Author's Note: Okay, I have two things to say...

Firstly, I'm currently rewriting the first few chapters of this story and editing the others, just like I did with two other stories of mine. In this case, I'm rewriting the first eight chapters of the story, and then I'll edit the rest. If you're wondering why I'm doing that, well, the reason is very simple. The first eight chapters of this story were written back in 2009, and my English was pretty much horrible back then, so those chapters have several grammar mistakes in them and are just extremely poorly written. Chapters 9-12 just need to be edited, since I know there are several mistakes in them as well. And since I'll be editing almost all the chapters, I'll edit chapter 13 as well XP Rewritten chapters 1-4 are already up. ;) Nothing changed in the chapters, though, so there's no need for you guys to read them if you don't want to =)

And secondly, beginning in the next chapter, my updates for this story will probably become a lot more frequent because when I post chapter 15 I'll have already finished posting the edited chapters, which take a lot more time than I thought they would XD (And also because of another reason that would take too long to be explained XP).

Okay, I think that's enough talking =P I'll shut up now XD

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly!

Enjoy! ;D

EDIT (02/07/13): I'm finally done with rewriting this story! =D (Yeah, I know, took me long enough XD) The next chapters won't be marked as edited anymore, since there's no need to.

Chapter 14: Scenes & Popcorn

"Do we really have to do this?" I whined from the spot where I was sitting on Carly's couch.

"Yes, of course we do!" Carly replied from the kitchen for what I guessed was the tenth time that day, rolling her eyes at me.

I had been complaining to Carly about this whole 'rehearsal outside school' thing since the moment we had left school with Spencer the day before. I had always felt extremely relieved when I left school on Friday, since that meant that the weekend had finally arrived and that I wouldn't have to do anything school-related for two whole days. And also, we always had a creative meeting for iCarly on Saturdays, which I usually enjoyed.

But guess what? Today, I wasn't happy that it was Saturday, and the reason for that was pretty much obvious.

I honestly didn't feel like rehearsing that play today, or like, ever. But Carly was making me do it, and I had never been able to say no to that girl. She always managed to make me to do things I normally wouldn't do for anyone else.

"Why?" I kept whining, even though deep down I knew it was useless. This was already a lost battle, and it had been since the very beginning.

"Because it's gonna make things a lot easier during the rehearsals at school! You two are not doing your best while acting with each other! You were so tense on stage during that last scene you did together that I bet someone could have cut the tension with a knife!" Carly told me, taking a seat next to me on the couch. Just then I noticed she was carrying a bowl of popcorn with her.

"Why did you make yourself popcorn?" I asked her, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.

"No reason," she replied, shrugging, and tossed a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

Did she really make popcorn just to watch me and Freddie rehearse the play? I wondered, but I didn't have time to think about it, because someone suddenly knocked on the Shays' front door.

A chill instantly went down my spine and I suddenly felt extremely nervous, since I knew exactly who was standing just outside that door. I wasn't sure why the thought of that rehearsal made me feel so nervous, I just knew it did. I mean, there was nothing to be worried about, right?

Right?

"It's open!" Carly yelled from the couch, and the front door was pushed open calmly.

"Hola, amigas," Freddie greeted us, smiling. I still didn't know what was up with his random Spanish, but I never felt like asking him about it.

"Hi, Freddie," Carly greeted him back, but since I was still in my whiny mood, I remained quiet.

At first, no word about the rehearsal was said. Much to my surprise, we then started talking about the new iCarly segment Carly had come up with the day before, and I started to slowly build up hope that somehow they'd both forget about the play and we'd just keep talking about our web show until it got too late for the rehearsal thing and I'd have an excuse to leave.

But things just couldn't go the way I wanted them to, could they?

"So, uh… Are you guys ready to rehearse?" Carly asked us both after about half an hour.

We had already finished talking about the iCarly segment and we had just been hanging out for about five minutes when Carly decided to speak up.

I didn't respond; I simply sent Freddie a brief glance and noticed that he had decided to do the same thing in the exact same moment I did. We made eye contact for barely a second, before I quickly looked away.

"Uh… Yeah, sure," Freddie answered from his spot in front of Carly's computer, sounding pretty hesitant, and I sighed quietly to myself. Why couldn't he have just said no? Maybe Carly would have listened to him if he had said that he didn't feel like doing this.

Nah, probably not.

Carly would just give Freddie a puppy dog look and he would instantly change his mind, just like always. I found it so annoying how he'd do practically anything she asked just like that. Well, actually, his whole 'I'm love with you, Carly' thing was pretty annoying to be honest. Why couldn't he just realize that he had zero chance of ever going out with her?

"Yeah, whatever," I said. "Let's just get this over with." With that, I lazily made myself stand up from the couch. But as I spoke, a memory I had been trying to avoid for the past whole year suddenly slipped into my mind because of that last sentence, and I quickly pushed it to the back of my mind, where it was supposed to stay. I had promised myself that I would never think about that again.

Freddie then walked toward us in the living room, picking up the script he had left on the coffee table when he arrived, and I kneeled down to search for my own script inside my backpack. It took me over five minutes to find it in the mess that was the inside of my bag, but I soon found myself holding the script in my hands.

Mrs. Mythens had suggested about ten scenes for us to rehearse, but we all agreed that was too much for one day, so we decided to start by only doing the first two scenes of the list today.

We started our rehearsal with scene number #2, the scene in which Mabel and Bruno, the two main characters, meet for the first time. At first, I thought there was nothing to worry about in that scene, but I soon found out otherwise.

The scene begins with Mabel and Meredith, her best friend, talking in the school hallway. Since Wendy wasn't there to play Meredith, Carly had to read her lines, which made me think that Carly was perfect for that role, but Mrs. Mythens had told Carly that she couldn't be part of the play cast, since she already had too much work to do being the one who wrote the play, considering that she had to help directing and producing it. Oh well, Wendy was a pretty good actress too.

Okay, back to the point. While the two girls are talking, Freddie's character, Bruno, ends up running into my character, Mabel, who drops all the books she was carrying on the floor. Yeah, I know, that sounded extremely cliché, but I wasn't the one who wrote the play.

And after several endless directions from Carly about how we should say and do everything in the scene, we began the actual rehearsal.

The scene went on just fine in the beginning, until the moment Freddie had to 'bump' into me. At first, there was some kind of weird tingling feeling on my arm on the exact same spot where Freddie's skin came in contact with mine. The feeling surprised me for a moment, since I had never felt anything like that before, and when I realized it, Freddie had already kneeled down to start picking up the books I had dropped, going on with the scene like nothing had happened, which made me wonder if something had even happened at all.

I shrugged that weird feeling off, though, deciding that it had probably been just my imagination, and then quickly kneeled down as well, picking up the remaining books.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't-"

"I'm sorry, I was just-"

We said our lines at the same time, just like we were supposed to, but stopped abruptly when we looked up at each other. Freddie's face was so close to mine that I could even feel his hot breath on my skin, and our proximity suddenly made my mind go somewhat foggy. A part of my brain was aware of the fact that one of us had to say something, but I couldn't even make myself remember who. I was frozen, my eyes locked to Freddie's, unable to do anything else apart from simply staring into his eyes. Freddie briefly glanced down, before letting his gaze meet mine once again, and for barely a second, I was sure he was about to kiss me...

"I, uh…" Freddie suddenly said, abruptly breaking me out of my trance, and it was just then that I realized just how close our lips had actually been to touching, which made me abruptly lean back a little bit in an effort to try to create some distance between Freddie and me.

Carly suddenly made a loud ringing sound with her mouth, which made me jump a little in surprise, but as soon as the shock wore off, I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Freddie instantly joined me, but he wasn't laughing as loudly as I was.

"What the hell was that?" I asked as I got back to my feet, still laughing, and Carly simply stared at both of us with her arms crossed over her chest and an annoyed expression on her face. I just hoped neither one of them would notice the hint of nervousness in my voice because of what had happened while Freddie and I were doing the scene.

"That was my impression of a school bell ringing!" Carly told us, annoyed.

"No offence, Carls, but that didn't sound like a bell at all," Freddie said as he also got back to his feet, still laughing as well.

"Whatever! I'll just use my phone to make the bell sound, then!" Carly said, rounding the couch and grabbing her phone from the coffee table.

Carly made us do the scene again from the beginning, instead of letting us pick up from where he had left off, claiming that since we had broken character, the scene wouldn't come out as good as before. I had to roll my eyes at that.

And when we did the scene again, I realized that the tingling feeling on my skin I had felt earlier hadn't been created by my imagination, but since now it wasn't the first time I felt it, I wasn't so surprised by it.

The moment I felt it, I searched Freddie's face for any sign that he had felt it too, but much to my confusion and disappointment, I found none, which could only mean that he was either an even better actor than I had thought or that he had actually felt nothing.

I felt extremely glad when we finished reharsing that scene for the second time, but Carly made us do it one more time after that, claiming that we hadn't bumped into each other convincingly. I had to roll my eyes at that as well.

When we were finally done with that scene, we went on to scene #4, which was much easier for me to do than the previous one, since it only involved talking and nothing else. No hugs and no bumping into each other. Why couldn't the whole play be like that scene?

When we were done with the rehearsal, we went up to the iCarly studio on the third floor, and I mentally let out a sigh of relief.

But as we talked about our ideas for the next iCarly, I found myself unable to pay attention to the meeting. I tried my best to pay attention to what Carly was saying, watching her walk around the studio as she went on and on about something I honestly couldn't focus on from my seat on one of the bean bag chairs, but I just couldn't make myself stop thinking about what had happened back there in the living room. What the hell had that been about?

I just couldn't push those thoughts out of my mind, no matter how much I tried. What the hell was wrong with me? I had never felt anything like that before, and I couldn't quite define what it was. It didn't feel like something bad, it just felt weird, and at the same time, kind of… Well, nice.

The fact that Freddie and I had been so close to kissing once again just wouldn't stop haunting my every thought, but the fact that my mind was so foggy that I would have actually let Freddie kiss me if he had tried was what was freaking me out the most. I had felt as if I was somewhat hypnotized as I looked into Freddie's eyes, and for a moment, I had found myself unable to think coherently.

But... Was Freddie really going to kiss me? I mean, he might have been just playing his part in the play a little too well. Yeah, that made sense. And why would Freddie even kiss me? For all I knew, he pretty much hated me, so it would make absolutely no sense if he even considered kissing me.

As that train of thought crossed my mind, I realized just how silly thinking that Freddie was really going to kiss me sounded. He was a pretty good actor, there was no way to deny that, and he was just doing what he was supposed to do and playing his part, nothing else. There couldn't be anything else to it, right?

Right?

Keeping that last thought in mind, I dared to sneak a glance over at Freddie, who was sitting on another bean bag chair just a few steps away from mine, and I was surprised when I realized that he had already been staring at me. As soon as our gazes met, we both looked away abruptly. I suddenly had a weird feeling in my stomach, but much to my relief, it soon faded away.

What the hell was that about?

And what the hell was happening to me?

Author's Note: I love reviews ;D

xxiCarlyFanxx