Ruined Puzzle Pieces

Part 3:

11:00 AM in Spencer's Car:

Freddie took a moment to reflect on his current circumstances. He had been in Spencer's car for the last 5 hours and had already exhausted all his planned means to amuse himself, a manual and tutorial for some videogame programming software he recently downloaded, preparing the next updates to the iCarly website on his laptop, and his secretly purchased book Comedy and Jokes For Nitwits. Freddie assumed that Carly and Sam would be able to chat with him for the rest of the trip, but Carly was currently listening to her PearPod and Sam was well… asleep.

Which I should have seen coming, especially since Sam probably stayed up reading the Nickel Fortune.

Which was perfectly fine with Freddie since Spencer was driving and Carly was in shotgun, leaving Sam and Freddie alone in the back. Freddie was actually surprised at how peaceful the trip was going so far. He quickly snuck a peak at Carly through the rearview mirror. She was listening to her music with her eyes closed, a huge smile that went ear to ear, relaxed against her seat with one arm elegantly resting on the arm rest and the other on the window ledge. Not to mention she was humming a sound that sounded as harmonious and perfect as the person it was coming from.

Carly's so easy to admire. She's beautiful, nice, and really graceful. More importantly, she was one of the first people who made friends with me, and did it so easily. Me, a guy who knows machines and technology far better than I know people. All through my primary school years I never really found it easy to relate to people, which is what made Carly so much more amazing.

Nothing about a person ever really bothered Carly. She was always friendly and approachable, not to mention she has over 300,000 fans who adore her. She even made friends with Sam for Pete's sake! To put it simply, it was really hard NOT to like Carly as a person. It helped that she always seemed to know how to naturally present herself so you could admire her beauty as well. She dressed really well, took really good care of herself and her appearance and most of the time moved with a subtle grace.

Freddie took a look over at Sam in comparison and snickered to himself. Sam was leaning against the backseat in between the middle and door with her limbs spread out like a ragdoll taking up two-thirds of the room. To top things off, she had her head rolled back over the top of the seat facing the roof with her mouth wide-open and snoring very softly. Freddie shook his head and opened up Comedy and Jokes For Nitwits again, and then looked again at Sam.

It's not cuz she's nice to look at… It's just cuz I never really see Sam being still. She is Carly's opposite in so many ways. Sam is rough and physical, doesn't really relate to people well, never cares for other people's opinions and presents herself anyway she wants. It's like Sam is always indestructible and immutable. You can't change her or her opinion even if you want to. Even more noticeable now is that Sam seems to ALWAYS be in motion, well… when she's awake that is. It's like Sam has two modes: SLEEP and OVERACTIVE. It's probably a testament to Sam's constant activity that she eats so much and never gains weight, and I… never seem to get a good look at her.

Freddie looked extra hard and with greater attention… for pure scientific observation, of course. He noticed that Sam had amazing clear skin, dark perfectly trimmed eyebrows that contrasted well with her curly blond hair.

Huh, it's strange that Sam never really cares about how she acts, yet seems to put such great attention to her appearance. It's probably just a girl thing… but… I've read that when a girl likes someone she… Wait, Sam is crushing on someone? That's silly… she would have told Carly and Carly would have told me or I would have noticed it myself by now…

Freddie looked closer at Sam's button of a nose and her petite lips and…

Whoa… okay, this is not a safe place to take your thoughts. Sam is a friend and I shouldn't really be looking at her lips. That's right Sam and I are just… friends? …Rivals? …Enemies? …Frenemies? It's hard to classify… we tolerate each other at least… No, maybe it was like that at first, but now… it's like we've adapted to each other… barely.

Freddie took another look at Carly and reassured himself of his thoughts.

Carly and I are like two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together. The picture clue may be hard to understand and Carly hasn't really thought of putting our pieces together but I'm sure they fit… Heh, I like that analogy. And Carly and Sam are like two puzzle pieces that has picture clues that don't match at all, but fit perfectly together out of sheer chance and coincidence. As for Sam and me… well, it's like we don't fit and our picture clues have nothing to do with each other and we only are close, because we're both close to Carly.

Pleased with his analogy and thoughts Freddie turned back to his book while listening to Carly's soothing humming. He was just flipping a page when he felt something soft on his shoulder. Apparently Sam's sleeping figure had picked that moment to slide her head onto a new pillow. Freddie had a flurry of emotions, the largest one of them terror, and looked over at Carly and Spencer. Carly still had her eyes closed and her humming was getting softer and softer as she approached the land of Z's. Spencer was still focused on the road driving at an impossibly slow speed that Freddie's mom would have been impatient with. (Admittedly Spencer seems to know when he needs to be responsible…)

Freddie quickly thought about his options, and realized that waking Sam up, especially with her discovering where she had been resting was probably not in his best interests. So Freddie decided that if waking Sam was a bad idea and Carly and Spencer being none the wiser, might as well let her keep snoozing on his shoulder… it would be in his best interest after all.

A/N: Sorry for lack of updates. College exams have a nasty way of all ending up on the same bloody day as if it were a professors' inside joke, and I barely have enough time to watch TV let alone write. Though with the newest iCarly episode looking like it won't be here till mid-December I once again found some free time. This is good since maybe I'll be able to do longer chapters in the future. I'm not really fully happen with the 2-page chapters yet. Well, you see that Freddie seems to be slowly looking at Sam in a new light. Future things to come: Sam's POV (that will be fun ;D ), Carly sees the changes in Freddie and reacts maybe a little surprisingly. Future Sam and Carly interactions too (both good and bad ;D ) since they are a big part of the trio and I've been kind of ignoring them.

A/N/N: Please Review... as an author I kind of live off of them