Against All Odds

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 25 (Life is Cruel)

Carly, Freddie, and Gibby were helping Sam to unpack the final boxes in her new bedroom, they'd already moved and bought the place before the Loan Shark issue had been dealt with, and now Pam did not have enough money on hand to simply move back to their old house. It was the city's now, as far as she was concerned.

The new bedroom seemed very nicely decorated, it had a sweet, brown crown molding and honey painted walls that meshed with a light amber carpeting. The window on the side had solid desert curtains along the top rim and hung down the sides to either be tied open or released to conceal the window. Sam's bed was already made, a full size mattress with purple covers. Of course, the four or five boxes scattered around the floor didn't take away from the aura Carly felt from the room.

Sam was sitting on the bed, folding some of her laundry. Her eyes were moving to the end table on side of the bed closest to the window, which was to her right. There was a box nestled away in the open drawer, but visible enough for Sam to see. Carly was sitting Indian-style on the floor at the foot of the bed, pulling books out of the box in front of her. Gibby and Freddie were on the left side of the bed, their backs facing the closet, both working on the boxes in front of them. Carly eyed Sam carefully, the girl was fidgeting between that end table and her clothes, so much so that it troubled her deeply. Sam met her eyes and returned a slight smile. "So Carly, your grandfather gave you guys some money to take care of yourselves with?"

"Yeah, just enough to last a few extra months so Spencer can get a job." She wanted to make sure it could last, but she also wanted to add to it. Four thousand would carry a long way, but eventually it would dry up. Her worry was it would dry up before Spencer could get a job. The four thousand did bring their total money up to five thousand, four hundred and ninety five dollars. With their monthly totals estimated about eight hundred and five dollars, they had six months before their funds reached so low that quite a bit would not be paid. "So now Spencer has six months to find a job, assuming nothing else goes wrong." What could go wrong? She almost wanted to ask, but given the way things were going, the minute she asked that, something was bound to screw up.

"I hope he can find one. I hear the unemployment rate is getting real bad around here. You almost can't get hired unless you know someone. Like mom is going to see about talking to her boss and letting me work part time at the hospital. She wants me to start learning work ethics while I'm going to school."

"That's cool, any idea where you're going to college after you graduate?" They had months to worry about this, but it was still good to have applications ready and whatnot. She heard Sam's nervous chuckle and raised an eyebrow as the girl shifted her nervous hand through her blond curls. Freddie glanced up and smiled as his eyes met Sam's.

"Freddie and I are going to go off to college with Melanie, just the three of us. Mrs. Benson and Mom went to the same college as their parents, and we want to follow suit." Carly lifted her eyebrows and felt her heart sinking in her chest. They wanted to continue a family tradition? Neither the Bensons or the Pucketts were from Seattle. Marissa and Pam didn't even meet in college, they met here and formed a friendship when they figured they came from the same area. The very thing that brought them to Seattle were their husbands. Mr. Puckett, now passed, had been an active duty Air Force officer and was stationed in Seattle before he was called off to war, where he lost his life. Mr. Benson had moved his family to Seattle rather sporadically, Freddie never told her how they came to the state, just that his father moved them all up here, and then left.

"You're serious? Didn't your mom go to MSU?" Midwestern State University, a very prominent college located in the town of Wichita Falls, Texas. This just wasn't fair! She started to feel a panic rising in her and fought to push it down. She wanted to be happy for them, that they would go to their moms' Alma Mater, but why did they have to go so damn far away? Did anything in this world work out the way she wanted it to, and why did life have to be so cruel? "Don't you know how far away from Seattle that is?"

"Yes, but Carly, it's a family tradition."

"So let your sister carry it out! You don't have to, you could stay right here, with me…"

"But then I wouldn't have Freddie, and…" It was just a boyfriend, right? She didn't want to sound conceited at all, but how was Sam to know whether Freddie would be the one for her? Why go off to college for a guy that, chances were, wouldn't be the love of her life. They were still young!

"No offense to Freddie, but you guys are still young, how can you know if you're going to still be together that far down the road?" Freddie lifted his eyebrows and Sam started to cringe. "Then what about iCarly? How can we end it, you guys were the ones that told me not to end it!" Sam started to bow her head and Carly's temperament just continued to rise, stopping only when Gibby moved over to her and put his hand to her shoulder, an attempt to calm her. She looked into his eyes and frowned, her own eyes were blocked by the tears starting to reveal themselves.

"Look Carly, you're stressed out, we know that." His voice was calm, quiet, and full of concern. "There are things in this world changing, constantly, and you should know…there's nothing you can do to control it." Her eyes drifted to the ground and her hands slowly closed. She felt like she'd just gotten a part of her life back, and here it was, slipping away again. "We'll always have iCarly as something that's just been for us four, but even you should know it can't last forever."

"Mom doesn't want me doing it anymore," Sam's voice stung her ears. With a gasp she looked over to her friend, who was gazing out the window and speaking with a quiet whisper. How could Mrs. Puckett not want it done any longer? Why? Why would she want to pull Sam away from iCarly? "She's concerned with my safety, and honestly, so am I…not just with myself though…" Carly's heart was breaking, tearing into confetti.

"I don't understand. Why?"

"After Nora, twice, and then those loan sharks attacked mom at our last home, and then there's a number of other issues that have happened to us…even Lewbert tried to sue us for damages to that bomb that went off a few years back, but Mom talked him out of it." The world grew very silent with that news, she'd never known about this. Sure there'd been a lot of things to go wrong for them because of iCarly, and their influence led them to trouble rather often. Even Sam got in trouble with her mom when they disobeyed Spencer and Marissa to go to that wrestling match, which ended with Spencer seriously injured. So was this whole loan shark business just the straw to break the camel's back? "Mom's tried to be patient, but she says she doesn't want me doing iCarly anymore because she doesn't want anything else to happen. I didn't know how to tell you, Carly."

"Well this is a hell of a time…"

"I'm sorry. It isn't all mom, either."

"I get it, you're afraid for yourself too, so you-"

"I think I'm pregnant, Carly." Just like that, an explosion. Carly's eyes grew wide and Freddie's mouth opened, no words came out. If it was her plan to silence her, it worked. Even Gibby was shocked to hear those words. In that instant, everything just stopped. Her sporadic emotions ceased and a calm panic drew near. She watched, trembling, as Sam reached over for that box in the drawer. Sam's eyes started to grow wet as Freddie tentatively rose to his feet. "This was it, this was the last straw." In her hands, she held a pregnancy test "I've taken a dozen of these in the last few days, and they all came out positive…" Sam's breath shook and her eyes moved up to Freddie's. "I'm going to a clinic to confirm whether I am or not, and if I am…I simply can't do iCarly anymore. I worry about whether or not Nora might come back, or if something else should go wrong that could endanger an unborn baby, and then there's…all the stuff I'm going to be going through that mom talks about. You saw how I just puked up on camera the other day."

Freddie was the first to say anything, which wasn't all that surprising. However, nothing could cover the amount of shock in his voice. "Y-You're pregnant, Sam?" What would Mrs. Benson say? She may be friendly with Pam, but the woman was still rather snooty when it came to Sam and her personality. She'd rather Freddie be with someone with just a little more etiquette. She'd just have to adjust, and she probably would. "H-How?" He shook his head, the stupidity of his question was overwhelming. However, he was doing the best he could to soften the blow. "I mean I know how, it's just…"

"Mrs. Benson doesn't know yet. I'm a little worried about what she's going to say. We've only done it that one time and I thought you'd used…" Hell, birth control devices still weren't fully secure, they'd learned this in all the sex education classes throughout school. The only thing that was fully effective was abstinence, by which, temptation made it difficult to do. Sam turned her head to Carly and pressed her lips tight together. "So you see, if I am truly pregnant, there's no way I can just stay away from Freddie. I…where he goes, I'm going to go." She smiled softly and kept her eyes locked with her friend's. "Sasha's really an inspiration, I mean, I admire her for going back to Spencer and staying beside him. So, that's what I'm going to do. I know iCarly is everything, it's held us all together for so long, but…we'll still have the memory, iCarly doesn't become our friendship, I think."

"Y-Yeah you're right," Carly replied. A single tear moved down her cheek, she hoped no one saw it. Even if Sam wasn't part of iCarly anymore, at least Freddie and Gibby would still be a part of it, right? "I'm just going to miss you guys when you go away to college. It'll be hard to do with a baby, won't it?" By then, Sam and Freddie would figure things out, they were smart enough.

"Yeah, but, we'll figure something out. I mean, it's going to be tough just telling Freddie's mom." She saw the tears Sam's face and felt a bit of sadness seeping further into her. Sam likely didn't want to reveal this now, it was bad enough everything that was happening, and now she has to find out she's pregnant? It was almost too sudden.

Thinking only of her friend, Carly made her way over to Sam and put her arms around her. She knew what it felt like to go through hell, she knew what it felt like to need your friends. For the remainder of the year, Sam was likely going to go through living hell at school, considering how judgmental the students there were. Just thinking of all the names that Sam would be called was frightening. Sam closed her eyes and rested her head upon Carly's shoulder while Freddie continued staring at the box in his hand. Was he still trying to recover?

"What's going to happen, Carly? What's going to happen?"

"It'll be okay, Sam. I'm here for you…no matter what happens. We're sisters, right? Maybe not by blood or anything, but you get the idea…" Maybe even if and when they were separated, they still had technology. That was, assuming, her own family would ever have enough money to afford a computer. Before their grandpa gave them the money, Spencer had been considering trading that computer he had in. It was still possible to come to that conclusion. Why? Why were things changing so much? Why did life have to be so cruel?

Just keeps getting worse and worse for them, it seems. I'm sure things will turn up soon.