I was, like, on a tight schedule here when I wrote this, SORRY, so this final part is not going to be exactly as… idk, properly done? Ugh… as the previous three.
BUT FIRST… here are answers to some FAQs:
1. What do you mean his eyes change color?
It really could’ve just been me seeing things, anyway. That’s why I didn’t want to include this in my recap; I don’t want people believing in something that I could’ve accidentally made up. But since so many people keep asking me…
Well, I kept ‘noticing’ his eyes changing color now and then – from green to hazel and back. When I was first introduced to him, his eyes were this soft yet really mesmerizing shade of green… like, a cross between emerald and jade; I could not put a name to that type of green, at all. Later that afternoon, at lunch, I saw the same green shade, but there was also a rich chestnut color outlining the irises and forming tiny streaks across the green. Like, um… wow.
But the exact moment I began to notice there was something strange about his eyes was when I was showing him the box of Honey Bunches of Oats that Gowri and I had bought for him; while David was being absolutely thrilled, I was staring, like a dummy, at his eyes, which had very abruptly turned this mind-blowing shade of hazel; like chocolate and gold blended together. I mean, the color was just so rich, and made his eyes shine like actual stones.
I eventually got curious about why his eyes changed color. I made as much observations as I could, and by late evening I sort of realized…
… David’s eye color changed according to his mood.
If he was feeling really cheerful or excited – basically, really happy – his eyes would turn hazel-gold. If he was feeling normal, or anything else (nervous, tired, bored, curious, etc), his eyes would be green.
And I feel a little dissatisfied each time I come across any new picture of David because they never capture his eye color right. Okay, so the concert and candid pictures are close enough…
2. [How was David’s skin] glowing?
If you’re asking me for a better description on the way he glows – gosh, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Seriously. NO, it wasn’t anything like Yvaine (from Stardust), gosh, no, that would just turn too many heads. OK, take a piece of paper and hold it as near as you can to a fluorescent light. The paper glows, right? Because light is coming from behind?
That is David’s skin. It’s smooth, it’s flawless, it’s near white, and it GLOWS like there’s a light source right inside of him.
If you’re asking me how it’s possible – duh, he’s an angel… literally. And I guess I was just looking at his halo. *sings* “… David, I can see your halooo…”
*dying from embarrassment now*
3. [Do you think] David liked you?
NO. WHY WOULD HE?
4. How can you remember so much?
Two reasons. One, I am bizarrely, creepily observant, and always have been. Two, because I was the school reporter – was, ‘cause I’m already out of high school – and I’d picked up this really useful habit, which is writing down everything that’s happening whenever I happen to be in a situation worthy enough of being reported. So everytime David was engaged with somebody or something else, hence I was free, I’d retrieve my old notepad and pencil from my bag and jot down as much I could remember about what happened earlier that day.
5. Did you get to ask David WHY his back hurt?
Anne did. Ask her. 8D … her twitter is @AnneAAM
6. Why did you constantly avoid looking at David during your interview with him?
Because… oh, wait, I’ll explain that in Part 4 below… 8)
Part 4
(again, WARNING: JOB NOT PROPERLY DONE, RUSHED LIKE YOU HAVE NO IDEA)
My legs were shaking again.
Well, not as bad as before; I had a somewhat decent list of questions now. Speaking of which, the second Yuen See called for me I instinctively clutched the paper I’d be writing on tighter in my hands.
Yuen See was dragging me again, this time towards the empty chair next to David.
I was still shaking when David turned away from the big, black video camera to look right at me.
Um. Uh.
Mind. Blank. Empty.
Wow.
Those eyes…
Hazel. Hazel. Hazel.
Brilliant, gorgeous hazel.
(My exact thoughts at the time; it was so embarrassing I still remember it!)
Heart pounding.
Kind of swooning…
Look at that smile…!
Melting…
Yuen See practically had to turn me around by the shoulders and push me down onto the vacant chair. That obviously caused David’s perfect, fair and flawless face to disappear from my line of sight.
And in place, was –
WHOOM!!!
Ouuuccchhh!!!! Holy macaroni, it was like staring right up at the afternoon sun!!!
Those freakishly huge spotlights directed at me and David from all corners!!! How much POWER was there in each of them exactly?!
I was left squinting frantically.
Ouch, ouch, ouch…
Meanwhile, David sat there with his eyes wide and totally unaffected, his fingers drumming away softly on the edge of the armrest of his chair, and his throat moving rather nicely as he quietly hummed to himself behind the gentle smile of his lips.
How does he do that?!
Meaning, the spotlights! How… oh, right. Getting used to blinding spotlights is part of his job now, isn’t it?
I continued to squint as I shifted in my seat and went through my list of questions, the crackling sound of the paper in my hand echoing abnormally loud in my ears. Dang nerves…
… I felt David’s eyes on me.
No, wait. He was looking at… the paper in my hands. At my messy handwriting. At all the desperate cross-outs and rewriting I’d done on the paper. At my jumbled up questions.
Um… eek!!
Cheeks going RED…!!!!
Then one of the cameramen spoke, distracting David.
I let out a sighed quietly in relief for a moment, then listened to the cameraman was saying, too.
I only caught two words: ‘move closer’.
Oh, okay.
I leaned forward and made to drag my chair along with me. Moving closer to the front…
But the cameraman stopped me quickly, “No, no, no – this way, this way!” and he motioned for me to move closer… to David.
Oh.
Um…
And THEN.
David reached out his arm, covering the almost two feet worth of distance between us that the cameramen found unfitting, wrapped his large hand around the armrest of my chair… and tugged.
“Oh!” I gasped in shock.
It was the same feeling as sitting in a subway train when it suddenly brakes real hard.
The inertia was enough that I got practically tossed sideways; my shoulder hit the armrest, narrowly missing David’s hand.
What… the heck?!
Did David just…???
Did he just use one arm… to yank me – a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds, plus another twenty that was my chair – two feet across the floor?!
I watched as David calmly dropped his hand from the armrest of my chair and turned back to the cameramen. I quickly looked away, too, frowning.
David had just moved almost two hundred pounds worth of weight with a slight tug of his arm.
A SLIGHT TUG OF HIS ARM.
New Fact #18: David is STRONG.
“Hello?” the other cameraman called rather loudly. “Ready?”
I looked up, totally forgot what I’d been thinking about before, and blushed real bad in embarrassment.
Everyone was staring at me, including David, obviously waiting for me so they could start rolling.
“Um… yeah!” I blurted out quickly.
I cringed when I realized my voice was about an octave higher than normal.
Ughhhh…!!!!
And I was NOT ready!
I was still having a problem seeing right! The spotlights were making me squint non-stop!
My eyes wanted so badly to close and stay that way till the blinding lights were all gone, I could barely keep them open… gaaah…
“Wait!” David gasped, and he did it very suddenly, too.
Everyone immediately stared at him.
David turned to me and, his expression apologetic, he pointed to his mouth and told me, “Um, you have something in your teeth,”
… WHAT???!!!
“OH MY GOSH!!!” I practically wailed.
I was horrified. And embarrassed, definitely embarrassed. I instantly leapt to my feet and RAN for it.
“Oh, no, no! Wait! It’s okay…!” David called after me. “Really, it’s fine – !”
The anxious and apologetic tone in his voice only made me cringe. Why, why, why did David have to feel bad about me?
I stopped in front of the nearest mirror, and bared my teeth.
There, so noticeable in between my teeth that I wondered how nobody else had seen it since lunch, was a patch of dark green.
I HAD SPINACH IN MY TEETH.
AAAAAAAARRGGGGHHHH!!!!
WHY, WHY, WHYYYY???!!!
I hastily got rid of that leaf between my teeth, and then checked the rest of my mouth for anything obscene. Then I had to take a deep breath to keep myself from passing out. I suck major. I had to be the worse fan encounter, I had to be; I had SPINACH in my teeth!
The walk back to David was slow and just as embarrassing.
Everyone else seemed to be snickering quietly to themselves… while David was still trying frantically to comfort me.
“… it’s okay, really! I get that a lot of that, too!” David was saying, his hands gesturing wildly. “I’m always worried if I have something in my teeth, and I’m on camera, and I’m, like, trying to keep my mouth shut so they don’t see it, and I really wanna get it out, but, like, ‘how am I gonna get it out? I don’t wanna do it here!’, you know? When I was in Singapore
I paused as I realized… that that was the longest David had ever talked to me since we first met.
And… it was kinda, sorta funny the way he said all that.
I’d hung my head, too embarrassed to look at David at the moment, but my lips couldn’t help but twitch at his sweet, adorable rambling.
When it was quiet once more, the cameraman asked again if I was ready.
Obviously I wasn’t, but I nodded yes, afraid of wasting the limited, precious time I had with David. I very well knew he was on a tight schedule.
The cameramen held up three fingers, and dropped them one by one, mouthing as he did, “Three… two… one!” and then pointed at me.
For a moment I stared blankly back at the cameraman… then it dawned on me what I was supposed to be doing, and I quickly looked down at the paper full of cross-outs and smudges still clutched tightly in my hand.
My brain shouted at me, CHOOSE SOMETHING THAT’S NOT WEIRD. SOMETHING THAT’S NOT EMBARRASSING!!!
I came across once out of the bunch of scribbles and I quickly turned to look at David.
OH NO.
REALLY BAD IDEA.
GAH, WHEN WILL I LEARN?!
David was staring right back at me.
MIND. BLANK. QUESTION. FORGOTTEN. NAME. FORGOTTEN.
MOST BEAUTIFUL EYES IN THE WORLD.
MOST BEAUTFIUL SMILE IN THE WORLD.
MOST PERFECT JAWLINE…
“Ahem,” Yuen See snapped.
I flinched and looked away so fast it made someone in the room snicker.
A loud “Shh!” followed, and all was quiet again.
Except for the massive noise that was the pounding of my heart.
“Um…” I blinked multiple times, and remembered my question. Without looking at David at all, I asked, “What do you think is the best part about touring?”
David grinned, and – so comfortably, so naturally – he started gushing, with his forever adorable and hilarious hand gestures, “Oh, there’s so many things I love about touring… getting to perform up on stage is just SO AMAZING… it’s so much fun to be up there… it’s such a great experience… and having the fans there to share it with them is even better…”
That wasn’t his whole answer; I only remember some parts because TWICE I was dumb enough to LOOK AT DAVID’S FACE AGAIN. I think back and there are so many BLANKS in my memory because of the many times I looked right into David’s eyes during the interview.
Dang it, I suck.
Second question, “Um… okay, you know there’ve been lots of stories, like on fan sites and such, about how you’ve touched people’s lives… and… and…” I was looking into David’s dazzling eyes again, dang; wake up, wake up!!! “… and how much you’ve inspired them… so, um, what’s like being such an inspiration, you know, to so many people?”
David looked really thoughtful at that, “… well, sometimes it’s just amazing. I feel really honored when I hear them – you know, their stories and stuff – and sometimes it’s pretty crazy when I hear their stories, because, it’s like, I don’t believe it’s actually real! I mean, ‘Huh? How could I change people lives? How am I able to affect people like that?’ It’s just so weird for me… but then I realized that this is what the whole thing’s all about; I feel like that’s why I’ve been given the opportunity to do music… to reach out to as many people as I can. Not just with music, but helping them in any way I can.”
My neck was burning. So were my cheeks and the back of my ears.
Because… wow. Just, wow.
That was… so him. So David. SO WONDERFUL.
It was when someone cleared their throat that I realized I’d lost my focus again.
Yikes…
I looked back down at the piece of paper.
And… for some very, very peculiar reason… my vision blurred for a second, and when it came back into focus this question on the paper was just JUMPING OUT at me. It was like, there, BIG, ‘YOU GOTTA ASK THIS’ BIG…
(Guys, please don’t kill me for this question… *prepares hiding place*)
“Um, you know the Snarky Archies, right?”
“Yeah!” David’s face lit up at that, his excited grin stretching from cheek to cheek. Literally.
I couldn’t help but smile, too.
“Um… remember when they… threw those potatoes on stage?”
David’s excited grin changed into a wry smirk, “Yeah,”
“Okay, so… just wondering. What happened to them? Where are they now?”
David frowned a little at first, then he laughed, “Um… I don’t know!” He laughed some more. “I’m not sure! The last time I saw them they were on the tour bus… but I’m not on the bus anymore,” he finished, shrugging and chuckling some more.
“Oh, okay… think maybe someone’s keeping them safe for you?”
“I don’t know… maybe they’re spoiled now…”
“Oh… alright…”
Wait… potatoes can get spoilt???
Oh, yeah, if they get damp or something… like when Carlisle hid among sacks of rotten potatoes during his… hold up, why the heck am I thinking about Twilight right now????
Yeesh…!!!!
“… I was really confused, though,” David was saying, and as he thought back on the Starchy Archie period his face took on the same puzzled expression he’d worn when he’d first come across the potatoes. “I was like… uh, potatoes???” and the look on his face right then just read ‘Um, ha ha. AWKWARD’.
It was just sooo adorable and sooo utterly HILARIOUS that I doubled over and burst out laughing.
David laughed along with me for a second… and then, without me asking anything, he started expressing his point of view when it came to the potato-throwing, “I was just singing when all of a sudden I felt something hit – ” – and he actually demonstrated how hard the impact was by whacking his own leg really hard (and I mean, REALLY hard; there was a loud ‘SMACK!’ and everyone jumped and flinched, including me) – “—my leg! I was like, ‘What was THAT?’” and his wide-eyed look of surprise made me crack up again. “I just looked down and I’m like, ‘…potatoes. Oh,’”
“Um, well, I’m pretty sure none of the Archies meant any harm,” I quickly tell him, in between giggles.
David laughed good-naturedly at that.
I went through a few more questions.
I’m not going in detail because they’re kind of boring… and some you guys already know the answers to because after me other people – reporters or tweeters, of course – asked him the same questions.
And that I reached the question, “What’s the weirdest thing a fan’s ever done to you?”
You know what he said.
And the way he acted it out made me giggle. Like you guys saw in the video clip.
Giggle.
Ask any of my friends from my old schools, they’ll agree that I am a girl who DOES NOT GIGGLE.
I had never giggled before over anything in my life.
Never. I’d either snort or laugh real hard.
And here I was, GIGGLING.
David Archuleta had made me giggle… for the first time in my life.
See the kind of POWER he has over people???
And then Yuen See took a step forward.
“Done?” she pressed. I had very limited time, after all.
“Um… okay, I guess,” I said, shrugging.
Then I turned to David, “Thanks sooo much for… um… uh…”
David Archuleta.
Gorgeous. Dazzling.
Huge smile. Straight at me.
Um… yeah.
STOP STARING AT HIM. C’MON!
I looked the other way quickly, all hot and flustered and breathless.
GOSH.
“Aw, you’re welcome!” David replied, chuckling.
I made to get up when Yuen See suddenly motioned for me to sit back down.
“Wait, wait, wait – not yet,” she said.
Oh-kaaay.
I sat back down and watched as Yuen See discussed something in Mandarin with the cameramen.
After three seconds, I got bored and turned my attention back to David.
A question suddenly popped up in my head.
One that I’d had in mind to ask if I ever got the chance. It wasn’t a question of mine, actually. Someone had left a comment on one of the fan sites – I can’t remember which one, now, though – asking that question…
“Hey, David?”
Again I looked anywhere else but at his eyes or smile – his jawline, which was… um, wow, can you say ‘sculpted’? – and asked, “Do you remember the Moroccan Chicken Kebab Sandwich you had?”
David gasped, “Oh, yeaaaaahhhh! I really, really liked it…”
“Yeah, um, well did you eat it with or without unions?”
I could feel David staring. “Uh… um… wow, I can’t remember,”
“Did you have a hard time eating it? Because, um… someone mentioned that the sandwich is kind of difficult to eat, like it can get real messy… and the onions can cause pretty bad breath. Um…” I trailed off, slightly embarrassed at having said all that.
David shook his head, smiling apologetically, “Sorry… I really don’t remember.” He looked away, eyebrows drawing together in concentration as he tried to recall…
“That’s okay,” I said, relieved to be looking at only the back of his head.
AND THEN.
David turned around real fast… and, GOSH.
GOLDEN-HAZEL EYES.
Um… INCOHERENT…
“Where was I when I ate that sandwich?” David asked me, curiously.
Where… uh… um…?
Incoherent.
Golden hazel…
“Huh? I… I don’t know,” I replied, my voice sounding kind of weird and sluggish.
Uhhh…
Yuen See was walking over to us but I barely noticed.
Even when David turned away, I was still in a daze. I couldn’t locate the On switch for my brain yet.
Yuen See said something to David but when I finally got my focus back I only caught the words “… was spending the day with her like and all that… talk about the shopping…”
“Yeah, sure!” David said, his expression absolutely willing.
“Okay,” Yuen See said, then walked away.
The cameraman held up three fingers again. My eyes went wide with panic.
UH OH. WHAT’S GOING ON NOW???
“…one!” and the cameraman pointed at David.
“So I had a great time with… um… ah, sorry, I haven’t figured it out completely yet,” David said, turning away from the camera and chuckling sheepishly. “Um… how do I explain all that…?” he mumbled to himself, and laughed to himself again.
The thing is he’d pointed at me just as he’d said “…great time with…” and immediately I understood.
Well, kind of.
Yuen See wanted David to talk about… well, basically, me.
“Okay! I got it,” David said, sitting up straighter and looking at the camera once more.
“Three… two… one!”
“Well! I had a great time with Yvette today!” David began.
I doubled over laughing once more. I laughed at the incredulity of his statement.
He? David? Had a GREAT TIME? With ME?
Ha! Yeah, right… he is too sweet, I swear…
David most probably thought I was laughing about something else, so he laughed along and continued to talk about what we did the whole day… and, yeah, it’s everything he said towards the end of the video clip on YouTube. Slightly edited, but pretty much the same.
Anyway, the minute I got up and moved back to my dark, little corner in the room, about a dozen photographers suddenly rushed in and started taking pictures of David.
I swore if it weren’t for the fact the security guards had directed them in here, I would’ve thought David had just gotten ambushed by paparazzi.
I watched as David calmly turned to face them and their blinding flashes, not once having to blink or look away. His smile never faltered, though it was the ‘fake smile’ that I didn’t really enjoy.
Celebrity life includes exceptionally random photo sessions, I guessed.
A while later, The Star newspaper reporter along with the woman who’d won The Star contest to interview David Archuleta came into the room. The reporter got interested in me at one particular moment and asked me for my cell number, explaining she’d like to talk to me eventually about how I spent the day with David.
(I’m sure you other Arch Angels have seen that long article in The Star; loads of people in school were bugging me about it for weeks after it was published, and even some of them were people I’d never talked to before, it was pretty weird)
While David was answering questions for The Star, I started wondering around the room, feeling much more confident than I’d been that morning about what I was allowed to do and where I was allowed to go while hanging out with David. All of David’s fan gifts and shopping were piled on a glass table in another corner of the room.
At first I only looked and dared not touch, not wanting to upset David in case he did have a problem with people going through his stuff. But when David didn’t seem to react at all to me looking over the gifts and such, curiosity won over caution and I started – very gently and carefully, of course – going through all the other things David had received from his fans so far since having arrived in KL.
There were so many beautiful gifts… such cool and creative things…
I got so engrossed in reading all the letters and manuscripts and cards from the fans that I didn’t realize the interview with The Star reporter had already ended until David was suddenly standing right next to me.
I jumped then blushed real hard, but David was distracted checking out one of the cards I’d gone through so I quickly relaxed and went back to flipping through this book of messages the AAM-ers had put together – with my message included in it, gah.
I had set that book of messages down for only a second when David picked it up and started going through it. Instantly, I panicked – WHAT IF HE READS MY MESSAGE?!
AAAAHH, I WOULD BE SO EMBARRASSED!!!
I didn’t know what to do! I couldn’t move, I was too frightened!
Then David flipped to a page, and because he was still standing next to me, I was able to sneak a glance at what he was reading. I struggled not to faint with relief when I saw that the message David was reading wasn’t mine… for now.
But who’s message was that, then?
I tried to sneak a peek at the book again when David suddenly smiled real wide.
At first, I thought it was because he knew I was peeking and was smiling at my mischief. So I quickly took a step back, my face flaming. Then I realized he was smiling at the message he was reading.
Before I could do anything else, though, the reporter for Hot magazine walked in.
I decided I didn’t want to go through his stuff anymore in case I really did mess something up, so I sat in a nearby chair and listened in on his interview with the reporter.
I totally lost track of time… so when Yuen See came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder, I was in no way prepared for what she was about to tell me.
“Yvette, it’s time to say goodbye to David,” she said.
Time’s up?! Already???!!!
“Come on, come on, let’s go,” Yuen See badgered me; she wasn’t one for patience, it seemed.
I tried not to wince as I got up. Why oh why did it feel like someone had suddenly just injected gallons worth of uranium into my system? Uranium, because it’s nuclear, so it felt like I only had seconds left before the world as I knew it ended. Uranium, because it’s a very heavy element, and my heart and legs have never felt any heavier.
David noticed what was going on and he muttered a quick ‘sorry’ to the reporter before standing up, his eyes on me and Yuen See.
“You have to go already?” he asked me. I didn’t get the expression on his face; it seemed like he was unhappy, but that just couldn’t be it. The idea that he objected to my leaving… ha! Calling it impossible would be the understatement of the century.
He’s gotta be relieved the freaky fangirl was finally going away.
That expression on his face doesn’t look much like relief, either, said the tiny annoying voice in my head.
Ugh, forget it…
“Yes, she has to go,” Yuen See replied him before I could say anything.
“Oh, okay,” David said. And then there was a small smile on his face as he turned back to me. “Well, thanks so much for coming…”
And, WHOA, he walked right up to me.
Like, I had to tip my head back to see his face because there was barely half a foot between us and he towered seven centimeters above me.
THEN.
To my total surprise, David reached out his right arm and pulled me real gently into a hug.
My eyes went wide. My mouth fell open.
David Archuleta was HUGGING me.
DAVID ARCHULETA WAS HUGGING ME!!!
OH MY GOSH!!!
Wow, even when the hug’s gentle, his grip feels so firm and unbreakable.
Not wanting to look really awkward, I quickly wrapped an arm of my own around him.
And… like, whoa, again.
He’s SOLID.
Really, really, REALLY SOLID.
STONE SOLID.
The expanse of his back, his shoulders, his arms… and, wow, um his entire torso, too… all SOLID. MARBLE. GRANITE.
GOSH.
We broke apart after a few seconds, and Yuen See wasted no time in hurrying me out of the lounge. We were heading to the elevator – she was practically steering me, and I followed blindly, feeling rather confused and maybe even a little frightened over the sudden absence of the wonderful being that was David Archuleta – when Yuen See suddenly gasped and went, “Aiyah!”
‘Aiyah!’ is the Malaysian version of ‘Dang!’, for those who don’t know.
“I forgot! Your pictures! Can you wait for a while?” she asked me.
“Um…”
“Okay, don’t go anywhere!” And with that she hurried off into another room.
I stood there, near the elevators, and waited. For five minutes or so. I used the time to try and get a grip on myself. You’ve got to leave. NO, you are NOT going back in there, you’re not going to throw yourself onto the ground at David’s feet and cling to his leg, you are LEAVING… you’re leaving, you’re leaving, YOU’RE LEAVING!!! I chanted furiously to myself, fighting the urge to run full-tilt back to wherever David was. You’re leaving, you’re leaving…!!!
When Yuen See didn’t come back, I went to sit on one of the couches in the front foyer and wait some more. Another five minutes later and she still didn’t come back, so I got up and walked back towards the lounge. David’s voice, velvety and beautiful, resonated from inside the room, making me smile on instinct. I leaned against the doorway, watching him being interviewed by Mix Fm representatives.
David looked up and noticed me, and he smiled in surprise.
He gave me this look that pretty much said ‘Hey! You’re still here?’
What IS it about his smile that the moment he flashes it at me, my face also erupts into a smile???
I think David has the power of mind-control. I really, really think he does.
It’s just that he doesn’t realize it himself, so when he thinks of smiling, he accidentally taps into the minds of all the people surrounding him… and the rest is obvious.
So I smiled nervously back at him and shrugged. ‘Yup, still here. No idea why.’
The Mix Fm rep must’ve asked him something – I wasn’t sure, that person’s back was turned to me – but David quickly returned his attention to the interview.
A split second later, my phone buzzed real loud.
And it’d been so still the entire day, having it go off actually startled me a little.
I hurriedly fished the phone out of my bag; the screen was flashing a number I didn’t recognize, but I wasn’t really confused over it. The past week, I’d been getting calls from all kinds of numbers I didn’t recognize – they all turned out to be from DiGi and Sony Music, of course.
“Hello?” I spoke quietly, not wanting to distract anyone.
“Yvette Chan?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yes?”
“Hi there! This is Natalie from Hitz.fm!”
My eyes went wide.
Natalie from Hitz.fm?! The Natalie?! Oh my gosh. Whoa. Wow.
She knew that I was the girl who got to spend the day with David Archuleta, so after congratulating me, she asked, “Is David there?”
I glanced at David, the perfect being, sitting there all the way at end of the room, still having an interview.
“Yeah, he is – oh, but he’s in the room; I’m outside right now,” I explained.
“… what?”
I was speaking pretty fast, and kind of too quietly, so I guessed Natalie didn’t catch what I’d said. I headed back towards the elevators where I’d be able to speak at a normal volume. “He’s in the room – I mean, we spent most of the day in that room – and now I’m outside, at the elevators, because, um, I have to go already.”
“Oh… okay,” Natalie replied. She paused for a second then asked, “So… what did you and David Archuleta do the whole day?”
So I gave her a recap, the shortest one possible, worried she might be on a tight schedule; she asked me a couple more questions then informed me she’d been airing her interview with me in half an hour’s time.
After she hung up, it took me a few seconds to get over the fact that Natalie from Hitz.fm had called me.
Just… huh, wow.
There were footsteps, and I looked around to see Yuen See returning.
In her hand was a USB Flash Drive
“Alright, see you then,” Yuen See said, reaching for the elevator buttons.
I froze. Oh no. Okay, okay, I am leaving, I am LEAVING. Leaving, leaving, LEAVING.
… bye, David. See you tomorrow at the concert.
Today has been AMAZING.
I said goodbye – and ‘thank you so much!’ – to Yuen See as the elevator doors opened, waved over my shoulder at her as I headed into the elevator, and once the doors were closed and the elevator was heading down I griped at my hair with both hands and I… I couldn’t help it; I started squealing.
Like, right there, in the elevator, loud and long, “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK…!”
I HAD JUST SPENT THE DAY WITH DAVID ARCHULETA.
DAVID ARCHULETA.
SPENT. THE. DAY.
WITH. DAVID. ARCHULETA.
DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!
Luckily, no one else got into the elevator the entire ride down.
When I emerged into the ground floor lobby, I was still smiling and clutching at my hair.
I was literally skipping as I made my way out the front glass doors, giggling to myself every few seconds.
As I half-ran, half-skipped back to the hotel I was staying at, I noticed how my surroundings suddenly seemed so much nicer – the sky looked perfect, the breeze was lovely, and the trees smelt wonderful.
A few minutes later, I noticed something else, something that made me halt in my tracks. This tiny, elderly woman in grimy clothes was walking around, holding a plastic cup out to passersby, mumbling in Chinese – she was a beggar, poor thing.
HERE IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE POWER OF DAVID ARCHULETA OVER PEOPLE.
My father had drilled it into me that you must never give money to beggars. “Who knows what they’ll do with the money? What if they use it for drugs?” he’d always say.
And I had always done as was told.
Till right then, when the effect of David’s presence still clung to me, telling me to be kind for once because ‘you’d never know, the person may just need the help’.
I made my way over to her, pulling out my wallet along the way.
The woman turned to me, and she just looked so sad and exhausted.
I fished out about a thirty from my wallet and dropped the cash into her cup.
The woman said something to me in Chinese, her expression surprised – which was priceless to me – and though I didn’t understand her, I smiled as encouraging as I could at her before turning around to make my way back to the hotel again.
I skipped the whole way, laughing.
Back at the hotel, the first thing I did after bursting into the room was plug the flash drive into my dad’s laptop and show Gowri the pictures Yuen See had taken.
Then we went online and listened as Hitz.fm aired the interview Natalie had done with me. And later, I laughed in amazement at all the texts I got from my friends who had heard the interview on the radio.
I eventually went and took a shower, ignoring my dad and his quip, “Eh? But I thought you were never going to take a shower again after meeting the one and only David Archuleta!”
It was raining by nightfall; traffic was really bad, but my dad managed to drive us to IKEA for dinner and shopping. When we walked into the building, I laughed out loud at hearing David’s songs playing on the PA system. His album was put on replay the entire night at IKEA. Dinner was great – I ate two large cinnamon buns (CINNAMON! David, David, David… XD), ignoring the disapproving look from my dad; we walked around the entire building afterwards, burning off the calories, and Gowri bought herself a cute lamp to give to her mother once she got home on Sunday.
We got back to the hotel quite late, and immediately got into bed, exhausted. I’m pretty darn sure I fell asleep with a grin on my face.
… and that was MY DAY WITH DAVID ARCHULETA.
Now here’s a question for YOU guys!
Did you guys find anything funny about that paragraph where I was talking to Natalie from Hitz.fm??? Apparently a couple friends of mine did. But they wouldn’t say why. Weird…
Anywaaaay…
THANK YOU SO MUCH, GUYS, FOR LETTING ME SHARE MY EXPERIENCE WITH YOU.
TO THE NEXT ARCH ANGEL WHO GETS TO SPEND THE DAY WITH DAVID ARCHULETA: I CAN’T WAIT TO READ YOUR STORY! 8D
TO DAVID, THE MOST AMAZING PERSON IN THE WORLD: I – AND I’M PRETTY SURE ALL THE OTHER MALAYSIAN ARCH ANGELS – MISS YOU LIKE YOU HAVE NO IDEA! CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE YOU BACK!!!
EDIT:
(7/6/11)
DAVID’S COMING BACK! OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG…!!!!!
OK, I know I’m vastly under-qualified, but…
TO THE NEXT ARCH ANGEL THAT WILL – HOPEFULLY – GET THE CHANCE TO SPEND A WHOLE DAY WITH DAVID (if Sony is hosting another ‘entourage contest’, I’d like to put it out there that I won’t be joining it; Heaven forbid that I’m that greedy… I already had my turn, now it’s time someone else had the chance… ALL of you AMAZING fans should have the chance to spend a whole day with him… and more, :D…), HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF:
- Try to avoid looking directly into his eyes… for the sake of your own coherency.
- His head turns very quickly when you call for his attention, so if you’re not careful, within less than a millisecond his eyes could be piercing into your soul and YOU’RE FROZEN, so BRACE YOURSELF.
- Try to be physically fit (or, at least, a fast runner)… and be prepared to JUMP OUT OF THE WAY!
- DON’T think he doesn’t notice you in the room… HE DOES. He watches your every move.
- If you keep getting the weird feeling that he can read your mind… get used to it.
- When you talk to him, he will STARE POINTEDLY at you… side effects of that include: shivering, weak knees, incoherency, slight loss of feeling in limbs, shortness of breath… so PREPARE FOR AWKWARDNESS every time you hold a conversation with him
- If he starts a conversation, try to focus on other parts of his face (anywhere but the eyes) while you answer… because you NEED to give him a decent and mentally-sound answer, otherwise he’ll think something is wrong and will only start flinging more and more questions at you…
- If he shakes your hand, be aware that he won’t let go until you do.
- He’ll want to take a picture with you, to remember you by, so… dress nice yet represent yourself, you know?
- Yes, his skin is naturally like that… yes, he really did just do that… yes, he can really have ‘that effect’ on you… you’ll understand what I mean.
- The way he smells to you might be different from how others have described… it’s my personal theory that his scent is akin to Amortentia (refer to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)… for example (and this is pretty personal information I’m sharing, please be kind), the smell of fresh cotton and soap bars was actually a combination of my two most favorite scents… other people kept telling me he smelt either like fruit or cinnamon or powder… but I smelt none of those…
- Don’t poke his face… he’ll jump. One word: ticklish.
- PREPARE WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO SAY TO HIM AT FIRST ENCOUNTER, SERIOUSLY!!!… when they introduce you to him for the first time, you won’t be able to improvise to save your life – your brain will become like cheese and scrambled eggs… total confusion – and only rehearsed speech will roll somewhat intelligibly off your tongue.
- Prepare NOT TO FEEL YOURSELF when you’re with him… I remember when I got hospitalized once (nothing serious, I promise) and the nurses gave me morphine… it was nothing compared to being in David’s presence… he’s like cool and fresh mountain air on your skin, the taste of Ben and Jerry’s after having starved for days, and the elation of sinking into a plush Four Seasons hotel bed, all in one… sorry if that sounded really weird, I couldn’t find any other way to describe it.
- ASK SOMEONE IN HIS ENTOURAGE IF THEY COULD TAKE YOUR CAMERA AND TAKE PICTURES ALL DAY LONG OF YOUR TIME SPENT WITH HIM (I honestly regret that I didn’t do that, because Sony had warned me not to take ‘any pictures’ as David was having a photo shoot early in the day and had to, ahem, change out often).
GOOD LUCK!
8D
