Hey everyone, I'm so sorry for the long delay between chapters this time - things have been so busy on my end that I'm surprised I even found dome time to write.

Well, the next chapter or two deal with things that ACTUALLY happened on iCarly and my interpretation thereof - with a few extra scenes of course. ;) So, if you are a true Seddie warrior and you enjoy looking for all the little signs between Sam and Freddie you'll love the next two chapters. =D I'm almost done with Chapter Eight, so it shoud be up soon. :)

Don't forget to review, it helps me get the next chapter to you faster when I know you're anxiously awaiting it. =D

Love

IamMuchan

Chapter Seven

Hidden signs

"Now the time has come for us to answer some questions," Carly said enthusiastically into the camera as Freddie zoomed in to emphasize the intimacy of the brand new segment on iCarly.

"Sent in to us at !" Sam finished for her, and Carly gestured to Freddie that he could read the first question.

"Freddie?"

It was Friday night again, and the gang was back at filming a new iCarly episode. A week had passed since Sam and Freddie had shared their first kiss, and everything seemed to be back to normal again. Freddie still irritated Sam, Sam still pulled pranks on Freddie and Carly tried her best to stop the two from killing each other. It was just as it had always been – with a new twist. Freddie seemed to be pursuing Carly even more than before, and this was clearly seen by the viewers as well as Sam and Carly when he read out the first question.

"Dear Carly, don't you think it would be awesome to be Freddie's girlfriend?" he said with a mischievous smile playing at his lips, accompanied by a suggestive eyebrow lift. Carly shook her head slightly as she realized he was only joking, but Sam surprised him by immediately firing up.

"Read the real question!" she said angrily, taking a step forward. Freddie shook his head and read the real question instead as Sam and Carly waited patiently to answer it.

Sam ground her teeth slightly as she waited for Freddie to finish reading the question. Why was he always so adamant about Carly? She didn't know why she was so angry all of a sudden, but she swallowed down the string of insults and hurtful comments she could throw at him as she remembered that she was in the middle of a show.

Freddie went on to read the real question and the out of the ordinary image of Carly and Sam with purple troll hair jumped to the screen.

"Vote for David Archuleta" Sam and Carly emphasized near the end of the show; the two of them had become a little obsessed with the new reality program "America Sings" and they felt it was necessary to urge their iCarly viewers to vote for their favourite.

"It's what all the cool kids want," Carly emphasized as she and Sam adorned their own sets of purple troll hair and closed the show off.

After the two girls closed off the show Sam excused herself and headed home as quickly as she could without being rude. She had warned her mother this time that she would be spending the night at home; she had suspected that things would still be a little awkward between her and Freddie, even though she had sworn that things would go back to normal. And she had been right – the small incident of Freddie flirting with Carly had driven Sam mad with sudden anger, and even though she had hidden it reasonably well she still had to get away.

She slammed the passenger door of her mother's car with such force that her mother actually jumped a little in her seat.

"Woah hun, what is it this time?" she asked her daughter skeptically, half dreading the answer.

"Nothing mom," Sam said, folding her arms over her chest and deliberately turning her head in the other direction and staring out of the window. She heard her mother sigh but refused to look in her direction. She felt the rattling of the car as her mom turned the key in the ignition and the car pulled away slowly.

"You know," Celeste Puckett said quietly, "You said the same thing last week Sammy…if there's something bothering you I'd like to hear about it."

Sam sighed this time, and turned to look at her mom guiltily.

"I'm sorry mom," she said sincerely, smiling a little to show that she wasn't trying to be mean, "I know that you care and that you want to help, but I'll tell you when I'm ready to. I just need to think through a few things first."

"Does it have anything to do with that boy I saw you with last week?" her mom asked curiously, and Sam tried to hide the surprise from her face, "Freddie right?"

"Mom!" Sam said, turning to the window again so that her mother wouldn't notice the reddening of her cheeks, "No, it does not! Freddie is a nub and that's all he's ever going to be!"

Sam's mother grinned in satisfaction at her daughter's reaction. She knew something was up; never before had she seen her favourite daughter willingly let someone to hold her for so long – not even with her and Melanie; especially Melanie.

"Alright Sam" she said, tracing her eyes pack to the empty road, "I'll wait until you're ready to talk about it."

"Thanks mom," Sam said quietly, her forehead pressed against the cool window.

"If I may say something though?"

"Mom!"

"Now listen here Samantha, and hear me out!"

Sam crossed her arms stubbornly and looked at her mom in annoyance.

"Just be yourself sweetie," she said simply, her eyes flickering from her face to the road in three second intervals, "No matter which way it ends up going the most important thing is that you be yourself."

Sam couldn't help but smile. This was exactly what she had wanted to hear – an answer to all of her personal questions. Should she confront Freddie and admit her true feelings concerning their first kiss, or should she leave everything the way it is and hope it all returns to normal. Well, it seems she had finally reached a conclusion after a week of pondering to herself…and from her mom nonetheless.

"We'll be back after the break," the host of America Sings said almost too cheerfully to the anxious audience on the other side, and Sam and Carly sighed in expiration as they flopped back against the couch. Freddie had excused himself to the kitchen in order to get a drink, and he smiled over at the two of them as they expressed their annoyance at the delay in announcing the winner.

He made his way back over to them, encountering Sam's legs blocking his path for a split second before she carefully lifted them away so that he could pass. Things seemed to have finally returned to normal, though he could pick up that Sam was being a lot less violent as opposed to a week ago. Although, he had asked for it by handcuffing her to Gibby; he still couldn't get the smell of dead fish out of his backpack. He found it sweet how Sam could sometimes get just as involved in the more 'girly' shows as Carly could – and how he always found himself watching it along with them.

"Hey," he said as he sat down between the two girls whose eyes seemed unable to leave the screen, reminding him of the first time he saw the two of them together, "Check out this new application on my Pear phone, it makes all the little-"

He cut his sentence short as Sam grabbed the phone from his grasp; he allowed her to do it because he thought she was showing curiosity, but instead she brought it to her mouth and smoothly slid her tongue across the screen before placing it back in his hand. His face furrowed in confusion; he knew Sam to be unpredictable in nature, but this seemed a lot weirder than what he was used to.

"Aw," he said, clarifying the situation, "She licked my phone!"

"Shh," Carly tapped his knee in agitation while stuffing another piece of popcorn into her mouth, "America Sings is coming back on!"

Annoyed at how his sudden agitation was being completely ignored Freddie tried to at least let Sam realize how annoyed he really was.

"Never lick my phone again!" he stated bluntly, but before he knew it the phone was snatched from his hand again, and this time she slowly and purposefully licked his phone once more. She placed it back in his hand and he sighed silently, hanging his head and admitting his defeat. He glanced over at Sam as the annoying host of America Sings reappeared on the screen.

"She did it again," he said more to himself than anyone else.

"Freddie, be quiet! Sam, stop licking technology!" Carly said hurriedly as she scooted forward in her seat to hear what the final result of the show would be.

Sam kept her eyes glued to the screen in order to distract herself from the eyes that she now felt trained on her. She admitted that licking his phone not once but twice was a strange act from her end, but she did it in the spur of the moment. She didn't regret it though; her old side which didn't care what anyone said and just went ahead and said and did crazy things was seeping through again, and she embraced it fully. There was no need to be awkward around Freddie anymore since he seemed to be acting like he usually did around her.

"The votes are in," the host said, "And the winner of American Sings…will be announced after the break!"

"Another commercial?" Sam said in agitation.

"And they wonder why they're losing kids to the internet!" Carly concurred, as Spencer entered the room in his search of the DVD he hadn't returned. Freddie smiled as Sam suggested that she would teach Spencer how to lie, and was quick to compliment her on her lying skills. Their conversation with Spencer was brought to a halt as the show returned to the screen once more.

"And the winner of America Sings is…" the host trailed off, building the tension and driving Sam crazy with anticipation.

"Come on David!" she shouted at the screen.

"Please be Archuleta!" Carly joined in.

"Say it…" Sam muttered threateningly, and she felt Freddie flinch slightly next to her. The voice she was using now was one that she often adopted when threatening him.

"David Archuleta!" the annoying man finally announced, and shouts of joy erupted from the two girls simultaneously.

"I can't believe it!" Carly exclaimed while jumping on the spot.

"It's unbelievable!" Sam agreed.

"That's why I said I can't believe it!" Carly teased playfully.

"Ok,ok, he won," Freddie said from between them, rising from his seat on the couch and moving to hug them in a congratulatory manner.

Freddie embraced Carly momentarily as her eyes strayed back to the television, and he broke away from her with a small smile playing on his lips as it often did after he hugged the girl he was so infatuated with. He then moved to Sam out of habit, since she was always second in line for a hug after Carly. As he turned he looked her right in the eyes, and a sudden hesitation pulled at his resolve as memories from that night came flooding back to him.

Sam felt the electricity spark between the two of them once more as she saw Freddie come towards her for a hug, and the image of the night they kissed sprang to the forefront of her mind. Freddie's sudden hesitation matched hers as the two suddenly turned away from each other, Sam pursing her lips as she tried to force the memories of that night away and Freddie pulling his glance away from the blue gems he had just encountered.

Carly noticed the fact that they didn't hug each other, but she shrugged it off as she usually did. Her two best friends had a strange relationship; they seemed to hate each other from day one, but over time they appeared to reach a mutual understanding that only they knew of. Carly suspected that it had something to do with the fact that they were both her friends, and she loved them both equally. The strong friendship that the three of them shared was powerful enough to allow Sam and Freddie to overcome their hate and develop a friendship on their own. Ever since the incident from last week, however, things seemed strange between the two; Carly hoped that it would be resolved soon so that they could return to normal.

Weeks had passed since the night that she and Freddie has shared their first kiss, and Sam believed that it was safe to say that she and Freddie were back to normal. It wasn't that they had returned to normal only now – things had been fine between them for ages now, but it was only now that Sam was convinced she was over her small trial of infatuation for the boy. She had spent weeks suffering in silence; on the outside she teased and abused Freddie as much as she usually did, but on the inside she cringed every time she saw a hurt expression cross his face. She had to admit that she enjoyed torturing him at times, but it was when the emotional abuse got taken too far that she would end up feeling guilty.

It also made it easier to pick on Freddie every time he tried to "pull a move" on Carly. It irritated her beyond belief, but she hadn't reached a serious state of jealously yet since Carly still showed no interest in the poor boy. Freddie was also treating her in the same manner as usual; he teased her back when she started irritating her and ignored her snide comments majority of the time. They still got along well though, and there were a few situations that she was able to pick out where a tiny bit of affection began to seep through.

A month and a half after the night the two of them had shared on the fire escape, iCarly had a chance to meet and interview one of Sam's favourite competitors in the MMA fights, Jackson Colt. In this time she and Freddie got closer together through their love of MMA, and Sam ignored the warning bells that had gone off in her head. At this stage she was heavily convincing herself that she was not infatuated with Freddie, and she was doing this by insulting him as much as she could - hence the fact that she compared his head to a toilet in the middle of their web show. So, when the three of them got their look-alikes to fool Spencer on the night of the interview and the MMA fight Sam was caught off guard when conversing with her look-alike.

"Hey," she whispered to Sam so that the Freddiedee and Freddiedum wouldn't hear, "When did Freddie start looking so hot?"

Sam stared at her in disbelief, taking a sharp intake of breath at her remark. She breathed out again and tried to regain her composure, noticing how her clone had a small smile playing at her lips.

"Ok, this chick is nothing like me!" she half-shouted, trying to force the awkwardness of the situation onto someone else. Luckily she solved this just as they were leaving by playing an embarrassing voice clip of Freddie's that she had overheard him recording earlier.

"I love you Carly…I love you…loooooooooove," the recording played once, and then a second time, and Sam giggled at Freddie and Carly's discomfort, but she couldn't help but feel that small tug of jealously pull at her insides once more.

This was only a small instance where Sam began to realize that she was harboring some jealousy of her best friend. Carly had always been the pretty one, the smart one and the girl that all the guys fell for when they got to know her. She was sweet and girly and adorable, and yet she could be funny, sly and wacky at the same time. Sam envied her for her girly side, and this brought along a situation which had affected Freddie in a way he had least expected.

Chapter Eight will be posted soon! So please review and tell me just ow much you want it. ;)

IamMuchan