The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 145 (Creating a Plan)

Jonah and Freddie made their way to their usual athletic gym, it also had a room where people could take a break from their exercise routines and shoot some billiards or take a dip in the gym's pool and hot tub. Aaron was with Jonah's parents and sister right now, which enabled him to hang with his good friend. Freddie had given him quite a story of the lecture that Morris gave him and Kyle, it seemed fair to him. Uncle Morris wasn't crazy as he was just protective and concerned about his nieces. Freddie admired that. "What did the girls say to the whole walnut thing?"

"Nothing really, they rubbed our hands for us but the numbness had already gone down by the time Morris was done with his lecture." As they walked through the doors, they showed the person at the front desk their gym badges. Freddie looked to his hand and chuckled as he flexed it, there were no broken bones, no sign of swelling, just mild redness that was going down. "I'm impressed, I never thought of cracking walnuts as punishment. Nor have I ever thought of carrying firewood for a two mile hike would be punishment either."

"Morris was born in the 1960s, right? I guess it would make sense to carry over punishments used when he was a kid or when his father was a kid."

"Yeah." The duo walked towards the equipment and first headed to the benches. Freddie was going to go first, he opted for the 46 lb barbell with an extra seventy pounds. He relaxed his back onto the blue cushioned bench and gently gripped the metal bar. Jonah positioned himself in the spotter position behind the bar and signaled him to begin. He had to do three sets, ten to twelve reps each. He had his bottle of water on the side and a white towel around his shoulders. "I know better than to just make out with Sam and give her hickeys all the time. Sure I'm young, but I guess I have to be a man too."

"There's a time and a place. Is that along the lines of what the guy said?"

"Yeah, a time and place for everything. Sam's workplace was not the time and place." He saw Jonah visibly wince and chuckled as he moved the bar from the start position. "Count me off, Jonah."

"Got it." Freddie brought the bar down to his chest and let out a grunt as he pushed it up into the air. Jonah counted off the first rep and Freddie closed his eyes and continued onto the next. This was an extra ten pounds than he was used to, but that was the point of exercising, to increase strength. Jonah could do more than this, but that was due to the fact that he wanted to go into the military.

"You know, Sam brought up the fact that she's worried about the whole secret relationship. Apparently it's kind of eating her."

"Makes sense, I mean, most people tend to start really feeling the effects of a secret relationship after a while, you know."

He pressed his lips together and pushed the bar up for his third rep. His arms seemed to tighten, a sign they would likely start burning by the fifth or sixth rep, this was good. "Yeah I know…" Jonah counted off the rep as Freddie started working on the next. "I have the same basic thoughts, too. I mean, it doesn't seem right that we would have to hide our relationship from people. The only ones that know are our family, people at school don't even know, really."

As Freddie brought the bar down, he clenched his teeth to push up the bar. Jonah put his hands beneath it in case his friend dropped the bar under the strain. "True. I remember when you guys told us about it, Valerie wasn't surprised, but it was a great relief to Sam wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but a relief to me as well. I mean think about it, both of us had someone that wasn't directly involved with the whole thing to talk about, a close friend. A confidante…Now Valerie's gone to New York, Sam's worried she won't have her best friend to talk about."

"Certainly not like we are now. I mean, they could talk over cooking or whatever, but now it's kind of hard." His lips fell as he did yet another rep. He thought on those words and sighed, he wanted Sam to be happy but at the same time, coming out with their relationship could be extremely dangerous. "There's still Carly, Sam's been getting close to her…"

"You still don't trust Carly?"

"I don't trust Carly's individuality from her grandfather, that's what I don't trust about her. I also don't exactly appreciate her saying I would cheat on Valerie." Freddie did another rep and let out a small sigh, disbelieving that Jonah was still wounded about that argument he and Carly had a month ago. He had every right to be upset about it, but it did give him a bit of a biased thought.

"She apologized for that, didn't she? I mean, I think she understands now." She didn't, he knew she didn't. It wasn't her fault either, she really wouldn't understand until she was told that Sam and Freddie were together. When that would be, he really didn't know. "I think we have to feel like she won't tell her grandfather this. She's hyperactive and if she gets pissed off at us, she's liable to go tell her granddad without thinking. If that happens, Sam and I are in trouble."

"Yeah." He did his last rep and brought the bar to rest on the bench arms. He tore the towel from his shoulders and sat up, wiping the sweat from his face. "All right, time for my ten. Let's get an extra twenty on this bar."

"Got it." The two switched their positions and prepped themselves after Freddie took a swig of water. "Anyway, I think Uncle Morris wants me, Kyle too probably, to start helping him maintain the house and yard work. Evidently there's plenty to be done." Jonah chuckled and grasped the bar, quickly taking it off and tearing through the first rep. Freddie raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "Are you going to attempt to outdo me?"

"Yep, I'm going to get through my first set faster than you."

"Show off." Jonah laughed as Freddie leaned his hands against the bench arms. He had a thought he wanted to bring up with Jonah, but wasn't really sure if it would be appropriate or not. Carly and Sam both brought it up to him once before and he said he'd talk to Jonah about it, but he was really nervous about the idea. "Hey bro, got something I think we ought to talk about."

"What's that?"

"The girls were talking about how we should get the band started up again, but there's nobody to do drums…" He watched Jonah flinch for a split second and bring the bar to rest, he had been on his seventh rep already. Jonah slowly sat up and looked over to him.

"The band? We haven't done anything with that in a long ass time…"

"I know. There's no replacing Jake, but if we start up a band, we need a drummer." They had the lead singer, Jonah took up the guitar. He tightened his lips together and leaned sideways against the bench arm. He wanted to start the band back up, he knew T-Bo at the Groovy Smoothie would love having them back there performing every so often. "Maybe we run some auditions for the drummer, see if anyone's got what it takes?" Jonah wiped his face off with his towel and laid back against the bench, grasping the metal bars firmly and preparing the last reps.

"You're the leader of the band, man. It's up to you." Freddie slowly nodded as Jonah brought the bar off the rest and down to his chest. "I wouldn't mind, I had some fun times performing at the Groovy Smoothie every week. Honestly, yeah there'll be some memories, but what better way to remember Jake by continuing on with the band?"

"Yeah, I agree." It wouldn't take much to get it started back up, just auditions and talking to T-Bo for their first event after almost a whole year. Jake's death did bring their performances to a screeching halt, but people constantly asked them whether they'd ever come out of 'retirement'. "Maybe it is time to come out of retirement."

"Let's finish up our workouts, go to the hot tub and plan things out, then go from there."

"All right."

After a while of working out on the bench press, then going over to work the calves, the two were resting in the hot tub. Hardly anyone was there, so it was obviously one of the gym's less busy days. It gave them ample space and privacy they needed to plan out their next move for the band. They actually used to have Jake play the guitar and Jonah was the drummer, since before Jake's death, Jonah started learning the guitar. Now, he was more of a guitarist than a drummer.

The two were in the hot tub on opposite sides with their arms propped up on the ground and the hot tub raging at full blast. Freddie had his head back and eyes closed while Jonah slowly pat his hand up and down on the concrete. "Okay, so let's talk drummer, I have one person in mind that I think would be great at the drums." Freddie raised his eyebrow and looked over to him, he was curious to who Jonah had in mind. Someone from the school probably, there were a few people he could think of that were good drummers, but not much. "You remember the talent show, think Gibby Gibson."

"Him?"

"Yes, he's probably the best drummer in the whole damn school. I suggest we get him interested in auditions."

"He didn't want to be in the band before, so what makes you think he'd want to be in it now?"

"One word." Jonah lifted his index finger and smirked. "Drums. I know I used to play the drums and now I play the guitar, so we need a drummer. Why not try to get the musically inclined? Even if he does audition, we'll give the others fair game, if someone else drums better than Gibby, then that person will have to do."

"Got it. So after the drum auditions, we're going to talk to T-Bo about doing a weekly thing over there? Maybe once or twice a week?" Jonah nodded as Freddie's lips curled upwards, they had this whole planning thing down. In truth, there wasn't much they needed to do, but at the same time, there was a lot they had to do.

"Twice a week could work. You're the leader, so that's up to you. I think whatever the better preference is, we should go with that." Freddie nodded his head and looked down at the bubbles. He brought his arms in and sighed as the warm bubbles slammed against his body, if he could, he'd stay there the whole damn day. "I do have a suggestion though. For our first 'coming out' gig, we should open with a song in Jake's dedication."

"Are we going to incorporate drums into it? If we're looking for a slow song, then we need to know what we can use the drums for."

"Plenty. Do we want to do original songs or do we want to be a band that sings out popular songs?" Freddie rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes in thought. On one hand, they could easily write and do their own songs, and on another hand people enjoyed hearing their favorites. Maybe they could incorporate that.

"No reason we can't do both." Jonah nodded his agreement and glanced off to the side. This was going to be a big thing, they both knew it would probably start out as taxing on them, but they'd have to do this. "Auditions first…I think we should shoot for doing a few gigs at T-Bo's starting Christmas. Everyone loves Christmas music."

"And we put a bit of a rock tune to that?"

"Yeah, ever rocked out to Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer?" He smirked and folded his arms over as Jonah laughed. Just imagining Rudolf in the form of a rock song, it was just perfect! "We can do any genre, but I think Rock should be our primary. What say you?"

"I agree, I like rock the best. Maybe some classical, contemporary, I say stick with the geniuses. Get some original songs out, so someone should be the writer for the band."

"Right. First things first, however…getting ourselves a drummer." Jonah nodded and laid his head back on the wall behind him. Freddie breathed in a yawn and did the same. Now they would really have to start getting to work. Hopefully they could get Gibby to audition for them. If not, then they couldn't consider him.

Drummer is needed, and so begin the auditions