Before She Came

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N: Thoughts in Italics, speech in regular font


Chapter 12 (Carly Arrives)

Months passed by and Freddie has become good friends with Jonah, it almost made Sam jealous how he spent so much time with Jonah and not with her. He made an effort to spend as much time with her as possible, but it was difficult since she'd become aggressive. That wasn't saying she was ever aggressive towards him, he was the last person she'd ever think to torture. No, it was mostly just Gibby. She'd succeeded in scaring him into nothing.

But no, his budding friendship with Jonah was hardly the last straw. No, not at all, the last straw came in a much different, much more sinister form to her. It came to her in the form of a new student who had moved to Seattle in late January. Her name, was Carly Shay. Although, she wasn't sure if Carly would be a threat to their friendship or not, only time could tell.

"Freddie Benson," The teacher said from the front desk. Freddie was seated next to Sam and laughing at a joke she made, she was becoming a happier person, but never could forget the loss of her sister and her father. They stopped laughing and looked over to see a girl their age standing next to the teacher, clutching a textbook to her chest. "This is Carly Shay, she's new here. Would you please show her around the school?"

"Yes ma'am!" Freddie said as he quickly stood up. Sam looked at him and frowned, she thought he'd say no, that he was having too much fun with her. He walked up to the girl and extended a hand, but she didn't shake it. She stared at it and slowly shook her head, she was shy, which was a very understandable thing. "I'm Freddie, it's good to meet you."

"Carly," she replied quietly. That was the only thing that would come from her mouth, she was too afraid to say anything. Her father was away on official military business and her brother had offered to watch over her so she didn't have to go live with Spencer. "I miss my friends."

"Well, I'll be your friend, if it makes you feel better." Carly smiled and nodded her head slowly as Freddie gestured for her to follow him. Jonah looked over at Sam and frowned when he saw how intensely she was watching the two.

"She's shy, like I was," Sam whined. She fidgeted on her desk and Jonah gave a small, tired sigh.

"You have nothing to worry about," he replied with a smile. He knew Freddie was always going to be true friends with Sam, there was no denying the untarnished bond between the two.

"So this is the school cafeteria," Freddie said as he and Carly entered the empty cafeteria. Lunch had yet to begin. He then pointed his arm to the left and smiled. "Down that hallway is the door to the nurse's office, and further down are the kindergartners."

"Oh, and do they hand out a lot of crafts?" Carly asked curiously. At her previous school, the kindergartners would always make a lot of arts and crafts, then give them to the older students.

"Eh, sometimes, but it isn't very often. Let me show you the library." Carly nodded and followed him throughout the school. "So tell me a little about yourself."

"Okay. Well I live with my brother, because Daddy's always gone and mommy went away. She left us, we don't know where she is."

"That's horrible!"

"I don't like new places, they scare me. All of my friends are gone, I don't know what to do."

"Well, I've said already that I'd be your friend. Here's a thought! Why don't you sit with us at lunch today?" Carly's eyes widened for a moment and Freddie smiled widely, he had a feeling he could help her overcome her nervous feelings. Maybe even Sam, who always seemed so friendly before, could help out too. "You should meet my friends, they'd love you."

"Okay, if you say so, then I believe you." She didn't think anyone at the new school would be nice to her, but here Freddie was, being very friendly. She smiled slightly and continued on with Freddie as he toured the place. She reminded him a little of Sam before Michelle and the parents died. He missed her. The way she was now, it wasn't her, it just wasn't. "It's a really nice school."

"Yeah, there's a lot of nice people here."

"Thanks for showing me around…" Freddie nodded as the two started heading back to class. An hour passed after and soon lunch had started up. Freddie was sitting at his lunch table with Jonah, they were waiting on Sam to arrive. Carly made it to them first, however. "Hi. You said I could join you at lunch?"

"Yeah, have a seat Carly. How was class for you?" Jonah sighed and leaned back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head. He was only slightly annoyed, since he'd been right in the middle of conversation and now Freddie was starting a conversation with this girl.

"It was a little tough, I didn't understand some things."

"Like what?"

"Well, the teacher had us learning to subtract money, but I was having a little trouble…" Math wasn't her strong suit, she always had trouble in the subject. Freddie nodded and took some of his cash from his pocket and set it on the table.

"Okay let's see if I can help you. How much do I have?" Carly looked down at the money and saw there was one five dollar bill, a single dollar bill, three quarters, two dimes, one nickel and four pennies. She swallowed and looked at Freddie embarrassingly, she had no idea how much money there was.

"I don't know."

"Okay well here." He placed his fingers on the two dollar bills and started with them. "It's good to start with the bills first. It's not hard, it's just like regular math. What is five plus one?"

"Six?"

"Right, so a five dollar bill and a one will give you six dollars." He brushed the bills to the side and Jonah leaned forward, now interested in this conversation. "Next we'll start with the quarters. How much are quarters worth?"

"Twenty-five, right?"

"Yes, now remember, four quarters make a whole dollar. So you want to count by twenty five. Twenty five, fifty, and then seventy-five…So, so far we have six dollars and seventy-five cents."

"Okay, and the dimes are worth ten, right?" Freddie nodded and Carly looked at the two dimes. She decided to try and add ten and ten in her mind. Frowning, she answered, unsure of the answer. "Twenty?"

"Yes."

"It's not twenty five, it won't make a dollar!"

"Ah, but look, a nickel." Carly looked at the nickel and smiled, she knew those were worth five cents. That brought the change up to a full dollar amount.

"Now we have seven dollars."

"Correct, but can you add the pennies? They're worth one cent each." Carly nodded and counted by one each penny she pulled aside. There were four, so the total amount of money was seven dollars and four cents. "What's the total price?"

"Seven dollars and four cents!"

"Good job!" Carly squealed with joy and gave Freddie a quick hug. Jonah's eyebrows lifted as he looked to the doorway. There was Sam, watching them. Freddie glanced over just in time to see the girl turn around and leave. He frowned and looked worriedly at Jonah. He didn't know what was going on, but Jonah had an idea. Sam was jealous.

"Hey Freddie, can we go talk somewhere?" Jonah asked as he slowly stood up. Freddie nodded and looked over at Carly, she let him know she'd be okay till they got back. They walked over to where Valerie was in the corner of the cafeteria, she had a lunchbox and was currently placing her food neatly on the table. She hadn't been turned off by Freddie and Jonah's friendship, as she was very happy for Jonah making new friends. She looked up at the two of them and smiled while they took their seats at her table. "Freddie's got a new friend, Valerie."

"I noticed that," Valerie replied while stabbing her juice box with her straw. She sipped out of it and then placed an orange next to her plate which contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "I also noticed Sam didn't look too happy." Freddie frowned as Jonah looked over at him, he really wanted to warn Freddie not to forget his friendship with Sam.

"I just wanted you to know, Freddie…don't forget Sam, okay? I mean that."

"Ah, I won't forget about her. It's just that she changed so much…Carly reminds me a little bit of Sam before all that bad stuff happened." Jonah and Valerie frowned and exchanged sad expressions. It looked like Freddie might actually start developing a crush on Carly, that's what all this was about. Jonah had taken notice of that look in Freddie's eyes. The fact that she reminded him of Sam really cemented that fear.

"Okay, well as long as you don't think you're going to ignore her…"

Meanwhile, Carly was eating a sandwich at her table when Sam walked up to her. She narrowed her eyes for a minute as Carly swallowed her bite. "Hey I'm Sam." Carly looked up and grinned.

"Hi, I'm Carly."

"Can I have that sandwich?" Carly looked at her with offense, she wasn't sure why someone would ask that after she'd already taken a bite. Not only that, but she was hungry.

"No way, get your own."

"Okay." Sam quickly grabbed the sandwich and pushed Carly out of the chair. Carly yelped as Sam eyed the sandwich hungrily. It was a tuna sandwich. Just as she sat down, Carly pushed her out of her seat and took her sandwich back. Sam cleared her throat and stood up, dusting herself off. She was impressed with the girl now. "Hey, you're all right." Sam then took a seat next to Carly, maybe she could be friends with her.

"You were in that class today, weren't you?"

"Yeah, that's right. You're new here, so maybe we could be friends."

"I don't know, you seem kind of mean."

"Only because I have to be. Besides, when it comes to school bullies like Gibby, it's the only way to be protected."

"Maybe, as long as it doesn't get out of hand, you know." Sam shrugged as the girls continued to talk and form their friendship.


Well Carly's here. This is actually what changes the friendship between Freddie and Sam. I wasn't sure how I was planning it back when I first wrote this story, as it's been two years since then. I had a whole bunch of different things I had to do with this story now, so it may be a bit different. Sadly, this isn't the first story that ended up going differently because of circumstances. GREATEST SECRET did not end at all how I wanted it to origionally, but being in that hellhole I was in, I had no choice to end it the way I did, which I suppose it still went very well anway, so I'm happy with it. ^_^. Review the chapter and stick around for the next.