Ruined Puzzle Pieces

Part 5:

Later at the beach:

Sam walked on the beach barefoot, enjoying the tingling and squishy feeling occurring between her toes. It really made one feel like that man (and woman) was indeed born without shoes. She didn't know what had happened inside with Freddie. She felt… content, but not the same content that one felt after a well-enjoyed full-course meal. Well, actually it was similar to that feeling, but instead of feeling like hibernating right afterward, it felt like you could never fall asleep again. Restless and content at the same time, it seemed almost oxymoronic. Which was strange, Sam had discussed with Carly what qualities in a boy interested them, and Freddie to be simple possessed… none of them (the complete opposite of many of them to be totally truthful). Sam finally concluded that it had to be the trip, and Mr. Pizzaface, and the constant reminder of her family (or lack there of), and just everything put together till pretty much anything, even Freddie, seemed like a welcome change.

Sam kept walking with her thoughts till she saw… a sand… thingie. One couldn't really describe it in one word, but it had Spencer written all over it. Sam never knew one could do abstract art with sand, but then again Sam didn't know that a lot of things that Spencer did was possible. The creation was roughly six-feet high, and looked like a mix between a big sand castle, the Pillsbury dough boy, and a tree.

Ack, never mind. I don't think anyone can describe abstract art, hence the adjective abstract.

"Hey Spencer, that's a wicked sand castle you got there." Sam had always liked Spencer. He never felt like an adult, but you felt comfortable and safe around him anyway. Well emotionally safe anyway, there have been a few instances that Sam had feared for her own safety. Anyway, Spencer was one of those people that seem to always genuinely care about you no matter the day, time, or situation, and that was an extremely rare quality that Sam had a hard time finding even in her own family.

"Just wait… watch this." Spencer put his hand on the back of the sculpture and all of a sudden a rainbow of lights flickered all over the creation of sand. Sam stared flabbergasted for a few seconds, before turning back to Spencer.

"How…"

"Mad Sculpting Skills. I think I can fairly state that I have the coolest sand castle on the entire beach." Spencer proclaimed proudly, and he was right. People all over the beach suddenly looked over at the ridiculous spectacle that was Spencer's creation.

"Have you seen Carly by any chance?" Sam was wondering why Carly wasn't present. Normally she loved Spencer's sculptures and would have been the first to see his finished creation.

"I'm here…" whispered a voice that sounded that suspiciously like Carly's… from Spencer's sand sculpture.

"Carly?" Sam walked over to the other side where she saw a hole slightly smaller than her head in the sand wall, and realized that the whole thing was hollow. Carly's face appeared briefly covered in little bits of sand.

"I'm hiding from my "adoring" fans." Carly checked suspiciously left and right and Sam looked around to see some groups of people holding paper and pens. Carly satisfied that she wouldn't be discovered looked back at Sam. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day."

"Oh you know, the usual… eating… sleeping… and more eating." Sam said the answer that was the most believable, and Carly didn't even think twice about it.

"By the way, have you seen Freddie? He was here just a while ago and then he just disappeared."

Let me guess. Freddie upon arrival, blissfully unpacked his clothes in the hotel, changed into something that he mistakenly thought dashing, practiced a few jokes that have been overused on the internet, and gathered his courage for a day of potential flirting and gaining ground with Carly only to find out that by the time he was ready, 20 or so guys had beat him to it. I should really get a degree for an expertise on geeks. I wonder what the major is called in college?

"Anyway, if you see him, tell him… Ah! I'm not here!" Carly quickly retreated out of view until Sam saw roughly 12 people walk by, stopped and stared at Spencer's ridiculous Christmas sandbox, and then moved on while Spencer merely beamed in pride off on the side. Once the coast was clear Carly reemerged.

"Tell him that we didn't drive four hours just to spend our vacation indoors on a laptop."

"Or in a sandcastle." Sam couldn't help herself, and Carly simply gave her a look.

"Fine…" Carly slowly sunk down out of visibility, and suddenly appeared out of hole behind Sam.

"Wow, Spencer's really outdone himself this time." As if on command, Spencer's sand… (thingamajig? wachamacallit? doohickey?) suddenly burst into flames…

"Sand doesn't even burn?!" Spencer cried before running to the ocean with the smallest plastic pail Sam had even seen. It was a pitiful sight and Sam looked around and quickly "borrowed" the two largest buckets she could find, threw one at Carly, and followed Spencer. Carly was right on her tail.

"I wonder if they teach you this in art school." Sam thought out loud.

"At the very least, I hope they cover fire safety tips." Carly commented, while double checking herself for any spontaneously combusting sand particles. Sam and Carly couldn't help it and started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation while helping Spencer. This was what Sam loved most about the Shays. It was utterly impossible to stay gloomy around them.

Back at the hotel:

While Sam, Carly, and Spencer were questioning the laws of combustion, Freddie was sitting back at his room double-checking all the supplies and equipment he brought on the trip. He had concluded today to be an official failure and decided to focus on the camping portion of the trip, hoping to first impress Carly with his capabilities and preparations, maybe make something out of the romantic campfires, and just show how responsible and reliable he could be.

Three suitcases and a first aid kit that weighed more than him sat on the floor as Freddie verified labels, quality and location of all the contents. At some point Freddie horribly realized that maybe he had more in common with his mother than he cared to admit, but he supposed that preparation for anything wasn't too bad of a trait. Freddie liked to manage things; it's what he did, and why he was perfectly fine being the tech producer on iCarly as opposed to a larger starring role. Freddie liked to observe, prepare, organize, and manage his life. (one of the many reasons his mother drove him crazy on more than one occasion)

He was just about done with suitcases one and two when he heard a knock on the door. Expecting it to be one of the girls, (Spencer had a key) Freddie opened the door without hesitation to find to his surprise, Shane, his A/V club friend.

"Hey, I saw Spencer on the beach earlier and he said you, Sam, and Carly were here. He said you were probably back at the hotel room and I wanted to say hi."

"Hey, I totally didn't expect anyone from school to be on vacation at this hotel" Freddie was pleasantly surprised. He hadn't seen Shane very much since his release from the hospital. Freddie suspected because the poor guy was afraid of Carly and Sam who had fought over him like two toddlers over a stuffed animal with horrific results. Even during A/V club, Shane hadn't said too many words to him, and Freddie had wondered if the girls had ruined his friendship with the guy.

"Yeah, I'm sorry that I haven't talked to you that much. No offence, but you remind me of Sam and Carly, and well… falling 9 stories and breaking 17 bones in your body, forcing 4 surgeries, and a month in a body cast kind of scars you. Anyway, you're one of the coolest guys I know, and none of it was your fault." Shane extended his hand, and Freddie (ignoring the fact of his assistance to Sam in the whole fiasco) gladly gave his own and shook on their friendship.

"So, what you've been up to?" Freddie literally leaped with happiness over to his laptop. It was fun being friends with Sam and Carly and Freddie couldn't really ask for more, (well except maybe from Sam…) but they didn't really understand all of his hobbies.

"I've been making a game inspired by Hungry Hungry Hippos with XNA Game Studio." Freddie quickly powered on his laptop and showed Shane his work. Shane looked through the computer code and seemed genuinely impressed.

"Yeah, XNA, I know that software. XNA stands for…"

"It's Not an Acronym!" chimed by Freddie and Shane and chuckled at the inside joke.

"Ah man, I'm so glad I can talk about this with you. Sam would totally laugh me out a window if she could see me now. She can't stand this kind of thing."

"No, Sam is cool with this kind of stuff."

Wait… What?

"Wait… What? You're kidding, right?" Freddie asked completely confused. The statement was completely ridiculous. It was like saying Freddie wasn't a guy. (Another statement Freddie was glad Sam wasn't here to comment on)

"I mean she doesn't understand all of it, but a lot of it still interests her." Shane spoke matter-of-factly and Freddie could see that Shane wasn't playing with him. He really believed what he was saying.

"Remember, I dated her for a while. I talked about this kind of stuff all the time, and she asked legitimate questions and it was really cool." Freddie had to process the previous sentence twice, no thrice before he actually heard it. It was like the world suddenly decided to redefine gravity to some number other than 9.8 meters per seconds squared. Sam hated geek stuff for all its worth. It was a fundamental law of the universe.

"Then why…" It made no sense… and yet… Shane made sense. It didn't compute…

"Oh, why she gives you such a hard time. I think that has to do with more with you and Sam than you being a geek." Shane gave a knowing look at Freddie, but Freddie was still staring down at the ground, shaking his head softly as a person does when he thinks too hard about something and it still didn't make sense.

"Wait… I'm sorry. I can't process this right now. I think I need to sit down…" Freddie sat on the bed, and no matter how he approached the problem, there was no logical solution. Maybe Sam just simply hated him… no that can't be. They had their moments, few but enough to a least rule out simple loathing… Freddie decided to just shelve the problem for later postulation. It was too much at the moment. Freddie was silent for a moment, and Shane was waiting patiently.

"Why did you date them both?" the question came out before Freddie thought about it clearly. He knew the moment his mouth opened how intrusive and probably rude the question sounded.

"I don't know… Carly was so friendly and approachable, and Sam was… like exciting and unpredictable. There never was a dull moment with her." Freddie slowly processed this information and he knew he had to ask…

"If I'm allowed to ask…" (Freddie chose politer words this time) "Which one were you going to choose." Shane looked over at the wall for a moment and Freddie wondered whether he was thinking about the answer or whether to answer his question at all.

"Probably Carly…" Freddie sighed in the positive assessment of his sanity. There was comfort in numbers, but he was so relieved he didn't hear the rest of Shane's answer.

"But that's really only because Sam was so high-maintenance. She was a handful, you know, never a dull moment, but I'm a guy who likes his peaceful moments."

Oh… That sounds like a stupid reason… I mean, if one really likes a person, you're willing to do anything for them. There's no such thing as high-maintenance.

Freddie thought of the efforts he had put towards winning Carly over and agreed with himself.

"Anyway, do you have a playable alpha up yet? I brought my controllers and console with me on the trip. We could playtest it now."

"Sure…" Freddie reflexively answered, anything to keep his mind off this current train of thought. He didn't know what to make of Shane's new insight, and he was kind of afraid of the conclusion.

A/N: This has got to be my favorite chapter. It was fun to write, (Spencer is awesome), and I like the character of Shane in the whole Sam and Freddie drama. He was a geek that Sam was interested in, and that in itself just reveals some of her character (assuming she isn't just simply shallow…). Not to mention he dated both Sam and Carly and as such the perfect foil to Freddie's character in the story who also ultimately has to choose between the two.

A/N/N: Please read and review. I really like to read your responses. I am currently thinking of rewriting the first two chapters since I found them really weak, and now that I plan to do longer chapters I feel like they require upgrading.

P.S: Please read Nature9000's new satirical piece "Her Views." It's really insightful and a fun read, and Nature9000 has read ALOT of fics. Its seem every fic I read on fanfiction has a Nature9000 review that is encouraging and thoughtful. It's always nice to find nice people on the internet since well, it makes you really cynical most of the time. Plus, I like Carly as a character. She seals the trio of Sam and Freddie together. This story focuses on how she affects Sam and Freddie and well.. as such isn't present most of time...