iRealizeSamLetMeWin

I remember the day that I realized Melanie was real. It wasn't that long ago, but it was before the stupid fanwar. Anyway, that's hardly the point. The point is, I know Sam wasn't lying and that she really does have a twin sister.

When I first heard of Melanie, and though that Sam and Carly (and even Spencer) were playing a prank on me, for instance the suggestion that I had mistaken the pictures of the little girls at Sam's house for her twin. Well, I was sure I hadn't!

Even after the whole dentist, nitrous oxide, Sam spoke of the thing we never should have spoken of again, I still wasn't sure that Melanie existed. I wasn't positive until the last visit I made to Sam's house. I don't make many trips there, but after being friends (yes, we're friends), for quite awhile now, I find that the occasional trip is necessary.

Plus, Sam was home sick and I had her homework, since some scheduling idiot put us in almost all the same classes. Actually, I had a feeling Principal Franklin might have done it on purpose in order to help keep Sam from failing. Now, I delivered this homework, and I didn't even think that she's going to complete, actually that I knew she didn't complete.

I knocked on the door of the house that had once been nice, but was in need of a lot of work. I heard a groan and some shuffling and suddenly the paint chipped door swung open. Sam looked terrible, worse than the time Missy had poisoned her. I must've been staring for a bit, because Sam said, "Take a picture it'll last longer, Benson." And then she entered a coughing fit.

"Okay, let's sit down," I said, looking at her worriedly.

"Why are you even here?" Sam asked, as she stumbled back to her couch, collapsing in a heap, not even calling me a name.

"Delivering your homework," I replied.

She snorted, "As if I'll do it… Freddork, get me some soup!" she ordered.

I sighed and moved into the kitchen, noticing how it needed a good scrub. I opened cupboard after cupboard finding them all empty, I turned back to Sam to tell her there was nothing. "Sam," I laughed, Sam was asleep in what looked like an uncomfortable position, and I glanced at her deciding she was better off asleep and that I would order her some soup. After making a quick call on my cell phone to the only place that delivers soup in Seattle, I decided to snoop around a little. I made my way back into the living room and noticed that framed pictures hung on the wall. The pictures were all of a blonde little girl, Sam I assumed at first, but then I took a closer look.

The curls sat too neatly on her shoulders to be Sam's unruly mass of golden curls. The smile was too sweet, the girl sitting prim and proper in a little pink dress, with her hands folded in her lap. I glanced back at the real Sam, who had one leg hanging off the couch, with her blonde curls spilling behind her head and her arms thrown out to each side. I looked back at the picture, "This cannot be Sam…" I began to wonder who it could've been when I remembered the fabled Melanie. Did she actually exist?

I moved onto the next framed picture and saw that this picture was a picture of the same girl from the first photo and her mother. There was no mischief in this blonde girl's blue eyes, another clue that this just could not be Sam. The older woman in this photo had her daughter wrapped in a hug, affection showing from her eyes. I knew that Sam and her mother had never had a relationship like this. I recalled Sam calling her sister perfect, and everyone's favourite.

Maybe Sam and Carly hadn't been playing a prank on me after all. Maybe Melanie really did exist. I could feel my heart beat faster as I glanced at another picture. The girl, the neat one, was wearing a purple dress with matching purple shoes and smiling sweetly at the camera. I noticed something was off about this photo as I scrutinized it. The girl was just a little bit off centre, and it seemed like there was a crease on the right hand side of the frame. I raised my hand and felt that this photograph had been folded in half. I gently pried the photo from beneath the silver and black frame and unfolded it.

With the whole picture made visible I had to smile. The girl in the purple dress and shoes was smiling angelically, with her curls secured into a side ponytail, however there was another girl, also blonde standing beside her. This girl screamed Sam. Though she also had blonde curls, but they did not sit in the neat way the first girls did. There were strands that were escaping from this girl's ponytail, curling around her face. She had a pout on and her arms were crossed in front of her chest. She was dressed in the same purple outfit, but with a closer look I noticed that she had two different colored socks, as opposed to her twin's prim and perfect white laced socks and that there was a large grass stain right on the bottom of the dress.

The doorbell rang then. Sam stirred and opened her eyes and I dashed across the room to open the door. I quickly paid the soup delivery guy and grabbed the soup. "Chicken noodle?" I asked Sam as I walked back to the couch and careful sat down near her feet. She sat up and nodded drowsily, taking the soup. I realized something then, Sam had let me win, if there really was a Melanie, then she had never truly lost, which explained her lack of concern, after all we all know, Sam plays to win. As Sam paused in between spoonfuls she uttered words I never in my life though I would hear Samantha Puckett say, "Thanks Freddie." Thinking back to the picture I had hastily stuffed in my back pocket, I grinned and teased, "No problem, Princess Puckett."