100 Miles Down Seddie Lane

Telescope

100 moments, 100 chapters

The bell made a light airy chime as she opened the door, the cool moist summer air hit her face, warming her body slightly, though the air was cool for summer it was warmer than the air conditioned space of the store she had just exited.

It was about 9 at night when she finally decided to leave, tough her decision might have been influenced by the store keeper hinting at her to hurry up and get out. The sky was in between twilight and evening, only specks of colour could be seen against the rim of the skyline.

She walked over to the bench across the street, and sat down, placing the white plastic bag beside her. The small street was quite, though it was early at night most of the street was lined with toy stores and child themed shops, which met adults and teens alike, would not be wondering this street without a child, who by now were all asleep in their beds.

The loud rustle of the bag was the only sound on the abandoned street, the street lights and window display's the only source of light given to her. Untangling the tiny box from the plastic she flicked it onto the ground annoyed, not caring about the fact she was littering.

Taking the white and gold cardboard box in her hands she flipped it over, looking for the tab and began to tear away at it, thin cardboard, plastic and styrofoam burst from the tight packaging, some falling to her feet. She dug down until she came in contact with a long thin metal object and pulled it out.

Without a second thought she ripped off the final layer of plastic wrapping, finally holding the object in her hands. She twisted her fingers around the shining gold mental, tapping the glass end with her nail as to see if it would work, even though it wasn't necessary, and brought it up to her eye, and smiled.

"I'm done Keith," Freddie yelled from the back room, washing his hands under the sink of the bathroom, dirty form the garbage he just emptied. It was late and he had just finished a 6 hour shift at Keith's Convenience Store, which to him was the most uncreative name, and was tired and ready to go home, and luckily he wouldn't run into his mother since she was currently at another co-worker's house near the hospital so she would be able to get a head start on her 6 o'clock start time, though it wouldn't stop her from calling him every 5 minutes, which thankfully Keith understood.

"Alright, just lock up the back door and you can head out," Keith's tired voice called back. Keith was a 58 year old Caucasian man with thinning hair and age spots, and to Freddie was to best boss he could have asked for.

He yelled back an okay and grabbed the keys from the hook in the break room and locked the back door, placing them back in there respected place. Picking up his jacket form the back of one of the wooden chairs and made his way out the door, waving a goodbye to Keith as he did.

He walked to the end of the street, deciding to take a short cut through the park instead of walking the two extra blocks. He held his jacket in his hand; it was cool but not cold enough that he would have to wear it. By now the sun was completely out of the sky and the freshly blanketed layer of darkness lay in the sky, the stars shinning dimly, the bright city lights blocking their beauty.

The park was quite, there wasn't even a hint of wind so even the leaves of the tree's laid calmly. His ear perked up as he heard rustling, like feet hitting concrete. He couldn't quite see who it was, but as they got closer he noticed it was a girl, a short girl looking up at the sky. He let his eyes adjust to the new found darkness and as she mindlessly walked closer he noticed she had blonde hair and he knew who it was. It wasn't because she had bright blonde hair; it was because of the clothes she was wearing and how much hair the said girl had on her head, he knew that wild hair with the large puffy curls.

The blonde puff ball came closer to him and he realized that she in fact had something in her hand, and he realized that she had finally noticed him and was now pointing said object at him.

"Sam, what are you doing?" He asked as she was now right in front of him, not letting the gold object stray away from her face.

"Shhh!" she hissed, "I have just found the legendary Mama's Boy," Sam started to circle him, and he turned slightly, following her gaze, "They say they were all extinct, by they were wrong, I'm gonna be so rich!" she laughed.

Freddie just rolled his eyes, which he found was just as common as fighting with the girl and looked closely at what she had in her hand, "Why do you have a telescope?"

Finally Sam peeled the telescope from her face and looked up at him, "Looking at the stars," she told him matter-of-factly, pointing her free hand towards the sky, "I'm going to stay here in the park tonight."

"You won't be able to see anything with that, it's a toy telescope, I bet you can hardly see anything past a few feet," he told her "And Sam, you can't stay here in the park all night alone, it's dangerous."

"You act like I can't take care of myself Fredderly, calm down," Sam laughed, swinging the telescope around in the air, "I just really want to look at the stars."

"Sam, it would be going against my own morals to let you stay here when I know about it, not to mention Carly would have a fit if she found out," he said.

"Then don't tell her," She slowly explained like he was a child.

"You seemed to of disregarded the first part of my statement, I myself won't let you stay here alone," he retaliated.

"You act like I'm a child and can't take care of myself," she growled, she was bringing to get annoyed and he knew it. He knew that she could defend herself if needed, but even the great Samantha Puckett had limits, he just would never tell her that.

"Okay, how about this, we go back to my house and get a real telescope and then go back to your house." He bargained, he would rather spend the extra time with her star gazing in her back yard instead of sleep in exchange that she didn't stay in a park in the middle of Seattle at night.

Sam hummed to herself as she gazed down at the toy, he was right, she could hardly see anything, she had bumped into three people just walking there, the telescope glued to her face, "Fine, but why not just stay at your house?"

"I live in the city, you live in a place where there aren't any tall buildings and bright lights, which means we could see the stars easier." Freddie explained.

"Fine, LET'S GO," she yelled pointing back the way she came, taking the toy and connecting it to the back of Freddie's head.

"Sam!"

"So where is Mama Benson?" Sam questioned as Freddie set up the large silver telescope. He had gone on before about what kind it was and all about the extra features, but she hadn't been paying attention to any of that.

"She's at a co-worker's, she has an early shift," he explained, tightening some of the nobs on the side.

"I'm amazed that she even lets you stay home alone for a few hours, let alone a whole night," Sam laughed to herself, smoothing out the side of the blanket she sat on with her left hand.

"I think the fact that I'm almost 18 and going off to university in the fall of next year, that she would take more shifts so I could have some extra money," he smiled, even though his mother was a little obsessive, he was thankful for all the effort she put in.

Sam didn't say anything, just hummed in acknowledgement, and continued to pick at the edge of the red cotton blanket, "Alright, come on over and we can look at the stars," he gestured her over with his hand.

She lifted her body up off the ground and walked over, the grass felt cool on her feet as she had taken her shoes off, and stood beside him. He bent down a few inches, closer to her eye level and proceeded to adjust the telescope, and when he had managed to get it into the perfect position he looked over at her and straightened his back out and backed up to let her look through.

"What am I looking at?" Sam questioned him, to her it just looked like a random place in the sky, and she would think that too, if she hadn't watched him for five minutes looking around the sky for a certain place.

"It's the constellation Apus, The Bird of Paradise, you can usually only see it in July, the best around this time too," he explained as she continued looking.

"It just looks like a bunch of random stars, doesn't look like a bird to me," she complained.

"They don't look exactly like what they are called in the sky, it's the meaning behind them," he told her, saddened by the fact she didn't seem to care.

Sam said nothing, acting like she didn't hear him, which most likely she didn't wither that or she was just ignoring him, and began to move the large magnifying object around, almost like she was searching for something, but he stopped her, placing his hand on the top.

"Hey!" Sam yelled, whipping her head in his direction, "I was looking around."

"It took me 5 minutes to find that," he sighed, "Here, maybe you might like this one," he took the eye piece form her hands and began to move the telescope right a left, twisting nobs and adjusting the height.

"This one is Ara, it's known as the Alter Noah made after the great flood," he told her proudly.

"How do you know so much about constellations?" Sam asked, leaning into the eye whole, the cold metal stinging her eyes a little.

"My mom had this obsession one summer when I was little about constellations because of a book her friend gave her….it was the saddest summer of my life," he mumbled.

"Believe me, it's not the saddest thing about you," he could see her body shake lightly, signalling that she thought it was funny, "I don't see anything, this is awful, I thought constellations s were supposed to look like something, if I could, I would sue the Greeks for false advertising!"

"Use your imagination, I know you have one."

Sam perked up, hand on her hip, "No one has that much imagination Freddie,"

He proceed to find another one, and spun it towards her when he did, "Circinus, The Compasses"

Freddie's eye knitted together when he heard another complaint from Sam, "I seriously think your just lying to me now, pointing me towards random spots in the sky and telling me they look like something."

"No Sam, they are actual constellations," he groaned as he watched her move it around, again, looking like she was trying to find something.

An hour past, for the first 5 minutes they chatted idly, Sam accusing him of toying around and lying to her while Freddie attempted to explain to her that he wasn't, but Sam was having none of it. After that Freddie retreated to the blanket, resting his head on the ground and gazed up at the stars, but that didn't last long. His stomach growled, the last time he had eaten was 4 hours ago, and he was forced to ask Sam if he could raid her fridge, but she was to concentrated on her mission that she didn't hear him the three times he asked, and with the knowledge of the fact her mother wasn't there due to the fact that the old beat up car wasn't parked in the drive way, and walked right into the house.

He was surprised that she hadn't abandoned the telescope when he had brought out the food, he had her favourites and a few cans of cola, he even told her what he was eating, but she did falter, and he became curious. It took a lot for Sam to be distracted so much that she even blocked out food. Swallowing the rest of the Fat Cake he got up and made his way over to the distracted blonde.

"Hey!" Sam yelled annoyed, she lifted her head up and glared at him, "What are you doing, I'm busy!"

"What are you doing, you've been glued to that telescope for the past hour, I even brought out food and you didn't budge!"

The mention of food catching her attention she looked over to the red blanket and saw the piles of junk food from her kitchen. Discarding the telescope for a while to eat she walked over to the blanket, sitting down and opening a bag of chips and scarfing them down.

Freddie looked though the eye piece to see just what she was looking at. The magnification was very high, if he had to guess without looking it was probably the highest, and it was pointed at a random spot in the sky, so constellations or any specific meaning to it, it was just there.

Turning around he walked over to join Sam on the ground, she had moved on from eating, to finishing off his can on cola, to lying down on her back, almost as if she was exhausted. He laid down beside her and let out a content sigh as he let it body relax once again, he was still very tired and he just wished he could sleep, but he knew he couldn't if he had that question swimming around in his head.

"Sam, where you looking for something?" he asked, "A star, a specific constellations, anything?"

"No." was all she said, nothing else.

"Than what have you been doing for the past hour?"

"Nothing." she said, the corners of the mouth twitching into an almost frown, tipping Freddie off that she was lying.

He didn't dare say anything even though he was dying to, this was Sam, and if he pushed her too far she would snap and then proceeded to cause him either emotion or physical harm, and he was too tired for that. Freddie closed his eyes, he knew that she shouldn't fall asleep, but his body was at war with him. He found himself staying up some nights after spending them with Sam, wondering what was going through her head and what she thought and why she thought them, she was such a hard person to read, unlike Carly, who wore her heart on her sleeve, which was such a stretch to her best friend who hide hers behind insults and physical harm.

"Do you believe that after our loved ones die, that we will ever see them again?"

Her question broke him out of his thoughts, almost startling him. Her voice was quiet and soft, a complete 180 to the loud hyper tone she usually carried, and it made him stop and think, he wouldn't dare say anything to make her angry.

"I don't know," he replied just as gently.

She chucked lightly, "Thought you knew everything."

"Not everything Sam, something's are just unexplainable."

A moment of silence came between the two, he knew he shouldn't start up a conversation unless she did; this wasn't something that he had control over, it was her territory, but he couldn't help it.

"What brought that on?"

Freddie looked over at her, now noticing that they were so close that there shoulders were touching, "I was at the park earlier today, and I read on a rock that said 'Perhaps they stars in the sky are loved ones letting us know they are nearby guiding us through the night', I mean, I've heard that when your loved ones die they are made into stars….and I just wanted to see of that was true."

He gapped at her, surprised by this different side of her, "Where you looking for someone?" he asked cautiously.

"My grandmother," Sam said, letting out a shaky breath, "She was the only person who ever cared about me, and took care of me when my mother couldn't, she was my only family."

"How long ago did she die?"

"A year ago," she said after a moment.

"I never new that," he told her.

"I never wanted you to know," and he knew what she meant by that. She didn't want him to see her hurting, she didn't want to seem vulnerable in front of anyone, so she put on her Sam mask and hid from everyone, "I can't help but want to be able to see her again."

He didn't dare push her any further with her grandmother, she would tell him when she was ready, but he felt good to know that she would trust him enough to tell him something that not even Carly Shay herself even knew.

"I kinda feel like, if you don't know the answer, than…maybe there isn't an answer."

Freddie perked up at this, she was telling him that she thought that he was smart without calling him a dork or another variation of his name. He listed his upper body up, leaning over onto his left side, propping his body up by his arm, "I don't have the answers to everything Sam, but I like to think that yes, we will one day see them." he told her, hoping that would ease her mind.

"I see no proof that heaven exists, or doesn't exist, "she began, eyes closed softly, "And there's no proof that if it exists that I would go there, and no proof that we would ever see our loved ones, just because it's appeaing or eases our minds, it doesn't mean it's true," she sighed, her mouth frowning.

"That's what other people believe, what about you?" he tried to coax her into saying more.

"I don't know what to believe or who to believe," Sam explained, opening her eyes to look at him, "but what I do know, and believe, is that one day, I will see her again, and no one is going to tell me otherwise."

Freddie smiled, "Now there's Sam."

She smiled up at him, a mischievous smile on her face. Grabbing a hold of his collar she flipped them over so she was looking down at him, "You bet," she cocked her head to the side, "And you better remember that," she threatened him, in her own way she was telling him to keep it a secret, and he smiled, letting her know he agreed.

Letting him go she plopped herself back down beside him, just as close and just as comfortable. His arm now above her head, it had sprawled out this side when she had tackled him and he never had a chance to move it, and didn't seem like he would, she fit perfectly under it. Her cheek gently resting against his ribs, her foot grazing his every so often.

He felt a slight chill caress his face, making his body shiver. Grabbing the extra fabric that lay by his side he draped it across the both of them, feeling her body relax into him from the new found warmth. He gazed up at the sky once more, and couldn't stop the grin that was spreading across his face. Who would have thought that something as simple as star gazing could lead to something new, never would he of thought that Sam would open up to him, that she would feel so comfortable around him, which made him feel like he could let his guard down around her.

Looking down at the body beside him he could feel her slow breathing, telling him that she was almost in a state of sleep. He close his eyes as he tightened his arm around her, his body calming and his mind slowing down, her rhythmic breathing lulling him to sleep.

Both lay there until morning, wrapped in each other's arms.

Disclaimer; I don't own iCarly or any of the characters. (We really shouldn't have to write this, because if I owned iCarly, I wouldn't be writing on this site…nough said.)

This chapter is for, well I don't really know, because they were not logged in with an actual PenName, but they used the name 'Bacon', so this is for them. They suggested many words, but I chose Telescope.

I don't really feel very proud of this chapter, mostly because I kinda brought spiritual stuff into it, which I don't like to do because everyone has different beliefs, so I tried to keep it neutral, and tried to word it in a way that would be Sam-ish, so I hope I accomplished that.

Also, I feel like it's too out of character and to mushy for me or even Sam, lol. But that's up to you.

I hope you enjoy this, don't forget to leave a review AND a word :)

Enjoy!

-Stolie Silver