Chapter 1

The obnoxious ringing of her cell phone woke her. Sam cursed under her breath and picked up her cell phone, checking the caller ID before answering, Carly, of course. Who else?

"What?" She said crankily, eyes drifting closed again.

"Sam I did it!" Said the peppy voice on the other end, more like screamed actually, "I got into Yale!"

With those words Sam sat up with a jolt, all thoughts of sleep gone. "What did you say?"

"I got in!" Carly repeated, "Yale! I'm going to Yale!" Sam's mouth drifted down to a frown while she worked on keeping her voice happy

"Oh that's so great! I'm so happy for you!" Not. "We should celebrate!"

"Come over to my place in 20 minutes and we'll do just that! I'm going to call Freddie and tell him the news!" The girl on the other line hung up, but not before Sam could fit in a nice command of "Ham, don't forget the ham!" She sighed and hung up.

It was senior year, the spring of senior year to be exact. The days when any other normal kid, like her best friend, would be getting their acceptance letters to colleges, getting lists of supplies together, picking out dorm furnishings and looking forward to a generally brilliant future. Freddie had called yesterday to tell her he got into Harvard, why he called Sam she had yet to find out because instead of praise he got some nice insults. He just scoffed and hung up after a little while. Carly was going to Yale, Freddie Harvard… Sam just couldn't figure out what in the world she had to look forward two while the two were gone, living the college life style.

She hadn't even tried to get into colleges, with her horrible grades and streak in juvy; she figured that no college on the planet would take her. She just lied to Carly, told her she had applied to a couple different ones and just hadn't gotten a reply yet. But now, looking back she wished she actually tired, maybe just a little anyway.

She stood up and walked groggily to the shower. As the hot water pelted her face she got an idea, a brilliant idea. Spencer was right; you do get your best ideas in the shower. With a grin she dressed, glanced at her mother's most recent note about where she would be this week (with a trucker on his rout, steamy hotel nights, adventure, blah blah blah.) and left for Carly's.

Freddie hadn't been at Carly's long when the blond burst through the door announcing, "Hey Carly, hey Freddork." He grimaced and turned to face her, choosing to not even answer her. She tossed her bag on the couch and plopped down next to him next to the computer, sipping out of his glass of coke.

"Hey!" he protested, trying to grab it back and failed. She grinned at him, curly blond hair falling over her face. He groaned and turned back to the computer, uploading the latest video they had made. Carly lightly smacked Sam's hand and gave him back his coke. He grinned up at her happily in thanks. She was as beautiful as every other day he'd seen her, even though he knew she didn't love him back, he couldn't help himself.

Sam on the other hand did nothing but make fun of him and tease him mercilessly, though even though she did all these horrible things to him she had turned out to be his best friend, which is just weird for him to think about yet very, very true. Carly was his love; Sam was his best friend, funny how things like this work out.

Sam stood up and walked over to the fridge opening the door and peering inside. "No way," She turned around to glare at Freddie, "You did not drink the last one." Freddie raised his eyebrows and sipped out of the can with a slight grin. Sam came over and tried to take it but he held it above her reach, in the past year he'd gotten quite tall, especially to Sam who had stopped growing in 8th grade.

"Oh god you two stop, I'll just go get more." Carly rolled her eyes. Sam backed up and shrugged.

"Sounds good."

Freddie scoffed, "Wow, you're so good at this whole compliment thing." The two made faces at each other as Carly left. Sam watched her leave then as soon as the door swung closed she gripped his shoulders, sat him down so forcefully in the chair his soda spilled all over his chin, and pointed her finger in his face. Freddie gulped, nervously.

"I am only going to say this once Dork." She said softly, "So listen up." Freddie looked up into her blue eyes and frowned, she had a look in her eyes he didn't recognize, her eyes were fierce, bearing into his, yet…fearful? Embarrassment? Sam Puckett? No way.

"I need help," she nearly whispered, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

Freddie just stared, so surprised, "Sorry what?" Sam was asking for help? That had never happened before. Never.

"Don't you dare make me say it again, Dork." Her eyes flashed at him dangerously and he knew to just back off.

"Ok, ok, sorry… what do you need help with?" he said cautiously.

"College."

Freddie just looked at her then started laughing heartily. Sam blinked then started growling as he just kept laughing. He couldn't help it, first of all, Sam asking him for help was ridiculous, and second of all Sam at college was a frightening thought. Her running around picking on the multitude of geeks and random girls in sororities, or her getting yelled at by some old professor for not doing the homework, or possibly (oh spare the thought) if she was balk talking him. Just a couple days ago she was making fun of him for getting into Yale, he thought she hated college. He just couldn't picture her there.

Suddenly his hair had been grabbed and his face had been forced down to his knees, but not before he'd seen her angry blushing face.

"Shut up you dork!" she growled angrily, pushing his face into his knees a couple of times, maybe hoping to force his permanently into his legs like some weird version of the hunch-balk of Notre Dame. "You are such a pompous dork some times!" she kept grumbling angry curse words and insults at him.

Freddie grabbed her hands and yanked them off his hair, sitting back up again. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, Sam you have to admit, you are not the college type." He grinned up at her cheekily before she smacked the back of his head.

"Ok sorry, Freddork, I'm leaving." Sam stood up angrily, sulking.

Freddie rubbed his head as he watched her leave, what a weird woman, he really should have gotten used to her by now. Something that was defiantly harder than it sounds.