Scaling

"You know, I think I'm going to like being a web show star," thirteen-year old Freddie said as he sat down at the Shay's kitchen table with Carly and Sam. "At school today, three girls told me they liked my shirt."
"Aw," Carly smiled sweetly.

"I told them to get lost though!" Freddie added quickly. "Don't worry, Carly, you know you're the only girl for me."

"Yeah…keep holding onto that dream," Sam spat, rolling her eyes. "When are you going to accept that nobody, especially Carly, will ever love you?"

"That's it, Puckett, I am done taking this abuse!" Freddie said firmly, slamming his fist down on the table. "I'm out of here!"

"No you're not," Sam said simply.

"Yes I-"

"Freddie, please stay," Carly said.

"Okay!" Freddie nodded, taking his seat again.

"Pathetic," Sam mumbled, shaking her head.

"Guys, come on, let's finish this geography project," Carly said. "We have to make a perfectly scaled model the Andes Mountain. We should at least have some idea of what we need to do before we go upstairs to start brainstorming new iCarly ideas."

"I told you what we should do," Sam said. "We buy the stand for the model, rip it up and make it look all destroyed, and then we turn that in and say a bear got to it!"

"Where would we have come across a bear?" Carly asked, amused.

"I dunno, the water park!" Sam shrugged.

"Sam, Carly's not going to let us turn in something like that," Freddie said. "She cares about her grades, right Carly?"

"You guys, I'm starting to get a little tired of being in the middle of all your arguments," Carly sighed. "We're all friends here."
Sam and Freddie both scoffed.

"I'm serious!" Carly said. "Come on, hasn't staring on a web show that gets over a thousand views every week brought you two even a little closer together?"

"It's brought my fist closer to his face," Sam mumbled.

"Carly!" Freddie yelled, scooting his chair away from the blonde.

"Ugh! You two are such children," Carly said. "Maybe one day you'll at least be, I dunno, civil to each other. Anyway, back to the project. I was thinking maybe we could ask Spencer to help us make the model out of paper machè."

"That is genius, Carly!" Freddie said. He turned to Sam. "See, isn't Carly so smart?"

"I dunno, I've been questioning her intelligence ever since she let you start hanging around."
"Sam…" Carly said warningly just as the front door opened and Spencer walked in.

"Hey teens," Spencer said brightly. "You know, I just passed the nicest family moving in on my way up here. They had the sweetest kid, too. I think his name was…Chuck. We'll have to have them over for dinner sometime. So what are you guys up to?"

"We have to make a model of the Andes Mountains for school," Carly explained. "Wanna help us?"

"Sure!" Spencer nodded.

"Good, he can take my space," Sam said, getting up and heading to the fridge.

"Sam, when the three of us got assigned to this group together, you promised you'd do your fair share," Carly reminded her.

"Sam doesn't know the first thing about doing her 'fair share'," Freddie said.

"And you stop provoking her!" Carly said firmly. "I can't defend you if you practically beg for her to hurt you!"

"So how big does this model have to be?" Spencer asked. "Six feet? Twelve?"

"Fifteen inches," Carly said.

"Inches? Where' the fun in that?" Spencer exclaimed.

"The class room's not big enough for twenty giant mountain ranges," Carly smiled. "Hey, you still have all those old newspapers for us to use for the paper machè down in the storage unit, right?"

"No, I used all of those last week to make a boat," Spencer said.

"You made a boat?" Sam asked. "Where is it?"

"At the bottom of a lake in the park," he replied. "Turned out…it didn't float."
"Well that's okay, we can just run out and get more papers, right?" Carly said.

"Yeah, of course, kiddo," Spencer said, grabbing his keys. "We can go right now."

"Awesome," Carly said, getting to her feet and grabbing her jacket. "And while we're gone, Sam, Freddie, I need you two to run to the craft store and get lots of white glue and brown paint and chicken wire."
"You want me to be seen out in public with the nub?" Sam cringed.

"Carly, she-she's going to burry me alive or something!" Freddie said anxiously.

"No she won't," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Right, Sam?"

"Yeah, of course not," Sam nodded. "I traded my shovel for a Fat Cake a few months back. Although I guess I could just dig the hole with my hands…"

"Look, you guys are both my friends, and you need to start getting along, so think of this errand as-as a bonding experiment," Carly said.

"Bonding?" Sam repeated.

"That's right," Carly said brightly. "And until you two can improve your attitudes towards each other just a little bit, I'm going to keep sending you out on bonding errands until you can act like people around each other."

"Fine!" Sam groaned.

"Good, we'll all meet back here in an hour then," Carly said. "And-And just don't kill each other. Please."

"Dude, what did I say about walking so close to me?" Sam snapped as her and Freddie walked down the sidewalk after leaving the craft store. "What if people think I'm associated with you?"

"Well I need to watch you to make sure you don't take Carly's change and spend it on meat or something," Freddie said. "And I should be the one to carry the bag! You might do-do hoodlimish activities with our project supplies!"

"Ugh, I cannot believe Carly left me with you!" Sam moaned.

"I can't believe she left me with you!"

"Hey, you should be lucky I haven't smeared your face into the sidewalk yet!" Sam said loudly.

"Oh yeah?" Freddie retorted. "Well-Well I-"

"Aw, can't think of a comeback, nub?" Sam sneered. "Are you going to run back to the studio and tell Carly on me?"
"Maybe I will, you blonde-headed-"

"Out of my way, you two punks!" a grown man said, shoving past them on the sidewalk and dragging a small three-legged cat behind him. "Let's go you stupid animal! Keep up with me! Man! How useless can you be?"

"Whoa…what's that guy's problem?" Freddie frowned as the two watched the man stop in front of a nearby store.

"He's being a total jerk to that cat!" Sam said angrily.

"Sit down, you feline!" the man yelled, spraying water all over the cat from his water bottle. "Are you too dumb to understand English? I said sit!"

He spat on the cat, who was meowing indignantly in response.

"Someone should report him to Animal Services," Freddie said.

"They don't ever do anything," Sam said, thrusting the craft bag into Freddie's hands. "I'll take care of this."

"Sam wait, what are you-" Freddie started, but Sam had already begun heading over to the man and his cat.

"Hey, dude!" Sam yelled as she reached them. "What's your deal? Why are you acting like such a jerkwad to your cat? It didn't do anything to you!"
"Hey lady, you don't know how horrible this pathetic excuse for an animal is!" they man snapped. "He brushes against my leg when I don't feed him, he meows when I forget to change the litter box, and he can't even chase the mice out of my trailer because he only has three stinkin' legs!"

"That doesn't mean you can just treat him badly!" Sam said.

Freddie, still watching from a safe distance, couldn't help but marvel at the scene. It was weird, suddenly seeing Sam using her bravery and fearlessness to help someone instead of to hurt, well, him. He had never seen her actually defend someone…even if that someone was a cat.

"Look, why don't you go back to your dress shopping lady," the man told Sam, rolling his eyes. "And leave me to handle my cat who can forget about me buying him cat food for the next week!"

"Alright, Pus Bag," Sam said, her voice taking that scary tone Freddie recognized all to well; the tone in which pain was sure to follow. "If you can't treat your cat decently then you're going to have to deal with me."

"With you?" the man scoffed. "Why would I be afraid of a little girl? Now I told you, leave me alone and-"

Sam grabbed the man's arm and flipped him onto the ground in one swift motion, just as she had done to Freddie last week when he accidently ate the last pudding cup at Carly's.

"You-You're psycho!" the man stammered, getting to his feet.

"Yeah, I am!" Sam snapped. "And tell your friends!"

The man, giving Sam one last terrified glance, stumbled to his feet and hurried away, leaving his poor cat behind.

"Sam, that-that was amazing!" Freddie exclaimed, running over as Sam bent down to pick up the cat. "You totally taught the guy a lesson!"

"Duh," Sam said, scratching the cat's ears, causing the animal to emit a soft purr. "What was I supposed to do? Watch that freak keep hurting this poor little guy?"

"I-I just never knew you could use your powers for good," Freddie chuckled.

Sam glared at him.

"I'm shutting up!" Freddie said at once.

"I wonder what this guy's name is," Sam said, turning back to the cat. "He doesn't have a collar…I guess I could name him. Hey, nub, what do you think of Frothy?"

"Frothy?" Freddie repeated. "Wait, why are you naming him?"

"Because I'm keeping him," Sam said simply.

"Keeping him?" Freddie frowned.

"Why not?" Sam shrugged.

"But-But he belongs to that jerk."
"You think I'm going to let this cat stay with that loser?" Sam said. "You saw him! No, Frothy is coming home with me. My mom won't mind; I doubt she'll even notice. Besides, it gets kind of lonely at my place…I mean….shut up, I'm keeping him."

And with that she spun on her heel and began heading off.

Wow, Freddie thought as he hurried after her. Who knew Sam could actually care about another living thing. I never would've thought she'd be the type of girl to worry over whether a cat was taken care of or not…you know, maybe she's not as mean and vicious as she-

"What did I tell you about walking so close to me?" Sam snapped, looking back over her shoulder at him. "Ten steps away at all time, you nub! What part of 'I don't want to be seen with you' did you not get?"