It's Not Easy Being an Idol

A story about love, friendship, and the power of music

The popular story is finally here!

Chapter 1: Guess What I Saw

It was a fine day in San Francisco when Danny Noriega woke up. His eyes thrust themselves open and he immediately went to the window to see this marvelous day. The sun was shining, the bees were buzzing happily through their hives, and the birds were chirping softly. Danny immediately opened his bedroom window and sniffed the sweet smelling air and let it rush to the nostrils of his fairly large nose. Too bad it was about to be ruined for Danny because the minute he was about to bless this day, David came out and yelled, "Danny! It's time to go to work!"

Danny's smile then immediately turned to a frown. He almost forgot that he had work today. And to make things worse, he had to work all day with one of the most annoying neighbors in all of San Francisco: David Archuleta. Why me? he asked himself as he took off his night cap and put on his uniform shirt. Of all the days I have to work, why does it have to be today? Why did I ever employ to be a cashier at The Cooks in the Kitchen? And why in heaven's name do I have to work, live next to, and deal with that annoying, midget, hyperactive pain in the butt known as David? As soon as he got dressed, he left his house and walked to work with David. For some reason, David seemed happier and more hyper than usual, which was usually bad news for Danny because that usually meant that he'll talk five times as much as he usually does. He didn't want him talking too much while they were at work, so he decided to get it out of the way by asking "Okay, David. What's on your mind, dare I ask?"

Then David's smile grew real big. Like freaky big. He really wanted to tell Danny what happened yesterday, but he was too excited to say anything so all he did was giggle. Then he finally said, "Do you know what I went to see live yesterday?"

Danny looked at the kid like he was some sort of weirdo. Then he decided to continue by saying, "No. What did you see?"

David giggled some more. "I'll give you a hint. It's a reality show. This was the season final."

"Tell me."

"No. You'll have to guess."

Danny sighed. He hated guessing games. Especially when he had to guess something that was on David's mind, but he decided to humor him. "Uh... Dancing With the Stars?" David didn't answer, but he shook his head. "No? Okay, uh... Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" He shook his head again. Danny was running out of guesses and was getting even more annoyed with David's giggling. "David! Just tell me!"

David couldn't contain his excitement any longer! He had to tell or else he'd explode! Then after giggling uncontrollably for about 20 seconds, he finally shouted, "I WENT TO SEE THE AMERICAN IDOL: SEASON SEVEN FINAL!"

Danny rolled his eyes. He never really liked American Idol. He thought it was just another overrated reality show that didn't deserve the attention it got. This was probably why he wasn't a fan of Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, or Chris Daughtry. But David thought just the opposite of it. He loved it! He loved the contestants, the judges, the host, everything! Sometimes he and his best friend Jason even pretend that they are Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell and that David's dog Archy was a contestant. They tried time and time again to convince Danny to play the part of either Ryan Seacrest or an audience member, but so far they haven't gotten him to do it once. Sometimes they even got Carly to play as Paula Abdul, but most of the time she's too busy with her artwork to play and only came out a few times.

During work, David didn't keep his mouth shut for one millisecond. He kept going on and on about how great the show was. He talked about the performances, the judge's comments, the flashbacks and every single little detail that made it one of the best shows ever. Danny couldn't take much more of David's non-stop chatter. I swear I'm going to kill myself if he does this tomorrow! he thought. In the afternoon, more trouble came: Jason Castro. Danny thought he'd come for his usual afternoon Super Personal Pan Pizza Deluxe with extra everything, but that wasn't why he came. The minute he stepped into The Cooks in the Kitchen, he immediately shouted, "David!"

David's head appeared through the window behind Danny. "Hey Jason! Did you see the American Idol season seven final?!"

Jason immediately came up to the window David was sticking his head out of. Then they started shouting just like the day when Mr. Cook thought he was going bald. "Yeah! I saw it live! It was awesome!"

"Me too! Did you get your tickets online?!"

"Yeah! Did you see the part where Randy Jackson said he wants to sticks a sword through Simon Cowell?!"

"Yeah! Did you stay after the show to see Jordin talking with the audience?!"

"Yeah! Did you see the part where Sabrina Bryan tripped and fell?!"

"Jason! That didn't happen! You're thinking about Dancing with the Stars!"

"I am?!"

"Yes! You are!"

"Really?!"

"Really!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

Danny had had it! It was bad enough with David, but Jason had made things ten times worse! He couldn't hold in his anger any longer, so he finally shouted, "WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP ABOUT THAT STUPID AMERICAN IDOL SHOW ALREADY?!"

Then everyone at The Cooks in the Kitchen stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to Danny. David and Jason gave Danny a shocked look. Their mouths hung open for a few seconds. Did Danny really call American Idol... a stupid show? David's eyes grew so big and were practically popping out of their sockets! Did Danny really mean that? Did he really think that American Idol was nothing more than... a stupid show? He couldn't believe it! Then one of the customers stopped the silence by going up to Danny and saying, "You sicken us true Idol fans! Come on guys! Let's go somewhere with employees that really care about us fans of American Idol." The customers nodded in agreement and left.

During this, Mr. David Cook was busy counting his money until an alarm went off. "What?! What's this?!" he shouted. Then he went to a thermometer-like device on the side of the wall that read out of how many customers were currently at The Cooks in the Kitchen and noticed that the thermometer rapidly dropped from "Better than McDonald's"(about 35-40) to "Ghost Restaurant"(5-0). Mr. Cook grinded his teeth. "Either this thing needs to be fixed, or someone's gonna be sent to the unemployment building!" Then he immediately burst out of his office (and going through the door instead of opening it, but he was so mad that he didn't care), he immediately turned to the only people that were left in the restaurant: David, Danny, and Jason. He came up to the three of them and said, "Okay! Which one of you three got rid of my well-paying customers?! It's gotta be one of you three 'cause it usually is!"

"Danny just yelled out to everyone that he thought that American Idol was a stupid show and everyone got mad and left!" David blurted out.

"Well it's true," Danny said defensively. "It's a dumb, overrated reality show that doesn't deserve the attention it's getting!"

"Jason! Cover your ears! We're too innocent to hear such vulgar language!" Then David put his hands over his tiny ears and Jason did the same with his dread-lock covered ones.

Mr. Cook was not amused with Danny's most recent action either, though it was for getting rid of his customers instead of calling Idol stupid. "Well the next time you think about expressing your opinion, don't do it in front of my paying customers!" Cook shouted. Then Cook looked around and sighed. "Well, seeing how all of my customers won't be coming back for the rest of the day, I suppose you guys can take the day off. But I expect you to be here tomorrow, got that?"

"Thank you, sir!" David said as he placed his hand over his heart. Then Cook left to see what he could do about fixing the door to his office that he broke in his outrage. Then David immediately left the kitchen and went right up to Jason. "I guess we're gonna play Idol earlier than usual today Jason. I guess that means we can play longer than usual too!"

"Hooray! Oooh! Oooh! I call Randy Jackson! I call Randy Jackson!"

"No fair Jason! I wanted to be Randy Jackson today!" Then he shrugged. "Oh well. Being Simon Cowell isn't so bad either. Come on buddy! Let's go visit Carly's house to see if she can play as Paula today."

"Okay." Then Jason ran out of the Cooks in the Kitchen and headed towards Carly's house. Then David turned to Danny. "Danny. Before I leave I want to tell you that I feel sorry for you."

David's words surprised Danny. David? Sorry? For him? These words rarely worked together in his vocabulary. (And by rare, I mean rare.) Then Danny looked at the child with a friendly look. "Sorry? For me? Really?"

"Yeah. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't like Idol because they don't know what they're missing."

Then Danny's sympathetic look turned back to his usual pessimistic one. "Oh. That again."

"Yeah. Hey Danny? I know you're not gonna like this if I ask you, but..."

I probably won't, but I'll hear it anyway, he thought.

"Will you come and play as contestants with us?! You see, Jason, Carly and I have never really play as anyone else other than Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Paula Abdul and it gets kinda repetitive after a while without somebody else to play with as a different person. So can you play with us today? Please?"

Danny would usually say no to his offer, but he knew if he didn't go with it that David would go to the limit to get him to play the rest of the day, and he didn't want to go through that for the five hundredth time. So he sighed and said, "Alright. I'll play as contestants."

This time David was surprised. He didn't expect Danny to say yes, especially since Danny openly admitted that he hated American Idol. "Really?!"

"Sure," he said flatly. "Just as long as I don't do anything stupid."

Then David had a sudden outburst of energy as he jumped into the air and shouted, "Hooray!" Then he touched back down. "I've always wanted you to say that! Come on! We've got to get to April Border so that we can start playing right away!" Then he immediately grabbed Danny's arm and darted to April Border.