Ruined Puzzle Pieces

Part 6:

Socko's campsite the following day:

Socko's campsite wasn't what the iCarly gang expected. It consisted of two cabins, and had a stream that ran close by which came with a small wooden dock and a rowboat large enough to safely seat three people. The location was halfway up and alongside the mountain and as such you had a gorgeous view of the forest below. All in all, it was a pretty nice spot, which is odd if you considered the past experience of Socko's taste in quality from their last vacation to Japan. In fact, the only strange observation was that it didn't seem to be used too often. The grass had grown pretty high and thoroughly around the site showing no signs of occupation by past campers. The lack of popularity with the campsite was further enforced when Spencer and Carly looked inside the cabins to find… well nothing, not even cots. Freddie placed a hand on the wall only to find that it was covered in a layer of dust.

Sam was sitting on the docks looking pretty aloof as if in great thought. Freddie would normally have found that fact alone suspicious enough to warrant a comment, but he was currently avoiding Sam the best he could. He didn't really sleep well the night before. Freddie had replayed as many of his past encounters with Sam as much as he could, desperately trying to revaluate their relationship given Shane's revelation the night before about Sam (Spencer's apparent dream of being chased by wild monkeys didn't help Freddie's sleep either). The more he thought about it, the more he agreed with Shane. Sam may have never been crazy before about things like the A/V club and computers and Galaxy Wars, but it seems that she was particular harsh about the subjects only when it came to Freddie himself. Freddie wasn't the only person that Sam classified as a geek and yet he was the only one constantly reminded of it by Sam. She never gave Shane a hard time about his interests. Sam herself was actually pretty knowledgeable about a lot of technical aspects on iCarly. She had voluntarily learned how to work the video camera and a lot of the other equipment with little complaint. Freddie recalled at one point in which he lost a bet to Sam over the meaning of the acronym MPEG. He didn't know why he had overlooked these simple facts before…

It really worried Freddie based on a simple logical argument that he couldn't get over: Sam would constantly tease Freddie over his silly hobbies and interests often to the point of embarrassment, sometimes to the point of an argument, a few times to the point of an outright shouting match. Despite the seeming intolerance, Sam at the very least was ambivalent towards the said hobbies and interests. Hence the logical conclusion would be that Sam's seeming intolerance was caused by some other reason, a reason that seemed to simply be Freddie himself, and well… that really bothered Freddie. He was okay with his unstable friendship with Sam because he had always assumed that their friction was strictly because of difference in interests. Sam disliking him possibly because he was simply… Freddie was unsettling.

"Freddie… Freddie!" Carly was waving a hand directly in front of his eyes, interrupting his train of thought.

"I'm sorry. What's going on with the camp?"

"Well, Spencer and I are going off to the closest Ranger station to get supplies and cots for us. There's a lot of stuff missing so, we're going to need the backseat. So do you think that you and Sam will be okay for an hour or so, on your own?"

"Yeah, why do you even ask?" Carly tilted her head to the side and gave him a look of concern. It was one of those cute looks that Freddie had always liked to see on Carly, but he was too tired to pay much notice at the moment.

"Well, you and Sam have both been acting weird since yesterday. Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"No, nothing like that. I just didn't get much sleep. I don't know anything about Sam. Look, we'll be fine. Make sure Spencer knows what's he's doing okay?"

"Yeah, call us if there's anything you guys need." Carly walked out the door. Freddie presumed she was heading over to Sam to tell her the same thing. Freddie headed over to the car to help unpack his stuff in order to make room for supplies.

One hour alone with Sam. What's the worst that could happen?

10 minutes later:

Carly and Spencer had left and Sam was still sitting on the dock, her legs dangling over the edge. The fish in the river kept swimming in circles around the ripples Sam's feet made on the surface. Bluegills, Sam recalled. They were the same… just like last time.

"Look Daddy! I got one! I got one!" said a little seven-year old Samantha Puckett. She held up proudly, a little fish with a blue-greenish mark on its gill.

"Wow sweetie, you caught a bluegill!" Mr. Puckett kneeled down and helped unhook Samantha's prize catch and put it in a bucket of water with two others that he had caught early. He looked over at his daughter and smiled as she stared fascinated at the little make-shift aquarium.

"Their Binomial name is Lepomis macrochirus, and they're really popular all the way from Canada to Mexico." Samantha looked up at her dad. He never treated her like a little kid, always talking to her like an adult regardless of whether she understood everything, and he always answered her questions now matter how silly they were. Samantha was sure her dad was the smartest dad around.

"Do they taste good?" Samantha had always liked the taste of fish, especially when made by her dad, who was also the cook of the family. He had promised to teach her how to make chocolate-chip cookies when they got back home. Dad always baked make-up cookies for Mom when they got into a fight. It worked every time.

"They're one of the best-testing fish around. I hear only the Walleye is better. Next time we come, I'll teach you how to catch one of the bigger game fishes like the Walleye." Sam squealed with glee and grabbed her fishing rob, hoping to get good enough to catch one of the bigger fishes now to impress her dad.

"Cept there never was a next time." Sam thought out loud. She heard Freddie approaching from behind her dragging his ridiculous large suitcases and first aid kit, and wasn't the least bit startled when he spoke.

"Hey Sam, can we talk?" Sam continued to face the river. She wasn't in the mood to talk to Freddie right now.

"What's the matter Benson? Laptop batteries die?"

"Seriously Sam, something's been bothering me lately."

"Ooo, do I get to guess? Let's see. The three most obvious answers would be: your face, your mom, or your face."

"What's your problem anyway?!" Freddie had started to raise his voice. Sam responded by raising hers a little higher.

"My problem is that I want you to leave me alone!"

"What did I do?!" Freddie was totally baffled, and still a little high-strung from yesterday. Freddie was sick of being treated like an insignificant person for Sam to push around. It was always like this. Sam thinks that whatever she says goes without any thought or concern to anyone else.

"Not removing yourself from my presence would be at the top of a long and ever-growing list!" Sam was furious. You would think Freddie could tell when someone didn't want to converse. The man was so dense you needed to wail the message right onto his freaking head.

"I can't believe you! All I want to do is talk, and you bite my head off!"

"Oh! You want to talk! Fine! You are the stupidest, most ignorant, hopeless cow I have even met!" Freddie was about to retort when he heard what sounded like a low rumble of rubble and rocks above them.

"Wait! Sam, quiet! I think something is going on!" Freddie looked toward the mountain above them and sure enough, he saw small little rocks begin to roll down the side toward the campsite.

"Oh! So now you want to stop! Yeah, well too bad!"

"No seriously Sam! I think this place is unstable. If you yell any more, I think there might be an avalanche or something."

"Right… Seriously, is that your best comeback? Watch." Freddie could only stare in horror as Sam inhaled.

"ALL GODS ARE STUPID INCOMPETENT JANKS!!!" Freddie flinched, and waited, only to find nothing happening. He slowly opened one eye to a smug looking Sam. He had just let out a sigh of relief, when the unmistakable sound of rumbling boulders appeared overhead.

A/N: Short chapter, I originally had another Carly and Spencer scene in here where they discover from the park rangers that the reason that the campsite wasn't used was because of risk of rockslides, but I found that it interrupted Freddie and Sam's interaction and that the reader could probably come to that conclusion themselves easily. I don't know, maybe I'll add that in next chapter. Anyway I've finally reached the actual CAMPING part of the story. Next Chapter, Sam and Freddie FINALLY talk about their relationship, and discover things about the other that they didn't know. Also special thanks to drano for pointing out the MPEG moment from the show. I was already planning to reference Sam's knowledge of iCarly's equipment, but I completely forgot about that.

A/N/N: Due to my flaw of measuring my selfworth via fanfiction traffic data, please give happiness in the form of reviews…

P.S. To everyone who read and reviewed this fic thanks a billion. (To those who actually read and reviewed my other fanfic "iSpy 00Seddie", thanks two billion. That was a risky experiment of random genre mixing and those reviews made me feel that I didn't take the risk for nothing)