As all the contestants tried to gather up, PD Emily just waved them away as she stood in the front of the room.
"As you all know, you went through 2 different assessments to make it to this point. In the first round, you either sang a song or rapped a verse, danced, and showed us a talent. In the second round, you were free to create a performance as an individual or with a group of seven or fewer, and ranked by the audience and the judges from one to a hundred."
PD Emily continued speaking loudly as the cameramen, now located all around the room, pointed cameras at the lounging or standing students and the PDs and staff members holding tubs of items in the front.
"Utilizing those two events, our judges and expert trainers, whom you will meet later, have classified your singing, dancing, and rapping skills into five grades from A -> F. Each of you will receive a badge for singing or rapping, and everybody will receive a badge for dancing. The average of your two ranks will decide what class you end up in. When your name is called, please come up front. Starting with the person who ranked first yesterday, William Forbes - A Rank Vocals and B Rank Dance means you're in Class A. Congratulations."
Despite her congratulatory words, PD Emily's expression as she looked at William was a neutral one that hid her dislike.
William Forbes went up with a bright smile, grabbed the two badges, and pinned them to his shirt.
The staff member beside PD Emily handed him a navy blue t-shirt with a giant gold colored letter A on it and a closed envelope, and he headed back to his seat.
"Moving on. Ranked second overall yesterday is the one and only Carrot Top, Daniel Kim. Nearly perfect all around. A Rank Rap and A Rank Dance means you're in Class A. Congrats." Daniel Kim, the Korean boy with the bright orange hair, smiled brightly, exposing the dimple in his left cheek, and went to receive his badges, shirt, and envelope.
As Daniel walked past William Forbes, Ari could see the smile on William's face almost scrunch up before he spotted the camera and made it bright.
To Ari, though, his eyes looked quite vicious.
"Next up is…"
PD Emily called everyone's name until it was finally Ari's turn.
"Finally, last but maybe not the least, ranked 100 yesterday, Ariel Matisse. B-rank Vocals, F-rank Dance. D Class assignment. One of the judges insisted that I should convey the fact that if he could place your dance skills lower than F-rank, he would."
There was an audible gasp as Ari stood up to get his badges and other equipment.
Out of the contestants here, he probably had one of the worst disparities between his badges, and he was the only person for whom a judge had left a negative comment.
Ignoring the staring eyes and the cameras, he quickly walked up to the front, grabbing the neon yellow shirt representing the Class D students before returning to his seat.
As he walked back, he made eye contact with Suzuki Rei, who smirked at him with his B and C-ranked badges (C-rank overall) in dance and vocals, respectively.
Ari just ignored him and sat back down next to Jamie, who had ended up in B rank overall (A-rank for his vocals and C-rank for his dance)
"Now that you all have your badges and assigned class ranks, I'll explain how it will work. You will take group lessons in vocals, rap, and dance according to your assigned grades from our expert trainers. They will teach you the basics of singing, dancing, and rapping to increase your abilities. And to assess the results of that training, all the classes from Class A to Class F will be assigned the same song to film a performance, which will be posted on WeTube. The trainers responsible for your classes will tell you more details later, just know it will affect your ranking and chances of elimination."
As the mood of the room became solemn, PD Emily clapped her hands.
"Enough gloominess. Let's move on. Feel free to open the envelopes given to you. It has your room number and how many people will be sharing that room with you. The higher the letter, the better quality the room is, and the higher the number, the more people in that room. Before you start complaining, we generated it randomly, and it will change in the future depending on your ranks later." PD Emily glanced around as she waited for them to open the envelopes and for the camera to capture it.
When Ari opened his envelope, he couldn't help but smile happily.
A1-3.
An A-rank room with only three people inside.
According to PD Emily's rules, wouldn't this be the best possible room?
Score.
He wasn't too picky about his sleeping situation after being homeless, but after a couple of weeks at the church, he had gotten used to sleeping alone, so he hoped for fewer people in his assigned room.
"I got B1-5, what did you get?" Jamie asked Ari as he waved his envelope around.
"A1-3."
"Lucky duck," Jamie grumbled in annoyance.
"Just this once."
Ari smirked before glancing over at Carlos, who quirked his lips up as he met Ari's eyes.
"A1-3."
"Nice. We're roommates."
"I'm looking forward to it."
The two of them high-fived, laughing at Jamie's dramatic betrayed expression.
As the chattering around the room continued, as everybody shared their assigned rooms, somebody screamed dramatically while falling to their knees.
"F1-10??? Are you kidding me??? 10 people to a room?? Is this prison?"
As the room got quiet after the heart-wrenching scream, PD Emily began to speak in a happy voice since the contestant's real reaction had been captured well.
The person who screamed was Suzuki Rei, and he looked like his entire world was falling apart as he stared at his envelope then PD Emily in betrayal.
PD Emily openly laughed at his expression before saying, "Oh, I see somebody drew a bad room. Well, as mentioned for those of you who went through the maze, the top 20 contestants get a special privilege of exchanging their room with that of another contestant, so if you're unhappy like Mr. Suzuki here, when we head to the dorms and everyone has settled in their room, you may choose a person to switch with. Now that that's settled for now, let's head to the dorms."
"Excuse me, PD Emily. Aren't we staying here?" a contestant sitting near the front asked while raising his hand, and PD Emily laughed wildly before responding.
"Of course not! We can't afford to stay here; we simply rented the lobby, elevator, and the maze that this company already had for its employees. Speaking of mazes, create and order your own custom maze at custommazes.com for custom mazes to bring family, friends, and employees together for an a-maze-ingly fun time. Use the code P777 for twenty percent off your first order." She winked with a big smile at the cameras before returning to her serious expression.
As the contestants stared at PD Emily with a betrayed expression at the random advertisement in the middle of her speech, PD Emily continued nonchalantly, "Your luggage has already been moved, and there are buses here to take you to the location where you'll live and practice for the next week or so. Those of you who drove here will be brought back later to pick up your cars. Let's go. Your new hell, oops, I mean homes, await."
With a brisk clap, PD Emily and the other staff members exited quickly.
After exchanging nervous glances, the contestants followed her while chatting with each other.