Estimate

"You know, I know you said those shoes we saw back there wouldn't really go with anything you have," Carly said to Sam as the girls, Freddie and Gibby walked through the mall. "But those jeans at Glitter Gloss would match perfectly with them, and they were fifty percent off. Plus they would look totally awesome on you!"

"So should I go back and get the shoes and pants?" Sam asked.

"No!" Freddie and Gibby both moaned at once.

"What's up with you two?" Carly frowned.

"That store is back all the way at the other end of the mall!" Freddie exclaimed. "We've been walking around all day!"

"Yeah, do you know what that does for my bunion problem?" Gibby nodded.

"No one wants to hear you complain about your weird feet issues!" Sam snapped.

"Guys, I thought you said you wanted to come to the mall today," Carly said. "You didn't have to come."

"We thought we were going to be here for an hour!" Freddie defended. "Or two, tops!"

"That was your mistake," Sam smirked. "The mall is an all day activity with Carly."

"Look, if you don't want to come back to the shoe store and Glitter Gloss with Sam and I, why don't you two just find a bench and sit around like the slugs you are," Carly said, rolling her eyes.

"Slugs?" Gibby gasped, offended. "I don't think I like Shopping Carly!"

"Fine, we'll go sit and you guys go buy shoes and pants and the whole rest of the mall!" Freddie said.

"Good choice, later!" Sam said, grabbing Carly's bags and shoving them and her own into Freddie's arms.

"Wait, no I don't want to carry around your-" Freddie started but Carly and Sam had already turned and headed off.

"We should've stayed home, right?" Gibby said.

"We're very stupid people, Gib," Freddie sighed. "Come on, let's go to the food court or something."

"Sweet, we can get churros!" Gibby cheered.

The two headed through the crowd until the reached the mall's large food court and grabbed the first empty table they saw.

"I really wish Carly wasn't our ride back home, we're gonna be here for at least six more hours," Freddie said. "Which sucks for me, I still need to think of something to do my semester project on."

"Hey, want to be partners for that?" Gibby asked.

"Um, Gib, don't take this the wrong way," Freddie said slowly. "But when it comes to projects, you, um, you're not-"

"Oh, I get it," Gibby smiled. "Don't worry, bro. I'd hate to work with someone who would overshadow me too."

"Yeah…right," Freddie nodded. "Anyway, I'm really behind on this project. I just got my laptop back from being repaired."

"What was wrong with it?" Gibby asked.

"Remember? That moron Court that Carly and Sam hired to be iCarly's intern spilled bagged lemonade all over it!" Freddie replied. "It took the Pear store two weeks to get it fixed. Plus the stupid extended warranty doesn't cover damage from liquids so I'm also out five hundred bucks too!"

"Bagged lemonade…that sure is something," Gibby chuckled. "So what are we gonna do while we're stuck at the mall? Hey, can we go get matching T-shirts with our faces on them?"
"Absolutely not," Freddie said firmly. He looked around the food court. "Hey, I think they put in a few new arcade games over by the fountain. Wanna go play Pac Rat or something?"

"Sure," Gibby agreed.

"I think I have a few quarters," Freddie said as the two walked over to the games.

"Hey, look at this one!" Gibby said, nodding over at a large pink game system. "It's a Love Calculating Machine!"

"What? Pfft, those things don't work," Freddie scoffed. "Come on, if we're gonna waste our money, let's at least blow up a few alien space ships."

"Hang on, I want to try this out," Gibby said, fishing a quarter out of his pocket and depositing it into the machine. "It says you just enter two people's names and it will tell you how 'Love Compatible' they are. I want to test out me and Tasha."

"Gibby, you can't honestly think a mall arcade game can tell you how compatible you are with a person," Freddie said, shaking his head. "Besides, are you and Tasha even dating anymore?"

"We're not exclusive," Gibby shrugged. "Hey! It says we're seventy-five percent compatible!"

"Very nice," Freddie said boredly.

"Why don't you try, dude?" Gibby suggested.

"Because I'm not going to waste my money to support some machine designed to sucker people out of their quarters and give them false hopes about their love lives!" Freddie said.

"Fine, I'll try for you, since you're being a downer," Gibby said, getting out another quarter. "Let's see…we'll put in Fredward Benson and…Carly Shay!"

"Gibby, this is ridiculous," Freddie sighed. "It's stupid and-"

"Tough break man, you only got a nineteen percent with her," Gibby said.

"I think I'll live," Freddie said, crossing his arms.

"Well since you didn't have any luck with Carly…" Gibby said, depositing another quarter into the machine. "Maybe you'll have better luck with Sam."

"What? Dude, now you're just being crazy," Freddie laughed. "If I got a nineteen percent with Carly, I'll probably wind up getting a negative fifty with Sam."

"Whoa!" Gibby grinned. "You two got a ninety-eight!"

"A ninety-eight?" Freddie frowned, looking at the machine. "Well that just proves this machine is full of garbage. How could Sam and I be ninety-eight percent compatible. We hate each other. And we have, like, nothing in common. We are not compatible!"

"Wow, you're getting pretty defensive for a guy who thinks this machine's a joke," Gibby grinned.

"It is a joke!" Freddie snapped. "You can't tell how compatible two people are by just putting their names into some cheap machine! The relationship between two people is complex and based on so many different factors. Moods, emotions, ages, how long the people know each other. You know what? I could make a device that would be a better indicator of how someone feels about another person that this hunk of junk! You know what? I will do that. That's what my semester project will be! I'll make an-an app that can tell how a person feels. You know…I can probably make it so it can tell you any emotion a person is feeling…facial features are the prime indicator of emotions, after all. I can make an app that will take a person's picture, analyze it and compare it to a database I'll compile and boom! It will tell you how you're feeling!"

"You just said how a person feels is 'complex' and blah, blah, blah," Gibby pointed out.

"Obviously this won't be one hundred percent," Freddie replied. "Think of it more as an…estimate. But it sure will be a heck of a lot more accurate than this Love Machine. Me and Sam ninety-eight percent compatible…ha! My app would never make such an absurd conclusion."

"I don't know, man, I could see you two together," Gibby said.

"What?" Freddie exclaimed. "Gibby, please, your mind has clearly been diluted by this stupid thing. Come on, let's go to the exercise shop. I need some new weights. Did I tell you? I can bench almost 180 now."

"Is that a lot?"

"Yes!" Freddie snapped. "And you know what? In a few weeks, if I keep it up, I might be able to last three whole seconds against Sam in an arm wrestling match."

"Whoa…no one's lasted three seconds with her before!" Gibby said.

"I know," Freddie grinned. "So come on, the store's right there."

"Hey," Gibby said, looking over his shoulder as the boys walked away from the game. "What's that kiosk over there? Whoa! I think they make replicas of your head over there! Can we go check it out?"

"No, Gib," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

AN-So in case you couldn't tell, this is a prequel to iOMG. Hope you liked it!