Chapter Nine: On The Edge
Jade and Sam stalked towards each other, each one sizing up their opponent before locking eye contact with fierce intensity. Cat, watching them, felt suddenly uneasy.
The blonde folded her arms and lazily blew a strand of hair from her face. "Hi, honey," she beamed.
Jade smiled back, though fury danced in her eyes. She hated that this newbie had unexpectedly gained the upper hand. Still, now the game had changed. She loved revenge enough to know that it was best when it was carefully considered, well researched, and unexpected. She would need something particularly special for Sam Puckett. And, agonising though it was, that meant she would have to wait.
"Sam," she greeted, though her throat practically burned with the insults she was suppressing.
Sam simply took note of her new enemy's rigid stance and forced pleasantness - and she revelled in it. "You okay?" she asked with what was clearly mock sympathy.
"Peachy, thank you," Jade replied through gritted teeth.
"Sure?" Sam cocked her head on one side and really studied her expression. "I mean, I wouldn't want to...ruffle your feathers."
Cat gulped as she looked to her friend - she was pretty sure she could see a vein throbbing in her forehead.
For a few moments the two of them remained in a sort of Western stand-off, each of them waiting for an excuse to draw weapons. Sam even flinched a little, on guard, when Jade eventually moved.
But the dark-haired girl simply glided into a seat, crossing one leg over the other, and taking the opportunity to offer Sam a saccharine sweet tone. "Oh Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam," she smiled, unnervingly. "You could never ruffle my feathers."
The blonde's confidence wavered and she narrowed her eyes, before she took a chair herself and plonked down on it, stretching her legs out in front of her.
A tense silence followed.
"I love your webshow!" Cat blurted out eventually, unable to bear the suspense any longer as she scooted her chair right next to Sam.
"Uh thank you," the blonde replied, feeling a little awkward at the other girl's lack of respect for personal space.
"You're all so funny!" she giggled loudly before suddenly looking quizzical. "How come that awkward shirtless guy didn't come here with you?"
"Gibby?" Sam tried to clarify as she subtly shifted her seat a few inches to the side.
"Yeah, Gibby!" Cat scooted her chair along with her.
"Don't be so nosy, Cat," Jade scolded with a smirk. "Maybe Sam doesn't want to talk about her lover boy."
Jade had hoped for a bit of unbridled anger from the girl, but instead Sam simply broke into hysterics.
"Gibby? He's not my boyfriend. He's not even a human being, most of the time."
"Oh," Cat nodded, still a little perplexed. She then felt her heart sink. "Then...you and Freddie?" she asked faintly.
Sam snorted. "Only if Hell froze over, toads rained across the Earth and hamsters started skiing," she replied flatly.
When she had eventually unravelled what Sam had just said, Cat brightened considerably. She was about to ask more about Freddie, when Jade cut in.
"So if you're not dating the dorkables, who exactly DO you spend your quality time with?" she said, pierced eyebrow raised.
Sam shrugged. "Nobody. Currently living the free life."
"Aw, such a shame," Jade pouted. "I can't imagine why you've been so overlooked by the boys, what with being a famous webshow clown and all."
The sarcasm wasn't lost on Sam. Mentally she was trying to remember whether or not she'd packed the butter sock today. She was still working overtime to avoid violence - so verbal assault would have to do. And if this chick thought she was snarky, she was about to get schooled.
"Well you know how it is," she sighed wistfully. "We can't all find a guy willing to put up with our many, many problems."
Jade held her ground, smirking. "I guess some girls have more problems than others."
"You would know."
"Does anyone else like strawberries?" Cat interjected quickly, all high pitch and nervous giggles.
Sikowitz came back in, looked relieved that nobody had killed each other, and sat quietly at the side of the room.
Jade felt the sting of losing a second round, but if it meant the blonde was lulled into a false sense of security...then all for the better.
"I've only managed to catch a few clips of your little sketch show," the dark-haired girl sniffed, paying more attention to her fingernails than anything else. Her eyes darted upwards, and her smile slinked back. "You're so much shorter than you look on camera."
It wasn't often that Sam felt self-conscious about the way she looked. The only other time had been a few years back when she'd become concerned she wasn't 'girly' enough. Still, that had quickly passed. Nowadays she couldn't care less what people thought about her - as long as they knew not to mess with her.
Most people knew this, and there was rarely a problem (unless they made the mistake of messing with her friends instead). But not this girl. And for a split second Sam felt very small - literally - and she hated it.
It didn't help when Cat put an arm around her and nodded. "You're the same height as me - we're like twins!"
It wasn't Cat's fault that, for Sam, she represented everything she tried to avoid in her own personality. It wasn't Cat 's fault that her observation riled Sam. It wasn't Cat's fault that - finally - someone was getting to her. But none of these things exactly made Sam warm to the redhead.
She stood up, stiffly and suddenly, pulling away and looking vexed.
Jade sat back, interested to see what the blonde would do next. Was she unravelling already? Perhaps she had overestimated her. She was almost disappointed. "What's up, kiddo?" she frowned and pursed her lips.
Sam twitched. "Just gotta tell Carly something before I...forget," she mumbled, before rushing off to grab her friend.
"Hurry ba-ack!" Jade sang.
Cat looked at her friend and sighed.
Carly was in the middle of telling Andre and Robbie about the time she and the iCarly gang got lost in Japan, when Sam hauled her up by the arm and started to pull her towards the door.
"Sam! What are you-"
"Need to talk," the blonde replied gruffly, so Carly silently complied, shrugging at the boys.
"Hey," Robbie noted, looking expectantly at Sikowitz, "aren't you even gonna ask where they're going right in the middle of class?"
Sikowitz placed a finger on the line of the book he was reading, and looked wearily at the boy. "Robbie, let me tell you something. When girls suddenly have to run off during class - it's best not to ask where they're going."
"Yeah, but-"
"Best...not to...ask," the teacher reiterated.
Robbie sighed, huffily. Andre elbowed him, a penalty for attempting to snitch.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming! Less of the pulling!" Carly protested until finally Sam let her go, sure they were a safe enough distance from the classroom. "Was that really necessary?"
"Heck yes," Sam nodded vigorously, exhaling the tight breath of restraint she'd been holding.
Carly frowned as she examined her friend, who stood shifting her weight from foot to foot and restlessly waving her hands at her side. "Sam, what is it?"
"Question, Carls. If a person were to confiscate their much-loved best friend's butter sock...where would said person hide such...sock. Of butter," she babbled, her eyes fixed down the hall on the classroom door.
Carly's concern grew and she reached forward, gently pinning her friend's arms to her sides and trying to get her focused. "Quit bouncing around...c'mon, what happened?"
The blonde reluctantly tried to be still, letting out short shaky breaths, grudgingly looking into her friend's interrogating eyes.
"What happened?" the brunette repeated, more slowly and softly, letting go of her and backing up slightly in preparation of an outburst.
"...Jade..." Sam muttered, looking at her shoes. "I don't like her."
"Really? 'Cause you never really made that clear," Carly smiled knowingly, trying to make a joke out of the situation.
A glimmer of a smile hovered on the blonde's lip, before her brow furrowed and she looked back at her best friend. "She said I was short."
"So?" Carly laughed, unused to Sam being thrown by something so trivial.
"So it would make me feel a whole lot better if I could beat her around the head with a pound of sock butter," she replied flatly, accompanying her statement with a pleading expression.
Carly sighed and shook her head, but remained in good spirits. "No butter sock."
Sam stamped her foot, and got even more annoyed when Carly's response to the action was a simple raise of an eyebrow.
They remained in stalemate until Sam made a sort of animal-like screech and marched back to class.
"Very mature," Carly said, following behind.
"You okay?" Tori asked, scanning Beck's weary expression and slumped posture.
He nodded and produced a hint of a smile, before looking to Freddie. "I'm sorry. I'm normally slightly more exciting to be around," he joked, suppressing a yawn.
"Hey, no problem," Freddie smiled sympathetically. "I understand. Spending the night with Sam is pretty exhausting."
Tori and Beck stared at him.
Freddie frowned for a second, then his eyes widened. "Whoa, nonononono, that's not what I meant!" he backtracked. "Uh, I mean because she's so, uh, well...I meant because she generally causes so much trouble. So she's exhausting to be around," he explained carefully.
The others smirked and they eventually all laughed to ease Freddie's tension.
"I guess we all kind of had a late night anyway," Tori pointed out. "Hopefully everything will be a bit more chilled tomorrow."
"If we survive today," Beck gave a short laugh, although he wasn't entirely kidding.
A/N: This update is late and pretty short (since it's kind of half a chapter), but I didn't want to leave it hanging there too long. As always, I'd do a backflip to hear what you thought. It wouldn't be a very sucessful backflip, but the attempt would blow your mind.