From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 153: The Three Buske-teers (1)

"So what exactly is our team doing for busking? We got assigned a location in Fremont Street in Vegas, and we have to be there for at least an hour, but preferably two. Plus, the team that sells the most tickets gets to choose the performance order, so we need to make it good." Benjamin asked William as he began stretching to cool down after a whole day of practicing the choreography, as none of the vocal or dance trainers had come, and the camera crew had left them alone.

"Obviously, we’ll perform Warrior and the signal song," William replied in a cocky tone.

"Okay. That’s about 8 minutes. We need at least 52 more minutes of content. What else?"

"Does anyone play instruments?" Vishal asked while looking around.

Most people shook their heads, but Haruto and Ari raised their hands.

"I play piano."

"Hmm." - William

"I play guitar, bass, and drums, but I didn’t bring anything." Ari raised his hand as well.

"Well, if the instruments you play are not here, that’s not very helpful, is it?" William replied snidely

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Well, that’s not the question that was asked, was it?

And why the difference in treatment?

"Okay, did anyone bring any instruments? At all?" Benjamin asked with a sigh.

As everyone shook their head, Benjamin glanced at Ari.

"Can you ask Jamie if we can borrow his guitar? I’ll go ask the staff members and others to see if they’re willing to share."

"Yeah. Give me a second."

Ari quickly ran over to Jamie’s practice room, knocking lightly before opening the door.

The occupants who were also stretching looked at him in surprise, and Ari waved before staring at a particular blonde head.

"Double J."

"Your royal sea-ness?" Jamie glanced up at the door with a small smile.

"Can I use your guitar?"

"For busking?" Jamie asked, immediately understanding the full picture.

"Ya."

"No, heh heh. We’re going to use it." Laughing with a comically evil expression, Jamie jumped to his feet while pointing at Ari.

"Chase him away, boys! He can’t steal our busking idea."

"Shoooo shooo!"

"Get him out of here!"

"He’s here to steal information! Get him!"

Before Ari knew what was happening, 8 boys rushed him, shoving him out of the room before they slammed the door shut.

SLAM!

Ari: "....?"

Was it that serious?

A bit frazzled, he walked back into his own practice room and immediately disappointed the hopeful faces.

"He said no."

"Dang it."

"Maybe Benjamin can find something. The production team should have some instruments, right?" Vishal commented, "It’s a music show after all."

"Probably. They said they’re giving us some speakers and microphones, right? We can organize a list of songs that we’ll sing karaoke style while some people dance."

"Oh, I’d love to freestyle. Or we could even put together a little routine like Benjamin said." Mathew added.

"But not everyone is a good singer. We need instruments or something to give it some flair."

"Well, if it comes to it and we really need instruments, we can find some buckets and drum on those."

"That is so low class."

Your face is low-class!

"Then, while we’re waiting, let’s make a list of songs?"

"Look what I gooooot?~"

About 10 minutes later, Benjamin kicked the door open while carrying a large black rectangular object with lots of cords in his hands.

"What is that????"

"Speakers?"

"What the heck?"

"A DJ controller! The staff said that the other teams had claimed all the instruments, but I remembered that one of the writers had mentioned they had some DJ equipment from another show they did right before this, so I asked him if they had any DJ controllers lying around, and it turned out that they did. Since we’ll have our phones and they’ll give us a laptop, we can prepare a little set with singing, dancing, freestyling, and whatever comes up. It will be cool."

Benjamin quickly set it up and spun the two circular turntables, making the vinyl scratch sound effects to the oohs and ahhs of the boys in the room.

"That’s so cool!"

"I want to try it!"

"Me too!"

As each person took a turn messing around with the turntables and dials, William just frowned at them.

"That’s such a waste of time when we should be working on our performance. We should just sing and call it a day." William complained in a disgruntled tone.

He still couldn’t believe that he would have to slum it in a bus for four hours to Las Vegas and busk for a basically useless prize there and then make the trip once more to perform.

"You don’t have to join in on the planning or even learn how to do it if you don’t want to. Let’s decide on a list of songs to sing for those who only want to sing. Matthew can create simple choreography, and we can practice the signal song and ’Warrior’ once or twice. For those of us who want to do something a little more elaborate, we can do it on our own time. It won’t affect you." Despite William’s sharp tone, Benjamin replied with his characteristic bright smile.

"...Fine. Then let’s do that. Make sure that it doesn’t affect the performance of the main song, or as your leader, I’ll have to ban the extracurricular activities."

"Sure, sure. Let’s split up and work through things until Carlos comes, so Ari and I can work on the lyrics. We’ll get it done by tomorrow, so no need to nag."

William: "..."

Whatever. If they wanted to waste their time, so be it.

With their leader’s approval, they finally figured out a busking set list.

While Mathew led those who were interested in coordinating simple choreography for their chosen songs, Benjamin began writing some freestyle raps with Nile and Haruto, Ari and Vishal both went to use the computers to learn how to use the DJ controller properly.

Since he had played around with something similar in Jamie’s studio, Ari picked it up pretty easily and even created a few simple beats according to Benjamin’s requests for his freestyle.

Thoroughly having fun, he spent a couple of hours in the computer room until Carlos found him alone, with an apologetic expression in his brown eyes.

His dark hair was slicked down in sweat, and he had some black stains on his face while his whole body smelled like metal, gasoline, and motor oil. He was wearing dark blue coveralls that were stained with black liquid and had a backpack and his motorcycle helmet in his hands.

"Ari. Sorry. My bad. I’m late."

"It’s fine. Let’s go find Benjamin. How was work?"

"Ugh...busy. I literally couldn’t leave since one of the workers got sick." Carlos groaned while pushing his hair back, his hands coming off stained with more black liquid. "Mierda. I need a hot shower. My body hurts."

"And you stink," Ari added while laughing, quickly moving out of the way as Carlos’ hand shot out almost instinctively to smear his dirty hands on him.

"You’re lucky my bones are old. Otherwise, I’d smear this motor oil before you could even move."

"Excuses, excuses. You’re only 21."

"Wait until you’re my age. Your knees will burn, and your back will ache."

"Okay, grandpa."

The two of them chatted lightly until they got into the practice room.

"Look who finally decided to show up. Sorry, brudda, the cameras are still not here." Spotting them, Benjamin sharply spoke to Carlos before sighing, "I don’t even have time to be angry at you. Let’s try to knock the lyrics changes out so I can go to sleep."

"Sure. I worked on several copies, using the ideas we discussed. We could start with this, or if you two have already worked on something, I’ll do my best to contribute anyway I can." Carlos quickly brought out a notebook, and Benjamin grabbed it before quickly flipping through it.

The original lyrics of the song had annotations with alternate words and lyrics, definitions, concept ideas involving the movie Vishal mentioned as well as just racing teams, and arrangement changes, all written in a small, neat handwriting.

There were three final copies of the song lyrics, each with slight word changes and arrangement ideas that perfectly reflected what they had discussed as a team.

It was basically perfect.

"...you did this?"

"Yes. But I’m not attached to it at all. Especially if you guys already have a working idea." Carlos replied quietly.

"I put together a few ideas, but clearly not to this extent. You’ve done more than 80% of the work already." Benjamin glanced at Carlos before looking at Ari, then at Carlos once more, this time taking in his dirty outfit, the smell around his body, and his tired eyes.

It was his first time seeing Carlos look like this, despite being on his team during the last round.

The Spanish boy always looked calm and put together, and despite his slightly sharp appearance, he always spoke in a gentle tone.

Contrary to his belief that Carlos was just skipping practices and only showing up when the cameraman was there because he didn’t want to, it seemed like he had just gotten off after a hard day at work.

Ari’s words were right, that there was more to the story.

"It’s the least I could do after missing practice."

Hearing Carlos’ contrite tone and being the type of person who apologized once he found out he was wrong, Benjamin immediately apologized to Carlos.

"No...you really went above and beyond, because we’re supposed to be working together as a team. And I’m sorry for making snide comments, calling you names behind your back, and judging you without knowing the full story. Clearly, I can see that you’re not skipping and showing up only when they’re recording just because you want to, so what’s the deal, mate?"

Seeing Benjamin bow his head contritely, Carlos scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly, "It’s fine. It’s not a big deal."

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