Author Note - OMG! Don't kill me everybody! There are a million different reasons why I never posted the final chapter. Mainly, I got confused and thought that I had. When I realized I hadn't, I was on my desktop because my laptop (which the file was on) was dead (just got it running again this past Friday). I'm so sorry. So, here's the final chapter. I apologize if, after such a long wait, anyone's disappointed. And please remember, I already said that there wouldn't be any definite pairings at the end (with the exception of Carly and someone). So, I'm sorry if that makes anyone angry with me. Still, you can take the end as however you want it to ;)
I just want to thank everyone who took the time to read and review my story. And for being patient with me!
Chapter 8
"I knew it. I knew Carly was just lying so she wouldn't hurt my feelings. Sam didn't want to come with me and now Carly can't come up with an excuse," Freddie took a drink of his punch angrily as he talked to Jake.
"Well, maybe it's not you. Maybe it's me. Maybe she decided I didn't deserve another chance," Jake offered.
"Doubt it, Mr. Totally Awesome," Freddie rolled his eyes, still annoyed by Jake's ability to make any girl he wanted swoon, as he finished up his punch and squeezed the plastic cup.
"Okay..." Jake laughed nervously. "And Freddie, never refer to me as Mr. Totally Awesome again."
"Right, because that's my job," Carly said cheerfully as she and Sam came up behind them.
"Sam? You actually came?" Freddie looked at her, astonishment obvious on his face.
"Not for any reason you think," Sam answered before he could get any ideas, especially not now that Carly had thought she'd figured out the problem to their dilemma. She began looking around the gym for Principal Franklin. "Look, we need to get this over with," she said to Carly.
"Sam's right. Where's Principal Franklin?" Carly asked in a hushed tone.
"Oh, I saw him talking to your brother and some woman before I came in," Jake answered.
"Good, that gives us a little time," Carly appreciated Jake's response.
"Uh, Carls, you're forgetting we need to talk to your brother too," Sam pointed out and Freddie responded with a jealous expression.
"Yeah, well, we can handle that part later if we have to," Carly answered, all their vague speech finally making Jake curious.
"Carly, it may not be any of my business, but what's going on?" Carly looked at him hesitantly. She couldn't tell him she was now in love with Freddie and then expect him to actually believe her when she said it wasn't her fault but because of some smoothie.
"Jake, I..." Carly started, but Sam interrupted her.
"Ms. Briggs! If she spots us, she'll know we're out of detention. She always knows who has detention," Sam said with an aggravated huff.
"Wait? Detention?" Freddie and Jake shared confused glances.
"Yeah, detention," Sam answered snottily. She spotted Gibby nearby and a light bulb came on in her head. "Hey, Gibby, come here."
Gibby looked at Sam, also noticing Carly nearby, and gulped as he didn't know who to be more afraid of. He nodded weakly and came over. "Yeah?"
"Me and Sam need you to keep Ms. Briggs from seeing us," Carly instructed, knowing the scheme running through her friend's head. "Create some kind of distraction."
"Why should I?" Gibby questioned a little bravely, not sure if he wanted anymore to do with Carly's unusual schemes. He'd had about enough of Carly and Sam both for one day.
"Why? I'll tell you why," Sam threatened. "Because you totally snitched on Carly earlier when you promised you wouldn't. You owe her."
Gibby's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "But you're the one who made me snitch! You're the one who wanted to kill Carly for wanting to get rid of you," Gibby defended, not understanding at all what was going on. Jake looked at Freddie with raised eyebrows, but Freddie just shrugged his shoulders, also curious what Gibby was talking about.
"Look, sorry about everything, Gibby, but this is really important," Carly knew deep down Gibby was too nice to refuse if she apologized and meant it.
"Fine," just as Carly had expected, he gave in and trudged off to cause a distraction.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Jake still didn't know what was going on, but he decided he wanted to prove to Carly how much he cared.
"Actually, can you keep a look out for Principal Franklin? And if he's in here looking for us, we were never here okay?" Carly asked, wishing he could have been so sweet before the webcast. Then maybe the smoothie would have worked it's magic on her for him and not Freddie. She then gave a sigh, "And Jake, thanks. Sorry I'm not much of a date. I promise I'll try to explain everything later. But you probably won't believe me when I do."
"Don't worry, Carly," Jake gave her a winning smile. "I promise I'll believe you from now on, no matter how crazy it sounds."
"Good...because I have a feeling it's gonna sound crazy," she nodded.
"Okay, Carly, time to get out of here," Sam said pointing towards the stage where Gibby had taken off his shirt and begun pounding on a set of drums.
"Good luck, you guys," Freddie wished them well, smiling at Sam as he did.
"Nuh-uh, you're coming with us," Sam shook her head and Carly grabbed him by the hand as they made a break for it. "You just wanted to hold his hand," Sam whispered, giving her best friend a sly look after they were out in the privacy of the hall.
"WHAT is going on here?" Freddie looked at them both in confusion.
"I'm not really sure," Sam answered truthfully. "Carly just said she needs to talk to you, me and Spencer about something."
"But since Spencer's not here, I'll just tell him later," Carly decided not to wait any longer. "I think we're all under the effect of Dr. Blub's love smoothies," Carly blurted.
"What!?" Sam hadn't been expecting such a lame reason from Carly.
"I'm serious. None of us started having feelings for anyone until sometime after the webcast. AFTER we drunk those smoothies. It's the only thing that makes sense, well, you know, even if it doesn't make too much sense at all," she explained with a shrug.
"Carly's right," Freddie nodded, his reasoning taking a slight hold again.
"I am?" Carly asked giddily, proving despite having figured it out, she still liked Freddie thanks to the smoothie.
"Yeah, you are. Because I first started having thoughts about Sam late Saturday night," Freddie admitted, looking at Sam hopefully as he did.
"So I guess that explains the heartwarming dream I had about Spencer Saturday night too," she smiled as she recalled it.
"Whoa...you had a heartwarming dream about me?" Spencer's voice startled them all and they turned to see Spencer, Mrs. Benson and Dr. Blub standing there. "I seriously had no idea you liked me."
"Really?" Sam, Carly, Freddie and even Mrs. Benson asked in unison as they all stared at him in disbelief. He shook his head as though he were ashamed of his oblivious nature.
"Look, kids, we have something important to tell you," Mrs. Benson started.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. We're all under the effect of Dr. Blubber's stupid smoothies," Sam interrupted rudely.
Mrs. Benson was a little taken back. "You guys already know?"
"Carly just figured it out," Freddie explained.
"But do you know how to make everything go back to normal?" Spencer asked, in a slightly smug manner because he actually knew something they didn't.
"No, but is there a way?" Carly asked eagerly, more than ready to get things back to normal. As much as she liked Freddie, she didn't want to keep fighting with Sam and she realized if Freddie liked Sam because of the smoothie then all hope of him liking her back was gone.
"It's not the best way in the world," Mrs. Benson gave a disgusted face, "but there is a way. You have to kiss."
"Huh?" Carly raised her eyebrows a little. "Who has to kiss?"
"I guess you and Freddie," Mrs. Benson answered uncertainly. "I already had to kiss your...brother," she shuddered again which was followed by a shudder from the others.
"Whoa, now wait up. That means I have to kiss nerd boy here again?" Sam pointed at Freddie but then slapped a hand over her mouth when she realized what she'd said.
"You kissed Freddie? When?" Carly shouted the question, not able to even believe it.
"No, no, I haven't, I meant..." Sam started, but Freddie stopped her.
"Yeah, we've already kissed. See, there. I said it," Freddie proclaimed proudly, much to his mother's horror.
"But you said you didn't like Freddie," Carly glared at Sam. "You little liar. You do!"
"Hey, don't talk to her like that," Freddie defended as Sam rolled her eyes.
"Okay, you know what, I'm sick of this," Sam grabbed Freddie by the collar. "Just kiss her already." Freddie didn't respond immediately. "You've got ten minutes or so help me..." Sam didn't finish her threat, but instead started counting down the seconds loudly.
"What's crazy, is under normal circumstances, this would probably be the happiest moment of my life," Freddie chuckled a little before allowing Carly to kiss him.
"Carly?" Jake came out of the gym and saw Freddie and Carly kissing.
His voice pulled Carly to her senses as the effect of the smoothie wore off and she realized what was happening. She pulled away from the kiss and looked at Jake desperately. "Jake..."
"That was not strictly nasal," he said, his pride injured as he turned and went back into the gym angrily, not even waiting for an explanation.
"I hope you're happy," Carly snapped at Dr. Blub. "He's never going to believe me."
"Carly, I'm sorry," Freddie said with genuine sympathy.
"It's not your fault," Carly sighed. "Just kiss Sam so we can get this over with."
Freddie looked at Sam questioningly. "You heard her. Let's just get this over with," her words echoed the night they had shared their first kiss together.
"Okay," Freddie smiled. "But this time I can't promise I won't enjoy it." He paused before adding, "Well, not at first at least."
"Yeah, whatever, just..." she wasn't even able to finish as Freddie kissed her, eliciting a groan from his mom as she closed her eyes to from seeing what to her was the worst possible thing imaginable.
However, it wasn't long before reality set in and Freddie pulled away, much to Sam's delight. He looked at Carly frantically. "Carly, I didn't mean to..."
"Surprisingly, I wasn't too bothered by it," she responded. "But I am glad that we're all back to normal."
"Not quite," Mrs. Benson chimed in as she looked at Sam and then Spencer.
"Hey now, you can't expect me to kiss a teenager. I mean, it's not even legal right?" Spencer looked at them all nervously.
"I guess she could just wait another 17 days," Mrs. Benson couldn't help but agree with Spencer on the matter.
"Or he could just kiss her on the cheek or something," Dr. Blub intervened as they all shot him a confused glance. "Hey, I never specified what kind of kiss. You just all assumed," he defended.
"What?" Mrs. Benson's face flushed. "You're telling me I didn't have to kiss Spencer?" She looked as though she were going to kill him for not telling her sooner as she struggled to regain her composure.
"Man, your mom is psycho," Sam looked at Freddie. "So am I going to get my kiss or not?" She turned her attention back to Spencer.
"Uh..." Spencer darted his eyes around at them all nervously. Finally he bent down to give Same a kiss on her forehead. However, before he had a chance to dodge, Sam moved so that he hit her lips instead. "Foul!!" Spencer pulled back and pointed frantically at Sam who was silent in a daze for a moment.
After a few seconds, Sam's eyes refocused and she looked at Spencer. "Maybe, but it worked." Sam gave a disgusted look as she wiped her mouth.
"Yeah!" Spencer changed his tone quickly to a cheer, the others soon joining in.
"So, Sam, I guess we should get back to detention," Carly sighed as she remembered it.
"Actually, girls," Mrs. Benson stopped them. "We already spoke with Principal Franklin. He understands what happened today wasn't entirely your fault. So he's graciously decided to let it slide this time."
"Really!?" Carly asked excitedly.
"In that case, Carly, why don't you go find Jake instead," Sam winked at her friend, happy to have everything settled between them.
They all re-entered the gym as Carly went to find Jake. She spotted him standing against the wall. "Hey there, wallflower," she laughed nervously, but he didn't respond. "Look, Jake, I know that what you saw looks bad. And you have every right to completely ignore me, but I promise there was an explanation. The problem is, it's not very believable," she sighed and looked down at her toes.
"Look, Carly, before you say anything else," Jake turned and looked at her. "Just answer me one question. Do you like Freddie?"
Carly was glad she had waited to try and explain things to Jake. "No," she answered with a smile.
"Then I believe you. And whatever you tell me, I'll believe that too," his expression seemed to say he was being honest and Carly stood there flabbergasted.
"Really? Just like that?" Carly couldn't believe her luck.
"I promised remember?" Jake smiled, taking her hand. "And I know the last time I didn't believe you, I spent weeks regretting it. I'm not going to make that mistake again."
"Aww, Jake," Carly blushed a little. "So, um, do you want to, you know, dance?" Jake nodded as they joined other students already dancing.
"Figures," Freddie shook his head as he and Sam watched Carly and Jake begin dancing together. "The one time Carly likes me, I had to go and like you."
"Hey now, I'm the one who had to put up with being crushed on by a nerd," Sam retorted, not about to let Freddie feel sorry for himself during one of Carly's happiest moments.
"Yeah, and I'm the one who spent almost his entire week's allowance on tickets for the both of us," Freddie responded back with just as much bite in his tone. "The least you could do is say thank you."
"You know what..." Sam started, but didn't finish. She let out an annoyed sigh. Inside she was kicking herself for letting his comment get to her. "I'd say two kisses equals at least one dance."
"What?" Freddie eyed her curiously.
"You heard me. I'm here as your d-d-d...here with you as a friend." She couldn't bring her self to say the word. "Friends can dance together can't they?" Sam asked nonchalantly, not making eye contact.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Freddie gave a small smile. "But this time we can't keep it between us. Everyone's going to see us dancing," he pointed out.
"Please. If anyone tries to make something of it, I'll beat them until it doesn't even hurt anymore," Sam responded aggressively. "So let's just dance already," she rolled her eyes and they joined Carly, Jake and the other students.
"I can't believe Freddie's actually...no I can't even say it," Mrs. Benson sighed as she saw her son dancing with Sam. On the one hand, she was happy to see him at his first school dance. On the other hand, she had to settle for the fact it was with Sam.
"Let them have fun," Spencer said as though he knew what was best. Suddenly, he looked at her curiously. "Sooooo..." he started.
"I'm not dancing with you, Spencer," Mrs. Benson blurted before he could finish.
"Right. Of course," Spencer looked away quickly, feeling foolish for even asking. There were a few seconds of silence. "Punch?"
Mrs. Benson looked at Spencer bemusedly and smiled. "Sure."
The End