I know it's a bit soon for me to say this but thank you guys for the warm welcome. Well, again, that is. Hehehe. I love you all and I vow to my dog's grave that this story will stop at a proper conclusion. Oh yeah, my dog's not dead. Oh well. Show time people!


Carly was, without a doubt, bothered.

How can I tell, you ask? Is that a joke? My hand won't speak for itself so I think I'll just write "CARLY SHAY DID THIS" all over the inch-thick bandage. It was on cold compress for almost an hour earlier too. If I didn't understand how a heart broke, I would've thrown my own version of a bitch fit at Carly. But no, here we were, sitting disturbingly quiet at our side of the cafeteria.

Carly was just poking at her food. I tried talking to her about iCarly so she could get her mind off things, but whatever I said only had a low "mm-hm" for an answer. Maybe even if I said I was dying on the spot, I would still get that exact same "mm-hm".

'Hey, Carly,' I began.

'Mm-hm.'

Well, that was very nice. I didn't even say anything after calling her attention. I shrugged and began poking at my food too. This went on until the object of this glum atmosphere jumped across the table from Carly and plumped herself on the chair.

'Hey!' Sam said rather too joyfully as soon as she settled comfortably.

She smiled.

And smiled.

And smiled.

When she didn't get any response from Shay, she looked at me accusingly.

'Dude, not cool,' I lifted my hand a couple of inches from her face. 'I'm the victim here.'

'Oh,' she said nonchalantly. She reached for Carly's chin and lifted the brunette's gaze at herself.

'Whaddup, doll?'

How does she do that? Is she allowed to do that? First, you seemingly flirt around then you would do that? How could you even do that? I'm no girl but I could bite her finger if that were me in Carly's place. But hey, that's Sam; she's Carly's medicine. The younger Shay sighed and forced out a smile. She then pushed her cheese platter over at Sam's side of the table.

'Are you hungry, Sammy?' she asked.

'Dude, I'm always hungry,' the blonde practically sucked the food off the plate and returned Carly's smile. For one second, I could throw my milk carton at her for having the attention span of a rabbit. However, she could be surprising at times. Well, when it came to her "doll" sitting across the table from her, she was always surprising. 'So, again with the question, what's wrong, cupcake? I can smell your misery from a mile away – stronger than the food here.'

'Nothing, really,' Carly answered, lifting a hand to rest her chin on it. At least, she was now looking directly at Puckett. 'I just have this feeling that I'm beginning to miss you so bad…so soon.'

At that moment, I forgot about my food, the noise at the cafeteria and the pain on my hand. I am right-handed but I swear I felt my fingers pull into a clenched fist – a reflex for victory. Carly Shay must have decided to put up a fight.

Sam sniggered. 'Good one, Shay. No, really. What's the deal?'

Carly pulled both ends of her lips into a sarcastic smile. 'Haha, yeah, I was kidding.'

I swear. These were among those times when I just want to lift a hand to my forehead and slap the daylights out of it. Yeah, it's a really comforting therapy kind of thing, IF my finger bones weren't powdered by an insane woman. Sam is brutal but she never crushed any of my bones. I therefore conclude that Carly is evil.

WHY? Maybe moving out of the bestfriend phase was soooo hard after all.

'Actually, nothing is wrong, Sam. I just don't feel like eating my food.'

'That's it? Are you sure?'

Carly gave Sam a reassuring smile and nodded. Sam smiled one of those rare smiles that she could only slip in public if it was Carly she was offering it to. She brought her hand up from under the table and reached for her "bestfriend's" cheek to probably pinch it, when a "conveniently" intervening hand went snatching it.

'Wow! This is a really nice ring, Sam!' Cindy, our redhead Chemistry classmate, said as she brought Sam's hand at eye level and examined the colorful ring around one of her fingers. 'I didn't think you'd wear it again.'

I turned to Carly as I noticed her tense up. I immediately rested my left hand on the small of her back. I was no Sam but I at least wanted to make her feel that I was with her – already hating this Cindy chick.

'Oh, hi!' Cindy smiled so sickly sweet at Carly and me. 'I'm Cindy.'

'Hey,' Carly and I greeted rather monotonously. Actually, I would've just said "groaned" monotonously.

'Don't you agree with me?'

We continued to stare at her not because we waited for her to explain what she just said; we were just not interested with whatever she was planning to say.

'I think Sam is really brave to put it on!'

She was referring to the rainbow ring Sam had on. Without us inviting her over, she squeezed herself beside Sam even if there was a vacant chair situated probably an inch where she stood.

Ugh, I'm like Carly's voodoo doll at that point. What she felt, I definitely felt. If this was my exact mood and I was, for some reason, in Spencer's sculpting class, I would tell him I want to sculpt something out of the emotion of STABBING.

'Uh,' Sam seemed a little lost but definitely uncomfortable. 'I think I told you about Cindy? She's in my Chemistry class.'

'Sam!' the redhead suddenly blurted out, feigning hurt. 'We're pretty tight now, right? You know, the ham, the bacon? Yesterday. And the other day? And last week?'

I could swear I could hear a nerve throbbing somewhere in the cafeteria and if I leaned closer to Carly's head, I can definitely say it was coming from there.

'Sure,' Shay began, 'with you forcing yourself on that poor chair, you do seem pretty tight at some point.'

Sam nearly gulped the chunk of cheese she had just put in her mouth without chewing it.

'Oh, silly me,' Cindy finally stood from where she sat and moved to the vacant chair beside Sam. Without wasting a second, she gasped at Sam's cheese platter. 'Why would you eat that? I can buy you much, much more delicious food than that platter of cheapness.'

Carly's hand went down on the table top a little too hard that it turned quite a number of heads at our direction. 'This isn't going to happen every day, is it?'

'Uh, actually-' Sam stuttered. 'No, as long as-'

'Maybe!' Cindy blurted out happily, 'I can really get used to it!'

'God, help us,' I muttered under my breath. I wasn't sure what kind of creature Sam got herself.

'Oh! Are you religious Freddie?' Cindy asked.

'No, but right now I'd consider to be.'

'You seem really nice, you know. Would you mind coming with me? I need the extra hand to get Sam all the food she wants!'

Well, let me see. By extra hand I think she literally meant "hand" as in one hand.

'Sure,' I answered as I turned to get up and rolled my eyes. Maybe she's really, really dumb. Why couldn't she see my hand bandaged? But if it's to get rid of her, this should be worth it.

She "relatively" silently walked with me over at the counter area. I actually thought that she was pretty and prim if she could just shut up. Maybe I should distract her a little longer to get Carly and Sam some time to talk.

'So,' I began. 'I heard from Sam that you are quite the energetic one. I guess Sam really doesn't lie.'

'Oh, Freddie, Freddie.'

That wasn't her tone. I was a hundred-percent sure that that wasn't the tone she was using earlier. It sounded a little too "knowing" for her dumb and cheery ghetto. I didn't like it already.

'I know what you're doing. Just stop it. It really wouldn't do anything to keep me from getting those two kept apart.'

For the second time in the day, I froze. I wasn't the type to judge at first look, but I knew this girl was – what's the word? Oh, yeah – a skunkbag at sight.

She leaned into my ear and whispered, 'I have wants, you know.'

This was another bitch to deal with. Well. I got rid of Missy before; I can always do something to get rid of this newly found amoeba.


Well, there we are. I'm not the type to add characters. But I just had to put someone in the fray to bug everyone else. :) Hope you liked it.