Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly or any of the other characters on it. I do own Jacob, however. And the town Broadsworth is not based on any actual town, and if it does share the name of one, that is purely coincidental. And I own the girl Sam meets, too. :D
"Man, Sam, do we really have to stop here?" Carly sighed as she leaned against the window, and I rolled my eyes. She was tired of being cooped up in the car, and didn't want to stop for a ham sandwich- but she perked up every time we passed by an outlet mall.
"Too late cupcake, I already paid," I rolled my eyes again for her to see, and she grinned at me in that, 'Oh yeah, what a lack of judgment,' kind of moment. "Now eat your ham sandwich, and pay attention for the exits to Broadsworth!" I snapped as I pulled her sandwich out and drove away. She obediently shoved the sandwich into her mouth, and I digested it in one of my record breaking times- thirty seconds for the whole sandwich. I was proud.
I hadn't done these kinds of things in a long time. I used to always joke with Carly about how fast I could scarf down a slice of ham, and she would time me. I would always take about five seconds for a small smile, whereas she would take about thirty. Call it a talent, I guess.
I hadn't thought of how much I missed this. I never realized how much I missed just hanging out with my best friend. I always kept to myself, not really hanging out. We spent time together, and we laughed, and we told each other everything- but we never really did anything.
Occasionally we would stop by Groovy Smoothies or head to the convenience store. We even picked up a few of those pirate movies for laughs at times. But we never did crazy things like just go, stop at random crazy stores and get sidetracked by random petting zoos and hat stores. It was a good thing I had brought all of my money, which was a lot. Last year to keep my mind off of things I had had a pretty serious job, but I quit it a few weeks ago.
I had been planning this for a while.
By the time I was finished with my soda, second sandwich, and curly fries, Carly was still just finishing her burger and fries, having only got that and a large soda. She was taking her time, staring obediently at the signs we whirled pass. She had a furry green cowboy hat on, and I was wearing a giant giraffe hat that bent over backwards against the roof of the car.
I felt lucky to be hanging out with my best friend, only miles away from more information about where Freddie was.
"Look, there it is! Take the exit Sam, take the exit!" Carly screamed, panicking even though I was already in the right lane. By the time she commented down, we were driving into Broadsworth.
We both snorted at the same time. "Wow, Jacob was such a great guy, offering Freddie and his mom a place here," Carly snickered sarcastically as we stared at the miniscule town. We could basically drive up and down the street once and see what there was to see. Well, we could take a few turns, but I didn't think we really wanted to see all of the houses.
"Well, I guess it'll be easier to find the Bensons, then? If that's even their last name…" I drifted off, and Carly gave me a small wince. She didn't like the thought of wondering through this town aimlessly looking for him. It was hard to come to terms with what I was looking for when things had looked so fun. It was like I had gotten to my job.
But the moment I thought of him…of telling him, "Freddie, I love you." The moment he heard that, I would be happy. Even if he pushed me away, I would be sickly ecstatic. Of course, I wanted him to return the feelings…but I couldn't let myself get too ahead. If you don't get your hopes up, you'll never get let down.
I jumped out of the car when I pulled up to a curb, and Carly pouted at me as I ran up the steps towards a random house. If I had any luck at all…these people would at least know Jacob. What was I going to tell them? "I'm looking for Jacob, possible last name Benson?"
It was the first house along one of the streets, and I ran right up to the door and banged my fist against it. I looked over my shoulder- Carly was grinning. I remembered the times when I hadn't thought of myself as crazy for doing something like this. It was just something to do back then- I would've done anything to make Carly or Freddie or Spencer laugh. I would've done anything to make Gibby laugh, or to make Tareen laugh even!
"Hello?" someone asked when they opened the door. It was a girl about my age with short red hair, and she was rubbing her eyes sleepily. It was strangely nice, talking to someone who knew nothing about me. I could be anyone I wanted, while talking to this girl.
But why I would I want to be anyone but myself?
"I'm looking for a kid who played basketball at one point, possibly still does- his name is Jacob, and if his last name isn't Benson, he's still related to a boy named Freddie Benson and his psycho mother." I said this all very calmly as I leaned against her door frame. She backed away from me, but was too polite to flat out ask me to get away from her. Or, maybe she was too scared.
She pointed across the street, but her finger crooked to the right. She gave Carly one fleeted weird look when she saw her face pressed against the glass, but continued, mumbling quickly, "Jacob Benson Freemont? The hotshot of the neighborhood, he is." She gave me a crooked smile, and I started laughing.
Ignoring that, she continued. "5544, he lives right there in the green house with the duck in the front yard." I just laughed harder. She kept on ignoring me, probably thinking about what a loudmouth I was. I didn't really mind that.
"Thanks then…uhm, didn't catch your name? Well, of course I didn't catch your name kid, just tell it to me," I snickered at myself, and I turned to see that Carly had the window rolled down and was rolling her eyes at me as I laughed. It had been a long time since I had laughed this hard. I missed making fun of the geek- guess I had to settle for his cousin.
"My name is Samantha," she said with a tiny smile, and my laughter died out. Strange, how some things bring you back down so quickly. My name. My real name.
But I wasn't Samantha, I was Sam.
"Nice doin' business with you, Samantha." I clapped her hard on the back and waltzed as gracefully as I possibly could down the stairs as I jumped at Carly's car. "Come on, kid, I'll race you to the duck," I said, expecting her to tell me how crazy I was.
She jumped out of the car, slammed the door shut and bolted.
I missed running more than I ever thought I could miss something.
No, that was a stupid statement.
There were two things I missed more than running. The first thing- bet you think its Freddie huh? Nope. The first thing I missed was being myself. Running around like a psycho, doing crazy stuff with Carly, making random friends with people like Samantha. The second thing was Freddie.
Of course I beat Carly to the duck, but winning isn't always the best. As soon as I got to the duck I trampled over it, surprised by the loud snap! When the head cracked off. Jokingly, I remembered the old iCarly skit we had where Freddie would pop a balloon and we would dive to the floor, and I dove to the floor then. Surprisingly enough, Carly did the exact same thing next to me as we rolled on the grass, the duck head in between us as she choked out, "Oh man, they're already gonna hate me," and I said, "The duck was ugly anyways."
"Oh my god, my mom is gonna kill me," a voice breathed at the door, and we both sat up immediately. I had to catch my breath.
Jacob was as muscular and handsome as he had been in the pictures that Freddie had shown me that day. This was the Sam Puckett luck, I realized, catching up to me. Jacob was here- good looking as ever- and still looking a bit like Freddie at the same time. And I had found him. And maybe, just maybe, I had found Freddie too.
"Jacob!" I screamed and I leaped forward to hug him. He held his hands down at his side nervously as I coughed back any possible crying fits while I released him. By the time I regained myself from the hysterical laughing, Carly was at my side beaming at Jacob.
"Do you know where Freddie is? Freddie, your cousin? C'mon, basketball star, you can talk!" I screamed in one breath, as if Jacob had started to protest or something. He stared at me like I was crazy, and then realization dawned on his face.
"Hey!" he drew the word out into one extremely long syllable. I rolled my eyes at Carly, and she mimicked my exasperation. I could feel it between us- the excitement, the thought that we had found her friend. It was stronger for me of course. This was the excitement to find the guy I loved. I was beginning to accept this.
Slowly.
He stared at me, his finger pointing at me, though he didn't say anything. I wanted to slap him- it was almost painful to hold back the urge. I held my hand tightly in a fist, and Carly elbowed me. Jacob didn't notice any of this; he was studying my face, his eyes so expectant it was shocking.
"Spit it out already, Jake!" I screamed, and Carly seemed surprised by my outburst. It had been a while since I had acted like this. It had been a while since anything had been like this, it seemed. I held my fist back to punch him, but his laughter got to me. I put my hand back at my side, narrowing my eyes.
"Freddie told me- he told me all about you! He said you were violent. I didn't think he was telling the truth when he said that you used to rag on him all the time…" he clutched his chest, looking like he might collapse. Carly smirked at me, and I felt like I might faint. Freddie had told him all about me.
"You're Samantha Puckett!" I raised my fist again. "Sam, Sam, sorry! He told me you hate being called Samantha, too. And you're Carly Shay," he gestured towards Carly, and she smiled politely and nodded.
It was like being with someone who had just remembered their entire lives. I wondered if he had thought Freddie was lying, telling him about his crazy friends Carly and Sam. It made me smile, just a bit, but at the same time I was clutching my chest- and not for the same reason that Jacob was. I felt like I might break apart. I wanted to know if Freddie was here. I wanted to know if there was a reason for this.
"He talked 'bout you a lot, Sam. He even had a couple pictures of the three of you together…"
"He showed me a pic of you too, Jake," I managed to choke out. The way I talked to him was like he was an old friend, but Freddie had brought up meaningless details about Jacob a lot of times in our years together. Things that were flooding back, making me feel like I did know the boy in front of me.
He hesitated suddenly, standing up straight. "But…but why are you here? Why the hell are you two here? Why did you break Mr. Duck?" he demanded, picking up the head suddenly. Obediently, I reached into my back pocket and held out a twenty. He stared at the money for a moment and then smirked.
"Thanks," he said easily, and I wondered if he was going to use the money for the duck. I probably wouldn't have. That thought made me grin a bit.
"Is Freddie here? Was Freddie over here? Sam- I mean, we need to know," Carly blurted out, and I gave her a small grimace. Jacob didn't seem to notice. He hesitated, staring at us for a long time again as he walked over to the duck and kicked its head into the gutter.
I wanted to grab him by the front of his shirt and shake the answer out of him, but I doubted that would make Freddie listen to me if- no, when- I found him.
"I think you need to talk to someone." He said after a long pause, and then he held his hand out to me.
I wanted to push it away, and I wanted to tell him that I didn't care what he thought, that I just needed to talk to Freddie so I could leave. So me and Carly could go and hang out. So that I could move on with the rest of my life.
I still had hopes that Freddie would be in love with me, though.
If he was in love with, then rejecting Jacob's offer so rudely might put a damper on the relationship. Of course, the idea that Freddie might love me brought the words 'fat chance' to my mind.
If you don't get your hopes up, you'll never get let down, I thought myself, and took his hand again.
Carly grabbed onto my arm to keep with us, but Jacob pulled me fast toward the house. Freddie must've talked about me a lot for Jacob to welcome me here like this. For him to be so nice.
I know it was stupid, but I smiled. I smiled in spite of everything. Every little piece of information about Freddie was exciting to learn. I missed him more than I thought I could miss him. It was a stupid thing, but it was our kind of thing. It was just like me and him to end up like this. You don't know what you got 'til it's gone, right?
Jacob opened the door, and the next few words he said made me suddenly nervous.
"Mrs. Benson? Freddie's friend Sam is here."
Author's Note: So, what will Mrs. Benson say? You don't know? Is Freddie here? You don't know? What's up with Jacob? You don't know? Well, I do. xD Ha, sorry. Just opening everyone's mind to the possibilities, right? :D I'll get the next chapter up soon. Hope you liked this one!