AN: Thanks guys for reviewing, it means a lot!
Chapter 2
Haley knocked on his door an hour later. She was sure that by now he would be pulling his hair out, panicking about how he would get out of this one.
"Come in." Lucas called calmly from inside the room.
She pushed open the door ready to comment on the state of his room, but she was lost for words. There sat Lucas on his bed, reading a magazine in his now tidy room.
"Close your mouth there's a bus coming." Lucas replied not looking up from his magazine.
"How?" was all that she could manage to say.
He looked up at her. "Oh, the room? I took care of it."
"I can see that."
He put down the magazine. "I thought about what you said, and I realised you were right. I do have to learn how to tidy up after myself."
There was a crashing in the bathroom. Haley frowned and started walking towards the room.
Lucas tried to stop her, scampering across the bed towards her. "What I mean is, I'm ready for whatever you have…"
Haley pushed open the bathroom door to find one of the hotel maid's emptying the bin. There were cleaning products next to the sink and a bag of Lucas's washing by the door.
"Helen, what are you doing here, I thought I told you that I would…"
"Save it Lucas." Haley replied. "I'm sorry Helen, but from now on Lucas will be cleaning up his own mess."
Helen gathered her things together and headed for the door.
"Lucas." Haley stated.
"Yeah?"
"Money."
"What?"
Haley turned to him. "You bribed her, pay up."
Lucas sighed pulling his wallet from his pocket. "Here." He said handing her the money.
"I like her." Helen said leaving the room.
Once the door was shut, Haley turned to Lucas whacking his arm.
"Ow what was that for?"
"You know what that was for. I gave you a simple instruction and you couldn't even follow that through. I quit, find someone else to play fairy godmother." She said heading for the door. Lucas followed her, turning her around to face him.
"Wait, wait, okay I'm sorry, but how is tidying my room gonna make me an angel?"
"It was a test, a test to see if you would take me seriously. But we can both see that that isn't going to happen, so I think someone else should help you out with this one." She said reaching for the door handle.
"I'm sorry." Haley was puzzled, it looked like Lucas. "I'm sorry okay, it's just that I've gotten use to the whole movie star life style."
"You're a basketball player." She deadpanned.
"You know what I mean." He guided her to the bed and made her sit; he started to pace the room.
"I mean for so long I've wanted this, to play basketball. It just so happens that this life style comes with it. Can we try this again, please?"
Haley just sat there, an apology and asking for help in the same day, once, was somewhat of a non-occurrence, let alone twice; it took her a moment to get her bearings. Finally she sighed.
"Fine, but this is it." He smiled. "I mean it Lucas, this is your last chance."
"That's fine, great even. So what's next?"
Haley stood up. "You've got a game tonight, why don't you just concentrate on that for now, and I'll make some arrangements."
"You're the boss."
After their sweeping win, the guys made their way back to the locker room. Haley waited for Lucas outside, her planner in hand. He came out with the others who were talking about tonight's celebrations.
"Hey Lucas, we're hitting 'O' tonight, see you about 10pm?" Donavon called.
Lucas was about to tell him to order the drinks when he saw Haley's face. "Ah you know what, I think I'll skip it tonight."
"Wow, coach really has you scared. Or is it someone else?" he asked looking at Haley, then taking a step back as she gave him the same look she had given Lucas.
"I just don't feel like it tonight. But you guys go, have fun."
"Ah we will, don't you worry about that." Donavon replied, as he and the rest of the team left the court.
"Wow, I'm amazed." Haley said looking to Lucas.
"Why, because I turned down a night out with the guys, our last night in New York, I might add."
"No, I never thought I could scare Donavon." She joked.
"You can be very intimidating when you want to be." Haley only looked at him. "This not being one of those times." He said taking a step back.
"So what's the plan? The guys are going to be having fun, what will I be doing?"
"Sleeping." Haley said leaving the court.
"Sleeping? Haley, come back. Sleeping?" he called running after her.
"Sleeping?" He asked as their driver took them back to the hotel.
"Sleeping." She nodded.
"Why?"
"Because, every morning that I wake you up, you always want to stay in bed. You go to sleep earlier; you can stay in bed longer. Plus while 'the boys'," she said making air quotes with her fingers. "Are nursing hangovers in the morning, you'll be thankful."
"Huh." Was all that Lucas could say, she did have a point.
When they reached the hotel Haley opened the door and they climbed out.
"Why do you do that?" he asked puzzled.
"Do what?"
"Open the door, that's what the driver is paid for."
"No, the driver is paid to drive. Besides he has to get out, walk all the way around the car to open the door, only to have to go all the way around again to get back to his seat."
Lucas only looked at her. "What?" she questioned.
"Nothing. So what's the plan for tomorrow?" he asked.
"Tomorrow we head back to LA. And I have some ideas in the works for your new image."
"Wait, back up a second. New image?"
"Yeah."
"I happen to like my image the way it is, thank you very much."
"Lucas, I'm not talking about a full on make over. Just a few changes here and there. Mostly the lifestyle stuff."
He looked at her, afraid of what she might do.
"It'll be okay. It's only for three weeks, and hey who knows, you might just like the new Lucas."
Lucas walked through the LAX airport. It was good to be home. What was even better was that Haley's advice had been right. When she came to wake him that morning, he found that he felt a lot more relaxed and was glad for the extra hours in bed. The bonus was that the remainder of the team were hidden behind their sunglasses and baseball caps, trying to shake their hangovers. Boy would coach be impressed, not only was he on time that morning, he was the only one who was awake and alert. He turned to look at the guys.
"What's the matter?" he yelled over to them.
"Lucas, man do you have to shout?" Sanders called back, cringing when his head began to pound.
Lucas only grinned. Haley who was walking ahead of him, talking with another woman, turned when she heard him. He smiled at her and she smiled shyly, quickly turning her attention back to her conversation.