Chapter 18: You Light Up My Life

Disclaimer: Hey, you. Come here. Look at this, it's a brand-spanking new iCarly. I'm selling it cheap. Own? I don't know that I would say I necessarily ooooown it.

Day 10 - School

1

Sam's first attempt to talk to Freddie was soon after she got to school, which was, surprisingly for her, well before the first bell. She walked down the hall, full of determination, rehearsing words in her mind (and she never rehearsed!), and then she saw him. All the words fell out of her mind, dribbled on her shoes, and creeped down the hall. He was turned slightly away from her and didn't see her. He waved a hand out to greet someone, and Sam told herself, well, can't do this while he's with other people. And she left, ignoring the voice inside her head calling her a coward.

She had other things to worry about, anyway. She could always go back to Freddie. If she didn't get her act together on the pranks, she was going to lose. Rodney's group had already pulled off two pranks that day (although rather tepid ones, in her estimation). The ones she had pulled off weren't much better, but she still had the rest of the day. Somebody, however, had a clown propose marriage to Mr. Howard in the middle of the hallway. The clown then doused him with a seltzer bottle. Video of that was already playing on all the monitors, despite administration efforts to remove it. Nobody had claimed that one, yet. Sam realized Rodney was holding that one in his back pocket, so that he could bring it up Monday, to prevent Sam from knowing exactly how many points he would have at the time. Sam thought it was wise; she was going to do the same.

Carly saw her. "Hey, Sam, did you..."

"Working on it."

She turned the corner and ran right into a clown. An actual clown. Maybe the actual clown who had proposed to Mr. Howard. Are they going to try to have him do something to me? Because I will seriously cause some pain.

"This is for you," the clown said. He had a surprisingly normal voice, not that she was quite sure what a clown's voice should sound like. She looked down. There were bills in his hand. She saw at least one twenty. Part of her knew she was being set up. Another part of her had already calculated how much bacon she could buy with that money. She reached out and grabbed it. He held on for a moment, so that she was sure she was being set up and she prepared to kick him in his clown crotch. But then he let go, tipped his hat to her, and then went back around the corner.

Sam paused, and then looked around the corner. He was gone. She scratched at the bills. Felt like money. She sniffed the money. Smelled like money. She held it up to the light. Looked real, and she should know, since that one lesson with her Uncle Carmine. She put the money in her wallet. She might have to do some more checking to ensure there wasn't something else wrong with the money, but she had ended up with fifty bucks.

"Weird way to start the day," she said out loud.

2

Freddie sat with Carly and Sam at lunch that day. Carly looked at her two friends expectedly. Neither of them said anything. They didn't look upset or anything, but they were refusing to talk. Several times they looked at the other, but only when they were sure they weren't being looked at. Carly wanted to scream, and she thanked the stars when Gibby sat down next to her. Neither of them seemed to notice they sat so close their legs were touching.

"Gibs," Freddie said, giving him a greeting nod. Sam grunted. She finished her hamburger. Freddie, who had barely touched his, cut it in half and put the untouched half on Sam's tray. She mumbled a thanks and dug into that one.

I wonder how badly Sam would hurt me if I just stood up and pushed their heads together and made them kiss, Carly thought. She looked at Sam. After Sam was done chewing, of course.

"I have to finish a project in the library. I'll catch you guys later," Freddie said. Sam looked up at him, opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, and then closed it again. Freddie left. Carly sighed.

"What's the matter, Carly?" Gibby asked, concerned.

"Nothing, Gibby, I just think I might have to do something I shouldn't have to," Carly said, pointedly.

"I'm working on it!" Sam said. She looked down at her tray, where the second hamburger was gone. She picked up her tray and left.

"Did I miss something?" Gibby asked.

"Yes, you did," Carly said, patting his cheek, "but I wouldn't worry about it."

3

Perhaps because she was trying not to think about her two failed attempts to talk to Freddie, perhaps because she was also not trying to think about her tutoring session with Reuben later (or her concern that she actually understood almost half of what he was actually saying), Sam went on a pranking spree. None of them were as clever as the clown, but she figured two points here and three points there would add up. Rodney may have the numbers, but Sam didn't build up years of experience for nothing.

She thought she was doing pretty good, until the intercom went on. And Principal Franklin spoke. Wait, not spoke, sang. Principal Franklin was singing. And he was singing "You Light Up My Life". Sam gaped. She stepped out into the hallway, where there were already plenty of students looking up at the speakers, if they weren't bent over in laughter. One student was in a fetal position, laughing so hard that tears sprang from his eyes.

Principal Franklin stormed out of his office. "Who did this?" He looked around, as his voice continued to croon on the speakers. His eyes caught Sam's. She saw his eyes squint, and she waved her head no, it wasn't her. She hadn't done a prank on him in years. She (although she would never say this out loud) respected him too much to do that.

"Sam Puckett, come in here." Sam hung her head. It was bad enough if she got expelled, but if she got expelled for something she didn't even do, that would be the pits.

She thought they were going to his office, but he escorted her past it, until they came to the tiny room where the audio equipment was. The room was so small that only one person could fit in there at a time.

"Fix it!" he said.

"I don't know how. I didn't do this, I swear," Sam said. He looked at her.

"Miss Puckett, you've put me through a lot in your years here, but I never thought you would do something like this to me."

"I didn't. I would never do anything to you. Sure, to Miss Briggs or Mr. Howard, but not to you." Oops. She hadn't meant to say that out loud. He looked at her for a long while.

"I'll take what you've said into consideration, but, for the love of Tribbles, can you try to stop that?"

"I don't really know how," she said, but she had turned around to see what she could do. She bent over the system and looked at the multitude of buttons. This really wasn't her field of expertise. She tried one button, but all she got was a shot of feedback in addition to the singing. She pressed the button again to stop it.

"I don't know how-" she said, and then the singing stopped. At the time her hands had been nowhere near the console.

"That was uncool," Principal Franklin said, and Sam snorted at him saying something like that. He glared at her.

"Sorry," she said. "On the other hand, you do have a good voice. But jank taste in music."

4

When she left, she felt she had convinced him she had nothing to do with that prank. She was glad he believed her, because she would have been ticked that she might get expelled because of a trick Rodney played and that her Detention Posse oath would not allow her to tell Principal Franklin.

Rodney's prank had effectively taken her out for the day as far as pranks went. She caught Mr. Howard eyeing her several times. Maybe she could start up again tomorrow, but she was pretty well done for this day.

"You light up my life, you give me hope to carry on." Sam turned around to see Gibby singing.

"What are you doing, Gibby?"

"That's a pretty catchy song. Don't you think?" He walked away, continuing to sing, not seeming to notice other students staring and laughing. Is it wrong that I think in some ways he's the perfect dweeb for Carly? Sam shook her head. Of course it was wrong. Although, she did know Carly had that song on her PearPad.

Speaking of perfect dweebs, since she couldn't pull any more pranks, she had essentially run out of excuses not to talk to Freddie.

Reasons. I meant reasons not to talk to Freddie. Valid reasons.

And because her life was wonderful like that, there was the nub himself, standing at his locker, laughing with another guy. Oh, he's with someone, so... The other guy left. Sam growled to herself and walked over to Freddie. He looked at her. She couldn't read his eyes.

"'Sup, nub?"

"Not much. How've you been, Sam?"

"Got a stupid song stuck in my head, but other than that I can't complain. Well, I can, but..." She shrugged.

"Yeah, that song. That was a pretty good one, Sam. That must have scored you some good points."

"Wasn't me," she said simply.

"Oh." He thought about it. "Sorry. Will you be able to make up the points?"

"I'm Sam Puckett. I can do anything," she said.

"Yeah, you can," he said and smiled. Her mind flashed to that short but amazing smile she had seen on the videotape. Steel yourself, Puckett. No weakness.

"So...uh...I'm going to come over tonight. After tutoring. And we're going to talk."

"We are?"

"Yes, we are." She started to walk away.

"Sam?" She stopped. "Should I wear a cup?"

She thought about it. "Couldn't hurt. Just in case."

5

Carly watched Sam walk away and saw the smile on Freddie's face. Finally, she thought. Although she hoped Freddie really did wear that cup. Sam would go into the talk with him meaning to make peace and build their relationship, but with Sam, you just never knew when such negotiations would turn to pain.

As she walked away, she decided she wanted to play that Debby Boone song on her PearPod. For some reason, it just felt right.

A/N: Stay tuned for the next chapter, "Oh, no, Freddie forgot to wear his cup!".

Thank you for reviews from: Penny Tee13, kiyokoseddie, Moviepal, PurpleJerk, Tbayleyt, MissSeddie, UnderxGravity, cynthiarox99, SeddierFTW, it's called a brain. get one, Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie, seddiegirl25, Julefor, rangergirl123, Flutter360, Sylvia, and Geekquality.

Tbayleyt: Bad feeling? Since when has anything ever gone askew with this crew.? That would never do. We'll just have to see it through.

UnderxGravity: You know, guys, Freddie is starting to get a complex that you don't think his plan will go well. Give a guy a chance. Boy, do I know about characters molding stories the way they want.

SeddierFTW: For now, I think Melanie has played her part in this story, ending with Sam forgiving her. Of course, I still have nine chapters after this, and you (and more importantly, I) can never tell when a character might make an appearance.

Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie: Yep, Sam came to her senses, and she will never change her mind and mess anything up. Yep. That's what's gonna happen. Do you believe me?

Julefor: Yeah, between all my stories, these characters talk to themselves way too dang much. Would it be cruel for me to say I made the tutor Reuben just because I like to see Sam get frustrated? And, obviously, Carly's plans didn't necessarily work, but gotta give the poor girl a break every once in a while and not make it a complete disaster.

PurpleJerk: I believe Sam made it abundantly clear to Reuben that she knows her math. Of course, I'm still laughing at the thought of him trying to go over poetry with her-that would be like Dr. Seuss in a blender with acid. And, oh, I'm pretty sure you will get at least a little taste of a Carly/Gibby date...today's Wednesday (in the story), so it's only two days away (five chapters). You know, it almost sounds like you don't really think Sam is confident, that she puts up some type of a front or something. But that couldn't be what you're saying, is it? Nah. And I never said Freddie's plan was evil. Of course, I didn't say it wasn't evil. Actually, the plan is...oh, wait, doorbell.

By the way, I was just kidding about that next chapter title. Or was I? Sorry, I'm feeling a little feisty right now. I got my Puckett up.

I'm posting this tonight, since I have to get up tomorrow and work on another project (not a fun one, like one that involves actual work...boring), and I am unable to now, because this house is a madhouse. No chapter tomorrow, but there should be a new one the next morning.