This is one of my personal favorite one-shots and I've been DYING to publish it for about a month.

This is one of many Seddie one-shots that coincide with my previous fic, iProm. These one-shots take place after iOMG and before iProm.

Approximate date: mid-August

Friday was one of Freddie's free days from work. Carly invited him to go to the pool at the Westfield Park with her, Sam, and Gibby. Sam was in the room when Carly had invited Freddie, and heard for the first time that Gibby was tagging along.

"Why do you always have to invite Gibby?" Sam had whined to Carly.

Carly had just given her a "be nice" look.

Freddie could use some mindless fun. He hadn't been to the pool all summer. He was either working, the pool was too crowded, or it was raining when he wanted to go. Carly got a text from Gibby saying he'd gone to the park earlier and checked the pool to see what it was like. It was empty, with the exception of one small family.

Sam had crashed at Carly's the night before. She was the one who suggested they go to the pool, although her original suggestion was to break into the pool in the middle of the night. She even brought her bathing suit and towel. Carly nixed the idea and, to keep her happy, said they could go to the pool the next day.

Freddie rescued his trunks from one of his mother's various laundry baskets, grabbed a towel, packed a bag with some extra clothes, sunscreen, and his wallet, and escaped the apartment before his mom could lecture him about the dangers of chlorine in swimming pools. He'd heard the lecture since he was five. He didn't need to hear it again.

He and the girls made it out of the Bushwell Plaza and chatted as they walked a few blocks to the park. Gibby lived across the street from there, so he would meet them at the pool.

The entire walk to the park Freddie kept looking at Sam. One thing he liked about spending time with her was her energy. She hated sitting down for extended periods of time (she didn't mind lying down, though), and she was always fidgety and eager to get up and do something. The atmosphere seemed to buzz with excitement around her.

When they reached the park, they saw Gibby at the front gate standing around. Sam stopped suddenly.

Carly looked at her. "What are you doing?"

"What if we take the long way and enter the park from Mitchell Place instead of Park Circle? We could ditch Gibby!"

Carly just looked at her. "Why do you always want to ditch Gibby?"

"A person can only take so much of him a day."

"We haven't even talked to him today."

"Yeah, I know."

Carly rolled her eyes and grabbed Sam's arm. She dragged her along as she and Freddie met up with Gibby.

"Hey, Gib," Carly said.

"Yo," Gibby replied. "Let's go swim."

They followed Gibby down a winding path, passing one of the many swingsets in the park, look a left at the basketball court and found the pool entrance. The pool was usually a main hangout during the summer. There was a water slide halfway to the deep end of the pool, and right at the deep end was a diving board. All around the pool deck were white lounge chairs that anyone could use. There was one other family playing around in the shallow end, and a lifeguard up high in his chair, surveying everything from behind his mirrored sunglasses.

The four of them found chairs for themselves and put their stuff down. Carly and Sam had their bathing suits under their clothes, so they just started peeling off their shirts.

Gibby looked inside his bag and realized that his trunks were in there. Confused, he picked them up, and looked down at his shorts. "I could've sworn I was wearing these when I left the house," he said, holding up his trunks.

Carly, Sam, and Freddie all silently raised their eyebrows. Gibby just walked to the boys' bathroom to change. Carly handed Sam her sunscreen. She slathered it on her arms, legs, stomach, chest, and face. She was about to do her back when she heard Freddie ask from behind her, "Need help with your back?"

This was tricky. Sam wasn't sure if this fell under PDA or not. Friends put sunscreen on each other's back, right?

She handed Freddie the bottle of sunscreen and pushed her hair over her left shoulder. When he touched her, she felt a million tiny volts of electricity shoot up her arms and down her legs. She felt her face burn and hoped it was just the sun.

"There," Freddie said. Sam turned around and Freddie gave her back the bottle. She passed it back to Carly as Freddie took out his own sunscreen. "Want me to do yours?" Sam asked.

"Sure." He handed the bottle to her, and took off his shirt. Sam looked away from his bare chest.

Dang it. She forgot that Freddie took Strength Training as his gym class. Not only did his upper body strength improve, but he had the beginnings of a six-pack. Her face was burning even more. He turned around so Sam could do his back.

She squeezed some sunscreen on her hand. She felt like she was shaking a little. Why did she come up with the stupid "no PDA" rule? That was not one of her better ideas.

When she was done, she passed Freddie back his sunscreen. "Thanks," he said, spreading some on his arms.

This was gonna be harder than she thought. If she could keep herself from constantly staring at Freddie, it would be a miracle. It would take a miracle for her not to stare at him. She had to act like the girl who was friendly with Freddie but would punch his shoulder every now and again, not the girl who loved Freddie to oblivion.

Luckily, distraction came in the shape of a Gibby and she came out of her funk. Back from the bathroom, Gibby yelled, "CANNONBALL!" and jumped into the pool. He made a tremendous splash, even getting the lifeguard soaking wet in his tall chair.

Sam pushed her hair behind her shoulder, let out an animal-like shriek and jumped in the pool after Gibby. Freddie and Carly followed her.

The morning was full of splashing and yelling and Sam dunking everyone (except Carly). Gibby was the easiest to dunk. Freddie actually fought her when she tried to dunk him. She liked that he was giving her a challenge. She still got those tingles whenever they touched. Why did that always have to happen? She felt like that was slowing her down and it was making it easier for Freddie to fight her back.

Gibby made himself happy by going down the water slide over and over. He had to make sure the lifeguard was looking the other way before he went down the slide headfirst. He'd gotten in trouble before for sliding into a kid last time he did that.

Across the pool, Sam got up on the diving board, her wet hair plastered to her shoulders and back. "Look out below!" she yelled. She bounced on the board a little then tucked her knees and literally flipped off the board and into the water.

Carly and Freddie cheered. Sam surfaced the pool, shaking her hair out of her face.

"Bravo! Bravo!" Carly said, clapping above the water.

"Excellent! Perfect ten!" Freddie said.

"Oh, yeah, I agree. Her form was picture perfect," Carly added, nodding enthusiastically.

They raced from one end of the pool to the other, and played a few games of Marco Polo. Sam had a good ear. Sam always knew when Freddie and Gibby tried to get out of the pool when she was "it".

Freddie suggested they played chicken, Sam on Freddie's shoulders and Carly on Gibby's. Sam and Freddie seemed to win a lot. Freddie wasn't sure if they won because Gibby was bad at chicken, or if Gibby was too scared of Sam. He had a distinct feeling that Sam kept shooting Gibby death glares from atop Freddie's shoulders.

Sam and Freddie started taking turns on the diving board. It seemed like half a day had passed when Carly looked at the clock over the lifeguard's station. It was 12:38. Carly heaved herself out of the pool. "Shall we lunch?"

"Shoosh yeah!" Sam yelled from the diving board. She did one more flip off the board and swam to the ladder.

Freddie tossed Sam her towel. "Where did you learn to flip like that?"

Sam tucked her towel under her arm and started wringing out her hair. "Back in the dark days of training to be a pageant girl." She wrapped her towel around her shoulders.

They grabbed their stuff from the lounge chairs by the pool and headed for the picnic area. Carly had packed lunch for three people before they left for the pool. Sam brought her own, because she knew a few sandwiches and some potato salad wasn't gonna cut it for her.

They picked a wooden table under a tree and sat down. Sam reached into her bag and pulled out her hairbrush and a hair tie. As Carly started unloading potato salad and sandwiches from one of her bags, Sam brushed out her wet hair and braided it. The braid was off to the side and rested on her shoulder. Freddie liked the side braid. He thought it made Sam look prettier.

Sam put back her hairbrush and yanked out a bag of ribs, a plastic plate, and a big packet of wet wipes. "Time for Mama to chow down."

She tried to stay as calm as possible while she ate, but this became a problem, too. Freddie was sitting on her right, she was right-handed, and he was left-handed, so they ended up bumping elbows every now and again. Every time that happened, it sent sparks up her arm again. Her heart and her head were in a tailspin. It made it hard for her to focus on what Carly, Freddie, and Gibby were talking about. One minute Gibby was telling some weird story about his little brother and his pet duck, the next Carly and Freddie were brainstorming ideas for the next iCarly show. Sam wasn't sure, but she thought komodo dragons were mentioned at one point.

After the potato salad was gone, Carly looked over at Sam. "You've been awfully quiet."

"Oh," Sam said. She looked down at her plate and saw it was full of empty rib bones. She couldn't remember the last bite she took. "I guess I was lost in the ribs." She pulled out a wet wipe and cleaned off her hands and face. "I'm in the mood for dessert," she proclaimed. She hoped Carly had a spare Fatcake in her bag.

"I saw a vending machine that has ice cream by the water fountain up front," Freddie said, pointing in the direction of the pool entrance.

"Ooh, yeah," Gibby said, standing up and getting his wallet from his bag. "That vending machine has the best fudge pops."

"Ooh, I want a fudge pop," Carly said, getting out her own wallet and following Gibby.

"Carls!" Sam called after her. "Get me a cherry ice pop?"

"Sure."

"Too lazy to get up?" Freddie asked her.

She nodded. Freddie moved in closer to her, glancing around first to check that no one was watching.

Sam propped her elbow on the wooden table and rested her chin in her hand. She felt Freddie really close to her, his body heat was radiating in her direction.

"Okay," Freddie said. "Random question: do you still wanna keep this 'no kissing' rule going?"

Sam looked at him. She didn't really know what to say. Well, no, she knew what to say, she just didn't know how to make herself say it. She was trapped in Freddie's stare. She saw a sort of hungry gleam in his eyes. She had a feeling he wasn't as crazy about their "no PDA" deal as she was.

The honest answer to that question was, "No." Their time in the pool together proved it. As Freddie was looking at her, she was starting to think of ways they could bend the rules. Like maybe if they found a secluded place behind some trees and bushes, they could make out there for a while. They were in the beginning of their relationship and although they had fun together just playing at the arcade, they always wanted more after they said good night.

She remembered on their first date, when they ate by the snack bar at the indoor rock climbing hall, his foot brushed hers by accident, causing those tingles to start up again, and her to almost choke on her nachos. He walked her home at the end of the night, and stopped when they got to her front door.

"I had a lot of fun," Freddie had said. He had this wide grin on his face. "I wasn't really expecting to, but I did."

"I had fun, too," she'd said. "I impressed you, didn't I?"

Freddie nodded. He had moved in very close, close enough that they could be hugging. Sam had wanted him to put his arms around her, just so she could feel his warmth. She felt as if he could read her mind, because he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in a little closer. He leaned down and kissed her. Sam reached her arms up and around the back of his neck. Every kiss with Freddie felt warm with tiny volts of electricity erupting everywhere on her body. This was like one of those fairy tale kisses from romantic comedies that Carly always took her to see. Sam thought those moments were too mushy, but right then, she wished the moment could last longer.

When he let her go, she relunctantly when inside the house. She wished he didn't have to leave her. It felt kind of sappy, but she liked the way she felt she was was with him.

Back in the present, Freddie did another quick glance around the vicinity, and put his hand on the other side of the wooden bench, by her left hip. He wasn't technically putting an arm around her waist, but it sure felt like it. Sam was getting a flashback to that night. She thought (was hoping) he was going to break their deal and kiss her. She was getting ready to feel the same warm comfort mixed with tiny sparks of electricity. Turns out, Freddie was about to kiss her, until he heard someone cough.

He and Sam looked up. Carly and Gibby had come back from the vending machine.

"What were you guys doing?" Gibby asked. He unwrapped his fudge pop.

"Nothing," they both said together. It didn't sound convincing at all.

Gibby looked back and forth from Sam to Freddie. He was trying to piece everything together. "Wait. Are you guys a couple or something?" Gibby seemed to be afraid of the answer.

"Well, I guess Gibby knows now," Carly said. She handed Sam her cherry ice pop.

Sam and Freddie glanced at each other. Neither of them had said out loud that they were together. Sam wasn't ready to say it, and Freddie was waiting patiently for her to be ready so he could say it. He didn't want to push her into it.

Gibby, as usual, was looking confused. Carly looked at the both of them, as if she was asking them for permission to confirm Gibby's suspicions. Sam and Freddie both looked at each other and shrugged. They looked like they were having a telepathic conversation with each other. Eventually, Freddie looked at Carly and said, "Why not?"

She turned to Gibby. "Yeah, they are. For a couple weeks now," she said in a low voice. "They're just keeping it to themselves. Only me and Spencer know about it."

"Seriously?" Gibby said incredulously. He looked at Sam and Freddie like he couldn't believe his eyes. "But you guys hate each other!"

Carly covered his mouth. "Shhhhhh! What part of 'they're keeping it to themselves' didn't you get?"

Freddie and Sam looked at each other again. Judging by the look on Sam's face, Freddie knew she made the right choice by keeping the relationship low-key in public. She might hate the "no PDA" rule, but she didn't want anymore reactions like Gibby's.

They finished their ice cream in an uncomfortable silence, then took to the bathrooms to change out of their bathing suits.

"Are you okay, Sam?" Carly asked from the next stall.

Sam balled up her towel and shoved it in her bag. "Yeah. I mean, I guess I'd be better if Gibby hadn't just found out."

"What were you guys doing anyway? He looked like he was about to kiss you."

"Nothing, really. Just hanging out together. We didn't kiss." She pulled her blue tank top over her head.

"Oh, yeah, you told me you guys had a deal that you wouldn't kiss in public."

"Yeah, to be honest, I really hate that deal."

"Really? Why did you make it then?"

"Cause it made sense. We're trying to keep this quiet, and to do that, we can't kiss in public." She pulled on her jean shorts and slid her feet into her flip-flops.

Carly let opened the door to her apartment and she, Sam, and Freddie stepped inside. Spencer was hidden behind a giant colorful pyramid, his clothes covered in neon paint. A pile of random objects was lying by the couch. Among the pile was a stapler, a set of plastic beads, cotton balls, a ball of orange yarn, and several packs of huge decals in the shape of food.

"Hey, kiddo!" he said, not taking his eyes off his sculpture.

"Hey," Carly said. "Sam and Freddie are here, too."

"As always," Spencer replied.

Sam took the elastic out of her hair and finger combed out her braid. She flopped onto the couch. "Swimming always makes me lazier." She dropped her bag on the floor next to her feet, and tilted her head back.

Spencer looked up from his sculpture. "I thought Gibby went with you guys to the pool?"

"He did," Carly said, swinging her bag. "While we were walking back, he went inside Amazing Glazed and didn't come out."

"What was that about?" Spencer asked.

Freddie shrugged and sat down next to Sam.

"Okay, well, I'm gonna get all this chlorine out of my hair," Carly said, lifting up some of her hair and going upstairs.

Spencer was shaking his hot glue gun. "I think I'm out of glue." He grabbed his keys from the countertop and headed for the door. "Be back in a few."

"Later, Spence," Sam called out. She leaned forward and grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned the TV on.

Freddie scooched himself closer to Sam. "You okay?" he asked.

She looked at him. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seemed a little jittery at the pool," he remarked.

Sam felt her cheeks redden. She looked down at her lap. "Sorry."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Freddie shifted so he was facing Sam on the couch. "You don't need to apologize for stuff like that."

Sam sighed. "I'm just frustrated. The whole time we were at the pool, I was a mess. I know it was my idea that we don't kiss or hold hands in public, but I hate it. I want us to be a real thing, but I can't even say it to Gibby."

"Sam," Freddie began.

"And I kissed you first, and I wanted us to be a thing, and I made you think about this whole thing for a month, and it really just felt like the longest flipping month of my life, I was ready to explode until you gave me that answer a couple weeks ago-"

"Sam."

"I don't want it to look like I'm getting cold feet now, because I'm not, I really want this to work, and I don't want you to start thinking you made the wrong choice because you don't think I'm making enough effort with all this, it's just that I like the pants off you and-"

Freddie swooped in and kissed her, cutting her off from her ranting. When they broke apart, she looked confused.

"What was that for?"

"So you'd shut up for a little bit." He took her hand. "You don't need to be so strung out about this. I already told you, I'm fine with you not saying we're a thing to other people yet."

"But I'm not fine with it. I don't get why I can't just say it." She fiddled with the frayed hem of her shorts with her free hand.

Freddie reached up and played with a strand of her curly hair, looping it around his finger. It was still damp from the pool. "You know what I think?" She looked up at him. "I think that you think too much. You get caught up in your head a lot."

"Well, I wanna know what's wrong with me, if I can't even admit to Gibby that we're a thing."

Freddie let go of her hair and put his hand on her cheek. "Nothing's wrong with you. You've just never been in this situation before, so you don't know what to do." Sam looked down at their hands, still laced together. "This is bigger than any other guy you've liked or dated, bigger than Shane, Jonah, Pete, and all those other guys." He pushed a stray hair behind her ear. "You've never been in love before, and it scares you a little."

"No chiz," she said. She flexed her hand and turned it over a couple times, still laced with his. "I just don't want you to think that I'm not as into this as you are. Because I am."

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You are making an effort. Remember when we went rock climbing? You actually showed up at the store right when my shift ended and you paid for half the date," he said. He took his hand off her cheek, and rested it on the back of the couch. With the hand he had laced with Sam's, he played with her fingers. "It's only been a couple weeks. It's not gonna happen magically. It's gonna take time. And I really don't care."

"Is that why you won't say we're a thing either?" she asked.

"Mhm. And it's why I wanted you to pick the first date. I want you to feel comfortable with all this. I swear, Sam, I don't mind in the slightest."

It was true. He really didn't mind. He knew he was adjusting to their relationship a little faster than Sam was, but he wasn't going to push her to do anything she wasn't ready for. For now, all he wanted to do was to sit on the Shay's couch with her, watch one of Spencer's kung fu movies, enjoy the sensation he got when she rested her head on his shoulder, and feel the contour of her waist with his hand.

R&R!