A/N: Hey readers! Sorry it took so long to update, I had some writers' block. Enjoy!
"So, we all agree we're going shopping today and tomorrow will either be outside decorating or starting the baking," Rachel stated as she exchanged glances with Jo, Stephanie, and Camille. With the guys around, it was going to be a long week and a half until the big day.
"But, if one of us goes missing in our two groups, we agree not to go searching for at least ten minutes so we don't ruin any surprise presents," Kendall spoke up, his leadership instinct turning on as the groups assembled and sat on the couch before he pulled down a map of the mall.
"Uh, Kendall?" Logan interrupted before Kendall could even start speaking.
"What?" Kendall asked when he turned to face Logan. The darker-haired boy was giving him an odd look and he wanted to know why.
"Where did you get that?" Logan voiced his question, getting a sudden flashback.
"Wait, Katie!" Kendall said. Katie looked at her older brother and waited for him to continue. "Where'd you get the white board?" he asked.
Katie looked sheepish as the scene played in her head:
Mr. Bitters walked through the lobby, munching on French fries. As he passed his row of white boards, he noticed one was missing and almost choked on his French fries.
Ah, good times, Logan thought to himself while waiting for Kendall to answer his question.
"Um, I know a sixteen-year-old named Katie Knight?" Kendall responded as more of question to Logan's own question. He didn't even know how Katie got it, he just asked her for a map and she had gotten him this huge one.
Meanwhile, at the palm Woods Hotel
"Has anyone seen my jumbo-sized map of the Los Angeles Mall?" Mr. Bitters called out as random objects flew from his office as he tried to find the map he had bought from the mall and used every Christmas since his first one with Big Time Rush to buy presents.
Back at the BTR House
"Say no more," Logan replied to his friend's answer. If you knew Katie, that was…well, that was all you needed to know.
"So, back to the plan!" Kendall said loudly. "After half an hour of shopping together, boys and girls will break off into two groups in order to get stuff done faster. We meet in the food court around 7:30 and make plans from there," Kendall finished.
"FOOD COURT!" Carlos shouted with a happy smile.
"Agreed," everyone gave an affirmative nod to Kendall's plan.
"Wait!" Jo spoke up for herself and Rachel, who had curious looks on their faces.
"What?" Kendall asked as he turned to look at them.
"How many cars are we taking? We have to fit us and a bunch of presents and if Carlos is getting Gustavo what I think he is, we need a dump truck to fit everything," Jo explained. Kendall stared at her, open-mouthed.
"How about we take two cars and if we need more, two of us can drive back here and pick one up," Logan suggested, taking initiative from Kendall's silence.
"That's exactly what I was about to say," Kendall grinned, embarrassed.
"Great idea, Logie," Camille smiled at him.
"Alright, as Gustavo would probably say, let's MOVE OUT!" Kendall shouted. Everyone made a beeline for the cars. All the boys piled into Logan's convertible and the girls climbed into Rachel's Murano. A moment later, they were all off to begin shopping.
Forty-five minutes of no progress later, everyone had split off into groups to actually get some shopping done. Well, they were trying to, anyway.
"Carlos, what are you doing?" Logan yelled as Carlos came running at him with a giant stuffed reindeer. Just as Logan spoke, he was knocked down. As James and Kendall jumped in front to try and stop Carlos, they were knocked down in the process of Carlos tripping over his own feet and knocking over a display of light up decorations.
"Run!" Kendall hissed as employees were paged over the speakers. And run they did. They ran right to discount store. They were going to get their shopping done today if it was the last thing they did. It wasn't going to end up like the early morning Christmas Eve sale when Logan had gotten bought.
"Split up!" James yelled as they ran in four different directions.
Kendall walked quickly down the aisles, list of friends in hand. He had a made a list of what to get everyone in case he couldn't find anything else. About three hundred dollars later, he finally had gifts for everybody.
James wasn't really having a problem since he had all his gifts already at home, but when he was milk chocolate Cuda bottles, he couldn't resist buying them for everybody. He figured it was a pretty good deal. He only paid twenty dollars for ten people, each getting two gifts. He saved the rest of his money for Rachel's gift, which he hurried off to get.
Logan was hurrying in and out of all the educational stores within the mall, trying to find something everyone would like. After an hour and a half of searching and fifteen minutes of resisting a couple of Phoebe Nachee books, he finally gave up and spent another two hours picking out the just right, non-educational gift. Just the thought of it made him cringe as he paid.
Carlos was having a great time shopping. He ran at top speed into the largest chocolate store he could find and realized too late that he was about to run head on into a barrel of chocolate. He slapped on his helmet and hit it dead on.
"WHOO!" Carlos shouted as he came up for air, completely covered in chocolate. This was the best shopping trip ever.
Meanwhile, the four girls were obviously doing much better than guys. They had everything planned out and stuck together as they all picked out their gifts. The only time they separated was in the tempting chocolate store. A they glanced at their watches, they realized they had two minutes to get to the food court all the way on the other side of the mall. Grabbing all of their precious purchases, they raced off, hoping to make the deadline Kendall had set for them.
With only seconds to spare, not only Jo, Stephanie, Camille, and Rachel skidded to a stop in the food court, but so did Kendall, Carlos, Logan, and James.
"Well, that went well," Stephanie grinned at everyone's panting figures and the packages they were holding.
"Logan, you didn't get bought again, did you?" Jo asked teasingly, causing Logan to blush.
"No! But Carlos ran into a barrel of chocolate," Logan protested.
"What?" Camille asked, turning to her chocolate-covered friend.
"It was a large barrel," Carlos pointed out with a smile. Camille shook her head and glanced at Stephanie, who just smiled and laughed.
"That's it!" Rachel announced. "We're spending tomorrow indoors, baking. Not protesting," she added as the boys opened their mouths to say they should go trash can sledding.
"Rachel is right, we need to bake," Jo agreed, glaring at Kendall, who quickly shut his mouth and nodded. James laughed at him until Rachel smacked him in the head.
"They're right, we're already behind because we didn't realize until yesterday that there were only twelve days until Christmas," Camille explained to the boys. The four of them still had 'Do we have to?' looks on their faces, so Stephanie spoke up.
"There will be bowls to lick and desserts to test," she grinned. Kendall's, Carlos's, Logan's, and James's faces lit up with delight as they raced to the car, thinking if they hurried up and got to bed now, the morning would come faster and they could be in baked goods heaven. The four girls followed with amused grins on their faces.
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a new helmet for Carlos.
On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two Phoebe Nachee books for Logan, and a new helmet for Carlos.
A/N: I am so so so so sorry I haven't updated in forever! I don't really have a good excuse except for writer a little writer's block, so I'm sorry. Please forgive me and review!