The Great Pizza Debacle

"So do you actually know what you're doing, or no?" she asked, a strawberry pocky stick bouncing between her lips with every syllable.

Sayaka stopped walking. Her hands tightened around the handles of the shopping cart basket as they walked through the supermarket foyer.

No, she thought. No, but if I had made the right decision last weekend instead of going with my gut instinct...

"O-Of course! Everyone knows how to make pizza! We've made it plenty of times before."

"No, we've made pre-made, frozen pizzas before. We've never made it from scratch like you're insisting on doing."

Nothing gets past you.

"Well yeah, but that's because we've been... Pressed for time. It takes too long to make a pizza from scratch, and so I just haven't had the time to make one with you."

Kyoko turned to face her. Sayaka was sure to notice how her red hair framed her face perfectly in the light She arched an eyebrow at Sayaka, and a slight grin crept across Kyoko's lips before turning back around, apparently satisfied with the answer.

"Well, if you say so. I swear, this shit better come out fantastic or we'll go back to eating canned meat and tuna."

Sayaka cringed. The two of them had been helping each other keep a strict budget, and that included minimizing food costs by spending as little as possible (the two were only allowed only a small amount of money to splurge on their favorite foods: Sayaka on her favorite summer produce, and Kyoko on her sweets). Subsequently, they ate either canned meat or tuna so much that they managed to find over fifteen different ways to prepare it. Potted meat and eggs was the only dish that didn't slightly churn Sayaka's stomach just thinking about. The fact that they were willing to spend valuable food money on this pizza endeavor meant a lot; Sayaka literally couldn't afford to disappoint.

Kyoko continued strolling through the supermarket entrance in front of her, hands in her jacket pockets. Sayaka hesitated for a moment, but began pushing the basket again to continue following her friend. As Sayaka walked through the entrance she was struck by a cold blast of air blowing from the air conditioner, and an equally cold realization of her own foolishness.

Why, she thought. Why did we have to stop at that stupid pizzeria?

Every week their group of friends got together to hang out, just like the days back at Mitakihara. Madoka, Mami, and Homura met up with them to have fun and do all sorts of activities that friends do: they went to the park, watched movies, played board games, and did whatever else they felt like. Last weekend they happened to go to the mall to find Mami a new dress for the wedding of one of her childhood friends that would happen later that week. After an hour or two of Mami not being able to find "the right style," they decided to split a pizza at the food court; shopping was tiring work, after all.

"Okay, but really, who doesn't like stuffed crust?" Sayaka mused only somewhat bitterly as the five of them headed towards a circular table in the middle of the food court and sat.

"Someone who you know is lactose intolerant," Homura answered from across the table, jaded as ever. "Besides, it was my turn to choose the food. Consider yourself lucky that I'm feeling well enough to eat even a small amount of cheese right now." Madoka leaned over and placed her hand on Homura's lap.

"Now, Homura, Sayaka didn't mean that in a mean way. She just really likes cheesy bread. We've been best friends since middle school; she liked it so much even then that she ordered two extra helpings each time they served it!"

Sayaka watched as Homura looked down at the box of pizza in front of them all. She seemed completely unphased by the comment, but a word from Madoka clearly made her less bellicose. Homura opened the box and started working on her own slice; the rest of the girls' mouths watered as the fresh smell of pizza seeped out of the box.

Mami followed Homura's lead by picking up a slice of her own and placing it in front of her. "I'm just glad that we didn't have the topping debate again. We would have starved before we heard the end of it this time."

Mami had been the hungriest on the day in question, and subsequently fought the hardest to have everyone order her favorite: spinach alfredo pizza. With a blush that conveyed a sense of embarrassment and guilt hiding just below the surface at having acted so uncouth in front of her friends, Mami handed out paper plates to the others and placed a hot, gooey piece of deliciousness upon each of them as an act of contrition. Sayaka and Kyoko shared a glance. Mami had only gotten so embroiled because the two of them started the fight, and over petty reasons.

Sayaka and Kyoko had become roommates only two weeks before the huge pizza debacle. On that day, Sayaka had finally gotten fed up with Kyoko about her bad habit of leaving candy wrappers everywhere. Sayaka was always the one who ended up picking them up even though she told Kyoko to clean up after herself multiple times. When she finally got fed up with it enough, Sayaka collected all the wrappers she could find and dumped them into Kyoko's bedroom. Kyoko didn't take too kindly to that, and made it a point to disagree with everything Sakura said that day in spite. They would later laugh about it in hindsight because they were sure that the day would go down in the books as "their first fight".

Kyoko crunched down on her last bit of pocky, a sly, knowing smile appearing in its place just before their moment was ended by Madoka's cheery interjection.
"Yeah," Madoka squealed, "we would have all gone home hungry if we hadn't settled on pepperoni!"

Madoka was actually the one who suggested pepperoni as the topping. Since it was probably the only topping nobody hated, the group quieted down and settled for it. Everyone but Madoka enjoyed their begrudgingly-picked pepperoni; she picked hers off and set them on the side of her plate, not wanting to let her vegetarian tastes impact her meat-loving friends' meal. In the interest of avoiding another fight, they all silently settled on pepperoni again this time, save for Sayaka's failed insistence on stuffed crust.

"How is it none of you idiots know how to actually make pizza? That way we could have just made a big one with all of our favorite toppings portioned out," she took a bite of her pizza and chewed a couple of times before continuing, her mouth unapologetically full of food. "Seriously, it's not that hard." She swallowed and washed it down with food-court cherry slush. Sayaka looked down at her own slice of pizza, hoping hoping her friends wouldn't notice her now-rosy cheeks. She had a habit of blushing when Kyoko talked with her mouth full, and she wasn't sure why.

"Isn't that pretty time consuming? Some pizza places make it look easy, but I'm sure it's a lot more work than you make it seem like," Mami remarked, stirring her glass of tea.

"Yeah, Kyoko! Those guys work hard to make us such good food! It's not fair to undermine them like that," Madoka chimed in with her usual vigor.

Homura looked up from the pizza slice of hers she was currently taking the pepperonis off of to nod in Kyoko and Sayaka's direction. She then went back to her task, placing all of her pepperonis on the side of her plate.

Kyoko sent an awkward side glance at Sayaka. As it turned out, all the other girls had disapproved of Kyoko's observation in a clockwise pattern and Sayaka, logically speaking, was next. Sayaka looked around the table at all her friends. She was suddenly aware that all of their eyes were on her.

"I... I don't think..."

But in that moment she saw something in Kyoko's eyes she rarely ever saw from this adamantly brave and confident girl. Something. But what was it? Betrayal? Sadness? Embarrassment? Sayaka resolved to never see such a fleeting emotion in those eyes again, even over something as seemingly insignificant as this. Because that's what friends do, right?

"...I mean yeah, look at him toss that dough. It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it," she said, glancing back at Kyoko.

For a moment, her face looked soft. Softer than Sayaka had ever seen from this tough, jaded girl. But then just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished with one of Kyoko's signature scoffs. Kyoko leaned back in her chair, a satisfied grin now firmly planted on her face. She remained silent, continuing on her own slice of pizza as the others responded.

"Wow, Sayaka, you've tossed pizza dough before? I didn't think you knew so much about cooking. Do you have baking skills you've hidden from us?" Mami marveled.

"What? N-no, I didn't sa-"

"Sayaka, you're the best! You have so many interests! Music, sports, and now baking too," Madoka observed.

"I-I mean that's not what I-"

But a silent jeer from Kyoko was all it took too silence her misgivings about her friends' misconceptions.

"... I mean yeah, my dad taught me how to make pizza when I was just a little girl. Anyone could do it with just a little practice. In fact, I'm sure I could whip one up now and it would still taste better than the one we got today."

She regretted those words as soon as she said them. Madoka's face lit up across the table with a combination of awe and excitement.

"Really? Well how about next week then? Aren't we all free this time next week? I'd like to be able to see you guys again, and I would love to hear about how that dress went over at the wedding Mami is going to!"

Madoka's face showed sheer jubilation, and Sayaka knew just as well as everyone else at the table that it was too hard to talk Madoka out of doing something she really wanted without a good reason. Everyone agreed.

"Good then, it's a date. I want extra cheese on my slices! And everyone else can have their favorite toppings too- Oh, Homura, I thought you liked pepperoni. I could have sworn you enjoyed it last week!"

Everyone turned to Homura, who was eating her now meatless slice of pizza after having picked off all the slices of pepperoni. Homura offered only her trademark "hmph," and went back to eating.

"Well, I guess tastes change. Maybe one day the two of us can go to this really nice vegetarian place I know. Hitomi actually showed it to me a few weeks ago. I guess I'll be paying it forward by going with another one of my best friends, right?"

Homura remained stoic and kept eating, eyes intently fixed on her pizza. Mami was the one who broke the silence.

"Well then, Sayaka, I don't suppose you and Kyoko would mind hosting us at your place next weekend, right? We still need to see this new apartment unit you guys live in, after all."

Sayaka looked at Kyoko, who was still leaning dangerously far back in her chair. Kyoko winked at her, and suddenly Sayaka was filled with all of the confidence she needed.

"A-absolutely! You guys are always welcome at our place. It's a little messy though, so we'll just need to clean up a bit. It's bad, I have this terrible habit of leaving my candy wrappers all over the place."

Thank you for reading! This is my first fic, so please, any and all comments/criticism/praise is welcome! ^^