Chapter 27: It Was Always You
Disclaimer: I don't know who this Dan Schneider guy is, claiming I don't actually own iCarly, but the next time I see…oh, gosh, there he is. Everybody, be quiet. Tell him I went out for ice cream or something.
Day 15 – After School
1
As she made her way to Carly's apartment Sam wasn't sure what to think. That was the thing that was always frustrating about Freddie. He couldn't just stick to one way of being, so that she could deal with that. No, he couldn't just be the goofy tech-nerd who was in love with Carly, so that Sam could make fun of him without being concerned if she hurt his feelings. And he couldn't be her punching bag, too afraid to stand up to her. No, all of a sudden, Freddie was so many things, things she had never thought him capable of being. Freddie had pulled pranks. If you had asked Sam, she would never had thought he had been capable of pulling a prank. Maybe one or two, every once in a while. That one he did to her, making her think Gary Wolf had texted her, that was a good one. Not that she was particularly pleased with it at the time. But other than that, and handcuffing her to Gibby, which wasn't much of a prank, in her opinion, he didn't really have the skills for it. So she had thought, back when she felt that his idea of putting raisins in a guy's hat at camp was as far as he could go.
And he had streaked. Freddie Benson had streaked. The thought of that angered her, because she had heard the other girls talk about the streaker when everybody thought it was that one Dwayne kid. They had expressed just a little too much interest.
Freddie had also won the prank competition for her. So she went to Carly's apartment, not knowing if she was going to kiss him or kick him in the area he apparently had no problem showing to the entire school. She would stay at Carly's, too, because if he were hiding in his apartment, she wouldn't go there. She knew if she did kick him in front of his mother, Mrs. Benson would definitely not let Freddie see Sam anymore. At least Sam's brain was being rational enough to see that one thing.
2
"Is Freddie here?"
"He's in the studio. What's going on, Sam? Freddie didn't tell us anything, but he seemed nervous." Carly sat next to Gibby, who was watching Sam cautiously. Spencer stood in the kitchen, a safe distance from Sam. He had also hidden all the duct tape, just as a precaution.
"He has a right to be nervous," Sam said and headed upstairs.
Gibby grabbed Carly's hand and pulled her up. "Come on, we better go, too." He took a confused Carly upstairs.
"Aw, falafel," Spencer said. He looked at the front door, an easy escape, shook his head, and also headed upstairs.
3
She had to give it to him. The old Freddie Benson would have jumped and run for the door, probably crying for Carly to save him. This one looked up from his computer and said, "hey, Sam, what's up?" Of course, he had positioned the computer cart between Sam and himself, but he still showed an amazing amount of bravery simply by not passing out.
"What's up? What's the big idea with the pranks?" she asked.
"Oh, that. You're welcome," he said. See? she said to herself. See what he does? He just drives me crazy sometimes.
Well, you are talking to yourself.
Shut up!
"I'm welcome? I never asked for your help, Benson."
"True, but when people care about each other they help even when they aren't asked." By this time, Carly and Gibby had entered the room.
"I could have done it without you," she said.
"Actually, no, Sam, you couldn't have. Without the points I got you, Rodney would have beat you. Now," he said, quickly, holding off her protest, "we both know that you could have beaten any one of those guys one on one, but they were all working together. And I saw that it was stressing you out."
"Wait, Freddie did pranks?" Carly asked. Obviously somebody had gotten their facts wrong. Freddie was no good at pranks. Why, Carly was even better at pranks than Freddie was. Well, no, not really. She was horrible at pranks. But Freddie still stinks at pranks, she thought.
"Oh, not only is he the Prank King, you can also give a hand to the Streak here. I'm surprised you're still wearing clothes, Benson." She spat the words at him, even as she wondered why she let him get her so angry. Yes, the streaking did really bother her; she didn't want anybody else to see her boyfriend naked. But what really bothered her is that if it hadn't been for Freddie, she would have failed. Sam Puckett didn't like relying on other people.
"You streaked, Freddie?" Carly looked like she was going to pass out. All the gossip she had heard in the girl's bathroom about the streaker, and all along it had been one of her best friends. Freddie wouldn't look at her.
"Um…that one was kind of my fault," Gibby said. Freddie threw him a look of gratitude.
Spencer slipped into the room, although the conversation he had heard so far should have forced him to book a one-way trip to Timbuktu.
Carly turned to Gibby. "How was it your fault?" she asked, with a voice that was eerily similar to Sam's.
4
"I don't know, Gibby. I feel like I should do something else, just to add a few more points."
"Hey, I know. Why don't I streak? I've always wanted to try that." The two of them were in a janitor's closet. Freddie was pacing back and forth with his camera in his hand.
Freddie looked at him. "People would turn you in, Gibby."
"Not if I wear a paper bag over my head. I can use the one you have Sam's snacks in."
Freddie thought about it. It might work. He could actually hand Sam the bag, so that a picture would make it look like she was handing it to him. It seemed strange to ask Gibby to do this for him, but it wasn't like Gibby hadn't been half-naked at school before.
Gibby had been half-naked at school before.
"It won't work, Gibby."
"Why not?"
"Because people have already seen you with your shirt off. Your physique is, uh, unique, and people would recognize you."
"Oh." Gibby thought about it. "Well, you could do it."
"Me? Do I look like the kind of guy who would go streaking?"
"No," Gibby said immediately. "Which is why no one would ever suspect it was you."
And that was how Freddie Benson ended up running down the halls of Ridgeway wearing nothing but a paper bag, hoping against all hope that he never actually had to show the video Gibby had taken.
5
"Pretty cool, Freddie," Spencer said.
"Shut up, Spencer," both Sam and Carly said.
"Wait a minute. You took the video of Freddie, Gibby? You were with him during all those other times, weren't you?" Sam grabbed him by his shirt.
"Yes, I was." There was no hesitancy in his voice. Apparently today was the day of people not being scared of Sam Puckett.
"Gibby, why would you do that?" Carly asked.
"Because he's my friend," Gibby said. "And he asked me if there was anything I wouldn't do for the girl I love."
Sam released his shirt.
"Oh, Gibby," Carly said.
"Wait a minute, Benson. There's no way you could have come up with those pranks all by yourself. What gives?" Sam didn't want to think about what Gibby had said, about the fact that her boyfriend would do all that for her.
Silence surrounded them. Gibby and Freddie did an admirable job of not looking at Spencer, causing Sam and Carly to turn to him.
"You pranked, Spencer?" Carly yelled.
"Uh..."
6
"He didn't, Carly," Freddie said. "He just provided consulting."
"Consulting?" Carly asked.
"Hold on, I'll be right back," Spencer said, and ran out the door.
"He's not coming back," Sam said.
"He'll be back," Freddie said. "Anyway, I guess Gibby came up with the stre...that one prank, and I came up with the 'You Light Up My Life' one."
"Principal Franklin was the one who took my picture! How did that happen?" Sam asked.
"I asked him to do it. For you."
"Why would he do that? What did you offer in return?" Freddie blanched. It was not going as well as he hoped it would.
"I just offered something I was going to make happen anyway."
"And what was that, Fredward?" Sam asked, dangerously.
"That you would finish this year with a 3.0 grade point average."
"You what?" She turned to Carly with a disbelieving look on her face, searching for moral support. But Carly...Carly was looking at Freddie with admiration. What was going on?
Sam turned back to Freddie. "Well, you're pretty screwed, Freddie. 'Cause we both know that ain't happening."
"Yes, it is, Sam. I'm going to be helping you."
"That's what-"
"Got it!" Spencer screamed, as he came into the room. He was holding a huge binder.
"What's that?" Carly asked, glad to move away from Sam possibly hurting Freddie.
"My Big Book of Pranks," Spencer said, proudly.
"Oh, Spencer," Carly sighed.
"Hold on, Carly. Let him explain," Freddie said.
"Okay, so Freddie came to me about these pranks, and said I owed him because...well, I owed him. He said he knew that I couldn't pull pranks, but as long as I didn't actually do the pranks myself, there shouldn't be any reason not for me to come up with ideas for pranks. See." He held open the book and flipped pages, revealing drawings, writings, and diagrams.
"Spencer, you can't do this," Carly said.
"Carly, it's okay," Freddie said. "He hasn't done any of the pranks at all. All he's done is design them. And he's actually made a little money."
"What?"
"Well, Freddie built me a web page, and you're looking at Prank KIng and Associates." Spencer pointed at himself. "You know what bought you that new jacket? Pranks."
Freddie and Spencer smiled at each other.
"Well, I don't care," Sam said. "I didn't need any of this."
Spencer looked at Sam. "Why are you being so stupid, Sam?"
"What?" Spencer had never said anything like that to her before.
"None of us think you are weak or incapable, Sam. We did this because we love you, and you should probably just accept that." He looked at her kindly.
They stood for a moment across from each other. Then Sam moved to him and hugged him. "Thank you," she mumbled against his chest.
"Hey, what about me? I did all the hard work," Freddie said. Sam snorted against Spencer and beckoned him with her arm. Freddie put his arms around the two of them.
"Thank you, nub."
Gibby came up on the side of Spencer and Freddie and joined the hug, but with enough distance to avoid Sam if she felt she had shown too much weakness.
"Well, now I feel like I didn't do anything," Carly said.
Freddie looked back at her. "We didn't tell you because you're Sam's best friend, and you would have told her. Because you love her."
"Good enough," Carly said and joined them.
"You guys are a bunch of wusses," Sam said, rubbing her cheek against Freddie's shirt.
"Whatever," he whispered. "You love it."
7
"So there's my big man, gonna protect his little woman," Sam said.
"Sam, quit it." He didn't mind. He was happy Sam had moved on from being mad at him, and the most common way for her to demonstrate this was by teasing.
"It looks like it might rain tonight," she said, adopting a Southern belle accent. "You might have to escort me home, so that you can throw your jacket across any puddles I might encounter."
"I might throw you in a puddle," he said, groaning. She poked him in the belly.
"I can't believe you got Ted to help with a prank."
"Well, he said he had to be out of the loop as much as possible, so that was the only thing he did. And I had to teach him the lyrics."
"Aw, is little Freddie a Debby Boone fan?"
"Shut up. It's one of my mom's favorite songs." Sam laughed. "Besides, how did you know who it was?"
"Looked it up."
"Uh huh."
Sam's hand was still resting on Freddie's stomach. She started pulling at his shirt. "Sam, what are you doing?"
"I just want to see what you showed every girl at Ridgeway. I was so busy I didn't even really get a chance to see."
"Cut it out, Sam."
"You know you want to."
"Sam, this isn't going to happen."
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
Good lord, what have I gotten myself into, Freddie thought. He looked at the girl with the glint in her eyes and her moist lips. Whatever it is, I hope it never ends.
"You first," he said.
"Freddie! Naughty."
8
When no one's watching
She smiles
And I stand there
Smiling
Thinking it's all for me
In this area
A wall used to stand
The games we played
As children
Have changed
But we still like playing
-Freddie Benson
A/N: Sorry for the extremely long author's note, but if you stuck with me through my stories, you pretty much know to expect it from me.
Okay, that's i...oh, wait, I forgot to mention. I originally planned to end this after the 27th chapter, but I kind of feel like it calls for an epilogue, so there is going to be one more chapter all wrapped up in a nice little bow about the zombie gorillas that attack...hold on, I don't want to ruin it for you. I am just kidding, of course. Some of you will likely know what the epilogue will be about, but if you don't, it's not going to be anything too surprising, but I sort of felt not to include it would be leaving business unfinished.
I received many, many comments about the whole Freddie-as-prankster thing, so I will just cover some of that right here. I knew right before I sat down to write chapter 16 that Freddie was going to be involved with the pranks (honestly, before the story started to take some twists and turns of its own, I really thought he was only going to be Sam's lookout on pranks). The problem with that situation was that, of course, many of you assumed that it was Freddie. Except for just out-and-out not mentioning it, there was little I could do to advance that storyline and not give you some clues.
I also really like doing the author notes and replying to your comments, but there was little I could do about your questions about this without lying. I don't like lying to people, so I did what I often have Freddie do in my stories: I misdirected. I never lied to anybody. I never said Freddie wasn't doing pranks. I just said that Freddie wasn't good at them, which I believe to be true. Which is why he needed Spencer. Of course, per canon, Spencer can't pull pranks, which is why I had him consulting, not actually doing them himself. So I was able to say that Spencer was definitely not pulling pranks. I wrote that pulling pranks seemed outside Freddie's comfort zone and said I shouldn't get away with making the characters out of character. I don't know how many people I actually fooled with this (I guessing not too many), but I do hope that I when I revealed it was Freddie, your response wasn't, "well, who didn't know that?" or "wait, that's unfair."
You guys also provided some great feedback. I had forgotten all about the Gary Wolf thing, so I had to find a way to include that in the story, hence the "sure, Freddie could pull a prank once every two or three years" comment.
I have to say, I've really had fun with the author notes trying to keep you from knowing it was Freddie.
Also, as for Freddie being the streaker, I admit I had some issues with that myself. But, one, I felt there had to be a streaker. I don't know why. I just don't think a prank competition can be complete without a streaker. Two, it does show how far Freddie will go for Sam. Three, Freddie never would have thought of it on his own, and pretty much found himself doing it before he really overthought it. Would Freddie on the show do it? Of course not, but I feel like I kept closely enough with his character while writing my own story to allow it. Also, Freddie on the show seemed comfortable enough with being pantsed at school, and you know pantsing is just a gateway to streaking. I also know of course that on the show they have portrayed Freddie as a weak nerd, but he's obviously not, so I didn't have any issue with the girls at the school being attracted to him (hey, if it can happen at Webicon...). If you disagree, I apologize and grant you permission to stop thinking about naked Freddie.
By the way, I know the whole group hug thing was cheesy, but every once in a while cheese is acceptable.
Thank you for reviews from: Julefor, Moviepal, lumiforever, fireman35, AguaGoddess, adore202, popcorn1001, SeddierFTW, PuRpLe DyNaMITe, Icarlya, Babygurl4eva, QueenV101, UnderxGravity, cynthiarox99, Penny Tee13, kittyhawk09, PurpleJerk, clarksonfan, Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie, BkWormSarah, and Geekquality.
Julefor: Explanations? See above. You should know me by now. Just because I'm not lying doesn't mean I'm telling the truth. Bwah ha ha.
AguaGoddess: I always love reviews, but I do not require them. This story has received over 350 reviews, which is more than my other three stories combined, so I have no reason to complain about people not reviewing every chapter. Now, get out there, people, and review every chapter!
adore202: Sorry, I would have posted it, but I had other things to work on. You guys are not helping me get over my chapter posting addiction. It's like waving a joy buzzer in Spencer's face. And, of course, I cracked and posted the chapter anyway.
SeddierFTW: I hope you enjoyed Sam and Freddie's little scene. Those who choose to use their imagination may, but as for just how handsomely she rewarded him...geez, this isn't iCarly AfterDark. Get your mind out of the gutters, folks.
UnderxGravity: Always trust in Freddie.
PurpleJerk: You're my kind of people. Heh. Well, not to give away too much, but I do believe the streaking will be covered in the next chapter, but perhaps not in the way people suspect.
BkWormSarah: I know I can, but I'm okay with this format. I've already done the T-rating with more risque material, and I enjoy the ambiguity in the direction of some of what Sam and Freddie are saying is leading to. Again, if somebody wants to make assumptions about what happened, you're more than welcome to.