Summary - When Freddie is given an essay to write entitled "What is Love?" how will he react when he reads his work aloud to his English class and finally realises how he feels for a certain blonde headed demon?

Disclaimer - I don't own iCarly. I also don't own the rights to Firefly, Pushing Daisies or Freaks and Geeks, because if I did they would have NEVER BEEN CANCELLED. Ahem. On with the story...

A / N - New story, wahoo! *dances* I hope you guys like it! So this is how it's going to work - after this chapter, every chapter will start with a line from Freddie's essay, "What is love?" and the chapter will then describe a scene between Sam and Freddie relating to that line; there will also be a month, year, and how old they are at the time the scene is set, so you know what's going on in the grand scheme of things (Does that make sense?)

A big massive HUGE thank you to SeddieBenett and the lovely (seddie is epic 73) for co-betaing, and to my girl Forwoodx3 for all the support and words of encouragement, you guys are AWESOME SAUCE! Here we go, I give you 10 Things iHate About You! *cue flare guns*

Freddie looked up from his extensive notes as the bell rang, signalling the end of class and the conclusion of a long Friday afternoon. Like the rest of his peers, he began packing up his books and assorted pieces of stationary, stuffing his copy of Romeo and Juliet as far into his bag as he could, hoping it would never see the light of day again. He had never looked forward to a weekend so much in his life; a blissful two days of hanging out with Carly and Sam, planning the next iCarly together and possibly playing on the new World of Warcraft expansion pack. Speaking of his favourite blonde, he glanced over at Sam, who had started sitting next to him in English class since the start of junior year. She was fast asleep, with her head slumped on the desk and her arms lying across the front with her hands hanging off the edge; the only sign of life being the soft sound of her breathing. Freddie shook his head and smiled. Of course.

"Before you go, everyone," Miss Jones, the class' teacher called out, "A small piece of homework for the weekend."

A collective groan went around the room, and Miss Jones let out a small chuckle before quickly saying, "Don't worry, it's not going to be worth anything on your final grade. To link up with our work on Shakespeare, I just want you all to write a piece entitled 'What is love?' for our class on Monday; it can be an essay, a poem, whatever you like. I may ask a few of you to read your pieces aloud, so be prepared. See everyone then!"

Freddie sighed, and picked up his bag to leave the class. Of course he would get an essay in the last lesson of the day; it seemed his relaxing weekend now had some minor road bumps before he could enjoy his carefully organised plans of doing, well, absolutely nothing.

Grinning at Sam's current state, he nudged her leg with his foot, causing her to lazily open one eye at look up at him.

"Class over?" she murmered almost incoherently.

"Why else would I be waking you up?" Freddie joked, to which Sam replied with a half smile and an over-exaggerated sigh. She slowly sat herself up, stretched, and grabbed her bag, before getting up to stand next to Freddie.

"Did I miss anything exciting?" she asked as they wandered out of the room, their sides bumping against each other amiably.

"Well, we have to do this piece of homework on-"

"NYEAH."

"Come on, Sam, this stuff is important!"

"I asked for something exciting, not important, nub," Sam told Freddie sarcastically, as she reached into her bag and pulled out a fat cake, "How on earth is homework exciting?"

"We have to write an essay or poem on what we think love is," Freddie replied quickly, ignoring her previous comment. This outburst caused Sam's head to snap up and look at him in surprise, momentarily distracted from her beloved fat cake, which consequently made Freddie's own face flush slightly. Why was he blushing, he thought to himself, confused, it wasn't like he and Sam hadn't talked about love before. Just yesterday they had been bantering with Carly about the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. Whilst their brunette friend had found to whole thing incredibly romantic, Sam and Freddie had rolled their eyes and scoffed at the pair of love birds. Was that really what love was, they had discussed, chuckling, wanting to kill yourself if you couldn't be with person of your dreams? It had all seemed rather morbid to them.

Freddie glanced back to Sam at this point, and tried to imagine his life without the crazy blonde headed demon, not that he was comparing them to Romeo and Juliet, of course, just because he was curious. It would be different, he couldn't deny that, and he was sure he would be able to find some way to go on without her, but would he want to? He'd miss her pranks, her dry wit and sarcastic humour, not to mention her constant need for food and insane, completely random, well, Sam-ness for lack of a better word. Smiling to himself, Freddie shook his head at this odd thought; when would he ever have to live a life without Sam? He was almost certain that he was now officially stuck with her for the rest of his life; she'd be his or Carly's lazy room-mate at college, and the crazy aunt to his kids. No, he wouldn't be losing her any time soon, a fact that not only didn't surprise him but also rather pleased him; because what kind of life would he have without Sam?

"Oh," Sam said softly, looking down at her shoes awkwardly. When had talking to Freddie about homework become so awkward, she thought nervously, they had talked about love before, right? Except back then, it was usually about Freddie's undying love for their best friend, Carly, and for the past few years discussing that with the nub had made her stomach churn; the suicidal birds inside it going crazy, though she had no idea why. Thankfully, his confessions of love had died down recently. In fact, they were pretty much non-existent now.

"OK," said Sam, coming out of her thoughts and trying to change the subject, "Well, you knew I was never going to do that."

"Yeah, I know," Freddie babbled, wanting to diffuse whatever weird tension was going on between them, "But I thought I'd let you know anyway, just in case. People can change, Puckett, believe it or not."

Sam laughed, and before stuffing the fat cake in her mouth, replied, "Not me, Benson, change is definitely not on the table for me."

Freddie laughed with her, glad to have returned to their usual banter, and began arguing with Sam about the importance of school and the future while she yelled random names of different meat products in an attempt to change the topic. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Freddie waved goodbye to Carly as he opened his front door and walked through, slamming it shut behind him and tossing his keys on the table. The trio usually did some brain-storming for the web show after school, but Sam had to drive her mum to the doctor's office (Freddie really didn't want to know the reason why) and Carly and he had tons of homework to do for Monday.

Freddie was glad his mother wasn't home yet to demand he take his weekly tick bath, as it gave him the chance to get a head start on his English essay before she got back from her shift at the hospital and began her cleanliness rampage in all her crazy glory. Slumping down at his desk, Freddie got out a pad and pen and got ready to blitz through the piece of work as quickly as he could, but the more he thought about the essay question the more engrossed in the work he became. What was love? And who should he base his work on - his mother, crazy though she may be, he definitely did love her. He briefly thought of his best friend Carly, but quickly dismissed that thought; he hadn't thought of her like that for years now, and whatever feelings he had had for her had now transformed from an innocent school boy crush to completely platonic, almost sisterly love.

He loved Spencer; in a manly, older brother kind of way, but writing an essay about that crossed many strange barriers he never thought he'd ever reach. As Freddie listed through the other people in his life in search of a possible candidate for his essay, Gibby (too weird) T-Bo (even weirder) Nevel (the level of weird just flew right off the scale) his mind couldn't help but wander back to a certain beautiful blonde he had been trying to eradicate from his thoughts all afternoon. Finally giving in to himself, he considered the possibility - writing an essay about Sam and, love? Scoffing to himself, Freddie quickly decided to write a general piece on love instead and had soon hunkered down and got to work, all the while ignoring the blonde headed demon that was currently running through his thoughts, refusing to give up her rightful place in his mind and, though he would never admit it, in his heart.

A / N - There it is, sorry it's so short! I have to apologise now for what will be my infrequent updates, as I do have school and other crazy commitments to keep up with, but I promise to try and upload a new chapter at least once a week - bear with me guys! Let me know what your favourite pars were or what you liked, or disliked, by reviewing... Until next time, Adios!

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~ Mim