AN-I love writing requests! If you've sent in a request, and you haven't seen it yet, don't worry, I'll put it up, but like I've said before, I'm adding them in the order I get them. Feel free to send in more, though. This oneshot takes place after iOpen a restaurant, but still involves the restaurant.
...
Altering
"Man, we made a ton today," Gibby said, counting the bills in the cash register down in his basement restaurant.
"It's probably from your new Gibby Shakes," Carly laughed. "A bunch of kids tried to smuggle them into my physics class today."
"I still think we should up the price on those," Sam said, taking a bite of a leftover burger. "If we increase it by just a dollar, we could get 18% more profit each week."
"Okay, so you can figure that out," Freddie, who had been helping wash dishes, frowned. "But you can't figure out how to pass your trig class?"
"This is important," Sam snapped.
"Play nice, you too," Carly ordered, looking up from her pearphone. "You know, I could go for a Gibby Shake..."
"I am nice," Sam insisted as Carly headed to the fridge to get one of the shakes. "Fredbag just annoys the chiz out of me."
"Yeah, like you're a walk in the park to be around," Freddie said, rolling her eyes.
"I'm delightful!"
Suddenly there was a crash, and Freddie, Sam and Gibby turned to look at Carly, who had just dropped the glass she had gotten from the fridge.
"Sorry, I'll clean it up," she said.
"I can't believe someone just left this burger sitting here half-finished," Sam commented as she stuffed the last of the burger in her mouth. "At least I got a free meal out of it...Anyway, I'm out of here. I need to get home before my neighbor; he's been stealing those Chinese menus they leave you on the door and today I'm going to catch him at it!"
"You know, they do have the same exact menus online," Carly said.
"I don't care! I don't want people taking my stuff!" Sam said.
"Oh, hey, Sam?" Gibby said as Sam was about head upstairs.
"Yeah?" Sam asked, pausing.
"Are you doing anything this Saturday night?"
"No, why?"
"Well," Gibby said. "I was wondering if maybe you'd want to get together and grab some dinner and see the new Galaxy Wars movie?"
Sam frowned. "Just the two of us?"
"Yup."
There was another crash; Freddie had just dropped the plate he was holding, but he didn't seem to notice as he stared at this scene.
"Um, sure," Sam shrugged.
"Cool," Gibby. "I'll pick you up at seven. My mom will drive us."
"Um, are you going to stand in that pile of broken plate forever?" Carly asked, stepping over towards Freddie.
"Yeah, clean it up, man," Gibby said, walking back over to the cash register. "Those plates cost a buck fifty a dozen!"
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Freddie said, looking down and only just realizing the broken plate. "I'll pay for that...I'm gonna go...big test tomorrow...mom's gonna give me a tick bath..."
"Okay..." Carly said, frowning at his strange behavior. "Bye."
Freddie grabbed his bag and quickly raced up the stairs.
Did Gibby just ask Sam out? Freddie asked himself as he began to walk towards Bushwell Plaza. Gibby and Sam? On a date?
It didn't make sense, why would Gibby, his supposed best guy friend, ask Sam out? Sam, who was his ex-girlfriend! And more importantly, why was he so upset about this...?
It's just weird, that's all, Freddie told himself. That's why it's bothering you. I mean, they'd make a terrible couple! Sam's spent years beating that kid up and causing him emotional pain...just like with me. Crab!
...
The iCarly trio sat up in the studio the next day after school. Carly and Freddie were working on their History homework while Sam flipped through a catalogue of novelty items.
"Hey, you can get this popcorn machine that beatboxes and lights up while it makes your popcorn," Sam said. "It's only 120 dollars..."
"You still owe T-Bo like 200 bucks for your smoothie tab he let you open," Freddie pointed out, looking up from his notebook. "Where are you going to get that sort of cash?"
"I'm just looking, calm down, Fredbutt," Sam said quickly. "Hey, a bacon scented scarf!"
"How well connected am I?" Spencer said happily, bouncing into the studio. "You know that girl Socko's been dating? The one who works at the movie theatre?"
"Yeah," Carly nodded, looking up from her textbook.
"Well he got her to give me a bunch of passes for free refreshments," Spencer said, pulling out a bunch of coupons and tossing them to the teens.
"Whoa, free nachos!" Sam said, grinning.
"Tell Socko's girlfriend thanks for us," Freddie said.
"Hey, Sam," Carly said, pulling out her pearphone, texting someone. "You should bring these to your movie date with Gibby."
"Oh, right," Sam nodded.
Freddie frowned, trying hard to go back to concentrating on his homework.
"You excited for it?" Carly asked her.
"Um, yeah," Sam nodded. "Gibby's great."
"You told him he was gonna wind up scraping gum off of pay phones for a living last week!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Well that's a nobel job, someone's got to do it!" Sam defended. Suddenly her phone dinged, and she looked down at the screen. "Dang it. Billy Boats is back at the restaurant and he's trying to get Gibby to take his shirt off again..."
"You gonna go help him?" Carly asked.
"I guess," Sam said, getting up. "Can I borrow a stick of butter?"
"There's some in the fridge," she replied.
Once Sam left, Carly turned to Freddie. "So, I'd say we've done enough homework for one night. You wanna help me with my laptop? Something wonky keeps happening every time I-"
"Gibby's a jerk!" Freddie said suddenly, slamming his textbook shut. "A big jerk!"
"What makes you say that?" Carly asked.
"Because!" Freddie said. "Because he-he-"
"This wouldn't have anything to do with him asking Sam out, would it?" Carly asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No!" Freddie said quickly.
"Well then why's he a-?"
"Since when does Sam even like Gibby?" Freddie asked. "Huh? She calls him a waste of space at least once a week!"
"Well they've gotten a lot closer ever since they've started working at Gibby's restaurant together," Carly said.
"But still! She's...And he's..."
"Gibby does have a reputation of getting girls a lot hotter than he is," Carly reminded him. "Sure, Sam's hot and Gibby's, well, Gibby, but Tasha was hot too."
"I wasn't saying Sam was hot," Freddie said, his face turning red. "And yeah! Tasha! What happened to her!"
"Her and Gibby broke up a month ago," Carly said at once.
"Well maybe I should go find her and ask her out," Freddie mumbled.
"Nah, she's already dating someone new," Carly said quickly. "It said so on her Splashface page."
"Oh," Freddie shrugged.
"Anyway," Carly continued. "I think Gibby's had a little crush on her for a little while now. Ever since she defended him against Billy Boats when his restaurant first opened."
Freddie crossed his arms moodily but said nothing.
"And who knows," Carly went on. "If she's going over there to help him again with Billy, maybe it will strengthen their relationship even more!"
"What?" Freddie exclaimed.
"Yeah, hey, maybe they'll officially start going out!" Carly said excitedly. "I mean, I know they already have their one date planned for Saturday, but maybe they'll start considering themselves a real couple! Wouldn't that be great!"
"Great, yeah," Freddie nodded, his stomach clenching. "Real peachy."
"I'm gonna go get some lemonade, you want any?" Carly asked, getting up.
"Um, no, thanks," Freddie replied.
"Suit yourself," Carly shrugged.
As Freddie sat there on his beanbag chair, he tried not to think about what would happen if Gibby and Sam became a couple.
Gibby and Sam.
Gibby and his Sam.
No, not 'your' Sam, he told himself firmly. So what if Gibby dates her. He'll just have to be the one who wastes all his money buying her food, and deals with her temper, and has her getting him kicked out of clubs...and hugs her. And hold her hand. And kisses her...No! Stop it! Don't think about that!
But it was too late. At that thought, images of Sam and Gibby, close together their lips pressed together...It made him nauseous.
...
When Saturday rolled around, Freddie woke up to a feeling of utter dread. Sam was going to go on a date with Gibby. They were going to go get dinner and then see a movie and then who knew what else.
Freddie had been steering clear of Gibby and Sam all week; he didn't think he could tolerate it if they started acting all couplish.
He spent most of the day in his room, contemplating whether or not to upload the video of Gibby being chased by a hamster in his boxers on iCarly.
His phone rang around six, and he looked down to see that it was Gibby calling.
"What?" he answered roughly.
"Hey man, I was just getting ready for my dinner with Sam tonight," Gibby said on the other line. "And I was wondering which tie would go better with my salmon shirt. The blue one or the green one?"
"Which ever one you want, I don't care!" Freddie snapped.
"Well!" Gibby huffed. "What's up with you?"
"You should know, Gibby!" Freddie said angrily.
"What did I do?"
"You're supposed to be my friend! My bro!" Freddie said. "And you go and ask out my ex-girlfriend?"
"But it's not like you still like Sam or anything," Gibby said. "And it's been months since you two dated."
"I-that's not the point!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Well, I've got to go," Gibby said. "Since your no help with my tie crisis."
"Gibby! No! I'm not done yelling at-" but Gibby had already hung up.
"Oh, this video's going up now!" Freddie said, sitting back down at his computer.
A few minutes later, his phone rang again, and Freddie looked down at it and saw that this time it was Carly.
"Yeah?" he asked, answering.
"Hey, do you think you could come over really quickly?" Carly asked. "It's important."
"Um, sure, fine," Freddie sighed. "Give me a minute."
He turned off his laptop and shuffled across the hall and let himself into the Shay's apartment.
"Okay, good, you're here," Carly said. "Sit down. Right there on the couch."
"What's up?" Freddie asked.
"Well, I'm trying to help Sam figure out what to wear," Carly said. "And I need a second opinion...Sam! Get down here!"
Freddie heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and a few seconds later, Sam appeared wearing a white laced tank top and a pair of form-fitting jeans.
She looks amazing, Freddie suddenly found himself thinking. And it's not for you. It's for Gibby...
"So, I like this outfit," Carly said, nodding at what Sam was wearing now. "But I also like this dress..." she picked up a silver dress that had been thrown over the back of the sofa and held it against Sam's body. "Which one do you think is better?"
So this is what torture feels like, Freddie thought to himself. Sam would look stunning in either outfit.
"Come on, Carls," Sam said, taking the dress and throwing back onto the couch. "It's Gibby, not the pope. Although, um, Gibby is a great guy and all."
"Well I still think you should get a boy's opinion," Carly said, looking over at Freddie. "So, Freddie? Any thoughts?"
"How should I know?" he said. "When did I become such an expert in fashion all of the sudden?"
"Geesh, what's got your pants in a knot?" Sam asked. "Your mom not put enough bubble bath in the tub for you?"
"No!" Freddie snapped, trying not to look at her in that outfit that showed off every curve of her body.
"Maybe I'll wear this dress if I ever get to go out with Jake Gander," Carly said, looking over the dress.
"Why do you want to go out with him?" Sam asked quickly. "He's a total player, Carls. You know he takes a girl out on one date, makes out with her and then dumps her the next day to move onto someone else."
"But maybe he'll feel a real connection with me and I'll be the girl who ends this stage in his life!" Carly said.
"You can do better than him," Sam told her. "Who knows? Maybe the perfect guy for you is right under your nose. Well, no, not right under your nose, I mean, I'm sure he doesn't live near you, but, um, maybe-"
Her phone suddenly dinged and she read her new text message.
"Gibby's mom is here," she said. "Where's my purse?"
"Right over there next to Freddie," Carly said.
Sam quickly reached for her bag, and doing so, she brushed up against Freddie ever so lightly, and for the first time in months, he smelled the vanilla in her hair and felt her soft skin against his. It was enough to make him feel about ten times worse than how he already felt.
"I can't wait to hear how this goes," Carly said as Sam shut the door behind her. "Can you?"
"I'll be right back," Freddie said, jumping up off the sofa, his skin still tingling where Sam had touched it. He hurried through the hallway and caught up to Sam just as she was about to descend down the first flight of stairs.
"Sam!"
She turned around. "What?"
"I-I-Why Gibby?" he exclaimed. "Why would you want to go out with Gibby?"
Sam frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, he's Gibby!" Freddie said. "What can you find even remotely attractive about the guy?"
"Freddie, you don't-"
"You'd make a terrible couple!" Freddie continued. "Despite what Carly seems to think...But you two are just weird together! It's wrong! We-We made more sense than that!"
Sam blinked. "What?"
"Sure, I-I guess we fought a lot," Freddie said, shocked at what had just come out of his mouth. "But, I mean, we weren't that bad together, were we? Half the Internet didn't think so, at least..."
"Well, yeah, but-"
"You can't go out with Gibby," Freddie said firmly, feeling a newfound courage cursing through his veins. "And you want to know why?"
"I-" she began, but Freddie cut her off, pressing his lips to her hers.
At first she was surprised, but after a few seconds, she began to kiss Freddie back, lacing her hands around his neck, pulling his closer...
Suddenly the two heard applause. They broke apart, Freddie still with his arms around her, and turned around to see Carly standing at the end off the hall, grinning from ear to ear. "It worked! I knew it would work!"
"Knew what would work?" Freddie frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Yeah, what are you doing?" Sam asked.
"Well," Carly said, smiling. "I might've had this planned for a few weeks now. And it worked! My plan worked!"
"Had what planned?" Freddie asked, totally confused. He looked at Sam who looked just as lost as he was.
"Hey, I helped too!" Gibby said, coming around the corner.
"Gibby? What are you doing here?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, you-you-" Freddie said. "I thought you were waiting downstairs for Sam!"
"No, he was never going to take Sam on a date, right Sam?" Carly grinned.
"Right," Sam nodded. "But that still-"
"Wait, you guys weren't going on a date?" Freddie asked.
"No! I thought Gibby would've told you that!" Sam said.
"But he asked you out!"
"Alright, guys!" Carly laughed. "Come on, I'll explain everything to you. Oh! I'm still so glad this all worked out! You guys are a couple again and-wait. You are a couple again, right?" she demanded as she opened up her apartment door and let everyone in. "Because I saw that whole thing. Freddie kissed Sam, Sam kissed back. Freddie clearly liked the kiss, Sam clearly liked the kiss...I'm seeing a couple here, am I right? Huh? Am I? Just say yes already!"
Freddie and Sam looked at each other.
"Do-Do you want to be?" Sam asked softly in a barely audible tone.
"Well, yeah," Freddie nodded, who still felt the sparks from the kiss. "If-If you want to be?"
"Well if you want to be-"
"Okay, yes, you guys are a couple, we got our answer," Carly said quickly.
"I-Can you just please tell us what's going on?" Sam frowned.
"Yeah, my head feels like it's going to explode," Freddie nodded.
"Well," Carly said, grinning. "Right around the time when Gibby opened his restaurant-"
"And fulfilled my dreams," Gibby added proudly.
"Er, yeah," Carly frowned. "Anyway, right around then, I began to notice how desperately you two wanted to get back together-"
"Desperately?" Sam repeated.
"Yes, desperately," Carly nodded. "But obviously you two were both way too stubborn to be normal and tell each other how you were feeling, so I had to step in and do a little...altering."
"How?" Freddie asked.
"I'm getting to that!" Carly snapped. "Well, I talked to Gibby, and he agreed to help me...if I promised to let him bring that talentless duck of his on iCarly after it was all done. So we decided that we would have to break the weakest link in your relationship. Freddie."
"I'm the weakest link?" Freddie said indignantly.
"No offense," Carly said. "So we planned for Gibby to ask Sam out in front of Freddie. We knew that he would get jealous, and that's just what we wanted. So when we were all down at the restaurant, I gave Gibby the signal, which was dropping that glass, and he asked Sam out."
"Speaking of which, you still owe me a new glass," Gibby said.
"But we knew that Sam didn't like Gibby 'that way'," Carly continued, ignoring Gibby's comment. "So that's why the day before he asked her out, Gibby had a little conversation with Sam...he told her that he was interested in me and that he wanted to make me jealous by going out with another girl. So he asked her if he were to pay her, if she would say yes when he would ask her out in front of me."
"Wait, so you two were never dating?" Freddie asked Sam.
"No way!" Sam cringed. "He's so...Gibby!"
"Thank you," Gibby smiled.
"I knew Sam would agree," Carly said.
"Well yeah, if you were to pay her," Freddie nodded.
"Yeah," Carly grinned. "But that's not the only reason...Gibby had told me that on the day we were looking around the basement, planing out the restaurant-"
"You weren't planning," Gibby scoffed. "You were crushing my dreams!"
"Will you let me tell the story? Anyway," Carly said, turning back to Sam and Freddie. "Gibby told me that he found out that Sam thought Freddie had a new little crush on me. That's why I knew she'd agree to help Gibby. She'd want me to get together with anyone, even Gibby, so that Freddie wouldn't be interested in me."
"But I was never interested in you!" Freddie said quickly. He turned to Sam. "I swear, I was telling you the truth when I said that I didn't have a new crush on her."
"Well I know that now," Sam said.
"That's why Sam kept saying how great Gibby was whenever I was around," Carly said. "And why she didn't want me going out with Jake. The rest of the plan was easy; just have Gibby text Sam to help him at the restaurant with Billy Boats after I told him that Freddie was around...get Freddie even more jealous by saying that Sam and Gibby would be a cute couple...And we knew tonight, after seeing Sam about to go out on her date with Gibby, Freddie would finally man up." She beamed, absolutely pleased with herself.
"That's-that's genius," Freddie said softly.
"I can't believe you planned this whole thing," Sam said. "And here I was thinking you were so innocent."
"A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do," Carly smiled. "And it worked!"
Freddie grinned at Sam. "Yeah, it did."
"Alright, I've got to go if I'm still going to get that dinner reservation," Gibby said, looking at his watch.
"You're going to eat alone?" Sam frowned.
"No. With my lady," Gibby replied. "I told Tasha to meet me down at the restaurant."
"So you two didn't break up then?" Freddie asked.
"Nah, I just told you that," Carly said. "And I told Sam the same thing when she slept over last week."
"You realize you have the master mind of a criminal, right?" Sam asked her best friend. "I'm so proud of you, kid!"
