Sam, still exhausted from just having gotten out of bed, dragged her feet into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of chocolate milk.
"What's up kid?" he mom asked, coming into the kitchen.
"Since when are you up before noon?" Sam replied.
"Since my stupid tattoo parlor changed its hours. The only time I could get an appointment was at eight."
"What are you getting a tattoo of now?"
"I was thinking of a dragon or something. Where's Mel?"
"Hogging the bathroom. As usual."
"You hungry? How about I make you some eggs?"
"You're going to cook?" Sam blinked. "Do you even remember where the pan is?"
"You want the eggs or not?"
"Sure," Sam shrugged.
She took her phone out of her pocket and logged into her email.
"Morning," Melanie said, joining her sister and mother in the kitchen. "Mom, are you cooking?"
"Yeah, figured I give this 'parenting' thing a try. How many eggs do you girls want?"
"Six," Sam said.
"Two's fine," Melanie answered. "You ready for our psychology test Sam? I was up until eleven studying; I hope I do well."
"Eh, I'll just wing it," Sam muttered, scrolling through her inbox. She had a few splashface messages, a couple of chain emails from Gibby, a bunch of spam and…
Her heart stopped. A message from Washington State University. Holding her breath, she quickly opened up the message.
Samantha J. Puckett,
Washington State University would like to congratulate you on being accepted into our fall semester-
Sam didn't even finish reading the email. Once she read the word 'accepted' she dropped her phone and stood onto of her chair screaming "I got it! I got in!"
"To WSU?" Melanie asked excitedly.
"Yeah baby!"
"Oh my God, Sam, that's amazing!"
"You applied to a college?" her mom asked, bewildered.
"Yes mother, back in the beginning to the year."
"Shows how much I pay attention. Come here and hug me you turd."
Sam and her mother hugged briefly. Her mother then looked at her watch. "Oh chiz, I'm late for my appointment. Here's your eggs." She slid the eggs on to girls' plates, grabbed her purse from the counter and rushed out the door.
"Ugh," Sam said, tasting the eggs. "These are horrible!"
"They've probably been in the fridge for months," Melanie said, cringing at her plate.
"Even I'm not going to eat these," Sam said, dumping her plate into the trash. "Come on, we'll grab a donut from the Groovy Smoothie on the way to Carly's."
…
Freddie and Carly were sitting in the Shay's apartment, watching the Nature Network.
There was a knock at the door, but before either Carly or Freddie could respond, Sam burst in, a donut in one hand and a smoothie in the other, followed by Melanie.
"Sam, you really should knock," Melanie said.
"Eh, I should do a lot of things. We ready to go?"
"Yup," Carly said cheerfully.
"I guess," Freddie yawned. "I was up all night studying for that Psychology test; it counts for 25% of our grade."
"I know," Melanie nodded. "I read the entire chapter twice, and I'm still a little nervous."
"And let me guess, Sam," Freddie said as the blonde took a big bite of her donut. "You didn't even open the book."
"That is absolutely correct," Sam said proudly.
Freddie rolled his eyes.
"But," Sam continued, her smile growing even wider, "it looks like my years of not studying actually paid off. Guess who just got accepted into Washington State University!"
"Oh my God!" Carly shrieked, running over to Sam. "You got in?"
"I got in!"
"Sam, that's amazing!" Carly exclaimed, hugging her best friend. "Oh my God, I need to check my email to see if I got in. We could be roommates!"
Carly rushed over to the computed and went into her email.
"I've got to say I'm impresses," Freddie said, grinning. "Good job, demon."
"Thanks, nub," Sam replied.
The two stared awkwardly at each other, wondering if they should hug or not. Luckily, Carly let out another shriek. "I got in too!"
"Well of course you did if I got in," Sam laughed.
"We should go out and celebrate tonight," Melanie suggested.
"Definitely, Carly agreed. "Let's go the Cheesecake Warehouse; I'll make the reservations on the way down to the parking lot."
"Sounds good," Sam nodded. "I love that place. They actually have decent portions."
"Sam, that place gives you enough food for an army," said Freddie.
"I know!"
…
Two weeks had passed since Sam had gotten her acceptance letter. A new problem, however, began to surface: prom. Carly and Melanie were getting really excited as the dance continued to approach. They had spent the last two Saturdays driving from store to store in search of the perfect dresses. They tried to drag Sam along, but she had caught one glance at the large NO FOOD ALLOWED sign in the window of the first store and instantly turned away. While she didn't exactly act like it, Sam did want to go to prom. She wasn't obsessed about it like Carly and Melanie were, but she certainly was looking forward to it. The only problem was finding a date. She didn't know any guys that would ask her; she was Sam after all. Carly was asked by Dave a few days ago, and the captain of the boy's soccer team, Riley, asked Melanie right before the weekend.
Freddie too was having trouble with the whole prom situation. He didn't know whom he wanted to ask. Well, actually he did, but couldn't bear to do so. He really wanted to ask Sam to the prom, but doing that would be practically admitting to liking her, something he was not ready to do, not even to himself. He just hoped that whoever did ask Sam to the prom wasn't better looking than he was.
Wait, Freddie thought, shaking the thought out of his head. Why do I care? It's Sam? I DON'T like her!