The heavy bass of the song started blaring out of the speakers, and Ari took a deep breath before putting on a fierce expression as he began singing the first note of the song.
Wooooooahhhhhhhh~~
Ari's loud voice rang out as he held the first note properly before chanting.
P. S. A.
Dum dum dum dum
As the beat changed, Ari pivoted to the right and back while Vishal spun to the left and forward to replace him as the other boy began to rap the first verse.
What's your aim?
When we play this game
We want to make it
Straight to the top right now
What's your pain
Fighting doubters who don't believe
Trying hard to achieve
My dreams
What's your gain
Everything is golden
I sit on the top of the hill, yeah
Vishal's voice was a bit nervous as he rapped, as if he were unsure of himself, and as he tried to complete the powerful moves of the choreography, his voice wavered quite a bit.
Ari wasn't in a position to judge because he was focusing on putting his entire strength into the choreography, hitting the wide moves as powerfully as possible while preparing for his next turn.
As Vishal was supposed to be sliding to the right to maintain the triangle formation, and Ari was supposed to be moving forward, Vishal's elbow collided with his stomach, and he made an audible sound before he started to sing his part.
Simultaneously, somebody in the back row yelped in pain, and a whispered sorry could be heard.
Wincing, Ari continued singing his part, focusing on making the vocals as perfect as he could to the point of sacrificing the finer details of the choreography as he belted out every note.
Boom! Boom boom boom!
An intense drum sound that vibrated the speakers sounded out, indicating the time of organized chaos.
With his part finally over, Ari rapidly stepped backward while the other 10 team members tried to crisscross to change positions.
Thud thud clap.
Thud thud clap.
Feet were stomping hard as the teammates were supposed to high-five each other on up high and down low as they crossed over.
Unfortunately, just like practice, 6/10 people ran into each other, and Caleb didn't make it to the front in time to begin singing the chorus.
Thankfully, everybody stayed upright, but by the time Caleb made it to the front, his portion in the center was almost done, so he began singing the strange way that he did when he was trying to show off.
Wincing at the off-key vocal runs that had been added to the song, Ari just focused on completing the choreography as best as he could, even as his body tired out and he began missing a few steps.
Up at the front of their formation, Diego completed his rap verse, but when it became Sachi's turn, he mixed up his lyrics with another verse and temporarily froze in shock.
Like usual, Ari began filling in the words for him until he recovered, like what had happened in practice, but then a screeching voice sounded out.
It was Caleb trying to do what Ari did and fill in the lacking spots in the vocals, except that he insisted on singing in that strange style of his instead of in a normal voice, and completely overpowered the original singer.
When Sachi's turn ended and Michael stepped up to sing the chorus before the dance break, Caleb insisted on helping him sing once again from the back of the formation.
He frequently drowned out Michael's voice, and when Michael was about to hit the extended high note, Caleb's voice overrode Michael's lower tone and cracked as he tried his best to hit the high note.
As his eardrums rattled, Ari saw all the trainers visibly wince and begin whispering to each other, and knew that his team was cooked.
There was no coming back from the actions of this veritable troll.
Several of his teammates also flinched, and a few of them turned to look back at Caleb before trying to get into the dance break, which was naturally uncoordinated and unsynchronized.
Ari himself messed up several times, but he just continued pushing through while putting all his energy into it.
As the final notes of the song rang out and Ari stood there panting, the six judges had contemplative expressions.
"Wow, thank you to the D-Class (2) team for their performance. Why don't we get the judges' feedback, starting with Selena, who mentored them in dance?" MC Ryan Leary began speaking after a weak round of applause from the other contestants.
Selena looked over Ari's teammates before her gaze stopped on Caleb.
"Contestant Caleb, I see that you decided to join us today. How nice of you." Serena started off by giving an uncharacteristically sarcastic comment, causing Caleb to flush from his chin to the tips of his ears.
He hadn't thought that Selena would say something in front of all of the contestants like this.
"I-I was feeling unwell!" Caleb loudly replied even though she hadn't asked him anything.
"Well, I hope you continue to feel well in the future, and on the small chance that you don't, you notify the trainers, team members, and staff members when you're sick so we don't waste time waiting for you to return to class." Selena replied harshly before sighing and shaking her head.
"Moving on to your evaluation as a group. While the choreography looks better than before, I can't in good conscience say it's good. Your formations are a mess, and many of you don't have the choreography memorized. Your transitions were sloppy, and you collided with each other each time. Although some of you seem to have practiced more than others." Selena's gaze swept across the entire team before stopping in front of Caleb once again.
"Overall, it's clear that you need more practice as a whole and on an individual level. I highly suggest that you all try to focus on learning the choreography first before learning the formations or vice versa. Quite a few of you seem to be mixing the two up or just free-styling as you see fit. And for those who are toward the back end of the formation, you should dance as hard as those up front, not slack off because you think people can't see you."
Her gaze stopped on Caleb one more time, and he simply looked as if he wanted to run away from embarrassment.
He licked his lips a few times, and his lips quivered, but he eventually didn't say anything and just bowed his head.
"Well, thank you for the feedback, Selena. More practice seems to be the theme of the night. Larry, I know that you mentored the majority of the people in this class. Do you have any feedback for them?"
"It was rubbish." Larry replied while looking around at each contestant standing in front of him.
Oof.
Ari's teammates winced at the harsh words.
"Off tune, and quite a few of you forgot the lyrics. And although X-Ponent's advice was for each of you to help fill in for your other teammates when an issue was going on, he was asking for genuine help, not alley cats yowling into the night for all the neighbors to hear. Caleb. I'm sure I've warned you repeatedly about that….unique style of singing that you insist on using. It is unpleasant to the ears. Why did you do that? There were times when I'm sure it wasn't your place to sing, and yet your voice was the only thing that I heard. The last time I checked, this was a team performance, not a solo performance. Explain yourself."
Larry spoke in the harshest tone possible.
He looked genuinely infuriated as his hands were quite red in contrast to his face.
At Larry's words, Caleb's face turned an even brighter red, and he turned to look back at the rest of the team for help, but everybody avoided his gaze, especially Ari.
Nobody was interested in helping the person who was acting like a troll defend himself in front of the judges. Caleb was completely on his own.
Seeing that nobody would help him and even hearing a couple of contestants snickering from their seats, Caleb ground his teeth in anger.
F them all.
They were all losers anyway who didn't see his vision.
Since they decided not to help him while he was getting flamed by the judges, Caleb decided not to help any of them in the future as well.
"Well, contestant Caleb? I am waiting for an answer. What possessed you to think it was okay to sing and behave like that?"
Larry Jackson continued to press Caleb with an angry expression.