Chapter One.

It all started with a book. That one book, that Freddie forced me to read. I was hooked on reading, but only when no one was looking. Even though I never read what I was supposed to, like textbooks or book report books, I read. A lot.

Freddie read. Carly didn't, atleast not as much as us.

The only person that knew how addicted I was, was my dear little friend Gibby. We sat on his porch one day a week, sort of like a mini book club, talking about books. I wasn't sure why or how he read, considering how many people were convinced he was mentally challenged. I still believed he was a mermaid, so maybe he read while he was in the bathtub cleaning his tail.

We became better friends pretty fast once we started doing this, and it was good to finally have someone to talk to that wasn't Carly. I'd started to get jealous of her, because after all these years, Freddie was still hooked. And so, I opened up to him.

"Maybe Freddie would like you more if you were smart like him," he suggested, shielding his face after in case I punched. I didn't, because I knew that was true. I was getting a D in every one of my classes, and I didn't try at all.

"I am smart. I just don't do homework. Or tests. Or quizzes."

"Or anything." Gibby laughed. I couldn't help but laugh too, as I stood up and put my book into my bag. "You're gonna need to go to college, anyway, Sam."

"College? My mom doesn't have the money for that," I shrugged, "but I guess it wouldn't hurt to learn something now and then."

"Do you think you could get all your grades up to an A?"

"I know I can." I gave him a thumbs up, "Is that a challenge?"

"...Yes." He crossed his arms, "The prize is... A years supply of Fat Cakes, and Freddie Benson's heart."

Sometimes Gibby said some cute things. "You're on, Gibson."

That night I went home. I curled up in my bed, and texted Carly asking what homework and tests we had tomorrow. She told me, and I spent the entire night trying to find X. But when I walked into class the next day and that test was on my desk ready to be filled out, I passed out.

"Sam," Carly nudged my shoulder, "Sam, wake up."

"Huh?" I looked up at her, "Oh my god, the test!" I sat up and looked around.

"The bell just rang. The period is over. You slept through it. Again." She helped me stand up, "Why are you so tired?"

"You mean I failed?" I covered my face with my hands, "I can't believe I just did that."

"Sam, you fail everything." Carly laughed, "It's no biggie."

"No biggie? It's an F!" I grabbed my bag angrily and started walking out of the room, "I spent all night playing pirate just to fail? No way."

"Playing pirate?" Carly followed me as I sped through the hallway to the cafeteria.

"Yep," I quickly bought a cookie and sat down at a table to eat it. "I just want my Fat Cakes, Carls."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Sam." She sighed, then laughed, "You've been hanging around Gibby too much lately."

"Nah," I shrugged, "Hey, are you and Spencer gonna be home tonight?"

"No actually. He's taking me to an art exhibit in another town."

That was all I needed to hear, so I told her I had to go, and then left. I headed to Principal Franklin's office and picked the lock. No one was inside, so I pulled a chair into the corner, sat down, and slept more. By the time he finally woke me up, it was time to leave school.

"Someone told me you wanted to see me," I lied, "so I came in here and must have fell asleep waiting."

"Who told you I wanted to see you?" He asked.

"Briggs." I shrugged. I got out of there as soon as possible so I could get home, study, do homework, and then sleep, all at Carly's place. Mom had told me she was having a man over for dinner, and I was not about to be a part of that.

But of course, I ran into Freddie.

"Hey, Sam!" He called, and I stopped, because how could I ever pass up a conversation with him? "Where are you headed?"

"Carly's, why?"

"Lemme walk with you there, I've gotta hook something up to the tv in the studio."

I loved when he walked with me places, I loved talking to him, and I loved whenever he was around me. We'd gotten so much closer, and it absolutely sucked. He'd tell me little things about Carly, like how nice her hair looked, or how he liked her top. But all he ever said to me was, "wow, you've gotten even stronger since the last time you hit me!"

"Okay," I smiled at him, and then I stood next to him as he took books out of his locker. When he was done, we left school, and it was obvious I was quieter than usual. I was trying really hard to remember what we learned in History, but it wasn't coming to me. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Are you alright?" He asked, looking over at me as we crossed a street.

"I'm great." I laughed, "Fabulous."

"No you're not," he raised his eyebrows, chuckling, "Well, I mean, of course you're great and fabulous, but I know you don't feel great and fabulous."

That was weird. Awkward. Insane. It made me get nervous, which I never got. "How do you know how I feel?"

"I know you, Sam. You usually tell me about your day when we walk places," the light turned green while we were in the middle of the street, so he grabbed my arm and pulled me quickly to the sidewalk.

"Well why don't you tell me about your day first?" I asked.

"Nothing really happened, I had a test in almost all my classes." He shrugged.

"Don't we have all the same teachers?" I smacked my forehead, "I had a ton of tests, and spent the whole day sleeping in Franklin's office."

"You're gonna have to stay back if you keep pulling crap like that." He laughed, but I could tell he was disappointed in me.

"It was an accident." I sighed.

When we got to Carly's, I crashed on the couch and pulled out my books. I asked Freddie what all the homework was, but he got fed up with me asking him to repeat it over and over as I wrote it down and just threw his assignment pad at me. He went upstairs to hook up whatever he was doing, and I stared at my history book.

It was kind of like reading regular books. It told a story. It was a boring story, but a story nonetheless.

"You're still reading?" Freddie asked, walking downstairs and sitting next to me after about an hour, "I'm proud of you, Samantha Puckett."

"Better be. Things are gonna change from now on." I smiled at him confidently.

We hadn't been fighting as much lately, and I liked it. He didn't push my buttons, and ignored me when I pushed his. And I thought things were going well, up until what came next.

"Carly's doing really well with her grades this year," he started, "she's getting recommended for AP courses next year."

"Oh yeah?" I pretended to care. "What about you? You're not in any AP courses."

"Yeah. My mom's afraid that if she puts me in them, I'll be too pressured and commit suicide."

"That's nice." I shrugged, flipping the page to continue reading.

"...not really." He laughed, "want me to help you study?"

I did, I really did. "Sure."

"I helped Carly study for that math test today. We sat in the hallway pretty late last night." He went to get some paper out of his bag, but that put the icing on the cake.

"I studied last night by myself. And I would have passed the test today if I didn't fall asleep."

"Well now you have me to study with," he smiled at me, but I didn't smile back.

"No, it's okay, you can keep helping Carly." I gathered my things up quickly and pulled out my cellphone. I started dialing Gibby's number, and left the apartment without another word to Freddie. I couldn't go home, I couldn't go back to Carly's, so I was heading in the direction of Gibby's.

"Sammo!" Gibby shouted when he answered.

"Gib, can I come over and just have somewhere quiet to study for a while?"

"Sure thing. I can even help you study. Finally repay you for training me to fight Freddie that one time."

When I got to his house, we went in his room and I vented about everything that had just happened with Freddie. It was nothing big. But it bothered me so much. And then Gibby held up a flashcard with a vocabulary word's definition on it, and I knew what word it was. "English test? You're going down."

I slept over Gibby's, playing with Gup in the morning. His mom didn't even question it, and took us to school. I took makeup tests in all the classes I'd be in Franklin's office for, and I was confident about it.

"So I heard you slept over Gibby's last night," Carly mumbled as we sat down in the Groovy Smoothie after school.

"Yeah," I sipped my smoothie.

"Are you like, dating him or something?" Freddie asked.

"You sleep over Carly's, are you dating her?" I snapped.

"But Freddie likes me. So that means you like Gibby." Carly nudged me, trying to act cute.

"That's not even true, Sam." Freddie rolled his eyes, "but you didn't even tell us that you were so close with Gibby."

"What do you mean that's not true?" Carly laughed.

"Why do I need to tell you guys who I'm close with?" I asked.

"Because yesterday, you completely blew me off for Gibby, that's why! You couldn't tell me what was bothering you, but you can go sleep over another guy's house?" Freddie looked mad, and I didn't know why, but it made me feel special, and I liked it. He even said he didn't like Carly. Sort of.

"What does that even matter to you?" I slammed my smoothie down on the table. "All you ever talk about is HER!" I pointed at Carly, scaring her, and she jumped back in her seat.

Freddie stood up and walked out. Carly stared at me.

"..Sam?" Carly whispered after a while.

"What!" I glared at her.

"Nothing." she stood up, too, and left. I sat at the table alone, pulled out a book, and read.