“Now, to join me on stage, you’re favorite L.A. girl and my best friend, Katharine McPhee!”

          I took a deep breath and stepped out onto the Staples Center stage.  All I could see was Kellie standing there with a huge smile on her face holding her arms out for me to give her a celebratory hug for her tremendous performance opening our tour.

          As I embraced her, suddenly the massive crowd I heard backstage cheering and yelling for Kellie came into view.  I felt the need to hold on to Kellie for one extra second to compose myself.

          “Kat, let go of me.  I can barely breathe.”

          “Sorry, Kellie, I guess we should start our duet now.”

          I let go of her and gave the signal to the band to start the music for the first of our two duets, It’s Not What You Think.

          Kellie was a blast to sing with.  She has such a naturally vibrant personality and it automatically brings the same thing out in anyone who is around her.  I could feel her energy calming my nerves.  The only problem was that personality of hers made it difficult for me to not laugh while I was singing.

          Fortunately, we chose two up-tempo songs to do together.  There was no way I could have sang a serious, slow song with Kellie.  It would have been impossible for me to keep a straight face.  Our second song came to an end and it was time for my part of the show.

          “Everybody, could you please give a big hand to Miss Kellie Pickler!”

          Kellie waved at the adoring crowd and then to my surprise did a somersault on her way off stage much like she had done a few times during the Idol tour last year.  The crowd absolutely loved it which prompted Kellie to run back out to the front of the stage where I was standing and in her silliest Southern voice said, “Thank y’all for coming to see me perform but now the moment you’ve all been waiting for!  Here’s the star of our show, KATHARINE MCPHEE!”

          “Knock ’em dead, honey,” she said with a wink before she ran back off the stage.

          I started my set with From Here To Forever, the most country sounding song off my album.  It seemed like a good way to transition the show slowly from Kellie’s country vibe toward my more eclectic style.  I gradually picked up the tempo by doing I’m On Your Side and then moved the show’s pace into overdrive by singing Persuade Me.

          Persuade Me, was the second single off of my album.  The music video was ultra-sexy.  I slinked around in a Catwoman type suit while whispering the lyrics of the song into different guy’s ears throughout.

          It was hard to replicate that on stage but I was determined to do the best I could.  I tried to convince my management to let me pick a couple of guys out of the crowd to perform the song with me but they shot the idea down deeming it was too much of a security risk.  I had to settle for playing with the boys in the band.  They didn’t mind.  It was a good way to keep them motivated throughout the tour.  I remembered the guys in the band from the Idol tour and how much it seemed like they enjoyed when I came on stage.  I knew they had a tough job having to remember the songs of all the Idols, so I figured I could give them a little something each night.  A head rub here, a playful smile there.  They all seemed to like it.

          I brought Persuade Me to a close and realized I needed to catch my breath.

          “How’s everyone doin’ out here tonight?”

          The crowd roared its approval.

          “Thank you all so much for coming to our first concert without a guy in a Pop-Tart suit running around!”

          Thankfully, enough of the crowd knew I was referring to the sponsor of the Idol Tour and the man in the silly Pop-Tart suit who ran around all over the place.  Fortunately, our crowd was getting free samples of products from Big Sexy Hair, as it was sponsoring the K & K Tour.

          I talked for a couple more minutes before I was interrupted by a voice from the crowd.

          “KATHARINE!  Why don’t you just shut up and starting singing again already!  Nobody wants to hear you talk!  All you are is a jealous liar!”

          I couldn’t see the person talking but those last few words registered in my brain.  Kendall Miller.  What in the world was she doing here?  Didn’t she have American Idol promotional stuff to do?

          “Kendall?” I said.  “Is this year’s American Idol, Kendall Miller, here?  Where are you, dear?”

          “Over here, Katharine!” she said.  “Why don’t you sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow?  Or are you afraid it’s MY song now!”

          My mind raced through all the possible responses to Kendall’s belligerent shouting.  Then the light bulb turned on over my head.

          “That’s a good idea, Kendall.  Why don’t you come up here?  We’ll sing it together and let the crowd decide who does it better.  Would everyone like to hear the two of us sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow together?”

          I pointed to a security guard to help Kendall get herself up to the stage.  She appeared to be a little bit tipsy from the sound of her voice when she was shouting and the way she weaved a little bit on her way to the stage confirmed it.

          Kendall came onto the stage looking nothing like she did the night before when she was crowned American Idol 2007.  Instead of a stunning gold-colored dress, she was wearing tattered jeans and a well-worn T-shirt.  It was still a pretty stylish look but the contrast was striking.

          “Kendall, are you ready to sing or do you need a second.  I’m sure I can entertain all these people for a few more minutes if you need to collect yourself.”

          “Ah, SHUT UP!  I’m always ready.  I’ve got a better idea, Katharine.  Why do you sing Rainbow first and then I’ll do it.  That’ll be a better way for them to see who’s better.”

          “I don’t think so, Kendall.  If we’re doing that, I’m going last.  It’s my stage, I get to pick the order.”  I turned to the crowd.  “That’s fair right, everyone?”

          The audience agreed.

          “Alright, alright.  I’ll go first,” Kendall conceded.

          It was a good thing I had already planned on doing Rainbow in the encore so I had rehearsed it a few times in the last couple of weeks.  I needed the practice since I hadn’t performed it since the end of the Idol tour.  However, I was still confident I’d outperform Kendall even though I knew the crowd would side with me no matter how well she sang.

          Kendall proceeded to sing the song amazingly well considering her slightly altered state.  I don’t think she understood how much I respected her.  If she could have only heard the conversations Kellie and I had about this year’s show.  I fought with Kellie over Kendall versus Kasey all the time during the last few weeks of Idol.  The “fool” controversy made it seem like I hated her.

          Kendall closed Rainbow with a flair, hitting the “why oh why can’t I” finish with as much power and passion as one could imagine.  She winked at me as she placed the microphone back in my right hand.  Then she followed that up by blowing me a kiss as she sat down at the side of the stage.  I blew her one back to play along with the bit.

          I had performed Rainbow so many times before that as soon as the words “When all the clouds” left my mouth, I locked into the song.  When I was watching Kendall, I decided that I was going to sing the song the way I had the previous summer at the JCPenney Jam.  I’ve had more people tell me that was their favorite version of Rainbow I had ever done. 

I somehow summoned a little extra power in my voice for those final words of the song I had just watched Kendall nail.  I knew it was perfect.  I had the biggest smile of my life on my face as I waved to the crowd.  I turned and bowed toward Kendall.

          As I came up from my bow, I saw Kendall coming toward me.  For a moment, I was scared she was going to punch me from the look on her face.  Instead, she wrapped her arms around me and kissed my cheek.

          “I love you, Katharine,” she said.

          “Uh, you do?” I said with a confused look on my face.

          “Yeah, I really meant what I said when I met you for the first time.  I really love and respect you as a performer.  I know I lost my mind a little bit last night.  Well, and I guess tonight, too.  Um, I think it was just all the pressure of the show spilling out.  I didn’t mean any of it.  Singing up here with you is a dream come true for me.”

          Kendall didn’t realize that the entire crowd could hear every word she was saying to me until they all came to their feet and applauded her.  She looked around wondering what they were all clapping for until I let her know.

          “I think they are clapping for you, Kendall,” I said.  “Why don’t you take a bow and let me get on with the show these people paid to see.”

          “Thank you, Katharine.  I’m so glad I was able to kiss and make up with you.”

          “Me too, now get off my stage,” I said smiling at her.

          The rest of the show went off without a hitch.  I sang six more songs to fill up the hour we had planned for me to perform.  I closed with the combination of Pretty Thing and Mystery of Life, the first single off of my album which was #1 on the Billboard charts for weeks.

          The crowd reaction was amazing, better than Kellie or I could have possibly expected.  I started to wonder if maybe we set our sights too low.  If we could fill up Staples Center with almost 20,000 people, why were we going to be doing shows in smaller venues around the country?  I came to the conclusion that it was a good thing.  Smaller venues would create more demand, especially after all the buzz from the Staples Center show finds its way onto the Internet and into the entertainment magazines.

          I walked off the stage and saw my entire family waiting for me.  Mom, Dad, Adriana, my grandparents, everyone I’d ever want to be able to share this with was at my side.  It was really a dream come true.

          The next day, Kellie and I hopped into what was going to be our home for the next two months, our brand new tour bus.  The bus was outfitted with two beds, a mini-kitchen, a high-definition television hooked up to satellite, a DVD player, a laptop computer set up with Internet access, a card table and a nice-sized personal bathroom. 

It was a big improvement on the Idol tour bus.  We had so much more room to move around in.  So much more room that we thought it would be a great idea to bring our twin chihuahuas with us on the road.  We adopted the little dogs only days earlier at the Haven Humane in Los Angeles.  We were doing some charity work for them and Kellie saw the twin chihuahuas together in a cage and we just had to have them.

          The dogs’ original names were Spike and Taco but we gave them names more personal to us.  I named my dog Taylor and Kellie named hers Elliott.  We got color-coded collars so we could tell the two of them a part.  Taylor’s was orange and Elliott’s was pink.

          We settled ourselves into the bus and headed on the road north to San Francisco.

          I looked over and saw Kellie fiddling with the television set.  She appeared to be confused on how to get it working.

          “Kellie, you need some help there?” I said.

          “Uh, looks like it.  You think I’d know how to turn on a TV at my age.”

          I scanned the area around the television and located the remote control.

          “Ah, here we go.  This should solve all of our problems.”

          I pressed the power button on the remote and the set popped on.  We scanned the channels and came upon Access Hollywood just at the moment they were talking about the opening night of our tour.  Only problem was the focus of the story was Kendall Miller’s appearance on stage, not Kellie or me.

          “What about us?  That was our show!  Who cares about Kendall?” Kellie said.

          “She is this year’s American Idol, Kellie.  It’s a pretty big deal to have the American Idol winner spend her night after winning making a spectacle of herself at a concert of two former American Idol finalists.”

          As the segment continued, an interview with Kendall came onto the screen.  The interviewer asked her what was going through her mind when she decided to make peace with me.

          “When I watched Katharine sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow from that close up,” she paused.  “It’s just different.  She has a way of making all your bad feelings go away.  At least she did that to me while I sat there.  So I just thought it would be good to give her a hug and apologize for everything I said about her.  I didn’t realize the crowd could hear me.”

          Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kellie shaking her head as she played with Elliott and Taylor.

          “Is she serious?  Do you really believe all of this, Kat?  I mean she said some really hateful things about you.”

          “She means it.  I could feel it in the way she hugged me.  It was totally sincere.  We’re good, Kellie.”

          “If you say so.  I still don’t like her.”

          “That’s because you’re still mad that she won instead of Kasey!”

          “Yeah, you’re probably right,” Kellie said as she rubbed Taylor’s little belly.

          We checked into our San Francisco hotel a little after 8 p.m.  We left Elliott and Taylor with our assistants at the hotel and headed out for dinner.  I had heard really good things about a restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf called Alioto’s when I was in town for Idol auditions.  I didn’t get a chance to go then but I convinced Kellie that we should check it out.

          Alioto’s specialized in seafood and pasta dishes and as luck would have it our server recognized us.  Or I should say our server recognized Kellie.

          “Kellie Pickler, is that you?” he said.

          She nodded looking a little surprised that someone would recognize her in San Francisco.

          “My name is Michael, I’ll be your server tonight.  Let me guess, you’d like the calamari, right?”

          Kellie rolled her eyes at him, “Um, no thank you.  If you could get us some drinks I’d like that.”

          Michael rushed away from the table to get our drinks.  It looked like Kellie had a spell over the guy.

          “Kel, I think Mikey likes you!  You should get his number.  We’ve got the night to ourselves after all.”

          Kellie’s rolling eyes turned their way in my direction.

          “Sorry, I was just trying to help.”

          As we finished our delicious dinner, I noticed there was a guy across the room staring at me.  I couldn’t figure out who he was.  When he realized I had caught him staring at me, he got up and walked toward our table.  The closer he got the more I felt like I knew him from somewhere.

          “Katharine!  Katharine McPhee!  What are you doing in San Francisco?  Aren’t you supposed to be in Hollywood making big movies or something?” he said.

          I still wasn’t totally sure who he was.

          “Oh, I’m sorry you don’t seem to recognize me.  I’m Patrick Thornhill.  You remember me from high school, right?”

          How could I have forgotten?  I had a crazy crush on Patrick during my freshman year.  I didn’t know that he even knew who I was back then.

          “Patrick!  Of course!  Um, I’m not in Hollywood because my friend Kellie and I are touring America this summer.  Our second show is tomorrow night at the Fillmore.”

          “I should have known that.  You two were on American Idol last year, right?”  I nodded at him.  “I just knew you were into theatre and movies and I figured you’d be tearing up Hollywood by now.”

          “Well, I’m doing the music thing first.  Then I’ll tear up Hollywood.”

          I could tell Kellie was getting annoyed with my high school reunion.

          “I guess we should be going.  Hey Patrick!  Would you like tickets to our show?  I don’t know if you like the stuff we sing but I promise you’ll have a good time.”

          “Sure.  Can I have backstage passes, too?”

          Kellie couldn’t resist, “You’re really pressing your luck, buddy!  She just offered you the chance to see two of the hottest performers on the planet and you don’t just say, “Thank You, Katharine.  I’m honored.”  You’ve got some nerve!”

          He looked terrified by Kellie’s remarks.

          “She’s kidding, Patrick,” I assured him.  “I’ll make sure to let the right people know who you are so you can be on the backstage pass list.  Sound good?”

          “Sounds great,” he said as he leaned over to hug me goodbye.

          “You have to hug Kellie too or I’m not giving you the tickets,” I cracked.

          He dutifully hugged Kellie and playfully kissed her cheek.

          “Easy there, cowboy!” Kellie said.

          “Yeah, no making moves on my friend!  I’m the one you’re supposed to be kissing,” I said.

          My heart sank at that moment.  The crush I had on Patrick when I was 14 years old took of my brain.  I would have died to have him kiss me back then, even on the cheek.  Seeing him kiss Kellie turned on some kind of jealous streak inside me.

          “I’m sorry, Katharine.  I didn’t think you cared.”

          He stepped back over to my side of the table, leaned down and gently kissed my cheek.

          “All better?” he asked.

          “Much better.  Well, I guess we should head back to the hotel.  Don’t want to let San Francisco down tomorrow night.  We’ll see you tomorrow, Patrick.”

          We got back to the hotel and Kellie followed me into my room.  While we were sharing the same bus, we were not sharing the same hotel rooms so I figured she wanted to mess with me about Patrick.

          “So Kat, how well did you know that Patrick guy in high school?  Is he an ex-boyfriend or something like that?”

          “No, no.  I wish.  He’s just a guy I had a huge crush on when I was a freshman and he was a senior.  I didn’t even know he knew I existed.”

          “We’re running into a lot of people like that these days.”

          “Yeah, the fame thing has a way of doing that but this is different.  I fantasized about that guy that whole school year.  I can’t believe I didn’t recognize him right away.  Well, he didn’t wear glasses back then.  Or maybe he did and I never saw them.”