Beta: Abizeau

Chapter 1

"Romina! Apúrate! The Report is about to start!"

The young woman sighed loudly as she rolled out of her bed, and headed downstairs into the living-room. Her mother and father, along with her three siblings, were already huddled around the TV. Romina walked to her seat in the corner of the room and sat down, bored already. She never understood the need to always watch the Report on Fridays; it had been almost 20 years since it was required to. She supposed that some habits die hard.

The show that was currently on cut to The Report, and the Host, Ivan Fadaye, smiled into the camera. He proceeded to introduce the program as if viewers didn't know what they were watching, and he introduced the Royal Family. Queen Kerttu and her husband Prince Consort Theodore with their children: Crown Prince Calder, Prince Olsen, and Princess Charissa.

"Just look at the princes," her younger sister, Carmen, sighed. "They're so handsome."

"And way too old for you," Their eldest sister, Zheng, said rolling her eyes. "And besides, looks can be deceiving. They can be assholes."

"Oooh, Mommy!" Ru squealed. "Zheng said a bad word."

"Zheng please," Their mother said. "We're missing the Report."

Romina smirked and rolled her eyes as the family focused back to what Queen Kerttu was saying. She informed them, and the rest of the country, about the state and government affairs. Currently, ParIndia and New Asia were at war, and Illea had not taken sides. King Alexandre of France, cousins to Kerttu, was expecting a baby with his wife, Queen Bianca. This would be their fourth child.

"They sure do get busy," Zheng muttered.

Carmen and Romina giggled as their mother gave Zheng a warning look. The eldest girl shrugged, fighting a smile of her own. The Report continued until Ivan Fadaye turned towards Crown Prince Calder.

"Your Highness, I heard from a little birdie that there's an announcement you'd like to share?"

An easy smile appeared on the Prince's face, and he looked down bashfully. Carmen swooned and both Zheng and Romina rolled their eyes at their little sister.

"Well, it's been an Illean tradition and I've decided to continue it," Prince Calder said. "I'm having a Selection."

"Oh. My. God." Carmen said slowly.

"Why are you surprised? It's an Illean tradition and anyway... you're too young to enter." Zheng said, shaking her head.

"That's exciting, Your Highness!" Ivan exclaimed with a bright smile. "Well, you heard it here first, ladies, Prince Calder is having his very own Selection. Fill out the forms and send them down! I thank the Royal family for coming down. And goodnight ladies and gentlemen!"

Their dad turned the TV off and Carmen pounced on her sisters.

"Oh! You two have to fill out of the forms for me." Carmen pleaded. "Please!"

"Absolutely not," Zheng said. "The Selection is stupid and a waste of time."

"No, it is not! King Maxon found his true love and so did Queen Eadlyn, and Queen Kerttu looks happy."

"Exactly. Looks to be happy, and besides, I have midterms, and a job, and better things to do than being a Prince's plaything."

Carmen opened her mouth to protest but Zheng was already getting up and leaving. "Night Papi, Night Mā," Zheng said, kissing both parents on the cheek. "Night Ru and Rom. And Carmen, I will not be changing my mind."

Carmen watched Zheng leave with a pout as she turned to Romina, her eyes with big puppy eyes.

"No, no, I'm with Zheng," Romina said, getting up. "The Selection is silly."

And would be ridiculous for me to join anyway. Romina said, her face feeling warm.

"You're lying!" Carmen exclaimed. "You're getting flustered! Do you have a crush on Prince Calder, too?"

"What? No, I-I– listen, I'm not doing it. I won't!"

Carmen narrowed her eyes.

"And why not?"

"It's stupid!"

"You're stuttering!"

"Mā!"

"Carmen stop, Romina doesn't want to fill out a form to be in the Selection, and she doesn't have to," Mā said as she got up.

"Yes, I'm actually quite content knowing that none of my daughters will join this Selection." Papi chuckled.

Carmen groaned. "Nobody in this house is any fun!"

"I am!" Ru exclaimed.

Carmen rolled her eyes and Mā smiled affectionately at her children.

"I'm sorry that you can't live your dream through your sisters," Mā said. "But three of you should head to bed, it's getting late."

Romina said goodnight to everyone before heading upstairs. Once she was safely back in her room, she let out a deep breath and sank to the floor. That was way too close. Carmen couldn't be so far off on why Romina wouldn't participate in the Selection. It was ridiculous because Romina didn't even like boys. She'd known this fact since she was 14 years old, and since Elizabeth Fair wore that green dress that brought out her eyes and her lips bright red. She was completely smitten and she knew that the feeling she had towards, not only Elizabeth Fair but other girls too, was what she was supposed to feel towards boys. And she had tried over the last couple of years, to get that same "hands-clammy, heart-racing, fluster and stuttering" connection with a guy but to no avail.

Romina kept this secret close to her heart, afraid of how her family would take it. After all, her parents hadn't gotten over the fact that their eldest daughter married a blanco. While Zheng, Carmen, and her still talked to Monica, it was all done with secrecy. She could only imagine what her parents would do if they found out that she was gay.

Even with the Castes gone, gay people were treated lower than low, almost like Eights. Who was she kidding? Exactly how Eights would be treated. And over the years, the gay community had protested and demanded equality. But the government had made it very clear that they were at the very bottom of their list. Romina often times felt like a coward when she turned her head on these subjects; hated that she was content with her situation when there were others. . .

She shook her head before pulling herself up from the floor. As awful as the thought was, other people's problems weren't her own. At the moment, it was just her, and if her family wanted to toss her out and disown her, she would have nowhere else to go. Those thoughts placed a panic against her chest, and she closed her eyes to regain her breathing. It was no use in having those thoughts because she was fine and safe.

Nobody was going to find out.

The next day, Romina and her sisters walked down the streets of Waverly, and they were as busy as usual. They had lied to their parents and said that they were going to the movie theatres and instead of heading across town to see their sister Monica. It had been almost two years since Monica had come home that fateful day, with a diamond ring on her finger and a smile on her face. A smile that dissolved into angry tears and shouts that could be heard around the whole neighbourhood.

Romina remembered it almost like it was yesterday. She remembered how she and Carmen sat on her bed, listening to the two parties argue. Zheng had taken Ru as far away from the house as she could, not wanting their brother to hear everything that was being shouted. Their parents had been disapproving of the fact that Monica had settled down with a white boy. Especially, a white boy that waited tables and played in an unknown band.

"He can't support you! This is absolutely ridiculous! Where will you live? What will you do?"

"I'll get a job! I love him and he loves me! Isn't that enough?"

"Love doesn't pay the bills!"

It continued on just like that until Monica stormed into her room, packed her stuff, and left into the night. Two weeks later, she had sent a wedding invitation and their parents promptly ripped it up and declared that Monica was no longer their child. To say the least, their actions and words shocked Romina and her sisters. Ru was too young to understand what they meant. And true to their word, they never mentioned Monica again, and never acknowledged that she was their daughter.

But Romina and her sisters couldn't just forget that Monica existed. She was their sister, after all, their big sister who was always there for them. So they secretly continued to talk, first through phone and then they gradually started meeting every month and then it turned weekly. They couldn't wait for Saturday to roll by so they could speak with Monica.

"You think that she brought him for this visit?" Carmen asked.

"Him has a name if I know who you're talking about," Zheng said.

"Our nephew, of course! We already meant boring old Dylan."

"I thought Dylan was pretty cool?" Romina teased.

"He's competing with a baby, who probably has chubby cheeks and cute eyes, and," Carmen squealed, a big smile on her face. "I really, really hope she brought him."

"Carmen is in love." Zheng laughed. "Well, we asked last week, so maybe."

"If she didn't, I'm fighting."

Romina shook her head, smiling. It was a shame Monica was disowned and that their parents didn't want to see her because she would have loved for Ru to be there, to meet his baby nephew, for them to see their grandchild.

"Do you think he'll have curly hair or straight hair?" Carmen asked, pulling Romina out of her thoughts.

"Straight."

"Curly."

Zheng and Romina said at the same time, respectively, before turning to each other in shock.

"How could you think it would be straight, Zhen? Monica has curly hair." Romina said.

"It's not naturally curly! It's wavy!" Zheng corrected.

"Oh, same thing. There's no way he'll have straight hair."

"Have you forgotten who his dad is?"

"So? Ain't no way a blanco genes is stronger than a Latina!"

"You forget that we're Asian too, and Asians have straight hair."

"That all depends." Carmen cut in. "But I'm with Romina on this, he has to have curly hair."

"Well, when you two see that I'm right, then I want you two to take my laundry days."

"Alright, and the same goes for you. If we're right, that's two laundry days that you gotta do."

"Deal."

The three continued on their way to the Café, talking about everything and anything. Twice Carmen and Zheng had an argument about something or another, trying to bring Romina into it, which she dodged successfully both times. By the time they arrived, it was just past noon, and they immediately found Monica sitting outside, holding a baby.

"It's him!" Carmen exclaimed, rushing towards her oldest sister.

Carmen rushed to sit beside Monica, picking up the baby in one swoop. Romina and Zheng followed after her, shaking their heads, amused.

"Oh, look, Zheng, he has curly hair," Carmen said, smirking.

Zheng groaned and wrinkled her nose. Monica raised her eyebrows at the action and turned to Romina.

"What is this all about?"

"We made a bet about what type of hair our nephew has, and we both won the bet," Romina said. "Now Zheng has three laundry days."

Monica laughed. "Oh, you three would bet on that. Well, let me officially introduce, you three to your nephew. His name is Tyler."

Tyler had thick kinky curly hair and had Monica's dark brown eyes, but they were shaped like Dylan's. He also had Dylan's nose and he had light brown skin. To the delight of Carmen, Tyler indeed had chubby cheeks. Carmen cooed at the baby and played with him, ignoring her sisters.

"Well, we lost her," Monica said, turning to her other sisters.

"She has– well all of us, have been excited to see him," Zheng shrugged. "Don't hog him, Carmen."

"No promises."

"So how is everybody? Ru?" Monica asked.

"Ru is good," Romina said. "He's going to start First grade, and he's taken an interest in drawing."

"Mom started taking him to art classes."

"Hmmm," Monica said.

Romina shot Zheng a look and the older girl shrugged, sheepish. The dark look on Monica's face wasn't hard to miss, and the girls exchanged looks before Carmen handed Tyler off to Zheng.

"Hey, Mo, you order anything?" Carmen asked. "I was thinking that we should take Tyler to the park. That would be fun! Unless, of course, you wanna stay here?"

"No, no," Monica said, shaking her head. "I didn't order anything, and we should head to the park, Tyler would love it."

"Cool! I'm taking a lot of pictures. Not taking pictures of this adorable face would be a shame." Carmen said as she leaned forward to kiss Tyler's cheek.

"Carmen. . ." Zheng started. "You can't-"

"I know," Carmen said, cutting her short. "I was just kidding."

Her downward glaze made it clear that she hadn't been joking. Rather she had forgotten their situation and needed a reminder.

Tyler cooed and reached over to grab Carmen's face. This brightens up Carmen's mood.

"I love him so much," Carmen said. "Hand him back over."

"But I haven't gotten a turn- "

"Romina, we have the whole afternoon." Carmen interrupted.

Romina rolled her eyes at Carmen and turned to look at Monica.

"Please tell Carmen that Tyler has two other aunts?"

Monica chuckled. "Carmen, I promise that I will keep bringing Tyler every week. There's no need to hog him."

"Fine, you better bring him," Carmen said, as she handed him over to Romina.

Tyler stared at Romina with wide eyes as she sat him on her hip. She smiled at him as his mouth turned into an "O" shape as he touched her face with his chubby hands. When she wrinkled her nose and touched her nose against his, he gurgled happily.

"Hello, Little Man, nice to meet you," Romina said. "My name is Romina."

Tyler looked almost starstruck before he grinned and moved back and forth against her arm. Romina couldn't help but smile bigger at the sight.

"See what I mean?" Carmen sighed. "So precious!"

"We should head to the park if you three want to head back home on time," Monica said, standing up.

"To the park!" Carmen exclaimed as she stood up to. "Are we taking your car?"

"The quicker, the better right?" Monica said, leading the girls to the Parking Lot.

"I miss you three, I miss Ru," Monica said, after a while.

"I know, we miss you too."

Romina and Monica sat on a bench as Zheng and Carmen played with Tyler by the slides. They had been there for about ten minutes, the first 3 were spent on pushing Tyler on the swing. Then Romina handed him off to Zheng and Carmen so that she and Monica could be alone.

Before everything went down two years ago, Monica and Romina had been close. Romina couldn't explain why, just that they were. And maybe it had to do with how similar they looked, both had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and darker skin complexion than their siblings, Monica more so. Or what a good listener Monica was, they had often gone to her when they needed to vent. Or maybe everything to do with how understanding she was. Romina never felt judged around her. Monica, the only one she would trust with her secret.

And maybe it was why she pulled Monica over, she wanted to tell her. To someone that she trusted above all else. That was scary to Romina, and it left a large lump in her throat and her stomach started churning. No, no she couldn't, it didn't feel like the right time.

"Ro, what's wrong?"

Romina blinked, and looked over to Monica, the fear growing. She shook her head and looked down, hoping that Monica would just let it go. It was silly of her to think that this was the right opportunity to tell her, she wasn't even sure that Monica would be accepting of this. What if she didn't keep it a secret and then she told Zheng and Carmen? Then they would go tell their parents, and they would kick her out and she would be homeless, alone, and with no family.

"Nothing, really," Romina said quickly. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

Monica raised an eyebrow and Romina felt her face flush.

"Please let this go," Romina said quietly, averting her eyes.

"Okay. Whenever you're ready."

Monica rubbed Romina's back and the younger girl felt her heart drop. That was the problem, she didn't think she would be ever ready to tell.

The worst and hardest part of the whole weekly visit was saying goodbye to Monica. She couldn't be seen with them, and couldn't stay long to be offered dinner. She always had to drop them off two blocks away from their house, so nobody could go running to their parents to tell on them. The ride always felt like impending death, even Carmen was silent during the ride.

Romina hated it, hated this whole arrangement, the secrecy, and wished that she could shake some sense into their parents. What did it matter that it was a white boy? She was happy and living comfortably, and being with him didn't change anything about her. She knew that her sisters didn't understand it either, and couldn't see the wrong of Monica's choice. But their parents made it clear that their word was law, and that they were forbidden to see their disgraced sister again.

It was the first time they ever disobeyed. The first few times felt exhilarating to do the exact opposite of what their parents demanded them to do. Especially keeping this defiance a secret. But the longer they did, the more often they saw her, the more they hated the whole thing. They shouldn't have to keep their sister a secret. They shouldn't be getting in trouble for it at all; and yet here they were.

While Monica was understanding and a good listener, she was also considered the levelheaded one. Most would have pegged Zheng for that but Zheng was all facts and a bad temper. If it was up to Zheng, they would be staying with Monica. To hell with their parents. But Monica had already had that conversation with them, and they reluctantly promised that they would let this go. What was done, was done and the past couldn't be undone. She had made up her mind and their parents had made theirs up. There was no turning back from that.

Monica pulled over to the side, hugged each girl before sending them on their way. They step out onto the sidewalk and watched as Monica did a U-turn and drove away. They stared until her car disappeared around the corner.

"Have I ever mentioned that I hate this part of the visit?" Carmen asked, being the first to turn away.

"Don't worry, we feel the same way," Zheng said, following after her.

"Oh!" Carmen said, suddenly. "We didn't tell her about the Selection!"

Zheng rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that she knows that the Selection process is beginning."

"Yeah, but she could've helped me convince Romina to join."

"What?" Romina stammered, walking quickly to catch up with her sisters. "I told you that I didn't want to do it."

"I think that you're in denial," Carmen said. "Even now you're flustered. C'mon what's the worst that can happen?"

"I actually get Selected and have to go to the Castle and do this stupid thing," Romina said. "I meant it, Carmen, I don't want to do it."

"Please? Just fill out the form, who knows? Maybe you won't get accepted at all."

"No." Romina said more firmly. "I'm serious Carmen, no."

Carmen pouted and folded her arms. She said nothing else and Romina was glad that she let it go.

How very wrong she was.

Weeks later after the Selection processing era was over, and it was time for Prince Calder to choose his 35 Selected girls, the Lu-Garcia Family had their plates of food in the living room to watch it. As always, their parents and Ru sat on the couch that was positioned right in front of the TV, while Zheng and Carmen were on the floor, and Romina sat on the chair by the TV.

"Hello, hello, people of Illea!" Ivan, as always, smiled brightly with a persona to match. "It's what we've all been waiting for! Which 35 girls will be lucky to participate in Prince Calder's Selection! Where are we starting Your Highness?"

Prince Calder looked at the cameras with a smile as he walked over to the first bin.

"Allens."

They watched as Prince Calder chose each participant from each Province until he reached Waverly.

"I wonder who will be representing our province," Zheng said.

"I thought you said that the Selection was stupid?" Carmen asked.

"Oh hush, he's about to open it," Zheng said.

Prince Calder ripped open the envelope and pulled out the paper along with the picture.

"Romina Lu-Garcia."

As soon as the name escaped his lips, the Lu-Garcia family turned silent, shocked. No more so than Romina, whose eyes widen and her grip on her plate slacked, and it slipped down, crashing on the floor.

It wasn't possible, she didn't fill out a form, didn't submit that picture (She was laughing at something off-camera, her eyes crinkled with delight), and yet. . .

"Niña, I thought you said you didn't want to participate in the Selection," Papi said, staring at her.

"I-I didn't, I don't know how... how is this possible?" Romina asked, turning to her family.

They all looked as shocked as she was, except for...

"Carmen!" Romina shouted. "Did you do this?"

"I'm sorry!" Carmen winced. "I didn't think you would actually get in, I just-"

"No! I told you, I didn't want to do this! And you went behind my back and filled out a form for me! How dare you?"

Romina's voice steadily grew louder and shriller, her face flushed with anger.

"You never listen! You always think you know what you're doing but you don't! How could you fuck with my life like this?"

"Ro, now wait-"

"No, Mami! Don't you dare defend her! My life isn't for your amusement, Carmen! I'm not here so you can live through me!" Romina said.

She stood up and Carmen quickly moved back, her eyes wide with unshed tears.

"I'm sorry, Ro-"

"I don't want your sorries or excuses," Romina hissed. "I can never forgive you for this. I'm never talking to you again!"

Then Romina stormed into her room, making sure to slam the door behind her.

Hello! Welcome to Secrets and Deceits SYOC. As you've read Our first Selected is in for a ride. Here's the SYOC form, I would love to see diversity and details, and out of curiosity, what's your girls' secrets? The Royal Family's descriptions will be in my profile.

Name:

Age (18-25):

Socioeconomic class (i.e upper (rich), middle, or lower (poor))

Sexuality:

Profession:

Province:

Ethnicity:

Appearance:

Personality (DETAIL):

Family (name, age, appearance and brief description):

Friends (name, age, appearance and brief description):

History/Background:

Hobbies

Likes:

Dislikes:

Fears:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Personal Style:

Outlook on the Constitutional Monarchy:

How Would they treat Prince Calder:

How would they treat Prince Olsen:

How would they treat Princess Charissa:

How would they treat Prince Consort Theodore:

How would they treat Queen Kerttu:

How would they treat the Staff:

How would they treat the Other Selected.

Why did they enter the Selection:

Random facts:

Biggest Secrets:

Other: