Author's Note: I started this forever ago, back when iCarly Saves Television first aired. And well, months later, this is what I have. =/
Disclaimer: I own nothing
She didn't exactly know when it happened, or how it started, or if she was going crazy. It could have been developing over a long time, like from the moment they met, or something could have hit him in the head. Hard. Either way, Sam was completely freaking out.
She realized it one day towards the end of the school year. She was hiding the left over water balloons in Gibby's locker between the end of lunch and the beginning of 6th period. Sam had just slammed the locker shut when the bell rang, and she watched as Ms. Briggs started yelling at a couple of kids who were walking too slowly down the stairs, then gave them detention for running.
"Sam," she heard behind her, startling her and making her jump.
"Oh," she said, turning back around and eyeing Ms. Briggs. She moved to open her own locker, spinning the dial one last time before opening it and randomly taking out books she might need for homework later. It didn't really matter what she grabbed, because Carly always had the correct ones, and was never stingy with sharing them. Or her answers.
"Where's Carls?" she remembered asking, damning the question to this day for opening her eyes.
"Dunno," she heard to her right, more like a mumble then a proper pronunciation.
And she was so shocked that she turned quickly, the strap of her bag flying up and tearing at the picture of Drake Bell in her locker. Freddie was just standing there, leaning against the wall, so ridiculously nonchalant it wasn't even funny.
"What?" Sam squeaked, hating herself for sounding so unlike herself. Freddie lived and breathed Carly. He knew her schedule better than his own. He knew when she did her homework and watched tv and got home from school. Sam wouldn't have been surprised if he knew when she went to the bathroom. But hearing him not know something about her, and not waiting in anticipation for the next time he would see her, shocked her so much she didn't even realize that Carly came up to them, and was telling them something.
That something, Sam found out a couple of days later, was that Harper was transferring to their school in the Fall. Sam didn't really have an opinion on the matter. Harper was a cool kid and all, but it didn't really concern her. Carly had seemed to be excited though, since she was still talking about it almost a week later, so Sam managed a smile and a bit of excitement. Anything to get her mind off of the alien that was currently sucking out Freddie's brain.
Unfortunately, things seemed to get even weirder for Sam, and no amount of secondhand excitement could cover it up. When school finally ended, and this being her first summer in a long time that she didn't have to attend summer school, Sam had her annual note-burning ceremony a bit early. Carly insisted Sam burn her notes at the Shay loft, since hearing about how Sam kind of lit part of her house on fire when she was seven. Honestly though, it was all that stupid neighbor's beast of a cat's fault, not staying still and running around the yard.
Within minutes of Spencer putting out the fire, then deciding that fire extinguishers were going to star in his next sculpture, Freddie had arrived. Sam steered clear of him, barely acknowledging his presence and collapsing into the bean bag on the other side of the room. She knew that she really didn't need to be there for the brain storming session for the first Summer Special of iCarly. Carly and Freddie never wanted to go along with any of her ideas, saying they were immoral and mean and dangerous. Whatever. She just needed to know what skits they were going to perform and what the second button from the bottom on her remote would do for that particular episode.
Damn Carly for having air conditioning and quiet relatives and edible food, making Sam prefer it there over her own house.
Sometime later, after the leftover takeout and bowl of ice cream, the doorbell rang, and before Sam or Freddie could even begin to wonder who it could be, Carly was jumping up, squealing and running for the stairs.
"Weird," Freddie said, clicking away on his laptop.
"Shut up," was Sam's automatic response, regretting it instantly when Freddie ducked his head and smiled slightly.
A couple of minutes later, after trying to avoid even breathing in Freddie direction, the elevator chimed and Carly was walking into the studio with a smiling Harper at her side. Pleasantries were exchanged, some weird wanna-be-manly high five thing going on between Harper and Freddie, before Harper collapsed into the bean bag next to Sam, matching her upside down stance and smiling out towards the room. Carly pulled a chair over, while Freddie relaxed against the wall with his laptop, and the two of them, along with Harper, began talking about the next night's show.
It took Sam a while to figure out that Harper was guest starring on the show again. He was going to play another song, with some sappy title that Sam couldn't care to remember, and jump in on a few of the skits. Sam didn't mind, it was less for her to do, and with the longer shows they were going to put on, it made sense to have other people on to fill the time. And besides, it was another person Freddie could point the camera at, therefore causing his focus to be on someone other than her.
Three days later, when they met again to brainstorm, and for Sam to eat Spencer's leftovers from his horrible date the night before, she was surprised to hear the doorbell and see Harper settling down next to her again. Apparently, Harper was going to become a regular on iCarly. He was going to play songs and make jokes and just be there. Not that Sam minded, really. It was just not something she was expecting.
iCarly was her, Carly and Freddie's thing. Sometimes Spencer would help, but it always came down to the three of them. She couldn't say anything though, because Carly became so animated when Harper entered the room, and she didn't want to speak to Freddie at all, so she just smiled and grabbed another handful of cheese puffs.
Sam didn't think that she was particularly slow. She knew she was lazy and didn't apply herself. She could do really well in her classes, and make the honor roll like Carly and Freddie every semester, but it was just too much effort. It took too much time and energy to care about anything that wasn't food, or being mean, so she just decided not to. It didn't matter.
However, when she caught Carly with Harper's tongue down her throat, she realized she should have seen it coming. With him joining iCarly and making friends with Spencer. With Harper playing computer games with Freddie and bringing specialty chocolates for Sam. With the little smiles he shared with Carly, and bringing her smoothies and awkward pirate movies after that time he walked in on her giggling about that weirdo in their neighborhood. Really, it was right in front of her face.
It was still shocking though. She expected to come over, eat some food, and maybe crash at the Shay's for a couple of nights, or a week, till the end of the summer… whenever. What she didn't expect was walking into a dark living room, in the middle of the day, and find Carly and Harper making out on the couch while she heard Spencer singing in the shower.
It actually took her a while to realize she wasn't dreaming though, because Freddie had walked into the apartment with her, opening his door just as she walked from the stairs to their hallway. He was the one to flip the switch, causing Carly and Harper to spring apart, a faint blush on both their faces. And the fact that Freddie did his usual high five thing with Harper, instead of killing him, made Sam think it wasn't real.
Because Freddie should have been spluttering and angry and making weird noises. He should have attempted to kill Harper or commit suicide or something. Not turn and smile at Sam like the world wasn't upside down.
The rest of the night was so surreal. Spencer smiling at them all, just wearing jeans and a towel wrapped around his head as he cooked. The five of them sitting at the table, Freddie to her left and Carly to her right. Everyone laughing at nothing and Freddie leaning over to talk to Harper and Carly so obviously playing footsie with Harper under the table. Then Freddie offering the remainder of his dessert to Sam, spooning the pudding into her bowl and Harper kissing Carly's nose, passing her a plate to dry.
"I think I'm going to be sick," she said, before rushing to the bathroom and vomiting the meal she couldn't remember enjoying.
Later that night, when she was curled up in her sleeping bag on the floor of the studio, Sam heard Carly texting to next to her. After about ten minutes of clicking, Sam finally huffed and turned away, staring at the illuminated hotdog.
"Sam?" Carly asked.
"Carls?" Sam responded, only after hearing the thunk of the phone onto the floor.
It was a tense couple of minutes before Carly started speaking, keeping her voice low in the dark room. "Are you mad? That I didn't tell you?"
Thinking about it for a moment, Sam realized she wasn't. "No," she said, turning back and facing Carly. Sam smiled, or at least tried to. "Things have been weird recently, and I've been trying to avoid everything, so I didn't see it. I'm glad you're happy though."
"I am," Carly beamed, and it was so infectious that Sam's forced smile became real.
The rest of the summer was a blur. Sam, Carly, Freddie and Harper did some amazing episodes that got them more and more viewers as the time passed. Sam did her best to ignore Freddie and his weirdness, but it became harder when the four paired up, and Carly was always with Harper, leaving her with him.
Sam finally confronted Freddie at the amusement park where they filmed the rollercoaster themed episode. Carly and Harper "disappeared" after they finished filming, leaving Sam all alone with Freddie. She would have gone home, but Freddie had money and was willing to buy her a corn dog. While enjoying her deep fried treat, she was somehow conned into going on the ferris wheel.
Freddie was an evil genius, waving cotton candy in her face like that, somehow convincing her it would be a good idea to get into an enclosed space with him. Alone.
She was sitting on the opposite side of the cab, looking out the window and separating the blue from the pink candy.
"So, Sam," Freddie began.
"No," Sam told him, not turning to face him. She's been trying to be nice recently. Or, well, nice for her. Carly convinced her that people have feelings and Sam shouldn't deliberately hurt them just because she can. There was a poster board and slides and everything. If she didn't know any better, Sam would have thought it was an intervention, but Carly wouldn't do something like that to her. But Freddie has been looking at her all day, in that way where his eyes seemed too big for his head and his mouth had a dopey smile on it. And Sam was at the end of her rope.
She just wanted to enjoy the rest of her cotton candy, the pink, and maybe get a couple of deep fried oreos out of Freddie before they left. Then she would go home, end up at Carly's by the end of the night, and pretend that Freddie didn't exist.
"But Sam," Freddie began again. "I just wanted to-"
"Enough," Sam exploded. "I don't care what you want to do. I don't care!" she screamed, standing up and dropping her snack on the floor of the cab. "Just be your dorky self again and leave me alone! Go back to following Carly and being irrationally in love with her and pretending like I don't exist."
"I, um, well. I kind of like-"
"No!" Sam screamed, stepping forward and rocking the cab. "I don't know what's gotten into to you, but don't. Just don't."
Sam collapsed onto her seat, crossing her arms and turning away from the boy across from her. She started humming when she thought Freddie was going to start speaking. And as soon as it was safe enough, she bolted out of the cab and ran as fast as she could to the bus stop, staying home that night so she wouldn't have to run into Freddie at all.
It wasn't that she was avoiding her problems. She'd like to think she didn't have any problems to ignore. It was all Freddie's problem. Freddie and his stupid crush thing and not being Freddie anymore. And when she thought about it, Sam figured it was Carly's fault too. Because Carly couldn't love Freddie back, making Freddie project his feelings on the closest girl.
So Sam took herself out of the equation. She only went to the Shay's when she knew Freddie wasn't there. And she stopped showing up for the brain storming sessions, just opening up the email (from Freddie, of course) about the skits and her button. She ignored the smiles, both real and electronic. She ignored the attempts at conversation as she was rushing out the front door. She ignored everything, and just hoped it would all go away.
And when the new school year started, and Carly decided she was going to share a locker with Harper, across the school, Sam didn't freak. Because her locker was close to the bathroom and if she just happened to need an escape before her temper went out of control and she accidentally hit someone, it was right there.
Besides, Freddie seemed to have gotten the idea. Sam hadn't seen him, with the exception of those classes they unfortunately had together, all week. And it was Friday, so besides the episode they were performing that night, she had an entire weekend without him and those hurt looks he's been sending her across the classrooms and lunchrooms and studio.
"An apple?" Sam said to herself as the bell rang, trying to remember exactly what books she'll need for her homework, since she wouldn't be at Carly's and couldn't copy her answers. Sam removed the apple from her locker, turning it over a couple of times before shrugging and taking a bite out of it. "I would've preferred ham," she said, grabbing her math book.
"I know," she heard to her left. She closed her eyes and swallowed the bite of apple in her mouth. "But apple's are healthier," he said, closing the locker slowly and smiling at her. "See you tonight," he said, with that look and walking away.
And it was times like that. Times when Freddie went out of his way to do things for Sam, even if she never showed any appreciation for them. When he left her snacks or taped a newer picture of Drake Bell in her locker or sent her that link to the summaries of the books she was supposed to read over the summer. It was when he did those little things that made Sam wonder why Carly didn't like Freddie back.
And sometimes really glad that she didn't.