CHAPTER 185: CULTURAL FESTIVAL PREPARATION (2)

"So we’ve finally narrowed it down between La Bamba, Bailando, and Danza Kuduro? State your cases, por favor." Ari pretended to hold a microphone out as he stared around.

Carlos walked to the front of the practice room with a small smile, "Ahem, La Bamba, a Mexican classic. The pros are that even non-Mexicans know it. It’s fun, it has a guitar solo, the lyrics are repetitive, there’s no recency bias since it’s super old, and it will definitely get the crowd going."

"I like it, I like it a lot. The con is that there’s no English portion at all, and for those who want to rap, there’s nothing in there for them." Ari pointed out, glancing over at Levi, who was frowning and looked like he was about to say something.

"Ah, yeah, I didn’t think of that," Carlos admitted, "then we can just scrap it-"

"No, no, it’s a viable option. Just pointing it out." Ari quickly interrupted, glancing over to see that Levi’s brow had smoothed out, before looking over at Alfonso, "You’re up next."

"My offering is Danza Kudoro. It’s a fast-paced song, has a nice beat, and it’s in both Spanish and Portuguese. Has a dance already. The con-, the con is there are so many words and no English. It’s super long, ah just forget it." Alfonso slumped down as he recalled the length of the song and Jamie’s terrible accent.

It would take forever just to learn the parts of the song, and tutoring would probably be a hopeless cause, especially since he was the only one who spoke Portuguese in their group.

"Are you sure? We’ll have a blind vote regardless."

"It’s okay. Maybe another time." Alfonso murmured, so Ari struck the song off their list.

"Okay, then, finally, double Jay?

"Ahem, ahem," Jamie stood up tall before he started speaking, "I want Bailando. Pros - there’s an English and Spanish version that we can combine, we’re more vocally focused in this group, which is the song’s strong point, but it’s flexible enough that we can go the route of pair choreography like Diego mentioned, or go the route of playing instruments. The cons-"

Jamie glanced over at the glaring Levi before speaking in a softer tone, "It’s slower paced, so it’s a bit less exciting for the audience. There’s a rap portion, but it’s in Spanish. That is all."

"Thank you. Any other song requests before we vote? No? Cool." Ari turned to the cameraman, who was capturing everything-

"Do you mind telling us the results after we vote blind? Please?"

"Me?" The man wearing a staff shirt and staff baseball cap pointed to himself in confusion.

He had never been asked this before.

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

The cameraman looked a bit amused to be suddenly included in the team voting, but he nodded obligingly.

"Sure."

"Thank you. Alright, boys, heads down, eyes closed, hands up for those who want La Bamba?"

Rustle-

Ari heard rustling before the room fell silent.

"Should I say the number of votes out loud?" the cameraman asked.

"Sure."

"4 votes."

It was a tie.

"One more time. Hands up if you want La Bamba."

Rustle-

"It’s a tie again."

Ari: ".....one more time. Hands up for La Bamba."

The sounds of hands being raised and then silence.

"Tie again, haha."

"Guys. Someone, please change your vote and pick one song. Hands up for Bailando?"

Rustle, Rustle-

"It’s a tie, ahaha. Nobody changed their votes."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Rubbing his suddenly aching head, Ari sighed.

"Okay, eyes open. Since we can’t decide, let’s just do both. Jamie will make a remix of the two songs."

"I will?" Jamie looked completely confused at suddenly being told to make a remix.

"You can’t do it?"

"I mean I can but..."

"We voted, and it’s been tied three times. So, it’s either that or rock, paper, scissors for which song the group performs. I don’t care."

"I can just give up my song choice," Carlos spoke softly, and Ari snorted.

"Why would you do that? 3 other people, including me, agreed with your song choice. I think it’s good."

"Traitor. You don’t like my choice?" Jamie looked immediately offended.

"I like your song choice. But I’m also being realistic in that we have five days basically to come up with a decent performance, and I think a simpler song is better, even if it has no English lyrics. We’ll have to spend a lot of time getting you to roll your ’rs’. Which I’m willing to bet your white cowboy hat that you can’t do."

"I can roll my r’s."

"Do it."

Jamie: "...."

"That’s what I thought."

Ari quickly dodged Jamie’s elbow before continuing, "Anyway. Since the vote is split, if everyone agrees to the remix, nobody has to lose out on their song choice. Actually, if we’re remixing it, we can add Alfonso’s song as well, so he has a chance to sing in Portuguese. Or if someone else wants to make the remix, they can. It’s just that Jamie is good at composing, so he can be quick about it. As I said earlier, I don’t care one way or another."

"Yes! Let’s do that!" Alfonso yelled excitedly.

"That’s fine with me."

"Wouldn’t that take a long time? And would it even sound good? Let’s just pick one song. Or let Captain Crashout pick it since he wants to be in charge so badly." Ian muttered under his breath before becoming quiet as Levi glanced at him with the same fierce expression.

"What was that?"

"...Nothing."

"That’s what I thought."

Seeing the room get tense again, Ari clapped before rubbing his hands together.

"Alright. If no one disagrees, we’ll have Jamie work on a remix, and we can flesh out the details later. My secretary duties are over. Let’s decide on the group leader, and they can take charge."

"You don’t want to do it? You already started." Jamie asked, surprised, and even Levi arched an eyebrow.

"Pass," Ari replied honestly, "So who wants it? Carlos? You’re the eldest."

"Hard pass." Carlos made an X with both arms and shook his head for double emphasis.

"Levi?"

"Seems troublesome. Pass."

"Alfonso? Ian? Jamie? Diego? Charlie?"

Charlie, Diego, and Jamie all shook their heads while Alfonso and Ian perked up.

"I see that the two of you want it. The floor is yours, gentlemen. Present your cases."

Done talking, Ari moved over to the side and let them argue it out.

With his head buried on his knees, he just watched the discussion happening with a strange feeling of anxiety clogging his chest.

He didn’t know if it was because he had seen the Analise Crouch and her daughter not too long ago, but he felt as if something bad was going to happen.

And it sucked because he wasn’t getting a response from NOVA, meaning he was basically alone with his thoughts.

"Heartburn?" Jamie caught him rubbing his chest with a smug expression and whispered, "That’s what you get for eating spicy eggs for breakfast."

"Better than eating so much sausage, you became 5 percent pig."

"I’m aiming for 10 percent next time."

"I want you to know that the sheer amount of food that you and Benjamin consume disgusts me," Ari whispered.

"There’s a reason we’re both taller than you know. This is farm-fed height and muscles." As Jamie flexed unnecessarily, Ari rolled his eyes.

"Shut up. I’m in my growth period. On another note, how did we even end up on the same team?" Ari asked, curious as to how this strange mix of people got together.

It didn’t make any sense at all.

Jamie glanced at the cameraman, focused on Alfonso and Ian’s discussion on why they should each become the team leader, before using his cowboy hat to cover his mouth as he whispered even quieter than before.

"While you were gone, they just had us go to continents/countries whose music we wanted to try by the previous ranking order. 3 groups for Korea, 2 for Japan, one for Africa, and 2 groups for the Americas. Ben and Vishal went to Africa. William is in the other Americas group, and I know you don’t like him, so I had a chat and swapped with him so we could be on the same team, and you didn’t have to deal with him. And don’t start nagging, I didn’t touch him."

"Huh. Thanks for that. I really appreciate it." Ari gave Jamie a genuine smile, and the blonde boy gave a bright one in return.

"If you’re really thankful, come work on the remix with me so I don’t make it sound like a country song like I ended up doing for the last performance. You owe me for my car."

"Sure. I can do that. That’s fine."

"I still can’t believe you can’t drive," Jamie complained. He had gotten his license as soon as he turned 16, but had been driving well before that.

"I believe in getting driven around. Whether it’s the train, bus, or a car, it’s all the same to me. I will, however, consider getting a motorcycle license. It was fun riding around with Carlos."

Seeing Ari’s body relax and his eyes return to their usual indifferent gaze as he turned to chat with Carlos, the bright smile on Jamie’s face disappeared.

What he didn’t mention was that the chat hadn’t been particularly friendly for William, but that was on a need-to-know basis.

And as Ari often told him, sometimes you don’t need to know.