Warm

"Well maybe if we take this part right here and change it," Carly said as her and Sam sat in the Bensons' kitchen, working on Sam's laptop.

"Yeah, I like that idea," Sam nodded slowly. "Or we could go ahead and pull this whole part all together, and go back to the idea about the banana peel."

"I dunno," Carly said. "Don't you think-"

"Mom, if Quincy's parents call, don't answer!" Sam's fourteen-year old daughter, Emma, said as she came into house with Carly's daughter, Clarissa.

"I usually don't," Sam shrugged. "But why?"

"I may have glued his shoes to the floor at lunch," Emma said.

"Really?" Sam grinned.

"Sam!" Carly hissed.

"I mean…Emma, that was very wrong and-oh, I can't do this with a straight face, that's hilarious!" Sam laughed.

"Thanks," Emma said. "You should've heard the doof whining. Apparently they were his 'good loafers'."

"That reminds me of the time I glued Freddie to a chair in study hall," Sam said nostalgically. "And to a trashcan, the coffee table, and piñata."

"Didn't you do all that stuff because you liked Freddie?" Carly pointed out.

"Eh, sort of," Sam admitted.

"Well that's not the case here!" Emma said at once, almost defensively. "I just like messing with Quincy."

"Okay," Sam said, giving her a small smile. "Hey, I washed your track uniform for you. It's up on your bed."

"Thanks, mom!" Emma called as she hurried out of the kitchen.

"Clarissa, how could you let her glue Quincy's shoes to the floor?" Carly asked her daughter. "As the responsible best friend, it's your role to-whoa, why do you look all peppy?"

"I'm in love, mom!" Clarissa said dreamily.

"Oh jeez…" Sam said as Carly's face lit up.

"Really? Oh honey, who is it?"

"This new boy at school," Clarissa replied. "His name is Chad and he's the most beautiful boy to ever walk the halls of Ridgeway."

"Oh, Chad," Carly said. "Well have you talked to Chad at all?"

"A little, he's in my French class, and today he asked me if I could borrow a pencil. Isn't that romantic, mom?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Wow…" Sam chuckled. "She really is your daughter, Carls."

"You think I should ask him out?" Clarissa asked.

"Well I think that's not a bad idea," Carly nodded. "Oh, your first boyfriend! How precious!"

Just then the back door opened and Ashton walked into the house, wearing the same goofy smile as Clarissa.

"I'm in love!" she announced.

"You too?" Sam groaned.

"Good for you, Ashton!" Carly beamed. "Sam, isn't that sweet? Our daughters are having their first love at the same time!"

"So who's the guy, Ashton?" Sam asked.

"His name is Chad," Ashton replied. "He's new to Ridgeway and he's the cutest boy in the whole school!"

"Chad?" Clarissa repeated.

"Yeah, you know him, he's in our French class," Ashton nodded. "Anyway, I-I was thinking about asking him out. Do you think that's crazy, mom?"

"Um…" Sam said slowly, exchanging looks with Carly.

"You-You want to ask Chad out?" Clarissa frowned.

"Yeah!" Ashton beamed.

"Oh…" Clarissa said slowly.

"What's up?" Ashton said. "You-You don't think I should?"

"Um, it's just…well, I was gonna ask him out," Clarissa told her.

"You were?" Ashton said.

"Yeah, I-I think he's really cute too," Clarissa nodded.

"Okay, girls," Carly said. "I know this is a very awkward situation. I mean liking the same guy as your best friend isn't exactly something you plan on. Remember when that happened to us, Sam?"

"No?" Sam frowned.

"Sure you do, with Shane freshman year," Carly nodded.

"Oh yeah!" Sam said. "I remember him! Wow, we acted totally crazy over that dude."

"Yeah, and the poor guy landed himself in the hospital because of us," Carly said. "Now girls, it's important that you don't make the same mistake as Sam and I did about this. Your friendship is way too valuable. You need to talk this over and come to a decision about what you're going to do, okay?"

"I think that's a good idea," Ashton said. "Come on, Clarissa, let's go to the Groovy Smoothie and talk this over."

"Alright," Clarissa agreed. "Bye mom, bye Aunt Sam."

"I can't believe how insane the two of us acted over Shane," Sam said, shaking her head as the girls headed out.

"I know," Carly said. "And neither of us even got to go out with him! Well…I did get that kiss with him at the hospital."
"Okay, first of all, he wasn't even conscious for that," Sam said. "Second of all…you totally cheated during that bet!"

"How?"

"You got that little helping bra!"

"Well you had Freddie helping you!" Carly pointed out.

"What did I do?" Freddie asked, coming into the room.

"Remember Shane?" Sam asked. "From freshman year?"

"Oh yeah, I do," Freddie said. "The one guy friend I managed to find and you two had to go and make him fall down an elevator shaft."

"Well I was just telling Sam how she totally cheated during our little bet to see who could get Shane to go out with us because she had you helping her!" Carly snapped.

"He was useless!" Sam defended. "Maybe if he wasn't such a bad wingman I could've won that bet! Thanks a lot, Fredwad!"

"Sorry I didn't help Shane fall in love with you, baby," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, why are you talking about him?"

"Clarissa and Ashton are actually in a similar situation with a new guy at school," Carly explained. "They both want to ask out Chad."

"Oh, well, I'll make the decision easier for them right now," Freddie shrugged. "Ashton can't date until she's thirty."

"Freddie…" Sam sighed.

"You know, I'm sure Andy wouldn't like the idea of his daughter dating some punk when she's only fourteen either," Freddie said. "I'll talk to him and the both of us will resolve this whole issue."

"You two can't just lock your daughters away from the dating world forever," Carly said.

"Watch us," Freddie smirked.

"I just hope Clarissa and Ashton don't go crazy like we did," Sam said, ignoring her husband's comment. "I mean think about it, if Shane didn't fall down that elevator shaft and end our argument for us, we might've kept fighting until our friendship was ruined."

"That would've been awful!" Carly said. "We can't let that happen to Ashton and Clarissa. When they come back we'll sit them down and help them ourselves."

"Well maybe Ashton and Clarissa are mature enough to solve this whole thing on their own," Freddie said.

"Baby, they're fourteen-year old girls 'in love' with a cute boy," Sam scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You think there's enough reason in their heads to solve something like this maturely?"

"Yeah, they're probably at the Groovy Smoothie right now coming up with the same little contest we did for Shane," Carly agreed.

"Hey, I wonder how Shane is now," Sam said. "He left Ridgeway after that elevator shaft thing."

"Dunno, we can look him up on Splashface if you want," Carly said, opening up her web browser. "Let's see…here he is! Whoa! He got even more good looking!"

"Aw man, check out those abs!" Sam said, looking at his profile picture.

"I can't believe I was so close to dating this guy back in high school!" Carly said.

"Tell me about it," Sam nodded.

"Ahem," Freddie said, clearing his throat.

"But lucky for me, that didn't work out," Sam smiled, leaning over to give her husband a quick peck. "Because instead of this dude with washboard abs, I'm married to the most adorable tech doof in the world."
"That's supposed to be a compliment, right?" Freddie asked.

"Yes it is," Sam said, kissing him again.

….

"How long are those two gonna be out at the Groovy Smoothie?" Carly asked a few hours later as her, Sam, and Freddie lounged in the Bensons' living room.

"I dunno, but it's a school night, so Ashton knows she needs to be home by eight," Sam said. "Which gives them just a few more minutes to-"

Right on cue, the front door opened and Clarissa and Ashton walked in.

"Good, there you guys are," Carly said. "Have a seat. Sam and I want to talk to you about this whole Chad situation."

"Oh, we already figured that out," Ashton said.

"Let me guess? You decided to have a contest to see which one of you could get him to kiss you first?" Sam said. "Now let us tell you why that's a bad idea-"

"Apart from the obvious fact that both of you are way too young to be kissing anybody," Freddie chimed in.

"Um, no, that's not what we decided," Clarissa frowned.

"Yeah, who would come up with a dumb idea like that?" Ashton nodded.

"Well what did you two decide?" Carly asked.

"Like you said, our friendship is way to valuable to let something as dumb as a boy get in the way of it," Clarissa said. "No matter how cute he is. So we decided that neither of us would date him."

"Neither of you?" Sam repeated.

"Wonderful decision!" Freddie said happily.

"But-But I thought you both said you were 'in love'," Carly reminded them.

"Please, we're fourteen, what do we know about love?" Clarissa scoffed.

"Exactly," Ashton said. "So come on, Clarissa. Let's go get started on our math homework."

"Holy chiz…" Sam said as the girl headed upstairs. "They are more mature than we were at their age!"

"I know!" Carly exclaimed.

"I've never been so proud," Freddie said.