Summary by Emi (emichansribon@yahoo.com)

Drop Kick

by Ootsuka Yumi

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Brief intro of the characters involved :

-Saotome Kotobuki

The rich girl who thinks the world revolves around her. She is

very strong willed and is determined to get all the money back

to buy back her house.

-Konno Soushirou

He is the son of the owner of a very elite company. Kotobuki

wants to win his heart at first, but his sense of humour and

double sided personality soon deters her.

-Arima

The son of owner of the ramen shop that Kotobuki works at. He

also works there and will one day own the shop. He loves his

ramen. ^^

-Murano Makoto

Kotobuki's personal slave (well actually he's only the chauffer).

He doesn't help much, but will do anything for Kotobuki.

-Saotome Ai and Saotome Mamoru

Ai is Kotobuki's mother and Mamoru is her father. Ai loves to do

fortune telling with cards and is a superstitious person. She's

also sort of dense. Mamoru has no idea what he's doing with his

money and that's how their family got broke ^^;

-Haruno and Shinobu

They are Kotobuki's friends who don't appear much. But they are

typical wealthy girly girls.

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The story starts off with Kotobuki, Shinobu and Haruno at their

'hatsumoude'. [It's a Japanese tradition that you welcome in the

new year (well it's a lot of countries' traditions too) and you

go to the temple and see your fortune for the year. There's four

or five 'luck' fortunes you can get when you pick yours. You can

either get a Daikichi - the highest good luck, Shoukichi and

Suekichi - moderate to poor luck and Daikyou - worst luck.] They

pick their fortunes and Haruno and Shinobu both get Daikichi's.

Kotobuki looks at hers and it is a Daikyou. She takes it again,

about ten more times and each one she picks is a Daikyou. She is

furious because she has been to the temple every year and they've

given her the worst luck possible. She yells at the temple priests

and priestesses telling them that she's the daughter of Saotome

International's boss and she should get better (^^;). She gets

over if, but then Murano comes and shows off his Daikichi and she

punches him. Then she steps in doggy-doo and then some kids kick

a soccer ball and it hits Kotobuki in the face, making her fall

into a pond.

When she gets home, her mother asks what happened and says that

her cards told her today was a bad day. Kotobuki cheers up

and says that nothing could happen to her because she's so

beautiful. Then, Mamoru comes home and some removalists start

taking all their furniture. He says that their company

is bankrupt and now they have no money. And that is how Kotobuki

become broke.

She is talking to her principal or teacher the next day and she

looks very worn out. He says that she's lucky they even got an

apartment and that her parents have paid an extra year's fees so

she can stay for another year. Kotobuki tells her teacher not to

tell anyone and threatens him with blackmail. Then she runs out

into the hallway where she stands in all her glory and might to

be the centre of attention. Kotobuki is the school queen. Three

guys come up to her with flowers and chocolate and Kotobuki thinks

to herself that she could probably eat with all this popularity.

Then, she spots Konno Soushirou. She walks up to him and acts all

prissy. Soushirou invites her to lunch one day and then he leaves.

Kotobuki is left to drool at him.

Haruno and Shinobu meet her and ask if she's got her dress measured

out yet. Kotobuki has forgotten all about the new year party and

runs off. She thinks to herself that she can't stand those two

being better than her. She calls Murano to go home, but then realises

that there's no one left any more because she's broke. No more maids,

no more cooks, no more butlers.... then she cries and wants Murano

back. Then, Murano comes riding on a bicycle asking what the matter is.

Kotobuki is surprised and Murano says that no matter what happens, he

will always be there for her. Murano is about to wipe her tears away

with his hankerchief, then Kotobuki punches him. She agrees to 'let'

him stay with her and be broke together. She tells herself that she

won't be beaten.

When she goes home, her dinner is just a grilled fish, whole. Her

mother cooked it and obviously, none of them have cooked before so

it's horrible. Mamoru says that he met an interesting person in town

and they sold him a box of 'talk to the animals' videos. He is happy

because no he can learn how to talk to Malony, their dog (^^;).

Kotobuki yells at both of them for being irresponsible. She thinks

that they'll never get their lives back if her parents are like that.

Then she notices Malony eating steak. She kicks Malony and asks why

the dog gets to eat expensive steak.

The next day, she's walking to or from school and her stomach is

growling. Everyone laughs at her because they can hear it. She's

hungry because she hasn't eaten anything since breakfast and then

she smells something. She sees a shop called Daikichi Ramen. She

wonders what ramen is, but it smells nice so she decides to give

it a try. She goes in, all covered up wearing a silk scarf around

her head with gloves and sunglasses in case anyone she knows is

in there. Arima has a sweat drop and takes her order. Kotobuki

orders a ramen and after she's satisfied that she knows no one in

the store, she takes off her cover and then eats the ramen. She

is surprised that it tastes to good and keeps eating and eating

non stop. Arima asks about her uniform, but she tells him to

shut up because she's eating.

She's thinking how delicious the ramen is and how happy she is

when she hears a voice calling her "Kotobuki ojousama" (princess

Kotobuki). She turns and sees Konno Soushirou (but dressed rather

slack with a loose tie and messy hair). Kotobuki spits her ramen

all over him in shock. Arima then asks if Kotobuki does go to his

school and he says yes. Soushirou says that he didn't expect to

meet her in a place like this. Kotobuki wonders why he's there!?

~ END OF CHAPTER ONE ~