From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 98: Team Selection (2)

"Helllloooooo contestants, did you miss me? I missed you all so much that I had to beg for a school uniform myself." Ryan Leary yelled out cheerfully as he ran out dressed in a grey school uniform like the rest of the contestants.

As he got to the front of the room with his microphone, the contestants cheered and whistled while he took a bow.

"Thank you. Thank you. I feel like I’m just like one of you. Look, I even practiced. Warrioooor" The MC then showed the first couple seconds of the dance break making the contestants cheer for him even harder while some of them openly laughed at his silliness.

"You’re too kind. What do you say about me becoming the 101th contestant? I really want to join in and give amazing performances like you all." Ryan turned to look at PD Emily with a pleading expression, but she shook her head and pointed both of her thumbs down.

"Fine, fine. I give up...for now." Ryan Leary pretended to sigh dramatically, before perking up again as he began to talk, "Welcome back to all of you amazing Pop Star Academy contestants! I have to be honest, I watched every single performance video and I. Am. Shocked! You are all so talented, I can’t believe you learned that song in only a week! Seriously, give yourselves a round of applause! You deserve all of the praise."

- clap clap clap

As the clapping died down, Ryan Leary continued, "Regardless, this is a competition and there are winners and losers."

At the suddenly dark words, the room quieted down as the MC turned toward the screen which suddenly had new graphics.

It had been split in half with the left side saying top two and the right side saying bottom two with question marks beneath the text.

"First, let’s discuss the two teams that didn’t get as much public love as some of the other teams."

The screen then changed to display the video thumbnails of the F(1) and F(2) teams and Ari could see the camera men in the corners of the room turn their cameras to focus on the contestants who were groaning, clutching their heads, or looking forward with resigned expressions.

Wincing in sympathy, the MC continued in a much gentler voice as he opened a small card he took out of his pocket.

"With only 21,439 views, the team with the lowest view count who will be sleeping in one of the F rooms is....... The F(2) team."

As the graphic changed to display the images of those who were part of the F(2) team, groans could be heard.

"I’m not sure if congratulations are the right call but I believe that you all will continue to work hard. Now, before we announce who the top team is, I want to remind you all one more time of the prize."

As Ryan Leary paused, a staff member brought out a giant purple check for a thousand dollars and held it stoically to the side.

"The winning team will get immunity from being eliminated despite their rank, room exchange tickets, a special privilege in the next round, and of course, $1000 to be split within the team. The $1000 is sponsored by LA Federal Credit Union, your local bank here to support the community. If you open a savings account now, get an extra 200 dollars deposited into your account for free!"

At the random PPL message that was recited by the MC, Ari rolled his eyes but leaned forward with interest, curious to see if his team would win.

The last time he had checked, his team’s performance video had a couple thousand more views than Jamie’s team, but since only the views gained in the first 24 hours mattered, he wasn’t sure if his team could cinch the win.

The graphic on the screen changed, now displaying the WeTube thumbnails of his and Jamie’s teams.

"The battle between the top teams with the most views was quite close especially during the first 24 hours. The difference in views at the 24 hour mark was only 2319 views, and afterwards, one of those videos shot up immensely in views. I’d like to congratulate Team B(1) and D(2) for both crossing over 1 million total views so everyone, please give those two teams a round of applause."

The MC paused for dramatic effect as everybody clapped and the cameras panned over to the two teams up for nomination.

A drum roll sound effect increased in volume as he continued speaking, "The team with the highest view count after 24 hours, is......Team B(1) with members Benjamin, James, Leo, Rex, Justin, Sam, and Adam! All of you please come to the front!"

The screen got replaced with the profile pictures of the B(1) team, Ari joined in with everybody clapping as the 7 boys got on stage.

Jamie actually looked a bit teary eyed and tipped his cowboy hat down to cover his face while Benjamin looked very excited as he bound to the front.

He was handed the large check but Benjamin cheekily handed it over to his teammates before standing next the MC!

"Benjamin, as the team leader, do you have any words to share? And how do you plan on splitting the money."

"Rah!!!We did it boys." Benjamin grabbed the microphone with a wide smile while doing a little lap and patting his former team members on the back before speaking in his crisp British accent, "I might be the leader in name, but it was definitely the mandem who put in the work to make the performance what it was. Big ups to my amazing team members! Each person did their part and it clearly paid off innit. Big ups to the public as well for the support! I’m glad they enjoyed the performance and I hope to deliver even better ones in the future. Naturally the money’s being split equally among us. It comes out to about 100 quid per person which is quite nice."

"Thank you Benjamin. From your words, I can see that you really cherish your team."

"Right on. The chem was quite good between us and I’d love to work with each of them again." Benjamin responded as he nodded at his team who nodded back.

At the clear team camaraderie, Ari was quite jealous at how easy the British boy seemed to be making friends, getting good teammates, and generally navigating this whole process with ease.

"Unfortunately, that’s not quite possible." Ryan Leary quickly interrupted the touching moment between the team members.

"I beg your pardon?"

At Benjamin’s surprised question, the MC Ryan Leary grinned.

"In addition to all of the wonderful prizes that you won, the special privilege that you gained is that each of you gets to choose the 8 or 9 team members you want on your team for the next round meaning none of you can team up together. The remaining people that aren’t chosen will have to form teams of 9 or 10 people."

"Could you tell us what the next mission is about?" Benjamin asked curiously as his eyes began scanning the sitting contestants, picking out the ones he wanted for his team.

"I cannot. It will be found out after the teams have been formed. But all I can say is that, the ranking and elimination ceremony won’t be for 3 more days and 10 people will be eliminated, so choose your teammates carefully since it’s your team that will suffer if you lose members or have members reassigned to keep the teams balanced."

At the words elimination, the room suddenly became somber while Ari wondered why the production team would bother keeping contestants around for three extra days if they already knew who would be eliminated.

It seemed cruel to the 10 contestants who would be futilely practicing and to the teams who might have to adjust to missing or new team members.

If Ari were to be in the leader position, since 10 people were going, he would select 8 contestants from A-grade dance, vocals, and rap to minimize the chances of his team being disrupted.

He would then carefully choose those in the lower grades while avoiding anyone in the D or F grades.

As he thought this through, Ari realized that despite his high vocal grade, he was one of the ones the lower grades that might not be chosen at all or even eliminated.

When he had danced to the signal song, he hadn’t been at full vocal or physical strength.

With slightly concerned eyes, he focused his gaze on Jamie, trying to mentally communicate with him.

’James Jones III’

’Double Jay!’

’Remember the good old days!’

’Let’s team up!’

’If you choose me, I’ll definitely go to the gym with you!!’ freewebnσvel.cøm

Jamie met his eyes and nodded with a determined smile, while the MC continued speaking with Benjamin once more.

"So, Benjamin, as the leader, who’s your first pick?"