From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 198: Exoneration (3)

"Homeless? You were homeless?" Lauren asked in shock.

She was expecting a casual rebuttal from the handsome student, not a bomb like being homeless due to his foster mother.

She looked him over, noticing that even though he looked clean and his clothes fit well, they looked a bit faded, as if they had been washed numerous times, and his unbranded shoes were quite worn.

If it weren’t for his striking features, he would have looked a bit scruffy.

"Yes, for two years. Both my parents died in a drunk driving incident, and I was tossed into foster care and ended up with the Crouch family. After Analise Crouch, her husband, and 10 children spent the insurance money from my parents’ death, they sold all of my belongings, including childhood photos, clothing, and more, without my permission."

"What?" Before the reporter could delve into the crazy statement, Ari continued to dump more information onto her, before she could think.

"When the money from my parents’ life insurance and the sale of my things ran out, the Crouch family had no choice but to downsize to a 2-bedroom 2-bathroom household where I had to sleep in a room with 6 other boys. Then, Analise Crouch kicked me out of the house due to wanting ownership of the money the state provided to take care of me when I refused to share it. I tried to pursue legal actions, but I was put on the wait list and told it wasn’t a pressing matter."

"What do you-?"

"I applied to the Pop Star Academy Program to see if I could make something of myself since Analise Crouch and her family refused to cooperate by providing the documents I needed to apply for financial aid and college scholarships despite the fact that I have excellent grades, causing me to cut off contact once again."

"Excuse me, please w-

"Analise Crouch only reached out to me when they saw that I was doing well on Pop Star Academy. After refusing to cave into her ludicrous demands, she tried to slander me and ruin my chances of achieving something on my own. And now, her family has been leaving threatening voicemails for me, despite my not doing anything to them. Ah, I’m sorry, class is about to start. I have to go since I don’t want to get detained by police officers Joe Smith and John Doe who took me on a drive for serveral hours before finally bringing me to school in the evening and letting me go."

"What do you mean by that?? Threatening voicemails? Several hours? What?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Thank you for listening to my story. I really do have to go." Ari turned away, but the reporter grabbed his shoulder in a hurry.

"Wait, please take this business card and contact us. We need to hear more of this story. How can I contact you? Are you still homeless? What?"

"Please take this card. You can contact me here. But I really have to get to class."

After handing the reporter Grace’s business card, Ari bowed his head once before turning away for good.

Lauren, a street reporter for KABC-TV news on Channel 7, stared at the handsome high school student casually strolling into the building, despite his claim that he had to hurry to class.

No matter how she looked at it, he didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all, but since he was clearly headed into the school, she let it go.

She glanced down at the card, reading the details.

Choi Entertainment PR

"Keeping your reputation higher than the mountains(Choi)"

626-XXX-XXXX

"He already has a pr firm? Let’s pass this on to the interns and get in touch with the firm while we conduct some research on what the kid just told us. If even half of it is true, we could have a big story on our hands! And contact Mrs. Crouch again, let’s get her side of the story one more time."

*******

After unloading a significant amount of his trauma onto the news reporter and taking the card, Ari went to class with a completely refreshed feeling.

Having bottled up a lot of things for so long, it was nice to let it out without a care.

He really had to buy something nice for Grace, or do her share of the restaurant chores for a year or something.

Who knew that she had connections to the local news?

With all of his heart, Ari hoped that they would choose to investigate and expose everything.

After all, he hadn’t done anything to deserve the mistreatment they gave him, and maybe they would finally leave him alone.

In an unusually good mood, Ari was prepared to enjoy the rest of his school day.

Unfortunately, he just felt weird instead.

It was due to the other students in school staring and recording him as he went from class to class.

As someone who spent his high school life intentionally as a loner, rushing from class to either his tutoring job or his next job, it was surreal to see the people who used to ignore him now paying attention and trying to talk to him.

Some of them were curious about his experience on the show, while others just wanted a photo. Some were interested in the news crew in front of the school, and still others wanted to hear about his arrest.

Still, given his personality of not taking things too seriously, after giving his statement to the local news crew who had come to interview him in the morning, Ari just went about his day as usual, stopping by the front office to request his transcript and other official documents while passing out Grace’s business card to the people he remembered tutoring, asking them to contact the email and number on the card if they had time, and asking if certain teachers could write him a recommendation letter if they had time.

When people tried to talk to him, he replied as politely as possible but wasn’t excessively friendly.

After all, the school year was coming to a close in a little over a month; if he wasn’t friends with people before, there was no point in trying to be friends now, especially with the cameras he pretended not to see constantly recording his every action.

The distance they had was perfectly fine with him.

By the time the final bell of the day rang and it was time to leave, Ari felt more exhausted than if he had been practicing dancing all day.

Going to the pick-up section, he entered the familiar white church bus, greeting priest Steven Choi before seeing a familiar person tapping away on her tablet.

"Why do you look tired when I’m the one who’s been working hard?" Grace griped as Ari slumped down on a chair with a big sigh.

"I’ve always thought this, but I’ve realized once again that I’m not built for the celebrity lifestyle. It’s exhausting."

"Why are you acting like you were forced into signing up for Pop Star Academy?"

Because I was.

Since he couldn’t start explaining everything that happened with NOVA and William, Ari just sighed again.

"Once you start earning money, you’ll be fine. Anyway, did you pass out all of my cards? And get all the documents? I know you gave it to the reporter because they messaged me, but how about the rest of your school? You spread my business cards?"

"More or less?"

"More or less? You see these bags under my eyes? I’m working hard for you!"

"While I’m spreading your name for free. Quid pro quo."

"Fine. Where are the documents?"

"Here."

Ari handed over his official transcript and other things Grace had requested.

"And your class rank?"

"Still 1st. But I have tests to make up throughout the week."

"Excellent." Grace quickly flipped through the documents before carefully placing them in her bag. "Tomorrow, you’ll have a meeting with the president of your school’s journalism club for an exclusive interview. Each school will be publishing an article to highlight the top 10 academically ranked students in the county."

"I didn’t even know we had a journalism club."

"Who do you think puts together the yearbook? Apparently, they tried to interview you previously, but you refused?"

"I don’t remember, so I probably had to work," Ari replied honestly.

His usual response when asked to do things was a quick no before walking away.

"That’s fine. They’ll do it tomorrow morning and take a photo as well. Ensure your Pop Star Academy shirt, tie, and pants are clean and pressed, as that’s what you’ll wear. Your hair will be in a middle part with one curl hanging over your face. Got it? We want to look young, professional, and handsome."

"Sure, sure."

"If you dare to show up to breakfast without following my instructions, prepare to die. Understood? I’ll ask my dad to pray for your death."

"Praying for death? Isn’t that against his whole concept as a priest?"

Grace: ಠ_ಠ

"I’m telling grandma that you secretly trashed the rice porridge that she gave you."

"Wow. All of a sudden, I feel the urge to listen to your instructions."

"And do my chores."

"And do your chores today until I leave back to the show."

"Excellent. So you are going back to the show. When will that be? In a week? Two weeks? I don’t need an exact time frame, even a range is fine." Seeing that Grace was looking for another scoop, Ari just looked away.

"Secret."

After all, he still didn’t know if they were going to keep him on the show.

It was just a guess.

"Boooooo! Give me a scoop!"

"No."

"Fine! I’ll just report these punks to let my anger out."

Hearing her grumble before tapping away on her tablet, Ari laughed to himself while vowing to pay her back.

He really owed her and her family a great deal.

Thinking about what he could do to pay them back, Ari dozed off for the rest of the trip.

And as he sleepily rubbed his eyes while getting off the church bus, he was tackled by a large, blonde figure.