Ankle

"Puckett! Benson!" Mr. Howard snapped, slamming down his piece of chalk as he spun around to glare at the couple. "Will you stop sending your little love texts during my class?"

"We weren't texting, sir," Freddie said, quickly, stashing his phone in his pocket.

"Yeah we were," Sam said, still holding her phone out in plain view.

"Sam!" Freddie hissed.

"That's it, you two earned yourself a stay in detention after school," Mr. Howard yelled, furiously grabbing the pad of detention slips he kept on his desk.

"Um, actually, I was sort of the only one who had my phone out," Sam spoke up.

Freddie gave Sam a confused glance. "What are you talking about? We were both-" but Sam swatted his arm before he could finish his sentence.

"Fine, you'll be doing detention solo," Mr. Howard told her, slamming a detention slip down on her desk. "And don't be late this time!"

After class, Freddie took Sam's arm.

"Hey," he said. "Why'd you tell Howard you were the only one with your phone out?"

"Because," Sam shrugged. "You've never been to detention, right?"

"Right," Freddie nodded.

"Exactly," Sam said. "Trust me. You couldn't handle it."

"What?" Freddie exclaimed. "I could too handle it!"

Sam laughed. "Baby, I say this because I care about you, and I love you…you'd be torn apart in there."

"It's detention, Sam, not prison," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, you wouldn't even make it five seconds in prison," Sam told him.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Carly asked, joining her friends.

"Carls, you remember that one time you got detention with me for chewing gum?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Carly nodded.

"Well Freddie here seems to think he could handle being in detention," Sam told her. "Could you please tell him how insane it is in there?"

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't last," Carly told him. "It's a scary, scary place…"

"Come on," Freddie said. "This is coming from Carly."

"Hey!" Carly retorted indignantly. "You're not that far above me on the toughness totem, buddy. In fact, after that freak out with the ladybug yesterday, I'd say you fell a few notches below me."

"I thought it was a spider!" Freddie snapped.

"Not helping yourself," Carly smirked.

"Spiders can be deadly!" Freddie argued. "But this is ridiculous! The detention room's not going to be filled with ladybugs or spiders."

"Look, it's cute that you think you're all tough," Sam chuckled, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "But believe me, baby. I did you a favor my getting you out of that detention."

"Sam, I'm tired of you thinking I'm some lame wimpy nub," Freddie moaned.

"But you are a lame, wimpy nub," Sam pointed out.

"Sam, this is the part where you're supposed to be supportive," Carly whispered.

"I, uh, meant that in a good way," Sam added.

"I can handle more than my train club meetings and computers," Freddie told her. "And you know what? I'm gonna prove it to you!" He stormed off, muttering something under his breath about 'stupid ladybugs'.

"I don't think this is gonna end well," Carly frowned.

"Nah, probably not," Sam agreed. "But hopefully it will at least be entertaining."

…..

"Guess who just earned himself one of these babies," Freddie said smugly, sitting down with Carly and Sam at their lunch table later that day, waving a tiny pink detention slip proudly in his hand.

Sam nearly choked on her ham sandwich. "You got yourself detention?"

"Freddie, I'm telling you," Carly sighed, shaking her head. "You're going to regret this."

"No I'm not," Freddie said firmly. "My girlfriend handles detention every other day! I can handle it for one."

"Your girlfriend has also done time in Juvie," Carly said. "She can take care of herself in there, right Sam?"

"Yeah," Sam gasped, finally managing to swallow her sandwich. "Freddie, you don't know what kinds of kids are in there. Sure, you have your kids who get detention over stupid things like gum chewing and texting. But you know what? They're never in there because they're smart and go to Principle Franklin to get some sort of alternative essay to do instead, which is what you better do."

"That's what I would've done that one time, if Principle Franklin had been there," Carly nodded. "But he was at some stupid principle's convention, so I didn't have any choice."

"I'm not going to go crawling to Principle Franklin," Freddie said. "I got the detention, and I fully intend to serve it out."

"Ugh, you can't say things like that in there!" Sam moaned. "They'll rip you apart!"

"No one's going to rip me apart," Freddie told her.

"Look, you know who has detention today?" Sam asked. "Lisa Jammerson, who tried to 'pop' Mrs. Brigg's pointy boobs, Scott Marks, who, right before you came in here, threw his lunch tray at one of the lunch ladies for giving him skim milk instead of whole, Kevin Burkes, who tried to chew off the secretary's ankle, Angel Barker, who slashed all of Mr. Howard's tires-"

"Okay, why are these people not in Juvie?" Carly asked.

"Oh, they've been in Juvie," Sam told her. She turned back to her boyfriend. "Dude, please go to Franklin and ask to do some lame essay instead of doing your detention. I mean, you like writing essays. If you come to detention, your gonna wind up getting yourself in trouble, and I'm gonna have to come rescue you."

"You're not gonna rescue me," Freddie said. "For the millionth time, I'm not as weak as you think I am. Now if you'll excuse me, I got to go call my mom and tell her that I'll be missing our puzzle time today."

….

Sam and Freddie walked into the detention room after school that day.

"Franklin's just getting ready to leave for the day," Sam told him. "Last chance to do the smart thing and get out of this."

"Not happening," Freddie smirked.

"Yo! Puckett!" a large girl with big muscles said, nodding over at Sam. "How you been?"

"Been good, Kowski," Sam grinned, bumping knuckles with the girl. "What are you in for?"

"Eh, that janitor with the lazy eye caught me using his mop to chase after the little freshmen," Kowski said. "But it was worth it."

"Yeah, those freshmen, they're really something, am I right?" Freddie said. He held out his knuckles to Kowski. "Name's Benson."

Kowski frowned and looked up at Sam. "What's this?"

Sam sighed. "This is Freddie…"

"Whoa, ain't that your little iCarly boyfriend?" a boy with long, messy hair spoke up from the back of the class.

"Yeah, it is," said another girl with green hair. "The tech puppet."

"See, they already know me," Freddie grinned as Sam. "These are my people."

"You are going to get yourself, killed," Sam hissed at him.

"No, I'm going to prove to you that I can handle detention without your help," Freddie said, determined.

Sam opened her mouth to argue, but then thought better of it. "Fine," she said. "I guess you're gonna learn the hard way then."

"Good," Freddie replied, satisfied, sitting down at the empty desk between Kowski and the girl with green hair. "So, do you ladies want me to tell you the difference between a 1960 Trudgemaster and a1961 model?"

Sam rolled her eyes as she headed to the back of the classroom to the only open desk.

"Hey, Puckett?" one of Sam's detention buddies asked. "Wanna play a little poker with me and the guys?"

"Not now, Miller," Sam hushed him, not taking her eyes off Freddie, who was telling a group of students about the proper way to fertilize a tomato plant.

"So, Benson," a particularly large student said to Freddie, stepping closer to Freddie. "You seem to know a lot about technology…have you heard about the latest app that everyone's talking about? It's called Smash Time."

"Oh no," Sam muttered.

"Um, no, I actually haven't," Freddie replied. "Was it mentioned in last month's "In the Pear" newsletter?"

The students snickered.

"Here, I'll download it for you," the boy said, holding out his friend for Freddie's phone.

"Oh, well okay, thanks!" Freddie said, handing over his phone. "So, what exactly does this Smash Time app do? Is it a game?"

"It does this," the boy grinned, slamming poor Freddie's phone down on a nearby desk, shattering it to pieces.

Sam glared at the boy and willed herself to stay in her seat. She didn't want to embarrass Freddie.

"Oh, uh, good-good thing I took out the extended warranty on that," Freddie said, a little shocked at what had just happened to his precious phone. "And backed all my data up with that cloud thing. So-So no harm done."

"Hey Benson, you hungry?" Kowski asked, cracking her knuckles.

"Um, I-I could eat," Freddie said, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"You want a Hurtz Donut?" Kowski offered.

"Yeah, that'd be-" Freddie started, but was cut off as Kowski slugged him, hard, in the shoulder. She punched him so hard that he fell out of his seat onto the floor.

Sam could feel her blood boil. She knew that Kowski hit hard; nearly as hard as her, and she knew that she hadn't held back when she hit her boyfriend.

"Hurts, don't it?" Kowski laughed.

"Oh, ha, ha, I-I get," Freddie winced, rubbing his very sore shoulder.

"Hey, I'd bet he'd look good with a fat lip to go with that bruise," the girl with the green hair said, getting to her feet and approaching Freddie, her fist out.

"Um, no, no, I-I really don't think I-" Freddie started, but Sam had had enough.

"Hey, stop beating on him you pathetic stubrags!" Sam snapped, getting out of her seat and heading over to the group.

Most of the students backed away, a smart move on their part. Kowski, the girl with the green hair, and the boy who had broken Freddie's phone, all laughed.

"Oh, Puckett's here to protect her little boyfriend," Kowski teased. "What you gonna do? Beat me with that butter sock of yours?"

"That probably would knock some of the ugly out of you idiots," Sam sneered. "But I don't need my butter sock. I can handle you just fine with these." She held up her bare fists. "Now get away before you have to crawl away."

The three stared at Sam's fists, and then, knowing just how strong Sam was, backed away.

"Smart," Sam snapped. She kneeled down by Freddie. "You okay?"

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," Freddie nodded.

"Let's get out of here," Sam said. "There's only ten minutes left of detention anyway. No one will care if we leave."

Sam and Freddie left the classroom.

"You sure your arm's okay?" Sam asked as they headed out of the school.

"It's just bruised," Freddie replied. "Hey…thanks for helping me out in there."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't gonna let them give you a fat lip," Sam said. "It would be pretty hard to make out with that."

"I just-I just didn't want you to think I'm some nerdy boyfriend who can't handle, you know, tougher crowds."

"Hey, if I wanted some stupid boyfriend who was in Juvie and picked fights with everyone, I'd find one like that," Sam said. "But I don't. I, and don't let this get around, I actually like that you're sort of geeky and nubby. It's…cute."

"You think?" Freddie grinned.

"Uh-huh," Sam smiled, leaning up to kiss him gently. "I do."