Chapter 3

Sam quietly walked into the main entrance of the school the following Monday morning, and began to proceed down the hallway to her locker.

It had been a rather lonely weekend for her. She avoided any kind of contact with both Freddie and Carly. Sam decided to keep her phone off throughout the weekend, or else she would have had to deal with Carly's consistent calling to see if everything was all right.

Sam had arrived at home on that Saturday just in time to take a trip to Portland with her mother. Her mom had wanted to visit her sister with whom she hadn't seen in quite some time. She had given Sam the option of either going with her or staying home. Sam surprised her mother by deciding to go with her. It was the perfect escape for Sam to be able to be away from everything that had happened in the past week, and it gave her the time she needed to think about what she was going to do about Freddie.

It was a five hour car ride to Portland. Sam decided not to think about Freddie on the drive down. She chose to listen to her Pearpod on the trip down. Sam and her mother spent Saturday night with Sam's Aunt Jill at her home. Her Aunt Jill didn't have any more kids living with her at home. One of Sam's cousins was in college in Colorado, one was in the Army stationed in the Middle East, and one was serving a prison term in California. Sam and her mother accompanied Jill Sunday morning to breakfast; then they did some shopping in the city. Part of Sam wished she would have stayed home, because she felt like a third wheel to two adult siblings. But Sam was glad to see some family for a change. Sam hadn't seen her Aunt Jill prior to this since she was 10. After the shopping trip, Sam and her mother bid Jill farewell; then they began to drive back to Seattle. That was how the weekend ended for Sam.

Carly was at her locker getting her books for her first class when Sam approached her. She turned to greet her friend, "Hey Sam," she said kindly.

"Hey Carls," Sam replied back as she went through the process of going through her combination so that she could open the door to her locker, "How was your weekend?"

"Boring," she replied slightly agitated, "considering that I wasn't able to hang out with my best friend and all."

Sam ignored the comment. She was still trying to get into her locker. She screwed up the combination the first time she tried it. She took a deep breath and tried it again. "My mom and I went down to visit my Aunt Jill this weekend," she said as she finally was able to open her locker.

"Did you not have your phone on you?" Carly asked as she shut her locker door, and waited for her friend.

"Yeah," Sam replied as she was busy getting her books together for her first class, "I just didn't have it on is all." She grabbed everything she needed for class and was getting ready to shut the door to her locker when she turned to see Carly give her a look. She paused what she was doing and said to her friend, "Look Carls, I really just needed a little alone time this weekend. This Freddork thing has really been on my mind this weekend."

Carly grinned softly, "I'm sorry Sam," she said apologetically, "I didn't mean…"

"It's okay," Sam grinned as she shut her locker door, "I think I'm just as confused with the fact that the nerd and I kissed as he is. I think that if we just sit down and talk things out, everything will get back to normal."

The two began walking to class. "Do you really think that things will be normal again for him?" Carly asked, "I mean it sounds like he really likes you and cares about you."

"Carly," Sam replied with a small smirk, "I've been telling you for months that there is nothing normal about that boy." Carly grinned at her friend before Sam continued, "Anyway, as far as Freddie caring about me, I mean, we're friends. I'm sure that's all he meant by that."

"I don't know Sam," Carly remarked, "I saw the look in his eye when he was describing how much you meant to him. I've never seen Freddie act that way or talk that way before."

"I'm still not looking too much into this," Sam stated, "Freddie and I have a different kind of relationship. It's never going to change. We attack each other, and we bicker at each other. That's how it is."

As the girls had begun walking from their locker, Freddie was up ahead of the hallway at his locker. He was in the process of getting his books ready for the first class. He hadn't had anybody look at him or point at him since he entered the school. Freddie was hoping that maybe the kiss incident was old news now and that things in the school were getting back to normal. He was hoping that was the case, but unfortunately for him, it wasn't.

As Freddie shut the door to his locker, a couple of 10th graders approached him. The first guy was Tony Mendoza, a bully at the school. He was followed by his buddy/crony Travis Mitchell. Tony saw Freddie getting ready to take off to class, when he turned to his buddy, "Hey look Travis," he smirked, "there's the actor pegged to have the leading role in the movie 'Never Been Kissed, The Sequel'." His friend laughed at the joke.

As embarrassed as Freddie had been last week with people making fun at him, he decided to stand up for himself this week, "Aw, gee Tony," Freddie returned with a smirk of his own, "such a clever joke from such a simple man."

Tony stopped smiling for a moment as he reached Freddie's locker. He turned to face Freddie with his back facing the lockers, "You know Benson," Tony grinned, "this is probably why you haven't been kissed. These girls nowadays don't want brainiacs like you. They want to be with guys that excite them. They want guys that are dangerous and tough, not geeks like yourself."

Freddie continued to keep his cool, "That's funny," he replied patiently, "I could have swore that I read somewhere that one of the number one things a girl really wants is a guy that can support her. The last time I checked, us 'geeks' seem to really bring home the money to support and 'excite' the women."

Tony was about to give a retort, when his buddy Travis said to Tony, "Oh oh," he said with a smirk as he saw Carly and Sam approach them, "here comes Sam. We better lay off Freddie, or else…"

The two guys chuckled at this for a moment, before Tony spoke up, "I'm not afraid of Puckett. She thinks she's all that, but she's nothing but a low class little bully wannabe."

"What did you just say about Sam?" Freddie asked as his blood began to boil.

"Ooo," Travis snickered, and Travis smiled, "that's right; I called Puckett a low class little…"

Freddie's temper flared, and with a sudden jolt, pushed Tony with his hands backwards into the lockers. Tony lost his balance and fell. Travis' eyes went wide as he saw his friend go down. He quickly went to help him up.

Carly and Sam saw the entire exchange. "Freddie!" Carly hollered as she hurried to his locker. Sam's eyes went wide with surprise. Wow, she thought.

Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones to witness this. A small crowd was starting to turn its attention to the action when a voice from the other end of the hall changed things.

"What's going on here?" 12th grade English teacher Mr. Johnson asked as he stormed through the halls.

Everybody scattered off to their classes except for the bullies, Freddie, Sam, and Carly. Mr. Johnson was one of the most hated teachers in the school. Sam should know; it was always his detentions that she wound up having to go to if she got in trouble. This guy made Ms. Briggs look like a princess.

Now that Mr. Johnson was here, Tony took his time getting up from the floor. He knew Freddie was in big trouble, and he wanted to make sure that he himself didn't get in trouble for this incident. Mr. Johnson knew Tony by name. "Benson here pushed me into the lockers," Tony answered Mr. Johnson's inquiry.

Mr. Johnson turned to Freddie, "Is this true Mr. Benson?"

Freddie looked at Mr. Johnson and nodded quietly, "Yes sir."

"I understand that this your first day back to school in a week," Mr. Johnson remarked with the slightest of smirks, "You will be spending your first day and first week with me after school for detention."

Again, Freddie just nodded, "Yes sir."

Mr. Johnson continued to smirk at Freddie, "Although I'll have to admit, I'm not sure if you'll find that special lady in my detention room that you'll want to pucker up with."

The two bullies snickered from behind Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson whirled around sharply and said, "Get out of here Mendoza and Mitchell before you join him this week yourselves." The two hurried off to their classes. Mr. Johnson then turned back around to face Freddie.

Freddie had turned beet red when Mr. Johnson made the comment to him about girls in his detention. The remark angered Sam, and she stepped forward to face the mean teacher, "I believe if you were watching our webcast Friday, I said that I would send anyone to the hospital that made fun of Freddie."

Mr. Johnson smirked at Sam, "You're a feisty one Puckett. You must really like coming to see me late in the afternoon. I guess I'll be seeing you again this week for the whole week. You can keep your friend here company. Um, Ms. Shay, I believe you're looking at a tardy for your first class. Unless you want to join your pals here, I suggest that you head off to class." With that, Mr. Johnson walked away towards his classroom.

Freddie turned to Sam, "Sam, why did you mouth off to Mr. Johnson? I'm the one that deserved to go to detention. I pushed Tony into the lockers."

"Freddie," Sam replied shaking her head, "when I make a promise like I did on our web show, I keep it. Johnson is a jerk, and he had no right to do what he did to you just now."

"Guys," Carly interrupted, "can we get to class now? If we keep things up, we will never be able to leave the school at 3:00 again this school year."

Freddie and Sam looked at her. "Yeah, okay," Freddie answered, "I'll see you guys after while." Freddie hurried down the hall to his class.

Sam watched Freddie hurry down the hall before she and Carly continued walking to their class. "I can't believe that Freddie pushed Tony Mendoza into a locker," she smiled, "that boy impresses me more every day."

Carly nodded, "Let's just hurry and get to class," she replied as the two of them made it to their first class of the day, and entered the classroom.

XxXxXxXxXx

The final period of school ended for the day, and school was over. At least it was over for most people.

After Freddie got his homework put into his schoolbag, he walked down the hall from his locker and over to Carly and Sam's locker. He hadn't had a chance to speak to the girls much today. He had been too busy trying to get a week's worth of homework caught up in his classes to talk with anyone. Sam and Carly had both left him alone during the day. Carly was just trying to respect the fact that Freddie had a lot of homework to do, and Sam just let him be, because she still wasn't sure what she wanted to say to him about what had happened Friday night.

Freddie reached the girls' lockers in time to see Carly put her light jacket on, and for Sam to fill her book bag up with stuff. "Hey," he nodded to them.

"Oh hey Freddie," Carly replied smiling softly, "did you manage to get all of your homework caught up from all your classes?"

"Almost," Freddie replied, "I still have an English paper I need to work on." He paused as he watched Carly sling her book bag around her shoulder, "I guess that gives me something to work on in detention today," he finished, rolling his eyes.

"Well," Carly responded, "it sucks that you both have detention all week. That Johnson teacher is such a jerk; the school should really do something about him."

"It doesn't matter," Freddie said, "I shouldn't have pushed Mendoza against the lockers anyway."

"But he deserved it," Carly protested, "He shouldn't have been teasing you the way that he was."

Freddie just shrugged. Sam looked at her watch and turned to Freddie, "Hey dork," she said quickly, "we better get to detention. The last thing you want to do with Johnson's detentions is be late for them."

"Okay guys," Carly said as she began to walk away, "I'll see you guys later." She headed down the hallway towards the main exit out of the school.

Freddie and Sam walked briskly down the hallway to detention. They walked into Mr. Johnson's classroom, and they both took a seat at a few of the desks that were empty near the front. The two sat right next to each other. They were about to get some homework out of their bags when the bell rang. Mr. Johnson closed the door and detention began.

"All right you misfits," he said glumly, "let's see if I want to make some changes in your sitting arrangement." He began to look around the room.

"Anderson and Caldwell, one of you find a different seat on the other side of the room." Mr. Johnson said to a couple of 11th graders that were regulars in this room. Jeff Caldwell got up from his seat and walked over to the other side of the room and switched seats with a ninth grader.

Mr. Johnson continued to scan the room. "Myers and Davis, I definitely don't want you two next to one another. One of you move," Mr. Johnson said to 12th grader Beth Myers and her boyfriend. Mike Davis got up angrily from his seat and walked over to the other side of the room. He barked at a 10th grader to get up from her seat and told her to move to his vacant seat.

Mr. Johnson continued to look around the room. He grinned when his eyes fell on Sam and Freddie. "Ah," he smirked, "Benson and Puckett, my celebrities, you are not getting 'star' treatment in my room. One of you go to the other side of the room."

Freddie was about to pick up his things and get up, but Sam hissed at him, "Stay put, I'll move to the other side. Trust me on this one."

Sam grabbed her belongings, and walked over to the other side of the room. She sought the weakest individual she could find to switch seats with her. She sent the sorry ninth grader back to take the seat that she had recently occupied next to Freddie.

"All right," Mr. Johnson nodded, "I expect you all to be working on some sort of homework for the next hour." He walked back around to his desk and sat down. He proceeded to spend the next hour watching every student in his room to make sure they were working on homework. If he caught anyone not working, he would issue them another detention with him the following day.

Freddie wasn't about to take the chance of having anything added to his sentence of five days. He spent the hour working on his English paper. Sam knew better as well, she took the opportunity to work on some of her homework as well.

Finally, the bell rang, and the students walked out of the classroom. Freddie was one of the first students to leave the classroom. He waited outside the door for Sam to come out, and the two of them began to walk down the hallway to the exit.

As they walked outside, they saw that it was a nice bright afternoon outside. Freddie turned to Sam, "So, are you going home?"

"I think I spent enough time with my mom over the weekend," Sam answered gently, "I think I'm going to head over to Carly's."

Freddie nodded, "Did you want to stop at Groovie Smoothies first?" He asked kindly, "I'll treat."

"Hey," Sam grinned, "if you're treating, how can I turn that down?"

Freddie smiled, and the two started walking towards Groovie Smoothies. They walked quietly for the first few blocks, neither speaking a word. Both of them had a lot on their minds and they both wanted to talk with one another about what was going on with them. But they were too shy and too stubborn to break the ice. They both stole glances at each other from time to time as they walked to see if the other was going to start talking.

Finally, Sam decided to speak, "Freddie?" Freddie looked at her. "You know that I can take care of myself and everything, but thank you for sticking up for me against Tony and Travis."

Freddie nodded softly, "Mendoza angered me when he called you 'low class'. Nobody should talk about you that way."

Sam grinned and blushed slightly. He really does care about me, she thought to herself. "I'm sorry you got detention and all," Sam said, "but you're lucky you didn't get a suspension for what you did. I would have for sure."

"Yeah, I know I'm lucky," Freddie grinned, "my mom is already freaking out because I have detention everyday this week. If I would have been suspended, she probably would have had a heart attack."

The two could see Groovie Smoothies at this point. It was only a couple of blocks away. "I have to admit Fredweird," Sam smirked, "I never thought I'd see the day that you'd shove some kid up against a locker. I must really be having an effect on you."

Freddie chuckled for a second, "Yeah, I suppose you are." He paused for a second; then continued, "You know Puckett," he smirked at her, "if I keep this up, I might surpass your mischief ways and be…ugh!" Freddie howled in pain as Sam had grabbed his arm and was twisting it.

"Don't get cocky Benson," she smiled mischievously, "don't ever forget who the master is." She let go of his arm.

Freddie snatched his arm away and rubbed it for a moment, "Okay, okay, fine Sam," he admitted.

The two continued their walk until they reached the smoothie shop. They walked in to find that the place was rather busy for a Monday afternoon. Sam looked around and saw that a majority of the table and booths were full. "Freddie," she said to him, "I was kind of wanting to talk to you about Friday night, but I think it's a little too busy in here to talk right now."

"Yeah," Freddie agreed, "why don't we just get our smoothies to go, and we can go somewhere quiet to talk."

Sam nodded, "Okay, but where are we going to go?"

XxXxXxXxXx

"We're going to talk out here?" Sam asked as Freddie led her to the fire escape that they were at just three evenings ago.

"We had privacy the last time we were up here," Freddie answered as stepped through the window and walked out to the fire escape.

"Yeah," Sam replied, "and looked what happened the last time we were up here as well."

Freddie blushed as he watched Sam climb through the window to join him on the fire escape. He led Sam over to the edge where two lawn chairs were set up there. They both sat down and finished up their smoothies quickly.

"So what you're saying is that what happened a few nights ago wasn't a good thing?" Freddie asked as he put his empty smoothie cup down on the pavement.

"No Freddie, that's not what I'm saying," Sam replied, "I just don't want things to get too weird between us. I only want you to continue to be weird, and that's it."

"So you just want me to continue to be the same 'dork' that you can pick a fight with and pull pranks on?" Freddie asked with a smirk.

"Yeah," Sam smiled, "I can live with that." She took one final sip of her smoothie, and set her cup down now.

"I'm sure you would," he smiled at her.

Sam grinned for a few seconds before she felt that this wasn't right. She wanted to continue to have things between her and Freddie be the same, but at the same time, she wanted to see what else Freddie was made of.

She got up from her chair and turned it so that she would face him. She sat back down and spoke to him, "Freddie, I hope you know that when it comes down to everything that I care about you too. I'm scared to tell you how I feel about you…because I'm afraid you might change on me."

Freddie was quiet for a second. He felt that he knew what she was getting at and he felt the same way about her. "Sam," he said softly, "I'm not saying that I'm not scared about what might happen here either. I've been so used to you being so darn pushy for so long, that I'm afraid of what might happen if we would get together as well."

"Well, what do you think we should do?" Sam asked curiously.

Freddie smiled, "I guess the real question is, can we both be together, and continue to torture one another?"

Sam grinned slightly, "Can we?"

Freddie bent forward in his seat and kissed Sam on the lips. Sam didn't resist by any means as she kissed him back. Freddie grabbed the armrests on her lawn chair to hold his balance as he kissed her tenderly. This kiss was even longer than the one they had on that Friday night. Freddie continued to kiss her until he heard a clicking noise coming from his hand. He backed off from Sam and looked down. Sam had used the handcuffs that Freddie had used on her and Gibby, and she handcuffed him to the lawn chair.

"Aw Sam," he moaned as Sam quickly got up from the chair and began to make her way back to the window sill. "Sam," he cried, "You're not going to leave me here, are you?"

"You know Freddie," Sam replied smiling, "Carly was right. I shouldn't have humiliated you like I did last week. And for that, I'm sorry. But always remember Benson, I will always get my revenge." She climbed through the window and paused to look back at him.

"Fine," he replied as he rattled the handcuffs along the chair, "but does this mean we can be together?"

Sam shook her head at him and smiled, "If you can continue to be this pathetic Freddork…I wouldn't want to be with anybody else." She blew him a kiss and walked away.

"Sam!" Freddie shouted as he got up and tripped and fell, taking Sam's lawn chair with him. He looked at the situation he was in. Sam's right, I am pathetic. The five pound lawn chair can come with me through the window, he thought to himself. He got up and folded Sam's chair up and walked over to the window sill. Is this really worth it? He thought to himself as he climbed through the window. When he got through to the other side, he looked down the small hallway to see Sam there with her arms folded. In her hand was the key to the handcuffs. She looked beautiful standing there with that smirk on her face. He walked up to her and begged her to release him from the chair. She looked at him calmly for a moment; then she shook her head and used the key to release him from the chair. Sam laid the chair down on the floor, and watched as Freddie rubbed his wrist a moment. She then took Freddie's hand and they walked down the hallway together. Yes, he smiled to himself; she's very much worth it.

Author's Note: Kind of a longer ending than I thought it was going to be, but I wanted to put a little action and some humor in it. I love to see Freddie get physical. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry it took so long to complete this. Thanks to all who read and review.