Chapter 11
Shay Apartment
Thursday, February 16, 2012
It was around 7:30 pm when Freddie was back in the iCarly studio typing away at his laptop double checking last minute graphics for tomorrow's show after his surprisingly pleasant talk with Mr. Shay. Freddie had a lot to think about after the conversation, but any anxieties he may have felt about getting married were wiped away. It gave him a new clarity for looking at his and now Carly's future. He knew that he was going to be marrying the girl he had loved most of his life, that they would be graduating from high school together and soon be off to college then the future was theirs to make of it.
They were going to go to college and he was going to be the best computer student that school had ever enrolled. He was going to make sure he learned all he could so he could provide for Carly in whatever pursuits she wanted and for their future children. He already had some inclining of an idea that in the years to come he hoped would make him and Carly very wealthy.
However, there was still the nagging feeling in the back of his head: he still needed to talk with his mother again and now tell her that Mr. Shay gave his permission. She had avoided him the best she could for the rest of last night and this morning and had a late shift tonight at the hospital, so he didn't know when he'd get a chance to speak with her. He'd make sure he talked to her before tomorrow's webcast and give Carly her ring after the show.
After a few minutes of musing over his thoughts, Freddie looked up from his laptop to see the elevator door rise. "Okay, we got the ring," Sam announced in relief as she and Brad exited the elevator unto the iCarly studio.
Freddie stepped away from his tech-cart and approached the pair eagerly. "Any problems?"
"Nope," Brad answered with a grin. "We fooled them perfectly. They thought we were just a nice happy couple eager to get married."
Sam eyed the sandy haired boy for a moment with a slight frown. "Yeah, he really 'sold the scene'."
Brad smirked for a moment before giving a slight laugh as he shook his head. Freddie raised an eyebrow and wasn't sure if he really wanted to know what 'sold the scene' had entailed, but it must not have been too bad. He knew that Sam would have done some very bad things to Brad if that was the case.
"So the ring?" Freddie asked with a hint of impatience.
Sam pulled out the black velvet box from her purse and handed it to eager Tech-Producer. He eagerly accepted the box and slowly opened it. "Oh my God," Freddie whispered as he saw it. The picture he saw online did not due the ring justice. "It's perfect."
"I thought so too," Sam answered and gave him a brief smile as she undid the pins to take the wig off her head. "I think she'll love it."
Freddie looked up and stated quietly with a small smile, "Thank you Sam."
Sam blinked in response. That had been one of the few times he had been genuinely pleasant to her without having his guard up. She cleared her throat and whispered back quietly, "Well… anything for Carls."
The smile left his face and was quickly replaced with a small frown and narrowing his look at her. Sam lowered her gaze realizing that she had slapped his hand away. Maybe out of unforeseen nervousness and guilt or maybe due to the wig starting to itch, she started trying to take the wig off. After a few unsuccessful attempts to take some hair pins out, Brad reached over and offered, "Let me help." He softly brushed one of her hands out of the way and took hold of the wig and pulled a hair pin out.
Sam growled for a moment from the contact. Brad raised an eyebrow at her reaction. She blinked and looked down to allow him to help. A brief look of weariness past across Brad's face before turning back his attention of helping her take the wig off.
Freddie just looked at the pair in silence as he debated whether or not he should actually care. His internal debate was interrupted when the door to the studio opened and Carly entered the room. Freddie quickly closed the box and held it behind his back in one swift motion.
"Hey, I thought I heard the elevator—" Carly looked at them with raised eyebrows and confused eyes after looking at Sam wearing atypical clothing and holding a brunette wig. "What's going on?"
Freddie answered hesitantly and with a nervous laugh, "We had a few free moments and are just trying things out for a Grad Finale."
Carly's eyes immediately brightened. "So you have an idea?" Carly asked cheerfully.
Freddie gave her a frown. He knew that she had been struggling for an idea and now hated that he may have been getting her hopes up just to cover the fact that he had a ring for her. "Sorry, nothing solid yet. We're still brainstorm and just trying out anything that comes to mind."
Carly frowned and her shoulders dropped. The look on her face was gut wrenching for him. He walked passed Sam and slipped the box into her hand without Carly noticing as he approached the brunette. He smiled warmly to his now fiancé and took her hands into his hands and whispered, "Hey, we have time and we'll figure something out. We're not giving up."
Sam spoke up after slipping the black velvet box back into her purse, "Right kiddo, how do you think they got me up in this get up?"
Carly laughed. "Okay… wait? Is that one of my skirts?"
Sam's eyes looked away and she pursed her lips as her jaw tightened shut.
"Sam!"
Ridgeway High School
Friday, February 17, 2012
Carly and Freddie found an out of the way spot in the cafeteria to eat lunch. Surprisingly, Sam was accommodating as she was eating lunch with Brad. Carly raised an eyebrow at Freddie about that, but he remained tight lipped. Carly tried to get him to tell her what was going on, but he really didn't have anything to tell her other than pretending to be a couple in order to buy the ring without suspicion and something about 'selling the scene'. Carly grinned at that statement and looked to the pair eating lunch together. Freddie was just confused and didn't really want to concern himself with Sam's affairs.
After Carly watched the pair for a few more moments, she turned back to Freddie and asked, "I didn't get a chance last night to ask, but how did your talk with my dad go?"
Freddie let out a relieved breath that she had turned to a more relatively safe topic. "Very well, we had a nice talk."
Carly took a sip from her milk then asked causally trying to cover her eager curiosity, "What about?"
"A number at things, like about the wedding itself. You still want a small wedding, right?"
She nodded with a small smile.
Freddie grinned back, "Okay, I'll start looking for chapels tomorrow; something small and private for us."
"Good, because I ah… I've been looking at wedding dresses."
"You have?" he asked with a smirk.
Carly bit her bottom lip lightly before replying, "Yes, it's—"
"Wedding dress?" someone asked near them without being noticed.
They both turned to see Wendy with a smile on her face.
Carly quickly cleared her thought and spoke the first thing that popped into her head, "Yes… we're thinking about marrying off the Idiot Farm Girl to Fredward Cullen."
Wendy raised an eyebrow and gave a small knowing smile as she asked, "Really?"
Freddie continued not missing a beat, "Of course, we can't string their relationship out forever."
Wendy laughed then replied, "That would be an amazing skit."
Carly nodded overly enthusiastically hoping to cover the fact she was lying. "Yes it would be. We're still figuring out how we could do it and what we would need then we have to rehearse it to see if it works. So could you keep it quiet for us in the meantime?"
"Not a problem Carly. I know I'll be looking forward to that wedding," she laughed before going on her way to another lunch table.
Once the redhead was out of earshot, Carly let out a relieved breath and whispered, "That was too close."
Freddie on the other hand smiled, "Yeah, but now we have cover if anything else slips out."
The brunette furled her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
Freddie gave her a mischievous smile. "We can just say we're planning the skit of them getting married."
Carly grinned as she realized that he was correct. "You know we're actually going to have to film the skit at some point?"
Freddie leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Saying 'I do' twice wouldn't be a burden to me."
Carly giggled and patted his chest as she whispered back, "I wouldn't be one for me either."
He joined her laughter for a few moments before asking, "You were saying about the dress?"
"It's simple and I think it's pretty, but a little non-traditional."
"Carls, everything about this whole thing is non-traditional. If you like it then that is all that matters. I can't wait to see it."
She gave him a small, thankful smile before replying, "Thank you."
He kissed her temple. "You're welcome."
They slid apart a little as that resumed their lunch. After taking a bite of her sandwich and swallowing the morsel of food, she asked, "What else did you talk about?"
"We talked a little about college, how we're definitely not going to separate colleges—"
"Of course not, I'm not letting you go for four years," she interrupted with a smile and a shake of her head.
Freddie snorted out a laugh. "I told him that we were both thinking about going to University of Washington then he mentioned that some of the campuses had an Air Force ROTC…"
Her smile quickly left her face and a look a horror appeared on Carly's face. "You're not joining."
Freddie grinned and replied, "He wasn't talking about me. He said that he could see you as a fighter pilot, but I told him that I didn't want to be a military husband."
She blinked and her mouth hung slightly open as she asked, "Freddie?"
"I'm serious, you can ask him. He thought you could fly an F-Twenty Two and follow after him and your granddad," he replied and started laughing.
She gave him a slight shove to his shoulder. "You're just messing with me now."
He leaned forward and whispered, "I am not future Mrs. Benson."
"Or you'll be future Mister Shay."
Freddie laughed out loud enough for several students to look in their direction. However, neither cared as Freddie caught his breath. "Whichever you want… we could split the difference and we can both take a hyphenated name?"
Carly grinned in response. "We'll figure it out, but I guess I'm going to disappoint dad."
"But shouldn't an angel have her wings?"
Carly shook her head and laughed softly. She looked back at him with a smile playing on her lips. "You're already marrying me; you don't have to flatter me."
"I don't have to, you asked me remember?"
The brunette started laughing and between the laughs replied, "Yes I did. Aren't you lucky?"
Freddie nodded in agreement. "I'm the luckiest man in the world… your father and I did talk about something else."
The teenager's laughter calmed down at hearing the statement. "Oh, what?"
He answered hesitantly, "Where we're going to live after you and I get married."
She blinked at him. "I… I haven't thought about that. I don't want us to live apart until college."
Freddie shrugged a shoulder and gave her a small smile. "I hadn't thought about it either, but he had a suggestion on how we could live together."
The brunette raised an eyebrow and asked with a hint of fear in her voice, "He did?"
"He suggested that I move into the apartment with you and Spencer. Mind if we turn your bedroom to our bedroom?"
Carly let out a breath as she smiled and to Freddie, it looked as if her eyes lit up. She reached up and cupped his cheek and whispered, "I would love that."
"You wouldn't find that strange? I mean it's your room, but then it would be—"
"Our room… we're going to share our lives, so of course we're going to share a room and other things…" she finished with an uncomfortable tone. Some things were still awkward for her to talk about, but he was going to be her husband soon enough, so she knew she had to get over some of those anxieties.
"I know that, but that has always been your room. Are you going to mind all my geeky stuff next to and sharing space with all your things?"
"Cukey stuff," she gently corrected.
"We're finally back to cukey?"
She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss. "Yes we are and I can't wait for us to redecorate our room."