A/N: The sad thing about this is that Nicole is being serious. Blame her little genetic mutation. Maybe Tai's mom secretly has it too. It seems like these two would get along. o.O
Matt had called all the humans at Zenkyoshi over to the kitchen for something that he had pronounced was likely one of his best achievements. Curious about it, they had heeded the call and now stood in a circle around the end of the table.
"So, what's this achievement?" Sora asked amusedly.
Matt smiled at them and held out his arms in a presenting manner. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Nicole and her actually edible banana cream pie."
He was met with a lot of blank stares, even as Nicole very calmly placed said pie on the table.
"Are you sure about that?" Davis asked, peering carefully at innocent looking food.
Matt nodded affirmatively. "Considering I watched over her shoulder the entire time and tried a bit of it earlier, yes."
Izzy poked the pie cautiously. "Well, it doesn't seem horribly made this time…"
Nicole frowned at that statement. "Hey, they're not horribly made. Humans just don't like my cooking, that's all."
Several people deigned to not comment on how she had once insisted that they would become accustomed to the food she made. Maybe all the non-humans liked the odd touches, but to the regular person, it was just disgusting.
Tai had cut himself a small slice, apparently braver than the others in trying out the so called edible pie. Everyone watched closely as he carefully took a piece off with his fork and placed it in his mouth...
"Hey, it's actually pretty good," he said lightly as he swallowed.
"Yes!" Nicole cheered, throwing both arms into the air.
Matt laughed as the others quickly began to help themselves to the pie. "See, I told you it would be fine without all that weird stuff you put in," he lightly punched her in the arm.
"It's not weird stuff to me," she smiled weakly. "It's all intuitive…"
Joe glanced at her with an eyebrow raised. "What would you put in it if Matt hadn't been watching?"
Nicole frowned. "Well, I would have added some jalapenos to the bananas…"
Several people at the table snorted.
"But then it's a banana jalapeno cream pie," Mimi pointed out cheekily.
"Not if you only put some diced bits in," Nicole continued, apparently excited by the pie that would have been. "Then I would have added chili powder into the filling and lightened up on the sugar, used raspberry extract instead of vanilla, put soy sauce in the crust, and garnished it with fried eggplant."
Everyone stopped completely and turned to stare at her in disbelief. Matt smacked his forehead.
"…ew…" Ken looked down at his plate.
"That would destroy a perfectly good pie…" Cody poked the slice he had, looking a bit disturbed.
Kari was gazing into the air, as though trying to picture exactly how a pie with those additions would work. "Well…" she began slowly, "The raspberry probably wouldn't be too bad, but everything else isn't… quite so much."
Nicole sighed. "The pie is so bland as it is though. My version sounded so good too…"
"No it doesn't," Yolei muttered under her breath.
From her slightly saddened facial expression, it was fairly obvious that Nicole had heard Yolei's comment, but TK quickly stood and gathered everyone's attention by waving his arms and knocking over his chair. "Well, as the pie is now, it's really pretty good!" he exclaimed. "So congratulations to Nicole for baking something all the humans like! And to Matt for coaching her. Now just cook things that are edible," he added in her direction.
Nicole frowned. "But I do."
Everyone groaned.