Project
"Hey guys! Come look at some of these old Christmas pictures I found down in the basement," Spencer said as Carly and Freddie entered the apartment.
"Oh, I want to see," Carly grinned, running over to her brother.
"See, here's me when I was eight sitting on Santa's lap at the mall," Spencer said, showing the two teens the photo. "Wasn't I precious?"
"What was that red gunk all over your face?" Freddie frowned.
"Not sure," Spencer said.
"Half of the old pictures we have of Spencer have him covered in something," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Aw! This one is of me when I was six on Christmas morning. Look at me unwrapping my Bambie Palace."
"Real cute, Carls," Freddie chuckled.
"Hey, you should see if your mom has some old Christmas pictures of you," Carly suggested. "I'd want to see them."
"Nah," Freddie said. "Most of those pictures involve my mom frantically grabbing my new toys and sanitizing them."
"Wow, your mom was a nutter even back then," Spencer said.
"Yes she was," Freddie agreed. "Anyway, you guys care if I start putting up some Christmas decorations over here? It's Christmas Eve, after all."
"Um, sure, but what decorations do you have?" Carly asked as she watched Freddie unzip his backpack and pull out a small cardboard box. "We already have that magnet tree and wreaths and Spencer's reindeer sculpture up."
"I know, but I just want to hang some of this stuff up," Freddie said, opening the box to reveal a few green plants.
"Is that mistletoe?" Spencer asked.
"Yup," Freddie nodded.
"Okay, I get it," Carly smiled, shaking her head. "You want to put that stuff up everywhere so you and Sam will have an excuse to make-out the whole night tonight."
"Not exactly," Freddie said. "See…I have sort of this plan, and I'm gonna need your help."
"What sort of plan?" Carly asked suspiciously.
"Well," Freddie said, taking a deep breath. "Since me and Sam are about to graduate from college in the spring, I figured it was the perfect time for me to…for me to-"
Carly gasped. "Oh my God! Are you going to-?"
Freddie nodded and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. He opened it up to reveal a beautiful, sparkling diamond ring. "I'm going to ask her to marry me."
Carly squealed and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Freddie! I'm so happy for you guys!"
"Yeah man, congratulations," Spencer said, patting his shoulder.
"Thanks, but Sam does need to say yes first," Freddie pointed out.
"She will," Carly assured him. "She loves you."
"I love her too," Freddie said softly. "Which is why I want everything to go well tonight."
"What do you need us to do?" Spencer asked.
"Not that much," Freddie said. "Here's what I was thinking…"
….
"I can't believe this!" Sam exclaimed later that evening as her and Carly walked up the stairs to Spencer's apartment.
"Sam, calm down, it's not that big of a deal," Carly said.
"Not a big deal?" Sam repeated. "Carly, we are down in Seattle on a relaxing, winter vacation. The last thing I want to see when I check my email is a syllabus for a class I'm not even going to be in for another month!"
"The professor just wants you to be prepared," Carly reasoned.
"It's Christmas Eve!" Sam cried. "Man, I am so glad we graduate in the spring. I'm done with school. I can't wait to never open another textbook again."
"You don't open your textbooks now," Carly reminded her, digging in her pockets. "Oh, shoot. I think I forgot my key."
"It's cool, I'll just pick the lock," Sam said, grabbing a pin from her bag and kneeling down by the keyhole to get to work. "Anyway, I just think it's stupid that any professor would think we'd want to see anything about classes after we just finished up a semester."
She heard a click, signifying the door had unlocked. "There you go," she said, getting to her feet. "Door's unlocked and-Carly?"
It appeared that her best friend, who had been standing behind her, had suddenly vanished.
"Carly?" Sam frowned, looking around, but the brunette girl was nowhere in sight.
Weird, Sam thought to herself. Maybe she left something in her car and went back down to grab it.
Sam opened the door to the Shay's apartment, expecting to see Spencer lounging around in his fancy elf pajamas. Instead, though, she was greeted by the sight of her boyfriend of five years standing in the middle of the living room.
"Um…what's going on?" Sam asked, looking around the apartment. All the lights were off and several candles lit the place up. A plate of her favorite Christmas cookies and a mug of hot chocolate were sitting on the coffee table. She looked up at the ceiling and saw four bushels of mistletoe hanging in a circle with a fifth bushel in the center.
"I just wanted to give you an early Christmas present," Freddie said, gently putting his arms around her and kissing her.
"Well okay," Sam smiled once they pulled apart. "What is it?"
"Patience, baby," Freddie told her, his eyes sparkling. "You realize that this will be our fifth Christmas together?"
"Oh yeah," Sam nodded. "Crazy, huh?"
"Definitely," Freddie agreed, giving her another kiss. He took her hands and led her under the first bushel of mistletoe. "You remember our first Christmas together? It was our senior year of high school, and we had just started going out. Neither of us knew what to get each other."
"I remember," Sam grinned. "Didn't we wind up trading our most prized possessions to try and get each other the perfect present?"
"Only to find out that what we got each was pretty much useless without them," Freddie laughed. He leaned down and kissed her deeply. "It was a pretty good Christmas still, though."
"Definitely," Sam nodded.
Freddie led her under the second bushel of mistletoe. "And do you remember our second Christmas? You and I just finished our first semester of college and we were completely broke."
"So we decided to make each other homemade presents," Sam finished for him.
"And you made me a clay pot and plastered it with all of the ticket stubs from the movies we saw together," Freddie said. "You know I still have that."
"Well I still have the collage you made me with all the pictures you insisted on taking of us," Sam replied. "And I'm guessing since we're standing under yet another thing of mistletoe…"
She stood on her toes and kissed him.
"I see you're catching on," Freddie said as they moved onto the third bushel. "And do you remember our third Christmas together?"
"Oh God," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Was that the one you made us spend with your mom?"
"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. "Carly and Spencer were visiting their Dad in Alaska, so we didn't have any excuse not to. And of course, my mom was obnoxious."
"No chiz," Sam said. "All she did was criticize my hair and my clothes and say I wasn't ladylike enough for you."
"And you didn't throw anything at her," Freddie said proudly. "Not even once. I know how hard that was for you, baby. But after spending that day together, my mom did start to like you a little more."
"Well yippee," Sam mumbled, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Freddie chuckled as he placed another kiss on her lips.
"And I know you remember our Christmas last year," Freddie said, leading Sam underneath the fourth bushel. "We planned a big ski trip, just the two of us. We were going to spend Christmas in a cozy little cabin with a warm fire and no interruptions."
"Yeah, that was the plan," Sam smirked. "Too bad it didn't happen."
"We wound up getting lost on the way to the cabin and spent four hours trudging through the snow after the car ran out of gas, freezing our butts off," Freddie said. "Only to find out that we had been going in circles the entire time."
"And there was a gas station about a mile away from us," Sam added.
"And as sucky as that Christmas was," Freddie continued. "It really showed me that you and I…we can get through anything."
"Yeah," Sam said softly. "Even though you almost cried at one point that night."
"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?" Freddie asked, rolling his eyes.
"Nope," Sam said, kissing him passionately.
Freddie reluctantly pulled away after a moment and led Sam underneath the fifth and final bushel of mistletoe.
"And now we're on our fifth Christmas together," he whispered. "And even though Christmas isn't until tomorrow, I already know that it's going to be an amazing one, because I'll be spending it with you. You can make every second, every day, every year we're together amazing, Sam, because you're you. You're the most beautiful, breath-taking, wonderful girl I could ever imagine. I don't know how I managed to wind up with someone like you, but I'm so glad I did. I can't wait to spend this Christmas with you, and the next one, and the one after that. I want to celebrate every Christmas with you. I want to celebrate every birthday, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Halloween, Groundhog Day…everything, with you. I don't want to spend a day without you, baby. I don't know what I would do if you weren't in my life because you are my life. I love you so much."
"I-I love you too," Sam said softly, her cheeks blushing furiously.
Freddie smiled at her before slowly getting down on one knee.
Sam's eyes grew wide and she covered her mouth with her hand. "Freddie?"
Freddie pulled out the velvet box from his pocket and opened it up to her, the diamond ring glistening in the candlelight. "Samantha Joy Puckett?" he asked. "Will you marry me?"
Sam stared down at the scene for a moment, completely overcome by the flood of emotions rushing through her. It took her a moment to gather herself enough to respond.
"Yes," she nodded, tears streaming down her face. "Yes, yes I'll marry you!"
Freddie's face broke out in the biggest grin he had ever grinned and quickly got to his feet and slid the ring onto her finger.
Sam wrapped her arms around his neck as Freddie swept her off her feet, kissing her full on the lips, knowing that there was no way he could ever be happier than he was now.
"She said yes!" a voice at the front door suddenly screamed, and the couple turned around to see Spencer and Carly standing at the doorway, beaming.
"Were you listening at the door?" Freddie asked knowingly.
"Duh!" Spencer exclaimed.
"Congratulations, you guys!" Carly said, hurrying over to her two best friends and giving them a hug. "I'm so happy for you two."
"Wait, did you guys know about this?" Sam asked.
"Freddie asked me to keep you out of here this afternoon," Carly explained. "So I took you shopping while him and Spencer worked on this little…project. Man, you have no idea how hard it was to keep this whole thing a secret."
"Yeah, you're pretty awful on keeping quiet about these things," Sam agreed.
"But now that you know…" Carly went on. "We can start the wedding planning process!"
"Oh boy…" Sam said, exchanging looks with Freddie.
