Starsdom 1: Extended Remaster

Chapter 1: Application (Remastered)

This is the most predictable part of my day. I hear the little footsteps getting closer and louder. I shift my attention to my room door waiting for the screams to begin.
"Adryan!"
"Adryan!" My little brother, Oliver yells twice.

I count, one, two, three.
My door blasts open and he comes into the room. I know this by a heartbeat.
"What, Oliver?" I smile at him.

Oliver is my younger brother. He's 10 years old and he's always seen me as his role model, his hero. The kid loved me and I loved him too. When he was born, he couldn't stop crying but as soon as I grabbed him he stopped crying. Is like he knew, weird huh?.

Oliver is like a puppy. Runs, jumps, and messes around to get my attention. He does get my attention and he loves it.

"We haven't played today" he frowned, looking at the ground swaying side to side.
We haven't played in days. I've been too busy.
I looked down at my keyboard placed in my bed and the mess I've made in my room writing and producing songs.
"I can't. I'm working on a song"
The amount of sheet music laying around explains it all.

"I'm bored," he says quietly before running and grabbing my arm.
"I'm bored!"
This is his best ability. Screaming until I do what he wants.

"Alright, alright. I'll play with you" I released myself from his grip and I raised my hands, surrendering. He started jumping and cheering.
"wait till I clean all of this mess," I said, he groaned,
"you're so slow cleaning"
"I'm organized, try it sometimes," I said and he rolled his eyes and waited for me to clean the mess of sheet music and cans of lemonade.

I finally cleaned the mess and I went to the backyard to play with him.
"So, what are we going to do?" I asked and he quickly entered the house,
"wait here!" He yelled I stood there for like four minutes and he came blasting me with his water gun. I shouldn't have given him that dammed toy for his birthday. But with the insane summer heat, the water felt good.
"You are so going to get it!" I started chasing him and damn, he runs fast. I don't know what kids have that makes them faster. It's embarrassing how a young adult like me can't run half the speed he does.

I was running out of breath. That gave me an idea to fool him.
I stopped and placed my hands on my knees, and I started breathing loudly, pretending to be exhausted out of my life.

"Adryan, are you ok?"
He ran to me with a concerned look on his face.
"Sorry, I'm just exhausted. 19-year-olds don't have the same energy as 10-year-olds. He walked closer and I yanked the water gun from his hands. "Haha, I got you!" I started shooting him and he never stopped laughing.

Vengeance is good, my friend.

"Adryan, Oliver" I hear my mom calling us. I turn around and I see her standing there with a curious smile and her right arm rested on the wall.
"What's wrong?" I ask
"Come inside, I have to show you something"
We were about to enter the house when she raised her hand.
"Stop" she grabbed some bath towels and handed them to us.
"First, you need to dry"
"Fine" Oliver said and started drying.

After drying, we went inside and she gave me her laptop "Press play" She was on some random website. She had a video that was paused. And it was called, "invitation to Starsdom"

I pressed play and some lady started talking. She was blonde, curvy, and looked like she was the happiest person ever.
She stood in a purple-ish, blue-colored background.
"is it hard to be famous? Do you feel like your dreams are never going to come true? Well audition to Starsdom and we'll make sure you'll have a great career thanks to us. Auditions start on August 15. If you want to audition, visit our website and fill out the application. Don't miss it" she finished off by pointing to the screen with a little giggle.

"What is this?" I asked confused and mom grabbed the computer from my hands.
"You have to audition"
"Audition, to this random show? It looks impossible, I'll never get in!"

The show is indeed random. I've never even heard of it before. Promising fame and success sound like the biggest lie ever made. How many shows have we seen where the winner goes nowhere after winning? All of them.

"You can. You have the talent. I've heard your songs they're amazing" mom grabbed my hands and tried to convince me.
"I just...." I was about to speak but then I thought about my father. He's lying sick on a hospital bed and we can't even afford his medications and his treatments most of the time. If I won the show, got a record deal, and turned famous... I might help him and cover all of our debts.
Oliver hopefully looked at me waiting to hear the word "yes" come out of my mouth.

"I'll try," I said. mom and Oliver started cheering.
"I know you will enter, and I know you'll win it," mom said as he gave me a strong hug and Oliver joined as well.
"Stop, your going to crush me," I said as I felt all of my oxygen slowly slipping away. Thankfully, they let me go. "Go fill out the application," Mom said.

I went to my room and I grabbed my laptop. I searched the website and it popped up quickly. I saw the most stupid catchphrase.

"Starsdom. The path to fame and a great life"

It was written in the same color of the background that the lady was standing in for the announcement.
That's the show's color, I guess.

I've never seen this show before, it must be new. The instant fame still doesn't make sense to me. It's a big promise.
Before I signed in I decided to look at the rules of the show.

"Starsdom is a singing competition that promises instant fame and a great life. How does it work? you have to audition, and each judge will give you a star. If you get three stars, you'll get three chances to stay on the show. If you get two, you'll get two chances and if you get one, you'll have one chance. When you enter, you have to write, produce and make your own songs depending on the number of stars that you have, then you will post them by round and you will have to make a music video to your most popular song, by yourself and our amazing crew.
How does the voting work? The fans will vote for each song that they like the most. The song that has the least votes will be eliminated and you will have one song less and if all of your songs are eliminated you're out of the show. If you are at the risk of being eliminated each judge will have one chance to choose a few and create a group. If the judges placed you in a group you will have to audition again and if it doesn't work out all of the members will be eliminated whether they have a song or not. The show will have two winners, the one that places first place and the one that places second. The winner will have a full concert in The Hollywood bowl and get a big record deal and the one who placed second will be the opening act not getting signed to a label.

If I enter, I'll at least get one star and if I don't, well this just isn't for me. I clicked enter and another page popped up. It said that I needed to put my name, age, address, phone number, email, and social security number, and why do I want to be in the show.
I filled in all the basic information and I wrote why I wanted to enter the show,

I want to audition because music has always been a dream of mine and my family believes in me, especially my dad. He's sick, almost dying, and he always wanted to see me follow my dreams and I would like to make him proud as a dad.

And just like that, I hit send