Chapter 405: Tête-à-Tête (4)
"What's it say, sweetie?" Magnolia asked curiously as Jamie immediately stuffed the letter under his pillow.
"Uhm, secret?"
"A secret?"
"Give it here!"
"Let me see it!"
"Pin him down!"
"Grab the letter!"
"Leave me alone! Get away from me!"
"Boys, be careful not to hit your mother. And don't rip the letter. I want to see what it says."
As her older sons began trying to pin Jamie down and wrestle the letter from his grasp, and instead of stopping them, her husband acted like a bystander, Magnolia rubbed the bridge of her nose as a headache began to form.
Her husband was almost 60, her eldest son was over 30, her youngest was 19, and yet they all still fought as if they were 5 years old, regardless of the place or time.
Seeing as the bed was getting messed up, her youngest getting pounded by pillows so hard his skin was turning red, feathers flying everywhere, while 5 boys were trying to seize his letter, Magnolia pulled aside her gentle demeanor and brought out her stern mom voice that brooked no nonsense.
"All of you, stop right now."
"But-"
"Jackson, Johnathon, Joseph, Jake, Joshua, and James! Freeze right this moment!" As soon as she said all of their names, all the men, including the cameraman and James Jones Sr., froze in place.
"Have y'all lost your minds? We are in public, so y'all need to find some decorum before I knock some decorum into you. You understand? Jamie, comb out that bird's nest on your head, and freshen up immediately. Put on something nice, ye hear me?"
"Yes, ma'am." Jamie immediately responded politely, sitting up straighter than a board.
"The rest of y'all, march out there and start acting like you have some home training, and let me not hear a single peep. Am I clear?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Now get to marching!"
As if they were in the military, everybody replied in unison, including the cameraman, who felt as if he had reverted to being a child being scolded by his parent.
Without any hesitation, they all left the room, closing the door behind them.
And the moment they left, Jamie quickly brought out the now-crumbled note he had defended with his life and read through it before laughing mischievously.
"Aye aye, captain."
Saluting playfully even though nobody was around to see it, Jamie immediately went to do as his mother ordered since he didn't want to experience what she meant by knocking some sense into him.
His mother might be tiny, but her arm strength was nothing to joke about, and he still had phantom bumps on his head from those arms.
****************
"Where is he? Where the heck could he be?" PD Emily asked, completely out of breath.
She had checked all of the practice rooms, the kitchen, the dining area, and everywhere the contestants usually hung out, but no sight of Ariel.
She'd asked the staff members to subtly question the contestants, and nobody had seen him either. Her last resort had been to email him and message him on social media, but she hadn't received any response.
By all intents and purposes, he had disappeared.
What made this particularly worse than the situation where Levi had decided not to show up was that, since they'd seized Ari's phone, there was currently no way to contact him, especially since he had nobody down as his emergency contact.
"Ariel. Really? One prank for today is enough. This is just completely irresponsible of you."
"PD? Are you okay? The contestants have changed into their clothing, we've done preliminary interviews with the family, and director Forbes is asking where you are and if you've found Ariel. He seems angry." Kate popped her head in through the door, staring at the PD with a look of concern.
"How the heck am I supposed to know. I've checked everywhere! Any luck on your side?"
"Nope. And I double checked with the people on his team. They said he and Jamie went to bed as normal, and he was gone when Jamie woke up. His stuff is still here, so it's not like he ran away, right? Maybe he's taking a break? He said all week he really didn't want to attend today, so…" Kate trailed off as she stared at the PD.
"….fine. Fine. Let's just ignore it for now. Let's go, we promised these people breakfast."
Sighing in annoyance, PD Emily quickly rushed out back to the central meeting room where everyone was gathered.
The contestants had changed into the sponsored matching tracksuits, and they were all chatting and introducing their families to each other while Wilford Forbes stood at the front with William by his side.
When Wilford spotted her, he gestured for her to come over, and when she did, he harshly whispered into her ear.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know. But we've searched everywhere, and I've sent messages to his accounts, so it is what it is. We can't waste time looking for him all day because we have a schedule to keep. We need to get moving."
Although he knew that PD Emily was right, the fact that Ariel had disrupted his plans was frustrating, and he couldn't help but scold her.
"This is why I said you need to keep a better track of these contestants. You're too lenient! This is the problem with women."
"We took his phone and his laptop. Unless you want to handcuff him to his bed at night, he's 18 years old, an adult, with a functioning brain, and can do what he wants. And you better check your misogyny at the door." PD Emily shot back.
As the two of them glared at each other in a tense silence, a bright voice broke through the noise.
"Oh, PD. I actually had something to say. When I was getting ready, I found a letter from Ari, and he said I should read it aloud when everyone is gathered. Ahem."
The moment Jamie cleared his throat, PD Emily had a bad feeling, but before she could stop him, Jamie began using the loud vocal techniques he used in singing to share the letter with the whole room.
Dear PD Emily Raleigh and Director Wilford Forbes,
After much reflection on the rules, your orders, as well as the currently fragile state of my mental health (currently terrible, I'm sure you know why), I have decided that it doesn't make any sense for me to participate in the family day activities, considering that I don't have a family.
In case you somehow forgot, despite my repeatedly telling you this every day for the past 2 weeks, my parents are dead, I am an orphan with no siblings or extended family, and I don't want to impose my presence on any of the other contestants who should be enjoying a much-needed day of fun and relaxation with their own families without a third wheel hanging on. I do apologize for sneaking out, but I felt it was my only option since we couldn't reach an agreement.
And since I am technically breaking the rules, upon my return, I am willing to accept any punishment you see fit to give me for refusing to attend family day.
Unfortunately, since the production team seized my phone and laptop as punishment for speaking my mind previously, there's no way to contact me, so I thought it prudent to leave a note to ease your worries. I should be back before my team's practice at 5 am tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoys the day.
- Best, Ariel Matisse.
P.s. I apologize if I brought the mood down with my candidness. I truly do hope everyone has a good time today, and I can't wait to meet everyone's family at the finals (if you're still interested in meeting me. If not, that's fine. I'm sure you're all lovely people regardless.)
P.s.s. Seriously, PD Emily, nobody knows where I am, so don't bother questioning anyone or blaming them. If you check the cameras, I snuck out around 6 am today while everyone was busy and asleep.
P.s.s.s. Jamie, please hand the note over to the PD so she can verify that it's my handwriting and not forged, photocopied, or planted, since I don't want to get you in trouble.
"Yep. That's everything on the note, here you go, PD," Jamie said as he walked over and promptly handed the note over to PD Emily, who didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or reach through time and space to shake Ariel.
She thought that Ari had already hit them on the back of the head by sneaking out without anybody knowing, which had already stressed everyone out, but now, by having Jamie read this note aloud in front of all the contestants and their family members, didn't it just paint them as completely horrible people who tried to force an orphan to attend events on a day that would make him miserable?
It was a very well-played move, considering she could see several moms already tearing up as they hugged their own children. Jamie's own mother was sobbing full-on as she clung to one of her giant sons.
"So, are you going to punish him for not being here, PD? If you do, I really don't think that's fair because he has a valid reason for not wanting to be here." Jamie asked while staring at her with a stubborn expression.
Having seen that expression so many times over the past two weeks that she was tired of it, PD Emily decided to cleanly pass the blame to Wilford Forbes.
"Of course, I don't want to punish Ariel. Unfortunately, I can't make that decision because the person calling the shots is Director Forbes. I just do what I'm told. Director?"
She was an opportunist, not an idiot. This was clearly above her pay grade, and she wasn't willing to be a villain to the contestant who had just announced to all the parents and family here that he was being forced to attend a family day, even though he didn't have a family.
Especially when several of those parents were positively inclined toward Ariel and had actual power in the industry.
As everyone turned to Wilford Forbes, only William and PD Emily could hear him grinding his teeth as he smiled.