Against All Odds

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 44 (New School)

Carly cheered her brother on Monday morning as they sat with Jessica at the breakfast table. Jessica made pancakes and waffles for everyone. At the table sat Spencer, dressed in his uniform, Sasha, Blake, and Jessica. "Are you looking forward to your first day, Spencer?" She asked while forking her plate of waffles. She had a stack of four waffles that were bathed in syrup. Spencer was eating pancakes. He took a bite of his food and swallowed it, practically inhaling it.

"Yes. It's going to be a long first day, but it'll be worth it." She pushed her fork through the syrup on her plate and lifted it, watching as the syrup flowed slowly onto the plate. "What about you, Carly?" She hummed and looked up to him with. "You're starting at Richards High School today, are you excited?" She moved her eyes to her plate, forking the next bite of waffle and exhaling. She only had to appear for this one week to get situated and whatnot, since Christmas break was next week.

The true schedule was a bit tricky to maneuver this week, but the people at the school wanted to see where she was. She'd not taken her finals at all from Ridgeway, so she'd take them with the other classes this week at Richards. Today and tomorrow, the 19th and 20th, were finals days. The teachers had been in correspondence with the teachers of Ridgeway, so here they would be administering Carly's finals with the subjects she was in, and as close as they could get to the subject material she was taught. Then on the 21st, the school let each of their classrooms have a bit of an 'end of year' party, to where they had snacks and movies on the last day. Then the Christmas season began from the 22nd, and school began again on January 5th.

During this first week, Carly would actually be with the teachers she'd have next semester. "Excited, nervous, frightened, what can I say? I'm starting a new school, immediately taking the tests I should have taken at Ridgeway, and then taking the break…" It wasn't that she didn't want to, she was only a bit scared. Hell, new things, changes, she was afraid she couldn't get used to it. "I've got my new job, I've got a new school, and now I need a new life…"

She was a bit sick for Seattle and her friends, but she was doing all she could to make the best of the situation. She was eternally grateful to be with her mom, to be here, but just once she wanted to see her friends and be hanging with them again. Things were going to be changing constantly, she could tell. Hell, eventually Spencer, Sasha, and Blake would have their own place and she wouldn't be living with them anymore. She'd get used to all of this change eventually, she was certain of that.

"Have you talked to Sam yet?" Sasha asked. Her eyebrows lifted and Carly slowly glanced towards the side. She called them when they got home, but that was it. She wasn't used to the time change, they were three hours ahead of everyone in Seattle. Now, it was almost eight, and in Seattle, it was almost five. "You should call them today, tell them what's going on."

She took the final bite of her breakfast and stared down with an empty expression at the swirl of syrup on her plate. "I wouldn't want to be a burden…" What could she tell her friends? They were all busy with their own life, so she didn't feel like intruding. "They have so much going on right now, and I don't even know when I'd get to call them. After school I…" She pulled her lips back and hummed, thinking of her schedule for the day. She didn't have to go into work until five, she got out of school a little after two. Her schedule back at Ridgeway would remain similar here, as a senior, she had her final period off. "Well, I don't have homework obviously, but even when I go into work at five, it would be two for Sam and the others."

"Didn't they have the final period off too?" Jessica pondered. Carly rose from the table and carried her plate to the sink. She turned on the water and ran the plate beneath it for a few seconds.

"Yeah, so maybe they'd be out by then."

"So why not call them today? They might be wondering what's going on." Mom had a good thought, and even still, she wanted to use the school's library to get onto Facebook and see if her friends were on there. She actually didn't have a Facebook account. Sam always bugged her about getting one, but she'd been too afraid to do it. "You don't want to give them the wrong impression."

"Yeah, I don't want to do that." There was no way in hell she wanted to make her friends think she was moving on from them. She'd do everything she could to make sure they knew that she still cared about them. "So…" She shut off the water and turned to the others, putting her hands to her hips. "How are we going to do the whole driving thing? Because I know Sasha's going to speak with some advisors at TCC today."

"I'll drive you and Sasha." Spencer was taking the Sedan to work, so that left Jessica to drop Carly off at school and come home. Sasha wasn't going over to TCC until about ten or eleven. "Mom is coming over to watch Blake when I take Sasha over to TCC." Carly's eyebrows rose and Spencer smirked at his fiancé.

"Impressive!" Carly clapped once and caught Sasha glancing up at her with curiosity. "You're actually going to let someone else watch over Blake?" Sasha opened her mouth and closed it, lifted her fork up and closed her eyes.

"I trust Granny Rebecca. Besides, Blake loves his great grandma-don't you Blake?" Sasha looked to her son, baby talking him for a second. Blake laughed and clapped his hands on the high chair. Carly folded her arms and smiled at the two, she had nothing but love for this family. Thank god for them.

"We've got a busy day today…"

"Yeah, everyone's going to be working hard." Sasha looked over at the clock and gently nudged Spencer's arm. "Spencer! You're going to be late!" It was close to eight, and Spencer needed to get to the museum as soon as possible! He looked up and yelped. Carly rushed over and grabbed his plate for him. The others stood and started to say their goodbyes to Spencer for his first day of work. Sasha hugged him and pecked his cheek. "You're going to have a great day, I'm sure of it."

Jessica moved over to him and hugged him. "I wish I had time to grab my camera and snap a picture. My baby boy's growing up." Spencer blushed and Sasha smirked. "Adorable."

"Aw mom!" He cried out. "Not in front of Sasha." Carly laughed and he shot a glare at her. He paused and exhaled, smiling at them. "Thanks. I hope you all have a great day too." He hugged Jessica and Carly, then gave Sasha a quick peck on the lips.

Several minutes later, after all the goodbyes, Carly sat anxiously in her mother's car. They were against the curb of the large high school. She caught Jessica's tearful smile and smiled back as her mom reached over and caressed her cheek. "I'm so proud of you, sweetie." For a moment, she'd wondered why her mom was emotional, but she did remind herself that this was the first time her mom ever got to drive her to school. Her heart lifted and her eyes began to water. "You've grown up so much, Carly. I can't believe you're going to be graduating high school in a few months."

"Don't cry, Mommy. I won't leave right when I graduate." She reached over and hugged her close. She sighed as her mom's warmth flowed into her. She would never forget the feeling of being in her mother's arms, nor would she ever tire of being there. Her one and only memory of her mother, all of her dreams and fantasies, they all fell short of this moment right here. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too." Jessica sniffed and brushed away a tear. "Now you go and have a great day of school. I'm going to try and stop bawling here." Carly chuckled and squeezed her mom tighter, never wanting to let go. Jessica hugged her tight and closed her eyes. "You can't stay here all day, you'll miss all your classes."

"I don't care. I mean, I do, but I…"

"I'll still be here when school ends." She took a deep breath and looked up to her mom's eyes. Jessica was smiling as much as she could through her tears. Carly didn't want to lose her mom, but was she so afraid of losing her? Her dad couldn't do anything to her, could he? No, of course not. She wiped her eyes and grabbed her backpack strap.

"Do you think the people here will know who I am? The kids, I mean…"

"Maybe, but maybe not, I'm sure there are a few here who were fans of iCarly."

"Yeah. Maybe so. Do you think I should make a Facebook account to keep up with Sam and everyone back in Seattle?" Jessica started grooming the back of her hair, she closed her eyes and sighed at the gentle touch.

"If you want to, but be careful." There was still the risk of her dad finding her Facebook, and with his status in the military, who knew how much he could hack into that. It would be a risky move, but she had to keep in touch with her friends somehow. "Now go enjoy your first day, I'll be here to pick you up."

"Okay Mom. I'll see you later." She gave her one last hug, then hopped out of the car. Walking to the front doors, she could feel her mom watching her. As she opened the door, she glanced back and smiled at her mom. Jessica waved at her, she waved back, then stepped inside.

Her first plan was to find the main office and go from there. To her right was the front office, so there wasn't an issue. She walked in and saw the front desk was empty. Disheartened, she looked around to see if there was anyone that could be of any help.

There was a girl nearby, working from some notebook. She had long, wavy brown hair that fell in front of her face as she wrote in the book. The girl was wearing a brown T-shirt and long black jeans. "Hey, I was wondering if you might know where I need to go…" The girl stopped writing and looked up to her. Carly glanced hopefully into the girl's warm chocolate eyes. "I'm Carly, by the way…"

"I'm Jeannie, it's nice to meet you." Jeannie stood from the seat and walked over to her, rubbing her dimpled chin and freckled cheeks. "You're new?"

"Yeah…I'm a transfer from Seattle, they want me to take the finals here, since I didn't take them up there. It's complex…" Jeannie shook her head and sighed.

"Interesting that they'd do that, but okay, you'll need to go to the counseling center. We have four counselors, advisors, who help with all that coursework stuff. What's your last name? That'll determine who you have to talk to."

"Shay." Although she was considering a name change, but wasn't sure how necessary it was. She pondered how Carly Carlson sounded, and wondered if it was truly important to change her name just because her father was a prick. Spencer wasn't going to change his name, since he'd rather just avoid the confusion and hassle in the first place

Jeannie started snapping her fingers thoughtfully, then turned around waving for her to follow. "You're going to be talking to Mrs. Cox. Anyway, the front desk lady's in the bathroom, you don't have to worry about talking to her."

"Okay." She held her wrists behind her back and followed Jeannie down a long hallway. She was a little nervous, but managing to keep her nerves down. She did remember hearing about Mrs. Cox over the phone, so that was the right advisor.

"Do you know the teachers you're going to have after break?"

"I think I'll find that out from Mrs. Cox…" She didn't have many classes left to take. In regards to her classes, she knew she had Government, but didn't know what teacher she had. Of course, she was in her final half of English. All her science credits and everything else had been finished off in her junior year, so she'd been taking Theatre and had been on the school Newspaper. "I know I'll have to take Government, English 4B, Theater, and then I was on the newspaper at my old school, so I'm hoping to be able to get on that here…"

"Oh cool, I'm on the newspaper."

"You are?"

"Yep. Editor." Jeannie beamed with pride and Carly's eyebrows rose. She smiled as the girl led her into the counseling office and pointed to a closed door next to a window. Inside, she could see a woman with feathery brown hair talking to a student. "So that's Mrs. Cox, I guess you'll have to wait just a bit…but anyway, there's only one newspaper teacher here, and that is Mrs. Weiss. There are two theater teachers, Mrs. Fries and Mrs. Wickerham…hope for Mrs. Fries."

"Why?"

"She's the fun one and knows a lot about theater." She would have to keep that in mind. She didn't want to be an actor or anything, theatre was just a fun class to take. Though, having seen her mom's family in action, she was developing a taste for politics. "Government has two or three teachers to choose from, and there's a number of English teachers."

"All right." The door opened up and the student inside Mrs. Cox's office left. Carly grinned as the woman glanced up at her. "Thanks Jeannie."

"No problem. Maybe we'll meet up again. If you need anyone to show you around the school, I'm a library aide just before my lunch break. Or, if you get on the newspaper, we'll have a class together anyway."

"Looking forward to it." Jeannie waved and hurried off. She watched with a somewhat wistful gaze, it was nice to have already met someone at the place. She removed her backpack strap and walked into the counselor's office. "Hi, I'm Carly Shay, the transfer student from Seattle."

"Oh! Nice to see you, I was just looking at your file a little earlier." Carly smiled hopefully as Mrs. Cox opened her file cabinet and pulled out a manila folder. "We received all your transcripts and records from Ridgeway and you're passing all your classes. Of course, I'm going to send you to the teachers you'll be having when you come back from Christmas break, and they'll be administering your first term finals while the other students take their own finals. Does that sound good?"

"Yes ma'am." She took a seat in the soft leather chair and leaned back, heaving forth a heavy sigh. "I just need to get past my nervousness, then I'll be all right."

"Oh you'll be just fine, everyone here is friendly. Now…" The woman opened up the folder to reveal a bunch of paperwork. On the top was a class schedule. Carly eyed it as the counselor turned it towards her and pointed with her pen. "This is your class schedule that you'll be following. Your first class is English with Mrs. Sparks. Your second class is the Newspaper with Mrs. Weiss. Third period you have Government with Mr. Sylvester, and finally Theater with Mrs. Fries."

"Mrs. Fries? Someone just told me about her, said she's really fun."

"She's nice, you're going to like her class. Actually each of these teachers are fun, and extremely knowledgeable about the subjects." Carly's smile grew wider as she pulled the schedule from her desk. Her heart started leaping for joy. She was definitely going to enjoy it here!

Yes in a rash I'm going to update the remaining five/six chapters left of this story. Please enjoy.