M A S K S 001

"She paints her face to hide her face. Her eyes are like deep water. The rest is shadows. The rest is secret."

"The heart dies, a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves . . . until one day there are none. No hopes, nothing remains. She paints her face to hide her face. Her eyes are like deep water. It is not for geisha to want. It is not for geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances. She sings. She entertains you, whatever you want. The rest is shadows. The rest is secret."

Sam's light blue eyes stared at the scene playing out in front of her, on a simple television screen, no less. Usually during days like these, she would be sleeping, head on her desk, far away from the real world that waited for her, the kind of world that she had to face. And if anyone else knew about that world, nothing would ever be the same. This movie that for some unknown reason Ms. Briggs decided to play for her class, had caught Sam's attention for a reason that she herself couldn't even understand. She had not fallen asleep, not once throughout the entire movie, which was starting it's conclusion. Sam felt Carly look over, probably seeing whether or not she was awake, just to make sure. Carly was like that, always looking out for Sam, no matter what. Sam glanced over to her right to find Freddie, eyelids drooping, head held high due only to his hands keeping him upright, a bead of saliva starting to drip from the corner of his mouth. She smiled to herself and focused her attention back to the movie. The main character, a Japanese girl named Sayuri, and her love interest were standing on a bridge, just talking. This girl had done everything she could to enter into his world, had given up her entire future, just so she could be somewhat closer to him. Sam was usually somewhat repulsed by these girls; girls who would give anything to be with one guy, a guy who probably would leave them for the next cheerleader who waved her pompoms, or something else in their face. Even though her best friend was one of them. But Sam didn't care, as long as she wasn't one as well, and as long as she got to beat the pulp out of the guy if things didn't work out between himself and Carly. She gave a little side glance to her left to find Carly, staring wide-eyed at the screen, hands clasped together, cheeks flushing a bit. And just in that moment, the handsome Japanese man on the TV screen and the beautiful geisha were kissing. Sam had of course expected it, movies never showed the girls who worked for what they wanted, and ended up broken, empty-handed, and deserted. This never happened to the pretty, skinny girls who could work a mini-skirt, or who would even wear a mini-skirt. Sam of course never would, not after what happened with Pete. She couldn't pretend to be someone she wasn't like that again. Lights suddenly woke Sam from her thoughts. She heard a thud as Freddie's head hit his desk in surprise to the bright lights. She chuckled to herself, only loud enough so that she could hear. She tried to stifle her laughter as he fixed himself, wiping his drool from his mouth, rubbing his eyes to make them look at least somewhat open, lightly smacking his cheeks to make it look and feel like he had been awake the entire time. Ms. Briggs took her time getting to the center of the front of the room. A sweet smile seemed to be carved into her face, which seemed somewhat suspicious to Sam.

"Wasn't that lovely? This movie is one of the best movies of all time," Ms. Briggs sighed a sigh that only a lovesick teenage girl could have. Sam didn't even have to look around the room to know that at least half of the people in that room had raised their eyebrows to that statement, either in utter disbelief, or the fact that Ms. Briggs liked something that didn't have to do with her Scottish ancestry or Randy Jackson. Sam had raised hers to the latter of the two.

"You're probably wondering what the point of watching that movie was? Well, you will write an essay on what you gained from it, due in two weeks! And if anyone does not have their essay in that time, they will get a goose egg for a grade!" Ms. Briggs snapped. Sam sat back in her seat a bit further. The sudden change from the sweet lovelorn Ms. Briggs to . . . well the way Ms. Briggs is the rest of the time, surprised Sam. Who could change their emotion that quickly? Apparantly Ms. Briggs could.

With those final words from Ms. Briggs, the bell rung, signaling school was over for the day. The rest of the class scurried out as fast as they could, rushing to leave the classroom to get to their sports, video games, girlfriends, whatever it was that kept them sane. However, Sam took her time gathering her belongings. She, for some reason, wasn't in a rush to get home, or over to Carly's apartment for that matter. Carly and Freddie waited in the doorway for her, questioning looks slowly rising upon their faces. Sam would've been at least one of the first five to leave the classroom, never the last. Today had been different for Sam; that much was obvious, and Sam wasn't the only one who realized this.

"What's with you today?" Carly asked when Sam met them in the doorway.

"What do you mean Carls?" Sam gave her an inquiring look.

"You usually are one of the first ones out of school, not the last. Last week you pushed Gibby into a bookcase to get to my apartment for that leftover ham! What's different today?" The three of them started walking down the somewhat deserted halls to the front door that held the crisp autumn air, color changing leaves, and the tiniest hint of rain.

"I don't know, I guess I'm just tired . . . or something." Sam could only look ahead. She knew perfectly well why she was acting the way she was. And it wasn't technically a lie, but there was no way that Carly could understand why she was tired and why the movie had shone a little light that held some of the darkest places.

"Well when we get to the apartment you can sleep in my bed or something. I'll wake you up for iCarly rehearsal." A mental smack upside the head struck Sam as a sudden strike of realization washed over her.

"I can't go to rehearsal tonight . . . I have to go to Wendy's to work on a project. It's for math." Sam could only stare straight ahead. Even though lying came easy to Sam, it killed her to lie to the people closest to her.

"What kind of project would you have to do for math?" Freddie wondered out loud. Sam shot a mental flaming arrow at him.

"I don't know that's why I'm working with Wendy." Sam hostilely replied in the way she always spoke to Freddie, rude and crude. But as strange as it was, Freddie never seemed to care about Sam's hostility towards him; in fact he, for the most part, accepted it with open arms. It was a part of who they were, as Freddie and Sam, Sam and Freddie.

"All right, all right." Freddie held up his hands in surrender. At this point the three of them were almost to Bushwell Plaza.

Sam forced herself to give a smile as she heard Lewbert's familiar shrieking a few yards away. The walk to the plaza was quiet, which was unusual for the three of them. There was always something to talk about, or at least a sarcastic remark somewhere. But today, a unknown tension hung in the air. The three of them walked through the doors of the plaza, running up the stairs before a loud noise stopped them in their tracks.

"HEYYY! Stop bouncing pickles down the stairs early in the mornnnning!" Lewbert screeched at the three of them.

Carly, Sam, and Freddie gave each other looks before running up the stairs to somewhat avoid Lewbert's hideous shrieking once again.

"I'll tell that man where he can shove pickles," Sam grumbled.

"Sam, I thought we talked about this," Carly smiled at her friend.

"Yea, yea I know, it's not nice to act violently towards people who are violent towards you first," Sam looked down at her feet.

"Oh right, like Sam -" Freddie was cut off by Carly and Sam's disapproving looks.

Carly giggled to herself, "Come on, Sam needs ham."

"Yes, Mama needs her ham!" Sam sprung through the doorway, a new energy building inside her as she immediately ran towards the refridgerator. Grabbing the meat in her small hands, she felt a sense of warmth. This was how it should be. Sam, coming home with Carly and Freddie, raiding Carly's fridge, and doing iCarly, but it wasn't anymore; Sam had a job to do.

"Sam? Something wrong?" she heard Carly say. She could also feel Carly's eyes burning holes into her back, but she didn't turn around. She had been standing at the open fridge for a minute or two, with ham in hand. Staring at the ham, she realized that she couldn't be there. She couldn't do this to them, make them worry like this. Grabbing her bag, Sam left, without looking back.

A/N ~ Well that was strange of Sam, don't you think? Let me know how my very first fanfic's going by sending me a review or even a message would be fine. M A S K S is the first part of a 4 part series so there's a lot to unfold! I don't have a clue how long this will be though, we're just gonna have to find out. I'm horrible at planning and usually don't follow it anyway, sooo . . . yea. But again at least me send me a review, because I can't make my story better if you don't tell me how it is first! Part 002 will be ready for next Sunday! Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! I'm done rambling now, bye! ^_^