AN-Takes place during iSpeed Date

Police

Sam stood on Gibby's front porch for a moment, still in shock over what she had just witnessed. Gibby had a girlfriend? An attractive one, nonetheless. What was going on in the world?

She shook her head. Well, at least she knew that his rejecting her earlier wasn't anything personal. Still though…who would've ever thought Gibby was actually capable of dating?

Wait till Carly and Freddie hear thisSam smirked. She looked at her phone. There was only about an hour left of the dance; by the time she got to the school, it would be over. She knew that Carly had said something about going to the Groovy Smoothie after the dance. She would just meet them there.

She set off towards the popular hangout, all the way cursing herself for listening to Carly and wearing a skirt and heels. She knew she should've gone with her usual school dance attire of jeans and sneakers.

When she finally reached the Groovy Smoothie, she almost turned around; the place looked deserted. But then she noticed two figures near the back of the store. That had to be Carly and Freddie.

And she was right. Very right, unfortunately.

When Sam stepped inside, her two best friends didn't even notice her. Sam's eyes widened and for the second time that night she felt a wave of complete surprise rush over her.

Carly and Freddie were in each others arms, slow dancing to the music playing throughout the restaurant.

For a moment, Sam stood still, thousands of thoughts circling in her head.

Where were their dates?
Why weren't they simply talking and laughing over smoothies like she had expected?

Why did they look so happy?

That last thought hit Sam the hardest. Carly and Freddie really did look like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves at the moment. So, not sure of what else to do in her current situation, Sam slowly turned and left the Groovy Smoothie.

She could've caught the last bus of the night to take her back to her house, but for some reason, Sam felt a sudden desire to walk. She hugged her jacket close to her body as she started off into the night, replaying the scene from the restaurant over and over in her head.

She arrived back to her empty house a short while later and immediately kicked off her heels as she flung herself down on her sofa.

Why were they dancing together like that? Sam asked herself for what must have been the hundredth time. That wasn't a fast, fun dance between friends. That was…romantic. What the heck happened at that dance? Did they… hook up?

Just then, Sam felt her stomach tighten and she frowned. No, that's impossible. The nub might be crazy for Carly, but Carly's not into Freddie…right?

But then again, Carly was willingly dancing with him…

Sam let out a loud groan as she threw a couch cushion across the room. Tonight was supposed to be about her getting to shovel down ten pounds of brownies fresh from the PTA at the lame school dance; not having to deal with all this.

Sam sat up and frowned.

"Wait a minute…" she said slowly to herself. "What's the big deal about this? So those two are dancing all close together…that just means that hopefully Carly will completely forget about me ditching the dance! Yeah…and-and Freddie will be all distracted and will finally lay off Gibby rejecting me at school…this could be a good thing."

Yet, even as those words left her mouth, Sam couldn't bring herself to truly believe them.

So are they…a couple now? Sam thought to herself, looking down at her lap, squeezing her hands together. Did they just decide to start going out at the dance?

The idea of her two friends dating made Sam feel like punching one of the few non-broken items in her living room. She knew what would happen…Heck, they couldn't have coupled up more than an hour before she walked into the Groovy Smoothie earlier, and they were already ignoring her and pushing her out of their picture. If this kept up, they would completely degrade her to a third-wheel.

She needed to have Carly as her best friend; she didn't want to be tossed aside! Where would she crash nearly every night? Where would she get her meat fixes from? Who would keep her out of trouble?

Strangely, though, as much as it bothered her to think about Carly in the apparent new relationship, thinking about Freddie in it was almost just as painful…if not more.

That nub's going to be obnoxious with Carly, Sam thought. Drooling over her, holding her hand all the time, bringing her flowers and taking her on dates and kissing her…

Suddenly Sam's phone rang and she looked down at her cell screen and saw that it was Carly calling her.

Sam stared at the phone for a moment. Was she about to hear all about how she was swept off her feet by Freddie tonight?

Part of her didn't want to answer, in fear that that was true. But she did want some answers…So taking a deep breath, Sam answered the phone.

"Hey," Sam said, trying to sound normal.

"Hey, Sam, where the heck were you tonight?" Carly asked on the other line. "You didn't come to the dance! I thought you agreed to try to talk Gibby into going with you again. What happened? Did you shove another taco down a police officer's pants? Because-"

"I didn't shove anything down a cop's pants," Sam told her. "And I-I did go talk to Gibby. But he had, um, other plans. Listen, what-"

"Well, you didn't miss to much at the dance," Carly sighed. "It was kind of a dud."

"A dud?" Sam repeated.

"Yeah," Carly replied. "My date sort of…sucked. All he knew how to do was talk about himself! I didn't even get in two words the entire night. Plus that Magic Malika chick Freddie wound up taking did some fancy trick and made the hem of my new skirt catch on fire. It's totally ruined!"

"Too bad," Sam said. "But did anything else happen?"

"Hmmm, no," Carly said simply. "After the dance finished up, Freddie and I went to the Groovy Smoothie with our dates like we said we would, but we wound up getting frustrated with them, so we just hung out by ourselves for a little bit. His mom actually just picked us up ten minutes ago. She's now across the hall trying to fore him to take some weird oatmeal bath. Pretty crazy, right?"

"Sure," Sam said dismissively, wondering why on earth Carly hadn't brought up the fact that her and Freddie were slow dancing at the Groovy Smoothie. "So did anything-"

"You know, I don't think this night was a total bust, though," Carly interrupted. "At the dance, I think I sort of hit it off with Matt Newman from history class. You know, one of my first choices for the dance. Him and I kept winding up at the punch bowl at the same time tonight and we talked for a little bit. We have a lot in common."

"Matt Newman?" Sam frowned.

"Yeah, plus the girl that he went with apparently is a friend of his sister's," Carly said. "They went as friends, which means he's available! Do you want to hit the mall tomorrow to help me find a cute new outfit to wear when I see him at school on Monday?"

"Um, sure," Sam said slowly. "Hey, um, how-how's Freddie doing?"

"I dunno, good I guess," Carly said simply. "You know, other than the oatmeal bath. Why?"

"No reason," Sam said at once. "Just-Just wanted to see if he made it out of his first school dance without his mom as his date."

"Believe me, I think he would've rather have her than Magic Malika by the end of the night," Carly chuckled. "Poor guy. Well, Spencer's been in our storage unit for awhile now, so I'm gonna go run down and make sure he didn't get stuck to anything again. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you," Sam nodded.

She hung up the phone and slid it back into her pocket.

Carly didn't even mention the dance to her, and she was trying to woo in Matt Newman?

They're not dating…Sam thought to herself, relief rushing over her. Their dance…it was just friendly.

Sam was beyond thrilled at this news. There would be no changes, no third wheel…everything was going to stay the same. Sam got up from the couch and headed into the kitchen, grabbing a bag of chips and shoving a handful into her mouth.

Tonight might have been a false alarm, but one thing was for sure, she did not like the idea of Carly and Freddie getting together. It irked her in a way that she couldn't describe. She wanted to keep telling herself that it was just the far of being the third wheel in the group that made her feel this way, but something deep inside of her kept telling her there was something else that was causing these feelings. Something that she couldn't even begin to explain. Not even to herself.