From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 64: D-Class (2)

"You think that just because you have a higher vocal grade than all of us, you can just pretend to be the leader and boss us around! No way!" Caleb pointed his finger at Ari while glaring.

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

’Is this bastard crazy?’

He turned toward the camera, making sure his eyes hadn’t deceived him, and the red light, which meant that the camera was recording, was on.

It was.

’Then he was definitely crazy! Who would curse in front of the camera? Hadn’t this man seen how evil PD Emily and PD Parks smiles looked?’

Ari made a mental note to stay away from him as much as possible. Clearly the kid didn’t care about himself.

"What? You’re going to go snitch to the PD? Yeah, that’s right. I heard from your roommates that you threaten to go tell the PD when every little thing happens. What are you going to say? I protested against the unfair dictatorship you were trying to start?" Caleb let out a twisted smirk as he noticed where Ari was glancing.

"Wait, that’s not true at all. If Ian and Ga-mpfhhhh" Vishal immediately tried to interrupt, but Ari slammed his hand over the other boy’s mouth while shaking his head.

Caleb hadn’t said any names so if this footage was aired, then Vishal who had tried to defend him might get some hate which he didn’t want, especially if the hate was caused by Vishal trying to protect him.

Ari personally wasn’t one to care about the opinions of those he didn’t know or care about, so Caleb’s words went into one ear and out of the other.

Blinking at the other boy, he shrugged before responding, "I’m not trying to be the leader. Nobody was saying anything, so I thought I might as well get things started with an introduction instead of wasting time. If you want to be the leader and nobody else wants it or has a problem with it, then go for it, go for it."

"Anyone want to say anything?" Caleb glanced around with a slightly aggressive tone, and the remaining contestants who didn’t want to deal with the situation, especially when none of them were attached to Ari, who seemed to be treating the program like a joke with his painted face and weird green mask, just shrugged.

"Fine! Since you insist, I’ll do it. And don’t worry, we’ll definitely beat those guys who didn’t choose us. D2 squad let’s go woooo!!!!" Caleb cheered by himself, trying to hype the room up.

He wanted the narrative of the strong leader who took a team of straggling rejects to success, especially after being abandoned by Ian, who he thought was his friend. After Ari, he was the person with the next highest Vocal grade and planned on exerting his energy. freёwebnoѵel.com

Unfortunately, his leadership experience was close to zero as he stared at he 9 expectant gazes and the one blank one staring out of a strange green face mask.

"Uhm, let’s start by...introducing ourselves. Yeah, can’t work together if we don’t know each other’s names, right? I’m Caleb. I’m staying in room B2. Dance: F, Vocal: C. Two fun facts about me is....let’s skip the fun facts. We don’t have time to waste on such nonsense."

Caleb quickly scribbled out what was written on the whiteboard and rewrote his name at the top before passing it on.

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

’This weirdo is picky about name order, too? Ohhhh, brother."

After the introductions, Caleb proudly stood with the whiteboard that had the song parts written on it.

Overall, there were 3 main verses, 3 main rap verses, 3 main choruses, and over 8 vocal and rap ad-libs.

There were enough parts for everybody to have at least one large part, and some people could even get two.

Ari was targeting the first vocal verse and the chorus that ended with an extended high note.

It was the part that Jelissa had made him repeat the most today, so he was confident that he could execute it well. Plus, it was quite attention-grabbing grabbing so it would help spotlight his skills.

The problem was....

"Everybody, put your hands up, and when called on, you can say which part you want first. Personally, I want the first verse and this high chorus part here." Caleb began to write his name next to the parts without letting anybody talk, but Ari raised his hand in the air.

"Pardon me, I want those parts as well."

At his words, Caleb’s face wrinkled slightly before he smoothed it out.

"What, you think because you’re in a Vocal class with a better grade than me, you can just dictate which part you want and I have to agree?"

’Weren’t you about to do the same thing?’

Forcing down the angry words that he wanted to say, Ari tried to present his argument reasonably.

"Not at all, I think we should both sing the parts and let the rest of our teammates decide who does it best. If there are conflicts over other parts as well, then we should resolve them that way."

"What if I don’t want to? I called the part first, " Caleb stubbornly replied, but Ari ignored him and turned to face the rest of the contestants sitting in a semicircle.

He didn’t want to make it seem that he was asserting his superiority or fighting with Caleb because he wanted to be the leader.

He wanted to appeal to the "team structure that they had.

"We have to remember that this is a group performance and not an evaluation of our personal skill. We’re not even being graded individually; the public is going to decide which performance video does the best by which performance they enjoyed watching the most. That means it has to be as good as it can with the people we have. Since we’re going to be competing with others with higher grades, doesn’t it make sense to put the right person for the job in the right position by competing fairly? And I’m not saying that I’ll definitely do better than Caleb, I’ll naturally give up if he does better than me."

At Ari’s words, the other boys looked contemplative before nodding.

"That seems right. We should compete and let the best person get the role." Michael, a blonde boy with his roots showing, nodded. Although his dancing skills were not the best, he was the other person who received a C-grade in vocals and wanted to compete for the part that Ari and Caleb both wanted.

"I agree as well." Vishal chimed in.

"Me too. It makes sense to compete for it."

"Same here."

Caleb glanced at the contestants who were about to revolt against him and gritted his teeth while racking his brain for a way to get out of this.

He already knew what Michaels’s voice sounded like, and he was confident he could beat him if they competed for the chorus, but he wasn’t too sure about Ari.

Ari’s performance had been good, but so had everybody else since they had two weeks to practice a song.

Caleb doubted that Ari could maintain that level of vocal ability, but if he could and they competed head to head, then he would lose both of the highlight parts of the song that he wanted.

That couldn’t happen!

Caleb continued to think hard as more and more contestants agreed with Ari before an idea came to him.

"Guys, wait. Sure, this sounds good in theory, but wouldn’t those with a higher vocal grade just pick the song highlights while leaving the scraps for everyone else? He’s just proposing this because he thinks he can beat you guys easily since he has the highest vocal grade. He’s just setting it up so that he gets the parts that he wants easily!"

At Caleb’s words, the previously harmonious atmosphere died down, and people began looking at Ari suspiciously.

Was it true?

Was the idea really because he looked down on all of their skills and thought he could easily beat them if they competed for a part?

Although there might be some truth to the matter, the pride of the young boys didn’t allow them to admit it.

Seeing that everybody was no longer agreeing and instead had suspicious gazes, Caleb smiled lightly before proposing a solution.