Disclaimer: Honestly, if I owned ANYTHING, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction right now?

The lazy days of summer were drawing slowly but surely to a close, and Sam, Freddie, and Carly were spending one of the last remaining Thursday afternoons of summer out on the town. The sun shone brightly, beating down relentlessly; the air was thick with humidity, and the heat in the air was almost visible, wafting up from the scorching concrete sidewalk in waves that made the air appear hazy. Normally, Carly, Freddie, and Sam would be holed up in the iCarly studio on a day like this, the air conditioner running full-blast to combat the stifling heat, playing Guitar Hero or some other mindless game to pass the day. Today, however, they had opted instead to spend their time outdoors, making the most of what little remained of Summer Holidays.

"It's kind of strange, isn't it?" Carly mused aloud to her two best friends, breaking the previous silent spell, as they all lay on their backs atop towels on the concrete nearby the Wave Pool of the amusement park, allowing the sun to dry their bodies. Sam lay to her left and Freddie to her right. Sam was wearing a green and white polka-dot bikini, while Carly was wearing a solid red one. Freddie was shirtless and wore a pair of black swimming trunks with white trim; all three wore large, dark sunglasses to shade their eyes from the onslaught of the afternoon sun.

"Yeah, I know. The fact that Sir Nubsalot here didn't wear cloud block today totally weirded me out too!" Sam responded without missing a beat, smiling a devilish grin to herself as she lay on her back with her hands behind her head, her eyes closed beneath her sunglasses. She never missed an opportunity to torment Freddie; in fact, it was her favourite pastime. She relished the fact that she could elicit such a strong emotional response from cool-headed, rational Freddie Benson. "I would have thought he'd be afraid of getting a cloud burn."

"Sam-" Carly started wearily.

"Hey!" Freddie responded angrily, sitting up violently in his irritation. Carly sighed loudly. She should have known that the peaceful atmosphere was too good to last.

"That was only one time," he continued furiously, "and I ONLY said that to keep my mother from seeing the tattoo that YOU made me get, which, I'll remind you, the doctor discovered was fake only after causing me extreme pain in an attempt to remove it!"

As the words left his lips, both Sam and Carly began laughing uproariously at the memory. Freddie's face turned a deep shade of red.

"Whatevs, Fredwad." Sam said finally, wiping here eyes as her peals of laughter faded into chuckles.

"Nyeh!" Freddie exclaimed angrily, flopping back down forcefully onto his towel. Carly continued chuckling for a few moments before she spoke again.

"In all seriousness, though, I just can't help but feel weird right now. It's so hard to believe that we're already going into our last year of high school. Doesn't that freak you guys out? Knowing that soon everything's gonna change?"

Carly's question hung heavily in the air for several long, silent moments. Senior year. It was something they'd all been thinking a lot about lately, even if they hadn't spoken of it much. Change was something they all feared; even the fearless Samantha Puckett. They feared the inevitable uprooting of the safe, certain life in which they had all become so comfortable.

Finally, when she could stand the silence no more, Sam piped up. The inevitability of the end of high school and, essentially, life as she knew it, was something she didn't like to talk about, much less think about. She wanted more than anything to pretend that it wasn't going to happen. So, she decided to change the subject.

"Come on. Let's go to the food court and get some lunch. Momma's starved." She said, jumping to her feet and collecting her towel and backpack.

"Uh...aren't you going to go change first?" Freddie asked, eying her bikini skeptically. Sam rolled her eyes, rummaged through her knapsack for the dry denim shorts she'd stashed there, and pulled them over her bikini bottoms.

"Alright, I'm ready. Can we go now?"

Freddie and Carly just shook their heads, laughing. Following Sam's lead, Carly pulled on her khaki shorts and white tank top over her swimsuit, while Freddie pulled his navy blue Cuttlefish shirt over his head. Then they all grabbed their belongings and headed in the direction of the food court.

As soon as they reached the food court, Sam, Freddie, and Carly went off in opposite directions to different food places, agreeing to meet at a shady table on the edge of the food court. After about fifteen minutes of waiting in endless lines, the three finally converged back at their chosen spot.

Freddie and Carly had both bought light, sensible lunches; Carly had bought a chicken ceasar wrap and ice tea with a small side salad, while Freddie had opted for a cold-cut assorted sub loaded with veggies and a lemonade. Sam, on the other hand, had gone all-out; her huge plate was piled with French fries smothered in gravy, a huge bacon double cheeseburger with extra bacon, a one-litre bottle of Dr. Pepper, and two packs of fatcakes.

"What?" Sam asked defensively, realizing that Carly and Freddie were staring at her food. "I'm hungry, okay?"

"I hate to be the Voice of Reason here, Sam-"

"Then don't. Freddork!" Sam growled back.

"-But are you sure it's a good idea eating all that greasy, heavy food before we go on the coasters?"

"Don't worry 'bout momma, Freddikins; my stomach can hold it's own. No ride on this planet can make me puke."

Sam grinned at Freddie as she sank her teeth ravenously into her bacon double cheeseburger.

"SAM!" Carly exclaimed as she, Freddie, and Sam stepped off the Polar Express. Carly was holding her hands up in the air in disgust, afraid to touch her shirt, while Freddie was holding up a very green looking Sam.

"What?" Sam asked weakly, the nausea she was currently feeling written all over her face, "It's not my fault Freddork was right about eating greasy foods before going on rides!"

"Well it IS your fault that you puked all over me!" Carly stated, annoyed.

"Speaking of puking-" Sam, hit with yet another wave of nausea, stumbled over to the nearest garbage can and began violently throwing up what was left of her stomach contents. Freddie and Carly were left alone.

"Ugh, what am I supposed to do now," Carly groaned, gesturing toward the vomit covering her shirt, "Walk around all day smelling like half-digested cheeseburger?"

Freddie smiled slightly, even as he wrinkled his nose at the foul stench of Sam's vomit.

"You know, it might help us to get to the front of all the lines."

Carly tried to look outraged, but was unsuccessful in her attempts to hold in her peals of laughter. If it had been anyone else saying that, Carly would surely have been appalled. But it wasn't anyone else. It was Freddie. She always seemed to hold him to a different standard than other people.

"Be that as it may," She said, a small smile gracing her soft features, "I don't know if I could handle the stench all day."

"Why don't you just walk around in your bikini top?" Freddie suggested, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"You'd just LOVE that, wouldn't you?" Carly asked him, rolling her eyes. Freddie responded with a wink. Carly responded by smacking him lightly on the arm.

"What can I say? I'm a guy. I'm entitled to be a little pervy once in a while."

He and Carly shared a moment of quiet laughter, followed by a long moment of silence, broken only by Sam heaving into the garbage can.

Then, without warning, Freddie began to pull off his shirt. Carly watched in astonishment, confused.

"What are you doing, Freddie?" She asked absently, mesmerized as the blue cotton of the shirt was peeled away to show his tanned, toned stomach muscles. Her eyes followed the flow of the fabric as it softly caressed his chest, then disappeared altogether as it was pulled up and over his head.

"Here," He said, holding out the balled-up shirt to her, "Take my shirt."

"Freddie, a-are you sure?" She asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, it's fine; I've got plenty of sunblock. Go ahead, take it."

Carly took the shirt hesitantly. She stood and stared for a long, silent moment at Freddie in all his shirtless glory; at his newly toned physique, helped along by puberty and a recent discovery of sports. It had taken all of her strength not to start drooling earlier as they had frolicked about in the wave pool.

But now...now she just couldn't help staring. Maybe it was the way the late afternoon sun caught his body, or maybe it was the fact that she found his sense of chivalry kind of sexy. Whatever it was, though, she couldn't deny the prickly feeling that was present in the pit of her stomach at that moment. The same one she'd felt the whole brief time they'd 'dated' after he'd saved her from that taco truck. The one she could, now that she thought on it, remember feeling a few times in his presence even before the taco truck incident; like when he'd pinned her to the floor the day she'd found out about his kiss with Sam. The one she now felt every time she was in his presence.

It had taken her a while to figure out what it was, but finally, she'd clued in. She'd been astonished to discover, after much soul-searching, that she did, in fact, like Freddie. As in, like, liked Freddie. Maybe even loved him. And it wasn't just his heroism, either; of that, she was now sure. She'd waited for almost two years now for the feeling to subside; it hadn't. If anything, it had only become stronger. And now, looking back on when she'd first met Freddie, she was acutely aware that the feeling had been there for quite a long time now. The taco truck incident had merely opened her eyes to what had already existed. She wasn't sure when exactly it had developed, or how, even, but she was aware that it wasn't going away anytime soon.

She'd just refused to acknowledge it up until now.

She'd thought of telling him how she felt for a long time now. The only reason she hadn't already was because she feared things changing between them. She was afraid that if she'd dated him, then realized that, for whatever reason, what she felt wasn't real, and then things went bad in the end, she'd lose him forever. She wasn't sure she could ever forgive herself if that happened. She needed Freddie in her life, whether it was just as a friend or as something more. But now, 'just friends' didn't seem good enough for her anymore; it was becoming almost physically painful just being around him, knowing that he wasn't hers.

That was how she knew it was real. She was ready, now, to take a chance, to risk it all for Freddie. Her Freddie.

There was just one problem; he had a girlfriend. Jessica. And she was totally, completely, undeniably perfect. She was so perfect that Carly, in all her jealousy, couldn't even bring herself to hate the newcomer that had stolen her Freddie.

"...CARLS!" Freddie all but shouted. Carly snapped back to herself, blushing furiously as she realized that Freddie had been trying to get her attention. He regarded her strangely.

"Oh, uh, sorry, Freddie." Carly stammered, "I, uh, kinda went all space-cadet for a minute there."

"Yeah, I saw..." Freddie responded, his strange look replaced with one of concern, "You okay, Carls? Something on your mind that you maybe wanna talk about?"

"Nah, it's nothing." Carly said, plastering a smile on her face. "I'm just...I'm gonna go get changed now."

"Alright," Freddie responded, not exactly convinced that she was okay, but deciding that it was better not to pursue it at the moment. "We'll be waiting here for you when you get back." He paused, shooting a look over at Sam, who was still bent over the garbage can, and smiled to himself; "Doesn't look like we're going anywhere anytime soon."

AN: Well, this was originally intended to be a oneshot, but seeing as my 'oneshot' turned out to be, like, ten pages and it's only half done, I figured I should probably split it up into multiple chapters. Anywho, so yeah, I will hopefully be updating very soon, although life's pretty busy these days, what with school and exam prep and stuffs. So I hope you'll be willing to meet me halfway and forgive me for taking so long in updating. And I, in return, will (hopefully) give you and in-Creddie-ble story (yeah, sorry, that was pretty lame. I get it from my dad.) So, enjoy my first offering of this story to you avid Creddie-ers out there. I'm hoping I did well, but I'm always overly critical of my own stuffs. Please send reviews; they sustain me!

Cat.