Author's Note: I decided to give Mikey a break and write about one of his favorite things to eat. Plus Leo gets a part in this excerpt. AND I GOT TO MEET LEONARDO! Well…not really. But I DID meet Mike Sinterniklaas who voices Leo on the new series. He was hilarious. He talked a lot faster than Leo though, so it was kinda weird to hear Leo's voice that way. Oh…and a random tidbit I learned is that he does all the burps for the show. : )

Anyway, I've gone on long enough, but before I get to the story I just wanted to thank all those who reviewed! I love feedback. If you read, please do review!

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Theme # 3: Pizza

1:20 PM

I just realized something extraordinary…no, scratch that, I just realized something EARTH SHATTERING today. I have tons of different journals I've written in over the years -- ever since I was a scrawny, little dude. But I tend to ignore those earlier ones seeing as how my young mind was still developing into the genius that it has become today.

Mwahahaha!

Umm…yea…back to that something EARTH SHATTERING. This morning I'd slept right through getting up for practice, and Leo had to come in and wake me up. It's not the first time I've been late, so I have to do extra training sessions later today. It wasn't my fault those old reruns were on Nickelodeon. Those shows would be lonely if no one tuned in to watch them. Was I supposed to just abandon them?

But Master Splinter didn't really seem open to my argument. So, he was giving me a speech about how I "need to focus my energy on more lucrative activities."

Well "lucrative" was way too big a word to comprehend at ten in the morning so I just nodded. Then he said something about how I had to "keep track of what is important." So while I was nodding at this I realized that in all my journals, I haven't written solely about the single most important food ever.

Pizza.

Yes, dear journal, you have been introduced to the wonderful world of pizza.

I mean, just the word itself is pretty unique. How many words have two z's in a row? And how many of those words taste oh so delicious?

Not any that I can think of, except pizza.

And pizza can have so many different toppings: pepperoni, sausage, bacon, peppers, hamburger, pineapple, salami, extra cheese, more extra cheese, and the list goes on. Pizza can never get boring!

Of course, with so many possibilities, it can get tricky at times. There are certain toppings that must be avoided at all costs. Like anchovies.

Anchovies equals evil from a world ruled by thousands of mini Shredders all wearing bathing suits. THE HORROR!

It is a sad, sad time when a pizza is marred by such a travesty! What's even sadder is I think Master Splinter may have fallen into this black abyss. I think he snuck in an order of supreme pizza about a week ago. With anchovies. Ah man, I'll have to make sure he doesn't succumb to such a thing!

And anchovies aren't the only danger pizza eaters of the world have to be careful about. A high culprit on the list of evil doing toppings is Fluff.

Yes…Fluff. How do I know about this curiously odd topping not normally associated with pizza?

Leo.

Ya see, when we were about ten-ish, we had a pizza making contest. We had to move to a different part of the sewers for a while because of construction. Master Splinter didn't want to risk being found or anything I guess. It was only for about two weeks, but man it was pretty cramped. There were only two kinda makeshift rooms that we were able to come across and Leo, Don, and Master Splinter all snore. And when they sleep near each other they have this really weird snoring conversation that's very loud. Very, very loud.

Trust me, its no fun sleeping in the same room with them. I even had a nightmare about a snoring monster with a turtle's head and a rat's tail. Of course, then I woke everyone up because I was so freaked out and was convinced I might grow a rat's tail for a few minutes. But I mean who could blame me?

People of the world, fear the snores of your family members!

Umm…anyway, back to Fluff and pizza. We were pretty much bored out of our minds by the end of the week because we'd run out of fun stuff to do since we'd only taken what was necessary owing to the lack of space.

But we had a working stove and oven. So of course the answer was to experiment making the most unique and best tasting pizza ever!

We teamed up into pairs randomly, and I got put with Leo. Leo can be a very determined turtle when he sets his mind on something, and he really, really wanted to win the contest we had going on.

"Okay Mikey," he told me rubbing his hands together, "We can do this if we just concentrate really hard on the best stuff to put on the pizza."

Well, I was more concerned with eating the pizza than putting it together. Plus I was a little grumpy due to certain people's snores. "I thought you knew what to put onto the pizza already. You seemed really sure earlier."

"Wait, you mean you don't have any clue how to do this?"

I glanced over at Raph and Don. Raph was smiling pretty smugly. "Uh…I'm really good at tasting the pizza. Maybe Master Splinter shouldn't be the tester. I could do it…"

"You can't back out now Mikey!" Leo patted my shoulder. "If we set our minds on doing this, we can win! We just need to have…um…persistence in spirit and body."

That was so something Splinter would say, I thought. I eyed my brother with an impish grin, "Have you been reading Master Splinter's books?"

Leo seemed almost embarrassed for a moment, but then straightened. "Yeah, they can help us you know."

I wrinkled my nose. "I bet you they never said anything about making a pizza."

Leo itched his shoulder, a habit which meant he was thinking up a plan. "One of the books said to 'use your surroundings to your advantage. If at all possible, improvise in your attack pattern to utilize what is around you.'"

Thinking it was kind of cool that he could remember whole lines from a book when I could barely remember the new moves we'd been taught earlier that day, I responded excitedly, "So…maybe we can use something totally different and really surprise them! We'll be like the super amazing chef duo! But…I dunno…what we could use, Leo?"

I looked at him then, sure he would come up with a plan. It was strange in a way, but I'd always relied on Leo if I never knew exactly what to do.

He scratched his shoulder again for a moment and then rushed off towards a battered cabinet we were using to store some food. He returned quickly, stealthily hiding an object behind his hand. He grinned at me. "This is our secret weapon."

"Uh…Leo, you know that's Fluff, right?" I'd thought for a moment that maybe the stress of making a pizza was getting to my brother. I mean, he ruled at kicking my shell in training practice, but he'd never tried to make food beyond a bowl of cereal.

"Well, Fluff tastes good with peanut butter, jelly, and crackers…I saw you eating some with a graham cracker the other day too. I bet no one's ever even tried adding it to pizza."

I considered the jar. "Whoa…dude…you just might be right! We'll stick it under the cheese, so people can taste its greatness without even knowing what's coming…" I was practically jumping up and down. His logic made sense to me at the time. If Fluff tasted good with four different things already, then why wouldn't it taste good with pizza too?

Oh how very wrong we were. The shape of the pizza when it came out of the oven was strange enough to render Master Splinter a few nervous twitches of his whiskers. Still, he took a bite. And nearly spit it back out in our faces. Needless to say, Raph and Don won that little contest.

Leo was pretty bummed about it though. He kept apologizing to me.

"I'm sorry, Mikey. It was a dumb idea," Leo said mournfully.

"I didn't think it was." I really meant it too. Making that pizza with Leo had been the most fun I'd had all week. For once, I hadn't really cared about actually eating pizza.

"Yeah, but I should've come up with a better idea."

I frowned. I didn't like it when Leo was upset like this. Besides, he was beating himself up over something so silly. I patted him on the shoulder, like he had done to me earlier. "Don't you back out on me now, Leo! The 'Super Amazing Chef Duo' will prevail another day and make the best tasting pizza a turtle could ever eat!"

Leo blinked before smiling softly. "Yeah…I like the sound of that. What should we try next?"

I don't remember how many crazy toppings we tried after that day, but it was fun. And we all learned a valuable life lesson about pizza: never add Fluff.

WHOA.

I think I just set a world record for the loudest belly growl ever.

All this writing about pizza is making me very hungry. I think I might make a run to get some pizza. Hmm…I know there's something I'm supposed to do soon, but I can't remember. My stomach's too loud. Maybe I'll just stay here and forget the pizza.

…

HA! Who am I kidding? I think I'll get extra cheese…

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4:32 PM

--Note to self--

Never forget about extra training sessions to go get pizza or else you will get stuck with MORE extra sessions and bathroom clean-up duty for a month.

--end note--

x x x x x

4:38 PM

…the pizza was still amazing…especially with all the extra cheese.