AN: Surprised to see this? Me too a little. I got inspired after watching a few old episodes last week on Victoria Day. I hope to pick it up again but no promises, especially as Netflix are reported to be removing the show this month. But for now, I hope you enjoy this.

Chapter 2

Benson Residence, Hollywood Hills,

Los Angeles, CA

Friday, 2nd September 2011

6:17pm

Three teenagers were sitting in the living room of the small, neat house, eyes trained on the computer screen, struggling to control their laughter at the antics of the two girls on the screen.

"That's so creative!" Cat gasped through her giggles as Carly and Sam stopped to catch their breath after the latest skit. Her giggles couldn't drown out the two girls' speech as they began the next part of the show, trading some idle chatter. Suddenly, though, a stray comment from Sam, in between the next two sketches, caused the California-based teens to sit up and take notice.

"Whoaaaaa," Jade commented as Freddie and Cat exchanged looks. "That's going to upset a few people."

iCarly Studio,

Apartment 8-C Bushwell Plaza,

Seattle, WA

6:30pm

"And we're clear!" Brad declared happily; he switched off the camera and set it down while the two on-screen stars shared a hug, before he walked over and drew his blonde girlfriend into his embrace. A quick kiss later and he hugged Carly too. Sam gave a quick start as her phone rang.

"'Sup Fredwaaaaard?" she answered it jovially, having checked the caller ID.

"Hey Sam," he greeted her warmly, "great show tonight."

"Thanks," she responded, coming down a little from her adrenaline high, "but I'm sure you didn't call the second we finished just to say that."

"No, you're right," he admitted. Carly slapped the blonde's shoulder and mouthed 'speakerphone' as soon as she heard who was calling. Sam rolled her eyes at her friend but acquiesced.

"Hey Freddie!" the brunette called.

"Oh, hey Carls," he replied. "Anyway, as I was saying, great show but…" the three teenagers in the studio traded glances wondering what he was going to say, "while I'm sure the school will be happy that you promoted them and the summer programme, mentioning the uh… Trina incident and especially its aftermath might upset some people."

"Oh," Sam replied as it occurred to her what he was referring to. "I guess I did say that, in an off-hand way," she admitted as she thought back on the show. "I hadn't planned to say anything but I guess I did while racing through the show on autopilot."

"Well if they didn't want us to say anything then they shouldn't have accused Sam of something she didn't do!" Carly snapped, defending her housemate.

"You don't think I know that? That I agree with you on that?" Freddie replied, causing Carly to look sheepishly at the blonde holding the phone. "But something like that getting out publically, with how popular you guys are… just be ready for the school to contact you over it, that's all."

"I'm not apologising for what I said tonight," Sam stated flatly.

"I don't think that you should," her LA-based friend answered strenuously. "If anything I think someone from the school should officially apologise to you. All I'm saying is that you can expect to hear from the school about this now that you've gone public with it."

"Well thanks for the heads-up," Brad spoke up level-headedly. "It gives us some time to brainstorm and plan how to react to their response."

"Sure thing," Freddie answered. "Enjoy the post-show celebration."

"You're ringing off already?" Carly asked in disappointment.

"You want to keep Sam from her dinner?" he half-joked; the blonde chuckled.

"You got a point, dude; it's time for ham," she called jovially.

They reluctantly said their goodbyes, promising to talk again later on, and hung up.

Paramore Studios

Saturday, 3rd September 2011

"Hi-iii!" Freddie was surprised but pleased to hear one of his favourite sounds ring through the air as he took a swig from his water bottle in between takes; he turned to see the unexpected sight of his smiling redheaded girlfriend walking towards him, accompanied by a lady he didn't know.

"Hey sweetie," he greeted her in surprise, giving her a quick kiss. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you but what are doing here?"

Cat giggled. "We're working, silly," she chided him gently. When he looked a little confused she elaborated, "this is my boss, Tara. You know I did my internship with her company and, well, she offered me a part-time job," she let out a small laugh. "We're working with the studio on one of their other movies; isn't that great?" she concluded with a giggle.

"Wow, that's fantastic!" the brown-haired boy enthused. He knew that her internship had gone well but she hadn't mentioned being hired by the organisation she'd worked for. "When did this happen?"

"She called me… Thursday?" she frowned at her boss who nodded, "but you've been busy, I've been busy plus," she grinned coyly, "when I knew that we were going to be at the same studio as you I thought it would be a nice surprise if I just showed up."

"Well it was a great surprise," he confirmed with a grin of his own.

"Ok, scene one-one-five, apple – positions, everyone," the director called.

"Ah, that's my cue," he shrugged, smiling at his girlfriend and nodding at her brunette boss before heading back to his mark.

"So that's Freddie," Tara commented approvingly, having heard quite a lot about the boy from her chatty underling.

"Yeah," Cat smiled happily before following her boss to the next studio, where the producer they were going to work with was standing; they introduced themselves and began discussions on what their role would be in supplying the costumes for the movie.

BF Wangs

Cat and her boss had remained on set for most of the day as they measured up the various actors and actresses and finalised ideas for the wardrobe. The redhead was weary by the time filming wrapped up and Tara suggested that she leave with an equally tired Freddie rather than returning to the office. He readily agreed and, at her gentle pleading, he drove to the local restaurant so that they could have a meal – and he could have his first experience of her beloved bang bang noodles.

Her boyfriend nodded approvingly after he savoured his first taste of the noodles; he saw the cupcake lover smiling at him and grinned back.

"Good, right?" Cat asked.

"I can't believe we've not been here before," he observed.

"Well we usually go to Wok Star for Chinese food," she reasoned, "but I think this place is good for a change of scenery now and again."

"The food's pretty good too," Freddie commented; he didn't feel it was as good as Wok Star but reasoned that it was the nature of the establishment. "Will you be coming to the set tomorrow or Monday?"

"No," she replied a little sadly, before she brightened and smiled at him. "Well not for work anyway; I'm not back at work until next Saturday and even then I think we'll be at the office making the costumes rather than coming back here. I could come down and watch a little if you can get me a visitor's pass?" she suggested.

"I'm sure I can arrange that," he promised with a smile of his own.

Main Hallway, Hollywood Arts High School,

Tuesday, 6th September 2011

Freddie had called by at the Valentine home to collect his girlfriend; mindful of the late summer heatwave that the city was experiencing, the redhead wore a short, yellow dress and wielded a sizeable bottle of water that she'd removed from the fridge just as her beau arrived. He took a few moments to admire her legs as she slid into the passenger side of his Corolla. She giggled as she followed his gaze before jabbing his bare leg, just below the knee, with her water bottle, causing him to wince at the coldness of the liquid.

Despite the early hour, the heat was oppressive by the time they had reached the school parking lot; even the short walk from the lot to the entrance left Freddie's T-shirt sticking to his body; he tugged it away from himself and enjoyed the cooler air flow it gave before he and Cat entered the air conditioned school building and headed for their lockers.

"Hey," a smiling Tori called out from beside her own locker as she saw them enter the school.

"Hey Cheekbones," he greeted her with a smile, "how was your weekend?"

"Cheekbones," she muttered with a thoughtful smirk, "that really is all I am to you guys isn't it?" she added teasingly. "Anyway it was pretty quiet; where were you all?"

"On set," he replied. "They wanted to get as much filming done as they could before we started school again so it was pretty tiring."

"Makes sense… wait, you were there too?" she asked in surprise, looking at Cat nodding away beside Freddie and wondering if the redhead had landed a part as well.

"Yeah, you know I work for the costume company now? Well they got contracted to work on the movie too so I was there working on Saturday. The last couple of days I was just watching filming," she informed the half-Latina.

"Hey Seniors!" André interrupted the conversation; the dreadlocked musician was tucking his phone into his pocket as he walked towards them. "Have any of you guys seen Robbie? I haven't seen him yet this morning."

"We've not seen much of him since the workshop," Cat commented.

"I think he's been avoiding us since the whole Trina-sabotage thing," Tori added.

"He definitely wanted to keep away from Sam," Freddie agreed in a slightly harsh voice.

Tori nodded. "And Trina – though," she added thoughtfully, "most people try and stay away from Trina if they can."

"Robbie's not coming today; he won't be here all week." The teens turned to see Lane, the Guidance Counsellor, walking towards them with Helen Dubois, the school's Principal, bustling behind him; she didn't look particularly happy, which surprised nobody, though Lane also looked to be in a worse mood than usual.

"He's been suspended," Helen added to Lane's statement. "For this week and next because of what happened to your sister," she addressed Tori.

"We'll ensure that he gives Trina an apology before he's allowed to rejoin classes," Lane added, also speaking to the girl's younger sister.

"I'm sure that will help," an uncertain-looking Tori said.

"What he didn't say," Helen spoke quietly, directing her comments to Freddie in particular as Lane walked away, "is that he's also on probation after he went and accused your friend of being responsible without any evidence. It wouldn't be difficult for people to feel that that was a witch-hunt."

"I'm sure some people already do," Freddie replied, knowing full well that the school had received a lot of criticism on-line after Sam's off-hand comment about it the previous weekend.

"Yes," she agreed reluctantly, "as you know I wasn't involved in the running of the programme but it was in my school and with my staff," she accepted responsibility. "I wish I had found out in a different way than having the incident broadcast all over the internet; I don't like hearing about complaints about my staff that way but," she shrugged, "what's done is done, I guess."

"I'm sure Sam will be happy to hear that action has been taken against them," Freddie told her. "I'll pass the news on. For what it's worth, I spoke to her after the broadcast and it wasn't something she planned in advance, to talk about what happened on the show like that."

The Principal nodded. "Could you do one favour for me?" It looked like Helen was having to choke out the words, given her disapproval of Freddie's refusal to acquiesce to her plans for a mass re-audition when she landed the job the previous year. His non-committal expression was enough for her to continue, "I want to send a personal apology to the girl and I know you know her well. If I record it, could you ensure that she gets it personally? I don't wanna risk it getting lost in their email or something."

"Of course," he agreed with a genuine smile.

"Oh, maybe you could ask them to… y'know, mention that on their next show, see if we can't undo some of the damage to our school's reputation." The phraseology wasn't lost on Freddie, but again he agreed; the former child star nodded to him and ambled towards her office, leaving the teens to prepare for class.

"Ok, I guess we should go… hey," Tori called after Cat and Freddie as they set off in a different direction. "Where are you going? We have Sikowitz first," she pointed out.

"We don't," Freddie replied tersely; Cat gave a small, sad nod beside him.

"You really dropped his class?" André asked.

"Yep," Freddie smiled. "We have Tilda but not until period 3."

"It's Science first and then I have Advanced Costume Design," Cat supplied; Freddie had a Special Effects class in the second period, something he was really looking forward to.

"You coming?" Tori asked André while she jerked her head towards Sikowitz's room as the couple left them, headed for the Science block.

"One second, I need to wait on Jade; she said she was parking as I walked in," he looked around to the entrance to see if he could spot the girl. He smiled as she strode through the door; Beck was a pace or two behind, having arrived at the same time as his ex-girlfriend.

"Where are they going?" she asked as she spotted Freddie and Cat disappearing around a corner; André supplied the answer. Jade gave a small nod; even she hadn't thought that they would really go through with it. She rolled her eyes at the dreadlocked teen standing awkwardly beside her and laced her fingers with his own and leading him towards the classroom, Beck still a step or two behind and watching their interplay with interest.

Science Room

"Will you talk to Sam tonight?" Cat asked as she and Freddie took their seats in the classroom.

"I'm planning to," he confirmed. "If Helen gives me her message by then I'll send it along, otherwise I'll just let her know it's coming. I'll tell her what happened to Robbie as well."

"What will it be like when he comes back?" the redhead asked; Freddie shrugged.

"What happened is between him and Trina. Carly and Sam were annoyed – I was too I guess – that he did it and then didn't own up until he was caught out but really it's between him and Trina – and maybe Tori as well since Trina's her sister."

"So you don't have a problem with him?" she asked in relief, happy that her boyfriend wasn't going to be upset with someone.

"Not over this," he smiled. "We've had our issues – his blog, using Rex to insult you, things like that – but if he's genuinely remorseful over this then what's done is done," he finished with a shrug.

"I'm glad," she tickled his side. "I like happy Freddie better."

He gave her a smile and a nod, though internally he winced a little at the revelation of just how much his attitude, and some of the things he'd been dealing with, could and had affected his girlfriend over the last couple of years. He squeezed her hand gently before the teacher cleared his throat and the class dutifully turned their attention to the front of the room.

Asphalt Café

"So he's coming back?" Trina wailed at her sister; Freddie and Cat exchanged glances as they sat at the table. Freddie shot Jade a quick grin as the raven-haired girl looked to be barely restraining herself from strangling the diva.

"Not for a couple of weeks," Tori relayed.

"They shouldn't let him come back at all," the elder Vega huffed out.

"So how was Tilda's class?" Beck interrupted, hoping to turn the conversation away from Trina; the diva frowned at the diversion.

"Yeah, did you pay attention this time?" Jade quipped at Freddie, remembering his ticking off over the summer about the time he zoned out in her class during the workshop.

"Very funny Jade," he retored flatly; she smirked at his irritation. "It was very interesting," he added in observation. "She comes at things from a totally different direction to Sikowitz, so it's completely different to what we've been used to from the last few years."

"I think it will take some getting used to," Cat added. "She's a lot more serious than Sikowitz too."

"That's not too difficult," Jade noted.

"There are 12 of us in the class and she has six plays lined up for the semester," her boyfriend continued. "She's said each of us can only play the lead male or," he gestured to Cat, "female in one of them, which gives everyone a shot."

"That's different to Sikowitz," Beck noted.

"Yeah, he just casts Tori in the lead for everything," Jade agreed with her ex-, despite the two girls being on better terms these days there was still a definite frostiness in her tone.

"Ok, he doesn't do that," the brunette countered, to disbelieving looks from her one-time Nemesis – and the other students at the table.

"Oh no, not at all," Jade adopted her southern-belle mocking of Tori's voice, "he'd never pass people over time and again for the major parts," she gestured to Cat and to herself; the redhead looked uncomfortable but nodded her reluctant agreement.

"He did admit to me last year that he was giving you the opportunities to enhance your resume," Freddie interjected.

"Well it's hardly my fault," the brunette retorted, a trace of annoyance in her tone, "and I'm not going to just stop auditioning for roles. If I get them I'm going to take them."

Jade was forced to nod her concession of the point. "Nobody would expect you not to, or ask you not to. I just hope you can see that it upsets the rest of us when you get more opportunities than the rest of us do, especially as there are only a limited number of chances to perform before we graduate."

Tori bit back a reply as she found herself having to consider the point; at a loss for something to say she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to her meal.

"So are you guys auditioning for the leads in the same play?" Beck enquired.

"Tilda said she wants everyone to try out for the first play, then she'll choose her leads. Once you're picked you can't audition for the lead in the others but still have to audition for a minor part," Cat explained.

"She says it helps us to keep practicing our auditions ahead of going for parts in the real world," Freddie added. "A different ethos to Sikowitz; I guess we'll compare notes this year and see which way we think is the best."

Once lunch was over the kids headed to their next classes; Cat had singing while Freddie and Tori were in Set Design; the teacher gave him a disapproving look as his phone rang just as class was beginning.

"I'm sorry; it's the studio," he apologised; the teacher gave a resigned wave, appreciating that students with jobs in the industry really did have to take such calls.

"Hello?" he answered, having retreated to a quiet corner of the studio. "Yes… yes… tonight? Uh, sure, I'll be over after school. 'kay, bye." He returned to his seat, mouthing another, silent, apology to the teacher, who gave the smallest of nods as he continued talking. He answered Tori's questioning gaze with a muttered "filming tonight, straight from school," before turning his full attention to his teacher's words as he attempted to catch up on what he'd missed while on his call.

Benson Residence,

Hollywood Hills

"Hi Freddie, how was filming?" Marissa asked as her son staggered into their home.

"It went well," he sighed. "I remembered all my lines anyway," he added with a grin.

"That's good. Do you have much homework?" The matriarch was a little concerned that the time her son had to spend at the studio would eat into his study time, along with his other hobbies.

"Not tonight, first day back and all that," he shrugged. "I do have some lines to read for an audition for a school performance; it's not a big thing though – compared to actually working on set anyway – but I'll make sure I'm ready for it."

"Just don't overdo things, Freddie," she warned; he nodded and gave her a small smile. "There's some dinner in the fridge if you're hungry."

"Thanks; I ate on set though," he replied.

"Ok, I'll take it to work tomorrow. Will you be working tomorrow night?"

"No," he shook his head, "not until Saturday. André, Beck and I will go fencing after school."

"Alright, Freddie; I won't be home tomorrow evening anyway." He turned to his mother curiously. "I'm having dinner with one of the doctors," she disclosed.

"That's awesome, mom," Freddie brightened up, "you'll have to give me the deets when you get back." Marissa smiled enigmatically.

After a brief talk with his mother, Freddie headed for his room. His bed had seldom looked more appealing but he knew he still had a call to make and he threw his phone onto the bed while he went about his nightly routine.

"Hey Sam, how was school?" he greeted his blonde friend once she accepted his call.

"Hey Freddie, it was ok… y'know, for school," she chuckled. "Did you get any trouble from school after what I said on Friday? Your text said you had something for me."

"Yeah, Helen, the Principal, found us before school started: she wanted me to pass on an apology; she also recorded a video message for me to send to you. Hold on…" he put the flash drive in his computer and prepared an e-mail. "And send."

"Ok, I'll watch that when it arrives; we'll probably mention it at the start of this week's show, draw a line under it all that way."

"Helen will be glad; I don't think she likes the fans' reaction to it." He proceeded to tell Sam what else had happened to Robbie and Lane: as expected Sam had little sympathy for either of them.

"Sounds like you're falling asleep on me here, Fredward, I'd best let you get to bed," Sam joked.

"You're right," he agreed, "it's been a busy day; hopefully the rest of the week will be a bit calmer without the filming."

"Ok, catch you later Freddie."

"Goodnight, Sam."