What If No One's Watching? Chapter 13: Escape, an icarly fanfic

Chapter 12: Escape

Disclaimer: Dan, yes. Me, no.

Note: Thank you to SeddierFTW for pointing out my mistake on the days. Chapter 11 should have been listed as day 6, not day 5. This chapter is day 7.

Day 7

Gibby was at Carly's apartment. Sam wasn't. Freddie wasn't. That was one of the many things that was different today. She had texted Sam a few times, but Sam replied that she was going to spend time with her sister. That was different, too. Sam would usually take any excuse, reasonable or not, to get away from her sister, and now she was blowing off her best friend for Melanie. Not that it in any way made Carly jealous. Not at all.

Maybe a little.

She knocked on Freddie's door to see if he wanted to come over. He told her he was busy. When she asked with what, his explanation seemed to make little sense.

So, if her best friends were going to ignore her, she might as well work on her plan to get them together. Not that her plan had any real depth to it. It was pretty much stuck on the headline "Get Sam and Freddie Together" and a bunch of blank space under it. So she called Gibby. She was sure he could provide assistance.

Yeah.

"Okay, so do I look like Sam Puckett?"

Sam eyed her sister, dressed in Sam's clothes, with Sam's hairdo. "Sort of. I mean, you look like me, but you're not, like, radiating me. I don't look at you and think Sam."

"How about this?" Melanie slouched a little. The smile disappeared from her face. She rolled her eyes and moved her eyebrows down.

"Do I really look like that?" Melanie pulled Sam over to the mirror, and they stared at the two of them side by side, with similar expressions on their faces. "Wow. I'm kind of scary."

"I've always said that."

"Okay, so are you sure you can handle this, Mel? I don't need you getting us married or anything; I just need to know if the possibility of us is even...possible."

"Sam...I know boys. Don't worry."

"Hey, who's worried?" Me, that's who.

Freddie's mom wanted him to stay in bed.

"You're clammy, Freddie."

Yeah, it's nothing, Mom. Just the girl I love is going to come here, and I have no idea why. All I know is she was mad at me for some reason, and Spencer says I should be a knight. Why would I be clammy?

Freddie hadn't slept well at all last night. His mother had said his name three times before he even replied. Sam was going to come over, and he was probably going to do something monumentally stupid.

"It's nothing, Mom. Don't you have to work?"

"No, I switched shifts with one of the other girls so she could go on a trip."

Great.

"I don't think I can do anything, Gibby."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I made both of them promises. And Sam wouldn't forgive me. Freddie might not, either."

"Even if you get them together?"

"I don't know!" She put her hands over her eyes. Why did her friends have to be so frustrating. If you like somebody, you let them know!

She looked at Gibby. I'm not thinking about me right now! Sam and Freddie.

Sam sat in her bedroom. This is what she wasn't good at. Waiting. She didn't like being nervous. She didn't like when boys made her feel like this. Especially Freddie Benson. He of all people had no right to make her feel like this. He was doing it on purpose. How, she didn't know, but he was. She just knew it.

Right now, Melanie was being Sam and going to talk to Freddie. Maybe Sam should be Melanie. After all, she had become flustered because of a boy. She had blurted to her best friend that she like the boy. She should just put on a frilly dress and makeup and go to the boarding school. Start anew.

"I hate this!"

Her cat, Frothy, mewled agreement.

Spencer admired his autograph book in his bedroom. I can't believe I got an autograph from the Gourd King of France.

Melanie knocked on the door. Have to remember. You're Sam. You're Sam. Bacon.

Freddie opened the door. "Hey, Sam."

"Hey...nub." For some reason, Sam seemed hesitant. It reminded him of that one day on the fire escape...but he didn't need to think of that.

"Who is that, Freddie?"

"Nobody, mom." He slammed the door shut.

Gibby looked up at the sound. He walked to the door and looked through the peephole.

He looked back at Carly, who was still on the couch in a fetal position. "Carly?"

"Yeah?"

"Sam's talking to Freddie." And then she pushed him out of the way and was looking through the peephole.

"So...we need to talk," Melanie said.

Freddie looked at his door. "My mom was supposed to be working today, so I thought we could talk in there, but...I guess, Carly's apartment?"

"No. That's not good." It was hard enough making Freddie believe she was Sam. She wasn't sure she could fool Sam's best friend, also.

"The Groovy Smoothie?"

"No, too many people there." Freddie winced at that. If she was concerned about people, that probably meant she was really mad at him. He wished he knew why.

"Gee, Sam, you're not really leaving us much else except the fire escape." He laughed to show he was kidding. Why did you say that? Just because you were thinking of the day you kissed?

"That'll work."

"You...want to talk on the fire escape?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Because that's where...we...uh...sure, fire escape is good." Fire escape is so not good. And she doesn't even remember our kiss! I can't believe it.

"They're going down the hall. You have to follow them."

"What?" Gibby asked.

"Here, take this video camera. Try to see what they're talking about." She pushed it into his hands.

"Carly, I don't know."

"Gibby, please. This is Sam and Freddie we're talking about. They're going to screw this up."

He sighed, and took the camera.

"So what did you want to talk about, Sam?"

"What did you think, Fredword?" He looked at her. Fredword?

"I don't know, Sam."

Melanie sighed. Boys were so annoying sometimes.

"Do you like my sister?"

"What? Melanie? Sam, I didn't even know she really existed until two days ago. Thanks to you, of course."

"Whatever. I saw the way you looked at her when we were filming iCarly."

"Again, Sam, that's because I didn't know she even existed!" he shouted. This is not how I wanted this to go.

"Stop trying to get out of this, Fred...doofus. Do you like Melanie?"

"No, okay, jeez. I don't know why it even matters to you." He looked down the fire escape.

"Maybe I don't want her to be with a nerd like you."

"Whatever, Sam. I don't like her like that, and even if I did, she's leaving, so I don't even know why we're talking about this."

"Well, you kissed her."

"She kissed me. And it was weird, okay."

"Weird?" Melanie was hurt, but Freddie was still looking away. "You saying she's a bad kisser?"

"No. I mean...gah...I don't know what I mean. It just felt not right. Like I was kissing the wrong person. I should have realized...whatever...she was the wrong person, okay?"

"Fine, so you're still stuck on Carly?" Freddie's eyes snapped at her, and Melanie took a step back.

"What is this, Sam? I already told you I don't feel that way about Carly anymore. Why are you bringing it up again?"

"You...already told me?" Well, thanks for letting me in on that little tidbit, Sam, she thought. Surely Freddie was going to figure it out; Melanie had already made so many mistakes. Why had she thought she could pull this off? Yet, Freddie didn't look like he realized Sam was actually Melanie; he looked mad.

"I can't believe you. I thought we were at least friends, Sam. You agreed that we were. Then you keep acting different every time I see you. And now you don't even remember things I told you last week. And then you want to come out here." He gestured at the fire escape.

"What is wrong out here?"

"Geez, Sam, don't you have a heart? Fine, great, it didn't mean anything to you, but you could at least have remembered."

"Remembered what, Freddie?" Melanie thought of something he had said on their date, after she kissed him, something about not never doing that again...

"Our kiss, Sam. Our first kiss. Right here." He ran his hands through his hair in exasperation.

"We kissed?" Melanie asked stupidly. Apparently, there was a lot her sister hadn't mentioned to her. Freddie was looking at her. "Freddie."

All the frustration of the past week, with the poem and being duct-taped to her and the tutoring clashed in his head like cymbals. The week? Try the moment he realized that he had fallen for Sam Puckett. Nobody ever gets rewarded unless they try. Freddie crossed over to her. And leaned.

Melanie, by reflex, closed her eyes, before she fully realized what was happening. Her eyes shot wide open, and she began to push away from him, but he was already stepping back.

They stared at each other for a good minute.

"Melanie?"

She held a hand up weakly. "Hey, Freddie."

Maybe she shouldn't have let Melanie do this. She was Sam Puckett. She wasn't afraid of anything, right? Right. Maybe she should tell Melanie to not do this.

She looked at her watch. Melanie was probably already being Sam right now. Too late.

Carly was no longer curled up in a fetal position, but she held her knees up to her chin, arms wrapped around them. She shouldn't have sent Gibby. If Sam discovered him she would probably break both his thumbs again. Probably his other fingers, too. Why couldn't her friends just let her run their lives for them, since she would do a much better job at it?

The camera in Gibby's hands was pointing at the window sill. He had let it slip when Freddie had said Melanie's name. He hadn't actually got much on video anyway, because he didn't want to show himself. Luckily, he had caught all the audio. Or maybe not luckily, he thought, remembering how Sam had broken his thumbs before. What would she do if she discovered he had been spying on her sister and Freddie? He didn't think Freddie would try to break his thumbs, but there was no doubt that Freddie would be mad.

"You're Melanie." It was not a question, just a statement. A blank statement.

"Yeah, Freddie."

"So this is just another big joke on me? Funny. Good one." He looked into the distance.

"No, Freddie, it wasn't like that. I promise."

"Then what was it? Because I cannot for the life of me understand why you would do this." He wasn't crying, but to Melanie it looked like he was barely holding it in.

"I was just trying to help Sam."

"She does pretty good at making my life miserable, Melanie. She doesn't really need to bring in outside help."

"She wasn't trying to make your life miserable," Melanie said, and it was she who began crying. She had been so confident. I know boys, she had told Sam. Well, it looked like she was wrong on that count. At least with this boy.

"And what was she trying to do?" he asked.

"I can't tell you, Freddie. I'm sorry." He nodded.

"Of course, why would anybody want to help me out. Say, how far down do you think it is from the fire escape to the ground?" He looked over.

"Freddie!"

"Yeah, you're right. There is a chance I might survive. And then I would just be a vegetable in the hospital, and Sam would come there every day to make fun of me."

"Freddie, this is all my fault. It was my idea. Sam didn't want to do this."

"Didn't want to do what?"

Melanie sighed. "I feel kind of silly asking this. Considering what just happened. But do you like Sam, Freddie?"

He stared at her.

"Because...because she likes you, too, Freddie." His stare continued for a moment. Then he broke into the goofiest and sweetest smile she had ever seen. And then, just as suddenly, it disappeared.

"Sam likes me?" She nodded. "Sam likes me. Sam likes me. And I just kissed her sister!" He looked back over the fire escape, as if reconsidering that option.

Carly had decided to go out and either rescue Gibby or take the blame for him, since they obviously had caught him. As soon as she reached the door, he came in.

"I have good news and bad news, Carly. Which would you like to hear first?"

"Uh, good news."

"Freddie knows that Sam likes him, and he was happy about that." Carly smiled.

"So what's the bad news?"

"He found that out right after he kissed Sam's sister."

"So, I'm screwed," Freddie said.

"No, Freddie. You like Sam. Sam likes you. This can work."

"Yeah, except I kissed you. Even if Sam somehow still liked me, do you think she would ever forgive me for that?"

"She doesn't have to know, Freddie."

"Really, you think so? You think you can just go back and be her sister and not eventually tell her what happened? Do you think I am going to be able to spend time with her, tutoring her and doing iCarly and that stupid poem thing, and just pretend I didn't kiss you. People find out about kisses. Trust me, I know."

"Maybe if you told her and just explained."

"Why don't you explain it to her, Melanie?"

"Because she knows where to put bodies without them ever being found!" Melanie came next to him and looked over the fire escape. They looked at each other at the same time, shook their heads, and moved away. She sat on the window sill, while he sat on one of the stairs.

"What am I going to do?" Freddie said.

"I don't know, Freddie. I'm sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry about. You didn't kiss me."

"You never would have kissed me if you hadn't thought I was Sam." Freddie couldn't think of anything to say to this.

"I should have realized you weren't Sam. Fredword? That was lame. But I stayed up all night thinking about that whole brave knight thing." He waved off the questioning expression on her face. "And I was just off. And then you mentioned the fire escape like it didn't matter, and for a while I couldn't think of anything else, much less realize that you weren't Sam."

"Freddie?"

"What?"

"What poem thing were you talking about?"

"Oh, Sam is supposed to find the author of some poem found in the school. They want it in their literary magazine or something."

"Is that the piece of paper she keeps reading?"

"What?" Melanie saw Freddie's eyes widen.

"Yeah, I've seen her read it like ten, fifteen times. She doesn't know I saw her." She watched Freddie. "You wrote it, didn't you?"

He sat back, resting on the next step up. He nodded. "I don't know how everybody else seems to be able to figure that out, and yet Sam can't."

"I'm guessing you and she are a little too close to the situation and a little too scared to realize a lot of things." She gave him a sympathetic look.

"What am I going to do?" he repeated.

"So how'd it go?" Sam tried not to show it, but inside it felt like she was pinging all over the place.

"I'm sorry, Sam. He realized it was me."

"He realized it was you? How?"

"I guess he just noticed some differences between us." The key is to never directly answer the question. Sam can catch a lie like nobody's business, but if you tell her the truth without actually answering the question asked, you can get it by her. Of course, I've found out recently that doesn't always work with everyone, Freddie had said.

"Oh." Melanie saw the disappointment on her sister's face. "What should I do, Mel?"

"I don't know, Sam. I just want you to know I love you, okay." She hugged Sam.

"Don't get mushy on me."

"Of course. I have to start packing if I'm going to make that flight." She got up. "I'm really sorry, Sam."

A/N:

Thank you for reviews from: Julefor, Moviepal, LadyArtemis101, SeddierFTW, Flutter360, Geekquality, and Penny Tee13.

Julefor: Yes, poor Freddie. Maybe I should just crossbreed stories and have him get into a fight with a football player and have that guy pummel him. It would probably be easier for him to deal with than what he's gonna have to face.

Moviepal: Yeah, I decided to do things differently. Usually when somebody decides to do an elaborate plan like this, it usually works perfectly. I decided a different approach. Heh.

SeedierFTW: Thanks for pointing out my mistake. I will fix it soon. Yeah, I think Melanie thought she was more gifted than she actually was. She could have probably done a decent job of pulling off being Sam, but there was Freddie throwing curveballs at her, with the kissing and other stuff Sam had forgot to mention.

Penny Tee13: I can somewhat agree that Freddie maybe should have been able to tell them apart. But let's give the poor guy a break. First, he's already gone through the whole Sam and Melanie issue before where he was told two different things about the possibility of there actually being a Melanie. Then Sam is mad at him for no reason that he can think of. Then Spencer fills his head with Quixotic visions, which causes him to get little sleep. He's already a little out of sorts, and then the girl he loves (or at least her understudy) doesn't appear to even remember their first kiss, which was something really important to him. I don't blame him at all. I can't say the same thing for how Sam might feel about it. Who knows what lurks in her mind? I guess we'll have to find out.