Carly sighed as she walked down the empty school hallway. She let her hand graze over the various lockers as she passed, hitting each with a small clank. 'Oh man, the principal's office! I can't believe I did that.' Carly thought to herself, recalling the disastrous events of Mr. Slater's class. She looked to the end of the hallway and realized the main office was but a short turn away. 'Great.' She muttered to herself. She continued along her way when she passed the teacher's lounge. She decided to glance in the small window while walking by, but her eyes settled on something which caused her to stop in her tracks. There in the corner of the room was a bright red snack machine. Inside there were numerous snacks and candies. Fat Cakes, Cheeze Its, Snickers, Trix, Kit Kats, Trail Mix, Lay's Potato Chips, M and Ms, anything you could think of that would be in there. At first Carly hadn't realized she stopped and was staring at the machine like some starving hobo until a bit of drool slipped from her mouth.
"Ugh, what the?" Carly reached up and wiped it off. "Are you kidding me?" She asked as she looked at the small wet spot on her arm. "NO WAY I could be hungry again." She stated in disbelief as her stomach protested her argument by gurgling loudly. "But I wasn't even hungry two minutes ago!" Her stomach once again let out a small growl. Carly held it for a second then looked around. No one was in the hallway. She then looked in the teacher's lounge once more and realized it too was empty. "Can't believe I'm doing this.." Carly said out loud as she reached for the handle on the door. She grabbed it slowly and opened the door quietly. She stepped into the room and closed the door as quietly as she opened it.
"Hmm.." Carly looked around and saw that there was also a couch, coffee pot, and microwave set up in there. She noticed the microwave was charred and burnt. 'They didn't replace it?' She asked herself as she looked at the fire damaged appliance. 'Well at least the teachers get the same school budget we do...' Carly laughed to herself as she walked over to the snack machine.
"Now, what do I want?" Carly asked herself as she looked at the various items. 'Everything.' Her stomach answered. Her eyes finally settled on a bag of Cheese Puffs. "Alright, the Cheese Puffs are A7, and A7 costs..." She let her finger run down the numbers until she found it. "....50 cents." She reached into her pockets and was met with nothing. "No money?" Carly pulled out a few specs of lint. "Dang." She replied sadly looking up at the Cheese Puffs. "Oh well.." Carly was disappointed and turned around to leave, only to be met face to face with....
"PRINCIPAL FRANKLIN!" Carly yelped out as she saw the man standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and a look that said 'I caught you!'.
"Hello there Sam." He walked over to the frozen girl. Carly just gulped.
'I'm dead.' She thought.
"I see you took a detour on your way to my office." He walked past her and stopped in front of the snack machine. He looked at it with his arms crossed behind his back.
"W-well uh.." Carly looked away from him, trying to find the right words to excuse her behavior. "There's a good explanation for that, you see, I.." Carly turned back around to see Principal Franklin bending down and retrieving a snack from the bottom of the machine.
"Here." He stood up and held out a bag of Cheese Puffs to her. "Take them."
"Uh.." Carly took the bag from him and looked at it, unsure of what to say.
"A7, right? That's what you wanted?" He asked.
"Yes, sir." Carly responded as she saw her principal look back at the snack machine.
"You know, when I was a student, I never liked the idea of only allowing teachers to get a snack in between classes. Kids get hungry too." He looked at Carly, who stood there silently. "You know, I'm pushing for the school board to allow a snack machine in the hallway for you students."
"Really?"
"Yup. But until then, can you please refrain from going into the teacher's lounge?"
"Heh, yeah. Sorry about that." Carly stated apologetically.
"It's alright Sam. I'll let you off the hook for now because you were going to pay and leave without messing up anything."
"Cool! Thanks!" Carly replied with a smile.
"....but there's the other matter to address." Principal Franklin's face became a bit more serious. "As in what happened during Mr. Slater's class."
'Uh oh, principal mode....' Carly realized. "Yeah...."
"Let's go to my office to discuss this." He walked over to the door and held it open for Carly.
"Yes sir."
"Alright now." Principal Franklin walked through the door to his office, followed by Carly. He went over to his desk and sat in his big leather chair. He motioned for Carly to take a seat. She put her backpack on the ground and sat down. "Now, first off..." Principal Franklin put on reading glasses and picked up a piece of paper and started reading. "I see you were passing notes?"
"Yes sir." Carly replied. Principal Franklin stopped reading and looked at her over the top of his glasses.
"You're very polite today Sam." He was a bit stunned at her willingness to comply.
"Uh well, I respect a guy who buys me cheese snacks." Carly responded quickly with a smile. She realized she was acting rather polite for Sam, but she didn't feel any urge to be rude right now like she did with Mr. Slater.
"I see." The principal let out a small laugh. "Anyways, I've read that you not only passed notes, but you did it in front of the class?" He looked at her as she nodded her head yes. He sighed. "Now Sam, what would make you do that? Was the note really that important that it couldn't wait until Carly was seated?"
"Uh.." Carly thought for a moment. There was no way she could explain the true situation. She decided to switch it around a bit. "Well, Carly was asked to write down some definitions on the board, and she kind of choked on a few."
"Choked?"
"Yeah, um 'Carls'..." Carly used Sam's nickname for her. "...was starting to write down the wrong definition, so I looked them up in my book and wrote the right ones on a note. I got up and gave them to her to use."
"Is this true?" Principal Franklin sat forward in his desk with his hands clasped together.
"Yeah. I understand it was wrong, but I just wanted to help her out, you know?"
"Alright." He sat back. "I can see your intentions were innocent in that situation." He took a pen and apparently scratched something off on the piece of paper. Carly sighed a sigh of relief. "But there's still the definitions you chose to write down.." He looked up at her.
'Oh boy, here comes the big one..' Carly thought as she realized they were finally getting down to the true bad stuff.
"What in the world would make you write down what you did?" Principal Franklin asked, not in a mean accusing tone, but in a confused one, trying to understand the girl's actions.
"Well..." Carly thought for a moment. Would she really tell the principal what she thought of Mr. Slater? She looked him in the eyes and realized he was sitting there and listening to her and her thoughts on what happened.....the first time any teacher had bothered to do that with her today. Carly decided it was ok. "Well. Mr. Slater was giving me a hard time before I even got into the classroom!" Carly exclaimed.
"How so?" The principal cocked an eyebrow.
"I walked into the classroom as the last bell rang and he yelled at me for being late!"
"Sam....were you late?" Principal Franklin stressed the fact that he knew Samantha Puckett was infamous for being late to class sometimes.
"No! Honest! I was walking right behind er.. Carly and that's when the bell rang! He actually had the nerve to yell at me for being late when I was through the doorway within two seconds."
"Hmm, that does seem a bit extreme.." The principal agreed, writing down a note on the piece of paper. Carly looked at it quickly and realized he wrote something to effect of 'Speak with Mr. Slater about how he enforces rules.'
'He actually believes me?' Carly thought incredulously. Here she was, sitting in the principal's office as practically the school's BIGGEST troublemaker, and the principal was actually taking her word for it.
"Now Sam, I will look into this situation for you, but you must realize. It was still wrong of you to write down those definitions."
"I understand." Carly confirmed. She was about to say that she wouldn't do something like that again, but she had to speak for Sam. "I'll try not to do it again."
"I hope so." Principal Franklin turned around in his seat and started typing on his computer. Carly watched as he opened up Sam's school file. "I'm afraid I have to give you detention." Carly thought quickly of a Sam response.
"Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!" She replied.
"Hmm, next week..." He mumbled as he typed in various things. "....Friday. Oh! I mean Thursday." He quickly changed the date of the punishment. Carly was confused about his actions as he turned around. "Can't have you in detention on iCarly night." He smiled. "My daughter would kill me."
"Oh!" Carly smiled and laughed. "Yeah! Thanks!"
"No problem." He stood up with a smile. "Now please...try not to be sent into my office again today." He sighed.
"No promises." Carly smirked as she picked up her backpack from the floor and slung it over her shoulder. Principal Franklin shook his head jokingly.
"You may go back to your class now."
"Joy. Be seeing you!" Carly responded as she made her way for the door.
"No you won't, if you stay out of trouble!" Principal Franklin called out to her. Carly smiled at him and left.
Not everyone is a jerk to Sam. ;)
