Geography

"Sam, I thought you said you were going to study," Carly frowned, looking up from her textbook. "Our geography test is in two days!"

"Geography's boring," Sam said simply from her beanbag chair in the iCarly studio.

"Sam, you promised me you were going to try and bring your grade up in that class," Freddie said from his own beanbag chair next to her. "You're so close to the B in that class…it would be stupid to throw away all your hard work now by not studying for this test."

"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend," Carly said.

"Ugh, fine," Sam groaned, reaching for her textbook.

"Thank you, baby," Freddie smiled at her.

"Yeah, yeah," Sam mumbled.

Just then Freddie's phone beeped, and he pulled it out of his pocket to read his text message.

"Well, I'm gonna have to get going," Freddie said, getting to his feet. He leaned down to give Sam a quick kiss. "Later!"

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I thought you were going to edit our new SuperBra bit?" Carly nodded.

"Um…I have to pick up some non-dairy cheese for my mom," Freddie said. "Because she really wants to make macaroni and cheese, but she doesn't want all the fat that's usually in dairy cheese…so I have to go to this special cheese store and get her the cheese and whatnot…bye!"

"They have special cheese stores?" Carly said as Freddie ran out of the studio. "Wow, you think they sell gift cards? I still need a birthday present for Spencer."

"Maybe," Sam said, frowning. "Hey, isn't this like, the third time this week the nub's run out on us like this for some lame errand or something?"

"I dunno, why?" Carly shrugged.

"Yeah, it is," Sam said thoughtfully. "Yesterday he left our iCarly rehearsal ten minutes early because he said he needed to go buy shoelaces from his shoelace guy, and on Monday he didn't meet us after school because of some mysterious chiropractor appointment."

"Huh, that is kind of weird," Carly admitted. "What kind of dude has a shoelace guy?"

"Carly! There is no shoelace guy!" Sam said, getting up and pacing back and forth in front of Freddie's tech cart. "Not even he's that lame! And he's a terrible liar, in case you haven't realized. He's doing something…something he doesn't want you or me to know about."

"Sam, you're being ridiculous," Carly laughed, rolling her eyes. "What would Freddie being doing?"

"I don't know…" Sam said slowly. She looked over at the tech cart. "Hey…he left his laptop here."

"Oh no," Carly said, standing up. "You are not about to snoop through your boyfriend's computer."

"Oh come on, what girlfriend doesn't snoop through her boyfriends stuff?" Sam said as she opened up Freddie's laptop. "You're the one who spent three hours looking up every possible thing about that Shawn guy you were dating last month."

"That was different," Carly said as she looked over Sam's shoulder. "Besides, do you even know Freddie's password?"

"Yup, it's Skynaught Benson," Sam said, rolling her eyes as she typed in the password.

"What are you even looking for?" Carly asked.

"I don't know," Carly said. "But the nub's a tech freak; he's got to have something on here about why he's been acting so weird lately…maybe on his email."

"Sam, I really think this is unnecessary," Carly said. "I don't know what you think you're going to find, but-"

"Hey, who's Carmen Butler?" Sam frowned.

"Who?"

"He has about fifty emails from some chick named Carmen Butler," Sam replied.

"Well if you're already on his email account, why don't you just read the emails already?" Carly sighed.

"I can't," Sam said. "The nub's got his email account locked so that you need another password to actually read the emails. Right now all I can see are the people he's sent emails to and received them from."

"You don't know this password?" Carly asked.

"No," Sam mumbled. "But seriously, who's this Carmen chick?"

"I dunno, probably just a friend or something," Carly said. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna try and find her on Splashface," Sam replied. "Let's see…whoa, is that her?"

She pulled up a Splashface profile of a very attractive teenage girl with long dark hair and perfectly tanned skin.

"Um, maybe that's a different Carmen Butler," Carly suggested.

"It says I have one mutual friend with her," Sam said. "Who happens to be…yup. Freddie Benson."

"Okay, but like I said, she's probably just a friend of his or something," Carly suggested. "Look, if this is going to bother you so much, why don't you just talk to Freddie about it?"

"Yeah…" Sam said thoughtfully. "I guess when I see him tonight, I'll just-hey! Look at this! It says that this chick just checked into Romana Bistro with Freddie Benson!"

"Huh?" Carly frowned. "Okay, Sam, I know that's sort of a weird place to take a friend, but-"

"Carly, that's like the most romantic restaurant in the entire state of Washington!" Carly said. "I don't think they even let you into that place if you're not coupled up!"

"Well maybe-"

"Hang on," Sam said, scrolling through Carmen's profile. "It says here that yesterday her and Freddie checked in at that overpriced flower shop on the other side of Seattle, and on Monday her and Freddie were at that gourmet chocolate place!"

"No way," Carly said. "That can't be right."

"It is," Sam said. "And look. They were at these places during the times when Freddie claimed he had all those stupid errands to run!"

She slammed his laptop shut.

"Sam-" Carly started.

"I guess it was only a matter of time, huh?" Sam said in a soft voice, falling back on one of the beanbag chairs. "I guess it's the same for every guy I date…eventually I just drive them all away to some other girl."

"Freddie's not cheating on you, Sam!" Carly said firmly.

"Oh come on, Carly!" Sam exclaimed. "Why else would he be at all these romantic places with this Carmen girl who, lets admit it, is way hotter than me?"

"I-I don't know," Carly said gently. "But I do know that Freddie loves you."

"Yeah, well I thought so too," Sam sighed. "But I should probably know better by now…I mean, Jonah cheated on me. Pete cheated on me. And now Freddie is. It must be me…"

"Oh, Sam," Carly said, putting her arms around her best friend. "It's not you. And-And I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation to all this-"

"I should get going," Sam said, cutting Carly off. "Got to, um, help my mom with…something."

"Okay," Carly nodded, understanding that Sam wanted to be alone right now. "Call me if you need anything. I don't care what time it is."

"Thanks," Sam mumbled. "And um, don't-don't mention this to Freddie, will you?"

"But-"

"Carly…"

"I-Okay," Carly sighed. "I won't mention it."

Later that evening, Carly was sitting downstairs on the couch, watching some movie but not really paying attention to it.

How could Freddie be cheating on Sam? As much as she had tried to convince Sam that that wasn't the case, she honestly could not come up with any better explanation. This news shocked her. Freddie Benson was probably the nicest boy she knew, and after all the jerks that Sam had dated, she couldn't think of anyone more deserving of Freddie than her best friend. She couldn't believe that Freddie would go and do this…

"Knock, knock," Freddie said cheerfully, letting himself into the apartment.

"What do you want?" Carly asked coldly.

"Um, I was just stopping by," Freddie said. "Oh is that the movie about the guy who finds the magic laptop?"

"Nope, not anymore," Carly said, turning the T.V. off.

"You okay?" Freddie frowned.

"Just peachy," Carly snapped.

"Oh-kay," Freddie said, shaking his head. "Where's Sam? She over here still?"

"Why do you want to know?" Carly asked.

"Um, because I'd sort of like to hang out with my girlfriend for a little bit," Freddie said. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yes! I'm fine!" Carly said.

"Alrighty then," Freddie said, still frowning. "You're clearly in a mood…I'll go stop by Sam's place, since I'm guessing that's where she is."

"Oh, real smart idea, Freddie," Carly said.

"Well…bye then," Freddie said, leaving the apartment.

….

Sam was sitting on her couch, wearing her old sweatpants and tank top as she watched reruns of some old comedy; she really was paying to much attention to it.

"Alright, kid, I'm out of here," Sam's mom said, coming into the living room. "I've got me a date with a vet, and he promised me he'd let me have some poodle hair."

"Lovely," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Why are you so glum?" Pam asked. "Shouldn't you be out having fun with that Benson kid?"

"I'm not glum," Sam said. "And Freddie's out doing…something."

"Oh," Pam shrugged. "Well if you're going to sit in front of the T.V. all night, at least remember to record Wheel of Fortune for me. I want to get a good luck at Vana's nose so I know what to tell my plastic surgeon on Friday."

"Sure," Sam said, cringing slightly as her mom headed out the door for her own date. Once her mom was gone, she turned up the volume on the television.

How could Freddie do this? She always thought that Freddie was the nicest guy on the planet. Too nice even, sometimes. He always treated her like a princess even through all the insults she hurled at him.

Maybe that was why he ran to this Carmen girl…Maybe she had been too aggressive towards him. She always thought he understood that that was just her way of getting close to him, but maybe she had taken it too far…

She was thrust out of her thoughts by the sound of someone knocking at her front door.

Sighing, she turned off the television and dragged her feet to the door. She opened it up to see Freddie himself.

"Hey," he smiled at her.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"Well I was looking for you at Carly's house, but Carly was in some weird mood, so I figured I'd find you here," Freddie said, giving her a quick kiss.

Sam opened her mouth, fully ready to begin yelling at Freddie for all his lying, but for some reason, no words came out as she stared into his big, brown eyes.

"Anyway," Freddie said. "I can't stay too long; my mom's just got a new thing of tick spray and there's no avoiding that…but I just wanted to know if you were doing anything tomorrow night?"

"Um, no," Sam said.

"Cool, so how about we have ourselves a nice little date night?" Freddie grinned.

Say something! Sam told herself furiously. But she found herself nodding yes instead.

"Great," Freddie smiled. "I'll pick you up at Carly's at six?"

"Yeah…six is good," Sam nodded.

"See you then, baby," Freddie said, giving her one last kiss.

…..

"So let me get this straight," Carly said, shaking her head as she paced back and forth in her bedroom. "Freddie comes to your house last night and instead of talking to him about this whole thing you agree to go out with him instead?"

"I tried!" Sam said, falling back on Carly's bed. "But I couldn't do it, okay?"

"Sam," Carly sighed. "You're going to have to bring it up to him eventually. This is something big."

"Yeah, thanks. I had no idea," Sam snapped.

"Just imagine it's like tearing off a Band-Aid," Carly told her. "Do it quick and then it's done."

"It's not gonna be that easy, Carls," Sam mumbled. She sat up. "I'll do it tonight…when he comes to pick me up."

"That's a good idea," Carly nodded. "And remember; I'm here for you no matter what."

At six that evening, Sam and Carly were both waiting downstairs.

"Carls, I don't know if I can do this," Sam said.

"Yes you can," Carly encouraged her. There was a knock at the door. "There he is," Carly said.

Sam took a deep breath and headed to the door and opened it. Standing at the doorway was her boyfriend, holding the biggest bouquet of flowers she had ever seen; it must've been half Sam's height.

"Hey," he said, giving her that smile that always made her knees shake. "These are for you."

He handed her the flowers. "You said that red roses were the only type of flowers that didn't make you gag, so I got you some."

"Wow," Sam said softly. "I-um-"

She turned and looked at Carly, who mouthed 'Go on'.

"Who's Carmen Butler?" she blurted out before she could lose her nerve.

"What?" Carly frowned.

"You know…" Sam mumbled, trying to maintain herself. "The-the girl you've been hanging around with all week…the one who you're…cheating on me with."

"Cheating on you?" Freddie repeated, his eyes widening. "Sam…I-I would never cheat on you. I love you."

"Then how come you've been at all these romantic couple places with this chick?" Sam asked, begging her voice not to shake.

Freddie wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion for a moment, and then he laughed.

"What?" Sam frowned.

"Baby," Freddie laughed. "You've got it all wrong…Carmen's an event planer."

"An event planer?"

"Yeah," Freddie nodded. "Or well, an event planer in training. She's an intern."

"Well why did you need an event planer?" Sam asked.

"Because," he replied, taking her hand. "I wanted to have a perfect, romantic night with the girl of my dreams."

"Oh," Sam said. "So-So she's not your secret girlfriend then?"

"No way," Freddie said. "I'm sorry I've been so sketchy these past few days. I just wanted to surprise you."

"Yeah well, it worked," Sam mumbled. She looked up at Freddie. "And I'm sorry I thought you were cheating on me. I knew you weren't that type of guy. I guess I just got a little-"

"Jealous?" Freddie finished for her, grinning cockily.

"Calm down, nub," Sam chuckled. "But hey? Why'd you want to have a big romantic night out anyway?" Her eyes widened. "Um…happy-happy anniversary, baby!" She turned to Carly. "Why didn't you tell me it was my anniversary?"

"What?" Carly exclaimed.

"Relax, Sam," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "It's not our anniversary. I just wanted to this. Just because."

"Just because?" Sam repeated.

"Just because," Freddie nodded, giving her a long kiss. "And well, because you're Sam, and I love you."

"Well," Carly said. "While you two go enjoy the most romantic nights of your life, I'll be here, eating ice cream and watching six hours of romantic comedies…man! I need to get myself a boyfriend!"