Chapter 25

The moment that Sam had dreaded was here.

The school day ended, and the three of them walked back to Bushwell Plaza. They headed up to the iCarly studio to rehearse the two hour special they were going to run on Friday. The three of them were throwing ideas at each other as they were walking home, and while they were in the studio. Needless to say, time sort of flew by.

When they wrapped up the closing scene from the rehearsal for the evening, Freddie glanced at his watch and gasped.

"What?" Sam asked as she was helping Carly reset everything in the room so it would be ready on Friday.

"It's after 6:00 already," Freddie moaned, "We need to get over to my place and do homework." He quickly powered down the equipment.

"We need to eat is what we need to do," Sam insisted, "I'm starving." She began to head down the stairs. "I'll be back later, Carls."

"You guys don't want to stay here for dinner?" Carly asked politely as she followed her friends down the stairs.

"We would," Freddie replied, "but Sam and I have to have a special talk with my mom."

"Oh," Carly said looking a little concerned.

"I'll tell you about it later," Sam said as she and Freddie headed out the door, "See ya,"

"See ya," Carly replied as her friends disappeared.

Freddie opened the door to his apartment, and he and Sam walked into the kitchen.

"It's about time you got here," Mrs. Benson said a little impatiently, "I was about to come across the hall to get you."

"We're sorry," Freddie apologized, "let's eat." He and Sam took a seat at the table while Mrs. Benson brought out a chili and macaroni and cheese casserole to the table.

"Mmmm, that looks good," Sam said, just dying to dig in.

"Well thank you, Sam," Mrs. Benson replied as she laid three plates down, "you and Freddie dig in while I get you guys a glass of milk."

The two teens filled their plates up, and began to eat. Mrs. Benson brought in their drinks; then she sat down and filled her plate up and began to eat. There was no problem with cleaning out the casserole dish as Sam helped herself to seconds and thirds to help leave no leftovers for Freddie's mom.

As the meal was ending, Freddie looked over to Sam to indicate that this would be a good time to start talking about the thing they needed to discuss. Sam nodded to him; so he turned to his mother, "Mom, there's something I need to tell you."

Mrs. Benson had just completed her last bite, and turned to her son, "Yes Fredward, what is it sweetie?"

Sam tried not to smile, but it was hard to; so she looked down. Freddie's cheek flushed, but he continued anyway, "I need you to know that when I went over to study at Sam's the other night, her mom left around 4:30 on personal business, and we were left alone in the apartment for a short time."

Mrs. Benson's eyes went wide, "What exactly are you trying to tell me Freddie?" She asked intensely as she gazed at both teens.

"No mom," Freddie quickly tried to reply before his mother would freak, "I'm just trying to say that I made a bad judgment call in staying at my girlfriend's with just me and her alone in the house. I should have left when Ms. Puckett did…"

"I should say you should have left," Mrs. Benson said in a frantic voice, "especially with you two in such a young relationship and your hormones raging and everything…"

"Mom," he continued, "we understand that, and we realized this and it made us uncomfortable to be there alone…"

"You should have called then," Mrs. Benson interrupted, "if I'd known you needed me there, I would have raced over to get you."

"Mom, I'm glad I can count on you to get me when I need you," Freddie said after he thought a few seconds. He was trying to keep this conversation from getting out of hand, "Sam and I were just studying and I hated to leave her by herself…"

Sam looked at Freddie. She was impressed at how he was handling himself with his overbearing mother. She was more impressed by the way he was making Monday evening look better than what it was.

"That was nice of you to think about the safety and well-being of your girlfriend," Mrs. Benson said calming slightly, "but I could have brought Sam back with us if we needed to." She turned to Sam, "why on earth would your mother leave you and Freddie by yourselves in your home?"

Sam began to turn white. She was hoping she could stay out of this conversation, but now she was on the spot. She gulped, and answered, "I-I'm sorry Mrs. Benson," she replied nervously, "I really thought that my mother wasn't going to be gone that long. I didn't think to send Freddie home…"

"I wasn't thinking mom," Freddie concurred, trying to come to Sam's rescue, "we just treated our homework session as just that. We were concentrating on getting our homework done. It felt weird to have the house so quiet, but we were fully focused on our studies."

Mrs. Benson studied her son. She couldn't believe what she had heard about her son being alone with a girl in a house, especially now that this particular girl was his girlfriend. She did know the girl though, and has known her for a while. It was the only thing giving Mrs. Benson comfort right now, that it was a girl she had grown to admire in recent months. Sam did have a different personality than her son, but Mrs. Benson saw how much they had rubbed off on each other. She honestly didn't want to hurt their relationship on this isolated issue, but she was a mother, and she needed to set some ground rules.

"Sam," Mrs. Benson said calmly, "I need to know if this sort of thing with your mom leaving while you're studying together is ever going to happen again."

Sam was still a little pale. She needed to try to answer as truthfully as she could, but she knew with her mom, anything was possible. "I don't always know what my mother has planned when I get home from school. So I guess it's possible it could happen again," she nearly half gasped.

Mrs. Benson nodded, "Since that's the case," she said firmly, "then I have no choice; I can't have Freddie studying anymore at your place…"

Sam lowered her head, and Freddie closed his eyes sadly, "Mom…" he tried to interrupt.

"…but you will always be welcome to come here every night so you guys can study and hang out…" Mrs. Benson continued.

Sam raised her head; she thought she might cry from happiness. Mrs. Benson was almost basically giving her an open door to spend all the time she wanted with Freddie. Freddie opened his eyes, and sighed in relief.

"…if that's okay with your mother, of course," Mrs. Benson concluded with a small twinkle in her eye, as she looked to Sam.

Sam smiled, "I'm sure it won't be a problem."

"So you're saying she can come by every night of the week, and you wouldn't mind?" Freddie asked making sure he understood his mother correctly.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Mrs. Benson replied, "there is a reason why I'm doing this though, and I need to ask Sam about it."

Sam began to pale a little again. "What is it that you need to know?" She asked nervously.

Mrs. Benson looked at Sam, "What is your overall grade average in school right now?" She asked with a small smile.

Sam wrinkled her face. This is a weird question, she thought. Let's see, I just checked on Monday, and I was just cracking the top 10% of the class, "I'm approaching an A- average now," she replied.

Mrs. Benson glowed, "Well, I have to say that I am very proud of what you have achieved. You went from a D average in September to an A- average in less than three months, and I know that even though you did most of it yourself, Freddie was a good influence for you. This is exactly why I want you to continue studying together."

Sam smiled and grabbed her boyfriend's hand, "I couldn't have done it without our little Fredward here."

Freddie gave Sam a look, but then he smirked at her, "even I'm amazed at how far you've come."

Sam gave his hand a hard squeeze, "Gee, thanks," she commented as her eyes lit up when she heard her boyfriend yelp in pain.

"Sam and Freddie," Mrs. Benson intervened, "you two are a great joy to each other, and I wouldn't dream of trying to separate you guys. However, you guys are not yet fifteen and I can't have you guys testing your boundaries unsupervised. I hope you understand why I want you here when you study."

The two lovebirds looked at each other. They looked to Freddie's mom, "we understand," they said nearly simultaneously.

"Great," Mrs. Benson grinned as she got up from the table and began to clear the dishes, "now if I understand correctly, you both have a lot of school work to do."

"Yep," Sam answered as she left the kitchen table and walked into the living room to have a seat on the couch.

"Did you want help clearing off the table?" Freddie asked politely.

"You don't have to tonight," Mrs. Benson said gently, "it's getting late, and you have a lot of work to do, and it looks as if your girlfriend has got a head start on you." She took the dishes to the sink to begin washing them.

Freddie went into the living room to join Sam. He sat down next to her and grabbed his history book. "See," he said softly, "that didn't go so bad, did it?"

"Other than the fact that we can't study at my place anymore, yeah I guess it could have been worse," she answered just as softly.

"At least you can always get a home cooked meal every night when you're here," he lightly smirked.

Sam looked at him and grinned. She hadn't thought of that. "Oh yeah, that's right," she said, "I can definitely live with that." She turned back to her studies.

"Me too," Freddie replied as he bent over to kiss Sam on top of her head. He then also returned to his studies.

Author's Note: As you can see, Freddie didn't tell his mother everything about what happened that past Monday, but at least he gave his mom a heads up about things that he felt important that his mother should know about. I think this was the best turnout for Sam and Freddie, because now they'll be in a "parental" supervised area and the temptations won't be out there as much. One chapter remains, and it's sort of an epilogue in a way. Thanks to all who've reviewed all month long. – kwags74