CHAPTER 1: iUnderstand Sam

FREDDIE'S POV:

It's been almost 4 years. 4 years since I've known Sam and although at first I would go to bed each night wishing that she'd magically disappear the next day, I soon realized that that wish coming true was as likely as Carly and me getting married and travelling across the world on our 1-year-honeymoon. The only other thing in common between these two wishes is the fact that with every passing day I stopped wanting them to come true to the point that thinking I could have ever wanted them to disgusts me.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Carly and Sam still constantly reminds me I'm a dork, nerd, geek and that no one will ever love me it's just that I've come to understand friendship ,love ,life and Sam much more than I did 4 years ago. Yes ,I still love Carly, but, in a more protective-sibling sort of way now; just the way Sam loves her. Yes, Sam still 'insults' me and we still 'fight' all the time, but, I've realized that her 'insulting' me is more like teasing and as time went by its turned from 'insulting' to 'teasing' to 'friendly-banter' ; and our 'fights' were never really fights, more like bickering which is now more like debating of some sorts. Heck, making bets and bickering with Sam makes my life more interesting and thrilling! I actually ENJOY bickering with Sam; it never really counts as fighting, because, at the end of the day you'll still find us laughing our heads off, like the best friends we are.

Best Friends. Yup, Sam and I are now best friends. Although she'll never admit it, I know that I'm now her guy-best friend. Despite being polar opposites, we still have WAY more in common than either one of us does with Carly. I mean, I don't have many guy friends so I often find myself cheering and booing at an MMA fight with Sam by my side ; something Carly would never do. Another thing that we have in common but she'll NEVER admit because she thinks its 'nerdy' and 'for total geeks' is being tech-savy. I mean even I didn't know what MPEG stood for and she did! ; and don't even get me started on all the things she wanted me to change on the website I was making for her, how did she even KNOW what those tech-y words meant?! Even without the things we have in common, I know I'd still enjoy spending time with her ; I make her focus a bit more on school and not get in trouble as often and she keeps me on my toes, teaching me how to have fun and live a little and discover that I DO in fact have a slight rebellious streak ; if it weren't for her I'd probably still be willingly getting bi-weekly body inspections and tick baths from my mom!

As the years went by, I realized that Sam and I could actually get along great! We would meet up, just the two of us, a lot more (don't worry, we didn't make Carly feel left out, she'd already be occupied with her current boyfriend-of-the-week, whom she claimed to be 'in love' with) and we've actually had REAL, surprisingly deep, conversations just about life and family in general. I've grown to know her inside out, everything from her favorite color, smoothie flavor, pizza toppings (all 7 meats and extra cheese, duh!) to the fact that ,despite what I used to think, she'll always be there for me, even when I call her at 2 in the morning, and her initially PRETENDING to be annoyed at it. I've really grown to care about her ,going as far as dying jonnah's gym clothes pink and cutting off the legs of his pants (a trick I learned from Sam helped me unlock his locker) the day after he tried to kiss her in the hallway, even though she'd already landed him in the nurse's office (which at that moment I would've done myself, over come with a sudden rage, if she hadn't already punched him in the face) ; for some reason hearing that he'd tried to kiss her made my blood boil (something I didn't even come close to feeling back when she was dating him and he tried to kiss Carly)

Now that I think about it, even though she'll never admit it, Sam does care about me too. She's stood up to bullies for me when she thought I wasn't there, cheers me up in her own SAM way (no typical 'its all going to be alright's ' or pointless gushing) when I feel down and was the one who showed me that I really didn't LOVE Carly and that my relationship with her had basically been Carly worshipping me as a hero, not liking me for me ; I'm actually really grateful now that Sam made me see the truth, because honestly, I don't think I ever loved Carly, maybe a weak crush under the influence of the 'pretty girl next door syndrome', But love? No way. And anyways, I'm actually not into the prissy, girly, soft type, even though I originally thought I was. I mean, I just can't take girls whose biggest crisis is a bad hair day and whose biggest decision is what to wear that day. I'm more into girls who don't care about any of that pointless stuff, who can be adventurous and can stand up and fight for themselves (Shelby Marks, anyone?)

Anyways, Why am I reminiscing about the development of Sam and my relationship from frenemies to 'best-friends-who-just-love-to-bicker-but-are-still-best-friends' you ask? Well, I often find myself thinking about Sam these days, for no apparent reason, but right now, I was on my way to the groovy smoothies to meet Sam. We had planned to meet up 20 minutes ago but I was just reaching now because I knew Sam would be at least half an hour late like always, which I didn't seem to mind anymore.

I pushed open the door and saw a familiar face sitting at the table Sam and I usually sat at. The blonde was clearly pulling a much larger smile than she intended to, as she straightened her dress and put away her make-up mirror after checking her perfect eye liner in it. I approached her with as she waved enthusiastically and greeted me in a high pitched voice. " Hi Freddie!" she almost squealed. "umm...hey Mealanie! Sam didn't mention you'd be joining us today…when did you come to visit?" I inquired (yes by now I DO know she's real! I almost passed out when I saw her with Sam last Christmas. Also, I always did wonder why kissing Melanie at that club had felt so much different and not as….umm….nice…as kissing Sam had ,on the fire escape had) "Melanie?" she asked, "umm…I'm not Melanie…it's me Sam! Sir dorkatro- I mean Freddie!"

WHATTT?! At first I was about to laugh and tell Melanie that she looked nothing like Sam and her attempt at pranking me had failed, But then my eyes widened in shock. I looked into her eyes ; Melanie's were blue just , but THESE were not just any kind of blue, they were Sam-blue. This actually WAS Sam. In a dress. With makeup on. OH MY GOD.

"are you going to keep staring or sit down?" she asked. I sat down slowly. I gulped, this day was going to be…interesting…