My Reality (23 page)

My parents came out for every episode, which was especially fun for my mom, because she was a really big fan of the show. Tye’s parents also came to LA several times, as did a couple of our friends. They all enjoyed the experience of getting dressed up and coming out to be a part of a live TV show as it was taped, seeing the celebrities, and marveling over how the whole process worked and the fact that the set was so much smaller than it looked on TV. They all cheered me on when I danced, and then came back to my trailer after the show, so we could go out to dinner afterward. Plus, they had the excitement of being out in Hollywood, and I still don’t know what any of us were doing out in Hollywood,
including me
!

Tony and I developed a very special relationship. About two weeks in, he already had a good grasp of how I was as a dancer. In practice, I didn’t perform. I learned the steps by walking through them, so my body could develop the muscle memory to internalize
the routine by Monday night. Come Monday night, though, I performed my heart out. I came to know Tony, too, and learn that he was also more subdued during practice, but on Monday nights, he threw me a lot higher in the air. When we performed, it was almost like a completely different dance. The time we spent practicing from Wednesday to Sunday allowed us to learn the steps and how to mesh with each other. And then, on Monday, we both went out and we both just—
BAM
—turned it on.

I adapted really well to both practicing and performing, so Tony soon knew that he didn’t have to remind me to smile, or tilt my head up on a certain part, or
NOT
focus on the audience. And he did a really good job of choreographing things that he and I could pull off, and picking out great music and costumes that I really liked. We had a special relationship, almost like a brother and sister, where we could joke with each other and make fun of each other, and if I was having a bad day, he knew how to get me out of it, and vice versa.

Five days is not a lot of time to learn a new style of dance and memorize the entire routine, plus do costume fittings and interviews. It was grueling. And that’s why, usually around weeks eight and nine, people started to kind of crack. They cried a lot. They talked about how exhausted they were. I never got that worn down. But as I said, it was a pretty carefree time in my life, and I managed to stay focused on having fun, even as week after week went by without us getting eliminated, and we got closer and closer to winning the show.

Tony and I developed a routine on Monday night. We always knew when we were going on. We never watched the people who danced before us, but while they were dancing, we got ourselves into position and psyched ourselves up. When the music started, I always went out on such a huge adrenaline high that it was almost
like I became a different person for the two or three minutes I was onstage. Even though I’d only had five days to practice, I always knew the routine, so I just let my body take over. That’s when that muscle memory kicked in. As anyone who’s watched the show knows, contestants never go out there, forget their steps, and freeze completely. All of the contestants have always practiced enough that they know what they’re doing. It’s just that some people can turn it on at the last second and some people can’t. Luckily, that wasn’t hard for me. I always felt like my only job was to really let the personality out. And I could do that. Beyond that, I just made sure to have fun! And I always did.

T
here definitely is something called “fifteen minutes of fame,” and during this time, I was smack-dab in the middle of mine. I was immediately thrown into a whole new world: the world of celebrities and paparazzi. Because
Dancing with the Stars
was so popular, and people were still talking about what had happened on the “After the Final Rose” special, I got a lot of attention during the time I was in LA for
Dancing
. It baffled me that people cared so much about what I was doing. Paparazzi waited outside our dance studio hoping to get a shot. And let me tell you, it is
weird
having people follow you around taking your picture! There is nothing natural about it!

To this day, I’m still not used to paparazzi (thankfully, we don’t have any in Dallas!), but I was especially uncomfortable around them when I was first thrust into the spotlight. I was particularly freaked out one evening when I was heading home from practicing with Tony, and I noticed a car following me. I recognized it as one of the paparazzi cars that parked in the parking lot of the dance studio, hoping to get pictures of all the celebrities leaving practice.

Oh, great.

I started taking detours, going in and out of random little neighborhoods, trying to lose him. But he was relentless and stayed right behind me. I started getting upset, because I was going
home
! I didn’t want them to know where I lived! I kept weaving in and out of traffic, going in and out of parking lots, doing everything I could to lose him—or at least give him the hint that I knew he was following me. It didn’t work. Panicking, I called Tye for help.

“Baby! I’m getting followed by paparazzi!” I said. “And I just want to go home! What do I do?”

I’m not sure what I thought Tye could do to help. He was two thousand miles away in Dallas, and neither of us had ever had to deal with an issue like this before.

“What can I do?” he replied. “I can’t really do anything. But are you okay?”

I felt bad for worrying Tye when he was so far away, but he suggested that I try calling Tony.

Brilliant!
So I called Tony and told him what was going on. Thankfully, he was right down the street and said he’d meet me at the coffee shop next to my apartment. When I pulled in, the paparazzi car parked behind me. Tony arrived about five minutes later. When Tony saw us, he got out of his car, went up to the car, leaned in and talked to the paparazzo.

“You’re freaking her out a little bit,” he said. “She’s not used to this. She’s not going anywhere. She’s just trying to go home. And she doesn’t want you to follow her home.”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” the guy said. “I didn’t mean to scare her.” And just like that, he drove off. I was so relieved.

Wow, that was easy.

It was great to know that Tony was there for me, especially
because he was really all I had in LA while Tye was still in Dallas. Although it was a small gesture on Tony’s part, it had meant the world to me.

During the second week of
Dancing with the Stars
, I was on the cover of
People
magazine, which was a totally surreal experience. Around this time, I first realized that the public really knew who I was. When Tye and I went out to have coffee or go to the grocery store, people started coming up to talk to me about the show, and it became increasingly common for paparazzi to follow us.

The first time it happened when Tye and I were together, it felt totally crazy and weird. This was during the second week, after Tony and I had done our waltz, and Tye had moved to LA to be with me. He and I were in the car on our way to the dance studio so he could drop me off for rehearsal, when Tony called me.

“Hey, I just want you to know, there’s paparazzi out front,” he said.

I was surprised. But after the paparazzi debacle that had just happened, I thought it was such a sweet gesture for Tony to call and warn me.

“Really?” I said. “What should I do?”

“Don’t talk to them, don’t do anything, just come in,” he said.

“Okay,” I said.

I was nervous. I had never dealt with paparazzi, or even really seen them, except on TV and that one time Tony had to shoo them away for me. When Tye and I walked into the studio, I remember trying so hard not to make any eye contact. I’d covered the label of the Red Bull I was holding, because on
Bachelor
, we had to tape over all labels. And so, for some reason, I thought that was true in the outside world, too. From the time we got out of the car to when we went inside the studio, they filmed us with a video camera and took
a bunch of still pictures, too. It’s was such an awkward feeling, and I had no idea how to behave.

Do I smile? Do I wave? Do I act for the cameras? Or do I pretend they’re not there? Oy!

After that, it became a regular occurrence. The paparazzi knew where we practiced and at what times, and they were always there before and after practice. They also followed us home. It just kind of became . . . not normal exactly, but that was just how life was. I went to practice, or out to brunch with Tye or a girlfriend, knowing there would be paparazzi waiting for me.

I soon figured out how they always knew where I was (and not just me, but the entire cast of
DWTS
). Remember how I said the show put us in an apartment while I was in LA? Well, we were
all
in the same apartment complex—and I’m sure it’s the one they use every season. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist paparazzo to figure this out. So all they had to do was wait outside the complex for one of the cast members to exit the parking lot, and—BAM they were found out! And since the rental car I was in was
bright red
, I was easily discovered! While I got used to this attention, I was always a little uncomfortable with it.

I also got irritated sometimes, when I wasn’t in the mood to have my picture taken. It was frustrating to know that they were trying to get a bad shot that would embarrass me, while they were going to get paid for it. But I was lucky in that no one ever crossed the line or was ever mean to me. No one ever tried to get a really nasty shot or make me say something terrible. When I became more used to it, I learned to feel flattered and smile. That way they could get their picture, and then I could go on with my life, while remembering the whole time that this was just LA, and my real life in Dallas was nothing like this and never would be.

My parents actually had it worse than I did during the time that
Dancing with the Stars
aired. This was at the height of the show’s popularity, and so it was earning a lot of attention. On top of that, it always seems like there are one or two contestants who really get a lot of notice each season. For some reason, during my season, I was one of the contestants who people got curious about. It was crazy. Somehow, someone from my high school was contacted, and my yearbook photos were published in a tabloid. And my poor parents got swarmed. One tabloid magazine, in particular, kept going around their neighborhood, and coming up to their house, trying to get pictures of me. People even started going through their trash looking for stuff. Now, remember, my parents didn’t want to be on
Bachelor
, so they weren’t exactly the kind of people who were going to be inviting a tabloid magazine in to take pictures. So they actually moved. They did the whole thing very quietly, and luckily, their house sold before they even had to put up a For Sale sign, so no one knew that they had relocated.

The whole experience was incredibly unreal for my entire family. And I think everyone at home thought it was crazy, especially a lot of my coworkers, who had seen me at work on Friday, just like normal. And then when Monday night came around, and there I was on
Dancing with the Stars
, I’m sure they were sitting in front of their televisions, unable to believe their eyes.

I could hardly believe some of the things that were happening to me, either. Just take the fact that I had gone from being a complete unknown to opening a magazine and seeing my face in it. One of the first really cool moments I experienced was when I made the
Us Weekly
Hot Hollywood list! That meant that we got to go to the party celebrating the launch. It was a red carpet event—my
first
red carpet event!

How exciting!!

Tony got a Phantom for the night, so there Tye and I were, riding to a Hollywood party in the back of a Phantom with Tony and his wife. Next thing we knew, we were walking down a red carpet. Now, I had never done a red carpet before in my life, so I got totally overwhelmed when I faced that sea of lights.

What do I do? How do I stand? How do I pose? Am I smiling too big?

And it showed in the pictures that were taken that night. I laugh whenever I look back at them, because I appear so incredibly unsure. But who could blame me? This was nothing I was even thinking about three months earlier. It was amazing how quickly, and how dramatically, my life had changed.

Once we got inside the party, the room was nothing but celebrities, and Tye and I were completely starstruck. Many of the dancers from
Dancing with the Stars
were there, so we had our own little section, but Tye and I could never be found there. We were walking around the whole time, whispering to each other.

“Oh my gosh, that’s Jay Manuel from
America’s Next Top Model
!”

“Oh my gosh, there are the Kardashians!”

The Kardashians were just sitting at their table, and we were totally staring at them. We couldn’t help ourselves. We never felt like we fit in. Even now that I’ve been in the public eye longer, I never assume that someone knows who I am, and I
really
didn’t back then. So at that party, when I saw somebody, I’d stick out my hand and introduce myself, even though I knew exactly who they were.

Holly Madison was there. We had danced together for several weeks, but she left the show fairly early, and there had been two or three weeks between then and this party, so I had no idea if she remembered me or not. When I saw her, I stopped to chat.

“Holly, hi, Melissa, I danced with you on
Dancing
,” I said.

“Oh my gosh, yes,” she said and gave me a hug.

I couldn’t believe it, but I learned very quickly that there are no introductions in the celebrity world because everybody knows who everybody else is. Or at least it’s understood that everyone probably knows one another. Very weird. That was hard enough to fathom, but it was even stranger for me when people started approaching
me
. The first person who ever recognized me and came up to talk to me was T.O.! You know, football star Terrell Owens, who had played for the Dallas Cowboys! Clearly, this was a
big
deal for me and Tye. We both just stood there, trying to act normal, like this should be happening, and he should know exactly who we were. But as soon as he walked away, we lost it.