Sam's POV

"How could you do that?" I asked, horrified at the results of the pairings. "I demand a re-test!"

"I'm sorry, my dear," the creepy judge guy apologized. "I can't do that."

"But we didn't even take any compatibility tests or anything, how can you just pair us up just like that?" Fredlame asked. "We want a fair competition, not some rigged game!"

The judge sighed. "But your friend, Carly, she wanted her and her boyfriend to be paired together. So I assumed that the both of you would want to be paired together as well."

"Watch it, old man," I narrowed my eyes as I threatened him. "If you don't give us a real compatibility test and get us paired up fairly, you bet you're going to be eating maggots tomorrow."

He gulped. "Okay, okay. I'll just give you the test. Here, complete it and hand it in to me."

"You're going to have to promise that it would be fair," Fredlimb said in a less threatening way than me, but it still worked. "Or we will definitely talk about the rigged competition and you can forget about sky-high ratings. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," he replied.

The both of us left the director's office and sat down at the couch in the waiting room. We were given a pencil and the test paper and we were invigilated by one of the female judges.

"If that creepy judge guy wasn't the director of the company, I would have squashed him first," I exclaimed.

"Well, at least he did promise to pair us up fairly this time," Fredly said.

"But seriously, why am I even doing this test?" I asked. "All these questions are so stupid. I mean, look at question number 2: 'What do you look for in an ideal mate?' Come on, this seems more like those personality quizzes that we find on the internet."

He laughed. "Yeah, look at question number 3: 'What would you do if your mom brought home a bucket of sanitizers?' My mom does that everyday, what difference would it make?"

"If it was me, I would have ambushed that lady who dressed up as my mom and broke into my house even though my stuff are worth nothing," I giggled. "Oh, hey, look at number..."

"Which one? Come on, Sam, don't just leave your words hanging there on a stick," Fredpus said.

Then we realized something.

Question 9: What if you and your best friend kissed?

We looked at each other for a split second, before returning back to the test awkwardly.

"So, how's it going?" Carly walked through the doors. "I see that they've surrendered to your requests."

"Carls! What are you doing here?" I asked. "I thought you were on a date with Griffin. How'd he take the news?"

"He was cool with it," she replied. "Actually, he was really excited when I told him about it. He always wanted to go on TV. Especially reality TV shows."

We laughed.

"Are you done with your test?" the invigilator asked, seeming impatient.

I handed my paper to her as Fudgeface handed it in.

The invigilator grinned as she reviewed our test results. "This is going to be interesting."

Freddie's POV

After a while of waiting (okay, it was more than a while), Sam and I were summoned back into the director's office. This seemed serious.

"How are the results?" Sam asked. "Who are our new partners?"

"I'm sorry, kids," he smiled awkwardly. "From the test results, you guys seem perfect for each other."

"What? Why?" the both of us asked simultaneously.

He let out a laugh. "See what I mean?"

"This can't be possible," Sam seemed really unhappy. "The compatibility test is rigged, right?"

"Well, I wish it were rigged too, but we really did do our best when computing the results," he replied. "Okay, look at your answers for each of the question. They are entirely the opposite."

We looked at the computer monitor as he explained.

"For the first question, it states here, 'What would you do if your best friend is hurt?" he started. "For Sam, your answer was 'I will beat the crap out of the guy responsible' and for Freddie, your answer was 'I will first make sure that my best friend is okay'. The answers are a complete mismatch. They were both the extremes of the answer spectrum."

Sam looked confused. "Can you repeat that in English?"

"Okay," he explained. "The both of your answers are very different. One is extremely violent while the other is extremely comforting. And what happens when two extremes come together?"

"They neutralize?" I asked.

"Bingo!" he released his clenched fists in the sky as though they were fireworks. "So, you guys get it now?"

I blushed a little, but it wasn't really that obvious.

"Oh, come on, guys," he grinned. "No need for the awkward moments. You guys are going on air as a couple to win the cash prize! Isn't that exciting?"

"Yeah, right. The cash prize," I stammered. "I almost forgot."

"That's the spirit, now go enjoy yourselves kids!" he pushed us out of the room. "Be prepared for the filming next week! See you!"

We were in silence as we walked out of the director's office. We stole glances at each other to see our reactions. But it was awkward nonetheless ever since the news was smacked against our faces.

"How did it go? Who are your new partners?" Carly asked enthusiastically when we met her back in the waiting room.

"We got each other again," I replied. "They said that we were-"

"They had to give in to the Seddiers," Sam interrupted me. "Since the iCarly gang was going on TV, they had to appeal to the masses. And apparently, Seddiers make up the most of the iCarly fandom."

I kept quiet.

"Oh, so the test was of no use, then?" Carly asked.

"Not really," Sam replied. "It was used for archiving."

Sam shot me a glare that said something like 'Reveal it and you'll wake up in a coffin tomorrow'.

Once I caught that glare, I pretended the everything Sam said happened, even though we both knew the truth.

I will never date Sam, and Sam would never date me.

I remember telling that to George the Bra once. I can't believe this is happening. But it's for the cash prize, and the test is probably rigged anyway. They just don't want us to find out about their laziness. It was just an excuse for them to put us together again, right?

Carly will never love you.

I laughed at what Sam used to tell me whenever I was hitting on her best friend. Sure, I was smitten then, but now, it's all fuzzy. Sam can't possibly like me, right?

"A penny for your thoughts?" Carly asked.

"Oh, nothing," I replied. "Just thinking about the filming next week. It's gonna be really hard pretending to be a couple with Sam."

"Yeah, I guess you can say that since you guys have been like best friends forever, right?" she teased.

I looked at her as I remembered what I said two years ago.

That thing is not my friend.

"I guess you can say that," I replied.

I glanced over at Sam who was fast asleep after waking up early in the morning to come here and take a test, only to realize that things would have to remain the same.

But I know that things will never be the same.