Arch Angel - Chapter 1

"The plane is now descending at 10,000 feet towards Los Angeles. It is now "10:24" local time and approximately 87 degrees. On behalf of all of us, we hope you've enjoyed your flight, and thank you for flying with us." When the plane landed and the small seat belt light above us turned off, we both reached beneath our seats for our carry-on bags. I had a backpack sort of purse, and David had a backpack for himself. We walked off the plane as soon as we could, and because we'd already checked in our suitcases, we only had to take our bags with us. We walked towards bag check anyways, to look for the rest of the Idols, most of whom David said were gonna be here already. I felt a nervous feeling in my stomach again. It was time to meet everybody.

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We'd barely gotten down the escalator when Cook suddenly came from behind and practically tackled David.

"Archie!" he called. David turned around in surprise to see his friend. I recognized Cook's brother Andrew beside him.

"Hey!" David said. He quickly turned to me. "This is my girlfriend Lillie." he said, and I could tell it took alot of his confidence to say it. Cook gave David an odd glance before turning to me.

"Hey Lillie! Girlfriend, huh? You're moving on up, little man!" Cook said, nudging David in the arm. David flushed red. "I bet it takes alot to calm this kid down. He's so crazy!" he said to me. I smiled at him. I wasn't sure if I should give him a hug, or shake his hand, so I just stood there next to David. "Awww, she's just as shy as you, Archie." Cook said, grinning at us. David and I turned to look at each other, and smiled. Cook took David and put his arm around him as I'd seen him do so many times before through the television. "It's nice to see you, man. It's been what, a week?" he said, laughing.

"Yeah." David replied, smiling. I suddenly felt really awkward, the way someone would feel in the middle of someone ELSE'S family reunion. I felt like I was in another sort of territory. The nervous feeling in my stomach came back again.

"Lillie, I don't believe you've met my brother Andrew. Andrew, this is Lillie, Archie's GIRLFRIEND." he said, with emphasis on the word, grinning at David. Andrew nodded towards me, grinning.

"Nice to meet you." he said.

"Nice to meet you too." I smiled back.

David turned to me and smiled. He took me by the hand and said 'bye' to Cook. "We'll see you later. We're gonna look for everyone else." David said. He turned to me. "What do you think?" he asked me. "I know I'm not as crazy, but I hope you don't mind..." he said, smiling at me.

"Oh of course not. When it comes to Davids, you're my favorite." I said, squeezing his hand. He smiled at me. We suddenly caught sight of Ramiele in the distance.

"Hey Ramiele!" David called, waving with his free hand.

"Hey David!" she called back, grinning. Ramiele was just as little and cute as she seemed on TV - like a little doll or something. We walked towards her and she smiled at us, immediately noticing our hands.

"This is my girlfriend Lillie." he said quickly, motioning towards me.

"Hi Lillie. It's nice to meet you." she said, reaching towards me to give me a hug. She seemed very genuine already.

"Nice to meet you too." I replied. She smiled sweetly.

"Do you know where we're all supposed to meet?" she asked David.

"I have no idea. I was just told that we'd all meet here I guess... they didn't say anywhere specific." he replied.

"That was smart..." she said. "They tell us to come to this huge airport and we're supposed to find each other ourselves? Nice." she said. I already could tell I'd like Rami. "Do you mind if I stay with you guys to look for everyone?" she asked.

"Oh sure. It's probably better that we stay together so we can find everyone and not get lost." he agreed. I was glad I'd brought a backpack. It seemed to be the style among the Idols, and I was happy to fit in as best I could. Everyone was sporting their own. I wondered if Idol had given them backpacks before they left. Ramiele walked beside me as I walked beside David. It suddenly occured to me that Ramiele wasn't with anyone. I wondered if she'd come alone. I decided I might as well make conversation with these guys - I was going to get to know them for a while.

"Did anyone come with you?" I asked her. She looked up, and I could tell she was slightly surprised that I was talking to her.

"I think Danny might be coming." she smiled. I had forgotten about her friendship with him. I loved his attitude. I wondered if he'd be just as sassy in person. I smiled to myself at the thought.

"Oh that's fun. I haven't met him either." I replied. I felt comfortable talking to her. She seemed very nice. We kept walking until we caught sight of Cook again. He walked towards us with his brother close behind.

"Hey Rami!" he called, waving. He gave her a hug and walked with us. "Have you found anyone else yet, Archie?" he asked.

"Ramiele." he said, grinning. Cook laughed that loud laugh of his that'd I'd come to recognize through watching the show. We walked together a little while longer and found Michael Johns. It was like watching two best friends being reunited after twenty years when Cook went running towards Michael.

"Hey David." Michael called in that Australian accent of his. He gave Cook a hug and came over to us. "Who's this?" Michael asked David, pointing at me. I suddenly felt self-conscious.

"This is Lillie." he replied. I waved shyly.

"His GIRLFRIEND, Michael." Cook corrected. I could tell that David was avoiding that little word for a reason.

"Oh, little Archie's got a girlfriend!" Michael said. "Nice work, my man. She's pretty." he said, winking at me, smiling. "It must be hard to shut him up. He just talks all day. Quite annoying." Michael said to me, nudging David in the arm. "I don't believe you've met my wife, either of you." he said, motioning towards the woman beside him. "This is Stacey." he said. The woman smiled at us.

"Nice to meet you both. I'm a fan, David." she said, smiling at David and then to me. "He seems like an angel." she said to me. I smiled and nodded. I could tell David was nervous too. We were very shy in front of people.

"If you didn't know any better you'd think they were mutes!" Michael said jokingly, patting David on the arm and smiling at me. The others smiled at us. Ramiele could tell that we were embarrassed.

"Leave them alone, Michael." she said, giving him a jokingly mad look, then turning to me. "Don't worry, he IS always this annoying." she said, laughing.

"Don't worry, Ramiele doesn't grow any more than this." he said to us, smiling at Ramiele's "pretend-shock" look. I could tell this group was far more outgoing than I'd assumed, and much louder than David. This would be an interesting few months. I knew I'd miss them at the end of it.

"Hey you guys!" called a voice that I immediately recognized. We turned to see Jason walking towards us, in the laid-back way of his, tossing his dreads over his shoulder as he walked. Jason took turns giving everyone a hug until he came to us.

"Archie's got a girlfriend, Jason." Michael was quick to announce.

"That's cool, man." he said, smiling at us. He introduced us to his little sister that he brought, which I thought was very sweet. She was very friendly and bubbly. Soon after, we ran into Carly, who brought her husband, and Chikezie who brought his mom. We walked as a group, and everyone was staring at us open-mouthed, and we felt flashes from all directions, as people ran up for autographs. The rest of the Idols (Brooke with her husband, Kristy and her fiance, and Syesha and her dad) arrived when they saw all the commotion going on. Soon we were escorted by security outside to the Idol bus which would take us to our hotel. Our suitcases would be waiting when we arrived. We sat side by side on the bus and David smiled at me.

"How do you like everyone so far?" he asked, taking my hand.

"They seem really nice." I said. I still felt a little awkward around everyone - they were like this big family and I was one of the outsiders. I figured I shouldn't think anything of it. Everyone had brought someone along and they all seemed to be just fine. I was being ridiculous. David must've noticed my expression.

"Are you OK?" he asked. I nodded, but he wasn't convinced. "What's wrong? Tell me. You know you can tell me anything." he said. I wasn't about to bother him with my stupid problems.

"Really David. I'm doing fine. I love it here. I'm glad you brought me." I said and gave him a hug, hoping to change the topic. When I pulled away he smiled at me.

"OK." he said. I could tell he'd probably ask me about this later, so I tried to keep things as normal as possible. We arrived at the hotel and got off the bus. When we walked into the lobby, I almost gasped. It was so elegant - it reminded me of one of those princess movies where at the end the princess is taken to the castle - THIS was the castle. I felt like a celebrity for about half a second in that lobby, until I heard the first, "DAVID ARCHULETA!" scream from some corner in the lobby. I heard Michael and Cook laughing behind us as a girl, about 14 came running towards us. She grabbed David by the arm and took a picture of themselves, and ran off screaming.

"I LOVE YOU!!!" she yelled as she went running back to wherever she came from. David and I looked at each other and laughed. I grabbed his hand and we all walked further into the lobby.

We were each given a key, and led up to the 14th floor where our rooms were located, and we were told that we had 30 minutes inside the room before we were to come back downstairs to meet everyone for lunch. David and I had room 3822. He opened the door and motioned for me to go in before him. I gasped when I went inside. This had to be the biggest room I'd ever seen in my life. After going inside, I noticed that I was in the sitting room outside of the bedrooms.

"Wow." I said. David came to stand beside me.

"Nice, huh." he said, looking around, but not as shocked as I was. I figured that his room on Idol must've looked something like this. I walked towards one of three doors, and I felt like someone on a gameshow. Behind door number one was... a bedroom. I knew I'd want this one. It had a big view of the city, and I thought I could see the Hollywood sign far off in the distance when I squinted. I came back out to see that David had gone into the third door on the far right. I figured that must've been the other bedroom. I looked inside the second door, and sure enough, it was a bathroom, which was almost the size of my bedroom back home. I felt like I was walking through a museum more than a hotel room. David came out of the bedroom at the same time that I came out of the bathroom.

"This is really nice." I said. He nodded and walked towards the window, which had a balcony outside. He unlocked and opened the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the balcony. I followed behind him. I walked up and leaned on the rail, which had even another rail in front of it. David came up and put his arms around me. I felt my heart skip a beat. I wondered if he felt my nervousness. I felt him lean his head on my shoulder. We stood for a few moments, looking down at the cars and people on the street.

"I'm glad you decided to come." David said, and for the first time since I'd arrived, I felt like I belonged here.

"I'm glad I did too." I said. "But you know I would've said 'yes' no matter what." I reminded him. He smiled.

"You wanna go back inside?" he asked. I nodded. It was getting kinda warm out here - the L.A. sun was different from the Murray sun. He pulled away and opened the sliding glass door. We sat on the couch for a few moments, knowing we had about 10 minutes left until we had to go back downstairs to the lobby.

"Is everyone really like you see on TV?" I asked suddenly. He thought for a moment before responding.

"They really are. I thought maybe some of it was an act in the beginning - that maybe they pretended to have a certain personality on the show, but everyone's exactly the same way. It's kinda funny." he said. I smiled. It seemed like a lot of fun to be on this show.

"Is Michael always like that?" I asked, laughing. He seemed to be the craziest of the group. David laughed.

"Yeah he is. Him and Cook are pretty close in age so they get along really well - like brothers." he said. "They joke around a lot. Things got kinda quiet when Michael left - but Cook took care of that." I smiled at him. I could really tell that things were just as they seemed. What a fun group. Suddenly David's phone rang. "It's Michael..." David said laughing. I could hear the Aussie accent through the phone when David picked it up.

"Hey you two lovebirds, we're waiting for you downstairs!" he said. I didn't need David to explain when he hung up. David grabbed me by the hand and we got our things and left. When we got downstairs Michael was cheering and they were all smiling at us, but I noticed that Syesha wasn't with them.

"Sy's comin'" Cook said almost needlessly. A few moments later Syesha arrived with her friend and we all left. I walked hand in hand with David, and we left with the Idols.