Chapter 20: Take a Picture; It'll Last Longer

Disclaimer: Go read the disclaimers for chapters 1 through 19. They still apply here, plus they don't involve me trying to be funny at four in the morning.

Day 11 - School

1

The first thing Sam did when she got to school was go to the library. She would never admit it, but she was actually pretty good with computers, although probably not as good as Freddie was. She also paid attention when he was on the computer, more often just as an excuse to harass him, but sometimes just because she found what he did interesting. And she liked looking at him. She had paid attention when he talked about the servers being connected to all the computers, so she took the time to have it set that all the computers in the school would play a recording of flatulent noises at the same time. She set it for ten minutes till eleven, so that it would also wake her from her nap before lunch started.

She also used it as an opportunity to steel herself for seeing Freddie. Last night, she had her head in the clouds about him, but today she was worried about all the changes. She remembered the kisses on the fire escape, and the three at the window as they attempted to say goodbye to each other, and the other three short ones in the hallway. And the last one when she stopped before opening Carly's door and threw herself against him, pressing him against the door, and making his mother exclaim inside the apartment, which was good, as it effectively ended what could have been hours of goodbye kisses.

But today she realized it was Freddie. It wasn't boys she had crushes on before, who, if she thought about it, she cared less about combined than she did about Freddie. It was sweet, nice, adorable Freddie. It was also Freddie, who she liked to tease, who she liked to see get riled up, who she liked playing the game with. But she didn't know if she could do that anymore, not while also having the girly-gushy feelings she did. So, yeah, she was kind of putting off seeing him.

She saw a boy walk by her with blue marks all over his face. She wasn't surprised. She had seen Rodney, who was selling tickets to a freshman at the time, had bottles of food coloring in his locker. He hadn't claimed credit for the prank, and likely wouldn't until Monday, the same with the clown and the principal singing on the intercom. She laughed as she saw a girl bend over the water fountain and get her shirt soaked with red liquid. Sam was glad she had bottled water.

She laughed as she saw Mr. Howard storm by with three different colors on his face. She didn't even know how or why that had happened.

And then she came face to face with the boy she had been avoiding, who she had been thinking about, and who she could barely resist kissing as soon as she saw him.

"Hey," Freddie said, and she didn't know whether to be happy or sad that she saw some of the same hesitancy in his face. "How you doing, Sam?"

"Pretty good. How bout yourself?" See, I'm acting different. This is all wrong.

"Good, good. So..." Then the bell rang. He smiled slightly at her, and she returned it, before turning to go to his class. She found Carly looking at her.

"You two are idiots," Carly said.

2

"Something's wrong with my desk," Gibby said. Freddie turned to look at him. He raised his shoulders and shook his head, indicating he didn't know what Gibby was talking about. Gibby held up his finger, and then put his pencil on his desk. Freddie watched as the pencil rapidly rolled along the side of the desk and then fell on the floor.

"That's weird, Gibby," Freddie said. Then he saw several other students doing the same thing, with the same result. Freddie tried it on is desk. Every desk in the class had its top elevated, so that it was set to a slight angle.

The teacher, after checking a few desks, got frustrated and told them to just deal with it. She set her books on her desk...where they promptly slid across and shot on to the floor. She ran her finger along her desk and looked at the filmy substance at the end of her finger. She sent one of the students off for cloths.

"So you and Sam are together?" Gibby asked.

"What? Where did you hear that?"

"Carly told me on the phone this morning."

Freddie frowned, for several reasons. The thought of Gibby and Carly having phone conversations in the morning was, well, weird. Plus, he was having enough troubles with his relationship with Sam, without having the whole school knowing about it. Yesterday, he would not have believed that kissing would be the easiest part of being with Sam.

"Gibby," he whispered. "You can't tell anybody about this."

"No problem, man," Gibby said. "Mum's the word." Freddie nodded his thanks, and turned to his school book as the teacher started to talk. He leaned slightly to the right, to make up for the desk's lean. He heard Gibby giggle. He looked at him. "Mum. That's a funny word."

3

Freddie walked past the photo lab. At the time, he was supposed to be in computer lab, but he had already completed all the semester's assignment, and the teacher was glad not to have Freddie around, since Freddie always made him feel stupid, and he never marked Freddie absent when he skipped, something he had done every day this week.

He heard a noise, and turned to see Sam standing at the door of the photo lab. She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in. The photo lab was generally kept dark, but there was a little light, enough that he could see Sam and her brilliant eyes looking at him.

"Sam, I..."

"Shut up." And she initiated the kiss this time.

4

He didn't put up much of a fight. It was hard to resist Puckett kisses. Eventually, though, his brain reminded him they had issues to discuss, and he reluctantly pulled back after a few minutes.

"Sam, we need to talk."

"Dumping me already, Benson?"

"What, no! Seriously, Sam...well, that's the thing. I mean, how can I dump you? Are we together? We never really...talked last night. Just kissed."

"What's wrong with kissing?" she asked, and played with the buttons on his shirt.

"Nothing. Seriously, nothing. But, I mean, is that all it is? Is that all we are? We love each other, Sam." She started at that. "Yet we can't even talk?"

"What's to talk about? You're Freddie. I'm Sam. And now we're not. We're different. We'll never be the same."

"Okay, sure, but that's not a bad thing, necessarily."

"But it could be. I don't want to end up calling you a nub or saying something about your mother being crazy...or thump you in the head, and then you'll get mad and dump me, just like every other guy." Despite the darkness, Freddie saw tears form.

"Sam, I'm not every other guy."

"I...I...I'm going." And she was out the door before he could reply. This was not how he had expected this to go.

5

Lunch was silent. Carly felt uncomfortable, looking at her two best friends. Sam stared at her plate, not eating, not even the key lime pie, which, while no Galini's, was still pretty good for school fare.

They didn't appreciate the will power she was showing by not interfering. She saw Freddie peek at Sam several times, and she willed him to say something, although making the first move didn't seem in Freddie's nature. Or so she had thought. She didn't think Freddie would be the one to initiate a kiss with Sam, either. Suddenly, Freddie smirked.

"Hey, Puckett," he said.

"What?" She looked up. And was rewarded with Freddie's piece of pie in her face. Carly's mouth fell open. Freddie's smirk grew. Sam wiped the topping from around her eyes and stared at him.

"You're dead, Benson," she said.

"Am I?" He grinned. And before Carly could think, he was off and running. Sam was right behind him.

And it sounded to Carly like she was laughing.

6

"Ow, Sam, my underwear's gonna rip off. Wasn't one wedgie enough?"

"Not since you put a pie in my face." The voices sounded like the abused and abuser, but looking at the two, that picture didn't quite match up, not with the blond girl on top of the boy. Much of the pie topping that had been on her face was now on his, particularly around the mouth area. Plus, despite the possibility of the girl ripping his underwear, the boy was grinning.

"You forgive me."

"I'll think about it."

"No, you've forgiven me already, because you love me." She tensed up, and he moved her hands easily, so that now he was holding her in place as she sat above him. "And I love you, too."

They were in the photo lab again. Sam had tackled him in the hallway and dragged him in there.

She looked at him and nodded. She lowered herself until her head was resting on his chest.

"So what now?" she asked.

"So. I'm Freddie. You're Sam. And that's who we are. And if you call me names or torture me, then you'll just have to give me more kisses later to make up for it." He tapped her back lightly, and she got off. He moved until he was sitting cross-legged across from her, and she copied his motion. He held her hands in his. "I fell in love with you before this, Sam, and you were doing all that stuff."

"So you're a sucker for punishment."

"No, I just know that's not all there is to you." She blushed, thankful for the darkness of the room.

"Would you like to go on a date, Sam?"

"What?"

"You and me. On a date. Tomorrow night after iCarly. What do you say?"

She thought about it. "I'm not going on some girly date with you, Benson."

"No girly date. Got it. I'll try to control myself."

She laughed and put her palm on his face, rubbing the pie filling around on it, then left.

7

Carly wasn't sure what happened with the two of them, but the next time she saw Sam, Sam was all smiles, which was actually not that great for some people, because she resumed her pranking with a vigor.

"Hey, Carly," she greeted, laughing, as she passed Carly in the hall at one point. Behind Sam, one of the football players was on the floor, writing around. Another player laughed at him, before stopping, suddenly scratching at his...well, Carly turned once she saw. She looked at Sam.

"Scratching powder. I know the equipment manager." Carly winced.

When she saw first saw Freddie, he was limping into the boy's bathroom. He came out a few minutes later, walking unhindered, and grinning like a loon.

"Hey, Carly, what's up?" He hugged Carly, which was weird. Sure, when he had a crush on her, he would take any opportunity to sneak a hug here or there, but ever since Shelby Marx, when she and Sam had convinced him he had passed a line of creepiness, he didn't really mess around with any public displays of affection.

"So I take it you and Sam are okay now?" Carly asked.

He smiled. "I guess you could say so."

"Are you going to look like this the entire time you're with her, Freddie, because you look kind of goofy." She smiled to let him know she was kidding, although he did look sort of silly, in a sweet kind of way.

"Oh, look, there's your boyfriend," he said, pointing down the hallway, where Gibby was, slowly walking and greeting everybody he saw. He even greeted the football players on the floor (there were four of them now) without pause.

"He's not my boyfriend," Carly whispered.

"He's not?" Freddie actually looked surprised at that. "I think the two of you would be good together."

"Freddie!" Gibby was getting closer, and she didn't want him to hear her and Freddie talking about this.

"You would. He's loads better than the losers you usually date," Freddie said. Carly, who had been watching Gibby's progress, turned to look at Freddie, who stroked his chin in a musing manner. "Well, except that one kid. I think he saved you from a taco truck. But he was probably too good for you. Besides, I hear he's found somebody better." He started moving past her and turned and gave her a wink. Great, she thought, unaware she and Principal Franklin shared a common concern, Sam's rubbing off on him.

"Hey, Gibster," Freddie said. He shared a fist bump with Gibby and gave him a clap on the shoulder. Gibby nodded at him and turned to Carly.

"Hey, Carly, you look pretty today," Gibby said. Carly paused for a moment, thinking he had gone back on his flirting kick, before realizing he was just being...sweet. Maybe Freddie was right, in his annoying way.

"Hey, Gibby, nice shirt."

"Cool, thanks." He turned and looked down the hallway. "Wow, football practice must have been rough today."

A/N: Somebody mentioned the poem and how they thought that might be more of a focus of the story. While I did intend it to originally be more of a mystery longer through the story, I never intended it to be one of the main plot points of the story. It was just another piece of the puzzle of Sam and Freddie. This story is still going to last 4 and a half more days (seven chapters), with some other twists and turns, and at least two dates (maybe not with the same people).

Thanks for reviews from: iCarlyfan101, UnderxGravity, Fantabulous64, Julefor, QueenV101, Moviepal, MissSeddie, Divina Rose, Geekquality, Penny Tee13, clarksonfan, WahooPunchPurple, fireman35, kiyokoseddie, PurpleJerk, Tbayleyt, SeddierFTW, and Icarlya.

UnderxGravity: I touched a little on the poem thing. It may come up again (and when I say that, I really mean I'm not sure one way or another).

Julefor: Yeah, Spencer is the king of pranks, but unfortunately he has that whole "way too addicted to it" thing, and that would go against the canon of the show for me. It's a nice idea, though. Spencer could really tear up some pranks at the school-probably be the one doing the senior prank, even though he doesn't go to school there.

WahooPunchPurple: I guess it would sort of depend on the duration of each kiss. As I wrote, some of the were "goodbye" kisses. As somebody pointed out, there was a lot of pent-up passion that needed to be released. The people who pulled the pranks will be revealed in the next Monday chapter (six chapters away). All I can say is that both Rodney and Sam have been keeping some pranks in their back pockets, to spring them at the last minute. And I really hate to ruin it for people, but seriously, folks, Freddie's my favorite character, but raisins in hats is probably the most elaborate prank he could come up with. His intelligence lies in other areas.

PurpleJerk: All will be revealed in the end. Unless I forget something, in which case that gives people something to complain about! So everybody wins.