Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly.

Chapter Two: iSpy A Jerk

One day, later that week, Freddie got home from school and dropped his backpack off inside his house. His mom was at work and they would be rehearsing for iCarly later that afternoon, so Freddie decided just to go right over to Carly's.

When he entered the Shay's apartment he found Carly sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by homework. He glanced around. "Hey, Carly. No Sam?" He asked her, keeping his tone carefully unconcerned.

"Oh, hey Freddie." Carly offered him a smile, closing the book she'd been pouring over a moment before. She pushed her chair back, "No. She's out with a friend."

She got to her feet, going towards the counter to pour herself a cup of lemonade. "Want some?"

"No, thanks." He shook his head. "What friend?"

"Jack Hutchins." Carly replied carefully. Her voice was light, but Freddie could hear that she was trying to sound particularly casual, as he had a moment before.

Freddie stood by the counter and watched Carly carefully. "Doesn't that worry you a little?"

"Why should it?" Carly asked, widening her eyes innocently.

"Carly, you know exactly why. It can't be good for Sam to…get involved with someone like him." He hated having to talk like this. For so long he and Sam spent their lives pretending to hate each other, and he knew Carly knew he cared, but saying it was a different matter altogether.

"She's not going to get involved with him. They're just friends."

"No. I know him. He likes her."

"But she doesn't like hiiimmmmm." Carly said in a sing song voice.

"How do you know?" He asked, folding his arms and feeling entirely unconvinced.

"I just know. Now, would you stop interrogating me?" She sat back down at the kitchen table and opened her math book once more.

Freddie sat down on the couch, recognizing that he had been dismissed. He turned on the TV, but he wasn't really paying attention to it. After about five minutes of silence, he spoke. "You don't… Think they are doing anything illegal, do you?" He had this mental image of Sam and Hutchins spray painting buildings or egging teachers' cars or breaking into a convenience store.

Carly looked at him, shaking her head, "I already texted her. They're just at the Groovy Smoothie."

Freddie was a little relieved, but he still spent the better part of an hour fidgeting in discomfort.

00000

The door burst open and a laughing Sam entered the apartment, but she was not alone. Jack was with her. He was chuckling and had a grin on his face that Freddie thought made him look just a little too pleased with himself.

Carly looked as surprised as Freddie felt when Sam came in with Jack.

"Hey guys, Jack and I had an idea for a new bit on iCarly." Sam told them enthusiastically, as she flung her backpack at Jack, who caught it easily. Sam half ran to the fridge. "Oh, Carly, you bought more ham! You wonderful friend, you."

"Someone's perky today." Carly raised her eyebrows.

"Mama loves ham." Sam said, her mouth full.

Carly shrugged, "So what's this idea for iCarly?"

"Wait a minute," Freddie said, holding up a hand to stop the conversation. "We already have a full episode planned for this week."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. We all know that interview with Mayor Mustacheo was just filler."

"I liked that interview!"

"Now, wait a second, why don't you just tell us the idea." Carly said, stopping the argument before it started.

Sam grinned and collapsed on the couch. "So. It's a play on Mario Bros. right? So, Carly is the damsel in distress (Princess Peach) and Freddie and Gibby are Mario and Luigi, right? But we can call them Max and Lego or something. So, Bowser, who will also be renamed for the sake of irony, played by the one and only Jack Hutchins—" She motioned to Jack, who gave a theatrical bow. "Will eat Max and Lego for breakfast, and, of course, the princess will be eaten too!"

Freddie didn't think it sounded that funny, and Carly looked skeptical too. "What will you do?" She asked.

"I'll be the narrator, of course." She lowered her voice theatrically, and said, grinning, "And then the evil turtle attacked!" She launched herself off the couch and jumped Jack, who grinned as she ruffled his hair jokingly.

Freddie felt annoyed. He couldn't exactly place why, but the exchange bothered him. He glanced at Carly with a 'Didn't I tell you?' look. She shook her head, looking confused.

"I guess it sounds better than the Mayor Mustacheo interview…" Carly conceded, nodding. "Let's go write a script."

0000

As lame as it had sounded in the beginning, the sketch actually turned out pretty funny. Or, most of them thought so. Freddie was too bitter toward Hutchins to be amused. But he had to admit, it was nice to be able to be in front of the camera for once. He set it up on a tripod in the back of the room, so he wouldn't have to hold it.

But the script ended up having a lot of humor at Freddie and Gibby's expense. Making them out to be stupid and unable to save the Princess. Freddie knew it was just a joke, but the whole thing bothered him, for more reasons than he could explain.

When they had finished the rehearsal Carly suggested they all go get smoothies together, but Sam and Jack had already gotten smoothies that day and turned down the offer.

"Freddie, Gibby, do you guys want to go?"

"No, thanks, Carly. My, uh, mom will be expecting me." Freddie didn't know what made him say it. Normally he would have been perfectly happy going to the Groovy Smoothie with Carly and Gibby. Today, he wasn't really in the mood.

0000

Freddie was in the school hallway the next afternoon putting some books away in his locker, when he heard loud laughter coming from down the hall. He looked up and saw Jack Hutchins and a bunch of his friends laughing as they walked along with their heads lifted high and confidence in their step.

Jack spotted a girl who was putting some books away in her locker. She wore large glasses and a long, old-fashioned skirt that was brown and old, with a frilly pink blouse. She was pretty new in the school and she got teased a lot. Freddie felt kind of bad for her but hadn't really known how to approach her, so he'd left her alone.

Now Jack nudged one of his buddies with his elbow, grinned and muttered something, before hurrying over toward the girl and leaning against the locker next to hers.

"Hey." He said, in a voice that was most definitely supposed to be flirtatious.

The girl looked surprised, and she blushed. "Hi."

"Your name is Rachel, right?"

"My name is Raylee."

"Ohhhh, right, Raylee, I'm sorry." He gave her a wide grin.

"N-No problem." Her voice came out in a squeak. Her cheeks were bright red and she was staring up at him with wide eyes.

He leaned down so his face was closer to hers. "I've been watching you today, and I wanted to ask you a question."

Her eyes grew even wider, her cheeks even brighter. "Yes?"

He leaned in just a tiny bit closer and said, in a mock whisper, "Does your grandma give you fashion advice?"

Raylee stared at him for a fraction of a second before completely registering what he'd said. But the moment she caught it Freddie felt sick just watching her. She blinked several times. Her mouth opened and closed as if she were searching for words that wouldn't come. He could see clearly that her eyes were growing wet and she was trying desperately to keep them dry. Her face was redder than ever.

Jack burst into hysterical laughter and walked away, back toward his friends. He spotted Freddie, and gave a slight shrug, then marched away down the hall, laughing as he went.

Freddie heard a locker door slam shut, turned and saw Raylee hurrying away down the hall. He ran after her.

"Raylee! Hey-Wait up!" He caught her by the arm. He felt anger brewing inside of him. He'd known Hutchins was a jerk, but he hadn't known he was that cruel.

"What do you want? To mock me? Laugh? Go ahead." She said, defensively, pulling her arm from his grasp and failing to fight back a tear that fell down her cheek.

"No." He answered, quietly, "Jack Hutchins is a jerk. I-I'm sorry."

Her eyes fell to the ground. "It doesn't matter. I don't care what he thinks."

"You shouldn't." Freddie said firmly, "He's mean to everyone, and anyway, letting it get to you is just giving him what he wants… You know?"

She shrugged. "I guess. I just really, really want to go home now so…" She turned to go.

"Right. I hope to catch you later!" He called, feeling awkward and unsure how to befriend this girl who seemed to need a friend so badly.

She stopped and turned toward him. "Hey, thanks—uh?"

"Freddie." He said, nodding and offering a friendly smile.

"Right. Freddie." He could see she still looked ready to cry, but he didn't press comfort on her. She seemed to just want to escape, and he didn't blame her.

Freddie made his way back to his locker, his mind reeling and feeling a little nauseous. The thing was, he did feel bad for Raylee, but that was just a small portion of his mind. The rest of it was consumed with this image that he couldn't force away. He could clearly picture Sam standing exactly as Raylee had been, with Jack Hutchins capturing her attention, her heart. Leaning close to her as if to whisper some sweet nothing or term of endearment, only to, instead, crush her under his foot. He could see Sam's face falling, Sam being too caught off guard to even be angry or violent. Sam crying.

And it hurt worse than anything he had felt in a long time. All he could think was that he wanted to warn her. To keep her as far away from Jack Hutchins as possible.

Because Freddie knew he would play with her emotions just as he had done to the other girl.

The thing about Sam was, that she was mean, she was rude, she was violent. But she wasn't cruel. She would make rude remarks and clever jabs, but the moment it went too far she'd feel awful, and she'd do just about anything to make it up to you.

He knew from experience.

Sam wasn't heartless. And Freddie was pretty sure Hutchins knew that. And all he could think was that he needed to protect Sam.

He needed to warn her.

Author's Note: I hated writing this chapter, which is why it took me so long to update. I've had this sitting on my computer for forever trying to think of another way to go about showing what a jerk Jack is, but this seemed the best way to go about it. Please treat people with kindness, guys, I hated even writing Jack doing such a jerky thing.

Again, I'm sorry for the delay. I can't say I'm entirely happy with this chapter, but, I think it does what it was meant to do, says what it was meant to say. But it wasn't a fun one to write. Anyway, please review! Sorry again for the wait.