What the heck was going on here?

Why was he so riled up?

"Jamie."

"No," Jamie replied mulishly.

"James Jones the third."

"No!"

Ari sighed, then looked over at Benjamin with eyes that were pleading for help.

Laughing, the British boy stood up with an exaggerated groan.

"Alright, big man. Let’s all calm down, yeah? As Ari said earlier, we’re not angry at each other, innit? Just frustrated at the PD, so let’s not take it out on each other." Benjamin said as he walked over to the door and slung his arms over Carlos’s shoulders.

"Ari and Jamie hash it out, and for everyone else, maybe it’s best we go to bed early tonight and wake up early tomorrow, since I don’t think anyone is really in the mood to practice anymore, and the less angry words we exchange, the better. I’ll walk these two back and get snacks, since I’m hungry, and Kate said she made us some of that puppy chow ting. Anyone coming?"

"I’ll go."

"Same."

As the room cleared out, leaving just Ari and Jamie, Ari gave him an annoyed look.

"Are you done acting crazy, or should I smack you upside the head?"

"Can you even reach?"

"So I should just kill you in your sleep? Got it. Make sure you say your final goodbyes to your brothers and your mom before you go to bed today."

"What about my dad?"

"You have a dad? Since when? I thought a stork dropped you in your mom’s arms with a guitar in one hand and a cowboy hat in the other," Ari replied, pretending to be shocked at the sudden reveal.

"You forgot the piece of straw in my mouth and the cowboy boots on my feet."

"Ah, you’re right. Forgive me, oh Mr. 3 from Tennessee."

"You’re forgiven just this once, fancy pants from France."

The two of them stared at each other before snickering quietly.

"I’m not happy," Jamie said in a much calmer tone before sitting down with a sulky expression that made him look like a wilted flower.

"Okay. And?"

What am I supposed to do with that information?

Do you think that I’m happy?

"You should be angrier and do something." Jamie insisted.

"Like what? You see what they do to me, even when I don’t act out. I told you it’s fine, and it is. I was the one who told Carlos to report it to the PD. And Levi and I already had a conversation. If I’m not angry at them, you certainly shouldn’t be, so just let it rest and say sorry to them later for being mean to them. The person at fault isn’t any of us; it’s the PD and Wilford Forbes, and they don’t deserve that."

"I will. But I’m still not happy."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"I’m not going to cooperate with the PD anymore."

"Have you even been cooperating this week? Wilford looks like he swallowed a poisonous frog each time he sees you coming toward him."

"Hehe, right? He deserves even worse. Both him and the PD, and this week, I plan on running all over hell’s half-acre." Jamie announced with a proud smile.

"I don’t know what that means," Ari replied blandly. Anytime Jamie brought out these country sayings, he was just confused.

After all, why would one want to run in hell was concerning, but then the bigger question was: hell was only half an acre big. There was no way that there was enough space to stuff all of the evil people who died.

Unless they were compressed into the size of an atom...?

"Go whole hog?"

"What does becoming a pig have to do with anything? The way you eat is already gross. Can it really get worse?"

"Raising hell and sticking a chunk under it?"

"....I get the raising hell part, but what’s the chunk?"

Jamie: ಠ_ಠ

At Ari’s clear lack of understanding of sayings that everybody should know, Jamie shook his head in disgust before clarifying.

"Causing trouble. I plan on causing trouble."

"Oh, okay. Same. I plan on being a complete menace this week. The more the merrier."

"Hehe."

"Hehehe."

"Hehehehehe."

"Hahahahahahahaha."

"Mwahahahahahahahahaha."

[Can both of you stop sharing a single brain cell and go to bed?]

Rolling his eyes and flicking NOVA’s screen away, Ari got up to head to sleep. Although he felt a bit better after joking around a little bit, that tiring, stuffy, and bitter feeling still persisted in his chest.

Hopefully, with some sleep, it would dissipate at least somewhat.

"I’m going to get a snack and find Carlos," Jamie said.

"And Levi. Say it."

"...ᵃⁿᵈ ˡᵉᵛᶦ"

"Good. I’m going to be asleep, and if you toss your dirty clothes at me again, I’m letting your guitar take a steam bath while I shower."

Ignoring the wilted flower face Jamie had, Ari waved him off and headed back to their shared bedroom while humming a stupid rhyme.

Bed, bed, sleep like the dead,

When you wake up, you have a clear head~

He would shower, then knock out. And tomorrow, start showing PD Emily that enough was enough.

At least that was the plan.

Unfortunately, somebody was waiting outside his door.

Looking at Vishal, Ari held back an annoyed sigh and the urge to turn away.

Truly, he wasn’t in the mood for another conversation right now, and he definitely wasn’t in the mood to get a lecture if that’s what Vishal was feeling, either.

Instead, he met the Indian boy’s eyes and responded.

"Are you looking for Jamie or me? He went to get snacks, so you can probably find him still there."

"Oh, I’m looking for you....uh...Do you have a moment to talk? We can wait till tomorrow if it’s better for you." Vishal said awkwardly.

"No, it’s fine. You’re already here, so we might as well get it out of the way. Come in. Sorry in advance for Jamie’s mess."

Ari entered his room, kicking aside Jamie’s pile of dirty clothes, and sat on the floor while offering the only chair to Vishal.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh uh...first. Sorry about the episode, it was pretty rough, huh?"

"That’s the usual for me, so it is what it is at this point. Can we skip the small talk right now, though? I’m honestly not in a great mood and would prefer to sleep it off than talk about it. Sorry." Ari replied honestly.

"No, it’s fine. Then to the point. I want to talk about our performance."

"That’s more a Jamie situation than me, since he’s the leader, right? But what’s up? Are you injured? Or did you hurt your throat?" Ari asked, wondering what the issue was.

Practice had gone well today, right? Or did he miss something else?

And why would Vishal come talk to him when Jamie was definitely the more approachable person between the two of them?

"No, the performance is fine. And Jamie-" Vishal thought about Jamie’s dictatorship style of leadership hidden behind his smile before shaking his head.

"Uhm, I was wondering if you don’t mind switching parts in the intro where we’re making the song with the audience. I don’t really think I suit crowd work that well, and I think you’ll do a better job than I there. And I think I can do the looper part well. I’ve been practicing separately, and I would really like to give it a chance. I can show you if you want, and if you agree, Jamie would probably agree as well."

Without even giving anyone a chance to try out, Jamie had assigned roles to everyone and moved on to the next thing.

Since Jamie was the song’s producer and it was mostly his vision that he was following, of course, it was accepted by everyone, but for Vishal, it felt a bit chafing. If he tried out and failed, that was one thing, but not even being given the opportunity to try out made him feel bad, especially because this was one of the most important parts of the performance that would make a person stand out the most.

And from the brief time working with him, Vishal had noticed that the most effective way to get Jamie to possibly change his mind was to go through Ariel.

So he came to get permission to plead his case.

Hearing Vishal’s reasoning, Ari thought it over before shrugging.

Whether he was working with the crowd or pressing buttons at the back of the stage, it was all the same to him, but why would Vishal give up a chance to interact more with the crowd when being personable and charming could earn him a few more votes rather than being silent in the back?

Also, why would Vishal want to carry the pressure of a failed performance if everything didn’t go smoothly at such a high-stakes performance? There were so many points of failure that Ari couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to have his role willingly.

It was very strange to him, but to each their own.

"That’s fine by me since I don’t really care one way or another. I just hope you know the reason I got the looper part is that I’m the most familiar with using it besides Jamie, we’re short on time, and there are a lot of things that could go wrong that I know how to deal with, not because Jamie and I are close friends and there’s some type of favoritism going on. As for the part exchange, talk to Jamie about it yourself, because he’s the team leader. You have my blessing to switch. If he says it’s fine, then go for it. Even if he says no, I don’t mind switching parts. Just ask him to teach you how to use the looper, and as long as you practice, you can probably nail it since you’re pretty smart. But personally, I would keep your part and chat with the crowd since it’s a good way to swing votes your way and is much better than pressing buttons on stage. But at the end of the day, it’s your decision. Anything else?"

"...no, that’s it," Vishal responded quietly.

"Cool. I’m going to take a shower now, so see you tomorrow?"

"Right, see you tomorrow."

"Have a good night then."

Shaking his head in bemusement, Ari took a shower and went to bed in hopes that he would wake up in a better mood.

Unfortunately, he didn’t and was actually in a worse mood when he thought about the episode.

And even more unfortunately-

"Uh...Ari...Mr. Forbes wants to talk to you."

Ari stared at Kate, who was staring at him with a very cautious expression while hiding her body behind the door.