Free Killer Crust by Chris Cavender

competition would suddenly drop to two other pizza making teams.
    Ten seconds before the digital clock ticked down, they appeared on stage, both breathless and disheveled from hurrying to make it in time.
    The only problem was that Luigi himself was absent.
    Where could the man be?
    Finally, after what seemed like forever but was in fact just four minutes past our starting time, Jack Acre took the stage and took the microphone from the judge’s table. “It seems that Luigi has been held up, but there’s no reason to keep you folks waiting. Tonight’s contest will center around our new thin crust dough, something we’re all very proud of at Luigi’s. Contestants, you have one hour to produce your best pizza and present it to the judge. Good luck.”
    Maddy looked at me and asked, “Where do you suppose he could be?”
    “I don’t know, and at the moment, I don’t really care. We need to do better than we did this afternoon. I can’t imagine Luigi being quite so generous with us this time.”
    “We’ll be fine. We just had the jitters before,” Maddy said as she looked past me and waved to someone in the crowd. I turned to see David and Bob sitting in the front row, and I waved to them myself. They both gave us their thumbs-up signal, and Maddy and I got to work.
    The first thing I did was take the dough we’d been given and put it on the counter to rest and warm up a touch. That had been my mistake earlier, and I wasn’t about to repeat it.
    Maddy stared at me a few seconds as I stood there doing nothing, and then asked, “Have we decided to take the casual approach this time?”
    I said softly, “This dough is different from ours on so many levels. It needs a chance to warm naturally if we’re going to make a pizza worth eating. We have some time to spare before we prepare it.”
    “Just in case though, why don’t we take more dough out of the fridge like we did this afternoon?”
    We’d been supplied three premade balls of dough, so I did as she suggested and took another ball out of the mini fridge.
    “Why not take out all three to be on the safe side?” Maddy asked.
    “What if I’m wrong?” I asked in return, adding a grin. “We should leave it right where it is, just in case.”
    “That’s what I love about you, Sis. Your confidence is so underwhelming sometimes.”
    “I don’t know. I have more hope than I did when this whole competition started. For whatever reason, we have a legitimate shot at the grand prize.”
    Maddy looked surprised by the comment. “Do you honestly believe that, even after what Tina Lance said?”
    “The more I consider the possibility of a rigged contest, the more I find it hard to believe that Luigi would take a chance on monkeying with this competition,” I said. “He’s got too much at stake here, and too much to lose. I have a feeling that Tina was just trying to get a juicy quote from one of us for her article.”
    “Well, that puts the pressure back on us if it’s true then, doesn’t it?”
    I smiled at her. “Come on, Maddy. We can do this.”
    “I’m game if you are.”
    “Why don’t you prep the cheese while I test the dough?” I suggested.
    “Good. At least that will give me something to do other than stand here looking pretty.”
    “Not that you’re not great at that,” I said with a grin.
    As Maddy began grating and blending the cheese for our thin crust pizza, I checked the dough with my index finger, pressing it lightly to see if there was any bounce back at all. So far, there was no response. As I looked around at our competitors, I saw that every last one of them had already formed their pizza doughs into their pans, and were prepping their sauces and toppings. Was I making a mistake waiting? No, I had to believe that I was right, no matter how difficult it was watching everyone else work while we stood idly by. Todd and Reggie from Raleigh were working with quiet efficiency, almost as though they were communicating on their own