Hair

"This is completely unfair and unreasonable!" Freddie fumed as he stormed into the Shay's apartment, where Carly and Sam were busy sharing a container of frosting on the couch. "I am a man of science!"

"You're using the term 'man' pretty loosely there," Sam smirked, sticking her spoon back into the frosting.

"Sam…" Carly said warningly. She turned to Freddie. "What happened? Why are you all yelly?"

"The school put me in a photography class this semester!" Freddie exclaimed.

"Did you sign up for a photography class?" Carly asked.

"No!" Freddie replied. "But they say I need it for my fine arts credit or something."

"Oh," Carly shrugged. "Well…what's so bad about that?"

"It's photography!" Freddie cried. "All you do is point a camera at something and press a button! This is my last semester of high school before I'm off at college preparing for my career. I don't have time to be in some dumb photography class."

"But you like working with your cameras and stuff for iCarly," Carly pointed out.

"Yeah, I like making videos to edit with software that I create and develop," Freddie said. "With photography I just take pictures; they don't let you do any edits or graphic enhancements."

"Well maybe you'll discover you like photography," Carly suggested.

"Yeah, fat chance," Freddie scoffed.

"Hey, Sam, didn't you take that photography class last semester?" Carly said, looking over at her best friend.

"Yup," Sam nodded.

"Well you liked it, didn't you?" Carly said. "Didn't you say it was one of your favorite classes?"

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool," Sam shrugged. "It was a lot less boring than any other class I took."

"So basically you liked it because it was an easy A and you could just sleep or goof off, right?" Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, you had to do work!" Sam snapped. "You have to do this big semester project on something that inspires you."

"Sounds real difficult," Freddie chuckled. "Well…I guess I can always use this class as a time for me to perfect my resume or something."

"Pfft, like you're gonna do so well in that class," Sam scoffed.

"What are you talking about? Of course I will," Freddie said. "You got an A, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but photography requires you to be creative, which we all know you suck at," Sam said. "It's an art. You can't just type a bunch of codes into a computer."

"I'll be just fine," Freddie said. "It's taking pictures. I'm sure even a monkey could ace that."

"A 'C'!" Freddie exclaimed angrily a few weeks later as him, Sam, and Carly stood by their lockers. "How could I get a 'C' on my first photography assignment?"

"Maybe you should find a monkey to help you," Sam grinned.

"What was you assignment?" Carly asked before Freddie could reply.

"I had to photography something in nature," Freddie said. "Which I did! I took a picture of a tree! Nature!"

"Let's see the photograph, nub," Sam said.

Freddie pulled a folder out of his bag and handed it to Sam.

"Dude, this is awful!" Sam laughed, looking down at the photo. "A 'C' was generous!"

"What are you talking about? It's a picture of a dang tree!"

"Yeah, but it looks like you just walked into the park and took a picture of the first tree you saw," Sam said. "Which is exactly what you did, didn't you?"

"Well…so?" Freddie said.

"Photography is about capturing the hidden meaning behind what you're taking a picture of," Sam said, rolling her eyes as she handed the folder back to Freddie. "It's about making the people who look at your pictures think."

"You know, the photography teacher told Sam she had a real gift when she was in the class," Carly told Freddie. "Maybe she can help you."

"I don't need her help," Freddie said stubbornly. "I'll just ace the rest of the assignments and my grade will even out to be an 'A'."

"If you say so," Sam smirked.

….

"How?" Freddie moaned several weeks later as he slammed his locker shut. "How can I be doing this badly in one of the easiest classes this school offers?"

"Another bad photography grade?" Carly asked sympathetically.

"Yes," Freddie mumbled darkly. "I can't believe this. My flawless grade-point-average is going to be tarnished by a photography class. Unless I get a perfect grade on this semester project we have coming up, I'm not even going to get a 'B' in the class. I don't know what else to do; I'm taking pictures!"

"You really should ask Sam for help, you know," Carly said. "She's good at this."

"I'm not that desperate," Freddie said. "And even if I was, there's no way she'd help me. Not after that whole stink I've been making about photography being so easy. She'd laugh in my face and leave me to flunk the class."

"Just try," Carly urged. "How bad could it be?"

….

"I want fifty bucks," Sam said firmly, crossing her arms as she stared Freddie down later that day. "And you'll buy me smoothies for a month. And you have to rub Mama's feet."

"Okay, I'll do everything but the feet," Freddie said.

"Then no deal," Sam shrugged. "Have fun failing photography."

"No!" Freddie said quickly. "I-Fine! I'll rub you feet! Now will you help me with the class or not?"

"Fine," Sam said shortly. "I'll help."

"Thank you," Freddie sighed. "So the project is on something that inspires me. What do I do?"

"What inspires you?" Sam asked.

"Um…technology?" Freddie said thoughtfully.

"Anything else?" Sam asked.

"Um, not really," Freddie shrugged. "Why? Can I not use technology? Because I can just make something up and-"

"You can't just make something up!" Sam said. "That completely ignores the whole point of the assignment."

"This coming from the girl who brought in a potato for her trig homework," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"We'll figure out how to work with the technology angle," Sam said, ignoring his comment. "Meet me in the iCarly studio after school today and we'll see what we can do."

….

"I brought my laptop," Freddie said a few hours later as him and Sam stood in the iCarly studio. "Figured that was a decent technological thing to use as my 'inspiration'."

"Did you bring your camera too?" Sam asked.

"Oh yeah," Freddie nodded, pulling out the camera that was provided to him for the duration of the class. "Right here. So, should I just take a picture?"

"How's 'just taking a picture' been working out for you so far?" Sam smirked. She looked around. "Alright, you have to find the right lighting first. Most of the pictures you've been taking have had terrible lighting. You can barely see what's in the picture."

"So that's been my problem this whole time?" Freddie frowned. "The lighting? I could've fixed that!"

"Calm down, nub, that's one of many problems," Sam said. She looked out the window at the sun shining in. "We have natural light to work off for probably another hour, so we need to be quick. Go dim the lights."

Freddie did as he was told and turned off the overhead lights of the studios. He had admit, the effect was pretty impressive. Without the harsh, artificial lighting, the sun allowed a peaceful flow to enter the room.

"Good," Sam said. "You'll have to work out the light balances on the camera too, but your nerdy self can probably figure that out. But you can do that later. Now comes the hard part."

"What?"

"Figuring out what you need to capture!"

"What are you talking about? I'm going to take a picture of my laptop," Freddie said, confused. "You said the lighting's good now, so what are we waiting for?"

"Dude, the topic is something that 'inspires' you," Sam said. "You can't just take a picture of your laptop. No matter how great the lighting is."

"But my laptop inspires me!" Freddie argued.

"Just your plain, simple, laptop?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes!"

"So just this hunk of metal and plastic and other chiz inspires you?" Sam said. "All on its own? You just glance at your laptop when you wake up in the morning and you're suddenly all inspired."

"Well, no," Freddie said lamely. "It-It has to be on. And-And I can't just glance at it…I have to be, well, using it."

"Okay, you're heading in the right direction now," Sam nodded. "Keep going. When are you inspired by when your using your computer?"

"I don't know, I guess…I guess it's when I'm working on a really tough code or finishing up a really detailed program," Freddie said.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Why?" Freddie repeated.

"Yeah, why do you feel inspired at that moment?"

"I-I'm not sure, I just do," Freddie said.

"Benson, you're giving me like, nothing to work off of here," Sam groaned.

"I'm trying!" Freddie defended. "Okay, um, I guess I feel inspired because-because when I finish up with those things I feel accomplished. I just found the last piece of a puzzle I've been working on for a really long time. I finally found…I finally found what was in front of me the entire time…Whoa."

"Deep chiz," Sam grinned. "But there you go; that's your angle. That's what you need to capture in your photograph."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Freddie asked.

"Well, you can go a few different routes I guess," Sam shrugged. "You can try doing some different techniques with shadows and backgrounds, but that's probably a little advanced for you. You are still a beginner."

"Well then what do you think I should do?"

"Hmm…I'd say the best bet for you would be to have a person included in your photograph. That way their expression and body language can help get your message across," Sam said.

"Okay," Freddie nodded. "But I'm not allowed to include my self in the photograph. It's part of the assignment. You know, since I'm supposed to be the one actually taking the picture."
"So find a model or something," Sam shrugged. "Carly will probably do it for you."

"Can't you do it?" Freddie suggested.

"Me?" Sam said. "You want me in your picture?"

"Well yeah, this-this whole thing was your idea," Freddie nodded. "And apparently my photography teacher is one of the few teachers at Ridgeway who doesn't have nightmares because of you, so having you in the picture might get me bonus points."

"Um, okay, sure," Sam agreed.

She sat down in front of Freddie's laptop. "So…I guess I'll try to look like you would doing your weird programming chiz and stuff. It'll be hard, that kind of stuff would normally put me to sleep. I guess I can just imagine myself watching last year's hot dog eating contest. The winner of that ate eighty hot dogs in nine minutes…now he's an inspiration."

Freddie smiled as he picked up his camera. "Is that what you did your project on when you took the class?"

"Nah, I did something else," Sam replied.

"What?"

"None of your business," Sam said.

"Come on, I want to know," Freddie pleaded.

"No can do," Sam said. "Now seriously, take the picture before the lighting goes all wonky."

"Fine, fine," Freddie conceded.

"Make sure you adjust the lenses," Sam told him. "And don't zoom in too much. But also don't zoom out too much. And-"

"I've got it, Sam," Freddie smirked, rolling his eyes. He focused in on the scene in front of him and carefully snapped the photo. "I think I got it."

"Well pull it up and see if you need to redo it," Sam said.

Freddie quickly pulled up the photo on the camera's small screen. The difference between this picture and the ones he had taken before was instantly noticeable. This photograph wasn't just some picture; it was art. Sam had definitely known what she was talking about when it came to the natural light; it created an effect much more pleasing than the artificial lights. The golden rays from the sun shined perfectly onto Sam's golden curls, practically highlighting her. But what Freddie thought stood out most in the picture was her expression. She looked like she was deep in thought; such a peaceful yet concentrated expression. It made him want to simply stare at the photograph; it made him want to try and figure out what she was thinking about.

But then again, with Sam, one could never be sure what she was thinking. Freddie had known her for years and she still surprised him almost every day. After all, he would've never thought that she, the girl who was notorious for eating her weight in wings and could easily flip a man four times her size, could be so skilled at something like photography.

He wondered if he'd ever be able to completely figure out Sam Puckett. But then again, maybe her unpredictability was what he liked most about her.

"So are you satisfied with it?" Sam asked, snapping Freddie out of his daze. "Did you capture 'what inspires you'?"

Freddie looked down at the picture. He might've aimed on placing the focus on his laptop, but it was clear that Sam was the real subject of this photograph.

He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Yeah," Freddie said softly. "I got it."