"What the h*ll have you guys been doing?"
Selena's pretty face looked completely angry as she stared at the jumbled mess of trainees in front of her attempting to muddle through the choreography while the music was playing in the background.
She hadn't taught these students, but it was clear that none of them had learned the choreography or had even practiced it since yesterday.
They were just vaguely moving their arms and legs while looking completely ridiculous.
Unable to take it anymore, she stopped the music on the tablet and the cameraman that followed her into the practice room zoomed in on her furious face before turning to the participants who looked completely embarrassed except for a single person whose face was covered by a green mask.
"What exactly have you all been doing? Have you practiced at all, or have you all just been fooling around? What's going on here?"
The contestants in the room just stared at her silently with their heads down except for one person and Selena could feel her disappoint growing.
Turning to the boy who hadn't flinched, or broken eye contact yet had one of the most disappointing performances out of them all, especially after she had recommended, he begin stretching and get a dance instructor.
Remembering Jaywalks complaints about Ari not taking it seriously and seeing that it was clear that he hadn't done so and hadn't even bothered to review the choreography, Selena called him out.
"Ari, since you're the only one who can look me in the eye, explain what happened here. What have you guys been doing instead of learning the choreography? Even if you're the D-class you should have some dignity. The other room is doing much better than you are right now! They already have the choreography partially memorized! Is this some type of game to you?"
Hearing Selena yell in frustration, Ari took a deep breath before responding, "Our group decided to split the song and practice our vocals. We wanted to settle that before having you teach us with the choreography since we're all in F class."
"Who decided that?"
"Cale-"
"We all did. As a group." Ari quickly interrupted whoever was about to call out Caleb's name because he didn't want to be caught talking badly about the boy, especially when he wasn't here.
Who knew how it would be edited later and how they would be criticized.
It would be better to blame the group and show improvement later.
"You're saying that you guys practiced your vocals instead of the dance when you knew the dance trainers were coming tonight? You want to waste the minimal time with me by not being prepared? None of you have a single move memorized! Not even one! Does that make any sense?" Selena asked them with an incredulous expression, but nobody responded, the contestants just hung their heads even more.
Sighing, she shook her head in disappointment before speaking, "Fine, show me what you practiced. It better be worth it for the disgrace you just showed me."
"Uhm, Trainer Selena, our whole team isn't here yet." Sachi nervously replied as he peeked at Selena before hanging his head even lower.
"Why? Where is he?"
Selena's cold tone rang out and the contestants audibly gulped before somebody else whispered, "He went to the bathroom. But he should be right back."
"Fine. We'll wait."
Selena began tapping her foot impatiently on the floor but as time passed with no sign of Caleb showing up, her expression got colder and colder.
5 minutes later, her cold gaze swept over the nervous contestants.
"Where did you say this teammate was?"
"Uhm the bathroom…maybe he's lost. I can go check on him?" Vishal stepped forward and spoke up since he was one of the older contestants on the team and some of the team looked like they were about to cry.
"At this point it doesn't matter. Instead of wasting anymore time, just present what you have. Decide who'll cover his part and let me see it."
The contestants huddled up and before anybody could say anything, Michael spoke up.
"Ari, I think you should cover Caleb's part. You clearly know the song back to front and with how angry Selena is right now, we need to do a good job." Michael peeked at Selena's blank expression before turning away quickly.
"Is everybody fine with that?"
"Yes, she looks mad."
"I don't want her to yell at me."
"Please do!"
Since they were all in agreement, all the contestants lined up as the instrumental started playing.
The intense bass and trumpet sounds of the beginning sounded out as Ari sang the extended high note before retreating.
Vishal stepped up and completed his rap portion with a less shaky voice than before and all the other contestants performed their parts to the best of their abilities.
Although several voices shook and cracked while they were singing because of Selena's intense expression, they successfully completed the song with Ari filling in for Caleb and subtly supporting the voices of others while humming at the right pitch.
When they were done, Selena's expression wasn't as dark as it was before.
"Okay. That wasn't bad. I can see you definitely practiced it a bit. I have thoughts about the part distribution but overall, it seems fine. Your vocal teachers can handle that. We don't have much time together, so let's jump right into the formation you'll use and the choreography. Hopefully your missing teammate decides to join us sometime this century." Selena glanced at the cameraman with a meaningful expression before standing at the front of the class.
First she put them in a basic triangle formation that would allow them to rotate the person whose part it was to the middle and after that video was taken on the tablet, she began breaking down the steps of the choreography.
Unlike Jaywalks teaching style which taught a section at once, Selena taught the moves of each verse one by one, making them repeat it until appeared perfect.
Ari could tell that the others were a bit frustrated with hearing Selena yell 'again' 20 times in a row until they finally synchronized on one small move but for Ari, it was how he liked to learn.
He preferred learning a single piece of the choreography puzzle before moving on to the next one, and although his movements were still jerky and not as coordinated, hearing the explanation from an expert, seeing the expected movement repeatedly from all angles, and getting his body forcibly put in the right position by Selena seemed to be working amazingly for him because his dance stat improved once again.
[Dance +1]
[Dance: F+ -> E- (Currently E with Otterly adorable tracksuit)]
During the whole time Selena taught them, Caleb never once showed up to class but Ari and several other's received a nod and work hard message from Selena as she left.
And 10 minutes after, she left, Caleb came inside pretending to fan his face while laughing.
"Phew, I really let out a stinker in the bathroom. My roommates definitely can't enter for a while. What did I miss?"
Everybody in the room glared including the cameraman who was about to leave glared at him.