Spine

"Sam?" Carly frowned, looking up from her textbook she was reading at her desk at her blonde roommate, who was loudly popping her gum as she listened to her Pearpod. "Sam!"

But of course Sam couldn't hear her over the music blaring into her ears, so with a groan of frustration, Carly got up and headed over to her best friend and yanked her headphones out.

"Hey!" Sam exclaimed indignantly. "What'd you do that for?"

"Because I'm trying to study, but all I hear is your music and gum popping!" Carly said.

"You've been studying all night, take a break," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"No, the exam's tomorrow and I still have one more chapter to go over!" Carly snapped. "And in case you've forgotten…you're in this class too!"

"So I'll wing it," Sam shrugged.

"Sam, this is college now," Carly sighed. "You can't just wing it anymore, you need to study! Come on, we can pull an all-nighter together. It will be fun! We can order pizza and get some espresso shots."

"Fine," Sam mumbled.

"-And we can pop popcorn and order those special cookies from that bakery that delivers, and-wait. Did you just agree to study?" Carly frowned. "I haven't even got to the meat part of my bribe!"

"Let's just do this, okay," Sam said, grabbing her textbook from under her bed.

Carly gave her a strange look. "Okay, Puckett," she said, crossing her arms. "What's wrong?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?"

"Because it always takes me at least a good ten minutes to persuade you to do anything school-related," Carly said. "You never cave on my first try."

"Well…this exam's important, like you said," Sam shrugged.

"Who are you and what did you do with Sam?" Carly asked.

"Carls, jeesh, why is it such a shock that I'm studying?" Sam asked, a bit annoyed.

"It's just I've never seen you this…willing," Carly said.

"Well now I am!" Sam said.

"Okay," Carly conceded. "That's great then. I'm proud of you. But if you need to talk about-"

"I miss Freddie, okay?" Sam blurted out. "There. Happy?"

"Well Sam, of course you miss Freddie," Carly chuckled. "He's your boyfriend, and he's a million miles away at MIT."

"But I miss him a lot," Sam moaned. "I mean, I know I miss him all the time, but it's like lately he's all I can think about."

"Have you talked to him lately?"

"Not since the beginning of the week," Sam replied. "He has some big test this week too, and I didn't want to distract him."

"Oh, Sam, you're not a distraction to him," Carly said gently. "He loves you. He'd drop whatever he's doing to talk to you. It's sweet that you want him to focus on his exam, but if you feel this awful then just pick up the dang phone and call him! The only reason he hasn't called you already is probably because I mentioned we have that huge sociology test tomorrow and he didn't want to distract you."

"You really don't think he'll mind if I call him?" Sam asked softly.

"Not one bit," Carly smiled, tossing Sam her phone. "Go ahead…you know you want to."

Sam chuckled. "Thanks, Shay."

"Why don't I go study in the lounge for a little bit?" Carly said. "So you can have some privacy. But we're still on for that all-nighter, just so you know. Consider this your first break."

"I get more than one, though, right?"

"We'll see," Carly smirked, heading out of the room.

Sam quickly dialed her boyfriend's phone number.

Freddie picked up on the fifth ring.

"Hello?" He sounded exhausted.

"Hey, baby," Sam said. "How's the studying going for that big test you have later this week?"

"It was actually today," Freddie mumbled on the other end. "I just walked out of the examination room a few minutes ago."

"Oh, really? Well how'd it go?" Sam asked. "Did you rock that test like you did to every single one you took back at Ridgeway? I bet you did. You probably-"

"I don't think I did well on it, Sam," Freddie sighed.

Sam frowned. "Hey," she said. "Don't say that. I'm sure you did fine. You're probably just second-guessing yourself right now. Wait till your professor gets your grade back to you. Then you'll-"

"I'm not second-guessing myself," Freddie said miserably. "But I did have to do a lot of guessing on the actual exam. I swear, out of the fifty questions on that thing, I think I knew like, eighteen."

"Was-Was it multiple choice?" Sam asked. "Because maybe even if you guessed, you still-"

"It wasn't multiple choice; they were all written response," Freddie told her.

"Oh," Sam said lamely.
"I just…I just don't know what happened," Freddie sighed. "I studied! A lot! I don't think I left my dorm room for the entire weekend just to prepare for that thing. But still, when I looked at those questions, my mind just blew a blank."

"You were probably just stressed," Sam reasoned. "I mean, this was your first college exam, and it's at MIT, for crying out loud!"

"But this exam counts for like, thirty percent of my grade," Freddie said. "If I want to even pass the class, I'm going to have to get close to perfect scores on every other exam I take!"

"Well baby, you can do that," Sam said. "You're Freddie Benson!"

"Yeah, Freddie Benson the test-flunker," Freddie muttered darkly.

Sam sighed. She knew how horrible Freddie must've been feeling. School was so important for him. She could brush a failed exam off her back like nothing, but as far as she could remember, the closest to failing Freddie had ever come was a B+.

"You're not a test-flunker," Sam said firmly. "Baby, you're the smartest dude I know."

"Maybe back at Ridgeway, but here at MIT I'm probably one of the dumb ones," Freddie said.

"Nope," Sam said simply. "There's no way I'm going to believe that."

"But I-"

"So you might've done bad on one test," Sam cut him off. "Big deal! Everyone does bad once in awhile. That doesn't make you any less smart. And you're not dumb; even compared to any of those MIT nerds. Do you think any of them single-handedly kept one of the best web shows in the history of the Internet online for five years? Did any of them get special awards for accidently creating some device that fixes some weird eye problem? Did any of them get an invitation from the Pear Company to attend some huge app meeting over the summer? Baby, you're still so smart. One test isn't going to change that."

"W-Wow," Freddie said weakly. "Sam, I-That was some speech."

"Well you're talking to the girl who just happened to ace her public speaking test last week," Sam grinned. "And it was completely winged. Remind me to bring that up to Carly later if she ever tries to use her 'you can't wing stuff in college' chiz again."

"She's not entirely wrong about that," Freddie chuckled. "College does require actual studying. But hey, thanks for that little pep talk, baby. I-I really needed that."

"And I mean it," Sam said. "You're a genius, Fredhead. Sure, it's annoying most of the times, but I occasionally think it's cute."

"Well how sweet," Freddie laughed. "But speaking of studying and everything, are you ready for that big sociology test you and Carly have tomorrow?"

"I sort of have seven chapters to read still," Sam admitted. "But me and Carly are going to pull an all-nighter, so maybe I'll manage to get some stuff read."

"You'll be fine," Freddie assured her.

"And if not, I'm used to failing things," Sam mumbled, looking down at her lap. "It won't bother me as much as it bothers you. So don't worry about me."

"Sam, you won't fail," Freddie said. "You're smart too. I mean, you got yourself into Washington State, didn't you? When you apply yourself, no one can beat you at anything. Even a test. Just focus and you'll ace it."

"Well I don't know about acing it…" Sam said.

"You'll do fine," Freddie said firmly. "And if I was with you right now, I'd-"

"-Be making out with me?" Sam suggested.

"I was going to say helping you study, but I like that too," Freddie said.

"Well, I wish you were here, even it was just to help me study," Sam said heavily.

"Me too," Freddie said. "I love you so much, Sam, and it kills me that I can't see you every day."
Sam smiled as those three words managed to make her spine tingle even across the country. "Two more months until we're all back home for Thanksgiving, though."

"Believe me, I've been counting down the days since I got here," Freddie said. "Anyway, not that I don't love talking to you, but you really should get back to studying. And I'm going to get some food since I haven't eaten in almost two days."

"Two days?!"

"I'll call you tomorrow, to find out how your exam went," Freddie told her.

"Alright," Sam sighed. "I love you. Make sure you eat something, though, okay? Two days without food…that's disgraceful!"

"I will," Freddie said. "And I love you too. Oh, and thanks for, you know, cheering me up. It's impossible for me to stay down about much of anything when I get to talk to you."

…..

AN-Hey, thanks so much for all the great support you guys all give this story! I really appreciate it and it's part of the reason I love writing and have kept this story going for so long, so again, big thanks to all of you out there for sending me awesome ideas for these oneshots and taking the time to read/review them. And hey there Julius thanks so much for your opinion:) To answer your question, no I have not given up on Seddie, which is one of the other reasons I've kept this story going, lol. I understand if you're not as into this story as you used to be; that's totally cool! And if you want to try a Seddie story that's more engrossing for you, Fanfiction's a big site, I'm sure you can find something more 'readable'. However, please don't feel forced to keep reading this if you don't like it. Just don't read it; I don't want you to feel like I'm 'feeding' this story to you. You are perfectly welcome to move on from it. With that being said, though, I love writing; it's one of my favorite past times, and I happen to be quite happy with it, so I'm sorry, but I will not 'quit writing forever', lol. I assure you, I put a lot of effort into every story I put up here. So with all do respect, if you decide to go find something else to read, I wish you luck and hope you find something you enjoy:) Again, I love writing this story and I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the help and support you've given it!