Freddie woke up reluctantly the next morning and paused a moment as last night came rushing back.
"My Dad... He didn't really leave me" he said softly. He didn't know if he should be happy or depressed about the fact that, while his father hadn't actually left him like he'd originally thought, his father was dead and he would never see him again. He got out of bed and walked over to his closet, thankful that today was Friday, and picked out a black T shirt and blue jeans. He quickly got dressed and headed down stairs, a comb in his short brown hair as he walked into the kitchen.
Carly, as usual on Friday's, had left for work half an hour ago so he had the place to himself; he pulled out two slices of bread and put them in the toaster for breakfast before walking over to the fridge. He looked down at the contents in the fridge and smiled "Bless you Mom" he said and pulled out a turkey lunchable "I really didn't want another PB&J" he grumbled.
He spread grape jelly onto the pieces of toast and looked down as his phone rang with a text from Kurt saying that he was going to visit his cousins and wouldn't be back until Sunday night. "Aw man" Freddie grumbled; he had been hoping to talk to Kurt about what he'd found out last night but now that would have to wait until Sunday night. Typing back a quick reply about seeing him Sunday he hit send and snapped his phone shut.
The walk to school was the same as usual and he met Miranda at the door "Hey" he said softly, walking up to her.
"Oh hey Freddie" she said turning from her friends "How's Aunt Carly? She came to see Dad yesterday but he didn't mention what for."
His mom had been to see his Uncle Spencer? "I don't know, she didn't mention it to me but she's fine, I mean... nothing really new to report" he lied. He opened his mouth to tell her what he'd learned but clamped it shut, he and his cousin got along but he wasn't sure if she was the best one to tell about that.
"Something wrong Freddie?" she asked curiously, a concerned look on her face.
"Nope, not at all" he said and sighed "I'm just not fully awake" he lied. He never lied to anyone, especially family, so why had he started now? "I'll talk to you later Miranda, Kurt says hi" he said, ignoring the blush on her face at the mention of Kurt. He walked over to his locker and opened it without a word and grabbed his books.
The blonde girl he met yesterday entered his mind and he shook his head quickly "I don't even know you" he grumbled as he slammed his locker shut. Turning around he noticed the same blonde he'd been thinking of just a moment ago walking down the hall to her locker. He was tempted to say hi but thought better of it; after all he didn't really feel like talking to anyone.
The day moved slowly and Freddie noticed Kurt's absence more and more. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't help but wonder how his life would be if he knew his father and how his mother's life would be if he was still alive. Most of all he wondered what kind of person his father must have been.
He was also curious about the friend his mother had talked about. Who had she been? Why had she left? He knew his mom had tried to explain it as best she could, but the only ones who could really answer these questions were long gone.
He briefly considered looking up his mom's friend, but dismissed it quickly as an insane idea. Finally it was lunch time and he headed to where he always ate lunch, the roof. Hearing the door open he turned around and saw Carly Puckett again "Oh... it's just you" he said turning his back to her and pulling out the Lunchable out of the brown bag he'd brought it in and opened it, taking out a piece of turkey and two crackers.
"Nice to see you too" she retorted as she walked over to him "I noticed your friend isn't here, so I thought I might keep you company in his place"
"Oh um... thanks" he said, not wanting to be rude.
Carly pulled a ham sandwich out of her backpack and glanced at him "So what's up? You've been sulking all day. I know we just met yesterday and I'm new and all but even I can tell something is eating at you"
Freddie's shoulders slumped and he shook his head "I don't wanna talk about it" he muttered "It's just… complicated"'
"I'm a pretty smart person when I put my mind to it" she said, "Try me."
With a sigh he pushed his food away, "Fine, you really want to know?" he asked, glancing at her.
"I really wanna know" she confirmed, shaking her head.
"I've never known my father. For years I thought he'd just left me and my mom and was off having fun somewhere" he trailed off, still not sure if he should continue.
"He didn't, did he?" Carly asked softly, a sympathetic look on her face.
"No he... he was killed before I was born, in fact he didn't even know about me.. My parents had just gotten engaged when he was killed." He could feel tears threatening to fall and he blinked "and my mom... she misses him so much and now I realize that I'll never get to know my father"
Carly frowned "I'm so sorry" she said sadly "I never knew my father, he ran out on my mom when he found out she was pregnant with me"
"I'm sorry… that must be hard, harder than knowing your father was killed" He put his food back into his bag and smiled "Thank you... for listening, maybe after school you could come over to my house?" he asked, "I mean... we could hang somewhere?"
Carly felt her cheeks redden and she grinned "I'd like that, meet you at the entrance right after school?" she asked.
He nodded "sounds good, I gotta go. AV club stuff to do"
She nodded and watched him go, finishing her ham sandwich before heading to next period.
The rest of the day flew by quickly and Freddie found himself looking forward to the end of the day and a potential new friend. Finally the last belly rang and he met the blond at the school entrance like they'd discussed. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah, I put my books away last period" she said.
"But isn't that… history?" he asked, remembering bits of her schedule.
"Yeah so?" she retorted "I took a nap"
He shook his head, an amused smile on his face "Alright, let's go" he said "But you really shouldn't sleep in class" he added in quickly. Opening the door he nodded for her to go first before walking out the door and enjoying the beginning of what he hoped to be a great weekend.
Carly glanced at him from time to time as they walked, hoping she was being subtle, and finally broke the silence "So have you always lived here in Seattle?"
"All my life, My mom was raised by my uncle because my Grandpa was in the military" he explained.
"You have a grandpa in the military? That must have been cool" she said
"I never knew him, he died shortly before I was born" he said, "I don't really know how"
"I'm sorry to hear that" she said, looking around "Seattle is nice."
"Usually is, except for when it rains... Then it gets ugly" he replied,
"My mom mentioned that" she said casually.
He glanced up at her "Your mom lived here previously?" he asked curiously.
She nodded and looked up "Is this your house?" she asked, noticing he'd stopped walking.
He nodded and unlocked his door "Come on in, mom won't be home for a few hours yet"
She blinked "Your mom lets you have girls over when no one's around?"
"My Mom trusts me" he said, "Besides, we're just gonna watch T.V in the living room"
She nodded slowly and followed after him, plopping down on the couch and rolling her eyes as he scrolled through the DVR "Galaxy Wars?" she asked
"Hey, Galaxy Wars is awesome" he said defensively.
"Whatever you say" she said; an amused smirk on her face as she rolled her eyes again and glued her eyes to the screen.
Freddie hit play and an episode of Galaxy Wars came on, within five seconds Carly was completely lost. She sighed and leaned forward "Can we please watch something else?" she asked.
He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it and hit stop "That's my favorite episode" he finally muttered as he flipped to another show, he had never seen it before but Carly seemed interested so he left it on and stood up "You thirsty?" he asked.
She nodded "I'll take a Peppy Cola."
"Two Preppy Cola's coming up" he said as he opened the fridge "Want a snack?"
"You got any Ham?" she asked curiously.
"Um... No" he replied and grabbed himself a pudding out of the fridge along with the sodas. When she didn't reply he shrugged and walked back over to the couch, handing her a soda he stared at the TV, trying to figure out what was going on.
Finally the show ended and he glanced at his watch, his mom would be home soon, "My mom will be here soon" he told her, "Let's just watch something else then when she gets here I'll give you a tour"
She shook her head "C'mon, TV is boring... let's go exploring!" she said "Do you have an attic or basement?" she asked, "I bet there's some cool stuff in there"
He sighed "Yeah, I guess we can go look at that" he said "The basement door is in the hall over there, come on"
They walked through the hall to the door and he opened the door and turned the light on "I'll go first" he said "I've never been down here, the stairs might be weak or something"
Carly smirked but nodded, watching as he walked down the stairs. When he motioned for her to follow she took the stairs one by one, taking a deep breath as the middle three squeaked. Freddie moved to the center of the basement, where all the boxes were, and started rummaging through them.
He pulled out a few old video tapes "Talk about outdated" he muttered as he set them to the side and kept rummaging through, he found an old blue remote and examined it closely "Interesting.." he put it to the side and made a mental note to ask his mom about it later. Finally he found an old photo album, covered in dust.
Taking a deep breath he blew away the dust, revealing a black cover with a white sticker label on it that said iCarly in black sharpie marker. "This... This is..." he trailed off and opened it.
The first page showed his three young people, a guy and two girls, that he recognized as his mom and her two friends from the picture he had on his nightstand. "Carly! Come look at this!" he said, flipping through the pictures.
He recognized Gibby, his Uncle Spencer, and even his Aunt Sasha "This is... Amazing" he muttered, not noticing Carly walk up behind him and freeze as he turned to a picture of his mom and Sam.
"Mom?" she asked surprised.
Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter! I know I loved writing it.
Again, I promise to try and update Trust soon, but I plan to write a Resident Evil/Evil Dead crossover next time I get a chance too, luckily I came home for fathers day so I got to write this! As usual I don't own iCarly and such. Please read and review. And as always thanks to my Beta dg31, you're epic man. I appreciate it alot.