Freddie walked into the hospital room he'd become fairly familiar with over the past week. Sam's mother had been in and out of consciousness all week. The pain medicine Pam was on had that effect on people. Sam sat slouched in her chair facing her sleeping mother. Melanie was likely at work. Melanie, Freddie had learned, was the new manager of the Seattle branch of The Groovy Smoothie. The smoothie shop had become so popular that T-Bo was able to expand it into a small franchise of smoothie shops across the state of Washington. Freddie knocked lightly on the already open door to the small hospital room.
"Hey Puckett, I brought Inside-Out Burger," Freddie said softly, gesturing with the greasy paper bag and white cardboard drink carrier he held in each hand.
A small, tired, grateful smile crept across Sam's face, "Thanks Fredward," she said, reaching out for the bag of food.
Freddie graciously handed her the bag before setting down the drinks on the table.
"Mine's in there too you mind tossing it to me?" Freddie asked politely.
"Yep," Sam obliged, pulling a massive burger from the bag.
"That one's yours actually. Four patties, three pickles, five slices of cheese." Freddie declared, quite proud of himself.
"The Puckett Pounder?" Sam asked, her eyes lighting up.
"Uh-huh," Freddie replied triumphantly.
"Ketchup and extra mustard?" Sam questioned.
"Trick question. Ketchup and extra, extra mustard." Freddie gloated.
"How did you…" Sam was at a loss for words as she unwrapped the monster-sized burger.
"It's what you always ordered when we were dating," Freddie shrugged.
"We only dated for like two weeks. I can't believe you'd remember that," Sam said, feeling a distant tugging in her chest.
"I dunno, it seemed important to you," Freddie replied, jamming his thumbs in his front pockets, as he stared down at his old shoes.
Sam collected herself, "I dare you to find a more perfect sandwich." she said smugly.
"I think I'll stick to the Inside-Out double," Freddie said holding out his hands as Sam tossed him his much more reasonably-sized sandwich.
Carly sat in her studio looking over her latest video podcast metrics. iCarly hadn't been performing as well as when she first started using the video-podcast format. Carly certainly didn't expect it to do as well as when it was a full-blown web show but even since last year, she'd seen a drop in listeners and viewership. Not the direction she wanted to see, and this week was no different. When she first started she was raking in around 100,000 viewers per episode, double the average relatively popular podcast. But the more time past the fewer viewers she had. Today's podcast only garnered 63,710 viewers. Carly sighed and shut her laptop, burying her head in her folded arms.
Carly was pulled from her thoughts when Spencer entered the room,
"Hey kiddo, I'm going to the ballet with Socko's grandma and was wondering if you wanna-" Spencer paused, noticing his sister's distress.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his demeanor completely altered.
"Nothing. Just looking at this week's viewership." Carly replied, sounding defeated.
"Not good news huh?" Spencer asked sympathetically.
"We're down like 36% in viewers from when we first started," Carly explained.
"I don't know what that means," Spencer replied, looking completely lost but maintaining his sympathetic tone.
"It means I need Sam and Freddie back. Gibby is great, and the show may be called iCarly, but without Sam, for me to work off of, and Freddie doing his nerdy tech thing the show doesn't work," tears now rolled down Carly's face, she couldn't do this alone. As much as she didn't want to admit it.
Melanie wiped down the counter at The Groovy Smoothie as she waited for her next customer. It was a slow day by Groovy Standards, one older heavy-set young man was sitting along the far wall looking through a pack of World of Warlords cards. Melanie had an ex-boyfriend who loved the computer game version and she vaguely remembered him disliking the much newer card game version, neither of which was really her forte. The only other customers were a lovely couple around her age, they seemed so happy whenever they came in, she didn't want to admit it but seeing them so happy every time they walked through the door together made her just a little bit sad. She hadn't had a steady relationship in years, love seemed to be the only thing no amount of hard work and determination could get her.
"Excuse me." a kind voice pulled Melanie from her thoughts. Melanie looked up to see a dark-haired man seemingly in his mid to late 20s smiling kindly at her from across the counter.
"You know, I can come back if you're busy," he joked politely. He seemed familiar to her somehow. Almost like they'd gone to school together but that certainly wasn't the case, she would have remembered him as he was exactly her type. Well-dressed, softspoken, polite, even down to his effortlessly gelled hair.
"No. I mean, yeah no sorry. Just spacing out I guess," she could feel her cheeks getting flush.
"It's cool, can I get a medium Blueberry Blitz?" he asked with a flirty grin.
"Of course. That'll be $5.54," Melanie said, regaining composure. "If you want you can find a seat and I'll bring your drink to you," Melanie said as the man finished paying.
"Great. I'll see you in a minute then," he said with the same coy, flirtatious grin.
"Cool," Melanie responded completely unable to contain herself. The making of the smoothie truly only took around 60 seconds but she wanted to pay extra special attention to this one.
Melanie spent most of the rest of her workday staring at her new favorite customer. Once her shift came to an end she headed back to her mother's house. After she heard about her mom's accident Melanie moved back into the room where she spent her summers when she was going to a private school. Melanie gently hung her purse on the door rack and quickly changed into her favorite tank top and sweat shorts. As she lay back on her old bed and shut her eyes her mind wandered back to the guy she had met just hours ago. He just seemed so familiar to her. Melanie opened her eyes, looking up at the poster on her ceiling. It was him! The cute guy she had met. How did she not see it sooner? Logan Mitchell from the boyband she was obsessed with as a teenager. Big Time Rush, they were huge around the 2010s. Last she had heard they were considering a reunion. Melanie was kicking herself! She really met her celebrity crush from when she was a teen and she didn't even recognize him!
"Really Melanie?" she groaned aloud, smacking herself with her pillow.
