Chapter 14: So Far Away

Disclaimer: You can't own what you never had. Unless you steal it. Does anybody know how to get to Dan Schneider's house?

Day 8 - School

1

The three friends stood in the school hallway, same as they always have, but there seemed to be a chasm between them. None of them remarked on the physical distance among them, despite the fact normally you could hardly squeeze a person in that gap.

"Hey, guys," Carly said. She wanted to talk to Freddie about what happened on the fire escape, but there was no way she could do that without admitting she had been spying on him-or having Gibby spy on him. If Melanie had said nothing to Sam, Carly knew that Freddie wouldn't. In a way, Carly couldn't blame him Sam sometimes had a nasty habit of reacting violently to bad news, and Carly didn't think Sam would take into consideration that Freddie thought he was kissing her, at least not until well after his nose was already broken.

Hey, Carly. Sam." Freddie opened his mouth again, but closed it when he realized he couldn't really think of anything to say. If he still had a crush on Carly and she, hypothetically, had a twin sister, he thought he could actually explain what happened. Maybe they could even find a way to eventually laugh about it. But Sam was no Carly. That was part of the reason Freddie loved her-Sam was no Carly; Sam was no anybody he had ever met in his life-but right now it was more frustrating than anything else. Jerk, he thought to himself. He was the one who kissed her sister, and he was trying to blame it on her. "I have to go do something."

And before either of them could say anything, he was gone.

"Carly, I did something stupid," Sam said.

"Uh...what?"

"I let Melanie talk me into having her act like she was me, since she is better with boys. You know, so she could see if there was a chance Freddie liked me back. But the nub realized she was not me, so he probably thinks I was just pulling a prank on him. I really screwed up."

"Oh." Well, that was helpful, Carly thought. Yeah, Freddie had realized Melanie wasn't Sam...as soon as he had kissed her. If only he had realized before. Carly had watched the video at least a dozen times. Well, more listened to it than watched, because Gibby hadn't been able to get too close, in fear of being caught. She felt so bad for Freddie, so bad for both of her friends, but she was frustrated with both of them.

"What should I do, Carly?"

And, for once in her life, Carly didn't have an opinion.

2

"Mr. Benson, I'm surprised to see you here." Principal Franklin looked down at the boy sitting outside his office.

"Could I talk to you, Principal Franklin?"

Principal Franklin stared at him for a moment and then gestured for Freddie to come into his office. Freddie sat down in the chair that had for the last four years or so essentially become the property of Sam Puckett.

"I need to say a couple of things. The first is that I don't think I should tutor Sam anymore."

"Why is that, Mr. Benson?"

"I just don't think Sam and I work well together. There's just too much, uh, history, I guess, for her to really be able to look at me seriously as a tutor. I can suggest some other people who would be great for her."

Principal Franklin turned to the computer, where he had Sam Puckett's records pulled up. He always had them easily available, just in case.

"From what I've see, Sam has improved her grades in the last week, even in courses you aren't tutoring her in. I don't think you need to worry about your 'history' interfering with her progress."

Freddie nodded. He hadn't expected anything else. He hoped that the next thing he had to say would get him released from duty, or else he would have to go join the French Foreign Legion or something.

"There's this other thing, too. You know, where you're making Sam find the author of that poem. She's never going to."

"That would be unfortunate, Mr. Benson. That would indicate an examination of Miss Puckett's possible expulsion would need to be explored."

"No!" Freddie shot forward. Principal Franklin arched an eyebrow at him. "I mean, no, it doesn't. She'll never find out who wrote it, but I did." He stopped. Principal Franklin said nothing. Freddie steeled himself. "I wrote it."

Mr. Benson, I know you and Sam are close, and it doesn't surprise me that you would be willing to say you did something, even if you didn't."

"I wrote the poem. I wrote it about Sam. I'm the author." Principal Franklin looked at him.

"I know."

"What?"

"I saw you drop the piece of paper when you got caught between the wrestlers, and I saw it go under the classroom door. I picked it up after I talked to them about confining their matches to the gym. I was planning on having it returned to you, until I saw what it was and realized who it was about."

"But...why...what? Why would you do that, Ted?"

"Principal Franklin."

"You're messing with my life. I think I can call you Ted right now." Ted looked at him. He nodded acquiescence. Use of proper titles was not a priority right now. "Why would you do that?"

"You're not my favorite student, Freddie." He shook a hand at Freddie's look of shock. "Don't take that badly. You're not my favorite student, because you're a good student. I don't see you that much. I wish I could give equal attention to every student here, but I can't. Sam Puckett, however...well, sometimes I see her more than my own children. And she's not your normal troublemaker. If she was, I would have removed her years ago. There's a greatness to our young Miss Puckett that she doesn't realize herself." Freddie nodded without realizing. "I have tried different ways to get through to her before, but nothing seemed to work. She respects me, something no other teacher or administrator her has gotten, but not enough to elicit change. But then...I talked to your friend Carly's brother."

"What?"

"I tried to talk to her mother, but every time she said she would come in, she would end up canceling. So I talked to the only other adult I knew who had an influence on her. He told me that the most likely way to curb some of her most disruptive behavior was through you."

"Me?"

"I admit that was my first impression. After all, for a while a large amount of the time Sam Puckett spent in this office was because something she had done to you. But then, thinking about it, I realized none of those had been reported by you, only witnessed by others. So I kept an eye on you two, and it turns out Mr. Shay was correct in his assessment of who might have influence on her. And fortune smiled on a fool when you happened to drop the poem."

Freddie sat back, stunned. Spencer knew there was something between them. Carly kept wanting to interfere in his life. Melanie pretended to be Sam in order to manipulate him into admitting he liked Sam. And now Ted was in on it, too. What I wouldn't do to have control of my own life, he thought. Then, thinking of the previous day's activity, perhaps he wasn't necessarily the best person for that job, either.

"There's just one problem with your thinking, Ted."

"What's that, Freddie?"

"I kissed Sam's sister."

3

As if the rest of her life wasn't turning to sewer droppings, Sam had to deal with this now.

"I thought you were out of this, Rodney."

"Yes, but I've decided to re-enter the competition, Sam. It turns out being the one to control the senior prank also leads to many economical possibilities. Not to mention a nice little side-betting on whether the illustrious Sam Puckett can be defeated."

Sam flushed with anger, but she saw no way to get out of it. It wouldn't have been so bad just to have Rodney back in the competition. The problem was the other members of the Detention Posse (except for Steve, who was being ostracized) had thrown all their support behind Rodney, ensuring that any pranks they performed were credited to him. Sam's lead had already been cut in half. There was no way she would be able to stay ahead for another week against their combined powers.

Before she ended up snapping and shoving Rodney inside his locker, she left.

She walked down the hall and saw a strange sight. Freddie Benson, Captain Goody Two Shoes, coming out of the principal's office. She scooted behind the corner and peeked out to see what was going on. Principal Franklin was now with Freddie. He clapped Freddie on the shoulder and nodded at him. Freddie didn't look happy. Neither did Principal Franklin.

What is going on?

4

"I don't know what to do, Gibby." Carly rested her head on the table, her lunch tray, forgotten and untouched, pushed away from her. Gibby patted her clumsily on the back. Sam and Freddie had not joined them at lunch.

"You're putting too much on yourself, Carly. You're not responsible for them."

Carly's head shot up. "But they're my friends! I'm supposed to be making sure they're happy, and ever since I got involved it all seems to be falling apart." Gibby nodded, then caught himself and stopped. Sure, he was a Gibby, but even he realized Carly's plans never really seemed to work out the way she wanted them to. But she still kept trying to help the ones she loved, and that was one of the reasons Gibby loved her. His face turned scarlet, but Carly didn't notice, as her head was back on the table.

Her phone buzzed with a text message. She looked at it. "It's from Freddie."

5

Sam looked at the text message that Freddie had sent her and Carly. Sorry, guys, bunch of school work. See you tonight. Sam, poem thing taken care of. Talk 2 you later.

What did he mean the poem thing was taken care of?

And why was he being nice? She figured he was avoiding her because of the Melanie thing, sure Sam was pranking him again. She hadn't figured a way to explain it to him without admitting how she felt. She had screwed up.

Which is why she was doing the only thing she could think of. Which was to reclaim victory in the one domain she knew she was mistress of: pranking. She had pulled five already. They were, admittedly, not up to the normal Puckett standard, but they were points nonetheless.

She worked on some wires in the faculty lounge. She only had a limited time when she knew there wouldn't be any teachers there. More points, that's what she needed. And tonight, she would talk to Freddie. She would be honest, although the thought hurt her. She would tell him why she sent Melanie. Maybe, if she was brave, she would tell him she loved him. She even might be able to say it without punching him afterward and running away.

This can work, right?

A/N: Sorry about not posting a chapter yesterday. After finishing my other story and writing a chapter for each story every day for over a week, I was just a little wiped. I apologize for screwing up the days/chapter numbers in the last two chapters.

Hmm...things are probably going to get interesting in the next chapter.

Thanks for reviews from: Julefor, Moviepal, PurpleJerk, SeddierFTW, Flutter360, Geekquality, Penny Tee13, Icarlya, and kiyokoseddie.

Julefor: Yes, maybe they should have told Sam right away, but there are two issues with that: one, both of them were not in much of a right mind after the kiss; and two, it's Sam! And drama? You want drama? Well, just wait until next chapter! And as for Mitch coming back in "Nothing to Fear", I was just meaning when he came back into the story after his first appearance.

Moviepal: If there's anything I've learned from the series is that poor Freddie seldom has the upper hand. We'll see.

PurpleJerk: Yes, that's why I had him mention something about the weirdness of kissing Melanie, and how he should have realized...something that I didn't let him finish say. And, yes, I understand people saying that Freddie and/or Melanie should just be able to say what happened. But Sam is scary! And not always rational. Plus, truthfully, I have seen stranger going-ons in real life. As for the Carly/Gibby pairing-I find it a little weird myself, but I can't say that you couldn't easily arrange it on the show itself, as they seem to make it a point to have Carly be particularly sweet to Gibby.

kiyokoseddie: If you are suggesting that Sam seems out of character because of being concerned about a boy, I don't agree, since we've seen how, when boys are involved, she does act a little different. If it's something else, I apologize. As for your comment on "Nothing to Fear", the guy said "it's cool" just because he was letting Freddie know that he could do like he wanted, since nobody was watching (since standing at a 45 degree angle in Tom's Twister would technically not be allowed, although I did it at Six Flags outside St. Louis when I had season passes).