iTest Out A Theory

A/N: Okay, this is my first story so I hope its at least somewhat good. I would really appreciate feedback, of any kind. Just knowing at least sombbbbbeone read it and liked it would make my day. I would also like to know if anyone likes it cuz I have more ideas for stories so if people lik this one I'll b more inclined to post more.

Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly

The window opened and a blonde girl climbed onto the fire escape. "'Sup, Fredzilla.

A twinge of annoyance passed over the boy's face at the name but he was too surprised to focus on that. "Hey," he replied, "I thought you were hanging with Carly?" He had been sitting in the folding chair but got up and sat down on the stairs.

"Eh, I was," she answered and leaned briefly on the sill before an unexplainable expression crossed her face and she instead claimed his recently vacated chair. "That guy she's been seeing called," she continued explaining, making a face, "And I'm not in the mood for gushy, flirty, girly talk, especially since I would only be able to hear one side of the conversation."

"Ah," he said nodding understandingly, Carly could get annoying when she was flirting, especially to Sam. "But why did you come here? Why not just go home?"

"I was hungry and I thought, maybe, you might have some food?" she said hopefully. "Or at least some money I could," she searched for the right word, "borrow?"

He snorted. Of course, he should have known. Sam was always hungry. "Borrow?" He repeated; she smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, right. And I thought you hated the food at my house. I seem to recall you saying that my mom 'wouldn't know good food if it ate her'."

She didn't even attempt to look apologetic, "I know I said that, and it's true," she assured him, "but I'm desperate and I thought you might have some good food; like…." She paused, "…a secret stash type thing."

He stared at her before sighing. "You're right, I do," he grudgingly admitted. He got up and went behind the stairs, bringing out a cooler and duffle bag. Sam looked really eager now. Freddie glanced at her and could barely contain his laughter: she looked ready to drool. She had sat up straight and was at the edge of her seat, all while having a staring contest with the containers.

He knelt down next to the containers. "I have ham, cookies, fat cakes, pretzels, chips and popcorn," he informed her, proud of his stash. A growing boy can only survive on heath food for so long.

"Awesome! I have to admit, I'm impressed. I'll have ham, some fat cakes and popcorn to start with."

"Alright," he opened the bag, got what she had asked for and grabbed some popcorn for himself. She immediately began eating the ham. She was so going to wipe him out, Freddie thought. "You got anything to drink?" she asked, mouth full of ham.

He laughed; she looked so funny trying to talk through the ham, "Yeah, peppy cola, Gatorade, ice tea, Wahoo punch, mountain dew, and water."

She swallowed, "Peppy cola." Freddie grabbed that out of the cooler, along with one for himself. He then put the cooler and bag back to where they were before. He passed her the soda. They sat there for a few minutes in companionable silence as they ate.

Sam got bored so she decided to ask something that had been bothering her. "How come you're still here?"

"Um, because I like it out here and it's away from my mom," he said, confused as to why she was asking that, he was here before her anyway. This was hisplace to think and be alone, though that part didn't seem to apply to the blonde occupying his chair, after all.

"Oh, no," she was surprised by his answer and shook her head, "I meant how come you're still here?"

"Oh," he replied, nodding, then seemed to think before replying with an intelligent, "huh?"

She sighed, annoyed that he was so slow on the uptake. "Normally, whenever a guy calls Carly you would have gone over, with or without a good excuse, to try and sabotage the conversation or whatever it is that nubs do to try and get girls that are out of their leagues."

"Oh," he seemed to genuinely think about it —he was surprised she had even noticed. Why not tell her? He thought to himself. "Well, I don't really like Carly anymore."

She had turned to look out over the city but at his words she whipped around and almost spit out her peppy cola, "What?"

He seemed amused by her reaction and shrugged, "I. Don't. Like. Carly. Like. That. Anymore." He repeated. The expression of disbelief on her face was starting to make him regret telling her, though it was also strangely satisfying – it wasn't everyday one got a reaction of complete surprise out of Sam Puckett.

She just stared at him with a "does-not-compute" look on her face, "Who are you and what have you done with Fredward Benson?"

"Ha, ha," he replied sarcastically, "I'm serious, Sam"

"I think all of those cucumber cups have finally gotten to you."

He rolled his eyes, "It's true, I got over Carly a while ago."

"Really?" she said skeptically, leaning back once more into her seat, what he said starting to really sink in as the shock wore off.

"Yeah," he said, the certainty in his voice making her really start to believe him.

"Hm." She replied, squinting at him, studying him, "What about that dance?"

"What dance?" he answered, thrown off and confused. Whatever he had expected her to say that wasn't it.

She had a strange look on her face, like she was purposely hiding her real thoughts, "That dance we just had, remember? When, like, seven hundred guys showed up to date Carly?"

"Oh, that dance. But what does that have to do with me liking or not liking Carly?"

"After Carly forced me to go to Gibby's and I found out he had some hot girlfriend over" her face momentarily contorted in rage at that night. Stupid Carly forcing me to ask stupid Gibby to that stupid Satie Hawkins Dance. Stupid Gibby having a hot girlfriend over.

He drew back a bit, feeling bad for her. He still couldn't believe Carly had forced Sam to ask out Gibby of all people. "After..." he prompted.

She shook her head, her hair going everywhere. "Well, I went to the Groovy Smoothie to meet you guys like we had originally planned," she continued, tensing and turning back to the skyline.

"But wait, you never came." Freddie said slowly.

"Actually, I did."

"But I didn't see you come, and I was facing the door," he said, really confused now. He knew Sam wanted to be an invisible ninja but she couldn't really have succeeded.

"You and her were busy, I guess." She wouldn't look at him now, staring down the city below, "You guys seemed pretty focused on your little dance."

Freddie pulled back, surprise all over his face. "You saw that?" Now it was his turn to be uncomfortable. You could practically feel the awkward.

"Yeah," she replied.

"How come you never mentioned it?" he asked, unable to stop himself.

"Because…it was weird…I like, didn't want to interrupt you guys' "moment" she said slowly.

"You didn't want to interrupt me?" he asked, with slight mock-surprise in his voice, trying to get the conversation into a more normal tone.

It worked. She turned back to face him smirking, "No way, I didn't want to interrupt Carly's moment. It's in the girl best friend code thingy. If it had been any guy she would have been really mad if I had interrupted, and even though it wasyou, I decided to leave it alone." She tried to lighten the mood, "Besides, I was tired and she had made me look all girly and stuff," she finished disgustedly, making a face. All of that was true but that wasn't the only reason she had left, not really.

He laughed. "Oh, well I am defiantly over her. That's kinda what really convinced me." Sam shot him a confused look. "Like, here Carly was, finally seeming remotely interested, or at least more than she ever had been, but…"

"But..." she prompted, very curious as to what he was going to say.

He ran his fingers through his hair, "I don't know. I didn't feel any different. Like I still care about her and stuff and she's my friend but I just don't like her the way I thought I did."

"Hm," she responded, thinking over what he had said.

"Though, I probably would still go out with her if she asked," he said thoughtfully.

Her head snapped around, "Huh?" Ok, really confused now, she thought. The dork needs to pick a side.

"I mean," he hurried to explain, "I liked her for years, I would still want to go out with her at least once, just because I thought about it for so long, and to officially make sure I don't like her, but only if she asked me out, which is highly unlikely."

"Carly'll never ask you out," Sam said, more out of habit than anything, still trying to comprehend that Fredward Benson was actually over Carly Shay; though, it seemed pretty useless to say that now that he didn't even like her.

"I know" he said contently, not at all bothered by the comment. He closed his eyes and seemed to think something over. "You know, there is another reason I don't like her anymore."

"Really?" she tried to sound uninterested, but he could hear the curiosity in her voice anyway.

"I like someone else," he answered. She pulled back slightly, surprised. He opened his eyes, "I can't stop thinking about this new girl, not even while I was dancing with Carly," he admitted, "That's another way the dance helped me realize just how over Carly I was."

"Oh," she said trying to take all of this calmly, kinda in shock. It seems like the basic things she knew about Freddie weren't true. Who could he like now instead of Carly though? Carly is, like, the perfect girl to him, to just about everyone. "Who? Who do you like now?" Sam couldn't stop herself from asking.

Freddie had been studying her reaction but now he moved his gaze over to the city lights. "I don't know if I should tell you." He had been pretty calm while telling her that he was over Carly, but now she could tell he was a little more nervous. She could even make out a light flush on his face.

"Why not? You never had any trouble telling Carly, or anyone else that for that matter, you loved her." Sam asked, deciding to stop trying to feign disinterest. Tonight was already weird, she might as well just relax and not try and be tough or whatever. She wanted to know, damn it.

"I know, but like, it's hard to explain. Well, one thing is that I'm almost positive she won't like me. With Carly I was able to convince myself I had a chance." Freddie tried to explain. "It's also embarrassing."

"Wait. It's not Shelby Marx, is it?" Sam asked, suspicious.

He laughed, "No, it's not Shelby Marx." He continued laughing.

"Well," she said, trying to defend herself, "You said you didn't have a chance and that it was embarrassing." She sputtered before giving up and laughing too.

After they had stopped laughing a comfortable silence enveloped them, though neither had forgotten what they had been discussing a few moments ago. Freddie was aware Sam still wanted to know and he also knew how impatient she was so he knew it was only a matter of time before she- "You still haven't told me who it is." Sam said interrupting his thoughts, "Come on, tell me."

Freddie seemed to think it over, "Fine." Sam had been looking away at the city to, like, not pressure him or whatever, but she hadn't actually expected him to agree to tell her, "but, on one condition," he turned and smirked at her. Sam smirked in return, her respect for him going up just a bit.

"What?" She asked, getting straight to it.

"I want you to help me with," he broke off: he was caught between how to explain it to her and telling her to just forget it.

"With what?" Sam pressed.

"An … experiment," he finally said, gauging her reaction.

"An experiment," she repeated confused, what the heck is he talking about?

"See, I have this theory and I need someone to help me prove it," he clarified, deciding not to mention that it had to be her.

"What kinda experiment?" she replied, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I can't… exactly tell you what the experiment is, because that would ruin the experiment," He told her, "All you would have to do would be to sit there and close your eyes."

"No way!" Sam yelled, looking at him like he was crazy, "I'm not gonna just close my eyes and sit there while you do who-knows-what to me."

Freddie tensed at her loud answer, but he had assumed her response would be something along those lines. "Fine," he agreed, and when she looked at him in confusion, he continued, "then I won't tell you who I like now."

She glared at him. Damn him. He knows I really wanted to know, she thought, though she quickly added, just so I can warn the poor girl, of course. "Fine, I don't care." She said stubbornly and stared down the city.

He smirked, which she luckily didn't see due to her staring contest with Seattle. He had to play this out perfectly, if he wanted her to agree to it. "Hm, how 'bout this," he began, making sure he sounded just a bit reluctant. It worked: she turned to look at him, albeit a bit suspiciously. "I guess asking you to just close your eyes is a bit of a big deal. Here, if you help out, besides telling you who I like, I'll throw in some free ham."

She froze and he knew she was seriously considering it, "How much ham?" She wasn't stupid, she wanted to get as much ham out of this as possible. If he was willing to give her bribes then he wanted her to participate in his little experiment or whatever; and she was going to milk it for all it was worth.

He appeared to think it over. "2 pounds of ham." He waited for her reaction, inwardly smirking.

"No way!" Two measly pounds of ham, not gonna happen, she thought to herself, "Two whole hams!"

"What! All you have to do is sit there and I'm already telling you who I like, something I haven't told anyone else at all, might I add. One whole ham. That's as high as I'll go." Freddie replied.

Sam hesitated–mm, a whole ham just for her–but she was in a greedy mood, "One and a half."

"Not a chance, I told you one is as high as I'll go. Besides what do you think I'm gonna do to you that would required a payoff of one and a half hams?" Freddie held strong and he knew she couldn't answer his second question without seeming stupid.

.

"Well…" she really couldn't think of anything. It was Freddie and she could kick his butt in a second. She looked at him. He seemed serious, so she glared at him. He didn't even flinch. "Fine," she growled out, "one entire ham, that I get to chose, and you have to tell me, tonight, who you like and I'll do your little experiment."

He smirked knowing he had won. She glared back but was distracted by the fact that she was getting an entire ham all for herself. He held out his hand, and she reached over shook it, sealing the deal.

"Ok, so just sit there and close your eyes," Freddie instructed, watching her.

"How long is this going to take?" Sam inquired, not closing her eyes yet.

"It'll only take a minute, just close your eyes." He replied, getting impatient. He knew if he didn't do it now he would lose his nerve.

"Fine, fine. Don't get your anti-bacterial underpants in a knot." She put her arms on the arm rest and closed her eyes. She waited. Time seemed to move slower, and she was starting to regret agreeing to this. She reminded herself about the ham and that soothed away most of her nervousness. Most. As she sat there waiting, she began to wonder if he was even going to do anything. Did he leave? Maybe this was just an elaborate scheme so he could escape and get out of telling me who his new victim–I mean crush, is. Hm, no, I would have heard the window opening. The wind was blowing, but she thought she heard him move.

She was getting really impatient by now. After all, Sam and patience didn't exactly go hand-in-hand. Just as she was about to open her mouth and demand that he do something, he moved. All of a sudden she knew exactly where he was: right in front of her.

She could feel his breath on her face and, before she could contemplate what that might mean, he pressed his lips to hers. She was so shocked she couldn't move. One of his hands was on her face, gentle but firm. She couldn't think and instinctively kissed back. It lasted longer than their first kiss and both could feel the same electricity they felt before. Still, it only lasted a few extra seconds before Freddie pulled away and took his hand with him.

Everything came flooding back to Sam and she opened her eyes. He was sitting on the stairs, looking at her intently, tense. She blinked. She had no idea how to feel: she really enjoyed that kiss and wanted it to happen again but this was Freddie. And it was for an "experiment". Upon remembering that she decided to go with the emotion she was most familiar with, anger.

He gulped. At first he thought he might just be in the clear – she had kissed back – but nope, luck was not on his side today. She gave him one of the fiercest glares ever and curled her hands into fists as she stood up. "What the fuck was that all about!?" she yelled at him, her voice deadly.

He held up his hands, looking nervous and frightened (as he should be, Sam thought). "Look just give me a chance to explain," he pleaded.

"How the hell are you gonna explain that?!" Sam snapped back, taking a step closer and suddenly, she was in his face: it was a small fire escape.

"I told you I had a theory. And it's been bothering me for a while now. I just needed some piece of mind!" Freddie said hastily.

"What could you possibly have a theory about that requires you to do that!?" Sam shot back, avoiding actually voicing what just went on. She was blocking out the feelings it caused her and focused only on the fact that he did that to her.

"Um," Freddie was starting to really regret doing this. His theory suddenly seemed insignificant now, though he was glad to finally know.

He's not even gonna tell me why he did that? He is so asking for it. Sam pulled back a fist. Freddie threw his hands in front of his face, "It was to see if you really have a twin!" he shouted. He had closed his eyes, ready for the punch, but it never came. He slowly opened his eyes, Sam seemed to be frozen there, her fist still raised.

She didn't look angry. Her face had a very confused expression on it. Sam was so thrown off. What the heck was he talking about? What does Melanie have to do with anything? How would kissing me prove I have a twin? All she could get out was, "Huh?" Her fist dropped to her side.

Freddie dropped his own arms, relieved she seemed too confused to be angry. He knew it was only momentary though – Sam's moods changed fast – so he kept tense – aka ready to run as far away as possible, just in case – as he began to explain. "I've been wondering for a while about whether Melanie was real or not. I mean, I know you said she wasn't but I didn't exactly believe you," he looked at her sheepishly. She smirked: he was right not to trust her. He continued, "I had a theory about whether or not she was, but I hadn't been able to test it yet. In fact I didn't think I would ever be able to and tonight seemed like a good opportunity so…."

"Oh," Sam replied, she was still confused but now she was curious as well, "Was your theory right?"

"Yes, there is a Melanie." Freddie replied, somewhat triumphantly, glad he finally had gotten to the bottom of everything.

She had expected him to say no, because he thought there wasn't a Melanie and there was. But he just said he had thought there was one. Now she was completely lost. "But you were convinced I was lying and that Melanie didn't exist. Then I finally agreed with you, and that made you think she did exist?"

"Sort of, I was starting to suspect there wasn't, just because of how fast "you" were changing. And then the date – you would have to be like a beyond awesome actress to pull that off. And Carly isn't a very good liar so the fact that she supported the story that Melanie was real also made me think she was real. Then, the next day, when you decided to agree that she wasn't real, Carly didn't pick up on what you were doing right away, 'cause once again she just can't lie well." Freddie explained his reasoning.

"Then why did you come in, like, positive she wasn't real?" Sam asked.

"Partly to see how you would handle it and I did this with my phone during the conversation. At first it was so I could analyze the conversation for later, but I'm good with how it turned out." He answered, smirking.

"What exactly did you do with your phone?" Sam asked warily.

Freddie's smirk grew and he took out his phone. He began looking for something and then he seemed to find it. "Listen" She leaned in a bit closer to hear better. Out of the phone came an unmistakable voice, her voice. "Okay, you won, we tried to trick you but we couldn't pull it off. There is no Melanie, you're not gullible aaand you're too smart for me."

"You recorded that?" Sam said, surprised.

He smirked, "Yeah, now I have audio proof of you admitting I'm too smart for you. Oh, and that I won."

She narrowed her eyes, "You are aware I'll just delete it off your phone when you aren't looking, right?"

"Yeah, but that file isn't just saved on my phone," he replied triumphantly.

Damn, the dork is getting smarter, she thought, once again kind of proud he was getting sneakier – made it more of a challenge, more fun. She glared at him, before humph-ing and leaning back. She tried to get back to the original conversation, though in the back of her mind she was trying to come up with ways to get a hold of all of those audio thingies. "So, wait. I'm still confused. How did …that… prove or disprove your theory?"

He began to look nervous again. Realistically, he knew she would ask but still, a guy can dream. "Um, well, you see…"

"No, I don't see. That's why I asked," she was annoyed again. He better have a good answer, or else.

"Well, it's that..." he was turning red and it made her think about what had happened. She had been trying not to, and felt her own face get slightly warm as well.

"Spit it out," she ordered, getting mad and in his face again.

"Well, remember how I told you Melanie kissed me?" Freddie said, leaning farther back against the stairs.

"Yeah," for some reason his bringing that up made her even more mad. She couldn't believe he kissed Melanie or that Melanie kissed him. Didn't matter which way it happened- it just pissed her off. A tiny part of her mind spoke up, telling her she was jealous but she quickly pushed it to the furthest part of her head. That wasn't something she should be thinking, especially right now.

Freddie felt really awkward now. How exactly was he going to explain this to her without sounding weird? "Um…" he seemed to have lost his nerve.

This made her really pissed off, he brings this up, kisses her, and now he won't frickin' explain why!? "Spit it out already!" she yelled.

He flinched. Damn she's loud, especially so close. He turned his head to look her in the face. She was really close, less than a foot away. He was rarely this close to her without her causing him physical harm. It was nice, though terrifying at the same time. (She was totally messing with his head.) It reminded him of why he did all of this in the first place, that he had the answers she wanted as much as she had the answers he wanted, whether she knew it or not. "Because," he began, voice quiet but more sure than a second ago. She noticed the change in his demeanor and calmed down slightly, "You...and her...kiss differently."

Sam just stared at him. He could tell the difference between her and her twin because of how they kissed? "Really?" she asked, honestly curious.

"Yeah," he replied, looking at her again, now that he was a little more confident she wasn't going to hit him.

Sam seemed to be honestly thinking this over. Finally she crossed her arms over her chest and glared slightly at him. "You still shouldn't have done that," she shoved him lightly, "And if you already realized we did then why did you have to kiss me again?"

"Um," Freddie hadn't thought she would think to ask that.

"And now that you did your little experiment you have to tell me who you like. That was the deal." Sam added, staring at him, not backing down. She needed answers, damn it. The nub was confusing her way too much tonight.

He turned slightly pink at the question and statement. Here was the hard part; he really didn't want to tell her who he liked or explain why he needed to kiss her again. When they had kissed the first time there had been a spark, but he wasn't sure if it was because of Sam or because it was his first kiss. When Melanie had kissed him there hadn't been any spark, so he needed to kiss Sam again to see if it was there. He decided that he wanted to avoid sounding cliché as much as possible – like she really needed more things about him she could make fun of – and chose to go with the lesser of the two evils. "Um, you," he said, not meeting her eyes.

"I what?" she asked impatiently, believing he was trying to tell her why he had to kiss her again.

He met her blue eyes with his brown, "You," he repeated, "the girl I like is you."

She stared at him uncomprehendingly, Freddie likes me? She thought. His eyes seemed to be holding her frozen; her thoughts drowning out the sounds of the city below.

Freddie was frustrated by her lack of response; he wasn't sure what he wanted her to do, as long as she did something. He'd welcome even hitting him, but no, she just stood there – staring at him. Oh well, I'm already screwed, might as well go all the way – cuz if she's not's not gonna do something, I will.

With that thought in mind he reached forward, one hand on the small of her back, the other behind her head, and brought his mouth to hers for the second time that night.

Sam had become trapped in her own thoughts, as she tried to process what he said and how she was going to react, when she all of a sudden was jerked back to reality by his warm mouth coming in contact with her own. Her eyes widened as his closed. If she found it hard to think before, now it was almost impossible. How the heck is he such a good kisser? Finally she gave into the inevitable: she liked him back. She had been fighting it and denying it and ignoring it for awhile but the main reason she had done that was because she never thought he would like her back. When he said he no longer liked Carly she had tried to squash the feelings of hope that had begun to spread and when he said he liked someone else she had told herself that nothing had really changed.

She liked that he was nice and smart and that he stuck around, no matter how mean she was. No one else had done that except Carly and she was nice to Carly. And he kept getting cuter and taller. The guy even made her stop hating stripes – which he wore all the time these days – because they looked so good on him. She honestly thought Carly was crazy for not liking him back, but hey, Carly's loss was her gain.

Now that the thinking part was over it was time to do something, she was always more comfortable with action. She copyed him, closing her eyes a second after him, and began responding to his kiss. The arm on her waist tightened and the other hand dove into her hair.

Sam put one arm around his neck and moved the other to his hair. Now that she had come to terms with how she felt, and knew how he felt, she was responding much more eagerly than before. She tightened her grip and tried to pull him closer.

Freddie was relieved when she began kissing him back. He bit her bottom lip and snuck his tongue into her mouth, causing her to gasp slightly. She returned his intensity, engaging in a dance for dominance in her mouth. After a few minutes they both needed air and parted, panting.

He opened his eyes as she opened her own, "So, I take it you like me back?"

She swatted at his shoulder lightly, "Oh, shut up," the mock anger she had been aiming for was slightly ruined by the fact that she was still breathing rather heavily. He smirked down at her making her want to do something to throw him off, "You didn't answer my other question, why did you have to kiss me again?"

He, however, remained smirking, "I needed to be sure, I wasn't sure if the difference between your kissing was because our kiss was my first kiss or not."

"And?" she urged, her breathing back to normal, raising an eyebrow.

"You are definitely a much better kisser than Melanie," he assured her, leaning back down to meet her for another kiss.

A/N: So, there it is. Please tell me what you think. Review. Thanks for reading.