From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 65: D Class (3)

"What’s the solution?" Michael asked Caleb while glancing at Ari suspiciously.

He couldn’t believe that he was so conniving, almost convincing them that his idea was good.

"Let’s limit the parts that a person can compete for to 1 until everyone has received a part. Then once everyone has at least one part, we’ll decide the last bit through competition. Sounds fair, right?" Caleb proposed with an innocent expression as if the result just came to him.

This way, even if he lost his first choice to Ari, he would still be able to gain his second choice by beating everyone else out.

"So you’re saying if you and Ari compete for a part, when Ari wins, he can’t compete for a different part until everybody has one?"

Michael asked a clarifying question, but Caleb silently gritted his teeth at the implication that he would lose to Ari before responding.

"Yes, that’s right."

"Then I agree."

"Sounds good."

"Looks fairer than before. I can’t believe I almost fell for his trap."

As people began agreeing with Caleb’s plan, Ari hid his lips and whispered status.

[Caleb Adams]

[Age: 20]

[Vocals: D+]

[Dance: E-]

[Visual: C+]

[Rap: F+]

[Charm: C-]

Seeing that the stats, especially the vocal stat, were on the lower end, Ari quickly glanced around and checked everybody else’s.

Their vocals were all within the [E- -> D] range, while their dance skills were between [F -> E+].

With vocal stats like that, Ari was confident that he didn’t have to worry about losing when singing and competing for a song part.

Instead, he was waffling between selecting the chorus with the high note highlight and the first verse with the dramatic introduction after the intense first rap.

Those two spots sounded the best to him because of Picky Listener (B) so he wanted at least one to showcase his skills.

"Well? Since everybody agreed, let’s choose. I’ll even let you go first, so which one do you want? Hurry up, we don’t have all day." Caleb goaded Ari with a smug smile as if he had won something.

"I’d like to compete for the first verse after the rap," Ari replied simply. It was the beginning highlight portion and since he had no faith in his teammates, he might as well stand out before everything went to crap.

"I won’t compete for that one. Anyone want to go against him?"

As the contestants shook their heads, Caleb wrote Ari’s name on the white board and continued, "Then, I want the chorus leading into the dance break." Caleb quickly spoke while looking around for any challengers.

"I want to compete over that one." Michael immediately raised his hand and spoke up.

Both Michael and Caleb glared at each other, with Caleb smirking since he knew he was better at it.

"You saw how it went in class today, right, Michael? I have it in the bag, so just give up."

"Class was class. This is different. Let’s go again." Michael stood up and walked over to Caleb.

He was a stocky boy with a square jaw and a rounded bowl cut that hung in his face.

"Tsk! Fine! I’ll start." Caleb grumbled while grabbing the room tablet and pulling up the song.

He hit play and as the instrumental arrived at the correct spot, he started singing.

The beginning parts of the chorus were a bit questionable as Caleb constantly wavered between being off and in tune while singing in a unique way.

But then he took a deep breath to sing the final line.

No no no no no no nooooooooooooo~~~~~~~~

A majorly off note high note came pouring out of Caleb’s mouth as he closed his eyes, raised his arms, and dramatically posed while singing the note for as long as possible.

It took everything in Ari’s power not to cover his ears from the veritable shrieking that was happening in front of him.

The rest of the contestants visibly flinched while Michael looked as if he were about to burst out laughing from the side.

"Absolutely not." Ari could hear Vishal whispering beside him and just closed his eyes until the torture was over so he wouldn’t laugh.

"Heh. So what do you guys think? I tried to add my own flair to make it better. It was good right?" Caleb asked proudly once the music stopped.

"..."

"Why don’t we let Michael go next and we’ll give the feedback to both of you at the same time?" one of the contestants hesitantly called out.

Caleb shot the contestant a glare before passing the tablet over to Michael.

As the instrumental began playing, Michael began singing.

He sang the chorus an octave lower than Caleb did and even though certain parts were unstable and out of tune, when he hit the extended high note, it sounded a lot better than when Caleb sang.

Plus there were no weird added techniques when he sang which made it sound better at least to Ari’s ears.

As the music stopped, Caleb shot a glare at everyone and began speaking, "Those who think I did a better job raise your hand."

There was an awkward silence as people stared at Caleb and his face began turning red.

Just as he opened his mouth again-

"Maybe we should close our eyes and vote that way so nobody feels pressured." Vishal quietly chimed in from the side, and Ari nodded in agreement.

"Tch. Fine. Those who vote for me, the leader of this group, raise your hand." Caleb said in a fierce voice.

With his eyes closed, Ari head some clothing rustling in the background but not a lot.

"And those who vote for Michael raise your hand."

Much more rustling could be heard this time and when he opened his eyes, Ari could see Michael smiling brightly.

"Sweet. I get the chorus part." Michael wrote his name next to the part on the board before going to sit down.

The rest of the parts were smoothly(?) dispersed with Ari getting an adlib section.

Caleb forcefully took a verse and chorus for himself, Michael took the chorus and an adlib, while only Vishal got a small rapping section.

The rest of their teammates split the remaining parts among themselves with a few people competing with each other for prized sections.

As he listened to each person sing, Ari’s mood kept sinking until it almost reached rock bottom.

To put it kindly, they were all not the worst but very far from the best.

He couldn’t believe that these people who were on a team with him were the same people whose performance he had watched two days ago and thought was good.

[These people had months to rehearse for a single performance so of course it would good. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if it wasn’t?]

[Aren’t your standards just messed up because of working with Jamie?]

[Most people can’t make, rehearse, and perform a song in two days.]

NOVA chimed in unnecessarily and Ari realized that it was right.

Seeing Jamie prepare an amazing performance in days had skewed his perception of what it was like for people trying to be idols.

"Okay, since the parts have been split, then why don’t we start singing?"

"Don’t you think we should do the choreography first? I haven’t memorized it yet and we have to perform in front of the judges tomorrow."

"I’ve never rapped before, can’t we practice individually first?"

"No! We need to practice the choreography. The dance trainers are coming tonight to help us set up formation and we should be ready."

Several different people began arguing about what the next steps should be including their great leader and Ari just watched the mess with his head resting on his knees.

He could already tell that this whole thing would be a total mess.

As if agreeing with him, a blue screen with large text filled his vision.

[Don’t you just love group projects?]

[They’re so fun!]

’Not at all. They were the worst!’