Big Time Surprise

Chapter 3

Carlos Has a Brilliant Idea

I don't own Big Time Rush. Just for fun. Enjoy.

Carlos sat on the couch playing a video game with James. The two had just finished looking at acts they could get for Kendall's birthday party. They had it down to two; the husband/wife team that could swallow swords that were lit on fire and the contortionist acrobats. Carlos liked the fire sword couple and James liked the acrobats. They were waiting for Logan to be their tie breaker.

"I'm kind of bored with this game James, where's Logan? I want to decide on an act right now," Carlos said.

"He's still in his room," James said.

Carlos noticed that James was looking at his hair in the mirror that he kept with him. "Dude, we've been in the apartment all day. No one has seen you."

"But somebody could see me if they came up here. I need to be ready for the possibility of girls showing up at any moment," James said.

Carlos gave him a funny look but knowing James's track record with girls it was pretty likely that girls would just randomly show up. "I'm going to find Logan," Carlos said as he stood from the couch and walked over to the bedrooms. James gave an inaudible reply as Carlos walked away.

Carlos stood at Logan's closed door. He thought it was strange that it was closed because Logan usually kept it open when he wasn't sleeping. Carlos knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. There was no answer. He was sure Logan was in there. He stood in the hall trying to think if he saw Logan leave. He decided he hadn't and he slowly opened the door.

"Logan?" He called out.

"Carlos?" Logan said.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure." Logan said.

Carlos opened the door and slowly walked in. He saw his friend sitting on his bed with his laptop open and a bunch of books spread around him and a large notebook open on his lap. Logan was furiously writing things down as he clicked on the laptop and flipped through books at the same time. Carlos knew this Logan. It was the "I'm freaked out about a problem that I can't solve with my brain" Logan.

Carlos moved some books and sat on the bed facing Logan. He noticed Logan give him a small glare after he had moved the books inches from their original positions so he had room to sit. Carlos dismissed it. It wasn't a look they saw often and Carlos knew it wasn't personal. It was just Logan when he was really frustrated about something.

"What are you doing, Logan," Carlos asked.

"I'm doing research," Logan said as he scribbled like mad in the notebook.

"About the party? Cause James and I have a couple ideas we like. We were going to ask you to be the tie breaker," Carlos said.

"It's not for the party," Logan said.

"Okay. But we only have today to put the party together. Kendall's birthday is tomorrow. We need to find a place to have it and we need to get decorations and we need to get music and we need to get an act that will be super fun and crazy. I think we should go with the couple that can swallow swords that are lit on fire; James wants to go with acrobats. We had acrobats at the last party we threw!" Carlos said.

Logan mumbled a reply that Carlos couldn't understand even though he was less than a foot from his friend. He wondered if his hearing was going.

"Logan, what are you researching if it's not for the party?"

"I'm trying to find statistics on when people start dating officially," he said, his eyes never leaving the computer screen.

"Why?" Carlos said.

"Kendall told me I should just make it official with Camille and now I feel weird that I'm resisting so much. Why am I being so resistant? She's a cute girl who likes me. I should just say yes. So, I'm trying to see what I can find about dating. I've spent all this time trying to filter out the internets version of dating. It turns out its way more advanced than what we're talking about," Logan said.

"Right… but Kendall's birthday? Remember. He's turning 17 and we're having a party. You promised you'd help," Carlos said.

"I know. I will. I just need a little time to figure out how I'm going to ask Camille out. She'll want it to be some spectacular thing," Logan said.

"Logan, you don't…" Carlos tried to say but Logan was too focused on the computer in front of him. Carlos shut the computer and grabbed it from Logan's reach, "You don't have to start dating Camille just because Kendall and Jo are dating. You can take it easy for a while if that's what you want to do. Just be yourself," Carlos said staring down his friend's angry look. Logan could give the best death glare when he was disturbed during research.

"You sound like Kendall now," Logan said as he reached for the computer.

"Well for all his preachiness, he's right," Carlos said. "If you start acting like Kendall then you aren't going to be you. You'd be some mix between you and Kendall and that's just scary to think about. A leader who actually knows stuff, we'd never have any fun at all," Carlos said. He gave a small laugh and before he could react he was knocked off the bed by Logan.

He got up from the floor and saw Logan had reopened the computer and continued his research. Carlos knew this was a losing game.

"Well since you are busy I guess I'll do all the work. I'm going to go find a place to have the party since Bitter's won't let us use the pool or Palm Woods lobby," Carlos said as he walked out of his friend's room.

Once in the living room again, he found James joined by Katie and Ms. Knight. He hadn't told them about the surprise party. He figured this was as good a time as any.

"So, Logan's out of planning Kendall's birthday. He's too preoccupied with something else," Carlos said to James.

"What's a guy got to do to get help from his friends now a days?" James said shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"He was the brains. The one who was going to invite all the guests and get a place to have the party, now I have to do it. We know how well it worked last time for me to be in charge of the guest list," Carlos said sitting on the couch next to Katie.

"You could always have it here and actually only invite one person each. It would be simple. Kendall would bring Jo, Logan would bring Camille, you would bring Stephanie, and James could bring Kelly," Katie said.

"Why would I bring Kelly?" James asked.

"I think she's fun," Katie said.

"That's true. And I'd rather have her here than Gustavo," James said.

"Wait, that's it! Gustavo! I could ask him to use the studio again. He let us do it for the school dance," Carlos said.

"And then we could invite more than one person each," James said.

"I know this is a surprise party but are you sure Kendall wants a lot of people there? Don't you think he might like to just have a small gathering with you guys?" Ms. Knight said.

"That's not a party Ms. Knight, that's a normal night," Carlos said.

"But he has been spending a lot of time with Jo. Maybe he would like a night that was just hanging out with you guys," Ms. Knight said.

"I think he'd like a big party with loud music and a couple that can swallow swords that are lit on fire," Carlos said.

"I thought we were getting the acrobats?" James said.

"Well since Logan's out of it, I get to make the decision," Carlos said.

"That's not fair. We're planning this party together!' James said.

Carlos saw James check his cell phone. "I'll see you later buddy, sunscreen girl wants to hang out,' James said as he rushed out of the apartment. Carlos heard him say hello to someone in the hall and then he watched Camille enter the apartment.

"Girl want to hang out?" Camille said.

"Yeah," Carlos said.

"Is Logan here?"

"He's in his room," Carlos said.

"Great, I'll just go and talk to him then. It should only take a minute," Camille said as she started to head back to his room.

"I don't like the idea of you and Logan together alone in his room, I'll go get him,' Ms. Knight said as Camille took a seat next to Carlos.

"So, you guys are throwing Kendall a surprise birthday party?" Camille said.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Carlos asked.

"Jo told me. James asked her to keep Kendall busy this week. That's why they've been so into each other lately," Camille said.

"Oh. That explains so much. I knew she didn't really like him that much!" Carlos said. Camille gave him a funny look. "I mean I know she likes him but she's never been the type to keep him so preoccupied. She's usually been great about giving us our guy time," Carlos said.

Ms. Knight walked back into the room with Logan behind her.

Carlos looked at Camille and then Logan and he saw the determined look on Logan's face that he only got when he was about to do something he was sure was going to go exactly as he planned.

Carlos jumped up form the couch, "Can I talk to you, Logan? It'll be really quick, I promise."

He pushed Logan into the bathroom.

"What? I was getting ready to ask Camille out," Logan said.

"You can't," Carlos said.

"Why not?" Logan said.

"Because… because I asked her to be my date to the party and she said yes," Carlos said in one quick breath. The look on Logan's face made Carlos think that he was going to hit him. Carlos wasn't sure what he should say and as the two stood in the small bathroom they heard a knock on the door.

"Hey guys, I really need to use the bathroom. Are you almost done?" It was Kendall.

Authors Note: I apologize. I have no idea where this is going. Thanks for checking it out. I really appreciate it. Thanks for all the reviews and to the people who have taken my Big Time Rush poll on my profile. Thanks again for reading! New BTR next Saturday. It looks good!