From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 363: Is This Your Prince (11)?

"Got a bit of a pep in your step, mate. Good news from the PD?" Benjamin commented as he saw Ari practically skip into the practice room with a bright smile.

"Yep! My day is fantastic, life is good, and things can’t get any better! Nothing can bring me down."

At the cheerful response, Benjamin blinked before looking at Jamie in confusion.

As far as he knew, Ari had gone to meet with the PD with an angry look on his face, so what good news could he possibly have received that had his face glowing as if he had just won the lottery?

Did the PD finally pay him all the money he had won?

Or had he been replaced by some strange, happy alien?

"Share with the class?"

"Nope! Ahhh, life is so good right now. Wow! I can’t believe it."

Benjamin: "...."

Fine whatever. Keep your happiness to yourself, you little punk.

It’s not the first time you’ve acted strangely.

Clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention, Ben had them sit down before beginning to speak.

"As you mans know, I’m the temporary Leader this week since the current incarnation of happiness and the resident smarty pants has to go to school to prep for graduation."

5 pairs of eyes turned to look at Ari, who hadn’t lost his smile since he entered the room.

"Which is why I said that you should just be the leader." Ari interrupted before ducking as Benjamin shot a rubber band at him.

"Silence, yeah, or I won’t care how busy you are. I’ll make you do it." Benjamin threatened with a serious expression.

Ari snapped his mouth shut.

"An-y-way~, the bundle of joy over there has limited practice time with the group this week, so we have to make sure that our time together is maximized, innit? After all, we’re planning on crushing the rest of the mandem thoroughly. First place or nothing."

Seeing them all nod, Benjamin stood up and walked to the sound system. "Team Bad Boys, let’s get to work."

As the song began to play, the 6 boys got to their feet, and practice began for what would probably be the craziest performance of their lives.

*************************

And in the south-facing office of an expensive building in downtown LA-

"Uncle-"

"Shh shh shh shh, just be quiet for a moment," Wilfred Forbes held a finger to his lips to shush William as he took a gulp from the half-empty crystal decanter full of amber liquid in his hand

They were in his office, and Wilfred was seated on the expensive office chair with eyes closed, his feet on top of the expensive wooden desk, while William was unwillingly kneeling on the ground.

On the monitor on Wilfred’s desk, half the screen was open to a letter Martin, the CEO of Pacific Records, had personally written to him about the current issue and his hopes of coming to an agreeable solution as soon as possible.

The other half of the screen showed a cease-and-desist email from the lawyers at Pacific Records, as well as the preliminary lawsuit they filed over the illegal use of a song and a sample from one of their in-house producers, in which they were suing for lost revenue, reputational damages, and a whole bunch of clauses that sounded made up.

His inbox was filled with similar emails from the Pacific Records legal team, and to Wilfred, it seemed like all of the lawyers over there decided to earn their paycheck today by drowning his inbox with more emails than he could open.

And to top it off, the first round of meetings with the executives of Pop Star Academy had gone terribly, so all Wilfred could do right now was drink some liquor while resting his overheated brain.

He felt as if he didn’t; he might lash out toward his stupid nephew, who didn’t even realize the severity of what he had done.

For now, the boy should just kneel there and think about what he did, while Wilfred thought about how best to resolve the situation with the least damage.

He couldn’t allow all the money and time invested to go to waste.

"Uncle, my knees hurt."

Hearing William’s petulant voice, Wilfred’s eyes snapped open as his previously restrained fury caused his blood pressure to rise.

"Your knees hurt?"

He glared at the blond young man who was already in the process of taking a seat before screaming at him.

"You dare to get up? Kneel Down!"

After a second’s hesitation, William went back to his knees while making it clear that he was doing so unwillingly, making Wilfred actually want to hit him.

Hard.

"Do you know what you’ve done?" Wilfred asked after taking another sip and regaining his calm.

He wanted to see if William even had a lick of self-awareness or if it was time to cut his losses and bet on somebody else.

"All I did was buy a song and perform it. I don’t understand what the big deal is. Artists do it all the time. You also told me to do so, so why am I in trouble? Why do I have to get punished? This is bullsh*t." William complained while glaring at his uncle.

"Just bought a song? You think that all you did wrong was buy a song?" Wilfred asked incredulously.

"Isn’t that why people are mad? I just happened to buy a song. That’s it. The problem is that somebody reported it, and the public found out. If we just cover it up as usual, it will be fine, and people will forget in a few weeks anyway. There’s always something happening, and you can just frame some other contestant for something. In fact, I know the perfect one you can frame. That stupid fishboy who thinks he’s better than me." William grumbled.

At his nephew’s stupidly bad read on the situation, Wilfred took a deep breath before saying his true thoughts.

"You’re an idiot. I knew you lacked common sense before this, but now I genuinely think you’re stupid, with not a single working neuron in that smooth brain of yours. If a brain-eating amoeba entered your head, it would starve. If I shook your head right now, it would rattle. I can’t believe the family has wasted millions of dollars on your education, and it’s amounted to nothing. Less than nothing because you’ve never done a single positive thing for the Forbes name."

"...you can’t talk to me like that!"

"Shut the hell up! I can talk to you however I please because you’re stupid! It’s one thing to buy a song because you’re an untalented person, even with the ability that was specifically acquired for you. I bought you a passable one that you could use! I set things up for you to be successful. But noooo! You think you’re so smart that you bought a song that was stolen from the veritable golden boy and in-house producer from Pacific Records!"

"My source said it was an old song, sitting in the discard pile that he hadn’t touched in years..."

"SO! What?! Who cares if he hadn’t touched it in years? If that’s what you were going to do, then fine, cough up the money and buy the song directly from him. But no! You’re stupid and a cheapskate! You found someone to steal the song, and then, to make matters worse, instead of paying the thief, you decided to shortchange them by not paying the full price they demanded?! When knowing they could get you in trouble? And you dare tell me you’re not stupid?"

"You froze my accounts, so I didn’t have that much money on hand-"

CRASH~!

Wilfred flung the paperweight on his desk at William, immediately shutting him up.

"You’re an imbecile!! If you’re going to cheat, cheat seamlessly or shut the person up permanently so they can’t complain later!!!!! Why the hell would you cheat knowing that you didn’t clean up the loose ends!!!! Do you know who reported you? The very same person you asked to steal the song for you!!!! He went and snitched that you coerced him all because you shorted him out of money. This whole thing has blown up over a few measly thousand dollars!!!!"

At his uncle’s words, William blinked before looking away.

"It’s not a big deal, we can just cover it up!"

Wilfred stood up and took another swig before continuing his tirade.

"Cover it up!? How can we cover it up, you dullard? Pacific Records has sent over a lawsuit; the executives of the current show want to kick you out; your PR is currently below the gutter, it’s in hell; and, to make matters worse, everything I had planned for you is ruined! Ruined! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t get rid of you right now! Because as far as I can tell, you’re useless, you’re a waste of money, and should just be discarded like the garbage you are!"

Staring at his uncle’s face, which was purple from anger, William suddenly realized the severity of the situation.

"You can’t kick me out! It’s fixable. We just need to pay people off and hire people to spin things in the right direction. It’s fixable. This isn’t a big deal!"

"Pay people off? Apply a PR spin? You think we’re not doing that already? Do you think you’ve survived this long on the show without it? Do you remember what you did during sports day, or is your memory and brain capacity truly that of a goldfish? What you don’t understand is that you’re not liked! At all! You’re not smart or personable enough to be liked! You are barely hanging on to your position because I’m pouring thousands of dollars into keeping you afloat! Into spinning your arrogance and callousness as aristocratic traits of a prince, and instead of becoming self-aware, instead of appropriately utilizing the resources given to you, instead of just shutting up and obeying the perfect script that has been written for you, you insist that you know best! You insist on doing things your way, and it. Always! Fails!" Wilfred Forbes screamed while William stared at him silently.

"But-"

"There’s no but! You’ve messed things up bigger than you even know! I’m not sure how many favors I’ll need to give up to fix it, or if it can be fixed! And right now, your place in the show is in jeopardy! Everybody wants to kick you out because you’re nothing more than a taint on a group that is meant to make money!"

"You can’t kick me out! And this will just pass over! You always say that there’s no such thing as bad press! So, this is good. We can turn things around at the performance!" William got to his feet and began shouting back.

He couldn’t get kicked off now when he was so close to the end.

He knew what his uncle planned for the group, the heights that he wanted them to reach, and the solo career that would be propelled into even greater heights from that success, and knew that he couldn’t let anyone else have it!

It would belong to him!

Looking at William, who finally saw how serious things were, Wilfred burst out laughing.

"The performance! Ha! You think you’re performing at that performance? I told you, you’re banned from attending and your fate on the show is currently being decided!"

"But-"

"But but but-, is your name butter? Do you know what they’re calling you? The fallen prince! The trust fund kid who still shoplifts! Supposedly a prince but actually a raccoon, should I go on? You’re an idiot."

Wilfred mocked before pointing at William, "It’s all wasted! The impromptu show I set up for you to get votes without being caught went down the drain! It’s been wasted! Now!"

Bang!

Wilfred slammed his fist on the desk

"Instead of the buffet that I set out for you, it’s going to feed those peasants that are supposed to be your backups as you’re propelled to greatness. I’m sick and tired of dealing with you! Just get out right now!"

"But-"

"I said get. Out!"

Crash!

The entire bottle of liquor was thrown, shattering at Williams’ feet and causing him to jump backward.

"Uncle-"

Wilfred held up a single finger as he stared at William, completely expressionless.

"If I were you, I’d go to your apartment and hide your face until I call you. If you make a move, if I see you out in public, if you make a single post, like anything online, just pass the item to your brother and be prepared to vacation indefinitely in another country. This is my final warning to you. Now leave."

After taking another look at his uncle’s face, which was currently turning purple despite him speaking calmly, William grit his teeth, spun around, and left.

As he stomped out of his uncle’s office, he saw all the secretaries staring at him with a pitying expression.

Furious and being looked down on by those whom he considered inferior, William stomped over to Stella, the stupid orphan who dared to look down on him.

"What the hell do you think you’re looking at, you dumb bitch?!"

CRASH!!!

Furious, William swept everything off the copper haired girls desk, sending papers, her mouse, and a cup of coffee before stomping away.

And the moment he was gone-

"Oh my gosh, Stella, are you okay?" one of the secretaries quickly rushed over with a tissue and began dabbing Stella’s drenched shirt.

"I can’t believe he would do such a thing."

"I can. He’s always been a terrible person."

"Shhhh. Don’t let his uncle hear you. Stella, are you okay? Did it burn you?"

"I’m fine. It’s okay. Don’t talk badly about William. He’s a good person. He’s just a bit upset; I’m sure he didn’t mean it, or he’s being framed. That’s why he’s so angry!" Stella replied while sniffling as if she were about to cry.

"Oh, sweetie, you’re way too nice for your own good."

"Someone who takes their anger out on an innocent girl cannot be a good person."

As the secretaries began fussing over her, Stella looked down so they couldn’t see the coldness in her blue eyes.