Chapter 14

It was a strenuous week for Freddie when it dealt with Sam.

Sam wouldn't even speak to Freddie all week; at school, when they met at Carly's to prepare for iCarly, and for iCarly. She just couldn't understand why Freddie would try to make her unhappy by making up stories about him. Now she was afraid about trusting David fully.

Sam's abuse on Freddie hadn't stopped; she was still having pranks pulled on him. What was worse was the fact that Sam was doing it out of spite and anger, and not for fun. Freddie knew he hit a bad chord with her, so he chose not to fight back, and decided to take her abuse. It was a dreadful week, and he decided to stay away from her.

Even Carly and Spencer asked her about what had happened, but Sam wouldn't answer the question. They even started to really feel sorry for Freddie, but since Freddie never complained, they dropped it.

Now that he was free after school, Freddie decided to go to the gym every day. He regularly met with Jeremy and Gibby to work out. He needed something to fill the void left from not studying with Sam.

Even though she was angry and upset with Freddie, she still missed studying with him in the evenings. Her passion to get her grades up was put on hold, because she didn't have the drive now. All she wanted to do was either hang out at Carly's or just talk to David on the phone. She was looking forward to seeing him on the weekend.

Saturday, she and David went to the movies and had a great time. When he came back up the next day, they decided to try out a new indoor amusement park that had just grand opened in the downtown district.

The place was called Marina Land, and it was huge, with video games, a dance floor, several large slides, a skateboarding area, and a restaurant just to name a few of the main attractions.

It seemed to be a big hit with the teenagers, as a vast majority of the people that were there on this Sunday afternoon were teenie-boppers. Sam had noticed that there were a lot of good looking girls that were enjoying themselves, and having remembered what Freddie told her earlier in the week, she wanted to get the opportunity to prove Freddie wrong. So, she decided to watch David to see if he was indeed flirting.

Sadly, as the day progressed it turned out that he was flirting with other girls. The first time he did it, it shocked her and angered her a bit, but she decided to let it go. Then, he bluntly did it a second time, and Sam punched him in the arm and barked at him about what he did. David tried to calm Sam down and told her he was "making the other girls jealous". She didn't buy that though, and went on being mad at him the rest of the afternoon.

But Marina Land was a fun place to hang, so when she and David returned home, they told their best friends about it. Danny and Carly both liked the sound of the place, so they decided that all four of them should go the next weekend.

Sam didn't tell Carly about what happened with David at the park, and she sure wasn't going to admit to Freddie that he was right about David. But now that Sam saw that Freddie had told her the truth, she began to lighten up on him a bit.

Freddie was glad to see Sam being a little more civil to him as the next week rolled along, but he never asked her why. He was even invited by Sam to come to the amusement park on Sunday. Freddie told her that he might be there, and if he were to go that he's find his own way there. He didn't want to go with them since he would feel "out of place" with the four of them.

Freddie never really tried to pursue any girl at school to be his girlfriend, despite the fact that he was getting tired of being the odd man out of his group. He only had feelings for Sam, and it drove him crazy at times. Even when she was at her worst like she was last week, he just couldn't help but feel compassion for her. He knew his feelings for her were much different than the feelings he had had for Carly.

Finally, Sunday came, and the girls along with their boyfriends arrived at Marina Land. They arrived just before lunch time, so they decided to go to the eatery to grab a bite before they roamed the park. They went into The Fishy Food Joint to fill their stomachs. The boys treated the girls to huge platters of fish and chips, and they washed it down with Peppy Cola. They later left the restaurant and decided to hit the arcade first while their stomachs settled.

After an hour playing video games they came back out and decided they wanted to go on the huge slides.

David said to the gang, "Hey look, they got the tunnel slide going this week. They didn't have it open last time me and Sam were here." Sam and her friends looked over at the slides, and Sam nodded.

"Yeah," Sam said excitedly, "we've got to try that out first." Sam grabbed her boyfriend's hand and pulled him up the stairs that led to the top of the slide. Danny and Carly were only a few paces behind them trying to catch up.

The long set of stairs took them to either the big wide slide (which was the only one open last week), or the tunnel slide. Each slide traveled the same distance and they were positioned at the same height. The big wide slide could hold a half dozen people going down at the same time. Each person had their own lane. It was wavy at the beginning of the ride; then shot straight down at the end. There was even some stop clocks at the bottom of each lane that could be used if a group wanted to go down at the same time. They could then race each other to the bottom, and see who was the fastest.

The tunnel slide was a very narrow slide that was wavy all the way to the bottom for the most part. There was a place in the middle where it dropped though. The slide was enclosed from about a foot from the top all the way until you reach the bottom and it opened up again about ten feet from the end.

As expected, there were lines for the narrow slide, but the gang didn't care. Sam led the front of the group, followed by David and Danny, and Carly brought up the rear. The worker at the slide had the next person wait about thirty seconds before she let that person go. The worker couldn't see anything happening in the slide, and could barely see the exit at the bottom.

Finally, it was Sam's turn to go. "Oh, this is going to be so cool," she said smirking. And she sat down then pushed her way through the opening and disappeared down the slide.

David looked down the outside of the tunnel to see if he could see Sam get out. Just as the worker told him he could go, he saw Sam exit the slide at the bottom. "I'll see you guys at the bottom!" He told his friends as he disappeared down the slide.

Sam and David stood by the entrance stairs patiently as they waited for Danny and Carly to go through. All of them were smiling after the first trip.

"Hey," Danny said, as they began to start going up the stairs again, "let's do the other slide together and see who makes it to the bottom first." The other three smiled as they nodded in agreement.

They got up the steps a little quicker this time, and walked over to the other slide. They told the worker that was working this slide that the four of them wanted to go down together at the same time. The worker let a few other people go first; then he told the four to position themselves on the slide. After they were ready, the worker told them "go", and they were off. This slide was a little more boring at the beginning, but when they hit that "drop", they all screamed down to the bottom. When they got there, they looked at their time. David had come in last at 12.32 seconds; Sam finished at 12.11 seconds, and Carly and Danny had the exact same time of 12.06 seconds. They all laughed.

"Hey guys," called a familiar voice from a bench about twenty feet from the bottom of the slide.

"Hey, Freddie," Carly and Sam called back together. The girls walked over to him. "Have you been here long?" Carly asked him.

"Oh, about an hour," Freddie answered, "I went to the dance studio first. The music was kickin'." He sat back on the bench and stretched a little, "I'm a little worn out, so I came here to rest."

Sam laughed at him, "You were dancing?"

Freddie gave her a look, "Yes, I was dancing. Anyway, I'll go on the slide here in a few minutes."

Danny and David had caught up with their girls, "You girls ready to go down the tunnel slide again?" Danny asked.

"You bet!" Carly exclaimed, and Sam began pulling David's hand to the stairs, "See ya later, Freddo!" Sam hollered to Freddie.

Freddie sat back and watched the four go up the stairs to the tunnel slide. He watched them get on the slide; then disappear for what seemed like forever only then to reappear not more than thirty feet from where he was sitting.

They went in reverse order from the first time they came down with Carly coming down first, and Sam bringing up the rear. When Sam reached the bottom, and got off the slide, she said, "Man, this slide is so cool, let's go do it again."

Carly looked at her friend, "If you and David want to go, go ahead," she smiled as she looked towards Danny, "but me and Danny need to break the tie that we had on the other slide."

Danny smiled at her girlfriend, "Bring it on sister," he challenged heartily.

Sam and David started back up the stairs quickly, while Carly and Danny took their time. When Sam and David reached the line for the tunnel slide, they discovered the line was getting really long. But they didn't mind, it gave them a chance to catch their breaths. Sam needed the break; she was getting a little light headed from all the racing.

As they were standing in line, a group of good-looking girls got in line behind them. They were laughing and giggling at each other. David couldn't help but look their way when Sam wasn't watching, and he started making eyes at the girls and smiling which made the girls laugh even more. Sam hadn't noticed what was going on, because she was so focused on getting on the slide.

It was her turn to go, and she turned to David, and asked if he wanted to go first. She saw he was looking at the girls, and she got a little upset at him. David turned to her, and told her that she could go first. So Sam positioned herself on the slide and took off.

Freddie was still sitting on the bench watching his friends. He assumed the line for the tunnel slide was getting long because he hadn't seen either Sam or David at the top of the slide. He saw Carly and Danny race down on the other slide. Carly did beat Danny this time, but only by a tenth of a second. They both laughed as they got up and began to go up the stairs again.

Freddie turned his attention back to the tunnel slide. He finally saw Sam get on the slide and disappear through the tunnel. He was staring at the top of the slide, and saw David and a bunch of girls talking with one another. Freddie's anger began to boil, when he saw Sam's boyfriend flirting with other girls again. He shook his head, and stood up from the bench to get a better look at what was going on. Then, he saw in disgust; as David let one of the girls he was flirting with go down the slide first so that he could talk with the others.

The girl disappeared down the tunnel; then Freddie became alarmed when he saw that Sam was not through the slide yet. It shouldn't be taking this long, he thought as he began to walk over to the bottom of the slide.

All of a sudden, he heard a thud, and a girl scream from inside the slide. He raced to the bottom of the slide and looked through the opening. After about ten seconds, Sam finally appeared at the bottom followed by the girl that David let go in front of him. Freddie went over to Sam.

The girl that was on top of Sam said angrily, "I don't know what she was doing stopped in the middle of the slide, but she scared me half to death." The girl got off the slide and walked back to the stairs to wait for her friends.

Freddie ignored the girl and looked at Sam. She was hurt. He noticed a big bump on the back of her head, and it was swelling, "Sam," He said frantically, "are you okay?"

Sam barely had her eyes open, her head was throbbing, "What happened?" She said very weakly.

"I think you must have smacked your head somewhere on the slide," he said as he pulled her away from the slide, "then some girl ran right into you. You must have come to a stop in the slide until she pushed you through." Freddie looked up to see another girl come through the slide. Where is her boyfriend? He thought angrily.

"Sam, there's a nurse's station by the dance studio," he told her, "I'm going to take you there." He helped her up, but she was too weak, and she collapsed in his arms. Freddie scooped her up in his arms, and carried her.

Sam was a little too out of it to care that Freddie was carrying her, "Where's David?" She asked weakly.

Freddie didn't want to tell her what he saw, but as he was carrying her away from the slide, he realized he didn't have to. Sam was gazing at the top of the slide at her boyfriend flirting with the girls that were behind them earlier. "Big flirt jerk," Freddie heard Sam mumble as Freddie got Sam to the nurse's station.

Once the nurse was treating Sam, Freddie called Carly on his cell phone and told her what happened. A few minutes later, she and Danny arrived. "Where's David?" Carly asked.

Sam gave Carly a look of scorn, and Freddie looked away. "I'll go find him." Danny said uncomfortably; then went back out.

A couple of minutes later, the two guys returned. "Sam," David said soberly, "Are you okay, sweetie?"

Sam looked at him with fire in her eyes, "Oh, so you actually took time away from your girlfriends to come see how I was doing?" She said angrily. She was sitting up now and was holding as ice pack to the back of her head. She looked to Carly, "I think I'm ready to go home."

David held his head in shame, but he quietly followed Sam, Carly, and Danny out of the nurse's station and eventually out of the theme park.

Freddie waited for them to leave the nurse's station before he departed. He felt bad for Sam. He knew she wanted to be a special girl in some guy's life. He wanted to be that special guy for her.

He headed out of the theme park, and walked home alone.

Author's Note: I hope that I was able to help you visualize what kind of place this Marina Park is. I tried to do my best in describing how the slides work and what they look like. Sounds like a neat place, huh? Alas, back to the story, is Sam and David over? Wait and see! But at least Freddie got some redemption for being a good friend. We're moving back in the right direction for Seddie now. Please review!