Shoelace

"So while I'm gone," Carly said, pacing back and forth in front of her two best friends, who were sitting on the couch. "There are going to be a few ground rules."

"Dude, you're blocking the T.V.," Sam said, craning her neck to try and see past Carly.
"Rule number one!" Carly said, ignoring Sam's comment. "I would like my apartment to look the way I left it when I come back."

"Carls, relax," Freddie said. "You know I would never mess up your apartment. Sam is the one you need to worry about."
"I need to worry about both of you, thank you very much," Carly snapped. "Might I remind you of the time you tore this place apart looking for the missing piece of some model proton cruiser you were building?"

"Oh yeah…" Freddie said lamely.

"Nerd," Sam scoffed. "At least when I wreck this place it's for something normal."

"Rule number two!" Carly continued before Freddie could retort. "You two are not to eat every last thing in my fridge while I'm gone."

"Okay, that one's definitely Sam," Freddie said.

"Um, you go through those pudding cups faster than anybody, nub," Sam pointed out.

"Well…you know my mom doesn't by anything chocolately," Freddie defended.

"And rule number three!" Carly said. "Please be civil to each other. I don't want to come back and find Freddie hanging from a wedgie on the fridge or something."

"Depends on how annoying the doof is while you're gone," Sam said.

"Sam…"

"Alright!" Sam conceded.

"Good girl," Carly chuckled. "And Freddie-"

"Okay, why are you telling me this? I'm very civil!" Freddie said.

"Well sometimes you can…antagonize," Carly said. "Look, just behave you guys. I wouldn't even bother telling you these rules if I knew you'd spend this weekend not hanging out here, but we all know that's not going to happen. And with me and Spencer in Yakima there's going to be nobody to stop you two from acting like maniacs."

"Well why do you have to go to Yakima anyway?" Sam said. "Can't your granddad come down here for his birthday?"

"Eh, he says he doesn't like driving long distances at his age anymore," Carly said as Spencer came into the room carrying a duffle bag.

"Alright, are you ready to hit the road, kid?" Spencer asked Carly.

"Yeah," Carly nodded, picking up her own bag. "I mean it you two…be nice!"

"Oh, and if there are any fires here, you're on your own," Spencer said.

"Why? Did you wazz off the fire department again?" Sam smirked knowingly.

"There…might've been a situation with a bookshelf and a hot glue gun," Spencer mumbled. "Total accident, could've happened to anybody!"

"Come on," Carly said, rolling her eyes.

Once Carly and Spencer left, Sam got to her feet and headed to the fridge. "Let's see if they restocked the ham supply."
"Didn't Carly just tell us not to eat all her food?" Freddie frowned.

"Did anybody actually expect me to listen to that?" Sam said, grabbing a container of ham and a bottle of Peppy Cola and sitting down at the table.

"Well, if we're just gonna throw those rules to the wind, I have been craving a pudding cup," Freddie said, joining the blonde in the kitchen.

"So are you hanging out here all weekend?" Sam asked.

"Probably, I have nothing better to do," Freddie shrugged. "What about you?"

"My mom just got six new bikinis," Sam said. "So…"

"Gotcha," Freddie nodded. "Hey, you know what we should do while Carly and Spencer are gone? Plan another iWake Up Spencer bit for iCarly."

"Oh yeah, I guess we can do that," Sam said. "It has been awhile."

"Cool," Freddie said. "Now I'm thinking we can-"

"Hey, look!" Sam cut him off. She bent down and picked up a shiny copper penny that had been laying under the kitchen table. "A penny!"

"Um…congratulations," Freddie said. "You're now one whole cent richer. Now, back to iWake Spencer-"

"It's not just a penny," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "It was laying face up; that means it's a lucky penny."

"Oh my God," Freddie chuckled.

"What?"

"Come on, 'lucky penny'?" Freddie said. "You don't honestly believe in that stuff, do you?"

"So what if I do?" Sam frowned.

"Sam, 'luck' is a term that people use when they can't find the scientific explanation for some occurrence," Freddie said. "It's not a real thing! That penny's not going to bring you luck."

"How do you know?"

"Sam, there's no way that you having that penny that just happened to be laying face-up will alter your life in any way," Freddie said. "That's just-"

"Hey!" Sam grinned, looking down at her phone. "I just won that raffle we all entered at the mall last week."

"What?" Freddie exclaimed.

"Yeah, you know that raffle to win that giant T.V.?" Sam said. "I just got a text; they pulled my raffle ticket. Mama's getting herself a brand new television! How are you going to deny my lucky penny now?"

"You winning that raffle had nothing to do with you finding that penny," Freddie said. "They probably pulled your raffle ticket hours ago, before you found that penny. You getting the text now is just a coincidence."

"Or luck," Sam corrected.

"There's no such thing as luck!"

"Whoa, don't get your antibacterial underpants in a knot," Sam laughed. "Maybe if you ask nicely I'll share my lucky penny with you."

"I don't want your penny!" Freddie exclaimed, frustrated.

"Alright, alright, jeez," Sam said, getting to her feet. "Let's go get smoothies. Maybe with my lucky penny we can get that a table without wobbly legs."

"Ha, there's no way even the 'luckiest' penny could find a non-wobbly table in that place," Freddie smirked.

…..

"Unbelievable," Freddie said, shaking his head a short while later as him and Sam took their seats at their very sturdy table at the Groovy Smoothie. "This table isn't wobbly at all!"

"The power of the lucky penny," Sam said.

"No, T-Bo must've just replaced some of the table legs, that's all," Freddie said.

"Dude, T-Bo hasn't replaced anything in this place since it opened," Sam pointed out. She held up the "This was the work of-"

"If you say the words 'lucky penny' one more time, I swear, I'm gonna…I'm gonna…"

"Right," Sam chuckled. "Hey, maybe I'll stop waving around my lucky penny if you buy me a smoothie."

"Ha, I'm not falling for that one, Sam," Freddie said. "We'll each buy our own smoothies."

"Figures," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "It would take more than a lucky quarter to get your cheap, nubby self to spend extra money. You couldn't even shell out the cash to get me smoothies when we were dating."

"I bought you smoothies all the time when we were dating!" Freddie defended as the two got in line.

"Yeah, the dinky medium ones," Sam said.

"I wasn't going to spend thirty-six dollars on a love smoothie!"

"Whatever," Sam said. "That argument is long over. Though maybe if I had my lucky penny back then-"

"I still would've refused to buy one on the matter of principle," Freddie said. "I mean thirty-six bucks for a smoothie is ridiculous! Even if it's served in a cup made out of Jamaican plastic."

"What about my Jamaican plastic?" T-Bo asked as Freddie reached the counter.

"Oh, um, nothing," Freddie said quickly. "Hey T-Bo, um, can I get one medium raspberry splat?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," T-Bo nodded. "Hey, can you tell your mom to stop trying to clip my toenails in my sleep? It's really disrupting my cycle."

"Yeah, I've been trying to get her to stop that for years," Freddie sighed. "Trust me, it's a lost cause."

After his order was placed, Sam moved up to the counter.

"Alright, T-Bo," Sam said. "I guess I'll have a large kiwi tango, extra kiwi, and some fries and-"

Suddenly a loud siren began going off and flashing lights filled the entire restaurant.

"Whoa, what's happening?" Freddie frowned, looking around.

"Congratulations, Sam!" T-Bo exclaimed. "You are my one millionth customer!"

"Holy chiz, are you serious?" Sam grinned. "No way! Do I win something?"
"Probably just an expired coupon," Freddie smiled under his breath.

"Shoosh yeah you do!" T-Bo nodded. "You win free smoothies for a year. Any size."

"Wait, what?" Freddie cried.

"Sweet, thanks, Teebs!" Sam cheered. "You know what? Upgrade my smoothie to a love-sized one. Since no one else ever got me one, I'll go ahead and treat myself."

"T-Bo, I got video footage of a dangerous criminal robbing this place!" Freddie said, ignoring Sam's comment. "Footage that later helped catch the criminal. And all I got was an expired coupon!"

"It wasn't expired when I gave it to you," T-Bo shrugged.

"But-"

"Man, this penny is really doing its job," Sam smirked, taking her penny out of her pocket and holding it up proudly.

"That penny had nothing to do with this!" Freddie hissed.

"Oh, so it was another coincidence then?"

"Yes!"

"Well, seems like a lot of coincidences have happened since I found this penny," Sam said simply.

"Well that's just a-a-"

"A what?" Sam asked. "Another coincidence?"

"Oh shut up!"

"So...let's just recap on what has happened since I found this lucky penny," Sam said a few hours later as her and Freddie sat up in the iCarly studio. "I won a T.V., got free smoothies for a year, found where Spencer hides the good bacon, finally got the gum off of my shoe, and found a twenty dollar bill in the lobby."

"Sam, that penny isn't lucky!"

"You know, you've been saying that all day, and yet, lucky things keep happening to me," Sam said. "At first I was just gonna mess with you with this whole luck thing, but I think this penny really has something…"

"It has a one cent value, and that's it!" Freddie snapped.

"Oh, this is so much fun," Sam chuckled to herself.

"Look, could you cool it with the luck junk now?" Freddie said, turning his attention back to his computer. "I've been trying to get these images to download for almost an hour and they just won't budge! It's getting really frustrating; I've tried everything!"

"Why don't you let me have a try?" Sam suggested. "Maybe with my luck I can get it done."

"This is something luck can't help with, even if it was real," Freddie scoffed. "But you know, if you want to see for yourself, go ahead. Have a go at it."

He handed Sam his laptop. "Hopefully this will prove to you that luck is no replacement for skill and knowledge and-"

"Done!" Sam announced triumphantly, handing the computer back to Freddie.

"You're what?" Freddie sputtered. "You got the images to download? No, there's no way you-oh, you-you did. But how?"

"I pushed the download button," Sam shrugged.

"I did that about forty times!" Freddie exclaimed.

"Well maybe it was my luck that-"

"No!" Freddie said firmly. "There-There's no way that penny had anything to do with this! There's no way it had anything to do with anything that happened today! Superstitions like this have absolutely no scientific backing and they-and they-oh, give me that penny!"

He lunged towards the penny in Sam's hand, but the blonde was much too quick for him.

"Oh, so now you want my lucky penny?" Sam smirked. "I thought you didn't believe in its powers."

"Well it has something!" Freddie snapped. "I don't know what's going on, but I want a turn with that penny!"

"No, you were bashing it all day, you don't deserve its luck," Sam said, holding the penny even further away. "It's mine!"

"You've had enough lucky things happen to you!"

"Don't you mean coincidences?" Sam sneered.

"Come on, Sam!" Freddie groaned, making another grab for the penny. Sam moved out of the way again, but by doing so, she wound up falling out of her beanbag chair onto the floor. Freddie tried again to grab the penny, and this time he was successful. But the second he took the copper coin from her hand, Sam simply grabbed his arm and easily pinned him to the floor.

"I'm not about to give up my lucky penny," Sam said, leaning down so that her face was only a few inches away from Freddie's. "To someone who has been mocking it all day! Maybe if you can learn to appreciate it's powers, I'll consider gracing you with it tomorrow, understand nub? Nub?"

But Freddie was suddenly not at all focused on the words coming out of Sam's mouth. Suddenly he was focused only on the fact that her face was so close to his; closer than it had been in months. He was focused on the fact that a strange, yet familiar, feeling was coursing through his body. He was focused on the fact that he could smell Sam's shampoo and her cherry lip-gloss.

"Dude, are you even listening to me?" Sam frowned, staring down at him. "I said do you understand-"

She was cut off as Freddie suddenly craned his head up and crashed his lips into hers. He felt her lips tense up at first, but once she recovered from the initial shock of his actions, they quickly relaxed and she readily responded to the kiss. Freddie wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her even closer to him.

It was several minutes before the two pulled apart from one another. Once they did, both were out of breath and flushed.

"Whoa," Sam said softly, breathing heavily.

"Whoa…" Freddie echoed, his lips still tingling. "That was…"

"Really nice?" Sam offered, giving him a small grin.

"Really nice," Freddie agreed, smiling back at her. "So, um…do you, um, do you-"

His sentence was cut off as Sam leaned down and kissed him again. As he quickly deepened the kiss, Freddie glanced down at the penny that was still in his hand.

Guess I was wrong about this penny, Freddie managed to think to himself. This is one very lucky penny.