ENTERTAINMENT

Hours before he took the stage at American Airlines Center, Jason Castro already knew that this stop on the American Idol tour would be his highlight."I'm excited and nervous," the Rockwall resident said. "You never know how you'll be received."

Yep, he's still modest. But the guy who had close to zero experience onstage before the Idol auditions is now embracing his fast-paced, famed life.

"Now I feel like a regular" in the spotlight, he says. "And it's pretty cool; I like it."

While in Texas, he's enjoyed a family cookout, dinner at a Mexican restaurant and move-in day with his brother at Texas A&M – where Jason would be finishing his senior year if it weren't for the whole phenomenal-TV-show thing.

Does he ever wish he'd had that final year in college? "No," he says. "I feel like last year has been my senior year. It's been a lot of work. But now I feel like I'm at the point where I'm going out on my own, and I'm prepared for what I need to do. It's very parallel to school, I feel."

So what's next? "I'm going to make an album, obviously. Well, I don't know if that's so obvious. But the day I get back from the tour, I'm going to fly to LA to take some meetings."

In the meantime, he's accepting a few new realities. "I don't go out too much," he says. "It can get out of hand really quickly."

Idol winner David Cook laughs at the attention he's gotten, especially from girls and women. "I get at least one marriage proposal through poster board every other night," he jokes. "I'm going to have to start disappointing people, or polygamy is the answer."

Every night on tour, he and fellow jokester Michael Johns concoct a new dance move for the finale. The duo even has a nickname: Mavid.

"We didn't make it up," Michael says. "But it even has its own Wikipedia page!"

The Aussie, whose wife is from Fort Worth, spent the last couple of days happily holed up with the in-laws.

"We watched the Olympics, and my mother-in-law told me to pick whatever meal I wanted," Michael says. "I told her, 'Roast turkey with all the trimmings.' "

He also did some shopping, but he says he wasn't bombarded by fans.

"People just stare at first," he says. "They're thinking, 'What would Michael Johns be doing walking around in a Fort Worth mall?' "

But walking around he was. None of the Idols, it seems, are taking themselves too seriously.

"I never really saw the show as being about one person," David says. "To be the winner? I demand a recount!"

Darla Atlas is a Fort Worth freelance writer.