A/N: I know I have other irons in the fire, but I got plot bunnied like crazy. This is going to be maybe three chapters total. Read and review, if you please! I hope you enjoy. Special thanks goes to Jen, who proofread and helped title it!

"Come on, I can't go alone. Kevin and I have only been out once before, and I need you there to keep it from getting all weird at the end of the night." Carly was leaning forward, her hip against the locker doors, entreating Sam with wide eyes. Sam stood opposite her nearly bowing friend, an eyebrow raised in consternation. Freddie observed obliquely from around the corner, pretending to organize his three ring binders.

"Weird?" Sam tapped a foot on the linoleum floor. "You think going with us would make it less weird?"

Carly darted her eyes from side to side. "Well, you know how boys can be about prom night."

"Not just boys, Carls. Tricia Zerwicky has had a suite at the Holiday Inn reserved for her and Gibby for at least a month, now."

Freddie snorted, and rolled his eyes, wondering just how Gibby had managed to hook up with the hottest senior in Ridgeway High, but covered up his laughter with a cough so the girls wouldn't think he was eavesdropping. What was Carly trying to convince Sam to do, anyway?

"Don't try to change the subject!" Carly briefly pushed Sam on the arm. "I know you want to, anyway. You have for ages."

"I'm not gonna do it! You can't make me. I would probably die."

Carly leaned back against the lockers, sighed, and then had an idea. "I bet you a pair of shoelaces in every rainbow color that you won't do it."

Sam's face fell. "Including neon colors?" She shifted her weight between her feet.

"Including neon and metallics. Deal?"

"Carly, after this is over and I'm lacing up all of my shoes," Sam said over her shoulder, walking away from her locker, "remind me that I have a problem and that I need to seek professional help."

Rushing to find the right books for his next class, Freddie looked up to see Sam walking backwards towards him. "Deal!" she shouted to Carly, who pushed herself off the locker doors and leaned over to watch. Sam spun around, her arms crossed, and waited for Freddie to stand up.

They appraised each other. It was the last Spring of their high school career, in that brief period when they were both eighteen. Freddie stood taller than Sam, but had never quite managed to shake the impression that she was hovering at least a foot higher than his head, glaring down her nose at him. He sighed, and relaxed his posture, hoping whatever it was wouldn't be too embarrassing.

"Hey, Sam." Freddie didn't force a smile; he steeled himself. What would it be this time? A ride to Canada? Wrestling practice? Rabid cat sitting? Information on some cute boy in his math class? Realizing that Sam had yet to respond, and was just standing there, grinding her palms together, Freddie toed her shin with his foot. "What's up?"

Sam groaned in frustration, the sound emanating from the back of her throat. Then she balled up her left fist and socked Freddie straight in the stomach, pushing the air out of his lungs in an extended outward gasp. "Gotopromwithme."

Freddie was shocked! Sam would still push him around sometimes, but she had grown out of straight up punching him in his tender spots at least two years ago. What the hell was her issue? He was being nice! They had been getting along so well lately, they had even planned a summer trip together, and what had she just said?

He coughed, pulling air back into his chest, clutching his stomach with one hand and steadying himself with the other against the cool metal of the locker doors. "Excuse me?"

She ran her hands through her hair and waved her arms around. Carly hovered nearby, wondering if she should cut in, but Sam gesticulated otherwise. "Go to prom with me, Freddie."

He was still bent over, but managed to laugh out, "if I say no, are you gonna do that again?"

Sam paused, mostly for effect. "Not with this hand, no. So?"

"Well, because you asked so nicely, okay." Freddie leaned against the lockers, rubbing his stomach, and watched Carly run off to her next class. Sam cut into his field of vision and waved a hand in front of his face.

"I asked you because Carly wanted us to double with her and Kevin. It isn't a real date," she declared. "Got it?"

Freddie waggled an eyebrow. "Do I have to get you a corsage and match your dress and girly stuff like that?"

"Yes." Sam leaned in towards him. "I will be wearing pink. Get a tux to match. Carly already called dibs on purple. Girly enough for you?"

He smirked, nodding. "Are we gonna go party with Zerwicky and Gibstein afterward?"

Suddenly Sam's posture shifted. Her hands were clasped behind her back, her hips angled. "Fredward, what sort of girl do you take me for?" Then she pushed her index finger, hard, against his collar bone, so his shoulder knocked against a combination lock. "You lay one finger on me that I don't want laid on me, and you won't have any fingers left to lay on anyone ever again." Then the bell rang, and Sam slipped away to her next class.

Freddie, late for AP chemistry, hoisted his backpack up from the floor, contemplating the fact that Sam hadn't actually said she didn't want his fingers laid on her. Then, he realized that he had said yes to going to prom with Sam, felt a wave of nausea rise up through him, and sprinted to the nearest bathroom.