Chapter Text
As the movie they had been watching in the iCarly studio came to an end, Carly Shay looked over to see her best friend, Sam Puckett, fast asleep on her bean bag. They'd decided to watch a movie together after school, but Carly’s older brother, Spencer, had completely taken over the living room with his latest sculpture. The studio was the perfect place for times like these, since they could spread out across their own beanbags and watch whatever they'd like on the on-set TV above the car without disrupting Spencer’s creative process.
Carly frowned slightly at the sight of Sam. Naps weren't uncommon for Sam, not by any means, but she usually stayed awake in the afternoons when the two of them were hanging out. Sam had a habit of napping in class, or falling asleep when they started to watch shows or movies into the night. But the sun hadn't even gone down yet, and Sam was out like a light. Yet, Carly didn't want to wake her, as she knew Sam's mother made things very difficult for her sometimes, and she didn’t always get a ton of sleep at home. Sam didn't share everything, and Carly suspected that sometimes things were much worse than Sam described it, but she didn't pry. Sam would tell her what she wanted to tell her, and Carly knew that. She still loved and supported her best friend however she could, and right now, it seemed like letting her nap was exactly how she was going to do that.
Carly quietly got up, grabbed her phone off the charger, and slipped out of the studio. She opted to take the stairs over the elevator, knowing that it would be far too loud and end up waking Sam up. She checked the time on her phone as she headed down the stairs; it was barely seven in the evening. She sighed as she tucked her phone back in her pocket. She had been hoping to get some writing done tonight for iCarly sketches she had been working on with Sam, but she wasn't sure if they'd actually get around to it tonight.
Carly wasn't exactly worried about it. It was early September, and they still had a backlog of ready-to-go content they had come up with over the summer when iCarly was basically all they had to focus on. She was sure that even if they spent several weeks without coming up with a single new idea, they would have no issue putting on their shows for a while. It's not like they had planned to do that, but, hey, it would be possible.
The first thing she noticed upon entering the first floor of the apartment was that Spencer's sculpture workspace had been broken down, and all of the furniture was back where it needed to be. Neither her brother, nor his sculpture, was anywhere to be seen.
“Spencer?” she called out, peering back and forth around the room. There was no answer, but she did spot a piece of paper taped to the fridge. She headed over to it, getting close enough to read it.
Carly -
I didn't want to interrupt your movie, so give me a call when you see this.
Spencer
Carly pulled her phone back out, and quickly punched in his phone number. It rang exactly three times before he answered.
“Hey! How was the movie?” he asked.
“Hey! It was a pretty good one. Where'd you go?”
“Well, the sculpture client called, and he promised me triple pay if I could get it to him tonight. So Socko and I are on the way to Salem right now!”
Carly blinked. “Salem? You mean the witch city in Massachusetts?”
Spencer laughed. “No, no, Salem, Oregon . Come on, Carly, do you really expect me to start a cross-country road trip without any sort of warning?”
“Uh, kinda? It wouldn't exactly be the craziest thing you've ever done. I mean, you’re leaving the state without warning, so…’
“Fair point, I guess,” he replied with a sigh. “It's a bit further south than Portland, so about three and a half hours from home. Socko and I are gonna get a hotel room once we drop off the sculpture and won't be back until tomorrow. Is Sam staying over tonight?”
“I don't know, probably. She fell asleep during the movie and I didn't want to wake her. I can ask her if she wants to stay the night whenever she gets up though.”
“Good. Yeah, I'd like it if she stayed with you tonight.”
Carly huffed. “You know, we could have just paused the movie, and you could have asked us before you left!”
“It was kind of a last-minute thing. I got the call just as I was finishing breaking down my workspace, and Socko was already coming over to hang out, so it just kind of… happened.”
She pondered this for a moment. Yeah, that sounded extremely like her brother. “Why's the client paying triple for this last minute rush anyways?”
“Not 100% sure, I didn't exactly ask for all the details. This is a repeat client, so I have a hunch. Remember the poodle sculpture I did for that client's wife the week I was obsessed with Pack-Rat?”
Carly laughed a little. “How could I forget?”
“Yeah, it's him again. I guess his job moved him down to Salem, and when he originally commissioned it, he said his wife wasn't thrilled with the move, so he wanted to surprise her with a new piece, since mine always make her so happy. When he called, found out I was done, and tripled the offer to get it down tonight instead of later this week… I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing she’s really upset, and he’s trying to cheer her up. But come on, triple pay . I mean, how could I pass that up?”
"I guess you're right." Carly hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Just promise me if something like this happens again, you'll just tell me before you leave?”
“Alright, alright. I suppose that's fair enough. I didn't get to make dinner before I left, but there's plenty of ingredients in the fridge, or you know where the backup money is for a pizza or something.”
"Yeah. I'll probably try to cook something. Do you know what time you'll be coming back tomorrow?"
Spencer clearly pulled the phone away for a moment and asked Socko a question. "Probably sometime while you're at school, maybe in the early evening. Socko wants to do a couple things around Salem before we leave."
"Alright, just, text me or something when you're heading back."
The siblings exchanged a few more brief words and goodbyes, before Carly hung up the phone. She sighed, shaking her head and leaning back against the counter. She loved her brother immensely, but it was a bit frustrating that he just did stuff like this sometimes. Usually it wasn't leaving her alone all night without warning, and she knew very well that she was fifteen years old and more than responsible enough to handle it on her own. That still didn't mean it felt good to only learn about it after he'd left.
She supposed she should just be grateful he was heading to Salem, Oregon, and not Salem, Massachusetts, like she had worried about for a brief moment.
She shook it off, opening up the fridge. She shuffled around, looking at what food they had. She wasn't exactly in the mood to cook a massive meal, and nothing here was standing out to her. She knew Sam would be perfectly happy with a pizza, but Carly was feeling frustrated, and knew that just sitting around and waiting for it to arrive wasn't going to do her any good. She closed the fridge and headed over to the cabinets, where she found and pulled out the ingredients for pasta.
It was simple enough that she wouldn't feel overwhelmed by making it, but it would give her something to do as she tried to focus her brain away from her brother right now. She put all the ingredients on the counter, and frowned. It was missing something. Carly opened the freezer, and dug around in the back for her hidden gem: a bag of frozen homemade meatballs. She'd had to hide them in a bag of frozen "vegetables" so Sam wouldn't steal them randomly, but Carly always liked to prepare plenty of extra of her homemade meatballs whenever she was making them. It made it super easy to just add to pasta on nights like these, as long as she had enough hidden in her secret stash.
Carly once again looked at the ingredients laid out in front of her, and nodded. This was a pretty solid meal, and she knew Sam would love it. Before she started cooking, she walked over to the radio, which sat on the dividing island between the kitchen and the living room, and turned it on to her favorite station. Once she was satisfied with the music, she got to work on dinner.
Carly took her time making dinner, letting herself feel the music and her brain float away at a few different points. By the time the conversation with Spencer had ended and she finished making dinner, it was nearly 8pm. She decided it was time to go wake Sam, who she was a bit surprised hadn't already come downstairs at the smell of food cooking. She put her pot of spaghetti on a different burner, and turned the active one off, before washing her hands and heading over to the elevator.
She waited patiently for it to come down, and then she rode up to the third floor. If Sam wasn't awake yet, she figured the ding of the elevator arriving would get her. The door slowly opened, and Carly stepped out into the studio, expecting to see Sam still sitting on the beanbag.
Instead, her friend was nowhere to be found.
"Sam?" Carly called out into the room, looking around. The studio door was closed, so she hadn't gone down the stairs. Sam always had a bad habit of not closing it behind her. Her phone was sitting next to her beanbag, right where she had put it before the movie.
"Sam? Where'd you go?" she called out again. Then, Carly saw something a few feet away from the bean bag.
It was a small pile of Sam's clothes.
"Sam?" she called out, panicking a bit more.
She hurried over to the clothes, bending down to get a closer look. These looked ripped, like Sam had hulked out or something and shed all her clothes.
Carly was starting to get freaked out.
"Whatever prank you're pulling, you got me! Time to come out now," she called out, standing up from the pile. Sam was known for pulling pranks at school, or messing with some of their other friends, but Carly wasn't usually the target of these. It would have put her much more at ease if they'd been hanging out with Freddie too when this happened, because if the day of the week ended with a Y, they could assume Sam was pulling a prank on Freddie. But the only people who were supposed to be home right now, besides Sam, were Carly and Spencer. Sam never pulled pranks on Carly, because she knew it would get Carly's anxiety going, and she almost never pulled pranks on Spencer. Sam had once told Carly that Spencer was pretty much the only adult she trusted, and he was one of the very, very few adults in her life who trusted her, so she tried very hard to maintain that with him.
All the more reasons that this current scene was making Carly really uneasy.
"Sam, please come out from wherever you're hiding. You're scaring me."
There was a beat of silence, and then a whimper .
Carly blinked. That didn't sound like Sam. That sounded like… a dog?
"Sam?" Carly called out gently again. "Where-?"
Carly’s voice caught in her throat before she could even finish her question. A large dog was slowly walking out of the little backstage area in the studio, its head lowered down. Something about the dog was very off . It was larger than the average dog, but nowhere near big enough to be a wolf, in Carly’s opinion, and looked like some sort of weird mix between a golden retriever and a husky. It had the body shape of a husky, but the golden colored fur of a retriever. Its proportions were also a bit off. Its paws seemed too big for its body, as did its head. It seemed almost lanky, and mismatched, like a stuffed animal with incorrect parts.
It kept its head down, but looked up at Carly with big, sad eyes. Almost human eyes.
"Where did you come from?" Carly asked, staring. The dog continued to walk towards her, slowly, and Carly began to slowly back up. She'd never seen this dog before in her life, and her brain was running wild.
Was Sam attacked by this dog? Was that why her clothes were on the floor in a ripped pile? But there hadn't been any blood, and Sam wasn’t known to just lay down and take any fight, from human or animal, without swinging back.
Carly decided not to entertain that thought for a second longer. She was standing in a room, with a giant dog that didn't feel quite right, her best friend was missing, and her brother was probably about to cross into Oregon right about now. She needed to focus on getting herself safe.
When the dog saw her backing up, it stopped walking towards her. It flopped down onto the ground, almost like it was trying to look cute. Carly continued backing up.
"Good doggie, you stay right there," she muttered, feeling behind her for the studio door, not wanting to break eye contact with the dog. Once she grasped the doorknob and turned it, the dog let out a pitiful little whine, and covered its snout with its paws.
The thing looked terrified , despite that being exactly how Carly felt herself right about now. She swallowed hard, and let go of the doorknob.
Maybe this was stupid, but she didn't know what else to do. She suddenly felt bad for the thing.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Carly said quietly, taking a step towards the dog. The door had been left open ever so slightly, just enough that she could book it and slam it behind her if need be.
The dog looked up at her and immediately started wagging its tail, the powerful thing thumping hard on the ground.
Carly smiled slightly. "Yeah, exactly. I, um, I'm looking for my friend. She was up here, just a bit ago. About the same height as me, blonde… God, what am I doing?" She buried her face into her hands. "I'm really here talking to a dog right now." She looked up and around again, almost angry.
"Seriously, Sam," she called out, "whatever weird prank or iCarly bit you're filming right now, I'm done with it."
But there was no one else in the room except her and this weird dog.
The dog stood up again, slowly, and took a few more steps towards Carly. It padded down the raised platform at the back of the studio, and stopped suddenly at Sam's beanbag. It laid down next to it, nudging it slightly with its nose, and then put its head on top of its paws, looking up at Carly with those weird sad eyes again.
Carly stared at the dog for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, that's where I saw her last. Sam, that's her name."
She swore that just for a second, it looked like the dog rolled its eyes . She figured her brain must be playing tricks on her, and decided to ignore it. It stood up again, and began walking slowly towards the pile of clothes. It looked up at Carly constantly, as if it was trying to keep its eyes on her too. It made Carly uneasy, but then again, that feeling hadn't really stopped since the moment she walked in and saw the clothes on the ground.
The dog stopped at the clothes, and nudged it with its snout. Then, it sat down suddenly, looking between Carly and the clothes repeatedly.
"Yeah," Carly said with a gentle nod, "those are her clothes."
The dog huffed. It looked at Carly for a few more moments, and then dropped to the ground, rolling over onto its back, rubbing on the ground and showing its belly.
Carly smiled slightly. "Are you… asking to be pet? Sorry, I've never had a dog before."
Slowly and carefully, Carly took a few steps towards the dog. It was still on its back, tongue rolling out of its mouth playfully. She wasn't sure how this was going to play out, exactly, but screw it, it's not like she had any idea what was going on anyways.
She crouched down next to the dog, gently. She held out her hand, trying to let it sniff. Instead, it licked her hand softly and carefully. She didn't know too much about dogs, but that felt… unusually gentle, especially for one this big. Carefully, she reached over and petted its belly, causing its tail to start thumping on the ground again.
After a few moments, Carly withdrew her hand, and the dog slowly turned over on its side. It sat up, very slowly, and looked at her with those off-putting eyes.
Carly shuddered, and reached into her pocket. "I should call Spencer…" she muttered.
But the dog reached out and tapped Carly with its paw. Carly jerked her head towards it and looked at it. It slowly moved its head back and forth, side to side.
"Did you just shake your head at me?" Carly asked, dumbfounded.
The dog moved its head up and down this time.
"Is that a yes?"
Another up-and-down.
"Can you understand me?"
The same movement for a third time.
Carly blinked. "Okay, this is insane." She stood up suddenly, the dog still sitting and looking at her. "Clearly, I fell asleep during the movie too, and I'm having some weird dream right now. I'd love to wake up now, brain!"
She stood there, crossing her arms. She'd had very weird dreams before, and once she recognized them, she could usually pull out of them and force herself to wake up. But nothing was happening.
The dog let out a tiny little bark, causing Carly to look back down at it. It shook its head at her.
"Are you saying I'm not dreaming?"
A nod.
"Well, I kind of have to be. Dogs can't understand people."
The dog huffed at her. Had she offended it?
"Uh, sorry? I guess I've just never met a dog that could understand people before."
The dog looked at her for a moment, and then honest-to-God sighed .
"Okay, well, if you can actually understand me," Carly said hesitantly, waiting for another nod from the dog, which she got, "do you know what happened to Sam?"
The dog nodded again, faster this time.
"Okay, can you take me to her?"
The dog hesitated, but then nodded.
"Okay!" Carly said, relaxing her arms. "Take me to her, then!"
But the dog didn't move. It just kind of looked at her, sitting there.
Carly stared at it for a few moments before throwing her hands up in the air and sighing. "This is pointless. I'm talking to a damn dog right now."
The dog barked at her, although quietly. She looked at it, and shook her own head. "You realize how insane I look right now, right?"
The dog nodded.
"Great. At least the dog that can understand English knows I'm losing my mind too."
The dog shook its head at her.
"Oh, please, I'm definitely losing my mind." Another head shake. "I'm talking to a dog right now!" she exclaimed.
The dog shook its head again.
"I'm not? But we're clearly communicating."
A nod.
"I don't understand how I'm not talking to you then."
The dog huffed, lifting up a paw and touching its own face.
Carly just stared blankly at the dog. "I don't understand."
The dog, very slowly, touched its face again.
"Okay, well, am I talking to you, at least?"
A nod, faster this time.
"Are you not a dog then?"
The dog stood up, tapping its feet happily and wagging its tail as it nodded rapidly. Carly took a step back, nervous from the sudden movement. The dog, er, not-dog , she supposed, noticed the step back, and sat back down immediately. Its tail kept wagging, at least.
"Okay, so, you're not a dog."
Another nod.
"What are you then?"
The not-dog stared blankly at Carly. It rolled its eyes again, or at least, that's how she was interpreting this bizarre eye movement it was doing. If it could understand her, and it wasn't really a dog, maybe she shouldn't be expecting the communication one would get from a dog.
"That's not a yes or no question," Carly thought aloud. "Okay, so, let me see if I'm getting all of this right. You can understand me-,"
A nod.
"-you're not a dog-,"
Another nod.
"-you know what happened to Sam-,"
A nod.
"-but you can't take me to her."
The not-dog shook its head at her.
"No? But I asked you to, and you just sat there…"
The not-dog huffed again, and stood up. It began to walk, a faster pace than before, as it trotted past Carly and towards the studio door.
"Hey! Where are you going?" she called out, but the not-dog didn't stop. It used its nose to push the door open more, and headed directly towards the stairs. It bounded down, going much faster than Carly could safely.
"Hey!" Carly called out again, following it down the steps. It stopped at the second floor, and padded over towards Carly's bedroom, the door to which was closed.
It sat directly in front of the door, and pawed at it. It looked over its shoulder to see Carly entering the second floor, baffled.
"Is she in my room?" Carly asked.
The dog huffed, but then slowly nodded. Carly reached above the not-dog and opened the door, well aware that she had to definitely be losing her mind by this point. She thought she’d already lost her mind once before, when she had that weird dream-but-maybe-not-a-dream about that Christmas angel, Mitch, last Christmas. She’d tried to explain to Sam once what had happened, but by the end, Sam was so concerned about Carly’s mental well-being that Carly did her best to play it off as a dream. And, admittedly, she’d probably have to do that again here, since Mitch had also insisted that it wasn’t a dream when she met him.
She followed the not-dog inside her room, but yet again, Sam was nowhere to be seen. The not-dog walked right up to a standing mirror in the corner of the room, and sat down in front of it.
"Sam's not here," Carly said, looking around confused. "Why'd you lie to me?"
The not-dog shook its head in the mirror, and then leaned forward, tapping its nose against the glass.
"But she's not here!"
Another tap on the glass.
Carly stared at the not-dog, who was looking at her with those strange eyes through the mirror. "I don't understand what you're trying to say," she admitted, softly.
The not-dog just stared at her, which made Carly feel awful. Everything about this not-dog felt so off , and it made her feel like something horrible had happened to her friend.
"Where's Sam?" she asked again, pleading. Tears began to well up in her eyes. This was so overwhelming.
At the mention of the word Sam , the not-dog leaned forward again, tapping the glass with its nose.
Carly felt frustration welling up inside her. She'd just told the not-dog she didn't understand what it was doing, and it did it again!
"Sam, please ," she called out into the room, whipping her head around, desperate to find some sign of her friend.
The not-dog tapped repeatedly on the mirror, standing up as it did it now. The movements were faster, more urgent.
"Stop doing that!" Carly yelled, tears breaking through and rolling down her face. "I don't understand what you're doing, I don't know what you are, I'm really freaking out right now, and I just want to find Sam!"
The not-dog lowered its head, and then looked around the room.
Carly sat down on the ground, burying her head in her hands and starting to sob.
The not-dog whimpered lightly, but then kept looking around the room. It saw something sitting on the desk, and then walked over to it. Gently, it put its front paws on the edge of the desk, and delicately grabbed the object with its mouth. It walked over to Carly, and sat down next to her. It whined, pawing at her leg gently.
"What?" Carly snapped, pulling her head up to look at the not-dog. "What do you have?" she demanded. It gently placed the object down on the floor: a framed photo of her and Sam.
The not-dog tapped the side of the photo with Sam in it with its paw, and then tapped its own face with the same paw. It did this a couple of times, looking up hopefully at Carly as it did so.
"Oh my god," Carly whispered, finally making the connection the not-dog seemed to have been trying to do the entire time. She looked straight into its eyes, and asked, "Sam?"
The not-dog nodded rapidly, its tail thundering on the floor again.
Carly stared at the not-dog for a few more seconds. She felt a sudden rush in her head, and before she knew it, everything went dark.
The first thing Carly felt when she came to was something warm and a little wet. She blinked, groaning. There was a soft woof near her ear that pulled her back into the moment.
Standing next to her, nudging and licking her face, was the not-dog.
"Sam?" she asked quietly, still laying on the floor of her bedroom.
The not-dog nuzzled her with its snout, which Carly took as a confirmation.
Slowly, Carly sat up, her head pounding. She held a hand up to it and groaned.
The not-dog, er, Sam , took a step back and sat down close to Carly, but not on top of her. She nudged Carly with her snout, her not-dog eyes pitiful.
"Is it really you?" Carly asked again, still holding her head.
Sam nodded, and then slid down to lay on her stomach. She gently placed her head in Carly's lap.
" Shit , Sam. This is insane. You know that, right?"
Sam nodded, gently lifting her head off of Carly's leg and putting it back down.
Carly stared down at her best friend, who was currently a not-dog laying her head in her lap. For a second, she started to feel the rush again, and slammed her hands into the ground, trying to steady herself.
Sam jumped up, looking concerned by Carly’s sudden movements. Gently, she nudged Carly over until she was laying on the ground again.
"Thanks," Carly said softly, laying on her side so she could look at her friend. Sam laid down near her, placing her head on her own front paws this time and observing her.
"Okay, so, this is a lot ," Carly began, earning a nod from Sam. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
Sam looked at Carly blankly.
"Right, right. Yes or no questions only." Carly sighed, shaking her own head a bit. "Okay, so, will you be able to change back to Human Sam?"
Sam nodded.
"Will that happen tonight?"
Sam shook her head.
"Tomorrow?"
Another nod.
Carly hummed. She wanted more information, but had to ask the right questions to get it. "Is it something you can control?" she asked, but figured she already knew the answer.
It was confirmed when Sam shook her head.
"But you are in control of yourself right now, you just can't change back, right?"
A nod.
"Okay. Okay." Carly took a deep breath. "Is there a specific time tomorrow when you'll be able to change back?"
Sam nodded, looking around the room. She spotted something, stood up, and walked over to it.
Carly sat up again, slowly, feeling much more in control of herself now too. She watched carefully as Sam sat down in front of a part of the wall, and looked up at Carly's calendar pointedly.
"My calendar?" Carly asked, to which she got a nod. "I don't understand what that has to do with any of this."
Sam huffed again, and padded back over to Carly. Gently, she nudged her until she stood up, seeming to pause and make sure Carly was able to stand up in the first place. Sam led Carly back over to the calendar, constantly checking over her shoulder to make sure her human friend was right behind her.
Carly stared at the calendar, confused. It was a standard wall calendar, one themed to their webshow. They'd been given three last year from a fan, one for each of the main trio. She'd been using it ever since, mostly just to check off the days and make note of important events. Her eyes scanned the calendar, trying to understand what Sam was telling her, but Carly shook her head.
"I don't get it," she said simply, looking down at Sam.
Sam huffed again, pacing back and forth for a moment. Suddenly, she stopped, and sat down promptly on her hind legs. She threw her head back in the air, and let out the quietest little howl Carly had ever heard.
"Woah, woah, let's not alert the whole building that there's a dog in here!"
Sam gave her a look.
"Not-dog, sorry, whatever!" Carly threw her hands up in the air, frustrated.
Sam stood up again, and walked over to the window in Carly's room. She pointed at it with her snout, and then sat back down and did an even softer howl than before.
"Okay, you're trying to tell me something with that, yes?" Carly asked, desperate to get Sam to stop howling, even as quiet as she was.
Sam nodded.
"Okay, calendar, howling, window…" Carly muttered, looking back and forth between the window and the calendar again. Suddenly, something on the calendar caught her eye. A small piece of information printed on several of the days throughout the month that she had never particularly paid attention to before. Curious, she headed over to the window, opened it, and looked up at the night sky.
Just as the calendar had listed, a full moon was rising above the Seattle skyline.
“A full moon,” Carly said, looking back at Sam. “You changed with the moon.”
Sam was doing the excited tapping dance again, her head nodding as her tail wagged. Carly was finally piecing it together.
“Like a werewolf ?”
Sam nodded again, still happy tapping.
“My best friend’s a werewolf,” Carly said, as if somehow repeating this fact would make it any less insane to her.
Sam nodded yet again.
“What bizarro children’s sitcom am I living in?”
Sam huffed, sitting back down and looking at Carly.
Carly closed her window, before turning back towards Sam. “Okay, so, you’re a werewolf, and I’m assuming you’re stuck like that until sunrise, right?”
Sam responded with a nod.
“Okay, well… I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to do from here. What do you normally do when there’s a full moon?”
Sam thought for a moment, and then mimed a few activities. First, she lightly gnawed on her own front paw for just a moment. Then, she chased her tail in a circle. She finished up by curling up into a little ball, and closing her eyes for a few seconds. She sat back up, looking at Carly.
“Eat, play, and sleep?” Carly guessed, which earned her a nod. She smiled. “Okay, I’m not bad at wolf charades.”
Sam snorted lightly before walking back over to Carly’s desk. She put her paws on the edge again, but this time, instead of grabbing anything, pointed her nose at a different photo: one of Carly and Spencer. Sam looked over her shoulder to make sure Carly was watching her, and then got off the desk and pointed her nose at the ground, before looking back up with a tilt of her head.
“Are you asking if Spencer is downstairs?”
Sam nodded.
Carly smiled. She really was getting good at this. “No, he’s not. He left for Salem a couple of hours ago.”
Sam’s eyes went wide.
“Salem, Oregon! Not Salem, Massachusetts!” Carly suddenly exclaimed, causing Sam to snort. Sam tilted her head again, a clear question of, Why ?
“Apparently, the sculpture he was working on earlier is for someone down in Salem. He got a call from the client offering him triple pay if he could deliver it tonight, and well, he was finished, so he and Socko are heading there now.”
Sam stared at her for a moment, and then shook her head lightly. She then began to walk out of the room, Carly following closely behind. This time, she didn’t feel the need to call out a question Sam couldn’t answer, and instead, just followed her down the stairs to the main floor.
Sam padded over to the kitchen, where she sat down, looking at Carly.
“I’m guessing you want to tackle the first thing on your full moon activities list, huh?”
Sam nodded, her tail thumping.
“Well, I prepared a meal for us, but I’m not sure how much you want to eat spaghetti and meatballs as a wolf…” Carly looked at Sam, waiting for a response. She watched as Sam moved her shoulders up and down once. “Was that a shrug?”
Sam nodded.
“Let me see what else we have,” Carly said, passing Sam to head over to the fridge and freezer. “I’m assuming meat is a safe bet,” she muttered to herself, pausing to look over her shoulder. But Sam had followed her, and was now sitting at her side. Sam looked up at her, and nodded vigorously.
Carly smiled, opening up the freezer. She pulled out a container of raw ground beef. “Will this do?”
Sam stood up, spinning in a circle happily as she nodded repeatedly.
“Alright, let me defrost it.” Carly poured some hot water into a pan, and dropped the packaged meat inside. “It should only take a few minutes for it to not be frozen , at least.” She looked down at her friend, who was still sitting patiently at her side, tail thumping on the ground. “Is this why you always eat so much meat?”
Sam nodded sheepishly, her tongue rolling out of her mouth a little.
Carly shook her head with a smile. “Makes sense.” Carly went to reach down, but then stopped for a moment. “Is it weird if I pet you?”
Sam huffed, and shook her head. She bumped her forehead into Carly’s outstretched hand, a bit like a cat would. Carly smiled and scratched behind Sam’s ears, which caused her to wag her tail some more. This continued for a couple of minutes, until Carly pulled back to check on the meat. Using tongs, she removed the package of meat, and touched it, determining it was defrosted enough to offer to Sam.
“Is this good, or should I put it back in?” Carly asked, holding the package down to Sam’s level. Sam touched her nose to it and licked the package, which Carly giggled at. “I’ll take that as it’s good.”
Sam nodded at that.
Carly pulled out a big plate, and opened up the package of raw meat. “Do you want the whole thing?” she asked, without even bothering to check to make sure that Sam was actually nodding before dumping the whole package on the plate. When she turned back around, Sam was glaring at her. “I’m kidding! I know you well enough!” She held up the empty package with one hand, and Sam relaxed again, standing up and walking over to the kitchen table.
“I don’t know about having you eat on the table, Sam.”
Sam huffed again, and sat down pointedly next to Carly’s usual chair. She nudged the floor near it, which Carly took as an invitation to put the meat down there. Carly did exactly that, expecting Sam to immediately dive in.
Instead, Sam looked up at her, pointedly.
“Oh, water!” she guessed, heading back over to the sink and filling a large bowl with water. She placed it down next to the plate, and then expected Sam to dig in. When her friend still didn’t move, Carly asked, “What?”
Sam huffed, and tapped Carly’s chair with her nose. She then looked over at the stove, where the pot of spaghetti still sat.
“Oh! You want me to eat with you!”
Sam nodded, rolling her eyes a little.
“Listen, I’m trying here, okay?” Carly said with a little laugh, heading over to the kitchen and getting herself a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. She paused for a moment, and grabbed a few extra meatballs on a separate plate. She carried them back over to the table, and put her plate down first before putting the meatball plate on the ground next to Sam’s ground beef plate. Sam looked up, eyes wide and tail thumping.
“Yes, those are my special meatballs. I made them for you anyways, so I didn’t want them to go to waste.”
Sam’s tail thumped against Carly’s chair, causing it to shake a little as she sat down. Carly laughed. “Alright, alright. Let’s eat!”
Carly dug into her spaghetti, trying to ignore the noise of Sam literally wolfing down her meat. That in and of itself wasn’t unusual when it came to Sam, but typically she was sitting at the table. As a human. Eating with at least her hands, not just her mouth.
At least Sam was very happy with the plain raw meat and the extra meatballs. Carly privately wished she had some better meat in the house, feeling like plain ground beef had to be a pretty sad excuse for a wolf’s meal. Then again, she knew Sam usually ate better at the Shay house than she did in her own apartment, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as she normally had.
“Wait, Sam?” Carly asked, something dawning on her. Sam looked up, confused, mouth covered in meat. “Do you normally do your full moons in your apartment?”
Sam nodded, sheepishly.
Carly stared at her, blankly. “Is your mom a werewolf too then?”
Another nod.
“And Melanie?”
Another nod.
“How did all three of you fit in that apartment as wolves?”
Sam sighed, and shook her head.
“You didn’t?”
Another head shake.
“These are tomorrow questions, aren’t they?”
A nod.
“Sorry. I’ll let you get back to your food.”
Sam tapped her head into Carly’s leg, careful not to get any meat on it, before going back to her plates. Carly smiled softly, taking that as a kind gesture, and continuing with her spaghetti herself.
To the surprise of no one, Sam finished well before Carly did. Sam spent the time grooming herself, by rubbing the meat and sauce from the meatballs off of her snout with her paws, and then licking them clean. Carly watched her for a few minutes after finishing her own food, curious at her friend’s habits. Sam noticed her watching, eventually, and looked up at her.
Carly nearly jumped when Sam made eye contact. “Sorry!” she exclaimed, picking up her plate. “Just amazed by all of this, is all.”
Sam snorted, and went back to cleaning herself.
Carly picked the two plates off the floor, which had been licked completely clean. The water bowl was nearly completely empty, so she asked before she took it. She got a nod, so she brought everything back over to the counter. She put the dishes in the sink, and then scooped the leftover spaghetti into containers. Normally, there wouldn’t be leftovers, since Sam would usually just finish whatever was left in the pot, but it seemed that wolf-Sam only wanted meat. Perhaps human-Sam would eat the leftover spaghetti tomorrow as an afternoon snack.
When Carly had finished cleaning up the kitchen and loading the dishwasher, she found Sam sitting and staring at her a few feet away.
“Okay, so activity one is done. What’s next?”
She knew the answer, but she kind of just wanted to see Sam act out play again. It was very cute, watching her chase her tail in a circle. Sam did exactly that, and then looked up at Carly.
“Right, play,” Carly replied with a smile. “I don’t think we have any dog toys laying around…”
Sam huffed, turning up her snout.
“Not-dog toys, right. Wolf toys?”
Sam snorted and looked back at Carly normally. She nodded a bit, but not too intensely.
“What do you normally do to play?”
Sam chased her tail again, but only for a few seconds.
“That seems like that gets old pretty quickly.”
Another nod.
Carly thought for a moment, looking up towards the ceiling. “I think I’ve seen some tennis balls in Spencer’s storage boxes. Would you like one of those, or is that, like, demeaning?”
Sam’s tail wagged against the floor, and she nodded. Carly laughed lightly, shaking her own head at her friend. “Let’s see what we can find.”
Carly led Sam over to the storage shelves just outside of Spencer’s room, where she began opening each one and peeking through. He had acquired plenty of stuff over the years, and often used the spare items for sculptures, so it wasn’t like he had any hoarding problem or anything. His bins got cycled through pretty frequently, but he always had a few staples on hand. Like tennis balls. Because, for some reason, tennis balls were a staple in his chaotic art style.
Sam began sniffing the lower bins, her ears moving back and forth as she sniffed the outside of each one. Carly spotted this out of the corner of her eye, and looked down at her, curiously. “What are you doing?”
Sam ignored her, moving over to the next bin to sniff it. Suddenly, her ears perked straight up, and she sat down, tapping the box with her nose.
Carly bent down, and opened up the box. It had a handful of fresh packages of tennis balls sitting right on top. She looked at her friend. “You smelt those?”
Sam nodded, giving Carly a weird look.
“Okay, I mean, I guess that makes sense. Do you have super smelling even when you aren’t a wolf?”
Sam tilted her head back and forth, not quite as deliberate as her “ No ”s had been.
“Is that a ‘sort of’?” This got a nod in return. Carly nodded herself, pulling a pack of tennis balls out of the bin before closing it and standing back up. She tried to rip it open there, but the packaging was hard. “Let me get some scissors."
But Sam jumped up on her hind legs, gently gripping the package in her mouth. Carly blinked at this, and released the package. Sam trotted back towards the living room, Carly following close behind.
Sam sat down near the couch, and began to rip the package open with her mouth. It took her only a few seconds to completely remove a tennis ball from the hard plastic tube, and began squishing it in her mouth happily.
“Damn, your teeth must be sharp ,” Carly muttered, looking at the destroyed remains of the top of the tube. Sam gave her a look, squishing the ball some more. “Yeah, yeah. I’m stating the obvious, I know, I know.”
Sam huffed, standing up and bringing the ball over to Carly. She dropped it at her feet, and then looked up.
“Do you want me to throw it?”
Sam nodded.
Carly bent down, picking up the ball. It was still wet, which made Carly cringe a bit, but she supposed that made sense. She reminded herself again that this was normal for dogs, and wolves, she supposed, and she just wasn’t used to this because she had never had one. She looked around the room, trying to get the clearest path to throw the ball down. There was a pretty straight shot towards the fridge, so she tossed it that way.
Sam bounded across the room, grabbing the ball and bringing it back. She dropped it at Carly’s feet again, looking up and wagging her tail.
Carly smiled, shaking her head. “This is still insane. Just a reminder.”
Sam snorted, looking back down at the ball. Carly reached down, picked it up, and threw it again. This repeated several times, Sam gleefully chasing after the ball and squishing it in her mouth as she returned, only to drop it directly at Carly’s feet. Carly couldn’t stop herself from smiling, as watching Sam play fetch was equal parts absurd and adorable. Her friend’s happiness was infectious, between the way she bounced as she chased after the ball and the way her tail hadn’t stopped wagging since she’d touched the tennis ball.
After the seventh or eighth throw, Sam went to drop the ball at Carly’s feet, but it broke in half. Sam’s tail stopped wagging, and she looked down at it, sadly. Carly giggled, picking it up. “I think you might have chomped a little too hard with those fangs of yours.” Sam looked up, glaring at her for a moment. Carly shook her head. “Well, what are you waiting for? The rest of the ones in that package are over there!” she exclaimed, gesturing to the tube Sam had ripped open earlier.
Sam looked up, tail wagging happily, eyes wide, head tilted. Carly gestured again with a nod. “Go ahead. We might as well use the whole tube if that’s how fast you burn through these. Spencer’s got plenty more.”
Sam bounded over towards the tube excitedly. She managed to get the next ball out, and ran back over to Carly, squishing the ball much gentler in her mouth this time. As soon as she dropped the ball at Carly’s feet, the game resumed.
They continued this for a while longer, Sam destroying a total of three tennis balls, although it was taking her longer and longer to do so each time. The fourth and final tennis ball in the tube was dropped in front of Carly when she finally started rolling her shoulder.
“Do you mind if we call it here for now? My arm is killing me.”
Sam nodded, gently picking up the ball in her mouth and bringing it back over to the storage bins. Carly laughed lightly, and shook her own head. “Why don’t you keep that one? You just gotta be gentle with it.”
Sam’s tail wagged happily as she walked back over to Carly.
“I’m thinking maybe we get ready for bed, and I’ll put on an episode of a show or something?”
Sam nodded, ball still in her mouth.
“Uh, do you need water upstairs?”
Sam shook her head.
“Okay, good. Um… what about going outside? To like, use the bathroom?”
Sam shook her head again.
Carly blinked at that. “You don’t have to go outside?”
Another head shake.
“But you, like, always use the bathroom before bed.”
Sam nodded.
Carly looked at her friend pointedly. “Sam, you cannot just use the bathroom on the floor.”
Sam huffed at her, and turned around to head up the stairs.
“Sam!” Carly called after her, but she knew it was no use. Sam headed straight for the second floor, and then sat down patiently outside of Carly’s bathroom.
Carly stared at her. “Sam, I swear to god, if you use the floor…” There was another head shake, and so Carly opened the bathroom door with a sigh.
Sam dropped her ball outside of the door, and slipped inside. She nudged it close to shut, but not all the way.
“Do you want me to wait out here?” Carly asked, feeling rather silly.
There was a single, soft bark.
“Do that again if that’s a yes.”
Another single, soft bark.
“Got it.”
Carly stood there, staring down at the tennis ball on the floor. What on Earth was happening to her right now? Her best friend, who is a werewolf, is currently in her bathroom, insisting she’s not going to use the floor.
Her head jerked up as she heard a very distinct sound, the sounds of the toilet being actively used.
Carly stared in disbelief at the almost-closed door until the sound of the toilet flushing went off. A few moments later, Sam pushed the door open with her nose, and sat down in the middle of the hallway. Carly peeked into the bathroom, noticing that the floor was completely clean, and the toilet seat had been left completely up.
“How… you know what? Tonight’s been weird enough. I’ve officially decided I don’t want to know how you did that!” Carly threw her hands up in defeat, fully entering the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
Sam snorted, picking up the ball again. She walked into Carly’s room, giving her human friend her turn in the bathroom. She sat in the middle of the floor, waiting patiently for her to return. A few minutes later, Carly entered, still eyeing Sam suspiciously. Sam placed the ball on the ground, turning around to face away from Carly and her dresser.
It took Carly a moment to realize that Sam was giving her privacy to get changed. Carly scrambled, pulling out a set of pajamas and changing quickly. Once she was done, she called out, “All set.”
Sam turned back around, and stepped over towards the platform that Carly’s bed was on. Carly had already sat down on the bed, and was fishing through the blankets for her remote. Sam gently tapped Carly’s leg with her snout, and then the bed.
Carly looked at her, confused. “I don’t get it.”
Sam huffed again. She put her front paws on the edge of the bed, and then tilted her head.
“Oh! Yeah, of course you can come up here.”
Sam rolled her eyes, and then jumped up fully onto the bed. She spun in a little circle, settling down onto what was always her half of the bed when she had a sleepover. She aimed her face at the TV, and plopped her head down onto her paws.
Carly smiled slightly at this, and finally found the remote. She turned on the TV, and began flicking through the channels. “I’m assuming you still don’t like the Nature Channel, even as a wolf?”
Sam gave her a pointed look.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I know you better than that.”
Sam huffed, turning back towards the TV.
Carly settled on a rerun of a sitcom they both liked. She looked to Sam for confirmation, who nodded once, so she settled back into bed.
They watched a couple of the reruns, before Carly started to hear soft snoring. She looked over and saw that Sam’s eyes were fully closed, and she had fallen asleep.
Carly carefully got out of bed and turned off the lights. She crawled back into bed, underneath the covers. Once she settled down, she felt Sam get up and move a little, and then press up against Carly’s body. Sam laid her head down on Carly’s chest, bringing a little smile to Carly’s face.
“Goodnight, Sam.”
Sam responded with a very quiet bark of her own. Carly closed her eyes, a smile still on her face, as she and her werewolf best friend drifted off to sleep.