The next morning Trina offered to give Tori and Carly a ride to school. Tori was slightly reluctant about this, since ever since Trina had met Carly she hadn't stopped blabbering on and on about all her past performances and how 'great' they were. Carly had been polite and listened with a smile, but Tori could tell from the way her eyes had glazed over that she'd had enough of Trina too.
However, they were both still pretty tired from the late night, so they got in the back sear of the car and set off. When Tori saw that Trina was about to speak again, she quickly interrupted.
"So Carly, I think you're gonna like Hollywood Arts. I mean, I was a little freaked out when I first came here because I wasn't used to being that creative in school."
"It sounds like a lot of fun," Carly said. "What kind of classes do they have? I mean apart from boring math and stuff."
"Well, Sikowitz's class is my favorite." Tori decided.
Carly frowned. "...'Psycho-wits'?"
"Yeah he's one of our teachers. He's slightly random and crazy but he's a great guy, and he runs amazing acting classes."
"Do you sing, Carly?" Trina butted in.
"Sing? Well I-"
"See, I specialize in both acting AND singing. I think it's important to be a well-rounded entertainer."
It was at that moment Carly had begun to worry. One of the reasons she'd signed up for the exchange was so she could learn some more creative skills, but she hadn't even considered that everyone else in the class would be super-talented already. What if she embarrassed herself?
Tori touched her arm, reading her concern. "Don't worry. The school's pretty chilled. You'll find what you like doing best. Nobody's amazing at everything."
Trina snorted, clearly disagreeing. "Speak for yourself."
She pulled into the parking lot. "I bet you play an instrument, don't you Carly?"
"Well...I'm getting pretty good at Violin Hero, if that counts?" she laughed nervously.
"It doesn't," Trina said flatly as they got out of the car. "But don't worry! You'll fit in fine with Tori." She grinned and flounced off.
Tori glared after her. "As you can see, not everyone here is super-talented." She said, making Carly laugh. "C'mon, you can meet my friends. We might even be able to find some people you know."
Carly brightened at the thought of seeing Sam and Freddie. At least she wouldn't be the only one playing catch-up...she just hoped they had some classes together.
/
When they arrived at the Asphalt Cafe, Andre and Cat were already waiting.
"Yay, it's Tori!" Cat clapped before getting up and hugging her.
Tori laughed. "Hey! Carly, this is Cat, and that's Andre."
"Carly!" Cat released Tori and embraced the new girl. "That's such a pretty name!"
"Er, thanks!" Carly giggled. "Nice to meet you."
"Hi Carly," Andre greeted, gently pulling Cat away. "You liking California so far?"
"Well it's certainly a lot sunnier than Seattle," she grinned as they all sat down.
"What up, home skillets?" Rex's voice emerged as Robbie and Freddie appeared. "Hey. Who got this beautiful lady?" the puppet asked, fixing his eternal stare on Carly.
"She's with me so don't be creepy," Tori warned.
Andre shuffled up to make room for the newcomers. "Hey Robbie. Hey man."
"Oh, you guys, this is Freddie," Robbie explained, after his friends looked at him expectantly.
"Hi everyone," Freddie put his hand up in greeting.
Everyone said their hellos, and Cat got up to drape herself around the new boy. "Hi Freddie!" she giggled.
"I already like this school!" he grinned.
Carly raised an eyebrow. "Down boy."
"This is-"
"-Carly, I know," Robbie interrupted Tori before she could finish.
"You know?" she asked, puzzled.
"Sure. Freddie told me all about iCarly."
The other Hollywood Arts students exchanged confused looks.
"It's a webshow we do," said Carly, in a humble voice. "Just some silly comedy stuff to entertain the internet." Normally she'd be more than happy to talk about the show, but around all these talented kids she didn't really think it would be appropriate. After all, she and Sam never did anything particularly 'amazing' - she just thought of it as successful goofing around.
"Sounds cool, we'll have to check it out," Andre smiled broadly. Lately he'd still been struggling to get Jade out of his head, but already he was pretty taken with this new girl. So far, so not crazy. Always a plus.
Beck, Jade and Sam were running late, especially as they'd had to stop for coffee seeing as how they'd gone to bed so late. Jade especially was sleep-deprived. Once Sam had fallen asleep it had been her intention to browse the net and dig up some dirt on the blonde, but watching the other girl's rhythmic breathing had made her drop off too. She'd only woken up when Beck had appeared from his secret extra room and gently poked her awake with a spatula.
Now running on caffeine and not much else, they arrived to meet the others.
"Beck and Jade!" Cat announced chirpily.
Jade groaned. "Cat, you are officially not allowed to be this cheerful this early in the day."
"And who's the hot blonde?" Rex asked.
Sam pointed, and looked at Beck. "Is that a puppet?"
"Yes it is," he replied, sipping his coffee. "Don't worry, you learn to block it out."
"Hey, I have feelings, man." Rex sniffed.
"This is Sam," Beck said to the gang with a smile.
"Sam's a girl!" Andre spluttered.
"We've established this, thank you."
"There has been a horrible, horrible mix up," Jade grumbled.
"Oh well!" Tori sang, trying to defuse the situation. "Let's everyone welcome Sam."
"Hey," Robbie and Andre greeted warmly in unison.
"Sam!" Cat jumped off Freddie and clasped her in a hug.
"Whoa..." Sam froze, looking to Carly for help. Carly shrugged sympathetically.
"That's Cat," Andre sighed. "She's a hugger."
"Hi Cat," Sam squirmed, before looking to the others. "Uh...little help?"
"You seem fine," Jade smirked.
Beck stepped in, helping to get Cat to calm herself and sit back down.
"It's just so exciting meeting new people," she said happily as she bounced in her seat.
Beck and Sam sat down. All the seats were taken up now but one glare from Jade and Robbie gave up his place and stood awkwardly at the side.
"I'm Beck," Beck said, flashing his perfect smile.
"Freddie," the new boy shook his hand.
"Carly..." Carly melted.
"Beck's girlfriend," Jade introduced herself sharply, eyeing Carly. Great, she thought, another prissy girl.
Beck rolled his eyes and elaborated for Freddie. "This is Jade."
Then the signature school bell sounded, and Sikowitz arrived with a megaphone. "HERE YE, HERE YE, THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS ARE TO REPORT TO MY CLASSROOM: ANDRE, CAT, BECK, JADE, ROBBIE, TORI, CARLY, SAM AND FREDWARD."
Another student with frizzy hair came up behind him and tapped the teacher on the shoulder. "Um, Sikowitz? What about the rest of us?" she asked, perplexed.
He thought for a moment before replying through the megaphone: "FREE PERIOD."
She covered her ringing ears and went off to join her other classmates as Sikowitz herded the students whose names he had called. "No great loss to get rid of THEM for a while..." he confided. "They never do anything anyway."
/
Since it was the first day of the exchange, regular classes had been cancelled for the day and replaced by a whole day with one tutor, just so the new students could feel comfortable and so their schedules could be sorted out.
As they walked through the school hallway, Carly, Sam and Freddie found themselves mesmerized by everything around them.
"Look at the lockers!" Carly whispered excitedly, nudging Sam in the ribs.
"I see the lockers," her friend replied, rubbing her side. She wasn't as alert as usual and hadn't at all expected an assault from Carly's boney elbow.
Sam hadn't slept well, mostly because she had been in the same room as Jade, who she'd learnt was clearly the jealous type.
"Cool, that one has a keyboard!" Freddie pointed for his friends.
"That one's mine," Andre said proudly.
As they walked, Sinjin randomly joined them, staring at Carly and Sam in turn.
"Hey," he said shyly.
"We're in a class, Sinjin." Tori said, before the boy could become any creepier.
He nodded in apparent understanding. "I can dig it. Catch ya later." He scurried off.
"Who was that?" Carly asked in amusement.
"Sinjin. He's...well, to be honest we're not really sure what he is."
"Please be seated!" Sikowitz said loudly as he directed them into the classroom and shut them in.
Cat tapped Freddie's shoulder. "Come sit by me," she smiled.
Freddie smiled back and let his feet follow the pretty redhead by instinct, taking a chair next to her while everyone else took up a chair too.
"Okay," Sikowitz began, clearing his throat, "first of all, for those of you who are new today, welcome to Hollywood Arts! My name is Mr. Sikowitz, and I will be your teacher and your...er...your liaisons officer? Is that right? Whatever, you three just come to me if you're having any problems. I'm that guy."
"Like a parole officer?" Sam suggested, earning looks from everyone in the room.
Sikowitz raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. "If that analogy is helpful to you, sure."
"We already have a problem," Jade spoke up, pointing at the blonde. "She's a girl."
"Now Jade," Sikowitz scolded, "we can't help the way we are born, now can we?"
"I mean," Jade said slowly, "she's a girl, and she got dropped off at Beck's."
"Ah..." the teacher caught up. "That is a conundrum. Just give me a minute while I check my boring paperwork." He proceeded to pull a bunch of screwed up papers out of his bag and tried to straighten them out.
Carly nudged her friend from behind. "You spent the night with a guy?"
"Not in a sexy way," Sam muttered.
"Definitely not in a sexy way," Jade added, eavesdropping on their conversation.
Sam rolled her eyes. "I got dropped off there really late and ended up staying the night with the guy and his girlfriend."
"Again," Jade reassured her, "not in a sexy way."
"Ah ha!" Sikowitz burst out, making them jump. "I have discovered the source of the problem. It seems Sam was mistaken for a boy."
They all groaned.
"Sikowitz! We know!" Jade snapped, exasperated. "So what are we going to do about it?"
"Well," the man smiled, never missing an opportunity to mess with his students (especially Jade), "Sam could always stay with you..."
The two girls exchanged concerned expressions. They hadn't exactly made a great first impression on each other, and it was already starting to go downhill from there.
Cat clung to Freddie's arm. "Well then can Freddie stay with me?"
"No, Cat. The rules state boys with boys and girls with girls."
"Aw..."
"Yeah Cat, he's with me!" Robbie said indignantly. Rex laughed at him. "...Or...something-more-manly!" he backtracked.
"Hey I didn't sign up for this," Jade protested quickly. "Cat's the one on the reserve list."
Sikowitz consulted his papers with slight disappointment. "So she is. So Sam the girl, you will be staying with our very own Cat Valentine!"
"Wooo!" the redhead cheered, "Sam it will be great, we can stay up late and do each other's hair and makeup and have loads of fun!"
Freddie successfully managed to make a laugh sound like a cough and Carly bit her lip to prevent any giggles from escaping as Sam - who had never been remotely girly - looked quietly horrified.
"Won't that be nice?" Jade smiled, picking up on her new rival's discomfort.
"Well, now that's sorted out, I think it would be marvelous if we found out a little more about our Seattle students. You!" he pointed at Carly.
"Me?" she replied anxiously.
"Yes, what is your name?"
"Carly Shay."
"How formal. Well Carly Shay, I want you to pick one of your two fellow Seattle-ites so they can tell us all about you." He smiled.
"Okay...well then I pick Sam," she smiled to her friend.
"Alrighty, Sam, you come up onto the stage here and tell us some interesting facts about Carly."
"Uh, okay..." Sam shrugged and got up, not used to being in a class where participation was essential.
Sikowitz sat in her vacated chair and leaned forward, waiting for her to speak.
"Well...Carly's my best friend. She has a crazy brother called Spencer who she lives with. She likes fruit smoothies and lip-gloss, but she freaks out in small spaces. She's pretty awesome," she concluded.
"Aww!" Carly smiled.
"Very nice," said Sikowitz. "Now Carly, you trade places with Sam."
They complied, with Carly left looking nervous on the stage. "So, do you want me to talk about Sam?"
"No," the teacher replied thoughtfully. "I want you to talk about...what's your name? Fredward?"
"Just Freddie."
"Oh, that's much less weird."
Sam snorted and Freddie narrowed his eyes at her.
"Yes, I want you to talk about Freddie, but I want you to do it in an accent," Sikowitz continued.
Carly frowned. "What kind of accent?"
"An Australian accent. Go!"
"Er, okay, hi-"
"More Australian!"
"G'day!" Carly said fairly loudly, getting a few laughs from the others. "Well crikey, Freddie is...bonza! He's very good with computers, strewth! He's also great at fencing and enjoys miniature trains, but isn't a fan of mushrooms or being embarrassed by his barmy mother."
Freddie went slightly red at the comments about his model train hobby and his mother, but was otherwise pleased with Carly's words, and smiled in appreciation.
"Very good Carly! Your accent wasn't bad at all," Sikowitz praised. "Now you swap with Freddie. Freddie, I want you to talk about Sam, but I want you to do it without using the letter 'f'."
"Why 'f'?" Beck asked.
"I don't know, it's just my least favourite member of the alphabet."
Freddie got up on stage. "Right well, Sam is my, uh, acquaintance," he said, successful sidestepping any 'f's. "She likes ham, chicken and thinking up ways to torture me. I'd say that was the hobby she seems to like best."
Sam glared at him for a moment, then decided he was right. Pushing Freddie's buttons was an essential part of her life.
"Go on..." Sikowitz encouraged.
Freddie nodded. "Sam doesn't like dentists, authority, or being pleasant," he said, taking advantage of his opportunity to irritate the blonde and get a bit of revenge. "She's regularly lazy, rude and obnoxious, and-"
"-Hey!" Sam interrupted.
"He didn't say 'f'..." Cat explained as though the new girl hadn't understood the rules.
Sam folded her arms. "Well I'm about to..."
"Okay thank you Freddie!" Sikowitz got up, sensing it was a good time to step in. "You can sit down now."
Freddie took the now-empty seat by Tori, and gave her a lop-sided grin. Truly, this school was offering up some definite hotties. Tori smiled back, then turned her attention back on Sikowitz.
"Now back to acting!" the teacher said animatedly. " Since our honored guests are new at these sorts of shenanigans, I'm going to split you off into groups and give you a simple scene to rehearse. You will then perform it for the rest of us. Now let's see, let's have...Cat, Beck and Carly as one group, Freddie you're with Jade and Andre, and that leaves Sam with Tori and Robbie. Here are your scripts - you have until after lunch to put something amazing together."
The teenagers separated into their separate groups and Sikowitz handed them their scripts before heading for the door.
"Wait, where are you going?" Jade asked, suspicious.
"Well...I want to be surprised when I see your performances don't I!" Sikowitz lied. "I'll be back in a while, gotta see a man about a coconut." He rushed out, hoping to take a nap in an empty classroom.
"Your teacher's an interesting guy," Freddie noted as he, Andre and Jade pulled their chairs together.
"That's one word for it," Jade said dryly.
"You get used to it," chuckled Andre as he began to flick through the script. "Uh...is anybody else's blank?"
"What?" Jade thumbed through her own copy. Sure enough, it was just a collection of blank pages stapled together.
"He probably wants us to work together more closely and come up with our own thing," Andre guessed. "Ain't no big deal. Although it seems like kind of a waste of paper..."
"I think maybe we're supposed to write our own script on the paper," Freddie suggested patiently.
Jade smirked at Andre, who blushed.
"Uh yeah. That could work, too..."
Jade had been so busy trying to keep track of Sam and Carly that she hadn't really noticed Freddie until now. He seemed okay in a generic boy-next-door sort of way. Maybe he was Carly's boyfriend.
"You have any ideas then, Freddie?" she asked, genuinely interested.
He scratched the back of his head and looked uncomfortable for a moment. "You guys are probably better at this than me."
"True, but we still want your input."
Jade smiled. Again Freddie was floored by the girl's appearance and felt a flutter in his stomach under her scrutiny, but in a way this girl was very different from Cat and Tori. She was quite intimidating and confident, and Freddie was unsure what to make of her yet. Still, he had all morning to find out.
/
Over in Tori's group, they had also discovered that their assignment was actually to write their own script and then perform it, which made the whole thing a lot more complicated. Despite this, Tori found herself more interested in questioning Sam.
"...So...you had to spend the night with Beck and Jade. That must have been an experience," she laughed.
"It was," Sam agreed, as she began to unwrap a fatcake she'd stored in her bag. "I mean, Beck was cool and everything, but Jade was-"
"-Borderline psychotic?" Tori answered for her.
"She watched me while I slept."
Tori's eyes widened, and then she remembered exactly what Jade was like when it came to other girls around Beck, and wondered why she had been surprised.
"I wanna know more about you," Rex interrupted. "I mean we've heard that you're lazy, rude and obnoxious, but what are your thoughts on short men?"
"Rex!" Tori swiped at the puppet, but Robbie moved him safely out of reach.
"I'll go put him in a timeout," Robbie sighed, wandering over to his bag and shoving the protesting puppet inside.
Tori shook her head, annoyed, before turning her attention back to Sam. The blonde had a mouthful of fatcake and was chewing it with all the grace of a starving dingo.
Sam noticed her looking and gulped down the snack before sheepishly asking, "Did you want one?"
"Uh, no thanks," Tori smiled weakly as Sam unwrapped another and began to demolish it. "So what up with all the negative opinion from Freddie? I mean I know he was just joking around but what, are you guys dating?"
Sam almost choked on her food and spluttered out sugary crumbs everywhere.
Tori screwed up her face. "Okaaaaay, I'm gonna take that as a no," she said, wiping half-chewed morsels from her jeans.
"What I miss?" Robbie scurried back to sit between the two girls.
"We were just establishing the fact that Sam is not going out with Freddie," Tori explained.
Robbie's face lit up. "Oh, so then you're single?" he asked. True he didn't know anything about the new girl, but he took chances where he could and she was certainly pretty.
"Yup," Sam replied simply, before cutting off the boy's inevitable question before he could humiliate himself. "So what kind of script are we gonna do?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure." Tori furrowed her brow. "Maybe a romantic comedy?"
Robbie and Sam groaned and made gagging sounds.
She laughed. "Okay then, not a romantic comedy."
"How about a mystery story?" Robbie suggested, the gears in his creative mind beginning to turn. "It could be like a crime thing, like film noir with detectives and stuff."
The girls made expressions of approval, and he looked pleased with himself. Tori knew Robbie was particularly good at working out complicated plots for writing, and wasn't surprised that he'd had the first major brainwave.
/
"So, do you girls have any ideas?" Beck asked, finishing off his coffee and immediately craving another one.
Cat looked at Carly, her head on one side. "Is Freddie dating anyone?"
"No," the new girl answered, "he's very much not dating anyone. Totally free."
"Kay kay," Cat smiled widely, pleased with the response.
Beck arched an eyebrow. "Y'know, when I said 'ideas'..."
"Sorry," Carly said, looking into the boy's eyes and wishing that he was single. Still, she was here to learn, not date cute boys. Or, at least, that's what she tried to tell herself.
"We could write about unicorns," Cat giggled, curling her hair around her finger.
Beck shook his head. "I'm not really in a unicorn kind of mood."
"You're never in a unicorn kind of mood!" Cat pouted.
Carly could see that Beck was tired and felt a pang of sympathy. "I hope having Sam stay with you wasn't too awful. I know she can be kind of...well, Sam."
Beck managed a smile. "Sam was fine. My girlfriend...not so much."
"Ah," Carly nodded in understanding. She decided that if she was Beck's girlfriend, she'd be a bit antsy about other girls being near him, too. I mean...look at him.
"Everything going okay over here?" Jade asked, making Carly jump as she came up behind her.
Beck rolled his eyes. "Yes Jade, just trying to work on the assignment."
"Good," said Jade with a fake smile. "Carly, isn't my boyfriend a great guy?" she asked pointedly.
Carly was unsure how to reply, and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
Cat broke the tension as usual. "How's your scene coming, Jade?"
"Good. We're doing a horror piece."
"Well go on and do it, we haven't even sorted ours out yet," Beck said irritably. He hated being tired.
Jade looked slightly hurt for a moment, then offered a "whatever" and left them to it. She decided not to totally obey her boyfriend and instead harass Tori's group for a while.
She slunk over and watched the group, her arms folded and a sly smile on her face.
Tori noticed her and looked unhappy. "Can we help you with something?" she asked, tapping her foot.
"Not right now," Jade responded brightly, staying where she was.
"Well we're trying to work on our scene so can you-"
"-So Sam," Jade cut off the Vega girl bluntly, "how are you finding things at Hollywood Arts so far?"
Tori and Robbie stared at Jade, shocked that she had bothered to ask.
She looked back at them, still smirking. "What? I can't check in on my favorite little house invader?"
"Jade..." Tori warned, not liking the girl's choice of words, or the sugary voice she was putting on.
"You don't feel completely out of place, then?" Jade continued to the blonde, an expression of mock sympathy on her face like she was speaking to a toddler.
"No," Sam replied, struggling to hold her tongue. She was still trying her best to obey Carly and stay out of trouble, but every time this chick spoke to her she had to choke down a heap of insults and keep her fists from clenching. "I'm good," she added, forcing a rather unconvincing smile.
"Interesting..." Jade replied, waltzing off back to her group.
Robbie let go of the breath he was holding. He'd learnt Jade's body language and mannerisms and knew that what he'd just witnessed had been the girl equivalent of a wolf sizing up a newcomer; a wolf deciding when it would be best to strike and establish dominance through violence.
"Ignore her," Tori stated simply, glaring after Jade. "She has...issues."
"I noticed," sighed Sam. Clearly it was going to be a long day.
A/NII: Apologies that this chapter is kind of long, I just had a lot to get through. Tune in next time to see how the scenes turn out, and exactly how Jade makes sure the new girls know where they stand...