"Hey, Luke!" Nathan cried. He dropped the phone, charged over to the bed and jumped on top of his sleeping sibling. "Guess what? C'mon, man, wake up, ya knucklehead! You need to guess what!"

Lucas didn't want to. His head felt like it was stuffed with sweaters and his gut didn't feel right, on top of which he'd tossed restlessly a good portion of the night whenever he wasn't dreaming about shipwrecked zombies or murderous horseshoes chasing him. Sleep was the only thing he craved right now, a solid eight hours without dreams this time, so he could stop feeling like ass and he had the strength to shove Nathan off his back.

Why had he ever wanted a little brother again?

Lucas couldn't remember. He moaned a complaint and tried to forget that a hundred and eighty pounds were now joyfully crushing his spine, but Nathan wouldn't let him. The hyperactive teen kept mussing his hair and shaking his shoulders, yawping in his ear like they were six leagues away from each other instead of only a few inches. Lucas gave it one last shot and tried to bury his head under both of his pillows, but Nathan ripped them away and tossed them straight across the room. With no other choice, Lucas groaned into the mattress and opened his eye.

"What, dude? What do you want?"

"You will never guess, Lucas."

"Agreed. Can I go back to sleep now?"

Nathan bounced on him again. "Haley's gonna to be in town later and she wants to meet up with us. Can you believe it, man?"

"Yes, now get off me."

"We're meeting up with her at the dock around seven tonight. Awesome, huh?"

"Mmm, can't wait."

"I know, right? Come on! Get up and get dressed! You gotta help me pass the time until she gets here!"

As Nathan finally climbed off his back, Lucas looked up at Nathan sleepily, then closed his eyes again, turned onto his side and curled up. His plan was obviously to return to the land of Nod, but Nathan wasn't about to let that happen once he glanced at the clock on the nightstand and noted the time. He reached out and slapped Lucas on his cotton-covered butt.

"Move it, sleepyhead. Rise and shine!"

Lucas barely jerked as he forced himself to open his left eye. "I feel like crap, dude. I need more sleep. G'way."

Nathan slapped him again, harder this time. "Oh no, Big Brother. Forget it. It's almost ten o'clock so you've slept long enough. Up and at 'em, boy. Get up! Get up! Get up!"

Lucas had no choice but to do exactly that thanks to his ankles getting tugged over the side and his wrists getting yanked without mercy until he was sitting upright. He gathered what little energy he could muster to push himself to his feet, stumbling his way out the door and down the hall to the bathroom with Nathan hounding him at every step. The second they reached the threshold, Nathan booted him inside then shut the door after him with firm orders to hurry up.

Those two words were so not in Luke's vocabulary this day.

He yawned, fished himself out and swayed in front of the open toilet bowl for almost a minute before he realized he couldn't aim for crap and would be better off sitting down. The second he did, he promptly put his head down and passed out with his arms on his knees, his head on his arms and his pajama shorts pooled on the floor.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Lucas! D'you drop dead in there or what?! C'mon, man! Let's go to the River Court!"

Lucas jerked awake and mumbled to Nathan that he was coming, but then he just sort of sat where he was, too fuzzy-headed to figure out his next step. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep; he didn't even know if he'd peed yet.

Whatever.

He stood up and shuffled to the sink to semi-wash his hands, run a brush over his teeth and splash water on his face, too whipped to even think about taking a shower. Maybe he stank, and maybe he didn't. If he did, so be it. He exited the bathroom and shuffled back to his room with his eyes mostly closed, totally not caring that he was swinging dick after leaving his pajama shorts on the bathroom floor. Nathan laughed at him and made a few jabs, but to Lucas, his teasing seemed far away, like on another astral plane. He dragged on some clothes and followed his brother downstairs, then collapsed on a chair in the kitchen and put his head down on his arms, hoping to catch at least a few Z's. God, he wanted his bed.

"Here. Eat this," Nathan said. "And drink up. It'll give you some pep before we go down to the River Court. God knows, you need it."

Lucas turned his head and opened one eye to see a homemade carrot muffin now sitting in front of him. Behind it was a glass of orange juice practically swimming in pulp, and Luke's stomach roiled at the thought of ingesting either one. "Uh-uh. No, thanks."

"Why not? I thought you they were your favorites."

"Not today they're not. I swallow that stuff and I'm gonna puke all over this counter. You in the mood to clean that up?"

"Let me think about that. Uh, no."

"Then let's just roll before I pass out again."

Nathan was all for that. He smirked at the way his older brother was dragging ass, but didn't give him any more grief about it while they got into his Mustang and he drove them downtown. On the River Court, Skills was already there with Fergie and Junk playing ball. All three were immersed in a game of 2-on-1 while Mouth made his usual cheerful commentary from the stands, and that was exactly what Nathan had hoped to see when he came up with the idea to come here. He parked the car, then cut the engine and nudged Lucas dozing beside him.

"Wake up, lazybones. We're here."

"Wh-? Already?"

"Yeah, now quit slacking and move that skinny ass of yours. I've got energy to burn before Haley gets here and so do you."

Wrong, Lucas thought groggily. So wrong. He was still climbing out of the car when Nathan was on the court playing with their friends, and by the time he joined Mouth in the bleachers, Nathan had just made his second basket. Nathan saw him about to sit down and jogged over to snag his arm.

"Oh no, you don't. Get your butt out there and let's shows these guys how the sons of Dan Scott play. Let's go, 3-on-2."

Lucas looked to Mouth to help him out, but the aspiring teenaged broadcaster only winked at him and cleared his throat. "We have another change in the line-up, Ladies and Gentlemen. Lucas Scott has just stepped onto the court, which means we're in for a treat as the most popular brothers in Tree Hill wipe the floor with the home team."

"Hear that?" Nathan asked with a slap to his shoulder. "You got no choice but to wake up now, Big Brother." Nathan waited for Lucas to stumble onto the court then turned to Mouth with the biggest grin anyone in Tree Hill had ever seen. "Hey Mouth, did Luke tell you Haley's coming back to town later tonight?"

"No way!"

"She is and this game's for her."

Tired as he was, Lucas turned back to Nathan and forced himself to chuckle. "Dude, calm down. She's not even here yet to watch you play."

"But she's coming," Nathan insisted happily. "And this game is 100% for her. Everything I do today is gonna be awesome just for her. You wait and see."