Chapter Text
iSaw Him First: September 2008
“Good meeting today, guys,” Freddie said to his AV club members once the meeting ended. Before he left, one of them came up to him with a concerned expression.
“Hey Freddie.” The kid pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Do you know what happened to Shane? He’s got the code for our project and I haven’t been able to reach him through the phone.”
Freddie winced, thinking back to yesterday, when he had accompanied his two friends to visit Shane in the hospital. Leave it to Carly and Sam to somehow ruin one of his only other friendships by fighting over him and failing to tell him the elevator wasn’t working when he fell into the shaft.
“Uh, Shane probably won’t be at school for a while,” he responded, not wanting to give the full explanation. “I’ll get an extension on the deadline for you, and I’ll see if I can get through to him for the code.”
“Sounds good, thanks. See you tomorrow, Freddie.”
He made the short walk home alone, Carly and Sam having left an hour ago, when school ended. But it didn’t take long before he had company again, because when he walked into his room, Sam was already there.
She was sitting against his headboard, his pillow propped up to support her back. She had what Freddie recognized as his leftover lasagna from Pini’s in her hands as she watched a Celebrities Underwater rerun on his TV.
When she saw him walk in, her gaze went from him to the lasagna, then back to him.
“Oh… hey, Fredbag. Hope you didn’t want this lasagna anymore.”
“I—what—why…” He tripped over his words, taking in the scene before him. “How’d you get into my apartment?”
“Picked the lock, doofus,” she replied, taking the last bite of lasagna and putting the empty container on his bedside table. “Where’ve you been, anyways?”
“I had an AV club meeting, where I had to explain to someone why Shane wasn’t there,” he said in an accusing tone, making her smile sheepishly.
“Yeah… maybe not one of me and Carly’s best ideas.” Rolling her eyes, she paused the show and stood up, turning to leave. “Well, I’ll leave you to your… whatever nerd stuff you do in here.”
“Woah, wait a second,” he said, stopping her from leaving. “Care to explain why you’re just in my apartment before I’m even home?”
She shrugged. “Carly and Spencer aren’t home, so I knocked on your door hoping I could try out my new slingshot on you,” she explained, pulling a small slingshot out of her back pocket. “But neither you or your mom were home either, and I remembered you saying something about going to Pini’s yesterday after we visited Shane at the hospital, so I came in to steal your leftovers.”
He sighed, dropping his backpack beside his desk. “If it was anyone else, I’d be surprised,” he told her. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck, and he whipped his head around, yelping in pain.
Sam was holding her slingshot up and doubled over in laughter. “Gotcha! Man, this baby works better than I thought it would. See you, Fredweird.”
With that, she left the room, and he heard his apartment door slam shut. As per usual, she had him wondering how the two of them became friends… or whatever they were.