CHAPTER THREE - BIG TIME AUDITION PART THREE
"Welcome to Rocque Records where you are gonna sing, dance and sweat your butts off if you wanna end up on these walls." Kelly welcomed the boys to Rocque Records while she and Andi led the boys down the hallway of Roque Records. As Kelly welcomed the boys to Rocque Records, her voice echoed with enthusiasm through the hallway. And walked alongside her, smiling as she walked with her mom The corridor was adorned with gold and platinum records, a testament to the talent that had passed through these halls.
As they turn a corner, Andi notices the boys were looking at one of the posters on the wall and she clicks her tongue, grimacing as she shakes her head. "Boyquake was never a good band in my opinion." She admitted as the four of them looked at her.
"Are we gonna have to dress like that?" Carlos pointed at the poster that had the four members of Boyquake dressed in odd outfits in front of a city background.
She shrugs. "I would say no except I'm not in charge here."
"Do we want to end up on these walls?" Kendall asked his friends, looking hesitant.
James nods and glares at him. "Yes."
Kelly then walks over to the group with Nicole Scherzinger."Guys, say hi to Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycats Dolls." The boys quickly turned around and gasped as they looked at her.
Nicole smiles. "Hey, guys, what's up?"
Andi raised her eyebrows when the boys go silent. She looked at each of them, noticing they were staring at Nicole in awe and she wondered if any of them were going to speak. She smiled with amusement, figuring out they were awestruck by Nicole. She didn't blame them. She was that way when she first met the pop star.
Carlos was the first one to break the silence, pointing at James. "He's gonna marry you!"
Andi and Kelly chuckle. Nicole puts one hand on her hip, looking at James with a smile. "Where's my ring?"
James' eyes widens. He gulped nervously, starting to stutter out a response, but never actually got a word out.
Kendall steps in front of James, looking at Nicole with a smile. "We're recording some demos with Gustavo."
Nicole nods in understanding. "Gustavo."
"Yeah," Kendall nods and tilts his head to the side, looking at her curiously. "Have you worked with him?"
"Yes," Nicole replies. "Actually on my first album. Let's just say we had some…." Her voice trails off as if she was trying to find the right words to say. She shares a look with Andi and Kelly before looking back at the boys. "Creative differences."
The sound of a door opening is heard and they look over, seeing Gustavo had opened the door of his office. "Nicole, baby! Oh!" He quickly closed the door when Nicole threw a nearby telephone at him.
She turns back to the boys with a fake smile. "Good luck, boys."
The boys watch with sad faces as she and her crew walk past them down the hallway. Andi heard the door of Gustavo's office open and she looked over, seeing Gustavo peeking out with a nervous expression on his face.
"All clear." Kelly informed him. Gustavo closed the door to his office and groaned.
He walks over to them and the boys immediately turn around to face him when he speaks. "Okay. So, you guys ready to be stars?" Andi looked at the boys with curiosity, wanting to know the answer as well.
The four boys have smiles on their faces as they nod. "Yeah!"
"Good. Then prove to me you can be stars." Gustavo takes Carlos' helmet off he had on his head and the brunette-haired boy frowns. "We have three days to prove to this record company that there's something, anything here."
Kendall looks at him with wide eyes. "Uh, three days? What happened to three months?"
"Uh, the CEO of all our butts wants to see you guys on Friday." Gustavo responded.
"We have to be a band in three days?" Logan asked as Carlos crossed his arms.
Gustavo shakes his head. "You have to be a great band in three days." He corrected Logan.
"Unless you don't think you can do it, Mr. make us a pop group." He voiced, walking over to stand in front of Kendall.
"Oh, we can do it. No problem." Kendall spoke.
Andi scoffs. "Good luck with that."
The boys look at her with offense. "We thought you were on our side!" Logan exclaimed, gesturing to them.
"I am." Andi nods and shrugs. "I'm just saying it's gonna be a lot more work than you boys think it is." She explained.
Kendall's eyes meet hers and he nods slowly, understanding her point. "Okay, I get it. Thanks for looking out for us, Andi." He smiles at her gratefully. Andi smiles at him and nods. Kendall then looks over at Gustavo looking determined where as the other boys aren't looking so positive about this. "Bring it." Kendall challenged.
Gustavo narrows his eyes at him. "Oh, I will bring it," He steps closer to Kendall. "I'll bring everything I got."
After a moment of silence and intimidating staring between Kendall and Gustavo until Kendall speaks up. "This is a little too close for me."
"Yeah, me too." Gustavo agreed and then quickly left.
Andi is now standing in the room where the bands practiced dancing, singing and playing their instruments with Gustavo, Kelly and the boys who were all wearing dark green shirts and camo pants, standing in a line with there arms behind their backs. Andi stood by her mom, her arms crossed as she watched the boys who were standing in front of her.
Gustavo was wearing some type of uniform with a lot of bling, a green hat and sunglasses. Andi thought the outfit was ridiculous.
"To be a great pop group you need four things." Gustavo started to explain, walking in front of the boys.
"Great dancing, a great look, a great song, and great singing." Gustavo finished listing off the things a great pop group needs as he stands besides Kelly. Kelly raised a air horn and blew it, startling the boys, who didn't realize she had one this whole time.
Six people then walk into the room. Three of them work with outfits, hair and makeup, one of them works with dancing and the other two works with marketing.
"And by the end of today, me and my team will transform the four dogs from Minnesota into Gustavo Rocque's new pop explosion." Gustavo informed the boys as each member of Gustavo's team strike a pose expect the marketing team. Everyone looked over at them.
"Uh, we're the marketing team. We don't really have a move." The blonde-haired woman said.
The brunette-haired man wearing glasses shrugs. "Well, we could try something."
The both of them then do the robot dance and Andi facepalms. Out of all dance moves they chose that one. "Stop it. Stop it now." Gustavo told them. The two immediately stopped and stood like how they were when they walked in.
"Thank you. First up in boot camp, great dancing." Gustavo announced.
Andi sighs, looking at her mom with a hopeful look. "Let's hope this goes well."
Carlos looks at her with narrowed eyes. "Are you saying that we can't dance? You haven't even seen us dance."
Kendall looks over at him and shakes his head. "We can't dance."
Carlos sighs. "Yeah, I know."
The other members of Gustavo's team waited for their turn while Mr. X was up first. "Mr. X has choreographed for Boyquake, Boyz in the attic, Madonna, Beyoncé, and 'Yo Gabba Gabba'." As Gustavo told the boys this Mr. X does short dance moves from each of the band or dancer he has choreographed for.
"And now I will make you xplode with the dance." Mr. X commented, walking up to the boys. Carlos looks at his friends before putting on his helmet.
Mr. X does a leg kick before walking back to stand a few inches in front of them. "We will start with an xamination. Cross leg, spin, pose."
Mr. X then does the cross leg, spins and poses. He looks at the boys as if telling them that it was their turn. Kendall and James did it right and on time together, whereas when Logan went to strike a pose he smacked Carlos in the face, making Carlos fall to the ground.
Andi's eyes widens as she watched what happened. "You okay, Carlos?" She asked, looking over at Carlos with concern. James and Logan quickly help him back to his feet.
"I'm good. Yeah, I'm good." Carlos reassured her and she nodded, relieved that he was okay.
Mr. X walks up to Kendall. "He is great, but not serious." Kendall smiled at him.
Mr. X walks over to James, next. "He is serious, but not great." James frowned at his comment.
Then Mr. X walks over to Carlos. "He lost a pet when he was young, and he is still sad."
Carlos nods with a frown on his face. "Sparky."
Last but not least, Mr. X walks over to Logan. "And he is just plain awful."
Logan takes a deep breath and nods in understanding. "Yup. Heh."
Mr. X moves to stand besides Gustavo. "They are xcruciating and cannot be ready by Friday."
Gustavo looks over at him. "I'll xdouble your salary."
"All right," Gustavo turns to the boys. "I'm gonna be back in one hour, and I wanna see dancers, not dogs." He looks over at Andi. "I want you to stay here and make sure that they actually do work and don't act like dogs."
Andi sighs. "Fine." She knew there was no point in protesting. Gustavo was going to get his way anyways. He usually does. She watched Gustavo and Kelly leave the room and then turned back to the boys as Mr. X took his sunglasses off.
"Starting positions." He announced. He pointed at Andi who looks at him with confusion, but then he gestured for her to turn on the radio which was right next to her. She nodded and turned it on.
Mr. X does the cross leg, spin and pose move he did earlier. The boys do it as well but Carlos almost fell over.
"Again." Mr. X does the move again and so do the boys.
Andi sighs, moving to sit on the ground since she knew this would take awhile for them to get the hang of it. She doesn't understand why, it didn't look that hard to do. Though she knew she would probably be thinking differently if she had to try it. She winced when Logan accidentally wacked James in the face, making James fall backwards.
"James, you good?" Andi called out to him, looking at him with concern.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." James replied, giving her a thumbs up as he moved to stand back up.
She sighed with relief. Good, he's okay. Mr. X then goes over to stand nearby them and shows them how to do it up close thinking that would help. It didn't. Mr. X then tries a different move and the boys aren't even paying attention now, they're just goofing off. Andi tried telling them to pay attention, but she just ended up laughing at something stupid they're doing and let it happen. Probably wasn't the best idea for Gustavo to give her this job. She isn't doing a very good job. Can you blame her though? Four teenage boys trying to learn how to dance isn't an easy task.
At one point during the dance lesson, Logan was on James back while Kendall was on Carlos' and they were running around the room trying to knock each other off. Andi was now standing besides Mr. X who didn't look that happy. The boys continue to do crazy and silly moves that were starting to annoy Andi, wishing that they would just pay attention so they could get done. Mr. X pointed at Carlos, who does a ballerina move, he points at Logan who does a move similar to the running while Kendall waves his arms in front of his face. Andi gasped and winced when Carlos ran into the wall and ended up falling over.
"Carlos?" Andi hesitantly asked, hoping that he was alright.
After a moment of silence, Carlos replies and she sighs with relief. "I'm okay!" Carlos called out.
Mr. X frustratingly puts his sunglasses back on he took off earlier. She doesn't know where the boys got these, but now they're were playing hockey with brooms and a basketball. She moved out of the way as they run towards where she and Mr. X stood.
Next, Mr. X spins and the boys spin as well, except Carlos knocked Logan onto the ground and fell onto the ground from being dizzy. James then fell on the ground from being dizzy and the last to fall on the ground was Kendall. Andi facepalmed while Mr. X frustratingly threw his sunglasses to the side. How were they going to be a band in three days if they can't even dance?
Gustav turns off the music. "Okay, so it's been an hour and…" His voice trailed off as he looked at the boys who were sitting on the ground looking worn out. Carlos was even hanging off of one of the ballerina poles, hanging upside down. Kelly looks around the room noticing Andi missing and looked at the boys for an answer as to where her daughter went. "Where's Andi?"
"Over there." The boys replied, each of them pointing over at Andi. The Puerto Rican girl was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall near them asleep. She was tired from dealing with them and trying to help the boys dance and stop them from goofing off. They kept her busy. It was like babysitting the boys all day, well more like watching a bunch of children. Her arms were crossed and she used a bundled up jacket as a pillow.
Gustav narrows his eyes. "How is she asleep? She didn't even do anything." He looks at the boys with a glare. "What did you dogs do?"
"We didn't do anything." Logan replies. "She just passed out."
A guilty looks forms on Kendall's face. "I think we tired her out. She tried to make us pay attention and get us to calm down, but we didn't exactly make it easy for her." He admitted, scratching the back of his neck. He was feeling guilty for making Andi so tired, not realizing the amount of stress he was causing her. He looked over at Andi and sighed.
"Dancing is hard!" Carlos complained, raising his arms dramatically.
"What happened to Mr. X?" Kelly asked, realizing he wasn't in the room.
"Well, first he banged his head into the wall a few times." Logan started.
Carlos continues, "Then we got really dizzy."
James nods. "Then he spoke a lot of bad words that started with 'x'." He said as he did the x motion with his arms.
Kendall shrugs. "Then he xquit."
Kelly eyes widens, dropping her notebook after seeing Gustavo was going to yell. She was quick to grab some headphones that were on top of the radio nearby her and puts them on. Gustavo let's out a yell that echo throughout the whole studio which wakes up Andi.
She jumps up awake, confused at what was going on. "I'm awake! I'm awake!" She exclaims, looking around the room with furrowed eyebrows. She notices the boys were still on the ground and Gustavo and Kelly were standing over them, Gustavo yelling. "What'd I miss?"
"Part two of my great boot camp, the great look." Gustavo walked to the front of the table with the hood of his jacket on as he sits in his chair while he looks at the boys who were sitting at the other end of the table. Andi sat by her mom at the other end of the table across from the boys. "When do we sing?" James asked.
In response, Gustavo yells at him, "When I tell you to sing!" Andi shared an annoyed look with her mom besides her and Kelly shook her head. Both of them were sick of Gustavo's yelling.
"Guys, we have some exciting looks that will literally transform you." The brunette-haired marketing man said.
Kendall sets the booklet him and the boys were given on the table. "Can't we just be ourselves?"
The marketing team and Gustavo laugh. "No." The marketing team replied in a serious tone.
Andi looks over at the screen that was besides Kelly and Gustavo. "Boys, we researched and electroshocked focus groups to determine the exact look and name that will sell millions of records." The blonde-haired women said.
"Then we turn you over to the stylists…" The brunette-haired man on the marketing team starts to say just as the stylists show up behind the boys. "To change all of your clothes and possibly shave your heads."
James shrieked, putting his hands on his hair while Gustavo nods. James looked over at Andi with worry and she shook her head as if that was her way of saying 'don't believe any of that'.
"Now, Griffin wants a tasty dish on Friday. That's why we're giving him…" The blonde-haired girl pointed to the stylists who start working on the boys.
Minutes later they are in the studio and have the boys dressed up in ridiculous outfits. "Boyliscious." The marketing team spoke at the same time. The only ones out of the group that seemed to be liking the look was James.
"The beach, girls, the shirtless overalls."
Kendall glares at James who shrugs his shoulders and smiles. "I think we look good."
Andi shakes her head, a look of disgust on her face. "No. You boys look awful."
Everyone looks at her and she shrugs. "What? I'm just saying the truth." She replied. She couldn't lie and say the boys looked good. They looked horrible. She didn't think anyone would wear those outfits willingly. They looked so out of place. The outfits didn't fit them.
"Not bad, uh, but I need options. What else you got?" Gustavo asked his team.
"Change it." The marketing team told the stylists. The stylists quickly run over to the boys.
Next the boys are wearing red, white and blue outfits. "Red, white & boy."
"This look does great with war veterans who own buicks." The brunette-haired man on the marketing team said.
James points at them with a grin on his face. "We look good."
Kendall and Andi lock eyes and he shakes his head with an upset look on his face. She sends him a small smile to try to cheer him up. It did work because his heart skipped a beat at seeing her smile and he smiles slightly. But then he looks down at his outfit, reminding himself of how bad it was and looks back at James with an annoyed look. "We look like Uncle Sam threw up on us."
"You, silent." Gustavo pointed at him.
Andi crosses her arms. "He isn't wrong."
Gustavo points at her. "You, also silent." Andi rolls her eyes at him, but stays silent. He points at the marketing team. "You, more options."
The marketing team nods and looks at the stylists. "Change them."
Andi's eyes widens at the next look they were trying. She wasn't expecting this. Now the boys were all wearing black clothing, black makeup, leather pants and leather jackets. "I give you danger boy." The marketing team announced.
Andi immediately shakes her head and looks over at Gustavo with disgust. "Uh-uh. This should be off the table. Make it off the table."
"I thought I told you to be silent." He said to her, looking at her with narrowed eyes.
She shrugs. "You did, but you should know by now I only listen when I want to." She replied, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms.
Gustavo huffs, turning back to his team. As Andi looks at each of them she could easily tell they were uncomfortable with the outfit, besides James. "Danger boy is danger. Parents will forbid their kids to buy the dangerous music." The blonde-haired woman on the marketing team said.
"And that's exactly why they will." The marketing team then fist bumped.
"I, uh, can't feel my legs." Logan admitted, his voice straining since he was in pain. He glanced down at his legs nervously.
"That's because the pants are dangerously tight." The blonde-haired woman on the marketing team remarked.
"I hate it." Gustavo commented. Andi let out sigh of relief. She was glad that the boys wouldn't have to wear those awful outfits.
The marketing team nods. "So do we."
"I need five new looks for tomorrow. All right, now follow me to hear your first hit single that's gonna put me back on top. Move out." Gustavo said while he and his team start to leave the room.
Andi looks over her shoulder at the boys, noticing they were struggling to move. She winced as they fell.
"I think we look good." James smiled.
"You don't look good in those outfits, James." Andi shook her head, having enough of him saying that every time they got a new outfit that looked awful.
"Okay, part three of the great pop group boot campalooza, the great song." Gustavo announced. He, Kelly and Andi stood in front of the boys who were now back in their normal clothes.
Kelly shows them the lyrics she had in her hands as Gustavo walks to the piano. "It's called 'Girl Time'." She walked over the boys, handing hem each a piece of paper.
"It's a song about no matter what time of day it is," Gustavo tells the boys and then sings, "Don't you know it's girl time?" as Kelly pointed at them.
Andi looks at the boys, seeing that again James was the only one happy about this. Gustavo gets up from the piano and fake yawns while Kelly leans against the piano. "I just woke up. What time is it? It's girl time."
Gustavo points to his watch. "Excuse me sir. Do you know what time it is?" He points back at the boys. "Yeah, it's girl time."
Logan tilts his head to the side. "What if you have a sinus infection? Isn't that doctor time?"
Gustavo shakes his head. "No. No, no, it's still girl time."
Logan nods, looking like he wanted to correct him but he doesn't. He presses his lips together in a tight line. "Mm, right."
Kendall shows the paper to him,. "Do any of your songs not have the word 'girl' in them?" He looked over at Andi and Kelly for answer. Andi shook her head.
"Heh. Well, let's find out Mr. question everything I do." Gustavo said and points at the wall. "Let's take a look at my wall of platinum records! Let's see." He walked between the boys, pushing them aside to get to the wall and starts listing off the names of his records.
After listing his songs, all of them having girl in the title besides one that he forgot he had. Gustavo then walks up to stand in front of Kendall. "Any other questions, dog?" He challenged and pat the side of Kendall's face.
There was a moment of silence before Kendall smirks as he asks, "Are any of those songs from this girlennium?"
Andi sighs when she noticed Gustavo looks like he's about to explode. "Here we go." She mumbled, noticing Carlos even put his helmet on and Kelly quickly put the earphones she had on earlier back on.
"Okay, your heart rate is back to normal, and your blood pressure is one hundred and twenty over eighty." Kelly looks over at Gustavo. "You can produce now."
Gustavo quickly takes the stickers off and looks at the boys who were in the recording booth. Kelly stops Gustavo before he presses the button to where the boys can hear him. "Ah! But remember, these boys haven't had a break all day. I think they're gettin' a little punchy."
Andi nods. "And a little crazy." She agreed. The boys have had a very long day. A very long and stressful day. They deserved a break.
"I don't care." Gustavo told her and Kelly and pressed the button.
"Okay, and now it's time for the final phase of Gustavo Rocque's most awesomest pop group boot camp. The singing!" Gustavo yelled the last part loudly. Andi winced as the boys took their headphones off because of the feedback from the microphone was so loud.
"What is this place?" Kendall questioned, looking around the sound booth with confusion.
Andi presses the button as she speaks into the microphone. "It's a sound booth. It just isolates the vocals in case we need to edit or enhance them later." She explained.
Carlos picks up a pillow that was on the floor. "Why are there pillows on the floor?"
James raises an eyebrow. "Do you want us to nap? 'Cause we will."
Andi chuckles and glanced over at Kelly, who speaks into the microphone this time, pressing the button as she spoke. "They just absorb any extra echo or treble, just like those big foam mic covers." Kelly explains. "I put some fruit waters in there in case your mouths get dry, okay?"
Andi's mom let go of the button as Andi shakes her head. "Yeah, that's probably a bad idea."
Kelly looks at her with furrowed eyebrows and tilts her head to the side. "Why do you say that?"
Sighing, Andi crosses her arms while she looks back at the sound booth. "Just watch." She figured that her mom should see for herself why putting food and drinks in the booth was a bad idea. Her mom would find out soon enough.
James picks up one of the fruit waters and gives Kelly a thumbs up after he took a sip of it. He then put it back down on the table.
Gustavo presses the button. "Okay, great. And…" His voice trailed off when Kendall hit Carlos with the microphone. Andi sighed heavily, having a feeling that something like this was going to happen.
"Funny. Do it again." Carlos glared at him and Kendall hit him again.
Kendall chuckles. "Not so tough without your helmet, are you?"
Andi watches with an annoyed look when Carlos grabs one of the fruit waters and goes to spray Kendall with it. Kendall stepped back making the water hit Logan instead.
Andi looks over at Kelly who looks back at her with a regretful look. Andi nods. "That's why it was a bad idea to put them in there." She told her, shaking her head as she continued to watch the boys.
Logan glares at Carlos and takes his headphones off angrily. "Knock it off!"
Carlos doesn't listen and sprayed him with the fruit water again making Logan more annoyed. Logan then grabbed a fruit water and went to spray it on Carlos, but he moved out of the way and it ends up hitting James.
"You just ruined my lucky white vneck!" James scolded, grabbing two fruit waters and sprayed the boys with them.
Kelly nods with a grimaced expression on her face. "Maybe the fruit water was a bad idea."
Andi outstretches her arms dramatically. "That's exactly what I told you!" She said, pointing at her.
Gustavo looks at Andi and Kelly. "Please get them to stop."
Kelly presses the button. "Guys. Guys!" She tried to get their attention but it was no use.
Andi looks at the sound booth seeing the boys now were hitting one another with pillows. "We lost them."
"Pillows were a bad idea, too." Kelly winced.
Andi nods in agreement. "Yep."
Gustavo stands up and groans. "I told you they were tired." Kelly shrugged her shoulders.
"Just have the boys meet me in the studio when they're finished." Gustavo said and left the room.
Andi looks back at the sound booth and all she could see were feathers. She jumps whenever Carlos is suddenly thrown against the window.
She looks over at Kelly with raised eyebrows. "How are they going to be a band in three days?"
Kelly sighs. "I have absolutely no idea."
"You can't sing." Gustavo stated to Carlos who looks at the floor.
Gustavo moved to Logan and his team that was standing behind him moved with him as well, including Andi.
"You can't sing or dance."
"I can backflip." Logan spoke. Andi looked at him curiously while tilting her head to the side. Now she wanted to see him backflip. She had no idea he could do that and she thought it was pretty cool if he could do that.
Gustavo glares at him. "Stop it."
"Forever." Gustavo told him and Logan hummed in response as he looked at the floor. Andi frowned at the look of defeat on his face. She hated how hard Gustavo was on the boys. They weren't doing that bad. Sure they could do better, but they weren't terrible. At least, Andi didn't think so.
Gustavo moves over to James. He doesn't say anything as James smiles and just moves on to Kendall.
"And worst of all, you don't even seem to want this!" Gustavo yelled at Kendall and all Kendall did was cough up some feathers.
"What about me? I can sing, dance, and I want this." James said in a desperate tone.
Gustavo points at him. "You remind me a lot of Matthew McConaughey."
"I can't stand Matthew McConaughey!" Gustavo shouts at him and James' face fell, his shoulders dropping in defeat. Andi was so close to snapping at Gustavo for being so mean. He didn't have to be that harsh. She understood the boys weren't perfect. No one was perfect, but Gustavo wasn't even giving these boys a chance. "This group can't sing, can't dance." Gustavo continued to speak.
Andi rolls her eyes, knowing he was wrong. If he would just give them a chance he would be surprised. "Actually, they can. You just don't give them a chance." After she said that everyone, including the boys, gasped. Everyone had been surprised she spoke back to Gustavo like that. It wasn't the first time. She had done it many times before and every time Gustavo had been furious. But she didn't care. She wasn't going to stand there and let him talk to the boys like that. It wasn't fair. The boys were trying and he just kept making fun of them and making them feel like they weren't good enough. "Gustavo, they can do it. We just have to keep working and-" Andi tried to explain but Gustavo cut her off.
"I don't pay you to talk…" Gustavo starts and Andi was about to open her mouth to say something else, but he continues so she closes her mouth and crosses her arms. "I pay you to do what I tell you. So why can't you just shut it?"
"Why can't you just give these boys a chance?" Andi retorts, her voice firm. "They're putting in the effort, and they deserve more than just criticism. You might not see it, but they have potential, Gustavo."
Gustavo's expression hardens, his gaze flickering between Andi and the boys. "Potential doesn't cut it in this industry, Andi. They need to be able to deliver results, and so far, they're falling short."
Andi shakes her head, refusing to back down. "They can deliver if given the chance. But constantly tearing them down isn't helping anyone. Can't you see that?"
Gustavo's lip twitches, his eyes narrowing as he stares Andi down. "Enough," he growls. "I don't have time for this. So unless you have anything productive to add, keep your mouth shut and let me do my job."
Andi clenches her jaw, biting the inside of her cheek to hold back a sharp retort. She can feel the eyes of the boys on her, but she doesn't meet their gaze, instead keeping her focus on Gustavo. She knows she should drop the subject, but the anger and frustration building within her refuses to let her back down. "What job is that, exactly?" she says, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're just wasting your time and theirs by not giving them a fair shot."
Gustavo looks surprised that she was still standing up to him. Usually, she would give in and do what he told her to. But she was tired of him acting like he was better than everyone else and treating people like they were nothing. Andi couldn't stand watching him tear the boys down when she knew they were capable of more. He had a talent for bringing people down, and she wasn't going to let him get away with it anymore. "They're not getting a fair shot, because they're not good enough." Gustavo hisses. He then turns to face the boys with a glare. "This group can't sing, can't dance. You don't have a song or a look, and you're covered in feathers!" Gustavo shouted angrily as Carlos picked a feather off of his face.
"And I would rather quit right now than commit pop suicide on Friday in front of the Record Company. However, there is one song I would love to play for you." Gustavo walked over to the piano and Andi sighed heavily, knowing that this was going to be bad. She was doing her best to keep her cool. She was angry and annoyed with how Gustavo was treating the boys, but she knew lashing out wouldn't help. Her standing up to him wasn't exactly helping either, but she couldn't stand by and watch him tear them down anymore. Gustavo then starts playing the piano. "Ooh, now that I'm through bangin' my head, this band of dogs is officially dead." He sang, yelling the word 'dead' and continued to play the piano for awhile.
In Andi's opinion, he was showing off which just made her more annoyed. She looked over at her mom, she could tell that her mom was upset with Gustav and honestly so was she. She had no idea what they were going to do now.
