Horoscope

"Hey! Guess what?" Spencer said brightly, walking out of his bedroom.

"What?" Carly asked, looking up the show her and Sam were watching on T.V.

"I'm gonna go out and buy a hundred bucks worth of scratch off lotto tickets."

"Um…why?" Sam frowned. "You're like, the most unlucky person in the world."

"True," Spencer said. "But while I was reading my horoscope in the bathtub with a liter of Mountain Fizz-"

"That was my Mountain Fizz!" Carly exclaimed.

"That's not important," Spencer said dismissively. "Anyway, my horoscope said that I was gonna strike it big today. That has to mean I'm gonna win the lotto."

"Spencer," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, you can't really believe that. Horoscopes aren't real."

"You didn't seem to think that last month when your horoscope told you that a tall, mysterious boy was going to fall in love with you," Sam grinned.

"And one didn't," Carly pointed out. "I stayed lonely the whole month! Which proves my point that those things are just a load of garbage!"

"Don't be a downer!" Spencer snapped, grabbing his wallet from the counter. "Or someone won't get her share of my millions!"

"Hey, just a fair warning, if you do win the lotto, my mom's gonna probably come by and start flirting with you," Sam told him. "She keeps track of all the local lottery winners."

"Ew," Spencer cringed.

"Well, while you're out buying your tickets, can you at least pick up some food to cook for dinner?" Carly chuckled. "I'm sick of ordering take-out."

"Yeah, sure, no problem," Spencer said, heading towards the door. "Although, when we're filthy rich, we'll have our own personal chef to make us our dinner!"

"And if that happens I'm moving in permanently," Sam said.

"Don't see how that will be any different," Spencer shrugged, opening the front door. "Oh, hey Fredo!"

"Hey," Freddie said, walking into the apartment as Spencer left.

"Baby, come watch this new Girly cow with us," Sam told her boyfriend. "Girly Cow's about to get a really big tax refund and buy the sun!"

"Cool," Freddie said, sitting down next to her and giving her a quick kiss.

Sam frowned and leaned closer to him, sniffing his neck. "Hey, why do you smell weird?"

"Um…it's-it's a new cologne," Freddie said quickly.

"What kind of cologne?" Carly frowned.

"Oh, um, just-just this new one my mom bought for me," Freddie mumbled.

"What kind did she buy you?" Sam asked.

Freddie sighed. "Tick Away Cologne for young men."

"Oh my God," Sam said, bursting out laughing.

"It's not funny!" Freddie said indignantly.

"It's a little funny," Carly smiled.

"Your mom's still on this tick kick?" Sam asked, pulling herself together. "Man, what a nut!"

"Sam," Carly said. "You really shouldn't talk about your boyfriend's mom like that."

"Don't waste your breath, Carls," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "I've tried so many times to get her to like my mom…it's useless."

"Well can you blame me?" Sam asked. "She hates me too!"

"She does not hate you," Freddie said. "She just…she doesn't-she's just not the biggest fan of the idea of any girl spending more time with me than her."

"Whatever, she's still a crazy lady who needs to have her head examined," Sam said, getting to her feet.

"Where are you going?" Carly asked.

"Home," Sam said. "I feel sort of out of it. I'm gonna go take a nap."

"Aright, well you're still coming over tonight to work on our English project?" Carly asked. "Freddie and I will start writing the report, and then you can handle the display."

"Yeah, sure," Sam nodded. She gave Freddie a short kiss. "Later!"

….

"Unbelievable!" Spencer said, angrily throwing down the quarter he was using to scratch off his lotto tickets. "One hundred bucks of scratch off lotto tickets and I don't win a dang thing!"

"I told you those things were a rip off," Freddie said, looking up from the computer where him and Carly were working on their English report.

"I told you they were a rip off," Spencer mimicked bitterly.

"Well did you at least pick up something to cook for dinner like I asked?" Carly said, rolling her eyes.

"Um…I bought some chicken," Spencer said.

"Oh, yum," Carly smiled.

"But then I gave it to this lonely looking and really attractive girl at the bus stop," Spencer finished.

"What?"

"I thought if I gave her my chicken she'd go out with me!" Spencer defended.

"Well did she?" Freddie asked.

Spencer looked down. "No."

"Well, looks like another night of Chinese food," Carly sighed.

"Hey, tomorrow I'll cook," Spencer promised. "So, what are you teens doing?"
"Writing the report for this English project Sam, Carly and I are working on," Freddie explained. "We had to read a book, and the write a ten page report on it and make a visual representation of a scene from it."

"Cool, so what book did you guys read?"

"Lord of the Flies," Carly replied.

"Oh, the one about the flies?" Spencer nodded.

"No, there aren't flies in it," Carly told him. "See, it's just-"

"Freddie!" Marissa Benson said, letting herself into the Shay's apartment.

"Um, hi mom," Freddie frowned.

"Freddie, good news," Marissa said. "My friend Lisa just told me that her daughter is single again!"

"Mom," Freddie sighed. "For the millionth time, I'm perfectly happy seeing my girlfriend, Sam. I don't need you hooking me up with other girls."

"But Herberta is a lovely girl! Not like that…Sam Puckett," Marissa said, cringing as she said her son's girlfriend's name.

"Mom! Please, I hate it when you talk about Sam that way," Freddie said. "And I'm not dating any Herberta or any other girl except for Sam."

"Ah!" Marissa screamed in defeat, running back across the hall.

"Wow, must be tough having a girlfriend who hates your mom and a mom who hates your girlfriend," Spencer commented.

"They don't hate-Oh, whatever, yeah they do," Freddie sighed. "I just wish they'd get along a little better and realize how much the other means to me."

"Eh, it will all work out," Carly told him, patting his shoulder. "Anyway, back to this whole symbolism thing…I'm really confused about-"

Just then the apartment door opened again and Sam came in, dragging her feet. She looked awful; her hair was a mess, her clothes were all wrinkled and her face was pale and sweaty.

"Whoa, Sam!" Carly exclaimed as Freddie rushed over to her. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I think I'm sick," Sam moaned as Freddie helped her over to the couch.

"Baby, I think you have a fever," Freddie said, his face etched with concern as his girlfriend leaned back in the couch, clearly in a lot of pain.

"Here," Spencer said, running over with a thermometer. "Take her temperature."

Freddie did, and when the instrument was done reading, he looked at the digital screen.

"Okay, you have a fever of 105.2," Freddie said, his eyes widening. "That's dangerously high."

"Here," Carly said, running over with a bottle of cold water. "Drink this."

Sam began to take a sip, but nearly gagged the second the water touched her lips.

"Ow!" she cried, grabbing her side. "Ow, ow, ow!"

"What's wrong? What hurts?" Freddie asked.

"My side, it feels like it's on fire," Sam winced.

Carly, Spencer and Freddie exchanged concerned glances. They knew Sam had a very high pain tolerance, and the fact that whatever she had was causing actual tears to come from her eyes was very unsettling.

"Freddie," Carly said. "Go get your mom. She's a nurse, she might be able to help."

"No," Sam moaned, still wincing in pain.

"Sam, you're really sick!" Carly said. She looked back at Freddie. "Go get her."

"Right," Freddie nodded.

"I'll call your mom, Sam," Spencer said, grabbing his pearphone.

"She's in Texas visiting Melanie," Sam mumbled.

"What's going on?" Marissa asked as her and Freddie returned.

"Sam's really sick," Freddie said, quickly going back to his girlfriend's side.

"She has a fever of 105 and she says her side is hurting a lot," Carly said.

"Let me see, let me see," Marissa said, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table.

Carly pushed up the corner of Sam's shirt to show her Sam's right side, which was very red.

"Ow!" Sam said indignantly as Carly's hand brushed across it.

"How long has your side been hurting you?" Marissa asked.

"I don't know…two days?" Sam replied.

"Wait, two days?" Freddie frowned. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I thought it was just those stupid stomach parasites again," Sam moaned.

"It's appendicitis," Marissa said. "And considering the high fever, how red her side is, and the fact that this has been going of for two days, I'd say her appendix is close to bursting. She needs to get to a hospital now."

"I'll call an ambulance," Spencer said.

"No, it'll be quicker to drive," Marissa said, pulling her car keys out of her pocket. "Come on, let's go."

"Alright," Freddie said as he gently picked Sam up bridal style as he, Carly and Spencer followed his mother out of the apartment.

…..

"Sam's mom is flying back to Seattle tonight," Carly said, hanging up her phone as the four sat in the hospital's waiting room.

"Man, how long does it take to remove an appendix?" Freddie said worriedly as he paced back and forth. "She's been in there for over two hours!"

"What happens if an appendix bursts?" Spencer asked.

"All the bacteria that was inside the appendix will have free range of the body," Marissa replied.

"Man, this is all my fault," Carly moaned. "Sam practically lives at my house! How could I not have known that she had appendicitis?"

"Are you all here for Samantha Puckett?" a doctor asked, coming into the waiting room.

"Yes," Freddie said, hurrying over. "Is she okay? Did her appendix burst?"

"Ms. Puckett is fine, we removed her appendix successfully," the doctor said. "But she was very lucky. Had she arrived even ten minutes later, it would've burst, and she'd be facing much worse problems."

"So can we see her?" Carly asked.

"Of course, she's up in room 229," the doctor nodded.

The party hurried up to Sam's room and burst into her room, where Sam was laying on a hospital bed wearing a white gown, holding a jar in her hands.

"Baby, you're okay, thank God," Freddie said, hurrying over and giving Sam a long kiss.

"Hey, move it, will you!" Carly said, throwing her arms around her best friend.

"How you doing, kid?" Spencer asked, giving Sam a hug as well.

"Eh, my side's sore, you know, from them cutting into it and everything," Sam shrugged. "But I feel a lot better than I did before. And look what I got!" she held up the jar. "It's my appendix! I get to keep it!"

"Ew!" Carly cringed.

"And look, when I shake it, it-"

"Okay, why don't we save that for later," Freddie said quickly. He kissed her again.

"Your mom's going to be here in a few hours," Carly told her.
"Alright," Sam nodded.

"So do you have to stay here overnight?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah," Sam sighed. "Hopefully the food's decent here."

"Hey, I'll run to the vending machine later and try and smuggle you in some Fat Cakes," Carly promised.

"You're the best," Sam grinned. Then she turned to Freddie. "Hey, um…where's your mom?"

"Um, I think she's still down in the waiting room," Freddie told her.

"Oh," Sam said. "Well…do you think you could, you know, go get her?"

"Um, sure," Freddie nodded. "I'll be back in a second."

"Hey, you think I could go to the front desk here and ask for them to give me the files on the girl I accidently…ran over? She changed her number and moved after that whole misunderstanding."

"Um, I think you should probably move on from her," Carly said. "You know, to avoid winding up in prison or something."

"I didn't mean to run her over! I was just-Oh, hey Mrs. Benson," Spencer said as Freddie and his mom walked back into the room.

Sam stared at the woman, who was staring right back at her.

For almost a full minute, the room was absolutely silent.

"So, um," Sam finally said, clearing her throat. "Th-Thanks."

Marissa nodded. "You're welcome."

"Whoa, did that just happen?" Carly whispered to Freddie, who was absolutely beaming.

"Yeah," he said happily. "So beautiful."