Chapter 17: You Started This

Disclaimer: Okay, I was kidding. I really do own iCarly. Now please come inside and play with the unicorn, before the leprechauns have to return it to the City of Atlantis.

Day 9 - Night

1

I am having the worst time ever. I think Ted is trying to kill me. That was the text Carly received from Sam. She was waiting for Sam to be done with her tutoring, so that they could talk. She wanted to fully mend fences with Sam, before Sam let any residual anger fester over and then she would say something both she and Carly would regret. She needed to fix things with Freddie, too, but she knew that, if anything, Freddie had already forgiven her and possibly Sam. That was the thing about Freddie-no matter what anybody did to him, especially Sam, he never seemed to hold grudges. She supposed it was why it was so easy for her to sometimes overlook Sam's often harsh treatment of him that she know realized was Sam's own peculiar form of flirting. I'm not a good friend to him sometimes.

What's going on? Who's your tutor, she texted to Sam.

Reuben.

Oh, boy.

2

By the time Sam came over, Carly had made available ham, bacon, and meatballs. Sam grunted at her and fell onto the meat, occasionally shaking her heard. Once or twice, she heard Sam growl "Reuben" with disgust. Then, "stupid nub."

"It's not Freddie's fault, Sam," Carly ventured. That was dangerous territory, but the important issue was to not allow Sam to turn her anger on Freddie.

"Of course it is. If Little Lord Nubleroy hadn't decided to release his inner Walt Whitman, I wouldn't have to be tutored by the Tower of Babel."

"Sam, that's...wait, you know who Walt Whitman is? You know what the Tower of Babel is?"

"That's another thing. He's filling my head with all this useless information. What good is that stuff? Why couldn't he've been tutoring me on food recipes?"

"So you're mad because Freddie wrote a poem basically saying that he's in love with you?"

"Yeah, what gives him the right?"

"Sam!" Carly said, frustrated. "You're in love with him!"

Sam turned to her. "So?"

Carly threw her hands up.

2

Spencer thought about crawling out his window until he remembered he had somehow melted the seals, so that the window couldn't open anymore. He couldn't even remember how that had happened. Was it the egg shooter? No, no, the lint brush, that was it.

He heard Sam in the living room. She did not sound happy. Usually when Sam wasn't happy she would take it out on Freddie, which wasn't cool, but was still cooler than taking it out on Spencer, or at least Spencer thought so. This time, however, Freddie was the source of a lot of her unhappiness, but that had been a byproduct of Spencer thinking it would be a great idea to let Principal Franklin know what Spencer had been observing. 'Cause that was a brilliant idea. If anybody deserved to face a Sam beating, it was Spencer. Spencer was sort of afraid of the idea, though, so he wasn't rushing out to volunteer.

He had been napping when Carly had come home and had woke too late, after Sam was already here. Maybe he could hold out long enough for her to leave. Of course, it could be one of those nights when Sam spent the night.

3

Once Sam had her fill of meat, for the moment, she calmed down some. Carly figured now was maybe a good time to talk to her.

"So, Sam, what are you going to do?"

"About what?" Sam asked, appearing to be unconcerned. Carly had been her friend for years, though, and had picked up the way Sam tensed up when Carly had asked her.

"About Freddie, Sam."

Sam sighed. "I'm going to pretend he never existed and shut my eyes whenever he's around."

"Sam!"

"He kissed my sister, Carls!"

"And he thought it was you. And he stopped as soon as he realized it was. And the only reason he would have thought she was you was because you sent her over to be YOU. Sam, you love him, but you're just looking for some reason to get out of it, to pretend he's like Jonah or Pete."

"Carly."

"Sam, am I wrong?" Sam shook her head.

"I'm scared, okay? And I don't like being scared," she said. Carly nodded and gave her a hug.

There was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Carly yelled. Don't let it be, don't let it be.

"Freddie." It was.

"Oh, no," Carly said.

"Oh, no," Sam whispered.

"Oh, no," Spencer gasped, with his ear up to his door.

Sam ran upstairs.

4

"Hey, Freddie, now's not really a good time," Carly said. She felt bad basically blocking him out, but if Sam saw him in the condition she was in right now she might decapitate Freddie to cover her feelings.

"Sam's here." It wasn't a question.

Carly nodded.

"Okay. That's fine. I need to talk to Spencer, anyway."

"I don't think Spencer's here, unless he was taking a nap."

"I'm here," Spencer said, rushing out of his bedroom. Now was the perfect time to escape Sam.

"We need to talk," Freddie said. Spencer did a double-take at Freddie. Maybe Sam wasn't such a bad option after all.

"I, uh..." And then Freddie grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him into the hall.

"Hey, we already have one Sam," Spencer said. Carly shrugged and shut the door.

5

"So what's up, Freddo?" Spencer said.

"You're going to help me," Freddie said. Spencer looked around. He looked back at the boy in front of him. Obviously, some form of pod person was pretending to be Freddie Benson, and the real Freddie Benson was probably in the basement, with duct tape over his mouth. I hope he can breathe, Spencer thought. Wait, no...that was wishful thinking. Not that he wished it. Anyway, this was Freddie Benson, except he was being pushy. Like Sam.

"Why should I be helping you with anything, Freddie? I mean I have a sculpture I'm working on. Will be working on. As soon as I get rid of the scorch marks on the floor."

"You're going to help me because you have the annoying Shay trait of interfering when you shouldn't be. You could have said something to me, Spencer," Freddie said, and some of the harshness left his voice.

"I'm sorry, Freddie," Spencer said. He meant it. He really only wanted the best for Sam and Freddie, who he thought as adopted siblings.

"I know, Spencer. But you're still going to help me."

"With what?" Spencer asked, nervously.

Freddie told him. I was right to be nervous, Spencer thought.

6

Carly told Sam she could come downstairs. Spencer and Freddie were down the hall, talking about something. Carly didn't know what, because she couldn't hear them. And because she didn't eavesdrop. Friends don't do that.

"I think I'm gonna go home once Freddie's gone, Carly. Tutoring with Reuben has got me beat. Plus, I have to work on my pranks. Rodney pulled ahead of me today, and I didn't even pull one prank."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay, Sam?"

"Absopositively."

Carly started to say something when her phone rang. She looked at it, and saw that it was Gibby. "Hey, Gibby." She gave Sam an "I'll be right back" gesture and skipped away to talk.

Sam looked at her. Carly was acting all girly being on the phone with Gibby. Carly didn't do that with Gibbys. She did that with Pauls and Dylans and Taylors, not with Gibbys. She's going gaga over the shirtless potato, and I'm in love with the nub. This whole world is going insane.

Sam shook her head and looked to her side, where the bookshelf was. She turned to Carly, who was talking while twirling her finger in her hair. The video camera was on the bookshelf. She lifted it up and walked over carefully to her backpack. She put it inside, without Carly noticing at all.

"Okay, Gibby, that sounds fun. I'll see you Friday. I mean, I'll see you tomorrow, but I'll see you Friday, too." She giggled. Sam hated that. She couldn't giggle herself without sounding like a loon. Carly sounded all cutesy. But with Gibby! She's being cutesy with Gibby!

Don't you think he'll treat her better than some of the other losers she's been with?

I told you to shut up earlier, and I'm not telling you again.

"So, what's going on Friday?" Sam asked. To her amazement, a blush creeped all the way up Carly's face.

"Nothing."

"Oh my...are you dating Gibby?"

"No, I'm not. Dating. One date, that's all. Maybe."

Sam turned around, thinking that the world had indeed gone crazy. She came face-to-face with Spencer.

"Hey, Spence."

"Uh, hey, Sam," he said, his voice dropping lower.

"Did you just hit puberty, Spencer?"

"No, I'm gonna go wash the ducks."

He ran into his bedroom. Sam turned to Carly. "You have ducks?"

"I don't think so. I hope not."

"Okay, well, I'm out of here." She left, hoping Carly wouldn't notice the huge lump in her backpack. She didn't.

Freddie wasn't in the hallway. He stood in the darkness of the fire escape and watched her form pass.

7

I'm not sure I want to do this. Sam had rewound the tape and held her finger against the play button several times. She believed Carly believed what she said, but Carly also had the habit of looking at everything through rose-colored glasses. No, not rose-colored...greenhouse-colored, a whole bouquet blocking her vision of what was real. Sam didn't have that problem.

The problem Sam did have was watching the video and realizing she was right about Freddie not loving her.

Don't be a coward, Sam. She hated cowards. She pressed the button.

"Do you like Melanie?"

"No, okay, jeez. I don't know why it even matters to you."

Gibby was not very good with the camera. She only caught flashes of Freddie and Melanie, so she had to concentrate on the audio. The audio pickup was very good.

"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."

"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?"

"Our kiss, Sam. Our first kiss. Right here."

"We kissed? Freddie."

The camera moved and caught the two of them close to each other. Freddie kissed her. It lasted maybe a second before he was backing away, looking confused.

They stared at each other for a good minute.

"Melanie?"

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

Sam stopped the tape. So maybe Carly was right. He had known right away when they kissed it wasn't me. Maybe he didn't recognize that she wasn't me, but as soon as they kissed, he did.

She watched the rest, seeing Freddie upset because he thought it was a big joke Sam and Melanie were pulling on him. And then, thankfully, Gibby had the camera on him when Melanie told him that Sam liked him, because Sam got to see that wonderful smile, even if it only lasted a moment. Then there was no more.

"So he loves me," she said to her room. She allowed herself a smile, although she would have been upset if it had pointed out to her that it was almost Carlyish in its giddiness.

She texted her sister: all right. I forgive you.

Twenty seconds later Melanie was calling her. She should have known it wouldn't be that easy. She thought about sending something to Freddie, too. No. That would have to be done in person. She couldn't be a coward. She hated cowards.

A/N:

Thank you for reviews from kiyokoseddie, MissSeddie, iCarlyfan101, UnderxGravity, Flutter360, SeddierFTW, Geekquality, Moviepal, , Mistymoozer, Penny Tee13, clarksonfan, Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie, and PurpleJerk.

UnderxGravity: I've given up on trying to figure out why Gibby and Carly have become a pair. I never, ever thought when I started this story that it would happen.

PurpleJerk: I hate when I read in other fics and somebody starts thinking "such-and-such is so cute...wait, I like SO-AND-SO?" In a way, I guess you could say I did that with Carly (obviously, Gibby's feelings were a little more set), but to me it's a little bit more organic to have her accepting his flirting (being the sweet girl she usually is to him) to actually looking at him as a possibility. It didn't come out of nowhere, but instead was a natural progression from when he first started flirting with him to her seeing him in his home element to realizing she might think of him that way. At least, I hope it's organic. And Sam's not insecure! She's not a coward. Didn't you notice she said that a couple of times?