Jelly

"I still can't believe how much has happened lately," Spencer said as he slid a giant plate of spaghetti tacos onto his kitchen table, where Carly, Sam, and Freddie sat. "It's all so crazy!"

"God, are you going to get all emotional and cry on us?" Sam frowned, rolling her eyes as she helped herself to a spaghetti taco.

"No!" Spencer snapped, quickly rubbing his eyes. "But you guys…this is all just really hitting me. I mean I've known you guys for years! You're like my family."

"Like?" Carly frowned.

"You know what I mean," Spencer said. "But you all just used to be some little kids who hung around my apartment-"

"I lived here!" Carly said.

"-Getting in the way of my budding art career-"

"We were always the ones who had to force you to focus on making your sculptures," Freddie pointed out.

"-And now you're all grown up," Spencer sighed sadly. "You all graduated college, you're moving into your own places, you're getting ready to start your careers…and you two…" he turned to Sam and Freddie and put his hands on each of their shoulders. "You two are getting married! Look at you! You're all like, little adults now!"

"Well I did just start a retirement savings account," Freddie smiled modestly.

"Baby…that's gotta be the lamest thing I've ever heard you say," Sam said, shaking her head. "And you've said some lame chiz."

"What's lame about saving for retirement?" Freddie frowned. "We're getting married; that means this savings account is going to be helping you too."

"But we could use that money and do something so much cooler with it now!" Sam moaned. "Oh! We could use it and have our wedding at Mystic Mountain!"

"Carly…" Freddie said, glancing over at the brunette. "Care to handle this one?"

"Sam, as your Maid of Honor, there is no way on earth I'm letting your wedding be at an amusement park," Carly said firmly. "But, since we're now on the topic of your wedding, I have a few things I want to run by you."
"Aw jeez," Sam sighed.

"I was thinking we could have a little engagement party for you two," Carly said.

"An engagement party?" Freddie repeated.

"Yeah, it would be fun," Carly said. "You'd invite your friends and families for a little dinner and they'd all have a chance to congratulate you on the engagement and-"

"So would we get presents?" Sam blurted out.

"Sam…" Freddie sighed.

"Well, there's a chance that I may have already picked up a present for you guys just for this occasion," Carly chuckled. "But yeah, some people might bring presents."
"Cool, I'm in," Sam said.

"Awesome," Carly smiled. "So where do you think the party should be? Your apartment?"

"Um, that would be okay, except for one thing," Freddie frowned. "My mom, um, she doesn't-"

"His mom doesn't know we live together yet," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"You've been hiding that from her?" Spencer said. "It's been three months."

"I know, but you know she's old-fashioned," Freddie said. "Besides, she's still getting over the shock of the engagement. Any more big news might give her a heart attack."

"What about your place?" Sam asked Carly.

"Can't," Carly sighed. "My neighbors are both elderly couples. They go to bed at eight o'clock and call my landlord to complain if I so much as cough after that. A party would probably get me thrown out on the street. Spence, could we have it here?"

"Normally I'd be all for a party, but according to the fire department, I'm no longer allowed to have more than ten people in my apartment at a time," Spencer said. "Apparently because of my 'past history' I need stricter fire codes than the average citizen."

"Makes sense," Freddie nodded.

"Hey! We should have the party down at the Groovy Smoothie!" Sam said.

"The Groovy Smoothie?" Carly repeated.

"Yeah, T-Bo's got a pretty good menu going," Sam nodded. "Smoothies, fries, burgers…I can convince him to add wings for one night."

"You know, that might be a really cute idea," Carly said thoughtfully. "I mean you and Freddie have been going there for years. It was where you went on your first few dates in high school, it's where you guys always hung out over the summers when you were home from college-"

"-It's where Sam gave me my first Texas Wedgie," Freddie chuckled. "And where she first called me a 'nub'."

"Yeah…" Sam grinned nostalgically.

"And it's where we spent a whole day right before we left for college going over how we were going to handle a long-distance relationship for four years," Freddie continued. "And where you nearly got yourself beat up for yelling at that jerk who wouldn't stop flirting with me a few summers ago," Sam added.

"See, you guys have so many memories there," Carly said. "It's the perfect spot for your engagement party! You should go and ask T-Bo if we can rent the place out one night, I'm sure he won't mind. All of the foods just might be served on sticks."

"Okay," Freddie nodded. "Great idea, Sam. Want to go down and ask T-Bo now?"

"Will you buy me a smoothie while we're there?"

"Sure," Freddie smiled. "Though that's five less bucks that's going to be going into our retirement plan now…"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Sam sighed as her and Freddie started towards the door.

…..

"Alright, here you two go," T-Bo said as he set down two smoothies in front of Sam and Freddie. "One raspberry whoo and one mango splat."

"Sweet," Sam said, grabbing her smoothie right away.

"Thanks, T-Bo," Freddie replied. "Hey, are you busy right now?"

"Why? You need me to move a truck?" T-Bo frowned.

"Um…no," Freddie said, confused.

"Why would we want you to move a truck?" Sam asked.

"You'd be surprised how many people come in here begging me to move their trucks!" T-Bo said. "Do I look like a truck driver to you?"

"Okay, well, anyway, Sam and I just wanted to talk to you about something," Freddie said.

"Oh, alright!" T-Bo said, sitting down at the table.

"So you know that Sam and I are getting married next May, right?" Freddie said.

"Sure!" T-Bo nodded. "And hey! I already got you two the perfect wedding present. How do you all feel about launching various fruits through the air?"

"Uh, we feel really good about that!" Sam grinned excitedly.

"Er, that might be something we have to discuss later," Freddie said quickly. "But anyway, Carly wants us to have an engagement party, and we were thinking since Sam and I have spent so much time here over the years and have a lot of memories here, that we'd have the party here."

"Here?" T-Bo said, his smile flickering.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be that big or anything," Sam said. "Just a few people."

"And when would this party be?"

"I don't know, we haven't exactly done any real planning for it yet," Freddie said. "But probably within a few weeks."

"Oh…" T-Bo said slowly, looking away.

"What?" Sam frowned.

"Well, see, the thing is…look, you know I'd let you all have your little engagement party here," T-Bo said. "T-Bo loves him a good engagement party! But...well, I wasn't going to say anything to anybody yet, but the Groovy Smoothie isn't exactly going to be here in a few weeks."
"What?" Sam exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" Freddie frowned. "Where will it be?"
"Gone, sold," T-Bo sighed. "I'm…I'm going out of business!"

"Oh my God, are you serious?" Freddie said. "What happened?"

"People just aren't buying my smoothies like they used to," T-Bo shrugged. "Especially now that they went and opened that stupid Juice Hut across the street."

"Ugh, I hate that place!" Sam cringed. "There was one on campus at Washington State. They sneak kale and spinach and all this other health junk into your drinks. It's disgusting!"

"Well no chiz!" T-Bo nodded in agreement. "But they've taken all my customers. Look around!"

Now that he mentioned it, Sam and Freddie did notice that the Groovy Smoothie was a lot emptier than it normally was.

"Anyway, sorry but you'll have to find somewhere else for your party," T-Bo said. "Maybe the Juice Hut…"

"Well what are you going to do now?" Freddie asked.

"I dunno, maybe move in with my sister…buy a pet turtle…something like that," T-Bo shrugged.

"Dude, you can't just give up!" Sam said. "This place can't close! Where else would we get smoothies?"

"I'd have to come up with ten thousand dollars within the next two weeks if I want to keep this place," T-Bo said heavily. "And I don't have that! There's nothing else to do."

Freddie and Sam exchanged sad glances.

"But hey, I'll be fine!" T-Bo said. "I'm T-Bo! I'll bounce back!"

"Have you ever gone out of business before?" Freddie asked.

"No," T-Bo admitted. "But…it can't be that bad, can it?"
…..

"Out of business?" Carly exclaimed later that evening as her, Sam, Freddie and Spencer sat around Spencer's living room.

"I can't believe that!" Spencer said. "I was down there just a few days ago!"

"Well Juice Hut ran him out," Freddie sighed.

"He seriously can't do anything else?" Carly asked.

"He said he'd need ten thousand dollars," Sam said.

"Yeah, apparently he's gotten into some serious debt trying to stay afloat since Juice Hut came in," Freddie nodded. "I just wish there was something we can do. I can't imagine the Groovy Smoothie suddenly not being here. I mean we've been going there for years! And poor T-Bo…what's he going to do without the place?"

"We've got to stop this," Sam said firmly. "We can't lose the Groovy Smoothie!"

"But what can we do?" Carly frowned. "It's not like we can just come up with ten thousand dollars! I mean the three of us have barely started working and Spencer probably has about fifty bucks in his bank account."
"Seventy, thank you!" Spencer snapped.

"There has to be something…" Sam said, running her fingers through her hair. "Oh! Do you guys remember back during freshmen year of high school? When I owed you guys all that money?"

"You've always owed us a lot of money," Carly pointed out. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"It's when I asked the iCarly fans to send me cash to pay you two back," Sam said. "Don't you remember how much we got doing that? Why don't we do that again?"
"Baby, we almost got in a ton of legal trouble for that," Freddie reminded her.

"Well we found a loophole," Sam said. "We just had to send everybody stuff. We can do something like that again."

"But still, it's not like iCarly is anywhere as near as popular as it was back then," Carly added. "I mean it's been years since we did a show. We stopped right before college."

"You know, I bet a lot of people would still tune in if you guys decided to do the show one last time," Spencer said slowly. "You guys still have a lot of fans out there."

"You think?" Freddie said.

"Oh yeah," Spencer nodded. "Sometimes when I'm bored I'll go on old iCarly message boards. People are always saying how much they'd love for you guys to do some more stuff."

"See!" Sam said. "We can do it! If we beg our fans we might be able to get enough cash to help T-Bo keep the Groovy Smoothie!"

Carly glanced at Freddie. "It might be worth a try."

"Well…I guess it couldn't hurt," Freddie said. "I would hate to see the Groovy Smoothie go."

"Awesome, now let's get to work planning the show!" Sam said.

"Wow, you were never this eager when we did the show in high school," Carly chuckled.

"Well we weren't working to save the only place in Seattle where I can get a good smoothie and a pot pie on a stick!" Sam said. "Now come on!"

"Unbelievable…" Freddie said a week later as him, Carly, and Freddie sat around his laptop. They had just finished broadcasting their first iCarly web show in over four years. "Even after all this time, we still got over a million viewers."

"Spencer was right, I guess," Carly said. "People really missed us."

"How much money did we raise?" Sam asked.

"Let me see…" Freddie said, clicking a link on his computer. "According to the fundraising site we set up…whoa! We raised over eight thousand dollars!"

"Nice!" Carly said.

"But we're still two thousand dollars short," Sam frowned.

"Well, we can leave the page open a little longer," Freddie said. "The bank's not going to force T-Bo out of the Groovy Smoothie for another two days. Maybe we can raise the rest by then."

"Hopefully…" Sam mumbled.

"If anything, we can give this money to T-Bo to help him get back on his feet and maybe start a new smoothie place," Carly said optimistically.

"I don't want a new smoothie place!" Sam snapped. "The Groovy Smoothie is our place! How can you guys be okay with the fact that we might lose it if we can't get two thousand more dollars?"
"Sam, we're not 'okay' with it, but, well…we tried our best," Freddie said gently.

"Yeah, and, well, maybe we can find a new place to hang out," Carly said. "A coffee café or something."
Sam looked away and didn't reply.

"Alright, I can see you're in a mood," Carly sighed, getting to her feet. "So I'll leave her to you, Freddie. I've got to go make a few calls for work. Great show today, you guys."
"You too," Freddie said. Once she left, Freddie put an arm around Sam. "Come on, Sam. I know you loved the Groovy Smoothie; I know we had a ton of memories there. But…these things…they happen."

Sam sighed. "I just…there's one memory…one memory that outweighs all the other ones at that place."

"What memory?" Freddie asked.

"The memory of when I fell in love with you," Sam said softly.

"What?" Freddie said. "You-You fell in love with me at the Groovy Smoothie?"

"I know, it doesn't sound romantic or anything," Sam nodded, giving him a small smile. "But, well…it was after we had gotten back together and we had been dating for about six months. We usually would meet there after school, but there was one day I met you there a little later. I had just gotten detention from Ms. Briggs and I was all angry and wazzed off about it because during the entire time I was in detention, she kept going on and on about how I wasn't going to go anywhere in my life because of my 'hoodlum ways'. I was sending you angry texts the whole time."

"I remember that," Freddie nodded.

"Yeah, well, anyway, when I got out of detention and met you at the Groovy Smoothie, there you were, sitting at our favorite table with two blueberry-kiwi jams, both for me, and an extra-large basket of chili-cheese fries with little bits of onion rings sprinkled over them," Sam said. "And that's when I knew…that's when I knew how in love I was with you."
"Because I bought you food?" Freddie said, confused.

"No," Sam smiled. "Because…Because you knew exactly what I needed after I had a really bad day and was super furious with the whole world. You knew what I needed without me having to tell you; you understood me. You got me. I loved that. I loved you for that."

"Wow," Freddie said. "I never knew that."

"It's stupid," Sam shrugged. "It's not like getting rid of the Groovy Smoothie will take away from me being in love with you. But I just…It was nice to be able to relive that moment every time we went in there. It was the thing I loved most about that place; even more than those fancy jelly-filled donuts T-Bo sold."

Freddie leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on her lips. "We're not going to let the Groovy Smoothie disappear."

"Well if we don't get that last two thousand dollars in time-"

"We'll get it," Freddie said, suddenly pulling up another window on his computer.

"What is that?" Sam asked, staring at the screen.

"My bank account," Freddie said. "Well, soon it will be our bank account, once we're married. But you know that retirement fund I just started?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded.

"Guess how much I have in it," Freddie said. "Two thousand dollars…"

"Seriously?" Sam said. "How'd you already get that kind of money?"

"I just put all the money from the checks my family sent me for graduating MIT into the account," Freddie shrugged. "It really added up. Anyway, I'll take this two thousand dollars and add it to the eight thousand we raised tonight on iCarly and then T-Bo will have enough to keep the Groovy Smoothie."

"But…you'd seriously be okay doing that?" Sam asked. "We both know how cautious you are when it comes to your money."

"Hey, this is important," Freddie said. "It's not like we'd just be throwing this money away. We're giving it to a friend to keep open a place that's invaluable to us."

"Baby, are you sure?"

"Sam, if the Groovy Smoothie is the spot where you fell in love with me then, well, it's worth a heck of a lot more than two thousand bucks," Freddie said.

"Aw," Sam grinned, leaning up to kiss him.

"And who knows," Freddie said. "Maybe T-Bo will be so glad we helped him out he'll give us discount smoothies for life or something."
"-And there's my cheap fiancé again," Sam chuckled.

….

"I don't understand," T-Bo frowned the next day as Freddie handed him the check for ten thousand dollars.

"T-Bo, we want you to take this money to keep the Groovy Smoothie open," Freddie said.

"You found me ten thousand bucks?" T-Bo said, his eyes widening.

"Shoosh yeah, we did!" Sam grinned.

"Holy chiz!" T-Bo exclaimed. "No way! This is-Wait…is this some kind of trick? Are you pranking me with some fake check to post on the Internet?"

"No!" Freddie said. "Look, T-Bo, we all realized just how important this place is to us. We've been coming here for years. We'd hate for it to be run out by some stupid Juice Hut."

"But how did you all get your hands on ten thousand dollars?" T-Bo asked.

"We have our ways," Sam grinned. "Seriously, T-Bo, just take the money and keep this place open."

"Yeah, keep it open for a real, long time," Freddie nodded, putting his arm around Sam.

"Aw, you guys!" T-Bo beamed, throwing his arms around the couple and pulling them into a hug. "You're all the best! Hey! Let me give you something to say thanks!"

He quickly ran over to the counter and grabbed a small coupon. He handed it to Freddie.

"It's a coupon!" he told Freddie.

"Oh…cool," Freddie said, looking down at it. "Buy fifteen smoothies and get your sixteenth smoothie twelve percent off if you purchase a bagel with cream cheese with it…"

"And you can use that any time!" T-Bo grinned.