Well, just like everything else in my life these days, the words I'm about to say apply to the situation I'm currently in.

It all happened so fast.

Really, one second I'm heartbroken, the next I find out I believed the lie, and just a minute later, Freddork is confessing his true feelings for me. And now he's my boyfriend, which makes me his girlfriend. Excited as I am, I can't help but wonder why.

I'm not the kind of girl you think all the guys want. No, I'm the kind of girl only a select few want, and Freddie liking me was such a surprise. He's a wimp, and I've beaten him up plenty of times. Didn't he know that being in love with me would probably just make it worse? Wasn't he familiar with that old saying, "In love, everything you say can and will be used against you"? I guess he's braver than I give him credit for.

And I'm not one hundred percent focused on doing the right thing all the time. Well, that one is pretty obvious, but I think I can dig a little deeper with the reason. When I'm around a guy, my energy isn't totally focused in "What if he doesn't like me?" or "Did I say something to make him mad?" My life also isn't vested in appearance. There are a lot of girls out there who spend half their lives at the mall, trying to pick out the cutest and/or skimpiest clothes, just to impress people. And the makeup? I'll give you the fact that it's fun, and I do use it. I just don't like the idea of caking myself in it, and girls just do that because they're convinced it makes them look good. Carly falls prey to that one. I wish she didn't.

Nothing about me has that tra-la-la effect. Boys look for that in a girl… they must! So why would Freddie, the perfect male, be so interested in me? But I believe it. Especially now that he himself admitted it to me.

But I always have to watch out. If I don't, there'll be so much for me to miss.

*************

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. I'm nervous a lot. Now, even though I'm mostly proud of my ratted reputation, there are times I know that it dunks me into a vat of hot water, like now. If this didn't go well, there was a good chance I wouldn't be allowed to see Freddie again. And that, honestly, might kill me.

Yeah, I said it. I have a weakness. Kill me. It might be better than the annoyance I was about to encounter.

As soon as I woke up on the morning after Freddie and I got together, he sent me a text message. For just a short second, I hoped it was something lamely romantic like, "Hello, love. Wish I was with you." But it wasn't. Instead, I went to my inbox and found the reason for my potential suicide note.

We have to tell my mom about us.

Well, of course that was going to come into play eventually. But I figured he'd ask me to marry him or something, and she'd just sort of assume we were together. However, this was going to be torture. And I wouldn't go through with it.

Dream on, Benson, I replied. I'm not going to be there when you tell Mommy Dearest you're dating me.

His reply was almost instantly after I'd sent him my message. What a true Mama's boy.

But Sa-am! I'm not going to do that alone. You have to be there. Please?

Whiney man-child. He probably knew that there was no way even I could reject that. Officially, I was sucked into the baby-like vortex that was Fredward Benson, and there was no escaping.

Fine, I typed. I'll be there. But you owe me big time.

After that, I shut off my phone so My Boyfriend the Dork could bother me no longer. This was already more than terrible. I'd have to look innocent and cute, because even though Mrs. Benson knows what I'm like on a daily basis, the way I looked today meant more than ever before. This was my chance to keep Freddie with her permission. Gosh, I felt like the guy asking the girl's father if he can marry her. Guess Fredward and I reversed roles in this one.

Don't get me wrong- I'd actually like to get along with Freddie's mom. It would make my relationship with him a lot easier. Still, we're just two totally different people. I'm probably the girl she hated in high school, and she's like the kind of girl I hate now. Mrs. Benson is spick and span, and I'm sloppy and scary. She knows I'm not the right girl for her son. But that's why I am.

I tried to get dressed properly. After I straightened my hair just enough so that it didn't look too dry and disgusting, but so that it didn't look unruly. As I searched for makeup, I realized I didn't have anything that showy. Sure, I had clear gloss, but Mrs. Benson probably wouldn't find that girly enough. But what does she know? She looks like a woman-man even more than Ms. Briggs.

So, I raided my makeup bag (yes, there's actually quite a lot in there because I think I'll use some of it and rarely ever do), and found mostly mascara and bright red lipstick, which would scare Mrs. Benson more than half to death. Therefore, I decided that what I needed now was eye shadow.

Blue eye shadow? Seriously? It was all I had, and that would make me look just terrible, not to mention similar to a clown. After that, I put on the clear gloss and settled on a purple shirt and tight Capri pants. Yeah, that would work. I looked cute enough.

Yuck.

*************

And that's what brought me to standing outside Freddie's apartment door.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…

He came to the door, wearing a striped polo and not a sweater vest, which was truly a surprise. Whenever something is announced as a special occasion, Freddie is always required to wear a sweater vest. What was up with that nut job of a woman?

"Why do you look somewhat casual?" I inquired when I laid eyes on Freddie. "Wasn't your mother all suspicious?"

"I don't know," he told me. "It was all very weird. I told her you were coming over, and she said, 'that's nice, Freddie. Go get me my favorite organic cookbook.'"

He batted his eyelashes, trying to imitate a woman, but he did such a poor job that I stretched out my arm to punch him in the mouth. However, he quickly grabbed my arm and threw it back down to my side.

"Oh, you messed with Mama," I hissed. "Why'd you do it? Would you rather I kill you than your own mother?"

"Sam, are you really that dense? If my mom saw you hit me, there's no way she'd approve of us dating. Don't you care about being with me more than hitting me?"

I hesitated. Violence is so important to me. But I knew the answer, despite the fact that I love to seek physical vengeance.

"Hey, even if I don't punch you now, I'll do it eventually," I reminded him. "That's just a part of being with me. Your mother is just going to have to accept it."

He rolled his eyes and stepped aside, and I took the invitation into his apartment before he even said anything. Usually, he would object to that, but since he knew we couldn't fight yet, he let me be as me-ish as I could.

"Will you please stop calling me fat?" a familiar, comforting voice shouted. "Just because I know what a French fry is doesn't mean I'm in great danger of dying!"

"Yes, but eating French fries is like smoking a cigarette. Once you have one, you can't stop," Mrs. Benson replied.

"Aunt Marissa, please, stop!"

Alex and Mrs. Benson were now in the living room, and you don't even want to know how dissimilar there expressions were. On one side, Alex looked like I do at the All You Can Eat Bacon Buffet, and on the other, Mrs. Benson looked horrified. She probably already knew that I was now Freddie's girlfriend. Even when you are wacko like her, I suppose all women have that intuition.

"Hello, Sam," she greeted me slowly, probably assuming I was going to kick her all the way to China. "How are you today?"

"Oh, I'm good, Mrs. Benson," I responded in a tone so polite that it sounded like a recording. "How are you?"

"I'm hanging in there, Sam," she told me with an anxious laugh. "Believe me, I'm hanging in there."

Freddie's eyes flickered to me, and he shot me a concerned look. Then he mouthed, We should probably do this now.

Rolling my eyes, I reluctantly agreed to state my doom. He was going to make me initiate it. He was such a little chicken. But since I was strong, I knew that this couldn't hinder me that badly.

"Umm, Mrs. Benson, there's something Freddie and I need to tell you," I began, my voice stern and angry. Sure, I was nervous, but there was no way in Hades I was showing that. Instead, I would just act mad. If I seemed mad, no one would know I had a weakness.

"You should probably sit down, Mom," Freddie added, and Mrs. Benson did as he suggested. She looked up at the two of us and asked,

"The two of you aren't… you know… doing things, are you?"

Alex snorted, and Freddie, who was standing next to her, elbowed her in the ribs. I blushed a bit, but I decided to answer Mrs. Benson's ridiculously irrational question.

"No, Freddie and I aren't 'doing things'", I told her. "But there is something going on that you probably won't like. See, this hasn't been going on a day, even, but Freddie and I are sort of dating now."

Mrs. Benson looked up at us blankly. It seemed as if she was trying to process something to say, but she looked aloof. She didn't seem to have anger, and she didn't look like she was going to break down in nervous tears. Heck, she didn't even look befuddled. She just looked like nothing.

"Is that all?" she finally inquired venomously. "You came over here just to tell me that you're dating my son?"

"Well, yeah," I replied, now puzzled. "Freddie and I figured you wouldn't take it well, so he thought it would be best if I told you in person."

"This really doesn't come as a surprise to me," she admitted with a chuckle. "I always figured you would end up together, especially because you seemed to like Freddie so much."

He looked at me somewhat suggestively, and I made my eyes resemble sharp daggers. Consequently, he backed away from my rage.

"What…" I breathed, "What made you think that?"

"Well, you've always picked on him, and you do it with no mercy. Then again, there are the times when you are the best friend my little boy has ever had. After a while, I could only come to the conclusion that you liked him. At first, I thought you didn't have a chance, but then I would hear Freddie and Alex talk about you, and then I knew he felt the same way."

Alex's jaw dropped, and Freddie had to hold her back before she started wildly beating her aunt.

"Mom," he began seriously, "you listened to Alex and me talk about Sam?"

"Of course I did," she told him honestly. "The two of you would lock yourselves up in that room for so long and so often that I had to make sure nothing dangerous was going on. Then I heard that you liked Sam, and I have to confess, I was a little worried at first. Then you described her as something I didn't always see, and I became comfortable with the fact that you liked her. Plus, your conversations could get so darn interesting, it was difficult to stop spying on you!"

"Well, don't do something like that again," Freddie scolded his mother, and everyone lightly laughed.

All in all, the time I spent with the Bensons that day was pretty entertaining. The gathering was much, much different from that of the Puckett family, or even the Shays, but I still had a shockingly good time. Maybe it wasn't the fact that they were doing anything that was fun, but the fact that I was with Freddie the whole time. Yeah, that was definitely what it was. Sometimes, even in the weirdest of situations, having someone you love along for the ride can improve it by miles.

A/N: Sorry it's been three months since I updated this story. I always wanted to get back to it, but I had a fight with my mom about fan fiction, and I stopped investing so much time into it. The updates on this story won't be as consistent as they were during the summer, but they will be somewhat quick. I hope you enjoyed this highly anticipated chapter, and please review if you liked!