Stacey tinkered with the piano for a bit. The door opened and she turned around to see Phineas enter. Phineas looked around the empty room and then back at Stacey.
"Where's the rest of your group?" he quizzed Stacey.
"I don't know," Stacey raised her hands in the air. "I can't decide whether to wait for them to come back or go looking for them."
"I heard there was an argument?" Phineas took a seat. "What happened?"
Stacey told him what she understood of what had happened.
"I see," Phineas rubbed his chin. "There isn't much time left. I think it's better if we go look for them."
With Phineas leading the way, Stacey followed him to where Derrick was sitting in his bedroom with his head in his hands.
Phineas looked at Stacey, raising an eyebrow and Stacey sighed. It'd be nice if Phineas could intervene more, but he obviously wanted the teenagers to resolve their own issues by themselves if they could.
Stacey felt thankful that she had spent most of her life mediating between friends who were rivals back home and had also learnt to negotiate between the different factions in her workplace. Who would have thought she'd need to use her diplomacy skills here?
"Derrick," Stacey went forward first. "Come and teach me the song. We don't have much time to do anything else and I think we may as well follow your idea for now. We can discuss with the others what to do for the next ranking challenge after this but we need to get over this hurdle first. Don't you think? You already have the idea for a complete performance. I'll help you to try and convince the others. I have no idea what you were all arguing about earlier. Will you explain it to me?"
Derrick heaved a big sigh and then Stacey heard a dull voice singing a tune. She listened.
"This is the whatever evening thing song?" she asked.
"Flight of the Evening Crane," Derrick corrected.
"What does it mean?" Stacey asked.
Derrick told her.
"And what do Blaze and Imogen want to do?"
Derrick explained the argument to her in English and Stacey rubbed her face.
"Ok, what do those songs sound like?"
Derrick got one of the staff to play recordings of all three songs for Stacey.
"You only have half an hour left," Phineas warned them.
Derrick jumped.
"Teacher! I didn't know you were here," Derrick said.
"I came to help Stacey get you all back together so that you'll at least have something to bring onto the stage," Phineas said. "Since you are the leader, Derrick, you need to know how to manage disagreement and listen to your teammate's advice. If the leader gives up, everything will usually either fall apart or the group emerges with a new leader."
"I didn't think it would be this hard," Derrick groaned. "Maybe I'm not suited to be a leader."
"Who knows?" Stacey put in. "You've barely started trying. You might not be a good leader now but who knows whether you will learn and become a great leader in the future? Good leaders are bold, inspire, and bring the best of everyone together. They are often what holds the team together but not all the time. They need to know how to deal with conflict, listen to their teammates, compromise when needed but stand their ground when needed. You're part way there. You've got this."
"Looks like I may not be needed," Phineas chuckled. "Let's go find the others, shall we?"
Imogen upon seeing them come looking for her where she had been staring out of a window silently followed them. Derrick spoke to her in a flood of Tadpole that lost Stacey. The only thing she caught was Imogen turning toward her and singing another song in Tadpole that she hadn't heard before. It had some similar elements to the song Derrick had sung earlier.
"This is a traditional song called 'Pear Blossoms'," Phineas explained to Stacey's lost look. "It's about loving your homeland and heritage."
"Oh. This is the song you want to perform?" Stacey asked Imogen in her clumsy Tadpole.
"Yes," Imogen replied.
Stacey nodded and thought quietly to herself.
Blaze was cutting grass seed heads off overgrown grass with a long stick. Derrick went to speak to him but Blaze pushed him away. Phineas and Imogen also tried to speak to him but Phineas had to leap back and away from the swinging stick and Imogen was frightened back by Blaze's angry roar. Everyone turned to look at Stacey.
Stacey made a face. Tentatively, she crept forward but didn't dodge back in time from the swiping stick that came at her suddenly. She hissed in pain from the bruising strike to her waist. Blaze hacked and thrust at her without looking and Stacey stumbled back with her heart hammering in her chest, while clutching her sore waist.
"Blaze," she said through gritted teeth, her temper flaring up a bit. "Didn't you say you wanted to be on the same team as me? Didn't you say you had some ideas you wanted to give a shot at? If we can't even get the team to agree on something for the preliminaries, are you sure you don't mind losing? You clearly don't like other people talking about how you're not a nice person and dangerous to be around, and then you act like this. How are you going to dispel that bad image from everyone's minds if you keep acting this way? How am I - how are we supposed to be teammates if you get violent over a simple argument? Maybe I should just quit and go take my chances on the streets again. It might be better than having pig headed teammates that don't know when to give or take."
Blaze glared at Stacey and she froze. He stood up and stood over her, crowding into her personal space. Seeing her back away and quail from him, he sneered.
"I don't know how on Gaius you're going to survive the battle later this week," he snorted, poking her shoulder hard, "if you're already this scared by someone like me. You give up now and I'll think I've judged you wrongly. I might as well force you to quit and make you my woman."
"That," Stacey said in a trembling voice, "is not how a man should confess to a woman that he likes or is interested in her. No woman is going to fall in love with such violence filled lines. No woman truly likes being intimidated and overpowered. How disappointing."