A/n: In case you couldn't guess it, Spencer was indeed watching That 70's Show in the previous chapter. (I'm glad people noticed. That 70's Show is one of my favorite rerun shows.)
I do not own iCarly. But I do own a burgundy ballpoint quill.
Rehearsal for iCarly went smoothly, apart from Sam breaking one of Gibby's Doctor Lobster claws after she tripped over it. She swore up and down that it was an accident (all while crossing her fingers behind her back), and Gibby left.
"Success!" she yelled, flopping onto one of the beanbags.
It was only 5:30, so Carly suggested they go down to a 99-cent store down the street to buy their masquerade masks for prom. They'd tried to go down to the lobby through the freight elevator, but after a few minutes it still hadn't come up to the studio, so they gave up and took the stairs downstairs.
When they got to the living room, the mystery of the elevator was solved. Spencer was trying to heave a large wad of spongy-looking material into the apartment. The wad barely fit inside the elevator, so Spencer was having a hard time getting it all out.
Carly watched her brother pull and pull, letting out yells of frustration. "For the sculpture?" she asked.
Spencer leaned against the wad to catch his breath. "Yeah." He took a few steps back to look at the whole thing. "I think I need to take it apart and glue it back together when I get it inside. Where's the chainsaw I used to carve that giant pumpkin a few years ago?" He made his way to his bedroom.
Sensing danger, Carly grabbed Spencer by his arms. "No! Do not use the chainsaw!"
"I gotta! I need to get this done!" Spencer ran into his room.
Carly looked worried. She looked around, and saw some paper on the countertop next to the computer. She ran to it, and began writing something down. She called to Spencer, "I'm leaving Dr. Doty's phone number in case something bad happens! Just remember to keep whatever wound you get wrapped up in a paper towel until you get some gauze out of the first aid kit!"
"Nothing bad's gonna happen!" Spencer yelled from his room.
"Let's hope!" Carly yelled back. She turned to Sam and Freddie. "Let's go. I don't wanna see this."
The 99-cent store was called "Yesterday". They found their masquerade masks relatively quickly, so they used the opportunity to check out the rest of the store, and made some purchases for future iCarly shows. Carly added balloons to her shopping crate when Sam dragged her over to the other side of the aisle.
"Check it out, inflatable guitars!" Sam said, shaking one of them in Carly's face. "We could use them on iCarly."
The three of them spent a good hour inside the store, coming up with brand new ideas for the show. Sam wanted to see if they could fly kites inside with a giant fan as their wind source. Carly found a bazillion glowsticks, and got the idea to do Glow-In-the-Dark iCarly for next Halloween. Freddie saw a shelf full of magic tricks and wanted to do a magic segment for the release of the next Jerry Sutter movie. They came up with a pirate-themed episode of iCarly when they decided to buy an extra-long jump rope, a fake treasure map, a box of fake gold coins, seven water guns, and a bubble sword.
Sam found bouncy balls in the shape of rocks, balloons made specifially to become water balloons, and a new slingshot (her old one broke). She almost bought a cork rifle (the only thing in the store not worth 99 cents) until Carly dragged her away from it.
"It's bad enough you purposely broke Gibby's lobster claw, you don't need another weapon to cause destruction," Carly said fiercely.
They came inside Carly's apartment and, by some miracle, Spencer's use of the chainsaw didn't cause him to lose any fingers or limbs. But the apartment was covered in torn-up wads of that spongy-looking material. Spencer was lying on the couch, exhausted. The chainsaw was abadoned on the floor in front of the TV.
"Oh, my God, you're alive!" Carly exclaimed.
"I told you everything was gonna be fine!" Spencer said, pointing at Carly.
Carly nodded. "Well, would you like a super special treat to celebrate that you managed not to maim yourself with a chainsaw?"
Spencer sat up. "What is it, what is it?"
Carly pulled out a Styrofoam cup. "It's a Rasperry-Mango-Guava Surprise Frozen Yogurt from Pink Bunny!"
Spencer did his Baby Spencer, "Yay!"
Carly gave him his yogurt, and he digged in happily. "So, where you guys been?"
"The 99-cent store," Carly said. "We got masks for prom, and props for iCarly." She put the bags she was holding down on the couch. "The props bin is still in the hallway closet, right?"
"Yup," Spencer said, his face still in his yogurt.
Carly turned to Sam and Freddie. "Give me a hand?"
"Nah, I'll do it," Sam said, handing her bags to Freddie. "Top shelf, right?" she asked Carly.
"Yeah, we really need to move that to the floor," Carly said, taking out the props from the bags she left on the couch.
Sam disappeared down the hall and came back holding a translucent green bin over her head like the Hulk. She set the bin down and took off the lid. The first thing she saw were the grass skirt and coconut bikini top Carly wore when Shane came on the show. There were also the plastic club Carly used when she was a cavegirl and the cheerleading costumes and pom-poms they used for their Melanie Higgles: Space Cheerleader bit. They all kneeled down on the floor and emptied their bags into the bin.
"So when are we gonna use all this stuff?" Sam asked.
"We'll have to plan this out when all this prom madness is over," Freddie said, crumpling up the bags and heading to the kitchen to throw them out.
"Did you buy your ticket yet?" Sam asked, putting the lid on the bin.
"No. I can't get near one of those tables without every girl in the senior class crowding around me, asking me to prom."
"Hmmm," Sam stood up from the floor and paced around. "What you need is a distraction that'll make all those girls move to the other side of the school for a good few seconds."
She mindlessly kicked the props bin, thinking, then turned to Carly. "Who is the most elegible bachelor in Hollywood right now?"
Carly thought for a while. "Any guy from those vampire movies or TV shows."
"Or that actor who plays the foreign guy from that show," Spencer interjected suddenly, having finished his yogurt.
Carly looked at him. "'The foreign guy from that show'?"
"Yeah, that show we were watching earlier. With the redhead and the panties?"
"Grrrr, that word," Sam said, covering her ears.
"Why do you want to know?" Carly asked.
Sam uncovered her ears. "Because those girls are shallow as heck. If they hear that some hot actor is chilling out in the playground, they'll run across the school to see if it's really true."
Carly laughed. "Can I get in on this?"
"Yeah sure." Sam's phone went off in her pocket. She pulled it out and clickety-clicked around. "My mom texted. She wants me home in a half hour."
"I'll walk you," Freddie said.
"Humm-kay." She and Freddie wandered out the door. "Night-y nites."
"Tocino," Freddie said, waving good-bye.
The next day at school, Sam stood with her head practically inside her locker. Freddie was hiding in the boys' bathroom a little down the hall, and Carly was hanging out further along in the hallway. Sam was talking to them on three-way on her phone.
"Anyone there?" Carly asked.
Sam looked at the prom ticket table. It was surrounded by girls, most of them Sam recognized from the mob.
"Tons of girls. Do it, Carls."
Carly hung up. All Sam and Freddie could do now was wait. It didn't take long. Stephanie Jeffers ran into the hallway, screaming, "Oh, my God! Guys, guys! Ian Somerhalder is chilling out in the back playground!"
The girls at the table started screaming and following Stephanie to the other side of the building.
Sam said into her phone, "Freddie, go now!"
Freddie ran out of the bathroom and went straight to the table. Sam hung up and shut her locker so she could keep watch if anyone came back early. Luckily, Freddie bought his ticket before anyone could come back.
"Thanks," Freddie said to Sam.
"No big," she replied. They walk to the stairs leading to the second floor. Freddie sat down.
"Are you more excited now?" he asked.
Sam sat down next to him. "Yeah. I've seen all these cliché movies and TV shows about prom, but I don't think our prom is gonna be that lame. At least, I hope it won't be as lame."
"Well, if it is, we can make fun of it together," Freddie said, nudging her gently. She smiled a little.
Sam's phone went off. She checked it. Carly texted: "they're coming back!"
She looked at Freddie. "Let's bail."
"I'm with you." She and Freddie got up from the stairs and ran off to their secret study hall spot.
A/n: Truth be told, I wrote this chapter from scratch in a few hours, as opposed to the other chapters I've done that have been mapped out at least a little bit.
R&R plz!
