Enhancement

"Okay, let's see…" Carly said, rummaging through her large supply of makeup. "I guess this powder foundation will do. And I can use this pencil for your eyes to make them look all scary and dark."

"Why are we doing another stupid vampire bit?" Sam asked as she sat on Carly's bed with her boyfriend, who was getting ready to undergo his makeover for his character.

"The last one we did was pretty popular," Freddie said.

"Yeah, and a lot of our viewers have been asking for more," Carly nodded, dumping the makeup she would be using on Freddie onto her bed.

"Yeah, and they're all stupid chicks who just want to swoon all over Freddie because they're so obsessed with vampires," Sam pointed out.

"Baby, don't worry, no matter how many girls 'swoon' over me, you know there's only one girl for me," Freddie smiled, giving her a quick kiss.

"Please, like I'm worried," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Sure, you might lure in some girl with your vampire get-up, but once they realize what a nub you are underneath all that, they'll hit the road."

"And if not, Sam with just hit them," Carly grinned.

"Well, yeah," Sam nodded.

"Okay," Carly said, picking up a makeup brush. "Sam, try and do his eyes while I do his powder."

"On it," Sam said, picking up a weird looking eyeliner pencil. "Er, Carls? What the heck is this?"

"Eyeliner," Carly replied.

"Uh-huh…then why does it look like something I would use to play darts with?"

"It's a new brand I'm trying," Carly said, taking it from her. "Here, just uncap it right here and then turn this…Oh, and make sure you give him a really heavy upper lining, and go a little lighter on his lower lid because we'll be using some black eye shadow to make his eyes look sunken."

"What does that mean?" Sam frowned.

"Just…Just do what you think looks good and then I'll help you in a minute," Carly said.

Since when did being a vampire become so complicated? Sam thought to herself as she tried to apply the eyeliner to Freddie. Makeup was never her forte, but as she grew up, she did get better with it. Still, though, the complex designs that Carly was explaining to her were way beyond her makeup abilities, and by the time she was done with Freddie, she thought it was safe to say that she did not have Carly's makeup talents.

"Well…um…that looks…nice," Carly said, looking at Sam's work.

"You can say it sucks, Carls," Sam smirked.

"Yeah, it kind of sucks," Carly admitted.

"Can I see?" Freddie asked.

Carly handed him a mirror.

"Oh," Freddie said, looking at his reflection. "Well, um, at least it…It's sort of…"

"Redo his eyes for him, will you?" Sam said to Carly, putting an arm around her boyfriend's shoulder.

"Okay," Carly nodded, beginning to wipe off the makeup around Freddie's eyes.

"Sorry I made you look hideous, baby," Sam grinned.

"It's okay," Freddie chuckled. "I mean come on, we both know you're not exactly a makeup girl."

"Um…" Sam frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You know," Freddie shrugged. "It's not really your thing. You're more of a girl who'd rather spend an extra five minutes making bacon in the morning than worrying about putting that stuff on, like Carly does."

"I do know how to put makeup on," Sam told him. "I'm wearing some right now…I just can't do that crazy costume makeup chiz."

"Done," Carly said proudly, handing Freddie the mirror again so he could see her fixes. "You like it?"

"Yeah, looks good, Carls," Freddie nodded.

"Alright," Carly said. "Sam, we need to go get into our costumes, and Freddie can go set up the green screen."

"Okay," Freddie nodded, getting up and heading to the studio.

"I think Spencer borrowed your mustache for some party with Socko's cousin," Carly said to Sam as Freddie left. "I'll go run and get it for you."
"Thanks," Sam mumbled.

She looked down at the pile of makeup on the bed, more than half of which she couldn't even identify. She sighed, maybe she should learn a little more about the stuff…

"Okay," Sam said the next morning, dumping out the makeup she had 'borrowed' from Carly the previous night. "Let's see what I can do…"

She pulled up some makeup tutorials on her laptop and then began rifling through the makeup on her bed. "Man…does she really own nine different types of mascara? And what the heck is this thing? Lip-enhancing color? It looks just like the rest of her lipstick!"

She looked through the rest of the makeup and finally decided she's begin with foundation. She rarely bothered with that, but she figured it would be a good place to start. Once she had applied a layer to her face, she began on her eyes, watching the tutorial twice before she began. She usually wore eyeliner and mascara every day, but usually just enough so that it was barely noticeable. She never got fancy like Carly would on some days and add and extra curl to her eyelashes or add those little wings to the corner of her eyes.

"I think I'm supposed to use this pencil," Sam mumbled to herself, holding up a particularly sharp eyeliner pencil. She leaned closer to her mirror and carefully prepared to apply it, when suddenly there was a knock at her bedroom door.

"Sam?" she heard Freddie said on the other side.

"Ow!" Sam snapped, as the sudden presence of her boyfriend startled her into jabbing her cornea.

"What's wrong?" Freddie asked, opening the door. "You okay?"

"No! My eyeball's throbbing!" Sam exclaimed.

"Here, let me see," Freddie said, concerned, as her hurried over to her. He looked at her eye.

"I think it's fine, just a little red," Freddie told her. "Want me to get you some ice?"

"No," Sam sighed.

"Um, is all this makeup yours?" Freddie asked, looking at the small mountain of the stuff on her bed.

"Nah, it's Carly's," Sam mumbled.

"Well why are you using it?" Freddie frowned.

"I just thought I'd give it a try," Sam shrugged.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she said somewhat defensively. "Why? Is it so wrong that I want to wear makeup?"

"Well…no, I guess not," Freddie said slowly. "It's just…you never wear all this. I didn't think you liked it."

"Yeah, I know you thought that," Sam said bitterly, turning back to the mirror to give the eyeliner another chance.

"Huh?" Freddie said, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Never mind," Sam mumbled. "Just…go wait downstairs, I'll be ready in a little bit."
"No," Freddie said, turning her around so that she was facing him. "Sam…what's bothering you?"

Sam looked down at the floor. "I-I just wanted to show you that I can be into this sort of stuff. You kept saying yesterday that I wasn't the type of girl that you would think would know how to do any of this chiz, and-and I guess I just wanted you to see that I can look…nice, if I wanted to."

"Oh…Sam," Freddie said, pulling her closer to him. "Baby…when-when I said that you weren't the type of girl who was really into makeup, I-I didn't mean for a second that you don't look beautiful. You know I think you do, all the time, makeup or no makeup."

"Yeah, but you'd probably think I'd look better if I tried a little more," Sam said. "You know, like Carly does."

"Absolutely not," Freddie said firmly. "Sam, you may not be the type of girl who knows how to make people look like teenage vampires or spends an extra half-hour every morning putting all this chiz on, but that's because you don't have to. You-You're just so naturally stunning. You could roll right out of bed and go out and look ten times better than most girls who spent hours trying to look good. And if you were to pile on makeup like that…it would only take away from that. I'm glad you don't obsess with your makeup and wear five million different types of blush or whatever; if you did…you just wouldn't be you anymore."

Sam stared up at him, blushing. "I can't just roll out of bed," she said softly.

"Sam, you could literally dump bucket after bucket of mud over yourself, and it still wouldn't make you any less beautiful," Freddie told her. He leaned down and gently kissed her. "You're perfect; you don't need to do anything to yourself to be any better."

Sam kissed him back. "Thanks, Fredrag."

He wrapped his arms around her. "Anytime."

"Hey," Sam grinned. "We have about an hour until school, right?"

"Yeah," Freddie nodded. "Why?"

"Well…it rained last night, and you know my backyard is all dirt," Sam said, raising an eyebrow. "And since you claim I would look good covered in mud…care for a little mud fight before school?"

Freddie laughed. "I can go for that."