I know I should be working on my other stories, but I wanted to write this SO badly. I just had to before the idea got erased. It's my first iCarly oneshot ever…kinda weird, eh? Oh, and no one knows what Gibby's real name is—I'm just naming him the name I gave him because it's not really a "Gibby" name, and obviously he wouldn't like it. Because Gibby's a nickname, right? …Oh, well, just go ahead and read! o: Wait, I should probably say that Gibby's name in here is Nelson. Just so you're not confused, when it's mentioned beforehand.

Carly Shay and Sam Puckett stood on the pathway leading up to the main entrance of Ridgeway Junior High. Carly stared up at the threatening windows and chewed on a strand of her dark hair. Today Carly would start sixth grade with her best friend, Sam—saying she was nervous was a complete understatement.

Sam, on the other hand, was rather annoyed at her friend's fright. After all, it was just another regular year at school…except for the fact that they would be switching classes, they were in a new, huge school (and it was a middle and high school combined), and there would be tons of new kids, either from out of town or one of Seattle's many private schools.

"Sam, I'm scared," Carly whispered, grabbing Sam's arm and pulling her out of the way, behind a bush. She turned from the blonde girl standing next to her to look at the other students heading into the school. The girls recognized a few students, but the others were just enormous high schoolers who had hit too many growth spurts. Sam wasn't at all intimidated, being the tough girl, but Carly was already seeing images in her head of being shoved into lockers and thrown down stairs.

"Carls, relax," Sam said casually. "It's not a big deal. We just walk in, learn some useless stuff, and walk out. Simple. Look, I hate school a lot more than you do, and I'm not even worried about it!"

"But what if―"

Sam interrupted her friend by dragging her out from behind the bush and inside the school. That wasn't a problem; Carly weighed about 90 pounds, and Sam had been able to beat up several guys a couple feet taller than them (i.e. their friend Wendy's older brother, a creepy kid in their grade, Nelson's, cousin, and, once, Sam had punched Carly's twenty-three-year-old brother Spencer for making fun of her mom). That was part of the reason Carly loved having her around—defense.

"Sam! Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam NO!" Carly squeaked as Sam closed the school's doors behind them. As much as Carly tried not to look, she just couldn't pull her eyes away from the sight of their new middle school.

The main thing Carly noticed was its size. It was huge! At least double the size of their old grades 1-5 elementary school, if not three times bigger. Everywhere there were girls hugging, guys high-fiving, and already teachers yelling. It was a different sight than elementary school, and Carly definitely wasn't comfortable with it.

Sam, of course, only saw Nelson by a locker, being terrorized by a gorilla of a teenager. She exploded into a fit of a giggles, and Carly fought the urge to go beg the guy to stop.

"Sam, go do something." She decided to get Sam to stop him, because as dorky and weird as Nelson was, he was sweet, and didn't deserve all the bad things that happened to him.

"No way, man," Sam said, backing away and holding her hands out in front of her. "Look, I might like hittin' people, but he's all…thick looking and hairy. Maybe some other time, when I'm not so tired, all right?"

Carly hesitated, but realized Sam couldn't take on that crazy high schooler. With a sigh, she clutched her backpack strap and pulled her schedule out of her pocket. She had found out a week ago which classrooms she was in, and was delighted that she had 6 out of 8 classes with Sam. Carly was in advanced math and honors English, the only two she didn't have with her best friend—obviously because Sam wasn't as academically gifted as Carly was.

"Okay, our homeroom's…" Carly looked up from the paper and glanced around the hallway, looking for their room. "Our homeroom is right over…there!" She grinned, proud of herself, and pointed at a small classroom next to a set of lockers. The teacher was Ms. Tanner. Carly hoped she would be nice.

"Great, let's go." Sam started walking off in the direction of the room, and Carly followed.

When they walked inside, Ms. Tanner was already sitting behind her desk, looking down at papers. When she saw Carly and Sam walk in, she got up and walked to them, smiling.

"Hey, girls," she breathed casually. "Welcome to sixth grade. You can just take a seat wherever you like, I'll be assigning seats to you sometime next week." Her smile never faltered, and it was beginning to creep Carly and Sam out. They both let out quiet greetings and scrambled for seats together.

They managed to sit next to each other. The seat on the other side of Sam was empty; Carly's other side, however, was occupied.

Carly turned her head slightly to see a bright, grinning boy seated next to her. He was rather short, and had dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Carly decided he was baby cute, definitely not middle school boy looking.

"Hi!" He said cheerfully, noticing Carly's gaze. "I'm Freddie Benson. I just moved here from Tacoma with my mom. I like your shoes."

Carly felt like she needed to take a breath. This Freddie boy sure could talk—fast. Within three sentences, she knew his name, where he used to live, who he lived with, and that he liked Converse. She then realized she had been staring at him for too long, and had to reply.

"Thanks," she smiled. "I'm Carly Shay. This is my best friend Sam." Carly turned and gestured to Sam, who had totally zoned out. Carly shook her arm a little, and Sam glared at her.

"What?"

"Meet Freddie," Carly said, turning back to face the brown haired boy.

"Hey, Sam," he greeted. He didn't seem anywhere near as interested in talking to Sam than Carly, though.

"What goes on?" Sam mumbled quietly, not really wanting to talk to this dork. Just another guy that would be obsessed with Carly, another guy that probably wasn't awesome enough for her best friend.

When Sam noticed that Freddie didn't answer her, she turned defensive. "What, are my shoes not 'cool enough' for you?" she stood up. "My hair too 'curly' for your taste?"

"Saaaam!" Carly groaned. "Not here! The teacher's right there!"

Sam wasn't paying attention. She was too busy glaring at Freddie Benson, who had now shrunk down in his seat and was staring back at Sam, frightened.

"Don't hurt me," he pleaded. Sam rolled her eyes and sat back down.

"Too easy," she dismissed, and reached into her backpack for a bag of Cheesos.

(s)(c)(e)(n)(e)

By lunch, Sam and Carly were fed up with middle school…and Freddie. He had taken an immediate liking to Carly, and wouldn't stop following them around. It didn't help that he had six classes with Carly, and four with Sam.

Next to being back at school and their new stalker, they were also sad about the no recess thing. Carly and Sam had gotten very used to being outside on the playground, talking and, for Carly, watching Sam chase Nelson and "Germy" for half the time.

It figured when Sam and Carly sat down at a table for lunch, Freddie sat down at the same table.

"Dude," Sam growled. "Get some guy friends."

"Sam, be nice," Carly scolded. "It's his first day with these people."

"I can hear you," Freddie chimed in. Carly blushed.

"Sorry."

"It's okay," Freddie forgave the brunette quickly. In no way did he want to make Carly Shay feel bad.

"Nub," Sam mumbled, picking up her drumstick and taking a bite of it. Mmm, fried chicken.

"Hey!" Freddie yelled. "She just called me a nub!"

"Because you are one,"

"No!"

"Yeah."

"Jerk!"

"Sticks and stones will break your bones, but I can hit you harder." Sam smiled smugly.

Carly was annoyed now. Not shocked at Sam's behavior, because she was always like this, but threatening to break the poor boy's bones was just a little bit over the top, for the first day of school.

"Carly!" Freddie's jaw dropped and he leaned away in his seat. He was obviously very, very scared of what Sam could—and probably would —end up doing to him.

Carly sighed. She could already tell Freddie would be around for a while, and Sam would never ease up on him.

(s)(c)(e)(n)(e)

At last, school was finally over. Carly had to admit, she had had worse days, but this one definitely wasn't what she would call fun. They didn't have homework yet, and most of the teachers were nice, except for the math and social studies teachers. But Carly could deal with that. It was kind of cool that they had lockers with locks and combinations though. Her locker was in the same little section as Sam's…but Freddie was right in between them. Sam definitely wasn't happy about that, but was about ready to explode when Freddie started following them back to Carly's house after school.

"…I also really love computers, and I have a lot of video cameras," Freddie babbled. "My mom's kind of―"

"Um, Freddie?" Carly interrupted, turning around to face him on the sidewalk. "I totally don't wanna be rude, but maybe you should start walking to your house. My apartment's…really messy, and my brother probably wouldn't like a new random kid showing up to hang out and stuff."

Sam smirked, back still facing Carly and Freddie. Good girl. Get rid of the dork.

"I wasn't planning on coming to your house," Freddie said. "I'm on my way to my apartment. Bushwell Plaza. It's just down the road, actually. See, I can see it from here." Freddie pointed at a big apartment building—the apartment building that Carly just so happened to live in.

Sam groaned. Carly smiled nervously, but inside was kind of annoyed that Freddie lived in her building. But Freddie obviously liked her, and she didn't want to hurt his feelings. "Cool," she said, turning around. "We better get walking, then."

They walked the rest of the way to Bushwell in silence. When the trio got inside, the doorman, Lewbert, immediately began yelling at them.

"Hurry up, my floor's gettin' dirty!" He screeched. Carly, Sam, and Freddie hurriedly ran up the stairs. The elevator was broken—ugh—so they had to walk up eight flights. Sam thought it was worth it, though, to get rid of Freddie…until she noticed he hadn't left.

"Um, dude, where the heck do you live?"

"8D," Freddie said, just as they reached the eight floor. Carly and Sam froze.

"That's right across the hall from where I live," Carly said through clenched teeth.

Freddie's eyes lit up. "Great!"

Sam and Carly sighed. This was going to be a loooong year.