In which M & I audition for American Idol

M and I were in a large room with a lot of other people, waiting to audition for American Idol. Black, industrial-looking double-doors opened into the audition room and we were supposed to line up outside the doors in the order we would be called in to sing. To line up we had to sit on a long, undulating, modern-looking black leather couch in the middle of the room. When M and I first arrived, there were already a lot of people lined up and there was no room on the couch, so we sat on the floor against the wall. M wasn't nervous at all, although neither of us expected to be particularly successful. We talked about why we had decided to audition, but couldn't really come up with a reason.

Eventually we moved to the couch and then I realized that M had already been called in and there was only one more person ahead of me, but I still had no idea what I would sing. I began to feel really nervous. I wracked my brain for a song that at least I knew all of the words to, since I didn't really hope to sound good. I settled on "Don't Stop Believin'" and felt a little more relaxed because I knew that I would have fun with it, even if I couldn't hit the notes.

They called me in and the audition room was bigger than the waiting room. There was a wall to the right, and the judges table was right in front of it, and then to the left, the opposite was had long horizontal windows near the ceiling. When I walked in, Randy and Paula were sitting at the table and Simon was fiddling with the windows. I knew I was the last audition before the lunch break. Simon didn't even sit down to hear me sing. Randy asked me to go for it, and I did, and even I could hear that I sounded pretty terrible. When I finished, Randy kind of smiled indulgently and asked if I had it out of my system now (meaning trying to get on the show, I think). I laughed and said that I did, and he said good because he was starving and wanted lunch. Simon complimented me on my outfit and told me I seemed like a really nice girl, which actually felt pretty good. I left the audition room and went to find M. It turned out they really liked her singing, but not enough to move her to the next round. We both agreed Simon was kind of hot.