Date

"Don't worry, kiddo- I'm sure you'll find someone."

"You don't understand, Spencer. These tickets were expensive; I'm not about to hoist them off to just anybody. It has to be someone special." Spencer and Carly were both situated on their living room couch, Spencer consoling Carly of her problem.

At that moment, Sam strolled in through the front door, as if she owned the place. "What's up skillet-biscuits?" she greeted, throwing her coat and backpack onto the nearby lounge chair.

"Carly has a problem involving these tickets." Spencer stated, taking the tickets out of Carly's hands and showing them to Sam.

Sam quickly snatched the tickets from Spencer's hand and gave them a quick look. "What's the tickets for? 'Return From The Past'?" Sam asked. "Sounds interesting. It's a play?"

"Yes, my dad bought them for me and Spencer to go to, but there's been a sudden death in the family and now I can't go because I need to attend a funeral in Yakima." Carly explains. "Do you want to go?"

Sam looked at the tickets once more and shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, I don't see why not. But there are two tickets here."

"Buenos dias, muchachas y muchacho." Freddie greeted, entering the Shay's loft. "What's going on here?"

"Tickets to some fancy-shmancy play. You wanna go?" Sam offered, holding out one of the tickets towards Freddie. Freddie just eyed the tickets suspiciously, but figured it couldn't be all that bad. He shrugged his shoulders just the same as Sam did and took one of the tickets.

"I could see a play."

"Great, see you tonight, then." Sam stated simply, before grabbing up her coat. "I forgot I gotta meet my mom at Buddmucker's. See you hobos and 'hobas' later." Sam then exited the loft as quickly as she entered.

As soon as Sam closed the door, Carly and Spencer both started giggling.

"What's so funny?" Freddie questioned, looking at the two siblings.

"Oh, nothing..." Carly laughed.

"Just that you have a date with Sam!" Spencer laughed out loud, poking Freddie.

"This is so not a date."

Carly moved to the other side of Freddie, so that he was now surrounded by both siblings. "Think about it; It sorta is."

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa-" Freddie almost shouted, grabbing Carly by the shoulders. "A... date? With Sam?"

"What's the big deal? You and Sam go out all the time." Carly said, confused as to why Freddie was freaking out. Freddie let go of Carly's shoulders and started pacing around the living room.

"Yeah, but not by ourselves- It's usually with other people, like with you! Or even Gibby!" Freddie stated.

"What about last weekend when the two of you went to Groovy Smoothies together? You guys went alone then." Spencer stated, matter-of-the-factly.

"That doesn't count!" Freddie shot back, flailing his arms about.

"Well, what about-"

"This is not the issue at hand, here!" Freddie hollered.

"So what are you going to do? Are you going to stand Sam up?" Carly teased.

Sam looked at her watch impatiently. She hated waiting. The appointed time to meet was long gone and Sam was getting irritated. Maybe this whole thing was a stupid idea. She looked once more at her watch again, the minute hand only crawling across the face.

"Sam, over here!" A male's voice called out, causing Sam to look up at the approaching brunette.

"Hey, took you long enough. I've been waiting here for like, fifteen minutes." Sam complained, tapping her foot and showing Freddie her watch.

"Sorry, my mom was- Whoa. You look... Great." Freddie stated, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, looking Sam up and down. She wore an outfit that Freddie could only describe in his mind as beautiful and elegant. Her outfit was far more, as he could only describe as, "girly" than usual; definitely not something Sam would usually wear. But then again, this was a pretty classy place and Sam had a pretty good sense of fashion when it came down to it.

Sam scoffed. "What, is that a compliment?" Sam asked, her eyebrow arched.

Freddie almost choked, but knew he would have to keep his cool; Especially around Sam. "So what if it is? You got a problem with it?" Freddie joked.

"No, not at all. You just caught me a little off-guard, that's all. You look pretty good too, Benson," Sam complimented, noticing Freddie was wearing a classy outfit. "Your mommy pick that outfit out for you?" Sam followed up with a quick insult.

"As a matter of fact, she did," Freddie shot back, just as quick as Sam.

Inside the theater hall, Freddie handed the two tickets to the usher.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Shay, your seats and located here in the VIP section. I'll lead you there now," the usher offered. Freddie and Sam followed the usher up the stairs, both sharing a glance at each other.

"Don't get any ideas, Benson."

"I didn't say anything!" Freddie defended.

"Whatever. That usher is an idiot." Sam huffed, walking past Freddie up the stairs. As soon as Freddie knew Sam was no longer looking as him, he giggled softly. Whether it was being called Mr. Shay or being confused for Sam's husband or maybe both, only he would know. "Freddie, what the heck are you giggling at? Our seats are over here."

The two were seated in a nice balcony area, a perfect view of everything and everyone on the stage. Freddie quietly sat down in his seat and looked over at Sam, who seemed to be perusing through the program's pamphlet.

The two sat comfortably in their seats as they enjoyed the performance and each other's company, but Freddie seemed to be more interested in Sam than the performance, really. He looked over at Sam, who was very interested in the play.

"You seem to be really into the performance." Freddie quietly commented. Sam only shushed Freddie, her attention completely focused on the performing actors on stage. An hour passed before the first intermission started. The lights came on and Sam stood up.

"I'm going to the bathroom. You stayin' here?" she asked, her typical no-nonsense attitude. Freddie only nodded, as Sam left with her purse in hand. As soon as Sam left, Freddie quickly whipped out his PearPhone and began dialing digits. He pressed his PearPhone to his ear, eager for the person on the other end of the line to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Carly, is Spencer there?"

"Uh, yeah, hold on."

Freddie waited impatiently as the sound of shuffling noises came in through the receiver.

"Spence?"

"Yo, Fred-O. Whaddup?"

"Um, y'know thing I have with Sam?"

"Y'mean your date with her?"

"It's not a date!"

"Jeez, no need to yell. Well, what about?"

"I'm freaking out, Spencer. I mean, after you and Carly teased me about it being... a date... I don't know, I'm just not the same around her."

"Freddie, re-he-he-lax! You're still you and Sam's still Sam. Just be yourself. It's not like Sam's said this was a date anyway, right?"

"Well, no, but," At that moment, Sam approached Freddie from behind and Freddie quickly put his phone away, ending the call.

"Who was that?" Sam asked, sitting down in her seat, next to Freddie.

"Oh, just Spencer. He was calling to see how the play was." Freddie quickly lied.

"Oh. What'd you tell him?" Sam asked, sitting back down in her seat.

Freddie looked panicked. He wasn't even really paying attention to the play. He had been watching Sam this whole time. "Um, just that it was confusing."

Sam looked confused by Freddie's response. "Confusing? What's so confusing about it?"

"Don't know if you didn't notice, but I don't really go to plays all that often, Puckett."

Sam just scoffed. "So? Neither do I."

"You seemed pretty darn interested with this play."

"I saw the movie version of this play once when I was a kid- I already knew the basic story."

"You did?"

Sam nodded. She went on explaining the plot of the story, the characters' backgrounds and their date with destiny. Freddie could care less about some stupid play, but watching Sam getting excited about something she loved was no doubt fun for him to watch. He wouldn't admit out loud, but he loved when Sam was unbridled with joy. In the midst of her going on about how awesome the play was, the lights flickered on and off a few times, signaling the end of the intermission.

"Oh, the intermission's almost done!" Sam stated excitedly, looking down towards the stage to see a few actors shuffling across the dark-lit stage. The two resumed to watch the remainder of the play and once it was over, the two exited back to the main lobby of the theater.

"That was actually really good. The ending was fantastic." Freddie commented, looking over the program pamphlet once more. "You feel like grabbing a smoothie or something?"

"Sure, why not. I assume you'll be paying?"

Freddie chuckled. "Sure, why not," he echoed.

After a truly lovely evening of theater and smoothies, Sam and Freddie reached the eighth floor of Bushwell Plaza.

"You sure Carly said it was alright for you to sleep over her at her house while her and Spencer are in Yakima?" Freddie asked, opening his front door. Sam chose not to answer Freddie as she quickly picked the lock to the Shay's apartment.

"I had a cool time tonight. You sure know how to treat a lady, Benson. I'm impressed." Sam chuckled, opening the door. She turned to face Freddie, looking up at him. The two remained still for a few seconds, not speaking and just looking into each other's eyes. Freddie took a step forward, which only made Sam grin even wider. "Don't get any ideas, Benson."

Freddie chuckled softly as Sam revisited the same phrase she used earlier that evening. "I didn't say anything."

Sam gave Freddie a quick peck on the cheek, before retreating into the Shay apartment. "Night, Benson." she whispered, before closing the door. "It was a nice date."