Sam meant to go to Carly's house, but stopped in the hallway when she heard an argument coming from the Benson Residence.
"Come on, Freddie!" Sam heard Mrs. Benson yell from the other side of the door.
"No, Mom! I refuse to go out in public with this thing!"
"Well how else do I get you to take a walk?!"
"Mom, I'm a teenage boy! I am not wearing this leash!" Freddie yelled back. Sam snickered, then continued to pry on the conversation.
"I happen to think it looks very fashionable!"
"I don't care if its fashionable or not, I'm not wearing a leash!"
"Fredward Benson, I am your mother and you will do as I say!"
"No! There is absolutely no way I'm going to let you pull me around on a leash!" Sam raised her eyebrows. Freddie standing up to his mother? I've trained him well. She thought to herself.
"Freddie!" Mrs. Benson shouted, sounding disapointed. Suddenly, the door opened, and Sam pretended she wasn't listening.
"Oh, hey, Mrs. B." She said, casually.
"Samantha! Thank goodness you're here!" Sam crinkled her nose in confusion. Since when was Mrs. Benson happy to see her? "You're a strong young lady, right?"
"Uhh...sure?" Sam wasn't quite sure what to say.
"Will you take my little Freddie for a walk?"
"Mom!" Freddie shouted from inside the apartment. "I'm fifteen!"
"Well that's little to me!" His mother shouted back. She turned around and continued talking to Sam. "He's got a leash and everything, I just need you to take him around the block. Will you do it?"
Sam thought of the oppurtunity she was being given. Carrying Freddie around Seattle in a leash? She grinned happily. "Anything to help, Mrs. Benson." She grabbed his leash and pulled him out of the apartment.
----
Freddie expected some type of torture from Sam. Whether it was tying the leash to a rosebush (A/N: Remember, in winter, the roses wilt, but the thorns are there all year:|) or parading him through a library, banging pots and pans. You never really knew with Sam.
Instead, she took the leash off of him. "There you go, Fredward. You're free. Now let's get some smoothies." She started to walk, then stopped and spun around to face Freddie. "You're buying." Again, she began to walk, but turned around when she realized Freddie was not walking behind her. "Freddie? Hello?" She attempted to wake him from his haze. "We're getting smoothies now, remember?"
Freddie shook his head. "That's it? You have the chance to drag me around with a leash, and you just leave it?" He was truly bewildered.
"It's a Christmas miracle!" She exclaimed. "Now come on, mama wants a smoothie!"
Freddie rolled his eyes. Typical Sam, he thought. They were on thier way to the Groovy Smoothie when they saw a couple and what seemed to be thier children with a large table filled with knicknacks. "Hey look!" Freddie pointed. "It looks like they're having a garage sale."
Sam stared at him in disbelief. "In the middle of December? Yeah, that seems likely."
"Come on." Freddie tugged at her arm. "Let's go check it out."
"But...but Freddie!" Sam whined. "I'm lacking in smoothies!"
"Sam, we can get a smoothie anytime."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine."
The bickering duo made their way toward the garage sale, and immediatly, Sam saw something she liked. "Oh...my...GOSH! NO WAY!" She screamed. "THE RARE, LIMITED EDITION BOOGIE BEAR BOARD GAME?!" She turned to face Freddie. "I'll be back." She calmly said before screaming and running to the board game, a sight that forced Freddie to chuckle. He walked around the table until he some something that certantly intrigued him. A little pink music box. His eyes widened and he took the photo Ms. Puckett had given him out of his pocket. He compared the two music boxes. They looked identical to one another. He opened the music box and sure enough, there was the tiny ballerina. Then the beautiful music started to play, and Freddie instantly knew why she loved it so much. "Freddie!" Sam called. He frantically tried to hide the music box behind some boxes before Sam reached him. "Come on, dork. Are we gonna go get a smoothie now or what?"
"Uh..." Freddie needed more time. He knew he had to buy this music box for Sam, but he couldn't buy it right in front of her. "What about that Boogie Bear game?"
"Eh, I didn't have enough money."
"How much was it?"
"Like, ten bucks."
Freddie reached into his pocket and found forty dollars. He sighed and handed Sam a ten dollar bill. "Here, knock yourself out."
She was about to run over to the other side of the table, but turned around. "Wait." She said with a suspicious look on her face. "You're giving me money...that I didn't ask for...for no reason?"
Freddie rolled his eyes. "It's a Christmas miracle!" They both grinned before Sam headed back to the Boogie Bear board game. He then got the music box from behind the boxes. "How much is this music box?" He asked the man having the garage sale.
"Twenty-five dollars." He said, in a deep gruff voice.
Freddie pulled all of his money out of his pocket and realized he now only had thirty dollars. He handed the man his money and stared at the five dollars he had left. It looked like they weren't getting smoothies. The man handed him the little box, and Freddie hid it in his jacket pocket. It was hard to explain how he was feeling right now. Not sad, but not really that happy. Freddie just felt as though that he had done something good.
