100 Miles Down Seddie Lane
Closet
100 moments, 100 chapters
"I know it's in here somewhere," Sam yelled form underneath a coat, she was buried under coats, shoes and other mindless junk her mother or even her, decided to throw in there.
"Are you sure, we've been looking for it for almost 2 hours," Freddie yelled back at her from just outside the sliding door of the closet, "Why would you even have a sprinkler in the coat closet anyway?"
"I don't know," she said coming out of the mess holding a pipe wrench, "Things just seem to show up in there!" she told him, waving the wrench around as an example.
Freddie cautiously took the wrench out form her hands, afraid of what damage someone like Sam could do just holding an object like that, and set it down behind him on top of his swim trunks. Him and Sam had decided that since it was so hot and neither of them had a pool and the public pool was shut down till Thursday they thought that a sprinkler would be the best way to cool down, but so far they were having no luck, since Sam's closet seemed to suck everything in.
"I can't help it if my closets like Narina," Sam screamed, "It's like a whole nother world in there!"
"Sure it is," rolling his eyes as he walked forward, figuring that he would have a better chance at finding it than her, "Just because you can't reach half the stuff…" he mumbled low enough that hopefully Sam wouldn't hear him.
Just as he was about to walk in a dig through the waist deep mess he was grabbed swiftly by the collar, forcing his body to bend over slightly, his vision filled with bright angry blue eyes, "What did you say?"
No such luck.
"Nothing" he managed to squeak out.
"That's what I thought," she let go of his neatly pressed polo shirt and pushed him away from her, watching him smooth out the creases with his hands.
"I don't see what the big deal about…" Freddie trailed off at the sight of Sam, her eyebrows settled higher on her face than normal, and her face expressionless as she gave him a look that dared him to finish that sentence, "So let's find that sprinkler."
Freddie walked up to the closet door, looking at it like something was going to jump out at him, which really wouldn't surprise him. He slowly stepped into it, careful not to disturb anything, as everything in the closet was crammed together and one wrong move and everything would come crashing down onto his head.
Suddenly he felt his body jerk forward un voluntarily, his legs by reflexes flashed out in front of him, trying to balance himself out, which would have worked if he had been able to find his centre and stand on his feet which made him trip over some unknown object, and he swore it wasn't his fault that object came out of nowhere, landing him face first on the floor of the closet.
"Was that really necessary?" he asked, his voice muffled by the coats he had taken down with him on the way, he could also hear her laughing in the background.
"Yes, it was," she told him, walking over his feet and stood beside his fallen body, "You were too slow, I mean you were looking at the closet like it was going to eat you alive," a slight chuckle in her voice.
"That's 'cause it probably was," he muttered, earning him a swift kick to the side, "Now get up and help."
Freddie got up and continued to help Sam attempt to find the sprinkler, it was hotter than any other day yet, and he was spending it in a small closet with one of the people he hated the most, and yet he hadn't come to the conclusion that he could in fact leave. He had questioned this many times today, but never really answered himself, which left him to question once again why he was still here.
His thoughts where interrupted by a loud screeching noise, he closed his eyes as the harsh sound entered his ears. Freddie turned around as the sound stopped abruptly, looking to see what made the sound, and found Sam standing close behind him, metal hangers in her hands, which he guess had made the noise. He was going to say something when he noticed the expression on her face; she looked confused and curious at the same time, distorting her pretty face into a mess.
"What are you looking at?" Freddie finally asked, curious.
She didn't look over at him, but finally answered after a moment, "There's something back here, like a hiding spot or something…" she trailed off.
He moved over slightly, his chest coming in contact with her shoulder, and looked down the trail of her hand to the small hole she was pointing too. The dent was about 3 feet high and just wide enough for a grown person to slip through if they laid down flat and pulled themselves through.
"Well…that's not weird at all," He laughed, but Sam herself wasn't paying attention to him, she was still looking down at the small hole with the same expression on her face.
Freddie watched her as she moved in front of him, bending down onto her knees and poking her head in the small space, "It looks like there's almost a room behind here," she told him, "I'm gonna check this out."
Sam's body slammed against the ground at she quickly slipped her knee's out from under her, to someone looking at her it would seem like the action was painful, but to her it was nothing, Freddie himself couldn't help but wince, she herself was quite small, and it always surprised him how much she could take.
She began to shimmy her way through, using her elbows at an anchor to pull herself forward. She finally had up to her shoulder shoved through when she felt large hands circle around her ankles and gripping them tightly. Sam felt her legs lift off the ground and whoever was attached to them give a tug and felt her body being ripped out, everything around her flashed in a blur at the speed, her shirt riding up to her chest as the exposed skin rubbed against the carpet.
"What the hell Freddie!" Sam yelled at him angrily, turning around on the ground, trying to adjust her shirt.
"You can't go back there Sam, you don't know what's back there, you could get hurt," he told her sternly, or as sternly as someone like Freddie could when talking to someone like Sam.
"Since when do you care?" she asked, standing up and crossing her arms, challenging him.
"Because…." he stood there gapping at her, trying to come up with an answer, "If you die, I'm the only one with you, and guess who gets interrogated, me!"
Sam laughed at this, her eyes sparkling with amusement, "Hmm…I see, but I still want to see what's back there," she explained to him, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at the closet.
Freddie huffed, earning another chuckle from the blonde in front of him, "Do you have a flashlight or something?" he mumbled. Neither of them said anything about the statement, Freddie wouldn't admit that he wanted to make sure Sam didn't get hurt, even though he knew she could handle anything that was thrown at her, and Sam wouldn't admit that she appreciated the sentiment.
Sam turned around and pointed to the shelf above her, directing his sight to the three small black flash lights. Freddie wrench up over her head and grabbed at one, pressing the on button a few times to see if it worked, sadly it didn't. Frustrated he grabbed the other one and it too didn't work, and to his misfortune neither did the other one.
"Well, none of them work Sam," he told her, throwing the last flashlight onto the floor by his feet, rolling under the mountain of discarded coats.
"You got your phone right?" Sam asked him, pulling out hers waving it around in front of him, "Use that light."
Freddie sighed in defeat, he was hoping after the whole flashlight idea of hers failed she wouldn't continue this, but this was Sam after all.
Freddie groaned and pulled out his PearPhone from his back pocket, turning it on and adjusting the lighting so it was on the highest setting and kneeled down in front of the tiny entrance, "Jesus Benson, do you have to do everything so cautiously, just go in!"
Freddie looked over at Sam, who had sat down beside him, and glared, "I'm so sorry" he said sarcastically, ignoring her and sliding himself into a position where he could hopefully shimmy through, because in this position it looked as though the width might give him some trouble.
"Come on!" Sam yelled, she was getting impatient and began to poke him furiously.
Flicking her off he began to maneuver himself in the tiny entrance, gabbing at the sides and launched his body in, well, he tried. His broad shoulders hitting the hard plaster, stopping his actions.
He slightly cursed under his breath and let his body go limp. Freddie could tell by Sam's expression that she was getting anxious, she never could sit still or just relax for long, and she had so much energy. He could usually see it when she shook or fidget around in her seat at school, he figured that's why she always had some sort of random outburst or talked back, with every word she spoke and every action she made it was energy being worn off. And it was happening right now, she was tapping her finger nails against the white wall, mouth slightly turned down.
Freddie turned onto his side, he figured since it would be easy to fit through that way, since the height of the hole was a little under 3 feet and he was thin enough that his stomach just grazed the outside of the jagged plaster.
Digging his elbows into the cold cement of the hiding spot he pulled himself in, his cellphone still tightly wound in his fingers. Standing on his feet he shone the small bright light of the device around the room, amazed at what he saw.
Freddie turn to his left when he heard a small grunt, it was Sam, she was pulling herself through the opening, well trying too, she seemed to be having some difficulty sliding on her stomach. Walking over to her he bent down and grabbed her under the arms, and pulled her up through the hole and onto her feet. All the while doing this his arms where shaking, he was almost afraid of what he would do to him since he touched her, he would wither be verbally or mentally abuse by the girl once she caught her balance, but was surprised when she just dusted herself off and opened her cell phone, the small light going over the selves.
They both looked around the room in silence for a moment, the two small sources of light the only thing throughout the room, the scuffle of feel and the sound of hands moving objects against the wood of the sleeves where heard.
Freddie turned around when a soft glow covered the dark blue light of the cell, he turned around and saw Sam, an old plastic lantern in her hand, it looked like one of those toy ones parents gave to their children when they wanted to join in on the camping experience but were too afraid to let them touch fire.
Sam held up the tiny green toy, the surprising bright light eliminated the secret room, "See, I told you it's like freakin' Narnia in here!" Sam screamed, waving her arms around, gesturing to the room around them.
Both Sam and Freddie looked around the room in amazement. It wasn't large but it was bigger than either had expected, shelves lined the entire rim of the small area, random objects both big and small littered each holding space, a thick layer of dust covered most of the articles, it was like something out of a movie.
"This stuff looks pretty old too," Freddie said, breaking the silence, wiping a layer of dust off a small toy.
"Yeah," Sam replied absent minded, eyes scanning over every item in front of her.
They continued in silence for a few more minutes, Sam's attention on looking over everything, some stuff she recognized, like some old broken toys form her childhood, and some other's she had never seen before, sparking her interest. Freddie on the other hand wasn't so interested, most of this stuff was from Sam's past, stuff like baby cloths and pictures, which actually caught his interests between all the old drawings and stuff that seemed to be her mothers.
Freddie picked up a stray picture that didn't seem to have any home, and ran his thumb across the shiny coating, revealing two smiling faces. The first one was of a tall man, dark brown hair and brown eyes, he had some facial hair and was standing proudly, one arm around the shorter women beside him, who in this eyes, looked a lot like Sam. She had long curly blonde hair and bright sparkling blue eyes, her smile was pure white and genuine, her small hand clasped in the man's larger one. What he noticed in the photo when he looked closer was the women's right arms were above her stomach, and large bump sitting under it.
"That's my parents wedding photo," Freddie jumped slightly at the surprisingly soft voice of Sam beside him, "I haven't seen this since I was about…8 I think," she told him, taking the photo out of his hand, shining the small toy at it, making ever detail of the picture light up.
She flipped the picture over and looked at the date and was surprised, "They got married pretty early," Freddie commented over her shoulder, "They would have been about 18 in that picture."
"Not surprising, a lot of people in my family get married before their 20," she pointed to the women's stomach, "Probably because she was preggo, talk about a shot gun wedding," She laughed, placing the photo on the shelf below her so she could keep looking.
"You not going to keep it?" he asked her, pointing to the picture.
"It's in here for a reason, there's no need to keep it and bring up old memories," Sam told him, shuffling through the rest of the stuff.
"I keep one of my parents," he admitted, "Even though he's gone it's still nice to look back."
"Yeah, for you…"
He rolled his eyes and copied Sam's earlier actions, rummaging through everything, spraying dust into his nose and eyes, making his nose twitch. He didn't notice from where he was that Sam had stopped moving after her last comment, her hands up on the wooden self on either side of the picture, staring.
"What happened to your father," she asked randomly, "You mention him a few times, but no one really knows what the story is…" she trailed off.
Freddie stopped for a moment, he didn't know if he felt uncomfortable or just nervous, lately being around Sam didn't strike fear into him, but he was still cautious about what he let out, "Not much to it, him and my mom got a divorce, and he moved."
She watched as she fiddled with a random toy, "How old were you?"
"I was 10, it confused me at first but my parents were very open about everything, well a least my father was, my mom wasn't, but I was young and asked a lot of questions so they didn't really have a choice," he laughed unknowingly.
"Oh…When was the last time you saw him?" Sam continued to ask, genuinely curious, her body was fully facing him, and she had moved a few steps so she was quite close. If Sam herself had noticed this, she would have stepped back and told him to shut up because she didn't care, but she wasn't aware of what she was doing.
"A few years ago, I talk to him a lot through e-mail and sometimes of the phone…he travels, I think he's in Australia right now, he's a photographer," he smiled, letting go of the small robot toy, and turned to face Sam, surprised about how close she was, looking up at him, head cocked to the side.
"What about you?"
That question seemed to knock her out of her trance. Sam quickly looked over at the picture and back to Freddie, and in a flash grabbed at a random box, pulling it to her chest and opened it, bust flying everywhere causing both the teens to let out small sneezes and the dust filled there nostrils.
"Oh look, more pictures!" Sam yelled almost nervously as she opened the box.
Freddie looked down into the small show box Sam was now holding, ignoring the obvious distraction, knowing that it wasn't to be brought up until she was ready to talk about it, though it would be nagging him in the back of his mind until she did, but he wasn't one to push.
"Woah, there all pictures of us," he commented, seeing the small glistening pictures of Sam and Carly, and he could even see his head somewhere in the mess of photos.
Sam turned around with the box and toy lantern in hand, and walked to the middle of the crowed room, and sat down, placing the two objects in front of her, and began to dig through the photos. Freddie watched her for a few minutes before following her and sitting down Indian style across from her, watching as she spread some pictures out between them.
Many pictures where of Sam and Carly, growing up, from the day they met, to Christmas and Halloween to birthdays, it was amazing how each of these girls had been so tiny and cute and grew up into tall beautiful young women, well one of them was tall.
Freddie picked up a photo that he was in fact present in, it was him, Sam and Carly, the first day of middle school and they all looked so different, Carly's hair was a lot longer than it was now, she preferred to keep it cut just about an inch or two below her shoulders, and in this picture it was long and straight, she liked to slightly curl it at the ends now. Sam's hair didn't look to different, but it was surprisingly shorter than Carly's, dancing just a couple inches from the middle of her back, as Carly's was past that point. Freddie didn't really like to look at himself, he was so short, shorter than Sam, and it wasn't a part of his life he liked to look back on.
Putting the picture down he went for another one, this time in the box, and smiled at it. It was of them when they were in 5th grade. Sam was in the middle, towering over both of her very short friends, a huge cheeky grin on her face as both of the brunette's at either side of her, Sam was so proud.
"Do you remember this?" he asked her.
Sam looked up from the large handful of polaroid's in her hand and let out a amused laugh, "Yes!" she yelled happily, "Oh good times, I was so much taller than anyone in class."
"Yeah, you would brag about how you where taller than anyone, and how you got your growth spurt first, who would have thought you would stop growing in the middle of 7th grade and end up being the shortest out of anyone," he chuckled.
"Yes…" her smiled faded, her tone less amused, "How things change." and through the picture off to the side.
"And speaking of things changing," he said as he spotted a picture at the top, "Take a look at this one!"
He couldn't surprise his laughter, handing the old photo to his friend. Sam was less than amused, the picture showed both her and her two friends, older and taller. That year Carly had cut her hair into the style she still had, her shorter brown hair had small waves at the ends making her look more mature and prettier, Sam's hair still the same, with her large blonde curls, but her hair had reached about an half and inch below her middle back, but the most noticeable was their height. Carly was to the side, her arm around Sam's shoulders, bring her friend close, her smiling large and bright, her other hand attached to her hip. Sam on the other hand looked pissed, she now sat about 2 inches shorter than her taller friend and wasn't so happy about it, her arms folded in front of her, glaring to the side where Freddie stood, looking amused, standing about an inch or less above her also. Thing's changed even more in over 5 years, Freddie was now the tallest at a –shocking everyone- 5'8, the other brunette standing at a humble 5'6 and poor Sam only reach a miserable 5'2, just to say, she was not a happy girl.
"So funny…" Sam growled, flicking the picture away from her.
"You were so pissed of that year and Carly had to force you to take that picture, "Freddie laughed at the memory.
Freddie chuckled to himself, trying to stop before Sam made a move, though he was taller than her he was still afraid of the power the small stature of hers held. Grabbing a small handful he looked through the bundle, pictures of Carly, Spencer and Sam together, some of her and her mother, and even some of Sam and Spencer alone, but most of them with all three of the friends. He wasn't surprised that not many contained him, him and Sam where never the best of friends, but at random he would find those special ones of the both of them.
"Hey Sam," his voice was soft, he couldn't take his eyes off the photo in fornt of him, he hadn't seen this picture since the day it was taken, and it was almost as if it was erased form his memory, "Do you remember this day?"
Sam looked up at him, curious as to what could make him seem to calm, she noticed his eyes had gone soft and a small smile had crossed his face. Yanking the picture out of his hand harshly, her eyes blinked in surprised at the still in front of her. It was taken when Sam had entered the 2nd grade from another school, the teacher that Sam had gotten was obsessed with photography, and had insisted that she take photo's of all of them and at the end of the year she gave them to the kids to remember their year.
The picture consisted of her and Freddie. They had met the first day of school and Sam, being Sam, had beat him up, throwing him to the ground and sitting on top of him. The picture was just that, Freddie's face was splattered with mud, small hand prints littered his body, and his hair was a mess, compared to the gelled back style his mother had put it in that morning. Sam was sitting on top of him, mud of her clothes as well, her hands and arms covered in the slimy substance Freddie himself was laying in, some in her long hair. Both of the looking at the camera smiling.
"Even than you where mean to me," Freddie told her, breaking her from her moment.
"You were still a dork back then," she retaliated playfully, "I had too."
Freddie reached out and took the one end that Sam's hand didn't occupy and tilted the picture towards him, angling it so both of them could see it, the two of them propping it up together.
"I can't believe you kept this."
"I can't believe we were friends –well sort of friends- before we met Carly," she commented, eyes not leaving the photo.
They sat there in silence, both looking at the picture. The calming atmosphere was nice, but I was starting to make Sam become uneasy, being so close to Freddie like this was something new for her and she couldn't help but shake, so she did the only thing she could think of.
"Ow Sam, why?" Freddie yelled, rubbing his shoulder gently, the punch stung slightly, and he knew that though it might not leave a bruise, it was going to be tender for a while.
"That was for touching me earlier," she smiled and went back to collecting the photos.
Disclaimer; I do not own iCarly or any of the characters.
This chapter is for Purple550, who gave me the word Closet, though at first this was actually going to be Shoes, which I am going to use in another chapter because I got some ideas, so look out for that, but not for a while.
I don't really like the way this one turned out, I feel like I wasn't all into it like the other ones, and that it's poorly written, I don't really know, but there's something about it that doesn't sit right with me, I didn't even know how to END it, so I hope you like it anyway, tell me what you think.
Anyway, thanks to all of you who reviewed, alerted and favoured this story, I appreciate it a lot!
Don't forget to review AND leave a word!
Enjoy!
-Stolie Silver.