Here we are about midway through. Thanks to everyone who's followed along. Up to now everything has been following Carly, but this chapter called for a little change.
Freddie stood outside Sam's house, too terrified to knock.
Come on, you've hung out with her before, he reasoned.
Yeah, but never when you were working a plan on her. She's gonna know. She always knows! He argued with himself.
You gotta do it. It's for her own good, and Carly's counting on you. He took one more deep breath to steel his nerves then knocked.
"Mom! Door!" Sam's unmistakable voice bellowed through the thick wood.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Sam's mother yelled back as she moved closer.
The door swung open quickly, and before he could think, Pam Puckett stood before him in a pair of purple leopard print stretch pants, and a bikini top that was two sizes too small. She leaned against the door frame and gave him a seductive smile.
"Hi there, handsome!"
"Uhhh…" Freddie stammered, taking in the train wreck before him. And mine was supposed to be the easy part of this whole plan.
"So where's the hot stuff?" She asked, gazing at him up and down.
"H-Hot stuff?" His face was beginning to flush uncomfortably.
"You know, the pizza."
"Oh..." This was more confusing to him than talking to Sam. "I don't have any pizza."
"Well then how do you expect to get your tip?" Mrs. Puckett made an extra effort to pop the 'P' at the end of the question.
"Sorry, I'm not the pizza guy," Freddie shook his head. "It's me, Freddie Benson. I'm a friend of Sam's. I was just here yesterday, remember?"
"And you came back, huh?" Mrs. Puckett finally stood up straight; a look of disappointment briefly crossed her face. "Well now that you got me up, come on in."
"Tell the pizza guy to check the box before he goes. Last time it was squished." Sam yelled from the next room. "Oh, and don't forget the parmesan cheese."
"It's not the pizza kid!" Mrs. Puckett shouted back. "It's a boy here to see you…And he's cute."
Freddie wasn't sure if he felt flattered or nauseous. The thought quickly faded when he heard a crash and the quick patter of feet coming across the tile floor. Sam appeared instantly around the corner. She was dressed in short yellow running shorts and a turquoise 'Hawaii' tank top. She was definitely taking advantage of not being in school.
"Where's the boy!" She asked excitedly.
"I think she meant me." Freddie said sheepishly.
"You got me out here for this?" She scolded her mother. "He's far from cute and barely a boy."
"Oh stop," he said flatly. "You're making me blush."
"Why are you here anyway?"
Freddie held up the backpack. "I brought your homework. I figured it would keep you from getting behind."
"Well that was nice." Mrs. Puckett looked over at Sam. "He doesn't want you to get behind."
The Pucketts smiled at each other briefly before busting out in a hysterical laughter that was only interrupted when the doorbell rang.
"Oh, Pizza's here!" Mrs. Puckett threw her shoulders back, adjusted her breasts then smoothly opened the door to give her best practiced greeting.
"Well hel… oh, you're a girl." She disappointedly dropped the sexy act, signed the slip, and then trudged her way to the kitchen to pour herself an iced tea. "Sam, you're pizza's here."
Sam quickly grabbed the pizza then looked at the girl's outstretched hand. "If you wanted a tip you should have gotten here 10 minutes ago. I could be passed out on the floor right now, waiting for you!" Without another word she slammed the door in the girl's face, then turned around and cracked open the box.
Freddie chuckled as Sam stood with a blissful look on her face, inhaling the scent of the freshly delivered pie. He then remembered that he was here on a mission and needed to get back to the job.
"Sooo…Sam," he started nervously as he followed Sam into the kitchen. "My mom's got some parenting club over at the apartment now, and I really don't want to go back to all that. Mind if I stay here awhile?"
Sam shrugged, which he read as she didn't care either way. Mrs. Puckett grabbed her drink and started toward the stairs. "Be nice and share your pizza with the cute boy," she called over her shoulder.
"I would if there was one here," she yelled back. "You don't want any pizza, do you Benson?"
Freddie raised his eyebrow. "What kind you got?"
Sam slowly and theatrically opened the box. "It's my ultimate favorite…prosciutto with pickles and red grapes…" Freddie grimaced as he listened to the description. "… on a bed of havarti."
"Uh, no thanks." He shuddered. "Interesting choice. Why Havarti?"
"Because it's not a party without Havarti," Sam joked as she bit into the gooey concoction.
Freddie managed a courtesy laugh until she wiped her greasy hands on his shirt. "Hey!"
She reached into the fridge and grabbed two sodas then walked past him into the TV room. "Grab the pizza, Fredible."
He grabbed the box then searched for a napkin only to find none in sight. "Figures."
He walked in just as she was pressing the button on her DVR playback. To his surprise, it was in the middle of a movie. He sat the box on the wood paneled coffee table. "So, whatcha watching?"
"Zombie Flesh Eaters 4" Freddie let off a little grunt. "Is that too scary for you?" she asked in a mocking kid voice.
"No!" Freddie shot back. "I just thought you never missed Seattle Beat."
"Well I miss it sometimes, for a good reason." She sat back with another piece of pizza. "And today that good reason is Zombies!"
Freddie took a deep breath and tried a little harder, "You know I heard Cuttlefish was going to be on Seattle Beat today."
Sam gave a little snort. "Yeah, Cuttlefish is great…if it's 2007."
Think Freddie think… "Oh. Well I heard they're coming out with a new album that's supposed to be groundbreaking."
"Yeah?" Sam was unfazed and absorbed in the movie.
"Yeah, instead of instruments, they're all using computers." She's buying this, right? "They're individual MIDI's that are syncronized to…"
"If you want to watch it, Freddison, just stop your yammering and ask," Sam grunted without taking her eyes off the TV.
Well, couldn't hurt, he thought. "Sam, would you please change it to Seattle Beat?"
"Nope." She shovels in another bite. "Now don't you feel better?"
"Peachy." He dropped sulkily onto the couch next to her.
After a few moments of him pouting, Sam finally stops the movie. "Look, I'll make you a deal. I'll change it to Seattle Beat, if you rub my feet for the entire time it's on."
Freddie thought for a second. "Do I get gloves?"
"Nope," She smirked. "You'll have to do it raw."
Freddie's stomach turned. Touch Sam's probably unwashed, and likely germy feet, or let Carly down and lose them both forever. "Ok," he said reluctantly. "Let's do it."
"Atta boy, Tiger!" She reached into the couch cushions and pulled out some lotion. "You were starting to get more depressing than the Zombies."
She changed the channel then grabbed another slice of pizza before dropping the remote on the box. She then kicked back and ceremonially propped her feet in Freddie's lap.
"Be gentle," she ordered. "Mama's ticklish." Sam turned her attention to the perky television host who was surrounded by a studio full of giggly teenagers.
Freddie tore his attention away from the feet that were splayed across his lap to see that she was, in fact, watching Seattle Beat. Victory!
Sam gave a small moan as his thumb made its first stroke along the sole of her foot. "Mmm, yeah. That feels nice." She continued munching her pizza and making small noises of pleasure, as the next couple videos played on the show. The host started to announce Cuttlefish coming up next and the crowd started screaming behind her. The camera started to pan across the animated crowd and Sam spotted someone familiar. "That girl looks like Carly."
Freddie felt his mouth go dry and swallowed hard. "Haha. Funny coincidence." He giggled nervously. "Carly's not there, she and Spencer went somewhere…out of town…to their granddads." Stay cool Freddie.
The camera swooped across the crowd once more and zoomed in toward the raven haired girl once again. "That is Carly!" Sam sat up. "I was with her when she bought that raincoat," she pointed. "And Spencer is right there next to her!"
Freddie buried his gaze on his lap and started rubbing her feet harder.
"What's going on here, Benson?" she growled. "What did you guys do?"
Freddie continued rubbing while his mind was racing quickly. Mayday, Mayday! He suddenly glanced over and saw the remote next to the pizza box. The crowd on the TV suddenly erupted as Cuttlefish was finally on stage. Freddie took advantage of Sam's distraction and with one giant thrust, threw her feet off of his lap. The force sent her tumbling to the floor as he snatched the remote and tore himself from the couch.
"You wouldn't listen to her Sam!" Freddie yelled hurriedly to explain. Sam was quickly on her feet again and scrambled over the sofa to get at him. "She figured this way, you'd have no choice...Ahhh!" Sam had launched herself at him, but he quickly ducked out of the way, knocking her to the floor again. "We're doing it for your own good…" He ran past the coffee table to get away from her hands as she took big swipes at his legs, to try to pull him down. "She's really sorry, and can't stand that she hurt you."
Sam finally stood up, her teeth were bared and her breathing was heavy. "You don't trick Mama, Freddie Boy!" Freddie knew he was in trouble. She let out a primal scream and started chasing after him.
Freddie's eyes went wide and he screamed as Sam chased him around the room. The sound of electric guitars wailing from the TV screen seemed to give soundtrack to the chaos in the room, as lamps and furniture were becoming victims of the rampage. Sam was within inches of grabbing Freddie as they both sprang onto the couch. He ducked under her hands and took a leap to the coffee table. His stomach sank when he heard the crack of the wood beneath his feet. His foot went through one of the panels on the table, he was trapped.
He looked back to see Sam's face change from shock to a smirk. He looked around quickly trying to find any miracle rescue from the situation, but to no avail. Sam straightened her stance as she readied herself for the kill. "Wait!" He yelled. "Stay back or I'll….I'll…" I'll what? Think…think! Without another thought, he quickly shoved the remote down his pants. When it was finally out of sight he looked back at her in surprise. Really? That's what I came up with?
Sam let out a sinister chuckle. "Like that's going to stop me." She took one more bounce off the couch and launched herself at him knocking them both to the floor. She quickly straddled his wriggling hips and started grabbing for the button on his jeans.
"Sam, I'm sorry!" The sweet panicked voice coming through the television drew her attention from the squirming geek underneath her. Sam looked up to see that Carly had stolen the microphone from the lead singer of Cuttlefish, and was desperately yelling into the camera. She had shucked the raincoat and was now only wearing a t-shirt that said "Oopsie, I made poopsie of my friendship" and a large diaper. "I'm an idiot. I didn't mean to hurt you, and I'm really really sorry!" She managed to squeak out as a PA was trying desperately to pull her from the stage. "I don't care if you forgive me, just please don't stop talking to me. I miss you!"
Sam and Freddie both watched open-mouthed as two large security guards appeared from the side of the stage. One of them picked her up threw her over his shoulder. Spencer came rushing in from the other side of the screen, grabbing at the guards. "Don't drop that teenager! She's my sister!" He tried for several seconds to pull Carly from the one guard and then the other one grabbed him from behind. Spencer kicked at the first guard to get him to stop. The guard reached down his empty hand and grabbed Spencer's legs. The two guards marched off screen with Carly still over the shoulder, and Spencer dangled between them. The producer's voice could clearly be heard yelling to call the police, he wants them arrested.
Freddie managed to dislodge himself from the table as the perky host appeared on camera apologizing to the band.
"Oh, my god," Sam watched amazed.
"Oh, my god," Freddie repeated in worry.
"That was excellent!"
"That was a catastrophe! She's going to be arrested for that!" Freddie yelled.
"No big," she waved him off. "Spencer will get her out of it."
"In case you failed to notice, Spencer was dragged off with her!"
"Oh." Sam answered flatly.
"'Oh'? She did this just to get you to listen to her and all you can say is, 'Oh'?" Freddie began pacing around the room, his neck vein straining to burst free. "She got mad and she said something wrong. She made a mistake. She's human."
"You don't understand," Sam said meekly.
"You're right, I don't understand!" He continued yelling. "I don't understand how you can let yourself lose everything over something that happened a long time ago."
Sam didn't say a word; she just stared straight in front of her with a steeled gaze on her face.
Freddie sighed deeply and rubbed his hands down his face. "Sam, I don't why this commercial thing was such a big deal. Carly did keep that a secret." He said calmly. "The only thing I know is that it's a family issue…you told me that." He sat across from her to try to read her face. "But are you going to let it take away the people that care about you most in the world?"
Sam looked up at him with a clenched jaw. "Get out."
"But, we got to go do something about…" Freddie started to plead again.
"Get out." She growled louder. Freddie stared at her in disbelief until she yelled in his face. "GET OUT!"
"If that's what you want." Freddie stood up and looked down at Sam. "I'm going to see if I can help Carly and Spencer, because they're still my friends."
Freddie grabbed his backpack and walked out the door.
"Freddie," she ran in after him.
He turned around and looked at her expectantly, a slight look of relief showing across his face.
"The remote," she pointed to his crotch.
Freddie's face dropped with disappointment. He turned away from her and unzipped the zipper to get the remote. He turned back around and slapped it into her hand. "I don't say this very often, Sam, but I feel sorry for you."
She didn't say a word. She just reached over and slammed the door in his face so hard he could hear a glass shatter on the other side. I'm sorry, Carly.
Hmm. That one felt a little comfortable. Nice to write a little comedy after that last chapter, well dramedy anyway. We'll be back to Carly next chapter. I just figured this would be the easiest way to tell both sides of what happend. See ya next time.