Let’s get something straight right off the bat, okay? I never wanted to do this. No, not in my heart of hearts, not in the darkest corner of my mind, not in my deepest secrets. And, trust me, I have many secrets. Way too many. How could I not? I’m a Secret Keeper. Daughter of the Greatest Secret Keepers, Aliah and West Ice, who happened to die an oh-so-unfortunate death (which was an oh-so-unfortunate accident), when I was six years old, leaving me in the care of my oh-so-caring Aunt May and Uncle Darrienn. They sound innocent, do they not? Well, you will see they aren’t as innocent as they’d like people to think. Definitely not.

Oh, but I’m getting off-topic, aren’t I? The whole point of me writing down all my adventures was to let the Great Secret out. To let it out not only to this world, but to the parallel world, Earth, as well.

Ah, yes, Earthlings, I am from another world. A world that happens to be parallel to yours, actually. The world Zionne is exactly the same as Earth, except (apparently) better, being as we have no wars and, of course, magic. But one thing that the leaders of Zionne do not tell us is that we have so many secrets. Yes, yes, I know, Earth has secrets a-plenty, but none that can even compare to the Secrets the Secret Keepers would like to keep secret. And, oh yes, most of our hair colors are different than Earth’s, but that really isn’t the point.

So, yeah. My point is that Zionne has secrets that nobody knows about, thus the Secret Keepers, who are, in fact, kept secret from the rest of Zionne. Which is why it came as a great shock to me when I heard about them when I turned 23.

“What are you talking about?” I asked my Aunt May in confusion. “Secret Keepers? My parents were Secret Keepers? What were they keeping secret?”

“Oh, many things, London, dear,” Aunt May answered, with a far-away look in her eyes, mixed with something to this day I cannot place. “Many, many things.”

“But why?” I asked her. “Why keep so many secrets? And why keep this a secret from me?”

“You were too young to know before, London,” Aunt May told me, conveniently ignoring my other question. “Now that you are 23, your Uncle and I feel that it is time for you to learn the truth.”

The truth. I am so sure.

“Where is my Uncle, anyway?” I asked.

I hadn’t seem him all day, come to think of it. Not that that was unusual. Uncle Darrienn and Aunt May were often away from home.

“He’s on a special mission for the Secret Keepers,” she informed me.

Ah. So that was where they always went. I had always wondered.

“So…what am I supposed to do, now that I know of the Secret Keepers?”

My Aunt smiled warmly. Or as warmly as her cold demeanor permitted. As much as she pretended to be warm and caring and loving, it did not hide the fact that it was all fake, hollow, and cold. Nothing she did or meant or said or felt was real.

“You will go on your first mission, showing that you are now officially a Secret Keeper.”

Wait. No, this was not cool. I had never wanted to be a Secret Keeper. I hated keeping secrets. They clawed at me, begging to be let out. I’m so horrible at keeping secrets. I just feel so wrong keeping them. It makes me mad. No way was I going to be a Secret Keeper. No.

“Do I not get a choice in the matter?” I asked.

My Aunt fixed me with a cold stare. “No, you are not. You were destined to become a Secret Keeper, London Ice, since before you were born, and that is what you will become.”

“But I…I hate secrets,” I admitted desperately.

She couldn’t do this to me!

“There are some things that must be done, whether or not you want to,” my Aunt informed me. “You will be a Secret Keeper, child. You must. You were destined for it.”

I don’t believe in destiny, thanks. I like to be in control of my own life.

“Yeah, well, screw destiny,” I snapped. “Destiny is just a sorry excuse to make someone do something they don’t want to.”

Aunt May just remained impassive and cold. “Want has nothing to do with it. You must become a Secret Keeper. You will see in time that it was all meant to be. You will see, child.”

I glared at her. “Just tell me of the bloody mission.”

And before you automatically think that since I said ‘bloody’ that I’m English or Australian or whatever, I’m not. Duh, I don’t come from Earth. In Zionne (where everyone speaks the same language) we have many different expressions from many different places on Earth, as well as expressions only we use. So if I say anything strange, like “nodding” where something like “bloody” would be used, just go with it.

And, also, in case you were so naïve to think that my accent is the same as any accent in Earth (which I doubt you were), you were wrong. It sounds like a mix between Australian, French, Italian, and something else entirely that you cannot place on Earth.

Aunt May nodded. “Yes. The mission. You know of the new Reality TV show that has had one season so far, do you not?”

I nodded my head, wondering what she was getting at. Yes, I knew of it. It was copied from the Earth Reality TV show, the Bachelor. Ours is called the same thing. So original, yes?

“Well, in order to complete this mission, you must be on that show. You must be one of the girls attempting to get the Bachelor’s attention. And you must get his attention, for you must last through each rose ceremony until the end. I really don’t care if he picks you or not. You just have to be one of the last two girls in the show.”

No. Bloody. Way.

Before I could open my mouth to comment on the crazy lunacy of this flippin’ mission, my Aunt continued. “Somebody on the show has secrets that he or she is planning on exploiting to the whole of Zionne and Earth. I do not know if it is the Bachelor, one of the girls, or the hostess. It could be anyone. I do know that you must find out who it is and stop them. This is perhaps the biggest and most important mission you could possibly have. The Secret Keepers need to keep the secrets this person has a secret. It must not be made known. Do you understand?”

I nodded numbly. Participate in the Bachelor. Oh, Gods and Goddesses above, I couldn’t do it.

“But…what if the Bachelor doesn’t like me?” I asked nervously.

“He will like you,” Aunt May said, making it sound threatening. She may as well have added ‘or else…’ It would have the same effect.

I bit my lip. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. How could I compete with 49 other women, all more beautiful and smart and funny than myself?

However, as I saw my Aunt’s cold brown eyes stare into my own violet ones, I knew I had no choice. I had to do it.

“Can you tell me what the secret is?” I asked cautiously.

My Aunt rolled her eyes. “Really, London, do you think you would be allowed to know such an important secret?”

Well, jeez, she didn’t have to be so mean about it. It’s not like I’m the one ON THE NODDING MISSION!

#_(*%^#(*&

“All right,” I muttered to myself as the limo neared the humungous mansion. Or castle. Whatever. “Radiate confidence and beauty. Make the Bachelor fall madly in love with you. Do not fall in love with him. Aunt told you explicitly not to. Big no-no.”

I drew a deep breath as the limo pulled up to the front doors, where a tall woman, about 25 or so, was waiting, with long black hair and brown eyes. Beautiful, of course. I would be seeing a lot of beautiful people during my stay at the Shaded Rose Palace.

“Hello,” the woman greeted me warmly as I walked up to her. “Welcome to the Shaded Rose Palace. I’m Electra Rose, the Hostess of the show, and older sister to the Bachelor. Come inside. You’re the last to arrive.”

Oh, it figures, doesn’t it? Of course I’m the last to arrive, I thought grumpily as I followed Electra into the large living room, camera people following me.

Everybody in the room looked up as Electra and I arrived. 49 beautiful girls looked at me curiously. Oh, Goddess, why did they have to be so nodding beautiful? How am I ever to compete with them?

This is just flodding great, really, I’m sure.

“Girls, this is the last arrival, London Ice,” Electra informed the curious girls. “Make her feel welcome while I go get the Bachelor.”

Hearing the Bachelor was finally coming, the girls talked excitedly with one another, completely ignoring me. I just stood there, helpless as to what to do, when someone noticed me and took pity on my poor soul.

“Hey, London Ice, was it?” a woman to my left asked, sitting on couch. She stood up and walked over to me. “I’m Questa West. Pleased to meet you.”

I nodded at her and shook her outstretched hand. “You too.”

I studied the woman, who seemed (obviously) around my age. She had long blue hair with silver streaks and bright green eyes. Beautiful, obviously, like every woman in this room. I wish I had her hair. I’ve always wanted blue hair. It’s so much better than boring white hair. Okay, so white hair is really rare. The rarest color besides black. But still. I love blue hair.

“You want to come sit with me?” Questa asked, motioning to the couch she had previously occupied.

Finally, I could sit somewhere.

“Of course, thank you” I said, smiling at her.

Questa smiled back and walked back to the couch, me following her. I sat down, squeezed between her, a petite redhead, and a silver-haired girl on the opposite side of the redhead.

“Hi, I’m Yuna Zaylinn,” the redhead greeted me, smiling happily.

I smiled back at the bubbly girl. “I’m London Ice.”

The silver-haired girl leaned forward so I could see her and said, “I’m Zia Elle. How’s it going?”

“Good,” I answered.

Pleasantries out of the way, Questa grinned. “So, what do you think the Bachelor will look like?”

Zia rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Questa, not that again.”

Questa smiled sheepishly. “Well I was just wondering.”

Rolling her eyes, Zia informed me, “She’s been going on about what he looks like the whole night.”

I nodded understandingly. “Well, we are here to woo him, are we not?”

“True,” Yuna agreed.

“But that doesn’t mean we have to talk about him every second of the day,” Zia argued.

Secretly, I agreed. And since I was (and am) the worst person ever at keeping secrets, I said, “You’re right, of course.”

“Of course,” Zia agreed.

Before anything more could be said, the door to the room opened, and Electra walked in with a young man by her side. An incredibly hot and sexy young man, at that.

All eyes immediately turned to him.

“Hello,” the man started hesitantly, looking nervous.

What had he to be nervous about? These girls would probably throw themselves at his feet. They’d never leave him alone.

On second thought, maybe he did have a lot to be nervous about.

His eyes scanned the room of girls, not pausing on anyone. His eyes briefly met mine, but did not stay on me any longer than on any of the other girls.

Oh, what wonderful, gorgeous, beautiful brown eyes he had, mixed with silver and gold. And, oh, oh, his hair was black! The rarest of all hair colors, and my absolute favorite for a guy’s hair color!

I mentally hit myself. I sounded like a simpering maiden. I wasn’t here to fall in love with him. I was here to make him fall in love with me.

“For the next hour, each one of you will have a minute to talk with the Bachelor,” Electra informed us. “We’ll go in order of arrival. I have a paper that lists the order right here.”

She waved a piece of paper at us to prove her point and read off the first name. “Rosa Winters.”

A beautiful girl (okay, so that was a given) with long, flowing, wavy black hair and light blue eyes stood up. She had to be the most beautiful girl in there by far. She was elegant, graceful, slender, and tall. I immediately felt jealous of her. Who wouldn’t? There was an ethereal glow about her. She seemed elfin, magical.

Nodding graciously to us all, she walked off with the Bachelor. I still didn’t know his name, by the way.

“Wow,” Questa breathed, letting out her breath. “Now she is someone I could be jealous of.”

“He’s going to pick her, I just know it,” the normally bubbly Yuna grumbled.

“Oh, you don’t know that,” I said, even though it was a big possibility he would. She looked and acted like a Princess from a far-away land. The non-spoiled, elegant, graceful type of Princess. And I was definitely not elegant or graceful.

Zia snorted in disbelief. “Just look at her, London. Who wouldn’t pick her? I talked with her earlier, before you arrived, and she was the sweetest, nicest girl ever. The perfect woman.”

I bit my lip. She did seem perfect, didn’t she? But a bit too good to be true.

“There must be some kind of flaw in her,” I protested. “Nobody can be that perfect. She’s probably incredibly boring or something.”

Zia shook her head. “No, she’s actually really funny.”

This was a nightmare.

I just shook my head, at a loss for words.

“Well…” Yuna began hesitantly. “Just because she’s perfect, doesn’t mean he’s perfect for him. Maybe they just aren’t right for each other. Maybe he won’t fall in love with her.”

We all nodded in agreement, but I could see in their eyes what was reflected in my own: None of us believed it. We didn’t stand a chance against Rosa Winters.

*

Almost an hour later, my name was called.

Bidding my new friends goodbye, I went outside into the gardens, where the Bachelor was waiting on a garden bench. He looked up as I came.

“Hey,” I greeted him. “I’m the last one. Lucky you.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I’m horribly tired. I just want to sleep.”

“Ah, but you still have the rose ceremony to look forward to,” I reminded him, grinning.

He winced. “Don’t remind me.”

I sat down on the stone bench beside him. “So…I’m London Ice, by the way.”

He nodded. “Nice to meet you, London. I’m Phoenix Rose.”

Ah ha, so that was his name! And what a wonderful name, too.

“I like your name,” I commented.

“My mother has always had a love of phoenixes,” he explained. “She has 15 of them.”

My eyes widened in surprise. 15? Phoenixes were really rare.

“Wow,” I said. I sighed. “I used to have a phoenix. She came to me when I was 6 years old, when my…parents passed away. She never left my side for years, and then one morning, when I was 14, I woke up and she was gone. Her name was Snow.”

Goddess, I missed Snow. She was my only companion for so long, and then she just left one day. I mourned her to that day.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.

For my parents or for Snow? I didn’t know. Probably both.

“Oh, don’t be,” I said lightly. “It was a long time ago.”

Phoenix nodded. “So, tell me about yourself. We don’t have much time left. It’s already been a minute. I suppose Electra is letting you stay longer because you’re the last person and she feels bad for having you wait so long. She’s like that.”

I smiled. “Of course. Um, well, I’m an only child. I’ve lived with my Aunt May and Uncle Darrienn since I was 6 in the country of Taluenthia. I enjoy writing, reading, horseback riding, archery, and sword fighting. I am 23 years old and work as an Archery teacher for Beginners at the Red Vivien Boarding School for Young Magic Users.”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “Did you memorize that?”

I grinned sheepishly. “It was from my resume. I have photographic memory.”

Photographic memory on Zionne is different than on Earth. On Zionne, it’s magical, and we actually have this whole little storage system inside our brains, where we go through organized memories and call them up inside our head, and we see this clear image of it. It’s more complicated than that, but it’s rather hard to explain, and that’s the best I can do.

“That’s cool,” Phoenix said. “I’ve always wanted photographic memory. It would have made school so much easier.”

I nodded, grinning. “Yes, I was a straight-A student.”

Suddenly, Electra appeared beside them. “Come on, guys, your time is up. Your time is past up, but since I’m such a nice person and all, I let London stay longer.”

I grinned gratefully at Electra, and Phoenix and I began to follow her back into the Palace.

Ha! I hadn’t embarrassed myself at all yet! Go me!

I spoke…erm…thought too soon.

As I was walking, I tripped over my big feet and fell flat on my back. Okay, so I wear size 7, so my feet aren’t exactly big, but give me a break; I’m only 5’ 3” tall.

Phoenix and Electra turned when they heard me fall. They rushed to my side and kneeled beside me while I lay, stupidly, on the ground, a bit stunned by the impact of hitting the ground.

“Are you okay?” Phoenix asked in concern.

“Ow,” I responded dumbly.

Goddesses, I was such a freak.

“Um, I mean, yeah, I’m fine,” I assured him in a slightly squeaky voice. “Just blasted fine, really.”

As I got up, I muttered under my breath, “No, I only tripped over my feet in front of the bloody Bachelor.”

Apparently, though, I hadn’t muttered it quietly enough, as he looked over at me and grinned, obviously because of my last comment.

Oh, just flipping great, I’m sure.

We walked the rest of the way back to the room in silence.

As soon as we arrived there, Electra spoke. “Right, well, that’s everyone. So I guess now it’s almost time for the rose ceremony. Phoenix will get half an hour to decide which 25 beautiful ladies he wants to keep. After that half an hour, you will have ten minutes to get situated in the room where the rose ceremony will take place. Alright, well, Phoenix and I are leaving now. I will come back in half an hour to collect you all.”

As soon as she left, we all began to nervously chatter with each other.

“He’s not going to pick me,” I said. “And don’t even try to say he will. You didn’t see me out there with him.”

Oh, Goddesses, I failed. I failed the whole ticking mission.

My Aunt and Uncle will kill me.

“Oh, don’t say that, London,” Questa told me. “Of course he’ll pick you. You’re beautiful - “

“Like every other girl in this room,” I muttered, interrupting.

She ignored me, continuing, “ - you’re smart - “

“And how would you know that?”

“ - you’re funny - “

“I am quite hilarious, aren’t I?”

“ - and you’re humble, besides that last comment. Which wasn’t funny, by the way.”

“No, of course it wasn’t,” I said. “I was just speaking the truth.”

Questa rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, all you said was a load of crock,” I said. “Every other woman in this room has the exact same qualities, except maybe some of them aren’t so humble. And they didn’t trip over their damned feet right in front of Phoenix, now did they?”

Oh, man. I hadn’t meant to tell them about that. Now they’ll never let it go. Oh, crock shit.

Questa, Yuna, and Zia’s eyes bugged out.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” I grumbled out. “I’m the world’s biggest klutz.”

Okay, so they fully had no way of knowing that, but whatever. They knew now.

“Sorry,” Yuna apologized, although it obviously wasn’t very sincere. “It’s just that it’s so damn funny.”

With that, Yuna burst into giggles, and Questa and Zia were obviously trying to contain their laughter as well.

I sighed and leaned against the back of the couch, closing my eyes as Questa and Zia joined in Yuna’s giggling, except Zia’s giggles were more like chortles, since Zia never giggles. It was going to be a long half an hour.

Half an hour later on the dot, Electra came back into the room. Everyone hushed immediately, looking at her, their faces anxious. We were all very obviously (and rightly, except maybe Rosa) worried about the upcoming rose ceremony.

“Time for the rose ceremony!” Electra announced cheerily. “Follow me.”

We all got up and followed her silently, too nervous to talk.

Oh Gods, this was it.

My fate would be decided then. To die by my Aunt and Uncle’s hands, or not to die by my Aunt and Uncle’s hands.

Tough decision.

Ten minutes later, when we were all waiting patiently (or not) on red-carpeted risers, Phoenix Rose arrived.

He stood in the middle of the room, facing us all. He looked really nervous, and his hair was messier than usual, as if he had constantly run his hand through it.

He took a deep breath before beginning. “This was a really hard decision. And I’m not saying it because I have to. It really was hard. I’m so scared of letting the wrong person go. What if the one I’m really meant to be with I kick off?”

He took another deep breath.

“I’m not going to make a long speech or anything. I really don’t want to put any of you in any more suspense than you already are. And I’m not really the best at making speeches. So I’ll just begin now.”

A butler came forward with two heavy silver vases, which he carefully set down beside Phoenix, and left. One of the vases contained red roses, and the others contained blue ones.

“Okay.” His voice was soft, and it was obvious he did not want to do this. “If I give you a red rose, that means you’re going to be staying. If I give you a blue rose, you’re going to be sent home.”

He picked up a red rose.

“The red rose symbolizes ever-lasting love. This first one is for…”

Phoenix looked at us all before saying, “Rosa Winters.”

Oh, but of course. Of course it would be Rosa Winters. She is the first at everything. First to arrive, first to meet with Phoenix, first to get a red rose.

And she would be first, I was beginning to suspect (okay, I had suspected since the beginning), in Phoenix’s heart.

Rosa Winters rose gracefully and went to stand before Phoenix.

“Do you accept this rose?” he asked her, as was customary.

Rosa smiled softly. “I do.”

She leaned forward and hugged him very slightly, taking the rose at the same time. Smiling one more time at Phoenix, she walked out the door for the people with the red roses, where she would be escorted to her new room.

Next, he picked up a blue rose. “The blue rose represents impossibility and hope for a miracle. I give this to you to show that it would never work out between us, and to hope that you find someone who can love you.”

He took his third deep breath, preparing for breaking the heart of an innocent girl. “This blue rose, I give to…Sunni Jones.”

A short girl with long blond hair and brown eyes stood up, looking like she was fighting off tears. It was sad. I had spoken briefly with this girl in the other room. She was always so happy. I never thought that she could look this sad.

Sunni went up to Phoenix and took the rose.

“I hope you know,” she began, sniffing, “that you aren’t getting out of a big hug from me. This is the last time I’m ever going to see you; I’m getting all that I can, thanks.”

Phoenix smiled softly and Sunni gave him a tight hug. She kept hugging him for a moment before pulling back, smiling at him once more, wiping away her tears, and walking away, fighting to keep her composure.

Phoenix heaved a big sigh after she left. It was obvious this was hard for him.

He continued to go through the roses until there was only me and one girl I didn’t know left. One red rose, one blue rose. One of us would be going home tonight.

And I knew it would be me. I mean, how could it not be? One look at this girl, and you just know he’s going to pick her. She was so much more beautiful than me, with her cascading red hair and dark green eyes. And I’m not trying to be humble or anything, saying that she was more beautiful than me. She was. She was almost as beautiful as Rosa Winters, in fact.

Phoenix picked up the last red rose and I closed my eyes, expecting my name to not be called. Expecting the girl beside me to jump up in joy and run to collect her red rose.

Which is why I jumped so high in surprise when I heard Phoenix’s deep voice say, “London Ice.”

I jumped in surprise (as I told you I did before), and opened my eyes at the same time.

“What? Me?”

Phoenix nodded, looking amused.

Me? I had never expected that. Huh. Maybe he had forgotten how I had tripped over my feet?

Not likely.

“Go on, London,” the girl beside me urged gently. “Go get your red, red rose.”

The whole red, red rose thing is a joke between pretty much all the girls. Someone, I don’t know who, had been dreamily talking about the rose, and mentioned the “red, red rose.” It was funny at the time, for some reason, and it stuck. Most people started calling the Rose the red, red rose.

I looked at her hesitantly. “I’m so sorry - “

She cut me off. “Oh, please. It would never have worked between Phoenix and me anyway. We had no chemistry. I wouldn’t have accepted even if I did get a red rose. Now go on.”

I walked forward, still stunned. First because I got a red rose, and second because the girl so obviously did not care that she was kicked off.

“Do you accept this rose?” Phoenix asked me when I reached him.

I looked down at the red rose in his hands.

“Duh,” I said, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

Oh, Goddess, I did not just say that.

However, Phoenix just grinned and I accepted the rose, giving him a quick hug, like everyone else, before walking off.

As I passed the girl, she grinned and gave me a thumbs up. “I’ll look you up after the show’s over!”

I nodded and grinned back at her. “What’s your name?”

“Zandri Quinn!”

With that, I walked out the door, clutching my red, red rose in my hands.