Jazz

"Isn't senior year supposed to be the best year of high school?" Freddie asked bitterly as him and Gibby entered the Shay's apartment. "Isn't it supposed to be the year you look back on and think about all the good times you had?"

"Rough day?" Spencer asked, looking up from the sculpture he was working on.

"It's this stupid prom," Freddie moaned, flopping down on the couch. "It's way more stressful than I thought it would be."

"Prom?" Spencer frowned. "What's so stressful about that?"

"Everything!" Freddie exclaimed. "Who even invented prom? Huh? It's just a way to get everyone's blood pressure up!"

"Um, I know I went to high school awhile ago, but isn't the hardest part about prom finding a date?" Spencer pointed out. "You and Sam have been together for almost a year; you've had a date for this thing for forever!"

"He still hasn't asked her yet," Gibby said.

"What?" Spencer cried. "Dude! You haven't asked your girlfriend to prom yet? It's in two weeks!"

"I know," Freddie moaned. "But it's hard!"

"Hard? How hard is it to say, 'Hey, Sam. Do you want to go to prom with me?'" Spencer scoffed.

"Well clearly things were a lot easier back in your day because now you can' t just ask a girl to prom," Freddie snapped. "You have to make a whole production out of it. It's got to be fancy and jazzy. You've got to write it out on in flowers on her car windshield or ask live over the morning announcements. Even though Sam and I have been dating for eleven months and it's implied that we are going together, I still have to find the perfect way to ask her."

"Ah," Spencer nodded understandingly. "Well do you have any ideas?"

"Not really," Freddie mumbled.

"I suggested training one hundred doves to spell 'Prom?' out in the sky," Gibby said. "But Freddie says that idea is too extravagant."

"It is!" Freddie defended. "Besides, where would I even find one hundred doves?"

" , duh," Gibby replied, rolling his eyes.

"No, doves are my fourth scariest bird," Spencer said thoughtfully. "I've got it! What are your feelings on interpretive dancers?"

"I'm telling you, he should go with the idea I was telling him about earlier," Gibby said. "With the ukulele and the rolling pin!"

"How about this!" Spencer said excitedly. "He hires a clown to follow Sam around and-"

"Oh forget it," Freddie said, getting to his feet, Spencer and Gibby still tossing ideas around. "I'm going home to maybe try and come up with something in peace and quite."

…..

"I can't figure out what color dress I want," Carly sighed, flipping through fashion magazines on her bed.

"I thought you said you wanted a blue one," Sam said, looking up from her phone.

"I did, but then I think maybe a pale pink would be a good choice. Or a dark red. Or maybe white. You have any ideas for yourself?"

"Nope."
"Why am I not surprised," Carly said, shaking her head. "You need to find one, Sam. You should ask Freddie if he already picked out a tie so you can coordinate."

Sam shrugged.

"We still need to figure out what we're doing with our hair," Carly continued. "Oh, and I was thinking the morning of prom we go and get our nails done at that fancy new salon that just opened up next to El Guapo Taco."

"Whatever," Sam said simply.

Carly frowned. "What's up, Puckett? You don't seem too prom ready. You know it's only two weeks away."

"I know," Sam said, falling back on Carly's bed.

"So what's the problem?" Carly asked.

"It's stupid," Sam mumbled.

"Sam, that's what best friends are for!" Carly said. "To listen to each other's stupid problems. Now spill."

"It's just," Sam began. "Is it weird that Freddie hasn't asked me to prom?"

"Huh?" Carly said. "You mean he hasn't asked you at all?"

"No," Sam said, shaking her head. "I mean, obviously I'm going with him. We are dating. I guess it's sort of just implied. But still…I sort of wanted him to just ask. I thought it would be sort of cool. Is that bad?"

"No way!" Carly said at once. "It doesn't matter if you're married, you still have to ask your date to prom officially! I can't believe Freddie hasn't done that yet! Wait until I give him a piece of my-"

"No, Carls!" Sam said quickly, sitting up. "Don't say anything to him, okay?"

"But why can't I-"

"Just don't," Sam said firmly. "It's not a big deal. I mean, maybe…maybe Freddie doesn't want to go to prom at all and that's why he hasn't asked."

"I don't know…" Carly said.

"It will be fine," Sam told her. "Don't worry about it."

…..

The night of prom drew nearer and Freddie still hadn't figured out the perfect way to ask Sam yet. He felt bad; he hoped she didn't think that he just assumed they were going together since they were dating. He was going to ask her; he just wanted to do it right…

"Okay Sam," Carly said after school that day, meeting her best friend at their lockers. "You're coming dress shopping with me tonight. Even though your boyfriend is being stupid, you both still have tickets, so you're going to go and look stunning in an amazing dress. You can punish Freddie later for not asking you yet."

"I'm not gonna punish him," Sam said, shoving a half-finished sub into her locker.

"You're not?"

"No," Sam said heavily, closing her locker door. "I mean, there really wasn't any reason for him to officially ask me. Like we've been saying; obviously him and I are going together. He shouldn't have to go through the trouble."

Just then a girl standing at the row of lockers across from Carly and Sam let out a shriek as several roses fell from her locker as she opened it. All the roses had a tiny slip of paper tied to their stems that read 'Prom?'

"Billy finally asked me to prom!" the girl squealed happily.

"S-See," Sam said weakly. "That's not anything special. Who'd want to have five pounds of flowers fall on them anyway?"

Carly patted Sam's shoulder. "If you need to talk-"

"Talk about what?" Sam said reflexively, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. "I'll see you around Carls. Later!"

Every Friday after school, Sam and Freddie would always go to the Groovy Smoothie together. Today the couple wasn't all too talkative, though. Sam was sipping on her smoothie as Freddie fiddled with a loose string on his shirt.

"Okay," Sam finally said, breaking the silence. "I'm gonna just come out and ask here: Are we going to prom?"

Freddie blinked, caught off guard by this question.

"I-Um-"

"This is totally stupid, I know," Sam sighed. "I mean, we're obviously gonna go with each other, right? You have a ticket, I have a ticket, we're dating. But are you actually gonna ask me?"

"I-Well-"

"Actually, you know what?" Sam said, her voice slowly rising. "It isn't stupid. Why haven't you asked me yet, Benson? You can't just assume I'm going to prom with you! You don't get a free pass out of asking me just because I'm your girlfriend! So what the chiz are you waiting for? Prom's in less than a week!"

"I know, I know!" Freddie said. "I'm sorry, Sam. I-I know I have to ask you. It's just…well it's hard, okay?"

"How hard is it to ask a simple question?" Sam snapped, taking a long sip of her smoothie.

"Oh come on, you know I can't just ask," Freddie said. "I have to do it in some big way that will top everyone else so far."

"What?" Sam frowned, her voice softening. "Baby? Is that what's been taking you so long?"

"I really wanted to ask you in the perfect way," Freddie said heavily. "But you know me; I'm not creative."

"Freddie," Sam said, giving him a small smile. "I don't care about you asking me to prom in the most dramatic, over-the-top way possible. I just want to go to prom with you. You could write it out on the back of an old napkin for all I care, so long as you ask."

Freddie took her hand and squeezed it. "You really aren't mad that your boyfriend didn't ask you to prom with one hundred white doves?"

"I probably would've beaten you up if you did something as cheesy as that," Sam grinned. "Seriously, Fredward, you're probably one of the most romantic guys at school. You do stuff for me all the time. Like a few months ago when you put that necklace in my bag of pork rinds with that five-page love note. You don't need to be fancy when you ask me to prom."

"Well I wish I had know that earlier," Freddie chuckled as Sam continued to gulp down her smoothie. "Because it sure would've saved me a few stressful weeks."

"How lame," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Only a total nub would obsess over something like that for that long."

"True," Freddie agreed. "And while I couldn't exactly come up with the perfect way to ask you to prom, I did manage something…"

"What are you talking about?" Sam inquired, still sipping her beverage. "What did you-"

She stopped suddenly as she heard something rattling in her now-empty smoothie cup. Giving her boyfriend a quizzical look, she took off the lid and saw a small, smoothie-covered purple ball. She picked it, noting that it appeared hollow.

"It opens," Freddie told her, his eyes sparkling.

Sam spotted a small hinge on the size of the ball and she opened it up. Inside was a small slip of fancy, old parchment with the word 'Prom?' written out in fancy calligraphy.

"It's not much," Freddie said. "But I really wanted to ask you today. And I walked by this little store in the mall yesterday that-"

"Hey," Sam interrupted him. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on his lips. "It's a yes," she whispered when she pulled apart.