AN: Glad so many of you loved the last chapter. I'm glad you guys enjoy reading my writing, really, it means a lot to me. I'm looking to enter a writing contest if anyone knows of one, I'd be super happy if you could let me know.
Perfection
In eleven-year-old Freddie Benson's eyes Carly Shay is perfect. She's pretty and kind. The first girl to ever stop and have a real conversation with him, in reality Carly Shay is actually his first real friend. That's why he starts to like her, or as his eleven-year-old self proclaims, love her. With her big dark eyes, shiny hair and sweet personality what's not to love?
Eleven-year-old Freddie Benson thinks Carly Shay's best friend Sam Puckett is flawed in every imaginable way. She and Freddie uses the term she very lightly, is an absolute terror. She's rude and crude, saying things that poor little innocent Freddie's ears have never been subjected to. Sam gives attitude to everyone, doesn't respect her elders, and is all around just a bad person. She hits him and makes fun of him, calls him stupid names and she hates him. Freddie doesn't know why, when they first met he was nothing but nice to her, but after about a day he started hating her right back, but still she started it. She also eats like a pig and has absolutely zero manners, what's not to hate?
Sixteen-year-old Freddie Benson has learned a lot since then. He recognizes that Carly Shay is not perfect, but she has so little flaws that she is about as close as it comes. She's still pretty, beautiful even and Freddie can't and won't deny that. She's still kind, sometimes too kind, giving too many people too many "second" chances, and she's still his friend. In fact, Carly is one of his best friends. But Carly Shay is not perfect, she can be quite a brat when she doesn't get her way (and she almost always gets her way with Spencer as her guardian), she has an irrational fear of tight dark spaces, and she's a little too boy-crazy for Freddie's liking even though he doesn't feel that way about her anymore. Still, she's almost perfect and maybe that's why the boys keeping knocking on her door and she keeps falling for them
He also views Sam differently after five years of knowing her. She still calls him names and occasionally beats him up, though she seems to have slowed down since his last growth-spurt. She still eats enormous amounts of food and is rude to almost everyone. She still gives attitude and doesn't like authority figures, but Freddie's learned some new things about her. Sam's the funniest person he knows, he often finds himself laughing more at her jokes than at Carly's. Sam is talented in more ways than one, she can draw, and he's been told she can dance, and real dancing, not the random dancing that they enjoy on the show. She's fiercely loyal and he has to admit one of his best friends, despite the fact she claims to hate him and he returns the fake-hatred wholeheartedly. He also knows she not stupid, she's clever and just doesn't care for school. She's nowhere near perfect, but Sam's certainly interesting.
He sits between his two best friends on Carly's couch and is lost in his thoughts, not the television show their supposed to be watching, which is making Carly giggle and Sam chuckle. He's thinking about love and life and how much these two girls do love life and how he's lucky to have them, even if Carly cost them the chance to go into space and Sam causes the now occasional (once daily) bruise. He glances at Carly, sitting properly and primly, with her legs crossed and her hand folded on her lap. Then he turns to look at Sam who is hanging upside down, her legs bent at the knee hooked over the back of the couch, her head tilted back and blonde curls brushing the ground, she catches him staring at her and sticks her tongue out at him, Freddie happily makes a silly face back at her, crossing his eyes and raising his eyebrows and she laughs, a little too loudly.
Freddie feels his heart skip a beat, but he tries to ignore it. More and more lately he's been trying to ignore these feelings, because the last time he felt these sort of things was when he started to crush on Carly. And while Freddie had known his chance was slim with Carly he was determined that he could eventually get her to go out with him (and he did, sort of…) but he also realizes that he has absolutely zero chance of Sam ever agreeing to go out with him. So Freddie turns his attention back to the TV with a sigh. He's beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, perfection is overrated anyway.
AN: Loved this chapter. There's a big difference between 11-year-old Freddie and 16-year-old Freddie and I think that's necessary. R&R!