Chapter 26: Crowned

Disclaimer: Me, no. Dig it?

Day 15 - School Day

1

Spencer Shay prepared breakfast for the trio of teenagers. None of them spoke. He never expected communication from Sam in the morning (unless she was going through some alien abduction or love spell like the previous day), but she appeared more melancholy than usual. Carly nibbled the edge of a bagel, making a pattern on it that Spencer mentally filed away to apply to a sculpture. And Freddie sat, without eating, next to Sam. Their legs touched, but otherwise they didn't seem to note each other.

"Guys looking forward to school?" he asked. The girls grunted. Freddie looked at him. Spencer shrugged back. All had been that could be.

2

By the time they got to school they were more active. At least Carly was. Part of it had to do with the fact she knew she would see Gibby in first period.

Freddie leaned against his locker, and Sam leaned against him, hugging his arms around her. Neither of them seemed to pay any attention to the people noting their closeness. Carly looked at the gawkers and hoped they would shoo; if Sam did notice them, especially in the mood she was this morning, she would bring the pain.

"I just wish we could find out this morning. I don't want to wait all the way until detention to see who won. Plus, this test," Sam said. She groaned and reached across her body and slugged Freddie on the arm. It was an awkward punch and caused no pain.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Sam. It's my fault. I should never have tried to help you with your grades. Reuben was doing such a better job."

"As long as we both understand it's your fault," she said, but Carly saw the smile fleet across her face. Wonders never cease, she thought. Then she saw Gibby and forgot about her two friends.

"Yeah, bye, Carly," Sam said, sarcastically.

"Give her a break. You know how she is at the beginning of relationships."

"Blech. Okay, I guess I might as well face the firing squad. Wish me luck." She turned around to face Freddie. He cupped her cheeks lightly with his hands.

"You don't need luck, Sammy. You got this nailed," he said.

"Blech," she replied, smiling. She gave him a quick peck on his lips, sending at least four gossips scurrying down the hall (one ran into an open door and fell, only to have her friend leap over her without a second glance). Sam didn't notice, nor would she, had she known, care at that point. She entered the classroom.

"Go get 'em, Sammy," Freddie whispered. He went down the hall. He had his own mission.

3

Sam Puckett had taken tests before in which she was somewhat aware, almost peripherally, of what was on the test. The test this day was almost like deja vu to her. She could swear she had done this before, because all the questions she seemed to know the answer to before she finished reading.

By the time she left the class she had actually forgot about the prank coronation later. I can't wait to tell Freddie about this, she thought. She stopped in the middle of the hall. I'm such a dweeb. And, yet, it didn't bother her at all.

4

A person entering the classroom and only hearing the voices would never have, unless they knew the voice so well to know who it was, placed Freddie Benson as the person saying those words. The screeching woman at the front of the class, with the red face tinged with purple you could definitely place as the other person in that "conversation". Her hair was greasy, despite multiple showers over the weekend.

"What did you call me, Benson?"

"I called you Butters. No offense intended. I think it suits you." The expression on his face was blank. The other students around him tried to hide their grins and laughter. One girl in the back of the class whispered to another, "he really must be dating Sam Puckett, if he's acting like her."

"You apologize to me right now, young man."

"I'm sorry, Miss Briggs. I do have one question, though. How long do you have to stay in the microwave?"

As the class burst out in laughter, she shouted to him, "you go to the principal's office right now."

Freddie exhaled once he got out of the classroom. Part one accomplished.

5

"Mr. Benson, the frequency in which you visit my office is becoming a surprising disappointment," Principal Franklin said.

"Sorry, Principal Franklin. I figured since Sam will be here less often, I would help you ease into the withdrawal slowly. Kind of like a patch." Freddie remained cautious. He knew if it was Sam saying it, Principal Franklin would not be affected at all. They just had that type of relationship, built up over years of detentions and counseling. Freddie needed to ensure he got what he needed, but didn't push so far as to get his mother involved. After the weekend, that was the last thing he needed.

He caught the barest of twitches on the left side of Principal Franklin's lip.

"Since you, for the most part, have been an exemplary student, Mr. Benson, I'm going to ask you what you feel I should do with you."

"Well, I could apologize to Miss Briggs. I do feel bad about the butter. My mom's put me through some treatments that...well, never mind, I understand what she's going through."

"Nonetheless, you had your opportunity to apologize and it seems that you have, as they say, blown it."

"Oh," Freddie said, affecting disappointment. "Then, I guess, it's probably only right that I serve detention." He looked to Principal Franklin, waiting.

Principal Franklin nodded. "Yes, it seems that is perhaps the best solution. I'm sure Miss Puckett can show you the way. She has a standing appointment there on Mondays."

"Oh, does she?" Freddie asked.

Principal Franklin got up and came around the desk. He placed his hand gently on Freddie's shoulder. "I hope you know what you're doing, son."

6

Sam came to the lunch table and was surprised to see only Carly and Gibby.

"Where's Freddie?"

Carly and Gibby looked at her. "You didn't hear?" Carly asked.

"Hear what?"

"He's been in the principal's office. Wendy told me that he called Miss Briggs 'Butters', and that he didn't apologize, so he got sent to Principal Franklin's. It looks like he's going to have detention."

"What?"

Sam found that the thought of Freddie being in detention did not appeal to her at all. Not that she didn't want to spend as much time with him as she could, but she could just picture Mrs. Benson's face and what she would say. See, not even three days dating you, and he's already becoming a hoodlum.

"I have to find him." Sam took off.

"Do you think we should try to find Freddie and warn him?" Carly asked Gibby.

"He'll be fine," Gibby said. "Do you want me to walk to your next class?"

Uh, sure," Carly said. She couldn't help feeling like she was once again the last person in the loop.

7

Sam tried to find Freddie throughout the day. Yet, somehow, she always seemed to miss him. She skipped one of her classes in the hope of catching him in his. Yet he wasn't there.

Finally, it was the last period and she had to admit to herself that she was not going to see him until detention. She would do what she could, but if his mother found out, she didn't see any way that it wouldn't be blamed on Freddie dating Sam.

Sam entered the detention classroom, still not seeing Freddie. Rodney nodded to her. There were a few Detention Posse members there, but nobody else. Just five of them. Six, if Freddie made it there. If he didn't soon, he would get into more trouble. Sam, who never concerned herself much with detention, was becoming nervous because of the nub. The door opened again, and Freddie entered the same time as Mr. Howard. Freddie sat at the front of the class and didn't look at her.

"Sit down, you hooligans," Mr. Howard said. He groused about something, but Sam didn't pay any attention to him. When he finally left to go watch his geometry shows, she and Rodney were supposed to sit down and compare points, but now she had this Freddie situation to worry about. She looked at the back of his head, trying to shoot death rays from her eyes, to force him to turn around. He didn't. Fine, she thought, see if I care.

8

Finally, Mr. Howard left. Rodney and Sam looked at each other. Sam looked at Freddie out of the corner of her eye, but he seemed to be concentrating on his phone. She put him out of her mind for the moment. There was no reason to let him affect her, if he cared that little.

"Good day, Sam. Are we ready to do this?" Rodney asked.

"Let's get it done."

The first thing they covered were all the pranks that had already been accounted for, simply to ensure the point total was correct. It was: 395-394, with Rodney ahead by one point.

Both of them pulled out their cell phones, so that they would be able to provide visual proof of their pranks.

"Okay, as you can see, I have one of my guys," Rodney said, pointing to Chris Colton, "putting dye into the water fountains."

"I did the powder in the air blowers," Sam said, showing her proof. They totaled the points for those, which were even.

"I have the rubber balls on the stairs," Rodney said.

"Impressive. I have the desks tilting."

"Billy and Chris put all the sawhorses in the bathrooms," Rodney said.

"Cups on the stairs," Sam countered.

Rodney whistled in appreciation. "Nice. I switched the teacher's textbooks."

"Okay. Kind of lame," Sam said.

"Not every one can be a winner, Sam. It's still points." She nodded in agreement.

"Liquid soap on the ceilings," Sam said, showing the picture on her phone.

"I superglued lockers."

"Me, too."

"We shrank the football players' uniforms," Rodney said.

"Rats in the hallway," Sam countered.

They countered each other at each point. Sam realized both of them were now down to the bottom-dweller pranks, the one- and two-pointers, where whoopee cushions and hand buzzers ruled. The problem was that Rodney had more people working for him, while Sam only had herself, and soon he was naming pranks without her providing any counters. Finally, he stopped.

"That's it?" she asked. That's it? He has me beat by fifty points. It wasn't even close.

"Yep. What else you got?" Rodney asked. If it was anybody else, that would have come across as mocking, but Rodney wasn't. One, he knew if he won it was only because of numbers. And, two, he knew Sam Puckett and admired her, and he wouldn't be surprised if she had held back her final cards.

Except she hadn't. Sam was done. She didn't like the gang-up Rodney had done on her, but she couldn't fault him for it. She started to get up to congratulate him.

"Sorry, Sam, it took me a while to get everything downloaded." She turned to see Freddie pulling up a desk next to her.

"What?" she said.

"I know, I know," Freddie said. "You can beat me up for it later. Anyway, as you can see, Rodney, Sam set up Principal Franklin with the audio system." He showed the picture to Rodney. After a moment, Sam grabbed the phone and looked at the picture. It was Sam, bending over the audio equipment. She looked at Freddie with a confused expression on her face. She had only been in that room once, when Principal Franklin had told her to fix it. And that area was so small only one person could have taken that picture: the same person who had told her to go into the room.

"Impressive, Puckett," Rodney said.

"And we have here," Freddie said, "Sam paying the clown for the marriage proposal." He showed them another picture, and it was indeed Sam and the clown transferring money between them.

"Okay, here's another one of me setting up equipment in Mr. Howard's class, so we could insult him." He showed a picture of himself setting up wires, and then he played an audio of what had occurred in the class.

"That's not fair," Billy said. "It's supposed to be Sam doing the pranks." Rodney turned and looked at the other boy with a disdainful look. Billy shut up. Rodney turned back to Freddie, who raised an eyebrow at him. Rodney signaled for him to go on.

"Popcorn!" Freddie said, and showed a picture of him loading popcorn into Miss Briggs. The other boys whistled in appreciation. Even Billy seemed to forget his earlier protest. Sam was still several steps behind, trying to reconcile her mind to the fact that Freddie Benson had pulled pranks. Freddie sucked at pranks. Maybe he got a good one every three or four years, but that was it.

"Okay, this next one was a a little difficult to pull off. Pudding in the vending machine." He showed a picture of him using a siphon at the vending machine. Sam stared at him. That was him?

Rodney had been tabulating points, since Sam didn't seem to be putting any effort into it.

"Five hundred eighty-two to five hundred eighty-one. I'm up by one point," Rodney said. He shrugged his shoulders in sympathy.

"Okay," Freddie said. Somehow he knew it would come to this. He had been saving it for last, hoping he wouldn't have to show it. "Here you go."

He gave the phone to Rodney, who played the video Freddie had brought up. Sam heard some voices from it, but couldn't make out what was being said. Rodney looked up at Freddie.

"That was you?"

Freddie nodded. Sam saw that he was blushing. "Give me that," she said. She took the phone and played the video.

"Are you recording?" Freddie asked.

"Yep," another voice said.

"Okay, here goes nothing." Freddie bent down out of the screen. A moment later he was back up and pulling his shirt over his head. He put a paper bag on his head, making sure he could see the eye slots. "Here I go?" Freddie turned around and started to run, and the video stopped, ending with the blur of his lower back.

Sam looked at Freddie, who refused to look back at her.

"Congratulations, Sam."

She snapped around. "What?"

"You win," Rodney said. He reached out and shook her hand. "Excellent stuff. So, Sam, what do you think about merchandising for the senior prank? I think I could make a tidy profit. I'd offer you a cut, of course."

I won? I won? I won. She turned to Freddie, but he was gone.

A/N: Interesting. I wonder if there's more to the story.

Thanks for reviews from: UnderxGravity, xxbabygirl15xx, SeddierFTW, rangergirl123, QueenV101, Geekquality, Julefor, Moviepal, cynthiarox99, Springleigh, popcorn1001, WahooPunchPurple, Penny Tee13, kiyokoseddie, and PurpleJerk.

UnderxGravity: I had a general plan at the beginning, but once I realized that at least part of the story was going to end quickly, I had to change. By the time I finish a chapter I usually have a pretty good idea what the next chapter is going to cover, but I don't necessarily know what the chapter after that would be. Other times, I don't really know what I'm going to write until I'm writing. For example, the day I wrote the chapter with Freddie and Mrs. Benson's confrontation, I had no idea that she was even going to be a big part of the story, much less dominate the chapter. That is completely different than the first two stories I wrote, in which I didn't even publish a chapter until I was done with the story ("Box Kicker") or I had already written half the story ("Maybe It's Just Me"). With this story I have been publishing at least within half a day of first finishing the chapter.

SeddierFTW: I'm going with the Dan budget approach and just pretend the havoc caused didn't matter that much.

Julefor: Me, weird? Whaaaa?

Penny Tee13: She just realizes how much her little Freddie-bear is willing to do if she tries to contest his relationship with Sam.

PurpleJerk: I'll allow you to make your own assumptions there. Perhaps if I didn't make this a K+ story, I could expand. It doesn't matter so much that Freddie loves Sam, it's just that she really is concerned about Freddie being hurt.