Folding

"This professor is a moron," Sam said as she sat on her bed in her and Carly's shared dorm room, looking at her laptop screen. "He gives us all these due dates and then never gives us a reminder about them! I mean how am I supposed to remember all of these dates?"

"Well aren't they all written down on your syllabus?" Carly asked.

"My what?"

"Sam!"

"Well this guy is nuts, okay?" Sam said. "And you know what he did to me this weekend? He just threw some project out at the class with absolutely no warning!"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Carly smirked. "Well are you at least prepared for this project?"

"Yeah, because luckily it's a group thing," Sam said. "So I'm working with Will."

"Oh, nice!" Carly said. "I love Will, he's great."

"I know, right?" Sam grinned. "And it's so convenient that he just lives downstairs. Plus he's one of those 'over achievers' so he'll make sure we do good on this."

"But you're gonna do your share of the work too, right, Sam?" Carly said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah," Sam sighed. "Man…I miss doing projects with Freddie. During senior year I could always get him to do the entire project."
"Well yeah, because you'd just make out with him the whole time," Carly chuckled.

"I know," Sam said proudly. "Aw…now I miss the nub even more thinking about that. I can't believe its been two whole months since I've seen him. This long distance thing sucks."

"I know, but you two will get through it," Carly said, giving her best friend a small smile.

"Eh, I know," Sam nodded. "It's just the worst…"

"Hey," Carly said. "The front desk just sent me an email instead of you by accident saying you had a package down there. Why don't you go see what it is? Maybe Freddie sent you flowers or something!"

"God, he sends those like, every week," Sam said, rolling her eyes, though there was a small smile on her face. "Alright, well, I'll go see what this package is. I should hit the vending machine while I'm down there too. I saw some delivery guy loading those chocolate Fat Cakes I love in there…"

Once Sam left the room, Carly waited a moment to make sure she didn't come back before quickly pulling out her phone and pressing it to her ears. "Hey! Yeah…yeah she just left, are you here? Great! Hold on, I'll come see if I can find you."

She hung up her phone and ran to the door and poked her head out into the hallway, spotting Freddie standing just a few feet from her door.

"Freddie!" Carly called.

"Hey, Carly!" Freddie smiled, hurrying into the room and giving the brunette a quick hug.

"Hi!" Carly grinned. "I'm so glad you're here! Sam's going to be so excited to see you! She's really been missing you."
"I've been missing her too," Freddie said. "That's why I called you the other day about doing this. I mean she surprised me at MIT last semester; I figured I should do the same for her. Thanks for helping me pull this off."

"No problem," Carly said. "You know I'll do about anything for the name of romance. Oh, Sam does sort of have a project this weekend to work on, but the partner she's working with is really good with this kind of stuff so I don't think it will take up too much of her time."

"That's okay, I'd hate to disturb her from her work," Freddie said. "Especially if she's actually planning on doing it. Besides, I brought a little homework of my own too."

"Alright, cool," Carly said.

"So you're sure you're okay with me staying in here with you guys?" Freddie asked.

"Yeah, as long as you and Sam keep it PG while I'm in here," Carly said. "Although I am going to be out tonight from five to ten thirty…do with that what you want."

"Got it," Freddie chuckled.

"Hey, Carly, are you sure you read that email right?" Sam asked, coming back in the room. "I went down to the front desk and they said that there was nothing-"

As she spotted Freddie, though, her eyes widened in shock and she dropped the half-eaten Fat Cake on the floor as she ran over to him.

"Freddie!" she exclaimed as Freddie picked her up and spun her around. "You're here! Oh my God!"

"Hey, Sam!" Freddie beamed, not putting his girlfriend down as he gave her a long, passionate kiss.

"H-How?" Sam said when they finally pulled apart. "How did-did-"

"I wanted to surprise you," Freddie told her, setting her down. "So a few weeks ago I called Carly up and we managed to pull this off."

"Carls, you-you really helped him?" Sam said, turning to her best friend.

"Duh. Come on, Sam, I know how much you've been wanting to see him again," Carly said. "I mean you sit there and stare of that picture of you guys at prom for hours sometimes."

"Aw," Freddie chuckled.

"I do not!" Sam said quickly.

"It's okay, baby," Freddie grinned, giving her another kiss. "I think it's cute that you've missed me that much."

"You're just lucky I've missed you enough not to kick your butt for that comment," Sam smirked. "Wow…I still can't believe you're here! What are we going to do? Want me to show you around campus or should we go get something to eat or should we all hang out together or-"

"Well, why don't you and Freddie catch up by yourselves for a little bit and then we'll all have lunch?" Carly suggested.

"That's a good idea," Freddie smiled.

"Okay," Sam agreed. "Hey! I can show you this corner of the library that everybody uses for a make-out spot!"

"Sounds perfect," Freddie laughed, taking her hand.

…..

"Whoa, this pizza is the best I've ever had," Freddie said as the three friends sat in Sam and Carly's dorm room later that afternoon.

"Told you," Sam said as she took a bite of her own piece. "When I first discovered this place, I ate it for a week straight.

"We had enough pizza boxes around here to build a fort," Carly chuckled.

"And they're so convenient too," Sam said. "I mean they deliver right to your dorm room! Most places make me walk all the way downstairs to get my food at the front desk!"

"Well I'm glad you found somewhere that will let you maximum your laziness potential," Freddie smiled, leaning down to give her another quick kiss.

"Aw, I'm so glad you two are gonna get to spend this weekend together," Carly smiled.

"Yeah, we really need this," Freddie agreed.

"Totally," Sam said. She wrapped her arms her boyfriend's neck. "I've really missed you."

"I've really missed you too," Freddie said softly, staring down into her eyes. "So, so much. I've missed getting to kiss you every day, getting to hug you every day, getting to see you every day, getting to-"

"Um, before you get too mushy, remember; I'm still here," Carly said. "I told you, in a few hours you can have to room all to yourselves and you can do everything you've had pent up in your systems for the past two months."

"Right, right, sorry," Freddie said quickly.

Just then there was a knock at the door and a second later it opened and a tall, handsome boy walked in.

"Hey, I smelled pizza," he said, tossing his books onto Sam's bed.

"Hey, Will!" Carly beamed.

"Will!" Sam exclaimed. "Dude, what are you doing here?"

"Um…we have a project," Will said, helping himself to a slice of pizza. "Remember?"
"Oh, right, right," Sam said. "Now, Will, what are the chances of you just doing the whole thing?"

"Slim to none," Will smirked.

"What if I buy you lunch all of next week?" Sam offered.

"Hmmm, well in that case, I guess the odds can be risen to slight possibility," Will chuckled.

"Um," Freddie said, clearing his throat as he waited to be introduced to the man who had just barged into his girlfriend's room and was currently laughing it up with her.

"Oh, Will," Sam said, turning to Freddie. "Guess who came here to surprise me? Freddie!"

"Oh, the boyfriend," Will nodded. He extended a hand to Freddie. "It's nice to finally meet you. Sam's told me a lot about you."

"Oh, well, that's…"

"Yeah, I've told you about Will too, baby," Sam said. "Remember? My friend from my psychology class who helps me out when I fall asleep during lectures."

"Oh, yeah, right," Freddie said. But you forgot to mention he was a dude, Freddie added silently.

"Will's Sam's partner for that project I told you she had," Carly told Freddie.

"Ah…of course," Freddie said. "I-I guess you two probably want to get started on it then."

"Well, um, hey maybe I can just get a lot of the work done by myself and then Sam can do the last bit once you head home," Will suggested. "I don't want to intrude on you guys."

"No, um, it's fine," Freddie said quickly. "Believe me, I'd hate to be the one to get in the way of Sam actually doing her fair share of a project for once. I've done plenty of assignments with her, after all."

"You sure you don't mind?" Will said.

"No, it's fine, I-I actually brought some homework to do myself," Freddie assured him.

"It won't take that long baby," Sam promised, giving him a short kiss. "After this we can have the rest of the day to ourselves. Especially once Carly leaves."

"Yeah, alright," Freddie smiled.

"So what am I supposed to do for this project, Will?" Sam asked, sitting down at her desk next to him.

"The instructions are in the syllabus," Will replied.

"Okay, what is this syllabus people keep talking about?"

Smirking, Will reached over for Sam's textbook on her desk (which was covered with various snack wrappers), opened it up and pulled out a folded sheet of paper and handed it to her. "This. It's the paper Professor Ramen gave us the first day of class."

"Whoa! Look at this thing!" Sam said. "All the due dates and assignments are all right here!"

"Magic," Will chuckled. "Alright, so we have to write a five page paper about classical conditioning techniques. So I'm thinking I'll handle the process of this, and you can find some examples."

"Where do I find examples?" Sam asked.

"The textbook…the Internet."

"Well what kind of examples do you want?" Sam asked.

"I dunno, whichever ones you think will work."

"Well what if they're sucky ones?"

"Then you'll just have to find new ones, won't you?" Will grinned. "Come on, Puckett, you're little games aren't gonna work. You're not getting out of doing your half of this project."
"Fine," Sam sighed as she began to flip through her textbook.

Freddie nearly fell off of his seat on Sam's bed. Were his eyes mistaken, or was Sam actually doing her fair share of her work? In all the years he had worked with her, Sam had never even come close to being this cooperative! Of course, he realized that he had enabled her a bit…he never persisted against Sam's attempts to get out of the projects like Will just had. He had to admit, he was a tiny bit impressed.

Great, Freddie thought to himself. This guy just waltzes in and already knows how to get Sam to do the one thing I never could never get her to…homework.

He glanced over at the two, now hard at work on their assignment.

If he can get her to do all that…I wonder what else he can do

…..

"Alright, well, I think that's just about everything for the project," Will told Sam a few hours later. Carly had already left, and Freddie, having just finished his own work, was sitting idly on Sam's bed.

"How's my part look?" Sam asked.

"Really good," Will told her. "See, I told you that if you just put a little effort forth you'd be fine."

"Yeah, I guess you were right," Sam nodded.

"What?" Freddie couldn't help but exclaim. "Sam! I've told you that for years!"

"Well it was a fifty-fifty effort then," Sam shrugged. She turned back to Will. "So what are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"I dunno," Will shrugged. "I was gonna go hang out at the coffee shop."

"Well Carls, Freddie and I are all gonna go get ice cream later if you wanna come," Sam said.

"Yeah, okay," Will grinned. "I'll see you later."

"Awesome, let me know if I have to do anything else for the project," Sam said.

As Will left the room, Sam bounced up and quickly stepped over to lock the door.

"Alright," she grinned as she hurried back over to the bed. "Now that we're finally alone…how about you show me how much you really missed me?"

Freddie laughed as Sam sat down on his lap and quickly brought her lips down to his.

"God…I think I've missed this the most," Freddie said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Good, because we have four hours until Carly comes back," Sam said. "And we're gonna take advantage of every second of that. Oh…hang on."

She reached over and quickly grabble a bunch of crumpled old sheets of papers and notebooks from her bed and tossed them onto the floor.

"What is all this stuff?" Freddie asked, picking up a laminated sheet of paper from underneath one of Sam's pillows.

"Oh! That's where that went," Sam said, taking it from him and throwing it over to her desk. "It's my study schedule."

"Your what?" Freddie snorted. "Since when do you have a study schedule?"

"Eh, Will made it for me a few weeks ago and it's actually kind of useful," Sam shrugged, sitting back down on Freddie's lap as she began to kiss his neck. "Now can we not talk about studying? It's killing the mood."

"But-But I tried to make you a study schedule last year in high school," Freddie said. "And you used it as a tissue! You laminated this one!"

"Well turns out grades actually kind of matter in college," Sam said. "Who would've thought? It's not a big deal."

"But-"

"Come on, seriously," Sam said. "Can we please focus here? Its been two months."

"I-" Freddie started, but when Sam began kissing him once more, all other thoughts were quickly removed form his mind.

….

"Good to see you still know your stuff," Sam grinned later on as the two lay in Sam's bed, cuddled together.

"Hey, you were pretty great yourself," Freddie laughed, kissing the top of her blonde head. "Man, I am so glad I did some extra tutoring last month to save up for this."

"Me too," Sam smiled.

Freddie sighed happily as he wrapped his arm tighter around Sam. He looked around the room and suddenly his eyes landed on a stack of brightly colored index cards sitting on Sam's dresser.

"Is Carly still actually trying to get you to use those things?" he chuckled.

"Huh? Oh, those," Sam said, lifting her neck to see what he was referring to. "They're mine, actually. Or, well, they're Will's, but he gave them to me. You know, I know made fun of Carly all these years for being so into them, but he really showed me how useful they can be. I was bored the other day, so I used them to categorize my barbecue sauce preferences! See, I wrote the tangy ones on the blue cards, the sweeter ones on the pink ones, and on the green ones I-"

"Huh," Freddie said, slowly sitting up. "That-That's…huh."

"What?" Sam frowned. "You think I should've used blue for the sweet sauces?"

"No, no it's…it's not that," Freddie sighed. "Don't worry about it."

"Baby…come on, what's the matter?" Sam asked.

"Fine," Freddie said. "I just…what's with this Will guy?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, what's his deal?" Freddie said, a bit bitterly.

"Um…I don't know what you're-"

"Does he like you?" Freddie asked. "Is all of his 'I know you can do it with a little effort' just some ploy to try and land a date with you?"

"What? No!" Sam snapped. "You're ridiculous! He's just a friend I've met here!"

"But Sam, come on!" Freddie said. "It's crazy! You-You actually do work on projects with this guy! You don't scoff at his suggestions for ways to improve your academics and you let him take a piece of pizza today without giving him a wedgie! It took me years to be able to do that!"

"That doesn't mean anything!" Sam exclaimed.

"I-I'm not saying you'd do anything with him," Freddie mumbled. "But-But it's just weird…I-I mean I come here and you're doing your share of projects and making study schedules…"

"So you're upset that I'm suddenly not ignoring my classes?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No!" Freddie said quickly. "I-I think that's great! But-But I just kind of wished I could've been the one who got you to do that…"

"Aw," Sam said, giving him a small smile. "Baby…you think I would've been able to even get in here if you hadn't been encouraging me through the application process? And you know, because of you I actually back up my hard drive once a month."

"You-You do?" Freddie said. "On an external flash drive?"

"Duh," Sam smirked. "And you'll always be the one who taught me how to use the speech function on my laptop to say curse words."

"I still regret that," Freddie chuckled.

Sam rolled her eyes and leaned over to give her boyfriend a kiss. "Listen…just because Will might have helped me become a tiny bit of a better student, don't think he suddenly has more of an impact on my life than you. Nobody ever will."

"Thanks Sam," Freddie smiled.

"And FYI, Will does not like me," Sam said. "He's super into Carly."

"Really?" Freddie said.

"Oh yeah, that's why he's over here all the time," Sam nodded. "I mean him and I are cool, but I'm not the reason he comes over at ten in the morning with bagels. Although I do enjoy that…"

"He's into Carly?" Freddie said again.

"Uh-huh," Sam said. "He's been begging me for ages to try and set them up, and I keep trying to drop hints to Carly but for someone who's so boy obsessed she's totally oblivious when one actually likes her."

"So…So you and Carly hang around this guy who has a huge crush on Carly?" Freddie said slowly. "That…That sounds kind of familiar…"
"Doesn't it?" Sam laughed. She leaned down to give him another kiss. "But don't worry. I'd never give Will Texas Wedgies or call him forty names a day."

"Good," Freddie smiled. "I'm glad."