Thanks for the Pepperoni

Jade Dragon

    This is a one-shot I wrote for the dragon contest You-You-You is having. I hope you like it!!!

    "Hey, Paul, what's for supper?" John asked, leaning his elbows on the table.

    "I don't feel like cooking tonight," Paul said, not looking up from his magazine.

    "Aw, why not?" Ringo asked as George was picking dandruff out of his hair.

    "You've got three pounds of it up here," George said thoughtfully.

    Paul's eyes shot up from the magazine to Ringo. "Because I just don't. I can't be the woman of the house all the time and be an ever-ready battery, can I?"

    Ringo hesitated. "I suppose not."

    "Yeah, Ringo," George said, picking out more dandruff.

    "Will you stop?" Ringo said, turning to glare at him.

    "Okay, okay," George said, backing up with his hands in the air in surrender. "You need Head and Shoulders or something."

    "Where are we gonna eat, then?" John asked.   

    "I don't care," Paul said, continuing to leaf through his magazine again. "As long as I don't have to cook anything."

    "How about Chinese?" Ringo suggested. "There's this place called Jade Dragon down the street."

    "Ooh, how about we go there?" John said.

    "I'll get the keys," Paul said, shutting his magazine and standing up. He grabbed the car keys from the hook and glanced around. "Where'd George go?"

    "He must have gotten a head start," Ringo said with a laugh.

* * *

As soon as they walked into the restaurant, they could tell something was amiss. The entire place was empty except for the guy behind the counter, who looked bored out of his mind.

    "Uh, maybe we should go somewhere else," Paul whispered. "This might not be too good if there's nobody here — "

    "Welcome!" the man said, throwing his arms out and standing up from his chair. "Buffet or menu?"

    "Buffet," George said eagerly.

    "And a beverage?" the man said, looking thrilled. There were probably his first customers that day, and it was six o'clock.

    "Coke," John said, and the others agreed.

    George was at the buffet before the others and was piling food a foot high on his plate. He found his way to a booth and was eating before he even sat completely down.

    The others sat down, and John eyed Paul's plate. "Macca, why do you only have one pile of rice on there?"

    Paul glanced at the guy behind the counter, who was now reading the newspaper, and leaned in to whisper, "I'm getting a bad vibe off this place and that bloke over there."

    "Oh, yeah?" Ringo said, stabbing a noodle.

    "Yeah," Paul said, nodding.

    "Well, I don't think anything's wrong," George said, mouth full, shoveling more food in. "Tastes good to me!"

    "I just have a . . . bad feeling," Paul said, sipping his Coke.

    "His womanly senses are tingling," John said with a bark of laughter. "You know, I heard that women have, like, ESP or something."