Mystic
"Alright, I just got back from picking up the van from Socko's cousin," Spencer announced as he walked into his apartment.
"Awesome, so we're all set for tomorrow?" Carly asked.
"Yup," Spencer said. "Who's excited for Mystic Mountain?"
"I'd be more excited if we weren't leaving at six in the morning," Sam mumbled.
"Come on, you know if we don't get there right when the park opens, we'll have to deal with tons of lines," Spencer said. "Don't you want to be the first one to ride the Cranium Twister?"
"I still don't understand how that ride's legal," Freddie said, shaking his head.
"We'll just have to go to bed early tonight," Carly shrugged. "It won't be that bad. I say we turn in around…ten o'clock. That way we'll have a nice eight-hours of rest before the theme park."
"Ten o'clock?" Sam scoffed. "I haven't gone to bed before four in weeks!"
"Well, maybe now you'll finally get on a normal sleep schedule," Carly smirked.
"Ha! You've been trying that for years," Sam scoffed.
"Well…you can sleep in the van then," Carly sighed.
"Yeah, that's what I'm planning to do," Spencer nodded.
"Um, what?" Freddie frowned. "You-You do realize you're driving, right?"
"Yeah, but what does that-oh," Spencer said. "Huh…didn't think about that. Well, guess I should hit the sack now. You know if I don't get my twelve hours I get cranky."
"Night, Spence," Carly chuckled. She turned to her two best friends. "You both are still spending the night here, right? It will be easier to leave in the morning if we're all in one place."
"I already sleep here four nights a week," Sam pointed out.
"And my mom's visiting my cousin Rebecca in New Hampshire," Freddie said.
"Gross, is her rash back?" Sam cringed.
"Nah, this time it's a mole problem," Freddie replied.
"Okay that's still disgusting," Carly said. "But at least you can sleep over here tonight. You can take the couch down here, Sam can take the one in my room. Now I'm serious, you should really try and be in bed as early as possible. I don't want to go to Mystic Mountain with a bunch of exhausted zombies."
"Huh…zombies at an amusement park," Sam said thoughtfully. "Wonder when they're gonna make a movie about that."
"Oh no," Freddie said suddenly.
"What?" Carly asked.
"I-I may have a problem getting to sleep tonight," Freddie sighed. "I forgot that I drank two cans of Ultraviolent Bull this morning. That stuff has a ton of caffeine and sugar."
"Well why would you do that?" Carly demanded.
"Because, I was all excited about my mom leaving!" Freddie defended. "You know she would never let me even take a sip of that stuff! So the second she left this morning I went down to the corner store and bought a whole case!"
"Alright, I give up!" Carly said. "You two do what you want with your sleep schedules! But I'm going to bed early. And tomorrow at the park, you two can deal with being all groggy while I'm full of energy."
"Please, the only reason you're going to be able to fall asleep so early is because you've never had a drop of caffeine in your life," Sam scoffed.
"What are you talking about? Spencer makes me coffee every morning," Carly frowned.
"Yeah, decaf," Sam smirked.
"What?" Carly exclaimed. "He does-Spencer!"
…
Later that evening Freddie lay on the couch in the middle of the dark living room, tossing and turning, trying desperately to fall asleep. He knew Carly was right; he'd definitely enjoy Mystic Mountain more if he was well-rested. But those Ultraviolent Bulls were really doing their job, and Freddie knew he was in for a long, sleepless night.
Just then he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He sat up and saw Sam descending.
"Sam? What are you doing?" Freddie asked.
"Can't sleep," Sam shrugged. "Just like I expected. It's eleven-thirty. There are days when I'm just waking up right about now. Besides, even if I was tired, I couldn't sleep up in Carly's room anyway. That stupid snoring mask of hers sounds like a vacuum cleaner all night."
"Ah," Freddie nodded.
"Whatever, it will be fine," Sam said, sitting down in the armchair next to the couch. "Like Carly said, we can sleep in the van. And on those dumb kiddy rides Spencer always makes us go to. Plus its not like that place doesn't sell coffee."
"You'll pay about ten bucks for it, though," Freddie chuckled.
"Eh, it's cool, I 'borrowed' a twenty from Gibby earlier," Sam said.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Well, since it looks like neither of us will be getting any sleep tonight, what do you want to do?"
"Ugh, this night's going to be lame enough as it is," Sam groaned. "Hanging out with you will just make it worse."
"Fine," Freddie said simply. "Have fun sitting around doing nothing."
The two sat there in silence for several minutes. Finally, Sam let out a sigh. "Okay…what do you want to do?"
"Well, there's plenty we can do," Freddie said, standing up and turning on the light. "We can get a head start on working on some iCarly stuff, we can go over that last trig lesson we had, we can do SAT prep-"
"Oh my God, I take it back!" Sam said. "I'll sit around and do nothing!"
"Well do you want to do?" Freddie asked.
"Something not insanely boring," Sam said. "Dude, we have the whole place to ourselves right now! We can set off fireworks, order 300 pizzas with Spencer's credit card, go slip a fake eviction notice under that mean old guy's door-"
"Okay, how about we compromise and do something fun that still won't get us in trouble?" Freddie cut her off. "Want to play a board game?"
"You're killing me here, Benson," Sam mumbled, shaking her head.
"Board games are plenty fun," Freddie said, stepping over to the shelf by the stairs. "Let's see what we have here…Monopoly, Parcheesi, checkers-"
"I could play Monopoly," Sam said.
"Yeah, no," Freddie said at once. "I still have a bruise from the last time I played with you."
"You knew I was going for the railroads!" Sam snapped. "You should've known what would happen if you bought the last one. Look, just forget the board game. Let's…Let's go for a walk or something."
"Like outside?" Freddie frowned.
"No Freddie, I want to walk around this living room a million times until we ware a hole in the floor and fall down to the apartment below us," Sam said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "Yes outside!"
"I-I dunno, Sam," Freddie said slowly. "It's almost midnight."
"Relax, your mommy's not here to bust you," Sam sneered.
"I know but isn't it dangerous at this hour?" Freddie said.
"You'll be with me," Sam shrugged. "I have my butter sock. Besides, Seattle's actually really pretty at night. Have you ever been out this late?"
"Um…"
"Well, I'd say I was shocked, but that would just be a lie," Sam grinned. "Come on, we can just go to the park or something."
"But-Okay fine," Freddie finally conceded. "But just for an hour or so. Then we're coming back here."
"Whatever you say, Fredbutt," Sam said.
The two headed down to the lobby and then outside, feeling the cool night air on their faces.
"Do you come out at night often?" Freddie asked as he walked next to Sam.
"Yeah, I guess," Sam nodded. "Less people, which is always a plus."
"But that seems dangerous," Freddie said. "Especially for you."
"Why? Because I'm a girl?" Sam snapped.
"Well…yeah?"
"In case you haven't realized, nub, I'm perfectly capable of defending myself from skeezbags," Sam said.
"I know, but…you still shouldn't come out this late alone," Freddie mumbled. "Just…Just call someone next time you get the urge to wander the streets of Seattle at this ungodly hour."
"It's midnight, Grandpa," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"It's still late," Freddie said. "But seriously…call me if you want. I'd come out here with you. You're right; the city is kind of nice at night."
"I'm sure your mom would just love for you to do that," Sam said. "Especially with me."
"I could sneak past her," Freddie said. "Go down the fire escape or something…"
"Yeah, alright," Sam chuckled.
"I could!"
"Fine," Sam said. "Next time I'll call you if you're up for it. I won't hold my breath, though…"
The two stepped into the park, which was completely empty.
"Sam…" Freddie said. "I don't like this. There's nobody here."
"And?"
"And…it's just like the beginning of a horror movie," Freddie said.
"How would you know? You haven't seen any," Sam laughed.
"I've seen some!" Freddie said. "You made me watch a whole bunch when we were dating! Those were the only movies you wouldn't want to make-out through. I had to miss my favorite scene in Galaxy Wars but God forbid we kiss for two seconds during a zombie chase."
"Just shut up and follow me," Sam said, though her face was slightly red. She led Freddie to a lone park bench underneath a light post.
"Wow…a bench," Freddie said dryly.
"Just sit," Sam said, taking a seat on the bench. "And look…you can see the Space Needle from here. See how it's all lit up different colors?"
"Hey, yeah," Freddie said, sitting down next to Sam and looking at the structure. "That's…That's…wow."
"It's a lot prettier at night," Sam smiled. "Wonder how tall it is…"
"Six hundred and five feet," Freddie replied promptly. "The guides there must tell you that million times."
"I wouldn't know," Sam shrugged. "I've never been."
"Wait, what?" Freddie exclaimed. "You've lived in Seattle your whole life and you've never seen the Space Needle?"
"Nope," Sam replied.
"How is that possible? I must've been at least a dozen times," Freddie said.
"Well it's not like my mom was ever willing to take me," Sam chuckled. "And I was always in detention when we would go on school trips."
"You have to see it up close," Freddie said. "Hey…you want to go sometime?"
"With you?" Sam asked. "Okay…we can do that."
"Great," Freddie smiled. "It's a date."
….
Several hours later, Sam slowly lifted her head, confused as to where exactly she was. She looked around and quickly realized she was in the middle of the park, still sitting on the park bench. She glanced over and saw that Freddie was next to her, sleeping.
"Guess we fell asleep," Sam mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. She glanced up at the sky. It was still pretty dark, but the sun was beginning to rise. It must've been morning.
Suddenly her eyes widened and she pulled her phone out of her pocket.
"Chiz!" Sam exclaimed, quickly shaking Freddie's shoulder, waking him up. "Freddie! Freddie, get up!"
"Huh? What?" Freddie sputtered as his eyes flew open.
"It's five forty-five!" Sam said, jumping to her feet. "We're supposed to be leaving for Mystic Mountain in fifteen minutes!"
"We fell asleep in the park?" Freddie cried.
"No kidding, Sherlock!" Sam snapped. "Come on, if we run we might get back to the apartment before Carly yells at us."
The two sprinted back to Bushwell Plaza as fast as they could. By the time they made it up to the eight floor, they had only two minutes to spare.
"There you guys are!" Carly said the second they opened the door and stepped into the Shays' living room. "Where were you? We're ready to go!"
"We, um, went down to the lobby," Freddie lied quickly. "I-I forgot I had to, um, send a package. Yeah…that's all."
"And I planted a few stinkbombs in Lewbert's office," Sam said.
"Oh, okay," Carly said. "Well come on; Spencer's already down in the van waiting for us. Hopefully you two managed to get some sleep; we have a long day ahead of us."
