AN-So this oneshot takes place when the iCarly gang was younger. Hope you enjoy!

...

Ought

Eight-year old Freddie Benson sat at his table in his third grade classroom, happily working on his subtraction problems.

Math was a breeze for him. Well, so was pretty much every other subject in school. Except for the non-academic subjects he had to take part in, such as art and P.E. He had absolutely no creativity, so art wasn't exactly his forte, and as far as P.E. went...well, to put it simply, he was very close to going to his mother to ask her write a note to get him out of P.E. for the rest of the year.

"Hey," a voice next to him said. "Let me see your paper."

"No, Samantha!" Freddie said firmly to the blonde girl who shared his table. "That's cheating!"

"Only if we get caught," she pointed out. "And for the billionth time, don't call me Samantha!" She gave him a hard punch in the shoulder. "My name's Sam."

"Ow!" Freddie hissed.

"Sam!" the other girl at the table, this one with long, dark hair, whispered frantically. "Ms. Jones said no hitting anybody! You don't want to have to sit out at recess!"

"Yeah, listen to Carly!" Freddie nodded. He turned to Carly. "I wish you were sitting next to me, instead of across from me. You'd never be mean to me like she is."

Sam stuck her tongue out at him and proceeded to reach over and grab his pencil out of his hand and went back to working on her subtraction sheet.

Freddie's mom had moved him to Seattle about six months ago so that she could start her new job as a nurse at the nearby hospital. At first, he had been a bit skeptical about this, especially after he walked into the new building where they would be living and he came face to face with the scary doorman, who had been screaming at a bottle of water at the time. But when his mother led him up to the eighth floor to where their apartment was located, Carly had come out of the apartment across from his and introduced herself right away.

Flashback

"Hi!" Carly said brightly to the scared looking Freddie, who was tightly clutching his Galaxy Wars knapsack. "You must be our new neighbors! I'm Carly!"

"Um, hi," Freddie said, staring at this girl who looked so...beautiful to him. Even though he was at the age where most boys thought girls had cooties, he knew this girl couldn't possibly have any. She was too...perfect. "I'm Freddie Benson. So, you and your parents live across from us?"

"No, just my brother and me," she explained. "But he's a grown up, sort of, so it's okay. He's taking care of me while my dad does work for the military."

"Wow, neat, I wish I had a brother," Freddie said. "I just live with my mom."

"Do you maybe want to come over?" Carly asked. "My brother's going to make tacos for lunch. Or spaghetti. He can never pick between those two..."

"Yeah, that sounds fun," Freddie nodded. "Let me just go ask my-"

"Carly, come on, it's your turn in Go Fish," a girls voice called from inside the apartment, and a moment later a girl that appeared to be around his age appeared next to Carly. Sam Puckett.

"Freddie, this is my friend Sam," Carly said. "Sam, Freddie's going to be my new neighbor, isn't that cool?"

"Not really," Sam shrugged. She looked at Freddie and crossed her arms. "Your backpack is stupid. Galaxy Wars is only for nubs."

"It's my favorite movie!" Freddie defended.

"Well then you're a nub," Sam said simply.

"What's a nub?" Freddie frowned.

"A dumb person," Sam grinned.

Freddie gasped. "You said a bad word! My mom says only bad people say bad words!"

Sam took a step closer to Freddie. "I'm not bad! Take that back or I'll pound you in the face!"

"Sam, don't hit him!" Carly said.

"But-But girls can't beat boys up!" Freddie stuttered, though this girl was looking quite intimidating.

"Oh yeah?" Sam pushed him down, hard, and smiled down at him, satisfied.

"So-So do you want to come play Go Fish with us?" Carly asked quickly.

"Not if she's going to be there!" Freddie said firmly, crossing his arms. "She's a-a-mean person!"

"Good, I don't want you to play with us," Sam said. "Come on, Carly."

End Flashback

Carly had knocked on his door later that day and apologized for the whole incident, and of course, Freddie forgave her. Unfortunately, though, if he wanted to be friends with Carly, he had to put up with Sam. He shuddered just thinking about her. Sam Puckett was one girl who he knew was definitely covered in cooties.

"Ten minus four," Sam mumbled to herself, trying to work the problem out on her fingers.

"Only babies have to use their fingers," Freddie chuckled.

Sam glared at him, but luckily, before she could make Freddie pay for that comment, their teacher, Ms. Jones, walked over to their table.

"Okay, Sam, the front office just called," she said. "You're leaving early."

"Good," Sam smiled, jamming her papers messily into her backpack. She stood up and turned to Freddie.

"I'm going to get you for that fingers thing tomorrow at recess!" she whispered.

Freddie gulped.

"Bye, Carly!" Sam said, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Bye!" Carly smiled.

Freddie watched as Sam left the classroom. "How come she leaves school early all of the time?" he frowned. "She left early yesterday. And on Monday."

"She says she goes and visits her uncles and aunts and cousins in prison," Carly said.

"She can't be going all the time," Freddie pointed out, finishing his subtraction page and beginning his addition one.

"Sam doesn't lie," Carly assured him.

"Yeah, right," Freddie said.

...

The next day before school the third graders were playing on the playground until the first bell rang.

Freddie had gone to school with Carly this morning, since his mother got called in to work a morning shift at the hospital (she had wasted twenty minutes showing Spencer a pamphlet of safe driving techniques before she finally left).

"I can't wait to show Sam my new Girly Cow shirt," Carly said, sliding down the slide. "Oh, look! Here she comes now!"

Freddie looked over and saw Sam hop out of a beaten up blue mini-van and run over to the playground.

"Wow, cool shirt, Carly!" she grinned.

"Thanks," Carly said.

"And that," Sam said, kicking Freddie in the shin, causing him to cry out in pain. "Is for yesterday."

"You promised me you wouldn't hurt him anymore," Carly sighed.

"I'll start tomorrow...maybe."

"So," Freddie said, getting back to his feet. "Where'd you go yesterday?"

"Um, the doctor," Sam said quickly.

"But Carly said you go see your family in prison when you leave school early!" Freddie said triumphantly.

"Well yesterday I was sick," Sam said. "So I couldn't."

"Either that or you're lying," Freddie mumbled.

"Hey! I don't lie!" Sam exclaimed.

"I told him that!" Carly said.

"But-But you leave school early all the time," Freddie argued. "You can't have so many relatives in prison that you have to visit them that often!"

"I have plenty of relatives in prison, Fredbutt," Sam snapped.

Just then the bell rang and the students on the playground began to file into the school.

All day long, Freddie continued to badger Sam with questions about her whereabouts the previous day and the other days before that, and Sam continued to ignore him. Or rather, she ignored him the first few times, but eventually, around snack time, he began to get on her nerves, so she dumped him milk onto this lap, causing the other kids in the class to laugh at him.

Finally, after a long day, the final bell rang, dismissing the students.

Freddie stayed back in the classroom to help Ms. Jones stack the chairs as he always did, something which his mother encouraged, assuming he did not lift any chair more than five pounds, but Sam took as an excuse to call him a teacher's pet daily.

By the time Freddie had finished helping Ms. Jones, most of the students had already been picked up. In fact, the only people left on the playground were Sam and another blonde girl from the other third grade class. She was sitting next to Sam by the fence where parents dropped off and picked up their children, talking to her happily, though Sam seemed to be more interested in trying to catch the lizard basking in the sand.

As Freddie walked over to the girls, Freddie recognized this girl to be Leanne (he couldn't remember her last name).

"-And so I'm thinking of wearing the pink dress for the interview portion," Leanne was saying to Sam as Sam made a grab for the lizard. "And maybe the blue one for the talent portion. What about you?"

"I dunno," Sam mumbled, looking after the lizard that had scuttered through her fingers and into the nearby bushes.

"I loved the dress you wore yesterday, it was adorable!" Leanne said. She looked over at Freddie, who had been standing awkwardly behind the girls. "Oh, hi!"

"Gross, it's Fredbert," Sam said, narrowing her eyes.

"Well hi Fredbert!" Leanne said brightly. "I'm Leanne. Nice to meet you!"

"It's not-" Freddie began, but before Freddie could correct her, a shiny red convertible pulled up by the playground and Leanne quickly stood up.

"Well, that's my ride!" she said brightly. She bent down and gave Sam a hug, which Sam seemed to hate greatly, judging by the look on her face. "I'll see you on Saturday, Samantha! And hopefully I'll see you around tomorrow at recess, Fredbert!"

"I can't wait until she moves to Olympia," Sam mumbled as the girl ran off towards her car.

"I didn't know you were friends with her," Freddie said, taking Leanne's spot next to Sam.

"I'm not!" Sam said. "She just thinks we are, even though I've told her a million times that she's a freak."

"Why are you going to see her Saturday then?"

"That's none of your beeswax," Sam told him.

"But she said something about yesterday," Freddie said. "I thought you were at the doctors yesterday."

"I was."

"But she said you were wearing a dress!"

"I-I like to get dressed up for the doctor," Sam said quickly.

"You're just telling lies," Freddie told her. "And my mom says-"

"You're mom's a weirdo," Sam cut him off. "And I told you, stop bugging me about where I was yesterday!"

"I will, when you stop lying about it," Freddie said.

"You really ought to learn to mind your own business, Fredloser," Sam snapped.

"And you ought to learn to be nicer, Sam...Jerk."

"You can't even insult people," Sam laughed.

"Why won't you just tell me and Carly where you go when you leave class early?" Freddie asked.

"Fine," Sam sighed. "I'll tell you. But you can't tell anyone, swear?"

"I swear," Freddie nodded.

"Okay," Sam said. "I'm a member of the CIA."

"You are not!"

"How do you know?" Sam asked.

"Because you can't be! You're only eight!"

"Fine, I'm actually a celebrity, and every day after school, I put on a wig and sing at concerts and star in movies," Sam grinned.

"Now that's just dumb," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"I thought you said dumb was a bad word?"

"Are you ever going to tell me the truth?" Freddie asked.

"Hmmm," Sam said thoughtfully. "Nope!"

"Not even in a year?"

"Nope."

"What about in five?"

"Not a chance."

"Seven?"

"First of all," Sam said. "I'm not even going to know you anymore in seven years. Once Carly finally realizes what a nub you are, she'll stop talking to you, and then I won't be stuck with you anymore. And second of all, I still wouldn't tell you!"

Freddie was about to open his mouth the protest, when his mom walked over to the playground.

"There you are, Freddikins!" she said. "I'm so sorry I'm late! There was a long line at the ointment store, but I picked you up some nice cream for that rash of yours!"

"Mom!" Freddie hissed as Sam laughed.

"Oh...hello," Marissa said, frowning at Sam. It was clear that she disapproved of this dirty girl with her long blonde hair in tangles and stains smeared all over her jeans being in such close proximity to her darling son. "Come on now, Freddie, dear. I have some disinfectant spray in the car..."

Just as Marissa began pulling Freddie towards her car, Sam's mom pulled up and came to a screeching halt next to the playground. ,

"Yo! Sammy!" a woman who must've been Sam's mom called. "Come on! I have that appointment at my lady doctor in ten minutes!"

Marissa was so busy looking absolutely disgusted at the sight of Pam Puckett's appearance that she didn't even notice her son turn back to Sam.

"So you're really not going to tell me?" he asked.

"If you insist," Sam sighed, picking up her backpack. "I compete in beauty pageants. That's why I get picked up early."

Freddie groaned in frustration. "Fine, don't tell me the truth, see if I care!"

Sam grinned as she turned to run towards her mother's car.

"Oh, that child must be crawling with germs," Marissa shuddered, pulling Freddie more forcefully to the car as Sam's mom drove off. "Come on, Freddie. I'm going to have to go to the store and pick up another bottle of disinfectant. One bottle simply won't get you clean of all the bacteria you must've picked up from that girl!"

Freddie watched as Sam's car disappeared out of the parking lot.

Sam Puckett was really something else. He wondered if ever would find out what Sam was up to when she left school early. Probably not.

Beauty Pageants, he scoffed to himself as his mother buckled him in tightly in his booster seat that she insisted on still having him use. As if Sam Puckett could ever be in a beauty pageant.

...

AN-So I hope I got the ages right. I know Sam and Carly met when they were around eight, so I figure that could've been around the end of second grade or the beginning of third (going off the ages we enter grades where I am from) and I know Sam got a seven year ban that ended when she was fifteen, meaning she would've been eight when she got the ban.