CHAPTER 186: CULTURAL FESTIVAL PREPARATION (3)

"Add this part and lower it just a bit for Alfonso. I remember that his voice tends to crack if it gets too high, and then play it from the top, please?"

"Aye aye, captain," Jamie responded as he clicked around, trying to merge three songs together with extra parts so they sounded cohesive.

As Jamie played it back and Ari heard the upbeat Latin trumpets and congas marking the introduction, he nodded along while mouthing the phonetic lyrics that they had printed out since half of the group couldn’t read or speak Spanish to save their lives.

In fact, Carlos and Diego were currently running an impromptu pronunciation session that had transitioned from a planning session while he and Jamie escaped to work on the remix so that it could be submitted to the staff.

The reason for the escape was quite simple.

He was tall, had a blonde buzzcut, and piercing blue eyes set in a permanent glare, especially when he was looking at or speaking to one person.

Levi seemed to positively despise Ian for some unknown reason, and Ian seemed to be quite afraid of Levi, causing the tensions in the practice room to be high as the two seemed to be a powder keg that was about to explode.

Since Ari really only talked to the people in his small circle and whoever was on his team, he had no idea what happened, but he planned on asking Benjamin, the friendly neighborhood social butterfly, who seemed to know everybody’s business.

And like magic, Benjamin strode into the computer room, as loud as ever.

"Wagwan boys, grinding into the late night?"

"Howdy, howdy."

"Unfortunately. Why are you here?"

"Just going to throw a little song mix together for the festival. A little afrobeats amapiano ting ya know."

"You’re going to work on it?" Ari asked in surprise.

He had asked Jamie to work on their team’s remix since he could nag as much as he wanted and felt bad being nitpicky toward Jelissa but he assumed other teams would just submit their ideas to the production team and get the tracks delivered like usual.

"Yeah, it’s a bit odd innit? The production team seems busy in meetings and has asked us to either try it ourselves or wait a day or two so they can sort themselves out. Since it’s not being judged officially and the deadline is tight, I thought I’d have some fun with it." Benjamin replied as he chaotically spun around on the chair.

As Benjamin waited for the computer to turn on, Ari curiously asked him what was on his mind.

"Random question. What’s up with Levi and Ian? Was there a fight?" Ari asked curiously.

"Ah? The angry golden kiwi? Cause of the buzz cut." Ari’s confusion at the term, Benjamin brushed his head, indicating Levi’s hair, "They had a huge fight. I can’t believe you didn’t hear about it. I’m actually looking forward to it popping out in the next episode."

"They fought? When."

Benjamin looked at Ari as if he were an alien, "You know Levi was on Gale’s team this past round. Apparently, Ian came by and was messing around with Gale and making slick comments, so Levi cursed him out. Ian got pissed, ’accidentally’ broke Levi’s headphones, and got cursed out again. Then they ended up roommates. Ian thought it would be funny to lock him out, so Levi broke down the door, dragged him out of bed, and almost beat him up. Production gave them both a warning to stop messing around or they would both be kicked off."

"What? Where was I?"

He hadn’t noticed any of this happening.

"Bruv, you tell me. There’s been quite a lot of doors getting broken down these days, now that I mention it. Either way, that brudda has a short temper and doesn’t talk to anybody, including the prince. Since they’re both on your team, good luck, mate."

"Thanks? I guess?"

Well, as long as it didn’t affect him, Ari didn’t really care one way or another.

***

Is that what Ari said?

He would like to take that back.

Restraining a sigh, Ari looked to his left.

"Rrrrr. Not Llll. Rrr. Repeat after me. Arriba arriba."

"Allliba alliba."

"No, let’s try moving your tongue this way. Rrrrr."

"Rlllll?"

Carlos was doing his best to teach Charlie and Jamie to roll their r’s.

To his right, Alfonso was practicing his lines for the remixed song with the tablet.

And right in front of him...

Diego was attempting to teach basic salsa steps to Ari, Levi, and Ian.

Except...

Ian: "You stepped on my foot!"

Levi: "Then get out of my way."

Ian: *hand accidentally brushes Levi*

Levi: "The next time your hand hits me, I’ll hit you back 10 times as hard."

Ian: "...Bald-headed b***h. I hate you."

Levi: "What did you say about me?"

Ian: "....."

Levi: "Stop muttering like a rat and speak up."

Levi was a very, very prickly person.

He barely spoke if he didn’t have to, and often just stared with disinterest.

The few times when he did speak, crazy things came out of his mouth, and it seemed like he truly didn’t care whether or not the cameras were recording.

And unfortunately, Ian constantly antagonized him, or so the volume of crazy things being said was increasing slowly.

Ari had thought he always said what he wanted, but this was clearly on an entirely different level.

As a result, the practice room was tense.

Very, very tense.

The only person who was seemingly oblivious to the tension was Jamie, who was determinedly trying to roll his r’s off to the side.

And Ari?

He was currently ignoring Diego’s pleading gaze and dancing the choreography while wishing to leave the room with all of his might.

"Contestant Ari? Contestant Carlos. Would you both please come with me?" Kate, one of the writers, stood by the door with a concerned look on her face.

With an almost grateful sigh of relief, Ari turned to look at Kate with the warmest gaze he had given a person in a long while, and immediately followed after her, wondering if he was in trouble yet again.

He didn’t think he had done anything in the past day to warrant being called to meet the PD, but who knew what was going on with the Crouch’s.

Maybe they came to visit again.

"Since the prod team has your cellphones, we tried to keep them charged in case there’s an emergency, and both of your phones have been receiving quite a few calls. Carlos, it’s your family, and Ari, it’s an unsaved number, so I wanted to give you time to look at it and call them back if needed, since it might be a family emergency."

Kate handed the two of them their cell phones and led them to an unused room while staring expectantly.

Ari took his cellphone from Kate, staring at the unsaved but familiar number and over 100 missed calls and voicemails.

It was Analise Crouch’s number.

Without batting an eye, he cleared the call log, deleted voicemails, and blocked the number before handing it back to Kate, who looked a bit surprised at him being done so quickly.

"I’m not expecting any calls, so you can just keep it off permanently."

"Ah, really? It wasn’t anything important? They seemed to be calling quite often. That’s the number your guardian left with us."

"Spam callers are really persistent these days. Just ignore it."

"Ah, got it. Well, you’re free to go. This will take a while." Kate pointed to Jamie, who was pacing around the room while murmuring on the phone.

Having no plans of going anywhere, Ari leaned against the wall and settled in to wait.

"Is this a repeat thing?"

"Ah yes, for the past couple of days, his mom’s been calling both the staff number and contestant Carlos’s number, and the conversations usually last quite long. She’s been....interesting ahaha." Kate laughed awkwardly as she remembered some of the things Carlos’s mom had yelled at her.

"But it’s fine. We’re trained to handle these things, and she’s not even the worst parent we’ve had to deal with, so ahaha."

So you’re saying she’s pretty bad.

"I shouldn’t be telling you this. Please pretend you didn’t hear it from me."

"It’s fine. I know his parents wants him to quit."

"Ah! He told you? Well...you are close enough to sneak away on a secret midnight date together."

Hmm?

What was that?

Thinking he had heard something strange just now, Ari gave Kate a strange look, but she just looked away while whistling.

"Ah, Lo siento Mamá. I’m not quitting, Mamá. I’m busy. I can’t come back to watch the kids. No. No. Porque..."

On that side, the conversation didn’t seem to be going so good.

Ari looked at Carlos silently for a moment before walking over, snatching the phone out of his hand, and holding it to his ear.

"What are you-"

"Hola Tia(auntie), this is Ariel. I’m a boy, Tia. I’m actually the team leader of Carlos’ team, and you’re taking him away from practice time. We actually don’t have enough time since we’re preparing for the culture festival, so I’m afraid Carlos will have to call you back some other time, but it might take a couple of days, maybe a week, since I don’t plan on giving him a break again. If it’s not an emergency, please stop contacting him because he’s busy."

"Ari..."

There was a woman’s voice screaming in Spanish mixed with English, so Ari put the phone on mute and turned to Carlos, who looked a bit embarrassed and frustrated.

"Committing or quitting? Just answer and I’ll handle it."

Brown eyes met his green ones before Carlos slowly nodded.

"...I’m committing."

"Okay."

Beep-

Ari unmuted the phone and then said, "Ah, Tia, Tia, I’m so sorry....crrr-what’s that...crrr-you’re breaking off crrr-"

Ignoring the flabbergasted expression on both Kate and Carlos’ faces, Ari continued his bad acting, "Tia, the cell service in our practice room is bad. Wi-fi? We don’t have wi-fi either. The production staff keeps us blocked off. Send him back? Lo siento. I’m sorry. Ah, I can’t hear you, you’re breaking crrr-"

Beep.

Ari quickly hung up the phone and tossed it at Kate, who almost dropped it as she scrabbled to catch it.

"Phew! Don’t do that!"

"Sorry. You’re clumsier than I thought. Explains the attempted murder on the way to the hospital."

At Ari’s words, her face turned bright red, and she grumbled back.

"...you know that we have a perfect wi-fi signal. And I’ll have you know I’m a very good driver."

"Me too, and I don’t even have a license."

As she glared at him, Ari laughed wildly.

"I’m kidding. Sort of. Anyway, if she calls back, don’t bother Carlos. Just tell me. He’s banned from using his phone. If there’s an emergency, I’ll let him know. Deal?"

Carlos stared at Ari silently while biting his lips, and Ari rushed to clarify.

"Ah, if you’re worried. Promise, I won’t read your messages. Strictly answer calls from family. Or we can let the battery die completely?"

"...I would be worried in case something happens to my siblings. And she can say some crazy things."

"Doesn’t matter to me. I’m your cellphone handler from now on and I’ll update you. As your fake team leader, I’m banning you from answering your phone. Now go practice, young man. We have two people who can’t roll their Rs who need to learn in 4 days. Deal?"

Ari held out his hand and after a moment, Carlos grabbed it and nodded silently, his voice choked up when he responded.

"Deal."

"Kate, you’re the witness. Don’t let him renege, okay? If he does, he owes us both a year’s worth of tacos."

"Oh. Definitely! Deal! Deal!"

"With drinks."

"Yes!"

"And dessert!"

"Yes!"

At Ari and Kate shamelessly adding things to a bet they didn’t even want him to win, Carlos could only smile softly.

"Okay."