Disclaimer: Incontrovertibly not mine.
A/N: Yet another one from As Deep as the Sky that went beyond the time limit. The idea of that ficlet collection is you put your music play-list on random and have to write a fanfic based on whatever song pops up, but you only have the duration of that song in which to write it. Since I didn't follow the rules and spent far longer than just three minutes on this one, I decided to upload it separately.
I was reading Stephanie Plum when I wrote this, hence the name of the restaurant. Also, woo! 270th fic posted to FFN!
Nine to Five
© Scribbler, October 2008.
Working nine to five –
What a way to make living!
Barely getting by;
It's all taking and no giving.
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit.
It's enough to drive you crazy
If you let it.
-- From Nine to Five by Dolly Parton.
"Not. One. Word."
"But I -"
"Not. One." Anzu's teeth were gritted so hard that when they moved against each other it was like tectonic plates creating earthquakes. Not that the rest of her face showed this. No, her face put all those super-technological, specially designed, anti-earthquake buildings in Tokyo to shame. Even though her voice came out in a hiss, and her eyes were hot coals of warning, she retained her cheery smile.
A man with a badge passed by behind the counter. "Anything the matter, Mazaki?"
"Nothing, sir," Anzu replied chirpily, and then turned back to Jounouchi, Honda and Yuugi. "Welcome to Cluck-in-a-Bucket, where the chicken is finger-lickin' goo-ood in the hoo-ood. Drumsticks, breast bits and nuggets galore, we've got everything like that and more. Choose from our extensive menu, 'cause it's all great eats here when you diiiiine at Cluck-in-a-Bucket. Can I take your order?"
The guys just stared. There was a dull thump as their jaws simultaneously hit the floor.
"Did you just sing at us?" Honda asked eventually.
Anzu's grip on the sides of the cash register increased until her knuckles turned white.
"What," said Jounouchi, is that on your head?"
"Part of my uniform. All employees wear them." The chirpy voice was still there, but her eyes were back to coals hot enough to barbeque a chicken without killing it first.
It was true. Every one of the teenagers at the six cash registers was wearing a giant rubber rooster strapped to their baseball caps, with the wattle draped over the brim and a long, plastic tail trailing down past their regulation red tee-shirts, tucked into their regulation black slacks. The tails didn't quite reach their regulation shoes, however, but since those shoes were shaped like giant chicken feet, this wasn't really saying much.
Anzu's eyes ticked left, to where the guy with the supervisor badge was talking to the boy at one of the huge fryers, apparently about the amount of breadcrumbs he'd used to coat the drumsticks. Seeing he was occupied, she sighed and muttered, "Look, it was the only place I could get an after-school job that didn't interfere with my dance classes, okay? Cut me some slack."
"You're wearing a giant chicken head."
"And feet."
Yuugi snapped from his stupor and moved slightly in front of Jounouchi and Honda. "It's, um, great that you found another part-time job."
"No it isn't. It sucks. But I need the money for my New York fund and this is the only place that was hiring after I finally got the school to process my paperwork. It's not fair that we have to ask for permission to get part-time jobs. No other country in the world does this to its teenagers."
"Maybe not, but do they make them dress up as poultry?"
Anzu's expression could have soured milk. "So can I take your order or what? Because I've got a big line of customers who don't want to ridicule me waiting right over there." She gestured to the roped-off line, where people eagerly waited to try the food at Domino's latest restaurant.
"I'll have the, um, Chicken Breast Supreme," Yuugi said hastily, stumbling over the middle word and instantly wishing he'd chosen nuggets or something else instead. As Anzu rang this up he tried to distract her. "I thought you never wanted to work in fast food again."
"I didn't. But needs must when the devil drives. I had to reduce it to 'I never want to work at Burger World again'."
Yuugi winced. They'd tried going back to Burger World after the escaped convict incident and Anzu's subsequent dismissal, but it had never been the same. Cluck-in-a-Bucket was the latest in a long line of attempts to find a similar convenient place to hang out – although finding out that Anzu worked here would definitely put a stop to that. It was bad enough she had to be subjected to the whims of the general public, who were also super rude when they were hungry, without being watched by her best friends all the time.
"Chicka-Chicka Hot Box for me, please," said Jounouchi, savouring the words.
"That goes double for me," Honda added. "But hold the onions."
"Right." Anzu pressed subtotal and read off their bill.
Yuugi paid, but as he was handing over the money Jounouchi grabbed it out of his palm.
"Jounouchi," Anzu said wearily, "stop being an ass. I have a line to bust."
"Not until you sing that slogan again. C'mon, you know you want to. Hey – ow!"
"Thank you, sir. Here's your number. One of our servers will bring you your food shortly. Have a finger-lickin' meal." Anzu released Jounouchi's wrist, but not before whispering, "I know where you live, and you have to sleep sometime."
"Dude, her lips totally didn't move just then."
Jounouchi glared at Honda. "Yeah," he muttered, as Yuugi shoved them away from the counter and towards a booth in the corner. "'Cause every security guard worth his ass can read lips."
"You okay, Anzu honey?" asked the guard in question, who had approached the counter as they left it. He was a guy who looked and sounded like your average dump-truck full of gravel, broad as he was tall and with a toothpick clenched between his teeth for extra effect. "Them punks bothering you?"
"No, Takeru," Anzu replied. "Don't worry, those are my friends."
"Friends, huh?" Takeru didn't sound convinced.
"There's no problem. Seriously."
"Well, if you're sure …"
"I'm sure. But it was sweet of you to look out for me."
He grinned in a way that made the pit fall out of Yuugi's stomach – much like going over the sudden drop in a roller-coaster after drinking a few litres of chocolate milk and fried food.
Now that he thought about it, despite being huge, the security guard didn't look that much older than them. Yuugi squinted at the guy. He wasn't bad looking either, insofar as he was capable of judging men's looks. Square jaw, the hint of manly stubble, muscles like bags of wet cement strapped under his shirt – he resembled the guys girls at school usually went ga-ga over when they appeared shirtless in magazines. And he was looking at Anzu the way … well, the way those hungry customers were looking at their Chicken Breast Supremes.
"We have got to find Anzu another job."
Both Honda and Jounouchi blinked at Yuugi in surprise.
"Wow," Honda remarked, "that was impassioned. You want to make this the new hang-out spot that badly? We haven't even tried the food yet. It might suck."
Yuugi got up and ran for the door.
"Hey!" Jounouchi protested. "We already paid for this. You already paid for this -"
"Don't worry; I'll be back in a second."
"Where are you going that can't wait until we've eaten?"
"I'm just going to fetch a newspaper."
"Why?"
"I'm going to check the want ads."
And if that didn't work out, he'd just have to find some way of convincing Grandpa that the game store really did need another employee on its payroll.
Fin.