FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Carly was pacing in her living room getting madder and madder with each step. Spencer watched her for a few minutes and finally asked, "What's got your panties in a bunch, little sis?"

"Sam!" she yelled. "You'd think I'd be used to this by now but sometimes it really ticks me off! She was supposed to come home with me from school so we could go to Build a Bra together and I haven't seen her." Just then Sam sauntered in the door. "Where have you been!" Carly demanded.

"Cool your jets, Carls, I got detention." she said with a grimace.

"How could you have gotten detention? I saw you right before gym and that was your last class and it's the only class you like, go to and ace every semester. And you love it even more this semester because you get to throw dodge balls, basketballs, baseballs, footballs, volley balls and kick soccer balls at Freddie's head. You really should be nicer to him, you know." she said.

"Nicer to the nub? I haven't killed him yet, have I? How much nicer do you expect me to be? Wait, don't answer. I might just have to kill him to get through the next two weeks." she groaned.

"What up in the next two weeks?" Carly asked.

"It's why I got detention. We're learning ballroom dancing in gym. That's not a sport! Why do we have to waste good sport time learning to" Sam faked gagging "ballroom dance! Any way, I got detention for tying Mr. Williams to the goal post and pantsing him in front of the whole class." she explained.

"Whoa! You did that to him just because you're going to have to learn to dance? I thought you liked him." she asked.

"Not just dance but ballroom dance! Who does that kind of dancing now any way? Plus, I already learned to dance for the pageants so why do I have to learn more dancing? And that wasn't the worst part. We'd just finished a slammin' game of soccer, I nailed Freddie in the head three times, when has the girls line up by height and then has the boys do the same. Then he paired us off by height with our dance partner for the next two whole weeks. Carly, he paired me up with Freddie!" she cried.

Carly bit the inside of her cheek, hard. She knew if she laughed Sam would never forgive her. "Is Freddie such a horrible dancer?" she asked with a mostly straight face.

"CAR-LY! He's Freddie! I can't spend the next two weeks ballroom dancing with a dork! He'll get his nerd cooties all over me!" she cried.

"So skip class, like you do with your other classes." Carly suggested. Wow, maybe I am spending too much time with Sam, she thought to herself.

Sam rolled her eyes and heaved a big sigh, "No, I can't. I need that A in gym. It's what brings my grade point average up enough to get passed to the next grade. I hate school and if I flunk I'll have to spend a whole extra year repeating the same grade. No way, I'm not spending another year in school! But do I have to dance, and ballroom dance at that, with a geek? ARGH!"

MONDAY AFTERNOON

"Cha cha, foxtrot, swing, tango and, lastly, the waltz are the dances we are going to attempt to learn. You never know when the knowledge might come in handy and it's good exercise to dance. So find your partner and get ready to cha cha!" called out Mr. Williams.

Sam stood right where she was. She had no intention of finding Freddie. She hated Freddie, the nub. Freddie cautiously stepped in line next to Sam. She smirked. He looked scared. Good, let him be scared, it might make things easier for me she thought.

"Gentlemen, put your right hand on your partners left side and hold her right hand out away from your bodies." Mr. Williams instructed.

A nervous Freddie turned to Sam who had a frightening scowl on her face. "You'd better watch where you put those hands, Fredweird, or you might lose them!" she warned.

Freddie slowly, so as to not enrage the blond demon, put his hand on her left side and held his left hand out for her to hold. She hesitated a moment and then reached out to hold Freddie's offered hand. Whoa, that was weird, when she took Freddie's hand it felt like a static shock but not quite. What was that? She put her left hand up on his shoulder and could feel how tense his shoulder muscles were. She took secret pleasure in that, he was so scared of her. That was a good thing, keep him as far away from her as possible. The closest she ever wanted to be to the dork was when there was a camera between them and only then because they needed the tech nerd for iCarly. The whole thing was a disaster. Freddie was nervous and stiff as a board trying to learn to dance, something that did not come natural to him, and trying to learn without making Sam mad just made him more jittery. Sam was too mad and stubborn to put any effort into it and yelled at Freddie every time he stepped on her toes. Finally, class was over! Mr. Williams told them if they wanted to pass the ballroom dance portion of gym they'd better get over dancing with each other and really apply some effort. Sam shot Freddie a deathly stare after hearing that comment from the teacher and he scurried off to the lockers to get away from her.

Later at Carly's she and Sam were dishing on the boys. Carly had a new crush. She liked Logan, he had just moved to Seattle a few months ago. Sam couldn't see what she would like about him. Well, actually Sam didn't see anything she herself would like about the boy but he was perfect for Carly. He was tall and blond and good looking and dressed well and was a good student and athlete too. Sam considered him a 'pretty boy' without an ounce of delinquent rebel in him, how boring! But it would be nice for Carly to have a boyfriend that lasted for more than one or two dates, she never had had a real boyfriend, just boys she went on a date or two with before they proved themselves to be too weird or life interrupted and took them away from her. Except for Steven, he seemed to be great but he really just took longer to prove himself unworthy. Her best friend deserved better. Sam lamented to her friend how awful gym had been and the teachers warning after class.

"Bummer, Sam. Maybe you'd better really try on this one." she said.

"But I don't wanna!" she cried.

"Suck it up, Sam, it's only two weeks and it's only Freddie. It's not like he's really going to 'infect' you with his nerd cooties and change you into a nerd. You'll still be yourself when it's over but you need that A in gym class." Carly reminded her.

"I know, I know" she whined. "I really do. But how can we learn to dance together when he's stiff as a board and I hate being that near him?"

"Don't kill me for suggesting it but maybe you could practice outside class?" she offered. "Freddie's lap top has all the music you might need and the studio has the lights to help set the mood for dancing and more than enough space."

Sam shuddered at the thought of dancing with Freddie. Maybe she could pretend he was someone else and get through the dancing if he could just relax around her. She really needed that A. For the first time she wished she'd applied herself a bit more in her other classes so she wouldn't be in the pickle she was in now. Having to dance with Freddie the dork, what had her life come to? And now she'd have to convince him she wasn't going to murder him if they danced outside of class in the studio. Wait a minute... murder him... that idea had merit. Oh wait, Carly would be really mad at her and she'd forever be pursued by an enraged, whacko Mrs. Benson if she murdered Freddie. Plus Mr. Williams would just assign her some other geek to dance with. "Fine!" she huffed. "I'll just have to dance even more with" Sam gulped "Freddifer to get through this. But when I pass I want a ham and bacon dinner to celebrate!"

"Yes, Sam, if you don't hurt Freddie and you do pass dancing, I will throw you a ham and bacon dinner. Deal?" she asked.

"Deal." she grumbled. "Now go call the nerd to come over."

Up in the studio about a half hour later the three stood around awkwardly. "You sure this is safe?" Freddie asked Carly.

"I already told you Fredwina, I'm not going to hurt you." Sam growled.

"Sam promised not to hurt you while you are up here dancing." Carly said.

"What about coming to the studio and leaving when we're done, is that safe for me too?" he asked warily. He knew Sam well enough to be very specific about all points of any deal.

Carly looked over at Sam "Do you promise?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever! Let's just get this over with." she grumbled.

All three watched a couple of You Tube videos on dancing the cha cha and then Freddie and Sam tried it again. Freddie was still quite tense. He had good reason to not trust Sam. But he did relax a bit more than when trying to dance at school. Carly watched and made pointers to help them out. She'd always thought they'd make a perfect couple if they could just make the initial break through. Sam didn't trust anyone but Carly. It was obvious to Carly that she picked on Freddie mercilessly because she liked him but was afraid of her feelings. Freddie must like her some or he wouldn't hang around the two girls and endure her torment so often. They danced the cha cha for a few more songs until they had it down pretty well and then the couple stopped and immediately went to different corners of the room as far away from each other as they could get and still be in the same room. Carly rolled her eyes. They had been dancing, not boxing. No need to go to your separate corners!