Has anyone noticed the serious lack of stories being updated the past few days? I'm not sure how many stories were updated for other people but I've only gotten like 5 updates in the past 4 or 5 days. It's like the whole BTR archive is on vacation.

Theme 49: Stripes


"GUYS!" Logan shouted one evening when he came through the door "YOU WON'T BELIEVE THE OFFER I JUST GOT!"

James, Kendall and Carlos all looked at him from the couch. "Camille took you back?" Carlos asked, earning a slap upside the helmet by Kendall.

Logan ignored Carlos's comment and took a seat next to Kendall on the couch and a big giddy smile spread across his face. "You guys know how the PalmWoods has an annual doctors' convention right?" he asked.

"Yeah," the other three said.

"Well, one of the pediatricians asked if I wanted to be his assistant. He said I can start tomorrow." Logan said.

"That's awesome man," James said and high-fived him.

"So you're working with kids?" Kendall laughed. Logan nodded "Try not to scare them." Kendall said.

"Hey," Logan said "I'm great with kids. I just have to occupy them, like your mom always says."

"But last time you did you scared the little boy away," Carlos said.

"Well that a while ago. I'll just come up with something to occupy the kids." Logan said.

"Like what?" Kendall asked.

Logan was silent for a minute. "I'll come up with something." He said then went off to his room and locked the door.

Logan took a seat at his desk and looked around his room. Most of the toys they kept in the apartment were Carlos's, and those were strictly his, so he'd have to make his own toy. He looked towards his dresser and saw a sock hanging out of Kendall's dresser and got an idea. He was going to make a sock puppet.

Logan grabbed the sock that was sloppily hanging out of the dresser and took it back to his desk. He took a look at it and tried to decide what kind of puppet he could make out of a plain white sock. He thought for a minute then opened one of the drawers at his desk and pulled out a black sharpie. Logan started to draw some stripes on the sides then there was a knock on the door.

"What?" Logan asked.

"Why'd you lock the door?" Kendall's muffled voice was heard from the other side "I need to sleep too you know."

"Sleep on the couch of something. I'm busy." Logan said. He heard Kendall angrily moan from outside the door and no response. He went back to carefully drawing stripes on the sock, making sure they were perfect.

A couple hours later he finished perfecting the stripes then noticed it needed eyes, ears and arms. He looked around the room again and couldn't find anything to use so he decided to go into Mrs. Knight's room to get her sewing kit. He opened the door and slowly and quietly maneuvered through the living room and past Kendall, who was sleeping on the couch. He opened the bedroom where Mrs. Knight slept and grabbed the sewing kit, under the rocking chair, and went back to his room without waking anyone up. Once again he sat at his desk and finished his puppet.

Next morning Logan woke up to the sound of his alarm clock buzzing in his ear. He fell out of his chair and then rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

Logan stood up and picked up the sock puppet he made last night. He thought it was a good looking zebra. The eyes were sewed on perfectly, the pipe cleaner hands were as decent as pipe cleaner hands could possibly be, and the stripes were perfect. He smiled and quickly threw on some clothes then picked up his zebra to show the guys.

"Hey guys," Logan said.

"Hey," the other three responded.

"Get a good night's sleep?" Kendall asked, but before Logan could answer Kendall bitterly said "I didn't because I had to sleep on the couch, which, by the way, isn't comfortable."

"He's in a bad mood." Carlos said. Logan nodded and sat down.

"I have a brilliant plan." Logan said holding up his sock puppet.

James and Kendall gave him confused looks while a big smile spread across Carlos's. "What is that?" James asked.

"What does it look like? It's a sock puppet to entertain the kids today. His name is Stripes." Logan said.

"Make him talk." Carlos laughed.

"Hello Carlos." Logan made the puppet say, causing Carlos to laugh harder.

"Good luck not scaring kids with that thing." James said. Logan scowled at him then his wrist watch beeped telling him it was time to go.

"See you guys later," Logan said then him and his sock puppet left.


Logan met Dr. Braun at the pediatrician clinic and was just waiting in the break room to see him.

"Hello Logan," the doctor greeted him.

"Hello Dr. Braun. It's so exciting being your assistant today." Logan said with a smile.

"That's good to hear." The doctor said "Follow me to see our first patient." Logan's smile got bigger and he excitedly followed Dr. Braun into a cute little room with pictures of animals and toys were scatters across a counter. A little boy was sitting on top of the table and his mother was sitting in a chair, reading a parents' magazine.

"Hello Mrs. Black, I'm Dr. Braun and this is my assistant Logan." They both shook the lady's hand. "And you must be Billy." He said to the boy with a smile.

"Yes," the little boy said.

"Okay Billy, today we're just going to make sure you're healthy. Logan can you hand me the blood pressure meter?"

"Sure," Logan said and dug around in the bag of doctor utensils. "Here you go," he said as he handed him the instrument.

Logan paid close attention to everything Dr. Braun was doing. He took mental notes of how he was using his tools and interacting with the patient. He also made sure Dr. Braun had all of his instruments. He also observed every once in a while what Dr. Braun was writing down.

"I'll be right back," the doctor said after an hour of looking at how healthy Billy was. Dr. Braun bent down to Logan's ear and whispered "I'm going to get his shot, keep him busy for a minute or two."

Logan nodded and thought this was the perfect chance to use Stripes. "Hey Billy," Logan said and approached the boy.

"Hi," he said with enthusiasm.

"Want to meet someone special?" Logan asked.

"Okay!" the boy said.

Logan pulled the sock puppet out from behind his back and used his goofy puppet voice. "Hi Billy!" the little boy giggled "How are you today?"

"Good," the boy giggled.

"Well your day is about to get better Billy, want to know why?"

"Why?" Billy asked.

"You're going to get a shot today?" 'Stripes' said excitedly.

Billy's smiled quickly faded away and tears started to run down the boys cheeks. "What?" the boy cried. His mom looked up from his magazine.

"Aren't you excited to get a shot?" Logan asked in his normal voice. As a kid he loved getting shots, they made him feel healthy and to top it off he always got a sugar free sucker and a sticker.

"I don't wanna shot!" the boy cried. His mom put down her magazine and went to hug Billy as he started to cry harder.

Billy tried to squirm out of him mommy's grasp and Logan was waving Stripes in his face trying to calm him down. Dr. Braun soon came back with the needle and saw the chaos going on in the room.

"What's going on here?" he asked Logan.

"Just give him the shot now!" Billy's mom ordered.

Eventually Dr. Braun got the shot injected into the little boy and he got his sugar free sucker and a sticker, but he wasn't happy about it. Billy and his mom both left the doctor's office.

"So, how'd I do?" Logan asked when he was with Dr. Braun in the break room.

"Logan, maybe you aren't ready to assist a pediatrician." Dr. Braun tried to break the new to Logan easily "I think you should be done for the day."

"Oh, okay." Logan said then exited the room and went outside. He walked to his car and drove home.

When he got home the guys were all watching TV on the couch, being lazy bums. "You're home early," James said.

"Yup," Logan said and hung out his coat.

"So what happened?" Kendall asked.

"Stripes ended up scaring a kid instead of making him happy." Logan said and plopped down next to Kendall.

"That sucks," James said. Logan rested his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. He was so frustrated.

"Well if you can't be a pediatrician then you can always be a dentist Logie," Carlos said "They're made to scare kids." Kendall slapped Carlos upside the helmet again "What? I'm just saying."

"You'll get it next time buddy," Kendall rested his hand on Logan shoulders.

"For the kids' sake I hope so." James said.


A/N: LOL that was fun! My sister helped me out with that cuz "Stripes" is such an incredibly hard theme. I seriously spent I think 2 days thinking about it until I asked my sister for help.