Routine

"Hey, you know what I've always wondered?" Carly said to Sam as the two of them lounged lazily on the Shay's couch, watching T.V. "Why do these celebrities agree to be dunked underwater for insane amounts of time? I mean, do they not care that they could drown?"

"Carls, these are all washed up celebrities," Sam explained. "They're just happy to be back on television. They're probably all sick of their lame lives and routines and will do anything to get back in the spotlight."

"I guess," Carly nodded. "But still, it seems a little drastic to-"

"Well! My life's over!" Freddie announced, bursting into the apartment.

"Hello to you too," Carly said.

"Why's your life over, baby?" Sam asked.

"Because MIT started sending out acceptance emails three days ago and I still haven't heard anything," Freddie sighed, sitting down next to her as she put an arm around him. "Which means I probably didn't get in at all."

"Dude, that's ridiculous," Sam said supportively. "Of course you got in! You're crazy smart, you do all the tech stuff on iCarly, you got super high SAT scores-"

"Then why haven't they emailed me yet?" Freddie moaned.

"Maybe they're still sending out acceptances," Carly reasoned.

"But everybody else has heard back," Freddie sighed. "I really don't think I got in, you guys. Think about it; I would've heard by now. It makes no sense for them to send out everybody else's acceptance letters and just wait to send out mine."

"Maybe something happened with their system and there was some sort of delay," Sam suggested.

"Sam, this is MIT," Freddie scoffed. "They don't have tech errors!"

"Look, Freddie, I know you're bummed, and that's totally understandable," Carly said. "But you can't get yourself down like this. You may still get into the school. And if not, then you'll come to Washington State with Sam and me."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be so bad, would it?" Sam pointed out.

Freddie shrugged. "No, I guess not." He looked over at Sam. "I mean I'd be with you."

"See? Everything will work out," Carly promised him.

"Actually…I've been thinking about going to MIT next year that I really haven't given Washington State that much thought," Freddie said. "Being there with you guys would be great. Sam and I wouldn't have to deal with a long distance relationship, we could still keep up iCarly on a less-frequent schedule, I could come home more often…well, that isn't exactly a big plus. But hey, my mom would stop freaking out about how I'm leaving her!"

"See, even if you don't get into MIT, you're still going to be fine," Sam smiled, giving him a quick kiss. "Hey, if we all go there, maybe we can even get an apartment one year when we're done with dorms!"

"Oh yeah!" Carly nodded. "That would be fun! Of course we'd have to establish some rules…I don't want to be walking in on anything more than I'm already forced to when you two have your own homes."

"Right," Freddie chuckled. "And with the three of us renting an apartment it wouldn't be too expensive!"

"We could get a dog!" Sam exclaimed. "And the two of you could take turns walking him!"

"The three of us," Freddie corrected.

"Hey, since Washington State isn't too far, I bet Spencer wouldn't mind driving us up some cool sculptures," Carly added. "So we can spice the place up."

"And my cousin can get us furniture for practically nothing, so long as we don't ask questions," Sam nodded.

"You know, maybe me not getting into MIT was for the best," Freddie said thoughtfully.

The next day Freddie way lying in bed, fooling around with his laptop, when Sam came in.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Hey," Freddie replied, grinning as she sat down next to him. He kissed her and pulled her closer to him. "I thought you were hanging out with your mom today."

"I was, but after we went shopping for a little bit, she got a call from some zoo keeper she's been interested in and I told her we'd hang later," Sam shrugged. "So I thought I'd come over here."

"Great," Freddie said. "I was just thinking about you, actually. You know how we were talking about the three of us at Washington State yesterday?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded.
"Well I realized that with us going to the same college, it's really going to strengthen our relationship," Freddie said. "So I was thinking…why don't we get a head start on that?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I mean after graduation, why don't we take a weekend and go on a little road trip to check everything out," Freddie aid. "We could get to know the campus, find the best spots to eat, look at some of the classrooms…plus it would be our first trip together."

"Wow…" Sam said. "That would be amazing."

"I even found some places nearby we could stay Freddie said, opening his laptop back up. "There's this one place that-whoa."

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"I-I just got an email," Freddie said slowly. "From MIT…."

"Seriously?" Sam said. "Well what are you waiting for? Open it up!"

"It's probably the rejection email they finally got around to sending me," Freddie shrugged. "I mean Gibby got his this morning."

"Wait, Gibby applied to MIT?" Sam frowned.

"He thought it stood for Massachusetts Institute of Tea," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "I should just delete this."

"Well…you should still read it," Sam told him. "Maybe they told you to reapply some other time."

"I doubt it," Freddie sighed, opening the email anyway. "It's probably just-oh my God. Sam, I-I-I got in."

"What?" Sam exclaimed. "You got in? Oh my God! Baby, that's fantastic!"

She threw her arms around him and kissed him. "I'm so proud of you!"

"There was some error sending out acceptance letters," Freddie said. "Apparently only half of them got sent out on time."

"See, I told you," Sam smirked. "Now you can go to your dream school! You-You're going too MIT…"

As she said those words, it really seemed to hit her. Freddie would be leaving her now.

Freddie seemed to be having the same thoughts. "I could still decline them," he said.

"Why would you do that?" Sam frowned. "You've been wanting to go to MIT since you were ten."

"But Sam," he said. "I'd-I'd be so far from you. And we were just saying how perfect it would be if I went to Washington State with you and Carly. We'd get to spend all this time together and-"

"You can't give up MIT," Sam said softly.

"But I don't want to give you up either."
Sam smiled up at him. "You're not giving me up just because you want to do something so important to you. Baby, go to MIT. I'll be here still. We'll visit and call and everything."

"But it won't be the same," Freddie sighed.

"No," Sam agreed. "But we'll make it work…And hey, now we have a new reason to take that road trip; it can be one of ways we make this summer incredible before we go off in different directions. We can go up to Washington State and then we can go to MIT and look around too. It will be fun! Hey, I heard there was a great French fry place in Massachusetts that we could go to!"

"Sam, you're really okay with me going to MIT?" Freddie said.

Sam nodded. "You need to go there; it's filled with nerds just like you."

"I bet none of them are lucky enough to have a girlfriend like you," Freddie beamed.

"No, probably not," Sam agreed. "Hey, we should go celebrate! I'll take you out to Petrozini's! Oh wait, I don't have money…"

"I'll pay," Freddie laughed. "Come on. If I'm going to MIT, we're going to make the most of the time we have left together."

…..

Later that evening, after her and Freddie had gone out to dinner, Sam let herself into Carly's apartment, where Carly was working on some homework.

"Hey," Carly said brightly. "Where have you been all day?"

"Freddie got into MIT," Sam said, flopping down next to her.

"No way!" Carly gasped. "That's great!"

"Yeah, he's pretty excited," Sam said, giving a small smile. "He's already talking about which classes he's going to take and everything."

"See, we told him he had nothing to worry about," Carly said. "He was just-hey, you okay?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded, sighing heavily. "It's just…It's really starting to sink in, you know, how far away Washington State and MIT are."

"Oh Sam," Carly said softly. "I'm sorry."

"I want him to go," Sam said firmly. "But…I'm gonna miss him."

"Of course you are, he'll miss you too," Carly said. "But he really wants this-"

"Yeah, I know," Sam said. "I just hope he knows he better come and visit. A lot."