Chapter 38: Performance (7)
"Ta ra ra ra ra! Wow, Contestant Ari! I don't think I've ever heard such a catchy song about traffic in my life. Ever! How did you ever come up with it?" The MC, Ryan Leary, slung his arms around Ari's shoulders as he began a mini-interview while waiting for the audience's opinions to be tallied.
"So...funny story, I was coming back from the first audition for this program, and I was stuck in traffic. The cars around me were blasting their horns, and that's where I got the Tararara portion. Everything else was built around that. Although I did have the help of one of the contestants in making it a more cohesive song."
Ari replied in a calm tone as he tried to calm his breathing.
He was entirely out of breath from singing and trying to play the trumpet, which was as difficult as Jamie had made it out to be.
Thankfully, he had made it through the song without messing up, but he had probably used up a day's worth of luck to accomplish it.
Now he just had to survive the judges and the audience with hopes of not being replaced by another contestant.
"Wow! So these are lyrics that you've really experienced, huh! Good to know. The audience is still making their decision, so why don't we get the judges' opinions first, starting with Larry Jackson? He seems to have a lot to say. Larry."
Larry Jackson grabbed his microphone and stared at Ari with a slight scowl before speaking.
"So Ah-ri-el, I see you decided to ignore my words and still come with that...makeup on your face?"
Ari blinked before replying as politely as he could to the feedback, which was not based on his performance.
"I took your words into consideration and made a decision after considering many factors."