Author: I own the characters that are NOT from slam dunk…. If they are from Slam dunk, they are property of Inoue Takehiko. Please don't sue me… Also, a foreword, I tend to be long winded when writing my fics, so at least you get the overall picture, as well as the locations/background, and worth your dollar on internets charges! LOL Please do email/review me, and I can update the previous chapters. Thanks!

Words in italics or between slashes are thoughts, words within ^^ are actions, unless otherwise stated, words in brackets are locations usually before each section.

(=^_^=)  Chapter 4  – January burnt with Crepes  (=^_^=)

(First week of January)

Not every school day is monotonous, for when the season's change, the encounters do as well. Sure, the subjects being taught progress to be more difficult, but that's not the only thing beginning to be difficult. Being in the basketball club, was not a bed of roses, as Toyowara Kimiko, Akagi Takenori, and Kogure Kiminobu, soon found out.

For the first week of practice, when the three of them entered the court, Akagi and Kogure knew the drill of introducing themselves to the whole team. Luckily for Kimiko, Akagi had told her what to do and expect beforehand.

Akagi, Kogure and Hisashi were the last ones to introduce themselves to the team.

"Ore wa Akagi Takenori desu! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" shouted Akagi at the top of his lungs.

"Suke, look at the size of him! And he's a freshman!" remarked one guy.

"Hai. We'll be able to go far, with him around!" another exclaimed.

"Boku wa Kogure Kiminobu desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." Kogure then said out loud.

"Ore wa Mitsui Hisashi desu. Yoroshiku!!" Mitsui shouted, with a cheeky wink added.

"O ho ho ho ho!!!" Boomed Anzai-sensei. "Alright boys, let's run 20 laps around the court!"

A slim well-built girl popped into Kimiko's line of sight, right in front of her actually, which startled Kimiko.

"Hi there, my name's Yuki! Yamamoto Yuki! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" the girl happily introduced.

"H-hai! Ano, Watashi wa Kimiko. Toyowara Kimiko desu. Hajimemashite, Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

"I'm the manager of the basketball club. My best guess is that, you're my new assistant manager, am I correct?" asked Yuki.

"H-hai! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! It's my first time as an assistant basketball manager!"

"Well, that's what I'm here for! I'm here to teach you how to be one when I graduate! Now, do you know to handle the boys when they get rowdy?"

"Ano, no I don't… " admitted Kimiko.

"You don't? Mattaku… then methinks I've got to teach you a thing or two on how to handle things when in case I'm not around…" sighed Yuki with a smile.

Kimiko from then on, got lessons from the manager, Yuki-sempai, on how to deal with the guys in basketball, and it often left Kimiko, blushing. It also included, somehow, a fan, made out of thick paper. After her initial lesson, they just sat at the bleachers, watching the guys train.

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(1st week January, Friday night, at Kimiko's home)

Kimiko's week had been filled with much activity, since she joined the Shohoku High Basketball Club, and not only did she have to attend practice with Akagi and Kogure, she had to liase with her co-members from the cookery club regarding the weekend's meet.

/I'm so happy. In this week alone, I have two good friends in my class, and have joined another club that doesn't judge me./ thought Kimiko, emerging from her bathroom, rubbing her hair with a towel. /But I feel sad as well, since Mitsui-san doesn't take notice of me. Baka! Why should he? He's an MVP, and he's handsome to boot. Why would he care about a girl like me, a pig, an unworthy pig, who's not worthy to be even be seen at his feet. Ha ha… what a drama queen I could become./ mused Kimiko.

- Ring! Ring! Ring!

Picking up her mobile phone that was on her bedside table, Kimiko answered: "Moshi Moshi? Toyowara desu!"

"Hai! Watashi wa Natsumi desu! Don't forget that we have our first cooking meet tomorrow, ok?"

"No problem! Whose are we going to?"

"You guys are coming to my house. Do you have a pen and paper to take down my address, Kimiko-chan?"

"Yup, fire away!" replied Kimiko, scribbling Natsumi's address into her address book.

"So be sure to be there, at 9 a.m. sharp, and we'll be making crepes! Aki-chan and Yumi-chan have bought the ingredients, don't worry, and frankly, I'm anxious as to how we're going to fare tomorrow!" exclaimed Natsumi.

"Well, I hope we all can learn from each other, and have a good time too!"

"I'm sure we will, see you tomorrow! Ja! Oyasumi!"

"Oyasumi!" replied Kimiko.

-click

/I do hope those girls know what they are doing. I'd better take along some indigestion pills just in case./ thought Kimiko, accompanied by a sweat drop.

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(1st week January, Saturday morning, at Natsumi's home)

"Ok, minna! This is the Shohoku High's Cookery Club's first meet!" announced Natsumi, clinking on her wine glass a couple of times. The girls were seated at a small elegant square table in Natsumi's room. "Shall we introduce ourselves? Watashi wa Natsumi! Satsuma Natsumi desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

"Hai! Watashi wa Aki! Narayobe Aki desu! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

"Watashi wa Kunae Yumi desu, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

"Watashi wa Kimiko! Toyowara Kimiko desu! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

"Alright, now that everyone has been introduced properly, we shall begin the meet by allocating posts, whereby each of us will be assigned a different post for each month, to be fair, and we would rotate shifts democratically. Those in favour, raise their hand!"

Everybody rose their hand, smiling.

"Alright! In all fairness, everyone write their name on the piece of paper provided, put it into the hat, and we shall draw lots on who would take which position! Yosh! Let's do it!" smiled Natsumi, pointing to her father's magician's hat.

One by one, they dropped their name into the hat. Natsumi then added 2 more pieces of paper, containing the words 'clockwise' and 'anticlockwise' respectively.

"Yosh! Now, if you don't mind, I will now pick out the president's name from the hat, with these magical tongs!" declared Natsumi, waving about a pair of pink plastic tongs. The rest of the girls just giggled.

"And the president for the month of January will be… Aki!" declared Natsumi, reading out the piece of paper.

"Omedetou!" cried the other girls.

"The vice president for the month of January will be… me!" declared Natsumi, reading out the piece of paper. They all laughed at Natsumi for her sense of quaint humour.

"Now the secretary for the month of January will be… Yumi!" declared Natsumi, reading out the piece of paper.

"That means you get to be the treasurer, ne, Kimiko-chan?" said Aki. "That alright with you?"

"Hai! It's perfectly fine for me!" replied Kimiko.

"Now, how to we go about rotating shifts? Let's see… we go… clockwise!" laughed Aki, reading the piece of paper.

"Yosh! Now let's get down there and get cooking!" cried Yumi.

"YOSHI!" shouted all four girls, as the headed to Natsumi's kitchen.

For the rest of the day, all four girls cooked up a storm, and was visited by their teacher, Chie-sensei, who could only muster a sweat drop, when she looked at what they had prepared. Kimiko tried not to make her crepes come out well at all, for she didn't want her friends to feel bad. Instead, she purposely measured her own ingredients wrongly, and burnt her own crepes. In any case, they had a marvellous time, taking photos of their horrible dishes, taking photos of each other, and bemoaning about how their dishes flopped for that day. (L.I.D.[author]: They did the same thing, different recipe for Sunday.)

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For the first month in Shohoku High, Kimiko had her share of ups and downs. She was doing alright, where her schoolwork was concerned, for she always studied with Akagi as well as Kogure. She was still shunned by her classmates, but they were slowly getting to know the person behind all that mass. Her cooking club was slowly improving, since Kimiko helped her peers know what were they doing wrong. Kimiko could be a whiz chef if she wanted to, but she wanted to help her friends in their cooking skills. Even Chie-sensei was impressed when they didn't melt the plastic jello moulds into goop when they made jello anymore. (L.I.D.[author]: ^Sweat drop^) She still admired Mitsui Hisashi, for his 3 point shots, and could only look on at him from a distance, which seems like light years to her.

However, unknown to her, someone, in the future, would touch her heart, like never before.

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(=^_^=) Meow!

Hi readers!

Thank you so much for waiting, this is my 4th chapter, and I know, my titles always have food in them… is it my fault I'm always hungry when I write? LOL Like I said, I'm long winded, but I guess you guys would get more words for your time, right? This is really going to be a LONG fic, I had foreseen, and I hope you can bear with me, since it's my first fic.

I don't think I can manage to write another fic whilst I'm doing this fic, but no worries, I already have my ideas on paper anyway! ^_^ I thrive on reviews, so please hand them generously! Flames will be used to bake the cakes in this fic. My email is: Kogure_ikuko@yahoo.com.sg Please do feel free to email me, but please post a comment too! Arigato minna!

Lady Ice Dragon