Spoil
"What's the point of learning all this economy stuff?" Sam whispered to Freddie as their Economics teacher prattled on about a diagram he was showing on the projector. "I'm not gonna go into politics. But hey…if I did you think I could just use all the money in the government to build a giant waterpark?"
"No! What kind of politician would do that?" Freddie hissed.
"Didn't that one president do something like that though?" Sam said. "What's his name…Nixon?"
"Nixon did not build a waterpark," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"Well then what was that whole Watergate thing about?" Sam snapped.
"Do you pay attention in any class?"
Just then the phone on the teacher's desk began to ring and he stopped lecturing to pick it up.
"Hello?" he answered. "Who do you need sent down? Ms. Puckett? Alright."
"Ha!" Freddie whispered smugly. "You're in trouble."
"I didn't even do anything!" Sam frowned. "Well, that they could prove…"
"Hold on, who else do you need to see?" the teacher continued on the phone. "Mr. Benson as well? Alright, I'll send them both down."
"Huh?" Freddie said, surprised.
"You're in trouble too," Sam smirked triumphantly.
"How? I'm Freddie!" Freddie said. "I don't get into trouble!"
"Yes, we're all aware of your nerd motto."
"Alright Sam, Freddie, you're needed down at the principal's office," the teacher said as he hung up the phone. "Please gather up your belongings and head over there. Oh, and if you're worried about missing my thrilling lecture, don't worry; it's on my blog!"
"Um, we-we'll definitely check it out," Freddie said quickly before Sam could reply.
"Wonder what Franklin wants to see both of us for," Sam said as the two started down the hallway.
"I swear, Sam, if you somehow dragged my name into one of your little stunts, I'l'-I'll-"
"You'll what? Stutter at me?" Sam said. "Dude, relax. The last thing I'd want is for any of my brilliant pranks to have you associated with it. Maybe Franklin just wants to be on iCarly again."
"Well then why wouldn't Carly be called down too?" Freddie pointed out.
"She might have been; she's in a different class right now," Sam said. "Franklin probably called her teacher to have her come down too."
"Oh, well…I guess that makes sense," Freddie said.
The headed into the office and sat down in the hard chairs by the secretary's desk.
A second later Principal Franklin poked his head out the door of his office. "Oh good, Sam and Freddie. You two can come in now."
"But shouldn't we wait for Carly?" Freddie frowned.
"Carly?" Franklin repeated. "No, no, this doesn't concern her. Now come on in here."
Sam and Freddie exchanged confused glances as they slowly walked into the office.
"I didn't do anything!" Freddie said at once as Franklin closed the door. "I am an honors student!"
"Oh get a grip," Sam said, shaking her head.
"Nobody here is in trouble," Principal Franklin assured the two teens.
"We-We're not?" Freddie said.
"Good, so you can stop crying now," Sam said.
"I wasn't crying!"
"Then why are your eyes all shiny?"
"They're not-"
"Enough!" Franklin said, holding up his hand to silence the two. "Now, as I'm sure you noticed, there has been some construction going on in the North hallway after a certain event caused a bit of damage."
He glared at Sam.
"And due to a certain oversight in the planning process, we accidently hired the same locker company that went and constructed the infamous locker 239," Franklin sighed. "And unfortunately, the same thing happened this time. Four lockers were constructed as one, creating on giant, very desirable locker."
"Whoa; so locker 239 is back?" Sam said.
"Yes, it would seem so," Franklin nodded. "And in order to avoid another huge contest, the staff and I decided that it would be easiest for everybody if we were to just award the locker to the two of you since you were the last students to have it."
"Wait," Freddie said. "So-So we're gonna share locker 239 again?"
"That's right," the principal nodded.
"Alright!" Sam cheered. "I can bring back my entertainment system!"
"Wait, but-I can't share a locker with her!" Freddie said. "She-She's a demon! She'll spill chili on all my books and steal my pudding cups and store stink bombs in there!"
"Hey, if Fredbutt doesn't want to share the locker, do I get the whole thing to myself?" Sam asked.
"Well yes, I suppose if Freddie does forfeit his half of the locker, the whole thing would be-"
"Hey! Wait a second!" Freddie said. "I am not giving up that locker. It has enough shelf space for all my AV equipment! Oh! I know! Right before Sam's mom drove right into the locker and destroyed it, she forfeited her half of the locker! Yeah! I paid her and everything! Before it was crashed into, the last original occupant of locker 239 was me and only me!"
"Sam, is this true?" Principal Franklin asked. "You gave up your half of the locker?"
"I don't know what he's talking about, Ted," Sam said. "Why would I give up the best locker in the school? Even if was infested with is dorkiness?"
"What? Sam! You did give up that locker! You said you wanted your old one next to Carly's back and-"
"Well Freddie, did you and Sam draw up any sort of a contract about her giving up her half?" Franklin asked. "One that you can show me to settle this?"
"Well, no," Freddie admitted. "But-But she-"
"Well then I'm still going to have you both share the locker," he said. "You can move your belongings into after school today. Now head on back to class."
"But she-I don't want-she's going to-"
"Dude, enough with the stuttering, let's go," Sam said, getting to her feet and yanking him up as well.
"Sam! You know you gave up your half of the locker!" Freddie said once they left the office.
"Course I do," Sam said. "But this little stunt will teach you to start getting all agreements in writing. Consider it a life lesson."
"Well…this time us sharing the locker is going to be different," Freddie said firmly. "For starters, you're not going to have any 'locker parties'; no storing small animals in there. No-"
"When did you think you suddenly got the authority to lay down rules for me?" Sam snapped. "Listen nub, this is how it's going to work. I'll do what I what, when I want, and you're not going to do a thing about it."
"Well then…same goes for me!" Freddie said. "I'll do exactly what I want with my half of the locker; even if it's the dorkiest, most annoying thing to you. And there's not going to be a thing you can do about it."
"Fine," Sam said. "Your dumb cameras won't bug me when I'm cooking breakfast with my waffle maker."
"Your kitchen appliances won't bug me when I'm decorating the place with my Galaxy Wars posters either," Freddie said.
"We'll see," Sam said simply.
…
"Here is the dividing line between your half and my half," Freddie said after school that day as he precisely laid down a line of bright red duck tape throughout the locker. "I don't touch anything on your half, you don't touch anything on my half."
"You half is way bigger than mine!" Sam exclaimed.
"No, we both have exactly the same amount of space!" Freddie said. "Would you like to measure it yourself?"
"Don't turn this into some way to make me do math outside of class," Sam snapped. "Alright…I guess I can put my sound system on that bottom shelf, and my Crockpot can go here…The real problem is where am I going to put my prize spitball."
"You can't put that thing in our locker," Freddie said. "It's disgusting!"
"It's art!" Sam defended, reaching down into the large box of her belongings she had brought from her old locker and pulling out the spitball, which was roughly the size of Freddie's head. "And besides, you said as long as I didn't touch your precious nerd junk in here, you'd be fine with whatever I brought."
"But-"
"Man, it's nice to finally have a locker with some space," Sam said, ignoring Freddie's protests as she carefully placed the spitball on her top shelf. "I could hardly fit everything in my old one. I had to sell all my books just to make room for toaster…"
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Freddie said as he began to unload his own belongings into the locker. "I used to have to keep all these valuable HDMI cords in the AV closet. Now they can be safe and sound in here…assuming no bacon grease gets on them."
"Oh hey, speaking of safe and sound, I was thinking I could get this electrician my mom's dating to come here one day to put in an alarm system," Sam said.
"Wasn't your last alarm system really dangerous?" Freddie frowned. "I thought Franklin made you get rid of it."
"Eh, that was just because the electrician didn't know what he was doing," Sam shrugged. "This new guy is a lot smarter…kind of. He is dating my mom."
"Oh, well, I guess if it's not going to hurt anybody then…alright," Freddie shrugged. "I'd like for my stuff to be protected."
"Hey you guys," Carly smiled, walking over to the two. "How goes the move in? Does everybody still have all their limbs?"
"Yeah, we haven't killed each other yet," Sam smirked.
"Good, let's keep it that way," Carly said. "You know…I think you can share this locker with no problem this time. I mean, you've both grown up a lot these past couple of years. You've dated. If that hasn't brought you closer together, I don't know what will. Oh…you-you did bring the spitball with you, Sam."
"Sure did," Sam grinned.
"Yup," Freddie sighed. "She sure did…"
"Well, um, I just came by because I got you guys a sort of 'housewarming' gift," Carly said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small stack of pictures. "Here; I thought these would be a nice touch. They're all of the three of us, so I figured you two could have them up without arguing about them."
"That's actually a pretty smart idea," Freddie said, taking the pictures from Carly. "Thanks!"
"Yeah, these will be much better than his Nug Nug poster," Sam nodded.
"That poster wasn't of Nug Nug, it was of-"
"Don't really care," Sam said, snatching the pictures from Freddie as she started to go through them.
"Alright, well, I'll see you guys later," Carly said. "Have fun moving into the locker. And please just try to get along."
"I don't make promises I can't keep," Sam smirked.
"So what pictures did Carly give us?" Freddie asked as Carly walked away. "Some good ones?"
"Yeah, these are actually really good ones," Sam nodded. "Here's all of at the beach…a couple from iCarly…all of us at the Groovy Smoothie…look T-Bo's totally picking his nose in this one!"
"And he wonders why he always gets those letters from the health inspectors," Freddie chuckled.
"Here's us with the first lady," Sam said. "And here's…hey, this is just the two of us."
She held up a picture of her and Freddie with their arms around one another in front of the movie theatre.
"Huh," Freddie said, taking the picture to get a better look at it. "Oh, you know, this must have been taken when we were, um, you know…a thing."
"Oh right," Sam said. "Yeah…I-I kind of remember this, actually. We were at the movies and we had Carly take our picture before we ditched her to-"
She quickly stopped talking as her face reddened.
To make out in the back of the theatre Freddie finished silently. He remembered that day too; almost as if it was yesterday…
"So, um, what should we do with it?" Freddie asked.
"I dunno," Sam said.
The two were silent for a moment.
"Well, um, it is a nice picture of the two of us," Freddie finally spoke.
"Yeah, I look good in it," Sam nodded. "So, um, maybe…maybe if we ignore the stupidity in both of our eyes in this we could…"
"Keep it?" Freddie finished.
"Um, yeah," Sam said.
"Yeah, we-we could do that," Freddie nodded.
"Alright, well…hang all these up then," Sam said, shoving the rest of the pictures into his hand. "I'm gonna get the rest of my stuff from my old locker."
"Okay," Freddie agreed.
As Sam hurried off, Freddie looked back down at the picture of him and Sam. Maybe he was delusional, but it sure didn't look like stupidity in their eyes.
He carefully tacked up the picture right in the center of the locker door.
It is a good picture, Freddie said to himself as he felt a small smile creep onto his face.
….
A couple days later Freddie dragged his feet into school, his stomach still grumbling from not having anything to eat. His mother had found his stash of cereal; a brand she claimed had too much sugar, not enough fiber, and an inaccurate representation of leprechauns, and had offered him only vitamin-enriched porridge as an alternative. And after almost throwing up from his last experience with the bland porridge, he decided it was in his best interest to forgo the meal altogether.
Alright, just four more hours until lunch, Freddie told himself as he approached his and Sam's locker.
Sam was already at the locker and there was a thin line of steam coming from inside of it.
"Sam!" he said, started. "What's going on with the locker? Did the alarm system short out again?"
"Huh? Oh, no," Sam said, opening the locker door. "I'm making waffles."
"W-Waffles?" Freddie repeated, feeling his mouth water and stomach grumble even more.
"Well yeah, what did you think the waffle maker was for?" Sam asked, opening up the device and pulling out a perfectly cooked chocolate-chip waffle. She took a bite. "Oh yeah…that's the stuff."
She reached back into the locker for a bottle of maple syrup and squirted some directly into her mouth.
Freddie's stomach gave another loud grumble.
"You hungry or something?" Sam smirked. "Didn't you fill up on mommy's gluten-free, sugarless pancakes?"
"No!" Freddie snapped. "I would've killed for those pancakes today. She tried to make me eat this disgusting porridge junk. I had to dump all of it down the sink just to keep from gagging on the scent. And now I've got to starve until lunch!"
"Well…here," Sam said, reaching into the locker and pulling out another waffle. "I guess you can have this one. I was gonna try to bribe my French teacher into letting me skip my quiz today, but if you're gonna whine…"
"Whoa, you serious?" Freddie said.
"Yeah, why not," Sam shrugged. "Besides, I spilled batter on your calculus book, so this can make us even."
"Oh yeah, we are so even," Freddie said, getting lost in the delicious taste. "These are good! I forgot what waffles without spinach hidden in them taste like!"
"Your mom ruins waffles too?" Sam frowned, shaking her head. "Disgraceful…Alright, well I'm gonna go see if Wendy wants to try and sneak another chipmunk into the teacher's lounge. Later, Fredbag."
"See you," Freddie replied, taking another bite of his breakfast. It seemed sharing a locker with a blonde-headed demon had its perks.
….
"Hey Spencer," Freddie said a few days later as he let himself into the Shay's apartment.
"Hey Fred-O," Spencer said, turning off the T.V. "Sam and Carly just left; they said they were going to Build-a-Bra."
"Oh, that's okay, I just need to do a few adjustments to the iCarly site," Freddie said. "You cool if I do that here?"
"Go for it," Spencer nodded. "Hey, so Carly told me a couple days ago that you and Sam are sharing some huge locker at school."
"Yup," Freddie nodded. "That locker is great, Spencer! I have all my editing equipment in there, plus a nice desk tray to keep all my work organized."
"I had a desk tray once," Spencer said thoughtfully. "And then I turned it into a hat…"
"Um…okay," Freddie said, sitting down on the couch.
"Wait, so how's sharing a locker with Sam?" Spencer asked. "Are the two of you on the other's nerves yet?"
"Actually…" Freddie said. "It isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"It's not?"
"No," Freddie said. "It's kind of…nice. I mean yeah, at first I was afraid that Sam would constantly be messing with my stuff and annoying me, but she's really been a great locker mate! You know the other day she actually kept me from being stuffed in the locker by these football players?"
"Why were football players trying to stuff you into your locker?"
"The AV club refused to give them half our budget for them to buy new jackets," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"Ah," Spencer nodded. "So you really like sharing a locker with Sam then?"
"It's weird, I know," Freddie said. "But I really do. I guess we're just a lot more compatible than we were the first time we tried this."
"Guess so," Spencer nodded.
…..
The next day, Freddie walked towards his and Sam's locker carrying a small box. The other day, Sam had mentioned that it was a bit hot in the hallway, so he thought he'd surprise her and install a little fan in their locker.
"Hey, Sam," he said as he reached their locker. "Guess what? I found this-what-what are you doing?"
Sam was standing in front of the open locker, carefully taking out her things and placing them into a box at her feet.
"Oh, hey Fredgut," Sam said, looking up.
"What are you doing?" Freddie asked again.
"Well…turns out that I still miss having a locker next to Carly," Sam said. "I mean we have our locker gossip, we get to see the football team walk by us on the way to their locker room, plus it just feels weird without her. We've had lockers next to each other since we got them in the sixth grade! So I'm gonna move back to my old locker."
"You-You are?" Freddie frowned.
"Yeah, so looks like this is your lucky day, Fredwad," Sam nodded. "You get this entire locker to yourself without my demonness taking up space. You can stop worrying about me spilling barbecue sauce on your homework."
"Sam, are-are you sure you-what if-can't Carly just switch to a locker down here?" Freddie asked.
"Nah, she tried," Sam said. "It was no good."
"Oh," Freddie said softly, looking down at his feet.
"Oh come on, this has got to be the best thing to happen to your nubby butt in ages," Sam smirked. "Hey, I even made you this."
She reached into her bag and pulled out a slip of paper.
"It's an official document that says I willingly moved out and left the locker to you," Sam said. "That way in case another car crashes through the school and takes it out, only you'll get the replacement."
"It's written on the back of a tanning salon receipt."
"Well we were out of paper at my house, and my mom left that lying around," Sam shrugged.
"So…you-you really doing this then?" Freddie asked, feeling a small pang of sadness. Things had been going so great having Sam as a locker mate. They had been getting along better and had been spending more time together. It had been, well, fun.
"Yeah, for the millionth time, I'm leaving," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "So you can start the celebrations."
What celebrations? Freddie thought glumly.
"It does suck that I'm loosing all this space though," Sam sighed. "I mean I finally had enough room for everything. Now I have to go back to jamming it all in one tiny locker."
"Hey, I know!" Freddie said, an idea sparking in his mind. "Why-Why don't you keep some of your stuff here?"
"Huh?" Sam said.
"Yeah, I mean, I don't have enough stuff to take up all the space in the locker," Freddie reasoned. "So-So maybe you could leave whatever doesn't fit in your locker by Carly in here and come back and, um, visit, when you need to."
"You serious?" Sam said. "You'd be okay with me leaving some of my stuff in here?"
"Sure," Freddie nodded.
"Well, um…okay then," Sam said. "I guess if I leave my waffle iron and microwave and slingshot collection in here that could make my locker a little less cramped. Alright, cool, well I'm gonna go bring the rest of this stuff back and start putting it away. See you later, Fredhead."
As Sam picked up her box and turned the corner, Freddie glanced at the inside of his locker door. The picture of him and Sam still hung right in the center even though Sam had taken the other pictures.
Well, good things always do seem to come to an end with us, he thought sadly.
