicken was drawn in the corner of one page, a list of ideas for iCarly was written in the margins or another. She drew a tree on the back of one page that grew on to the next three. It was pretty cool and had taken up two whole class periods.

A few pages later she came across a doodle she made last week. A little cartooned version of herself sat on a chair with her arm extended out over a second chair. A little cartooned Freddie was sitting on the ground next to the chair he had been pushed off of.

Sam frowned. She hadn't even realized what she had been drawing at the time but she wasn't surprised. Freddie had been invading her thoughts more frequently than she'd care to admit.

But, she smiled, it was an amusing doodle and with some creative folding it would be an almost thoughtful birthday card.

She tore the paper quickly from her notebook, ignored the irritated look she received from her teacher, and fished around in her bag for a pen. She bent the paper somewhat crookedly so the entire picture was on the front.

Flipping it back open she hastily wrote 'Happy Birthday,' in the middle and 'love Sam' towards the bottom. She was shoving both the card and the pen into her bag when she froze. She slowly pulled the card back and placed it in front of her, not opening it.

She couldn't believe what she had just written. Sure it was a standard salutation, for friendly people at least; Sam almost never used it. But the rareness of the situation wasn't what was freaking her out.

Lately Freddie had been on her mind more then she would usually allow and she was using every excuse she could think of to deny she might have a crush on the dork. But she had written 'love' on Freddie's birthday card and something about the words 'love' and 'Freddie' being used so close to each other had her head flooding with realization.

Maybe she did have feelings for him and it was more than just a little crush.

Something about accepting that had her stomach turning up her breakfast.

Her hand shot into the air and before the teacher even noticed she was speaking.

"I don't feel well, can I be excused."

Maybe it was the fact that her hand was clutching her stomach because the teacher waved her off without any questions. She practically ran out of the room, the birthday card and pen grasped in her free hand.

Sam walked swiftly towards the bathroom trying to process her thoughts. She had a crush on Freddie she couldn't push those feelings away now that they had been let of their box. The box she had mentally labeled 'do not open' in big red letters.

But it wasn't allowed to be more than a crush. She could get over a crush, she'd done it a hundred times. Actually having deeper feelings, she just couldn't handle that.

She entered the bathroom, quickly locked herself in one of the stalls but didn't hang herself over the toilet to throw up. Walking seemed to calm her stomach and instead she dropped down on to the dirty bathroom floor.

Why did she have to have feelings for Freddie? Of all the dorks in the world it had to be that one, the one she hated.

Did she still hate him? Could you hate a person you had a crush on?

Maybe.

But this was more than a crush and she couldn't hate him and love him at the same time.

Sam looked at the card in her hand.

Love Sam.

Maybe she was just reading too much into this. It could have just been a slip up when she wrote love.

She folded the card open and rested it against her knee. She examined the word love carefully before adding a tiny vertical and horizontal line before the lowercase L. It made a very convincing H. Next a tail was added to the O so it resembled a lowercase, slightly bloated A. The V was tricky but by making it taller on one side and crossing it in the middle it looked like a fancy T.

Hate Sam.

'That was better' she thought, but not quite enough to make the flipping sensation in her stomach settle.

Beneath 'Happy Birthday' Sam added the words 'I hate you.'

It was redundant but comforting. It certainly didn't send the message of 'hey if I'm not careful I'm going to fall in love with you.'

She picked herself up off the floor and went to wash her hands. She folded up the card and slid it into the pocket of her sweatshirt; she promised herself she wouldn't think about it anymore. She wouldn't look at it again until the next time she saw Freddie.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Carly and Sam sprinted towards Freddie, leaping the last few feet to stop directly in front of him. He grinned at the both of them and Carly pulled him into a hug. Sam felt a rush of affection for the smiling boy and warded it off by slamming her fist into his arm.

"OW."

"Sorry, just getting it out of my system," he looked at her curiously and she shrugged. "I promised Carly I'd go easy on you because it's your birthday."

Freddie rolled his eyes and hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulder. "So what'd you guys get me?"

"Nothing."

"Sam!" Carly scolded. "You'll get your present later, but you can have your card now." She reached into her bag and pulled out a simple birthday card.

"Thanks Carls."

"I'm pretty much broke and even if I did have money I'd spend it on food before I'd spend it on you." Sam said casually. "But here." She reached into her pocket and handed over the messy homemade card. Freddie took it skeptically but once he saw the front he chuckled and realized it was harmless. He flipped it open reading the greetings inside and started shaking his head. He was still smiling; even more than he was before.

"Hate you too Sam, hate you too."

So I kind of loved that line in iOMG when Freddie brings up his birthday card. My original idea had Freddie realizing the letters had been changed and comparing the cards from Sam and Carly, but I like this too.

And I hope you liked it too.

LovingMyLife