Chapter Thirty Eight: Messy Room Syndrome

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Song Playing: Princes and Frogs

Theme 8: Floor

The manager of the devilbats couldn't help but smile to herself as she half walked half ran to the field on an early Sunday morning. She had just spent the past couple of weeks completely bedridden after catching a rather nasty case of the flu. She had managed to keep up with her school work thanks to Sara and Ako. Plus Sena came to see her everyday with stat updates and a whole package of instructions, courtesy of a certain quarterback, allowing her to perform all her football duties without delay.

But she preferred not to think about that right now. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and she was outside for the first time in a long time. The day was looking good.

"Mamori!"

The auburn haired teen looked ahead to find her inline skating friend rapidly making her way towards her... along with what appeared to be the entire cheerleading squad. Her eyes widened at their desperate and somewhat angry demeanor.

"Mamori!" Suzuna engulfed her in a big hug. "You're back! You're finally back!"

Mamori was terribly confused with their over exuberant greeting. With all the hugs and welcomed greeting they were giving her you would think that they hadn't seen each other in years instead of a few weeks.

Before she knew it the manager found herself being dragged by the younger girl the rest of the way to school. The other cheerleaders gladly helping to speed up the journey while adding in their own phrases of relief and gratitude for her return.

They were already halfway to the clubhouse before she managed to extract herself from their grip. Tiding her appearance she stood before the group of ever persisting girls. It took awhile but she eventually succeeded in quieting them down enough for her to talk. "Now what seems to be the problem here?"

It took an additional ten minuets to calm them down enough for her to understand what they were saying.

"It's absolutely terrible!"

"- we can't go in there anymore!"

"They don't listen-"

"You have to help!"

Upon seeing the look of complete puzzlement on their only hope of ever getting to the changing room again's face, Suzuna decided to explain. "Since you've been gone the guys have completely taken over the clubhouse! I tried to get them to clean up but they didn't listen to me! It's disgusting! It sticks! I tried to get through so I could yell at my brother and one of them didn't even have pants on!"

Mamori let out a nervous laugh. "I'm sure you're exaggerating." Her smile faded at the shake of their heads. "Come on it can't be that bad."

One of the taller girls spoke up. "I lived with four older brothers that had to share a room and it never looked that bad."

"There was something growing on one of the bentos that has been there since you got sick." A girl with freckles on her face stated with a frown.

The red head next to her commented. "I saw a pair of underwear on a slot machine when I tried to go in there yesterday."

"You can't even see the floor anymore." Suzuna added in.

Suddenly they couldn't get there fast enough. Standing before the closed doors of the casino type clubhouse, Mamori couldn't help but look over her shoulder one last time at the group of teenage girls. All of whom gave encouraging motions for her to enter the room. Taking a deep breath she braced herself for the worst as she placed her hand on the doorknob and opened the door.

Taking in the sight before her she decided that it wasn't as bad as they had said.

She suppressed a very girly shriek that was threatening to come out when she saw what appeared to be a mouse run by the sole of her sneaker.

It was worse.

She couldn't stop the small shudder of disgust as it rippled through her body. As a child she had always been neat and organized. This was a trait that came in handy when she started school and saved her when she had walked into the much smaller clubhouse for the first time. But this... this was just too much.

To her horror the girls hadn't exaggerated at all, if anything they had downplayed the disaster that was once a clean space. On the counter there was something green inside a bento that she was fairly certain wasn't supposed to be that color. Not only was there a pair of underwear on one of the slot machine handles but there was dirty laundry- she didn't think it was possible for clothes to stand on their own like that- littering the floor. To keep them company there were soda cans, discarded papers, and -to her annoyance- a page from a playboy magazine.

But what made it worst was the fact that they were living in it!

With still a half an hour before practice was due to start the players had decided to relax for a bit in the pig sty that they created. Daikichi and Kuirta seemed to be munching on something in the corner. Jumonji, Monta, and Kuroki were playing blackjack -using cookies and spare chips instead of actual money- with Sena as the nervous dealer. Then there was Togano, who was reading an old issue of Jump with his feet propped on the counter, and was indeed not wearing any pants. Yukimitsu seemed to be trying to make it across the room without tripping over anything while Cerberus and the pig were in a happy slumber on top a pile of socks and shirts.

All of whom were completely oblivious to her presence.

She couldn't take it anymore. Grabbing the broom that had been leaning against the wall gathering dust in her absence she tapped the handle to the only clear space on the floor and spoke with a tone that sounded like an annoyed parental figure. "What happened to this room?"

All eyes turned to her and immediately widened in shock.

"It looks like a typhoon just came through here!" The players couldn't help but feel like they had just made their mother very angry and if there's one thing a teenage boy knows it's this: never be at the wrong end of a lecture with your mom. Especially if it involves a messy room. "I see dirty laundry, food, papers... how could you possibly make this much mess in such a short amount of time?"

No one was ever able to argue with Mamori and they sure as hell weren't about to start now.

It was then that the manager really kicked her clean and motherly instincts into high gear. Crossing the room she opened a cabinet and proceeded to pull out mops, buckets, brooms, trash bags, rags, rubber gloves, and a whole arsenal of cleaning supplies. Then she started to make rounds about the room. After giving the place a thorough inspection and making the boys straighten their postures subconsciously she once again found herself standing at the front door.

Then she took full command. "Sena, Monta I want you to fill these buckets full of warm water. Ask the janitor and tell him I asked you for it. Kuirta, Daikichi I need you two to clean out all the food and toss it. Yukimitsu could you organize all these loose papers? Jumonji take the other two and put all the clothes outside and separate them into piles. One whites. One darks. On reds. Kuroki put on some pants before you do that."

They all looked at each other while avoiding her gaze.

"Now!"

Suddenly they couldn't move fast enough. Tripping over each other as well as anything on the floor. Scrambling about like they were trying to recover a fumble it was almost comedic the way they dove at their assigned jobs, not in anyway questioning her orders.

And she didn't even need a black book.

Speaking of which, the manager checked her watch, it was just about time for practice. If she wasn't mistaken -and she didn't think she was- a certain quarterback should be arriving in three, two, one...

"Fucking manager!"

Right on time.

Immediately she spun around so that she was face to chest with said quarterback. Eyes narrowed, she tilted her head back so that she could glare at him he had time to open his mouth and start spouting orders or insults, a fifty-fifty chance either way, she had shoved the broom into his hands. Then she proceeded to tell him exactly what she expected him to do with it. "This is a broom. You are obviously unfamiliar with it's function. Take it by the handle and sweep up all the trash with the bristle end. Make sure you get around the slot machines and behind the filing cabinets."

She reached behind him and grabbed her other discarded cleaning weapon of choice. This she also shoved in his hands. "This is a mop. It serves a similar function as the broom. If you have any questions, well, you're smart. Figure it out." At this point she had made her way behind him so that she stood in between him and the door. Placing both hands firmly on his back she gave him a shove further into the room. "I want this place back to the way it was before and I'm not taking any excuses."

To drive the point home she stepped outside and slammed the door behind her.

She hadn't even managed to completely turn herself around to face the other girls before she found herself in the middle of a massive group hug.

"That was wonderful!"

"You were amazing in there!"

"I can't believe you actually did that! It was so cool!"

"Oh thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!"

In the back of her mind she too gave herself a pat on the back. After all, if she was going to be spending as much time as she thought she was with the infamous quarterback he was going to have to pull his own weight with the cleaning. There was no way she was going to live in a sty.