Birds chirping, sun shining. This was going to be a good day. Carly was determined to make this a good day. She had another date with Alberto scheduled, and she was determined, this time, she wouldn't flinch when he leaned in to kiss her. She even rehearsed it over and over again in her head – they would go for a movie, share a bucket of popcorn, then their hands would touch, then they would look at each other, then they would lean, everything would be so romantic and perfect, and she was not going to let anything ruin it.
After showering, getting dressed, blow drying her hair, putting on makeup, and all the usual morning routine Carly left the house, only to have to slam the door and run back in again. She couldn't believe what she saw – she pinched her arm, thinking it must have been a dream, but it wasn't. She ran to the windows, and there were reporters surrounding the house there, too.
There were hundreds of reporters waiting outside, shoving and shouting over each other. Carly couldn't even understand what they were trying to ask, but one thing was for sure: this day wasn't going to work out as she had planned.
Just as she was about to call Alberto to explain to him she couldn't leave the house, her phone rang. It was him.
"Hey," Carly started apologetically, "I was just about to call…"
"Carly, I am so, so, so sorry."
"What?"
What was he talking about? Did he know something about what was happening here?
"Are you trapped in with crazy reporters surrounding your house?" he said, hesitantly.
"…Yes, how do you know that?" she replied, confused.
"Well, that… might… be… my… fault," he said, with great difficulty. A short pause followed.
"What?"
"I, uh, might have unintentionally, uh…"
"WHAT?"
"…started this rumour…?"
"WHAT?"
"Listen! So I was at home with my little sister…"
Carly took a seat and listened, trying to calm herself while reporters were still out there, banging onto the door and walls. The harder she tried to shut them out, the louder they seemed to grow. If only Dad was here instead of on a submarine somewhere off the coast of… wherever it was, but then again, even he might not have been enough to drive away this enormous crowd. She tried to concentrate on what Alberto had to say to her.
He had casually mentioned at dinner that he was free that weekend, because Carly was going to Seattle and he wasn't going to go out with her then. His sister had seen iCarly before, but what he hadn't known was that she was a far more devoted fan than she had ever let him know. He had always thought of her as a pathetic wannabe novelist, but she did occasionally write for junky tabloids when she needed the money, and another thing he didn't know about his little sister was that she was a famous author online, in the iCarly fanfic community. Before he knew it, she had drafted a whole story about how iCarly was going to come together for a reunion webcast, and had spread it as if it were true to all sorts of news sites. When her phone started ringing madly this morning, he knew something was up, and she soon enough confessed to her crimes. Being the online sensation it had been, despite all the years that had passed, people all around the world apparently still really wanted iCarly to be back.
"Hey! I know you're in there!"
"When is your special reunion going to be?"
"What happened with Freddie and Sam?"
It didn't seem like they were going to go anywhere until Carly appeared, and she was getting scared now.
"Okay, Alberto, so what do I do?"
"Uh… I guess the easiest thing would be to just tell them what they want to hear."
"What?"
"I'm sorry, I gotta go!"
And then he hung up. Carly only stared at her phone in disbelief, but soon decided that she had to get out there and do something, or else the mad crowd won't ever leave and she didn't want to stir up trouble in the neighbourhood, if they weren't already annoyed by all the noise that was being made. She inhaled deep, then opened the door.
–
Meanwhile, a few days ago, back in America, a short video on SplashFace had caught Freddie and Sam's attention, and they were talking about it on video-chat. It was a fake trailer of an iCarly reunion movie, and this person had made it seem super realistic, using footage from past shows. Looking at the comments, it seemed as though lots of people wanted iCarly to be back.
"I wonder who would do this. I mean, it looks like they've put in a lot of effort into making this," said Freddie.
"Yeah, I'm watching it right now, and if I hadn't known better, I might have actually fallen for…" Sam stopped mid-sentence. There was an awkward pause – the video included footage from back when they had kissed live on iCarly at the mental hospital, and Freddie pretended not to hear the sound of their voices coming through the video call, attempting to change the subject.
"Hey, do you think maybe…" he started. Sam waited for him to finish, but he wouldn't.
"What?"
"Nah, it's stupid."
"Say it!"
"Well, I was thinking maybe…"
"…that we should do it?"
Then there was a pause, as both of them gazed at each other on their respective screens in silence. They thought about the idea of actually having a reunion, seeing each other and doing all the fun stuff they used to do together again. On one had, just the idea made them all excited, but then again, they couldn't be sure if they would click as they had years ago. What if they did come together and the show just wasn't as good anymore? What if they did do a reunion episode, only to disappoint everyone?
"…Well, should we?" said Freddie. And with this, all worries were forgotten. They wanted this, and they were going to make this work.
–
"Everyone… just listen… no, wait, SHUT UP!"
Carly stood in front of the front door, with a huge audience of eager reporters, all their eyes and camera lenses focused on her. Just a moment ago, she had been so sure that she would tell them the truth, that what they had heard was nothing but a rumor. But looking at everyone so excited and obviously wanting this reunion to happen, she couldn't bring herself to crush their hopes – she was, after all, touched that after all these years, there were still fans out their who remembered and still loved iCarly. So she started to speak, carefully:
"I know that you're all here because you think that there will be an iCarly reunion, and it's amazing how all of you seem so excited about it, after all these years."
The crowd burst into applause, and camera flashes went off from all directions. Carly tried to continue, but her voice was getting drowned out by the loud cheering. She yanked a megaphone from one of them and went on:
"But iCarly was all about kids being kids, and we've got to face the fact that… we're not 15 year olds anymore. Gibby doesn't like to take off his shirt so much, Freddie and Sam won't fight as much, and things like wedgie bounces and meatball fights won't be as much fun."
The crowd grew quiet, and Carly continued:
"I love iCarly more than anyone else, and it means a lot to me. But I want it to be remembered as what it was, us kids doing hilarious stuff that we could do only because we were celebrating being young and fun and, and… being kids."
Everyone still had their eyes locked on Carly, but they had long stopped shouting, and anyone carrying cameras had brought them down from their eyes. Carly wasn't even shouting anymore in order to get herself heard.
"…So it's not gonna happen. I'm just going to Seattle to see my brother's exhibition. And I think you should leave now."
–
"Okay then!" said Sam.
"Great!" said Freddie.
They were going to come together for iCarly again. People wanted it, they wanted it, so they were going to make it happen. They had no idea how, or where to begin, but at least they had taken the first step, sort of.
"So, if you contact Carly…"
"I guess you could call Carly…"
They started speaking, then stopped at the same time. They stared at each other, on their computer screens, each of them equally confused.
"Wait, why would you expect me to call? Don't you call each other regularly anyway?" said Freddie.
"Well, no, I thought you would have kept it touch with her," said Sam.
That was weird.
"O…kay then, I'll just find her on SplashFace or something." Knowing the girly girl Carly was, who loved her pretty pictures, and with his tech skills, Freddie knew she would be easy to find on social media. He had assumed that she and Sam would have been video-chatting almost everyday, if not more than once a day, though, and he was a bit weirded out to find out that hadn't been the case, but it was no big deal, he guessed. It had been a long time since he had last talked to her, but surely she was going to be psyched about the idea of a reunion.
When Carly first left for Italy Sam had thought the two would still be best friends video-calling each other all the time, but the distance and time difference had eventually caused the video-chats and calls to grow less and less frequent, until they faltered out and stopped altogether. It was strange knowing Freddie wasn't in contact with her either, because video-chatting with Freddie like this while lying on her bed in her pajamas felt like the most normal thing in the world. She hadn't realized until now how she and Carly had gradually moved apart. It was a saddening thought, but she tried not to show it. Besides, all that distance would be closed right away when they saw each other in person, it would be as if they had last been together yesterday and not six years ago.
"Okay. Tell me what she says," she said. The call ended, but both Freddie and Sam stayed there for a while, staring into their empty screens, thinking.