Hey, this is Alex D’Lacy! This is the second book in the Olivia McCarthy series. If you missed the first book, I’ll fill you in a little. If you’ve already read the first book, skip ahead.
In the first book, Olivia got recognized as one of the best actors in England and got contracted for the movie Avalon Keepers, which was a huge Hollywood success. On the way she meets me, her best friend, and lots of other cool and famous people.
She always rides a horse and comes together with a great secret in her past—the reason why she acts so hard.
Her father.
See, her father had so immersed himself in one of his roles that he’d actually killed a couple because of it. He was a murderer, and he promised that he’d take Olivia from her mom.
And in Olivia’s first chronicle, he almost did.
So, the last one left off with Olivia remembering her dad’s threat. And, even though he’s in prison, he’s still a very dangerous man…
Chapter One
Olivia
R
egular life was good for me, I think. After more than a year of preparing and then actually filming the movie Avalon Keepers, where I starred opposite my best friend, actor Alex D’Lacy, I think it was good for me to go back into normal life.
When I got back, first of all my life was different. The first day of school was interesting. At least my dogs, Disney the Yorkshire terrier and Aslan the golden lab, remembered me.
When I walked into school, everybody plagued me.
“You did awesome as Shara!” “I can’t believe you were in a movie!” “You were great!” “That’s so awesome you were in a movie!” “Wait until I tell my friends that I go to school with a movie star!” And on and on and on.
I glanced over everybody’s heads, looking for my two friends that I’d had before the movie had made me famous. But Elle and Harry were nowhere in sight.
I finally figured out that Elle was spending the year with some family in America and that Harry had moved to London. It panged me that my friends here had moved away. It’s like I leave for a year or so and everything changes.
But now that I was a movie star, I was going to get contracts, the director of the movie Avalon Keepers, famous director Jack Grant, had told me—like big offers. Other than bringing home Best Actress, I’d gotten numerous other awards. Avalon Keepers was the biggest hit in ages, way over selling Hunger Games.
It was like my life had totally changed. And in more ways than one—after all these years, my father had finally shown his face.
“Olivia, here’s a contract for a movie!” Mum cried excitedly, running into the room. “It’s The Key Secrets. They want you to act Bree, you know, the girl in the story.” She was excitedly dancing around the kitchen.
“Sweet!” I cried, putting down my pencil. “Can I do it?”
“Of course you can!” Mum declared. “They say that if you accept, the part’s automatically yours!”
“Does it say another of the other actors?” I queried, coming over and glancing at the papers in her hands.
I noticed one of the names right away—Alex D’Lacy as Jesse. A slow smile crept onto my face.
“I’m definitely doing it,” I announced. “Can you get that worked out?”
“Of course!” she answered. Her eyes twinkled. “You should go practice your Narnia yell.”
I rolled my eyes and walked upstairs to my computer. I logged onto my gmail account. There was a whole bunch of new messages, I couldn’t help but notice. I clicked on the one that said “You, Alex” on the email list. It popped up.
To: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
From: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
Subject: The Key Secrets
Hey, Olivia!
You get the contract about The Key Secrets yet? If you have, then you’ll know that if you accept, we’ll get to act together again! Isn’t this great? I’m pretty excited. I haven’t seen you since the premiere of Avalon Keepers! I can’t wait to see you, Liv.
Bye!
Alex =D
I smiled to myself and quickly wrote back a reply.
To: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
Subject: re: The Key Secrets
Hey, Alex,
Yep, I got it! I think it’s so great. And we’re the main characters again! Life’s full of surprises isn’t it? How’s life in London? Everybody here at my school acts as if I’m a totally different person just because I’ve been on a TV screen. :) It’s kind of weird. Know what I mean? So how’s the friend problem going? ;) Got some more friends now that you’ve been on the big screen? Bet you have. :D My friends list has kind of hopped up, though I don’t really rely on any of them. I mean, it’s like if you can’t be friends with me when I’m “normal”, how come I should rely on you when I’m famous? Hope you’re having a great day, Alex!
Olivia =^)
I quickly sent the email and then checked what I considered the next most important one—from Elle.
To: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
From: Elle Jepson <elleisthebelle@live.com>
Subject: Lots of random stuff :)
Hi, Liv, you great girl!
I know that I didn’t really get to tell you myself that I was going to stay in America for a year. It’s kind of sad without you and Harry. :( Did you know that Harry moved to London? You probably already know by now. It was so sad without both of you, so I know exactly how you feel. Have you heard from Harry lately? He hasn’t been picking up his phone. Any new movie contracts? ;) I bet so. You’re such a great actor and everything!
Have a great day!
Love,
Elle :)
I grinned and quickly started tying my reply. As I did so my email dinged as Alex replied to my email that I’d sent him. I’d have to check that quickly after I was finished replying to Elle’s email. I just hoped that she didn’t suddenly show up on her email.
To: Elle Jepson <elleisthebelle@live.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
Subject: re: Lots of random stuff :)
Hey, girlfriend!
It’s so sad that you guys are gone. :( But I hope that you’re having a great time in America! Harry hasn’t contacted me since his last text to me in New Zealand (where were filming Avalon Keepers, as you probably know). Yep! Another movie contract. It’s for The Key Secrets, you know, based on that book by Mackenna Taylor. It’s really cool! And the best part—Alex’s (D’Lacy) playing Jesse, so we’ll be costarring again together! Isn’t that great? =D
Bye!!
Love,
Olivia
I quickly opened Alex’s email.
To: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
From: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
Subject: re: The Key Secrets
Hey, Olivia!
So glad that I caught you while you were on online! Want to chat later? Anyway, London’s great. It’s just more “fame friends”, like you’re talking about. It is really weird. Now I’m like the most popular kid. The other “used to be” popular boys don’t like me a wit. That’s probably because everybody else thinks I’m awesome. I’m so glad that you’re going to be doing The Key Secrets! It’s going to be so much fun. Miss ya!
Alex =D
I quickly replied.
To: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
Subject: re: The Key Secrets
Hi, Alex!
Sure, I’d love to chat! Well, I hope you find some real true friends, OK? And make sure you test people if you’re going to do that. :) I sound so funny, like I’m your mom or something!! Say, how’s life at home going? Life’s going great here! Hey, if you meet a kid named Harry Slater, then tell him Olivia said hi. He used to live here, but he moved to London during the filming of Avalon Keepers. I miss you, too! Lots!
Olivia =^)
It was a few minutes after I’d sent it. I was just deleting like the tenth millionth fan mail when up popped chat. I smiled.
Alex D’Lacy: I don’t know a kid named Harry Slater. He might be at a different school.
Olivia McCarthy: Maybe. Just keep a lookout, OK?
Alex D’Lacy: Sure.
Olivia McCarthy: Wow, you typed that fast.
Alex D’Lacy: Thanks. Anyways, have they sent you the script for The Key Secrets yet?
Olivia McCarthy: Not yet. I just got the contract like today! It’s so awesome that we’re going to be working together again.
Olivia McCarthy: You there, Alex?
Olivia McCarthy: Alex…?
Olivia McCarthy: …
Olivia McCarthy: Alex, you’re not like having a knife pointed to your throat or anything, are you?
Alex D’Lacy: I can’t wait until I see you again. It’s going to be so awesome! I’ve already received my script, and I’ve been memorized lots of my lines. Maybe you could come by London sometime and we could practice together. Haha, again we’re like in all of our scenes together! I was talking with the director, Andrew (he likes to be called “Andy”) Sewell, and he was saying that we were going to be filming all over the place—New Zealand, Russia, Italy, even here in England! It’s going to be so much fun. There’s lots of new actors that we don’t know. Maybe your friend Harry got to be one of the actors. Wouldn’t that be something?
Alex D’Lacy: Sorry. Took me awhile to write that.
Olivia McCarthy: That’s OK. It took me awhile to read it. :)
Alex D’Lacy: :) Well, that’s good! I kind of worked really hard there. You were like going off thinking I’d been killed!
Olivia McCarthy: Well, it did take you a long time to respond! I was starting to wonder if you’d gone off to get a snack or something and thought it’d be funny to see my reaction!
Olivia McCarthy: I’ve got to get off now.
Alex D’Lacy: OK. Don’t forget to ask your Mum about London!
Olivia McCarthy: I won’t. Bye!
I logged off.
Chapter Two
Olivia
O
f course you can go to London and practice your lines with Alex!” Mum declared. “That’s such a great suggestion! Why, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself,” she murmured, and then walked off to call somebody, presumably Alex’s Mom or Alex himself.
I smiled to myself and pulled my phone of my pocket, quickly texting Elle.
Hey! I’m going 2 B in London soon. 2 practice TKS with Alex.
I sent it and slipped my phone back into my pocket.
Ding!
That’s gr8! What’s TKS?
I grinned.
The Key Secrets. Sorry I didn’t clarify that.
Sending…
Ding!
That’s ok. I got to get off.
I sighed.
Ok. Bye!
I opened the door. Disney and Aslan brushed past me and ran outside, barking (and yapping, in Disney’s instance) at our neighbor’s lowing cattle that only glared at them and frumped away. I grinned.
I walked out into the big field. I had permission to do this, and not just because I was a famous young actress. I’d had permission to go into this field before the movie that made me famous—Avalon Keepers.
It was just one of those mutual understandings.
Disney and Aslan took off after our neighbor’s cows, and then got bored and trotted back over to me, their tails wagging. Aslan took off towards some shade and Disney went off (presumably) to find a cat.
I smiled to myself and walked to the far side of the fence. On the other side of the fence was somewhere I’d always dreamed on going—the big huge forest that looked more like it should’ve been in a Narnia movie than right next to my house.
A Taylor Swift song blasted off and I nearly fell over, but then remembered that I’d recently downloaded it onto my phone for a ring tone. I sighed in relief and grabbed my phone out of my pocket.
“Hello?” I answered, waiting for the person to start blabbing my ear off. I assumed it was probably one of the kids at my school.
There was no answer.
“Hello?” I tried again. “Who is this? Can you hear me?”
Still no answer. It made me suspicious. I faintly remembered watching one of those movie series where the police are always like “keep them on the line! We’ve got to track them!” I gulped. I almost couldn’t handle the waiting any longer.
And then, finally, there was a slight chuckle that made me shiver.
“I’ve found you,” whispered the icy cold voice. “You can’t hide any longer.”
And then the voice stopped. They’d hung up.
My hands feeling clammy and my body shivering, I ran like Satan himself was chasing me back towards the house, the creepy voice creeping into my brain and scaring me out of my wits.
Chapter Three
Alex
M
y email kept on dinging with fan mail. I sighed, groaning and looking at the screen as it piled in almost quicker than I could read the names. Almost all of the subjects were like “you’re awesome!” “I love you!” and other embarrassing stuff that made me want to sink into a hole and only come out when Olivia finally got to London.
I sighed. My manager—my mom had insisted I get one—had told me that I should answer all of the fan mail. I sighed. Might as well start. Skipping reading all of the email address and whatever, I clicked on the first one and started reading.
Dear Alex,
I LOVE your movie!!!!!!! You are SO COOL!!!!! I wish I was an actress.
I rolled my eyes. Why on earth did I have to answer all of this? Why couldn’t I just pay somebody else to do it? Like Olivia. Yeah, she’d do it! I could just imagine us laughing as she wrote something really funny that was totally un-me.
But she’d definitely do it for free. That was just the kind of person she was.
My eyes flicked towards the huge The Key Secrets script that was sitting on my computer desk. I’d already the whole thing through, and started to memorize some of the easier lines.
I was pretty excited about the movie, and not just because Olivia was going to be my costar again. It was mostly because the story was awesome, and getting to work with my best friend in the world just pretty much added it all up.
I’d already been told that they were still looking for the right stunt person for me, because now that I was so famous, they weren’t going to take any risks that I might hurt myself—even if I wanted to do some of the stunts.
At the top of the list of fast in-coming emails was an email from Olivia. What was really weird was that she’d left the subject blank. And, believe me—I’d received enough emails from her to know that she never left the subject line blank.
She always had something really cheerful like “Hey, Alex!” or “What’s up?” or “You’d better not marry someone named Macy, Mr. Alexander D’Lacy”, which I thought was pretty funny.
Frowning, I clicked on the email. Inside were only a few words.
To: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
Alex,
He found me.
Those words chilled me to the bone. I quickly grabbed my cell phone off the desk and dialed Olivia’s number.
“Hello?” It wasn’t Olivia’s voice.
“Uh, is Olivia there? This is Alex,” I said hesitantly.
“Oh, yes!” there was some shuffling.
“Sorry about that, Alex,” Olivia apologized. “That was my mum. She answered my phone because we weren’t sure if it was my dad again.”
“What do you mean ‘again’?” I queried, rather worried.
She took a deep breath. Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. “He…he called me earlier. He didn’t say anything for several minutes, and then he said, ‘I’ve found you. You can’t hide any longer.’” Olivia paused. “I think he tracked my phone.”
“Yeah, but isn’t he supposed to be in prison?” I pointed out. “How could he have gotten out? He’s supposed to be in for, like, life or something like that.”
“Yeah, but isn’t he supposed to be in prison?” I pointed out. “How could he have gotten out? He’s supposed to be in for, like, life or something like that.”
“He must’ve escaped somehow,” she whispered. “Mum’s contacting the authorities to see if he has escaped. If so…” she breathed out a sigh full of fear. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Well, I think you should still come to London,” I pointed out. “You would probably be safer than at home. Maybe. I mean, if your mum came and everything, and you had your bodyguards…” I trailed off. Bodyguards always made everything sound so much more…I don’t know, sinister.
“I’ll talk to Mum about it,” Olivia promised. “But I don’t know if Mum wants me to go anymore. I think she more wants to make our house a mini-fortress and have us hide for the rest of our lives.” She managed a nervous laugh.
“Well, whatever’s going to keep you safe, Olivia,” I sighed. “It doesn’t matter if you can’t come. But please tell me you’re still going to be doing The Key Secrets. Besides, you’d be plenty safe. And your mum could travel with us just to make sure.”
“We’re going to talk about it,” Olivia answered. “Sorry, Alex, I have to get off. Bye.”
“We’re going to talk about it,” Olivia answered. “Sorry, Alex, I have to get off. Bye.”
“Bye,” I moaned, shutting the phone. Why did everything always have to go badly?
Chapter Four
Olivia
I
think that it would be a horrible idea to go to London,” Mum declared. She paused to take a shaky breath. “However, I think you should still act in The Key Secrets. As Alex pointed out you’d be more than safe, and if I can travel with you…” she trailed off.
“Mum, you’re the greatest!” I told her, wrapping my arms around her in a hug.
She laughed quietly. But tears were on the edge of her voice. “I just want to keep you safe.”
“And I will be,” I promised. “Really. With the bodyguards and you and everything, I’ll be perfectly fine. Besides, with this movie, there’s no intense battle scenes with hundreds of people where Dad could easily slip in.”
“And I will be,” I promised. “Really. With the bodyguards and you and everything, I’ll be perfectly fine. Besides, with this movie, there’s no intense battle scenes with hundreds of people where Dad could easily slip in.”
“True,” Mum agreed.
“You guys all right in here?” questioned the police chief, sticking his head in.
“Yeah,” nodded Mum. “We’re fine. Thanks for checking.”
He nodded and headed back into the kitchen, where they were trying to figure out a way to trace the call from my cell. I smiled wanly at Mum.
“I suppose I should go and answer some fan mail,” I chuckled. “Otherwise everybody’s going to think that I dropped off the face of the earth!”
Mum laughed and I scampered up the stairs. When I checked my emails, I was officially glad that I’d gotten an entirely new email address just for fan mail.
To: Olivia McCarthy <oliviamccarthy@hotmaill.com>
From: <wants2remainunknown@hotmail.com>
Subject: you’re so cool!!!
Hey, Olivia!
I watched your movie and it’s, like, my favorite movie EVER!!!!!!! You are so way cool!!! My parents got me the movie the second it got out on DVD and we watched all of the special features you guys did, and it was so funny. Did you really pick Hunter up during that scene? That’s so amazing! You must be pretty strong!! And did you really ride that horse?? You know that part when you get, like, knocked off your feet by that guy and you’re almost, like, dying?? That was shot so well!!! It looks so real!!
I smiled ruefully. It had been real. Dad definitely wasn’t supposed to have been one of the extras.
Anyway, so, like, to sum this up…YOU’RE SO TOTALLY AWESOME AND I WISH I COULD MEET YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bye!!! I love you!!!!!
Unknown
I sighed and sent back a reply. Then I went off and answered like ten million more emails that were almost the exact same thing, except they were almost all just like “Oh my gosh, we LOVE you!!!!”, and other stuff where you’re just like “um, hello!! I’m HUMAN, just like you!”.
When I finally got to sleep that night, my mind was in turmoil about a lot of stuff. And not just all of it was emails.
Chapter Five
Alex
A
lex, guess what!” cried my mum, waving excitedly from the computer.
I looked from her to my plate of toast and eggs with the yoke spilled out, and then back to her. Her face was bright and excited, which was rather surprising since she’d been so sad that she couldn’t meet Olivia.
“Um, yeah?” I managed, stuffing the rest of the piece of toast in my mouth and wiping my hands on a napkin.
“Come here!” she urged, turning her attention back to the computer.
My food was so tempting. The smell of the freshly broken egg yoke made my stomach rumble. I didn’t want to leave my lovely breakfast. I took a swig of milk, contemplating.
“Alex!” Mum practically shrieked.
I sighed and walked over, glancing over her shoulder. An email was up on the screen, and the email was from the one and only Violet McCarthy; Olivia’s mum.
I quickly read the email.
To: Macy D’Lacy <easier4mom@gmail.com>
From: Violet McCarthy <lattesaregreatincafesonly@hotmail.com>
Subject: The trip
Hello. I’m Olivia’s mum, just to say (which you might’ve already figured out, but anyway). So I know that Olivia didn’t get to come to London and she’s really bummed and so I’m feeling kind of bad. So I thought I’d do something else and make it up to both Olivia and Alex and to you, Mrs. D’Lacy. What if you and Alex came out here to our house? You could even stay a few days, if you wanted. Then, when the threat of Olivia’s father is more under control, maybe she could come and visit.
Just some ideas. I’d still love it if our kids could get together. Olivia seemed so excited and all, I just felt super bad about breaking it off. I really hope you can come. I’ve attached our address and directions to here to this email (I did it beforehand so I wouldn’t forget—really, I’m really bad at remembering to attach stuff when I say that I will).
So I hope that you guys will be here in a few days!
Violet McCarthy
“So, we’re going, right?” I prodded, glancing at my mum’s features to try and read her. Her face said a definite “yes”.
“Of course!” Mum cried. “I can’t wait to meet them. I mean, of course I saw both of them at the premiere of Avalon Keepers, but it’s just not the same thing! Maybe we could stay the night. I’m sure we have enough leftovers for your dad…” her eyes twinkled mischievously.
“Yes!” I cried, pumping my fists in the air. “Can I text Olivia right now?”
“I’d suggest email,” laughed Mum. “I’d think that the police would have Olivia’s phone by now. You don’t want to get mixed up in that, do you?”
I laughed, too. “OK, OK. But I can’t wait!” I rushed away from the breakfast table and up the stairs.
Wait until I told Olivia!
Chapter Six
Alex
I
was about to help Mum find Olivia’s town some because of my memory of when I’d come here with the children’s casting director of Avalon Keepers, Cara Walker, to help pick the characters for the movie. Almost right off at the beginning of the castings I’d been chosen as Hunter, the main character of the movie, so I had to come along so they could make sure we “fit”.
“Here!” I yelled, pointing towards the road.
Mum screeched the car to a halt and turned down the road. “Sheesh,” she muttered. “You’d think he’d give me more of a warning.”
I laughed. “I did give a warning. Just right then, because I had to be sure, of course.”
She glared at me. “Of course.”
But I knew that she wasn’t really mad.
Finally the town that I remembered rolled into view. We’d worked it out with Mrs. McCarthy that we’d pick up Olivia right from school and drive her home, that way she could help us find their house.
As we drove up to the school, memories washed over me—Cara and I, walking out of the car; the huge flow of kids everywhere. All of them might’ve been a better actor than me; all of them might’ve been worse. I had no idea.
Mum parked the car and I opened my door. The doors were just opening and kids were piling, chattering to each other. I caught sight of Olivia and waved, smiling.
She grinned, broke away from the crowd that her trailed her and ran across the parking lot to me. Olivia’s smile didn’t go away as she gave me a hug.
“Oof!” I groaned as all my air was pushed out of me.
“Sorry,” Olivia laughed, pulling out of the hug. “It’s so great to see you!”
“You, too,” I chuckled.
“Hey, look!” shouted one of the kids. “It’s Alex D’Lacy!”
“Oh my gosh!” somebody yelled.
“Quick, their autographs!”
“Somebody quick take a picture of them together in our parking lot!”
“Somebody quick take a picture of them together in our parking lot!”
“I can’t believe they’re like right there!”
I pulled Olivia into the car and slammed the door shut. Mum revved the engine and drove quickly out of the parking lot before we were swarmed by the kids and wouldn’t be able to get out without somebody getting crushed.
“That was close,” Mum chuckled nervously.
“There’s my turn,” Olivia pointed.
Mum took it and we went off down the road. I was wondering why the kids hadn’t gone and like swamped Olivia’s house when Olivia announced that the house in the near distance was hers.
It was swarming with police cars.
“Wow…” I trailed off. “My house certainly doesn’t look like that.”
Mum sent me a look but Olivia didn’t seem to notice. She shrugged, a grin playing on her face. “Maybe you’re just not as popular as I am.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. Mum drove up the driveway and parked, and we got out.
“Halt!” an officer shouted at us just as Mum started to walk up the steps. “Your identification, please?” he held out his hand for it.
“They’re my friends,” Olivia said quickly, “the D’Lacys. Maybe you’ve seen the movie Avalon Keepers?”
“Well, um, yes,” the man fidgeted.
“Well, then, meet my friend, Alex.” Olivia pointed towards me.
The officer gaped at me. “You’re the Alex D’Lacy?”
“Yep,” I confirmed.
After autographing a piece of paper that the man had managed to find for him, we finally got into the house. The whole house was buzzing like it was hive. I sent Olivia a look but she just shrugged.
“My mum’s in there.” Olivia pointed towards the living room. “We’ll be up in my room, Mrs. D’Lacy.”
“OK,” Mum nodded, looking a little unsure.
Olivia and I galloped up the stairs and went into her room, shutting the door from the noise of the police officers. Olivia plopped down into a swivel chair in front of a desk that had a laptop on top of it.
I sat down on another empty chair. It seemed that there wasn’t a messy part of her room anywhere. However, I wouldn’t have wanted to see her closet.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she grinned at me. “Oh, yeah!” Olivia rummaged in one of her desk’s drawers and pulled out what I recognized as a script. “The script arrived today. I haven’t been able to do a whole run-through. You want to?”
“Sure,” I shrugged, pulling my own script out of my backpack.
It took awhile for us to read through the whole thing. We took turns being the other people. Whenever Olivia played somebody she always did the voice she imagined them having, which was pretty funny. Especially when she did the grandmother’s bodyguard’s voice.
We finally got done with reading that. I offered Olivia the job of—let’s see, how did I put it?—fan-email secretary. She eagerly took the job and made sure to make all of them sound like I just absolutely adored my fans.
We cracked up a lot over that. I realized it was a lot more fun answering other peoples’ emails when I took the job as her fan-email secretary (yes, guys can be secretaries).
By the time we’d gone through about half of the emails, I heard somebody yelling up the stairs at us.
“That’s Mum,” Olivia grinned. “She’s probably calling us for supper. I have a feeling she’s going to want to get away from the officers, so we’re probably going out.”
“Cool,” I nodded, following her out of her room and down the stairs.
Amazingly, she’d guessed it all right. We slipped on our shoes and piled into the McCarthy’s cherry red Blazer and took off for town. Mrs. McCarthy was having polls on where we wanted to go.
“OK, so all for Burger King, raise your hand!” she commanded.
She only got her own.
“Subway?” she tried.
She got all of us.
We got our subs and ate in the local park. It was great, just acting like normal kids. Nobody pestered us. I wondered if it was because they didn’t recognize us or what.
Finally we were done and we took off back to Olivia’s house.
Chapter Seven
Olivia
A
lex and I woke up early—almost the same time, actually. He and his mom had slept in the guest bedroom, Alex on the floor and Mrs. D’Lacy in the bed. Alex smiled and did the “shh” signal with his hand before tiptoeing across the hallway towards me.
I mouthed that we should go and read through the script again he nodded. I grabbed my script and we went downstairs and into the living room. Mum was already in the kitchen, trying to make food around the police officers that had stayed all night.
Our read-through was going good. Finally Mrs. D’Lacy got up and then right after that breakfast was ready. As Mum and Mrs. D’Lacy talked after breakfast, Alex and I headed up to my room.
“We should go see if anybody has replied to our emails,” he quipped as we walked in.
“Ha, ha,” I laughed sarcastically. “I bet they just loved the emails. I doubt that we’re going to have like ten million email pen pals.” I groaned. “I think I’d go crazy.”
Alex only laughed. We checked my account first. There were lots of new emails, but the only person who had written back to my email was that Unknown person who I’d actually written to.
“Who’s he?” Alex demanded, pointing at Unknown’s name.
I laughed. “It could be a girl, for all you know. But it’s just another of the fan people. Look.” I clicked on the email and it popped up.
To: Olivia McCarthy <olivamccarthy@hotmail.com>
From: <wants2remainunknown@hotmail.com>
Subject: re: you’re so cool!!!
Alex snorted. “Yeah, that’s definitely fan-mail! Man, that’s actually pretty funny. ‘You’re so cool’? All I ever get is ‘you’re awesome’ and ‘I love you’ and all that other stuff.” He laughed.
I frowned and read the rest of the email.
Hi, Olivia!
I just wanted to let you know that I can’t wait to actually see you act in person. You do know that I’m going to be on the set of your new movie. Ha, I bet I surprised you there. You thought I was just another stupid fan-mail person, right? Guess again. You’re going to meet me in person. And the best part? You’re not even going to know who I am.
Unknown
“That’s officially creepy,” I announced.
“We need to show this to your mum,” Alex said quickly. “This doesn’t look too good. Who do they think they are? Why not just come out in the open?” Alex shook his blonde hair, which ended up in his blue eyes. “I don’t like the look of this—at all. Your mum needs to get you a bodyguard, like, right now.”
I didn’t like the idea of a bodyguard, but I totally agreed with him.
Chapter Eight
Alex
B
ye, Alex!” Olivia waved. Tears pricked her eyes, because she was sad I was leaving, I was sure, but I also detected something that I didn’t like in my best friend—fear. And more than just a little. I had to admit, that email was totally creeping me out, and it wasn’t even to me.
I waved at her through Mum’s car’s window, and then we drove off. I wondered faintly to myself if she’d be safe by herself. My mind told me no, she wasn’t going to be safe. My heart told me…well, maybe, I guess. I wanted to believe she was going to be safe, but I couldn’t.
Thankfully, Mrs. McCarthy was following my suggestion and getting Olivia her own bodyguard. And? They were moving to London, into a really nice apartment that had guards outside of it. The thought of it made me much more relaxed.
I knew that Olivia wasn’t too psyched about living her countryside paradise and the place where she’d grown up, but it was for her own good. I, more than anyone, wanted her to be kept safe.
And from more than just her father. The idea of another person…it totally creeped me out. I shivered, thinking about it. I promised myself that on the set of The Key Secrets, I would make sure that nothing happened to her.
And that’s a promise, I nodded firmly to myself.
I’d memorized the script. I was glad of it, and I’d decided that I earned some computer time. Besides, I had a feeling my mailbox was clogged up with fan-mail.
When I logged onto my account, chat popped up.
Olivia McCarthy: Hey, Alex! I was waiting for you to log on. :)
Alex D’Lacy: Hey! Glad to see that you’re using exclamations marks. Haha ;)
Olivia McCarthy: Yep. And smileys. =D I’m kind of worried about the Unknown person. Would it be OK if I gave you my password and stuff and let you answer all of them? I asked Mum and she said that it sounds pretty good if you wanted to do that.
Alex D’Lacy: Sure, I can do that. I’ll make sure the creep doesn’t figure anything out, too.
Olivia McCarthy: Thanks.
Alex D’Lacy: No problem. So what’s your password and stuff?
Olivia McCarthy: Just in case you forgot, my fan-mail email address is oliviamccarthy@hotmail.com and the password is fansarethemostannoyingthingsintheworldsometimes. My computer tells me it’s a strong password. =D
Alex D’Lacy: Ha, ha, sounds like it! OK, I wrote that down, so now I can do that for you.
Olivia McCarthy: Thanks again.
Alex D’Lacy: Anything for my best friend. Got your lines memorized yet?
Olivia McCarthy: Yep. Fittings are in a few days.
Alex D’Lacy: I know. I’ve been getting the movie emails, too.:) I’ll see you then. Don’t forget to tell me when you move to London. I’ll come and visit you.
Olivia McCarthy: OK, will do! Bye!
Alex D’Lacy: Bye!!
I logged off.
Chapter Nine
Alex
O
livia had texted me the day before telling me that they were finally moving into their apartment. I’d suggested that while her mum made sure that the moving guys didn’t ruin their stuff that Olivia could come over to my house. Of course Olivia wanted to go and Mrs. McCarthy decided that, as she put it, “we were safe enough”. And, besides, she trusted my mom.
Ring!
I looked up from The Key Secrets script and bounded out of my room and to the door, swinging it wide open. Olivia was standing next to a huge guy that I identified as her new bodyguard, Arthur, who went with her, like, everywhere. I’m not joking.
“Hey, Alex,” she grinned, coming inside.
“It’s so great to see you, Olivia,” I told her. I nodded towards Arthur. “Hey, Arthur.”
He grunted in response, folding his huge arms the size of firewood. It was almost creepy how buff this guy was. Olivia and I settled ourselves in the living and practiced the script some. We both had it down to the nines.
“Have you gotten anymore emails from Unknown?” Olivia whispered while Arthur was looking at some photos of my family on the wall. As if he didn’t already know.
“Naw,” I shrugged, sighing and running a hand through my straw-like blonde hair. “It’s almost as if the guy knows that I’m the one who’s going to be answering his emails from now on.”
“Remember,” Olivia pushed, “it could be a girl.”
I doubted it. I didn’t know why.
“It could be,” I agreed. “Do you want to check it? I mean, you are the guest and all.”
She laughed. “Oh, come on. We’re best friends. No ‘you’re the guest’ for me. Come on—let’s check it.” I ended up following her to the computer, though I turned it on.
We logged onto Olivia’s hotmail account. As if the guy knew that Olivia was finally reading it, there was “conveniently” another email from Unknown.
To: Olivia McCarthy <oliviamccarthy@hotmail.com>
From: <wants2remainunknown@hotmail.com>
Subject: re: you’re so cool!!!
Hi, Olivia!
You haven’t replied to my other email yet. I bet these messages are driving you kooky. It’s OK. Soon you’ll be filming The Key Secrets. Soon, very soon, you shall know who I am. But not yet. Don’t forget to reply to this one.
Unknown
“OK, that’s officially creeping me out,” announced Olivia.
“You’ll be OK, Olivia,” Arthur spoke from behind us. He cracked his knuckles. “I won’t leave your side.”
She smiled thankfully. “Thanks, Art.”
He nodded and seemed to melt back into the background. It was just way too weird, but at least it was more of a “cool” weird than “creepy” weird like Unknown.
“You know,” I told Olivia, “I’m going to get this guy to stop right now.”
My fingers flew across the keyboard.
To: <wants2remainunknown@hotmail.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <oliviamccarthy@hotmail.com>
Subject: Stop bugging me, you creep!
Leave me alone or you’ll face the authorities.
“Short and sweet,” I announced, sending the email with a flourish. Olivia’s eyes were bulged.
“You make me sound so mean!” she protested.
I snorted. “I’m just protecting your life! Come on. They’ve got to know that that’s obviously not you.”
“Maybe you should’ve signed it ‘Alex,’” Olivia snorted. “That would’ve looked real good.”
I rolled my eyes and glanced back towards the “new mail”. Annoyingly, Unknown had written back.
To: Olivia McCarthy <oliviamccarthy@hotmail.com>
From: <wants2remainunknown@hotmail.com>
Subject: re: Stop bugging me, you creep!
Just you wait.
Olivia looked about ready to faint.
Chapter Ten
Olivia
Y
ou’ll be OK,” Alex assured me as he logged off my email account. “It’s just some weird creepo without valid threats.” He snorted. “I doubt he’s even going to be on the set. Or she. Or whatever. Anyway, I think there’s nothing to worry about. You’ll see.” He smiled happily like that was that.
I sure hoped that was that. I glanced over my shoulder at Arthur, but his expression was blank as he stared straight ahead like he was a statue or something.
“Come on,” urged Alex. “Let’s do something else to get your mind off this. Like watch a movie or something.”
I grinned at him. “Hey, you could start your own blog!”
I grinned at him. “Hey, you could start your own blog!”
He gave me a horrified look. “What?!”
“Start a blog,” I laughed. “I bet hundreds of people would love interacting with you.” I shrugged. “I started a blog once, but I was off it so much Mom deleted it. But I still remembered how to do it.”
Alex gave me a wary glance. “Well…OK. But what would we call it?”
“ ‘Alex D’Lacy’, of course,” I laughed. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
I don’t know if he was only doing it so that I’d get my mind off it or if he really wanted to do it, but either way we got him hooked up with blogger and his blog was started. It looked something like this:
Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy
looking around at everything and leave a comment.
Home Alex D’Lacy—the inside scoop Avalon Keeper The Key Secrets
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog. This is my
first blog post and I just wanted
to say that whatever your dream is,
pursue it and it just might happen.
Alex
Posted by Alex at 1:34 PM No Comments:
Follow with Google Friend Connect!
Of course I was his first follower. Alex had laughed his head off when I did the page called “Alex D’Lacy—the inside scoop”.
“Seriously?” he nearly choked he was laughing so hard. “OK, so now you need a blog!”
I shrugged. “Later. Let’s go see if anybody else joined your blog!”
Follow with Google Friend Connect!
“Impressive,” I nodded. “And it’s only been like two seconds!”
“Ha-ha,” snorted Alex, laughing.
“We can do my blog later,” I promised. “Come on—we should if anybody commented!”
He glared at me, but I didn’t pay attention to him.
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog. This is my
first blog post and I just wanted
to say that whatever your dream is,
pursue it and it just might happen.
Alex
Posted by Alex at 1:34 PM 10 Comments:
I laughed so hard at Alex’s expression. Finally, I managed to click the “10 comments” through my giggles.
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog. This is my
first blog post and I just wanted
to say that whatever your dream is,
pursue it and it just might happen.
Alex
Posted by Alex at 1:34 PM
10 Comments:
Hope
Alex! That’s so way cool that you have a blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t to hear more from you!!!!!! You’re my FAVORITE movie star!!!!!!! OH THIS IS SO COOL!!!!!!!!
Reply
TobyMacFan1000
Hey, bro! Love ya movie!! Can’t wait to see more posts, dude!
Reply
Photographer
THIS IS SO WAY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T WAIT FOR YOUR NEXT BLOG POST! I, LIKE, LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
Hannah
Not to, like, sound like everybody else, but this is sweet!!! I’ve always wanted to be a movie star. I can’t wait to see what you’re going to post, Alex!! Aren’t you like best friends with your costar Olivia McCarthy??? Can you have her make a blog, too??
Reply
Daisy
Love ya!
Reply
Jessie
This is really cool! Can’t wait for more!!! Do you have any other blogs?? I’d LOVE to follow them!!!!
Reply
Felipa
I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M ACTUALLY FOLLOWING THE BLOG OF ALEX D’LACY!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! I HAVE TO LIKE TELL ALL OF MY FRIENDS!!!!! THEY’RE GOING TO BE SO PSYCHED THAT I FOUND YOU!!!!!
Mermaid
So, are you like the seriously real real Alex D’Lacy?
Reply
Tigress
Can’t wait to see some more posts!!!!!
Reply
Susan
I can’t wait to tell like everybody I know that I actually found Alex D’Lacy’s blog!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
I was laughing so hard that by the time my mum came to pick me up she gave both Alex and I this look like “have you two gone crazy?!”.
Chapter Eleven
Olivia
T
he time for the fittings of our costumes for The Key Secrets had come. Mum had offered to drive both Alex and I to the fittings, which were being done here in London, and Mrs. D’Lacy took her up on the offer. Soon we were driving in the middle of London with Alex and I in the backseat.
“This is going to be so great,” Alex declared. “Since The Key Secrets is like modern day, I bet we’ll get a whole bunch of cool clothes.”
I only grinned. “Yep. I hear that the house that we’re filming at is here in England. Isn’t that great?”
I only grinned. “Yep. I hear that the house that we’re filming at is here in England. Isn’t that great?”
He nodded back. “We’re going to be traveling all over the place, though, because of the keys in the movie.”
“This is going to be so great,” I agreed.
We finally got to the place where the fittings were taking place. Mum parked the car and we all got out, starting towards the building. Inside we met with the clothes designer, Jesse Gorge. He quickly directed us to the fitting rooms.
While Alex and I got fitted for our costumes, Mum looked at all of the drawings. She told us about them later while she was driving us back home.
“They’re all really cool,” she explained. “It’s all modern day stuff, as you guys know. I think you guys should enjoy this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” laughed Alex.
But Mum wasn’t giving anything away.
Alex and I practiced more and more on the script. I knew that we were going to start filming soon. Now I just couldn’t wait.
But, in the back of my mind, my dad’s threat echoed with a terrifying uneasiness that wouldn’t go away.
Chapter Twelve
Alex
M
um grabbed the phone before I could. I sighed and waited for her to get off. When she did, she was smiling giddily like she’d been picked for the Lady Fair of the biggest fair in the world and won some huge purple ribbon.
“That was the movie people!” she cried. “You’re going to be filming in a couple of days! Of course you’ll be leaving in time at all. Quick! We’ve got to start your packing!”
I only laughed.
While Mom packed my bags, I checked Olivia’s email for another reply from Unknown. Amazingly, there was none. I logged onto my email and saw an email from Olivia.
Just as I was about to reply, chat popped up.
Olivia McCarthy: Hey, Alex! Glad to see that you’re on!
Alex D’Lacy: Yeah, I just checked your emails. Good news! There’s no more from Unknown. Maybe we’re finally rid of the creep.
Olivia McCarthy: I doubt it.
Olivia McCarthy: Did you get the call about The Key Secrets?
Alex D’Lacy: Whoa, you wrote that fast. Yeah, I did.
Olivia McCarthy: haha, thanks. That’s good! I can’t wait to start!
Alex D’Lacy: Yeah, I know. I got emailed my costume designs from Jesse. Did you?
Olivia McCarthy: Yeah. Aren’t they sweet?
Alex D’Lacy: Yep.
Olivia McCarthy: I can’t wait to start filming!
Alex D’Lacy: I know exactly what you mean. I just hope that Unknown really isn’t going to be on the set.
Alex D’Lacy: I won’t let you get hurt.
Olivia McCarthy: That’s good. But I have Arthur, too.
Alex D’Lacy: Maybe I’ll get another bodyguard for you. =) You know, under the pretense that I have another bodyguard.
Olivia McCarthy: hahahaha you don’t need any more bodyguards! You’re perfectly safe!
Alex D’Lacy: We think.
Olivia McCarthy: Are you kidding? Of course you’re safe! Everybody in the world loves you so much that nobody would ever want to kill you. JK =)
Alex D’Lacy: haha, what’s the JK for?
Olivia McCarthy: Well, SOMEBODY might be crazy enough to try and kill you. But I bet that after they watch Avalon Keepers they’d be too scared to. :)
Alex D’Lacy: haha.
Olivia McCarthy: Got to get off. Bye!
Alex D’Lacy: Bye!
I logged off.
Chapter Thirteen
Olivia
T
he set of The Key Secrets was totally awesome. When Alex and I first got there, we were greeted by the director, Andy Sewell. He was a nice, friendly, middle-aged man with a dark ponytail. It was kind of funny, in my opinion.
“It’s great to see my young stars!” he’d declared upon seeing us.
Immediately, I felt comfortable around him. He just had this air about him that everything was going to be all right. I immediately relaxed and started to forget all about Unknown. I’d let Arthur and Alex worry about that.
“So you’re Olivia and you’re Alex!” Andy shook our hands. “I’m sure you’ve probably memorized like all of your costars and all that good stuff, but you’ve obviously not met them!” his eyes twinkled. “And then of course there’s your doubles.”
“Doubles?” Alex gave him a look. “Olivia and I did our own stunts in Avalon Keepers.”
“Yes, well,” laughed Andy, “now that you’re big-name stars we don’t want you going and hurting yourself!” he chuckled. “Let’s have you guys go meet your doubles.” He started to walk across the studio towards a group of people.
“Guys, this is Olivia McCarthy and Alex D’Lacy,” introduced Andy. “Addison and Cody, where are you guys?”
“Here.” Two kids came out of the crowd.
“Kids, meet your other you!” Andy quipped.
I glanced at Addison. She didn’t look at all like me in the face. Other than having blue eyes, her face was white and her nose a little too big for her face.
I glanced towards Cody. He didn’t really look like Alex in the face, either, and he had brown eyes instead of Alex’s blue. I guess they’d have to do, though.
Addison’s face burst into a smile. “It’s so great to meet you, Olivia!” And, totally taking me by surprise, she rushed forward and hugged the life out of me.
I noticed that Cody and Alex weren’t having half an as easy welcoming to each other. Alex was smiling, poor guy, but Cody only lifted an eyebrow like “I’m so much better than you”. I knew I was going to hate him right away.
“Well, um,” started Andy. “I’ll show you guys where we parked your trailers.”
We started out of the building.
As we were now big actors, Alex and I each had our own personal movie trailers. It was pretty sweet. They kind of seemed like home-away-from-home.
This time Mum was staying in mine, too, and Arthur had his own little trailer just off to the side. You couldn’t get to our trailer’s door without first going Arthur. He’d also rigged cameras and stuff like that all around to make sure I was doubly safe.
“My trailer’s right over there,” Addison pointed.
“That’s cool,” I told her with a small smile, making sure to stay by Mum and Arthur’s sides.
Addison obviously couldn’t help but let out a squeal. “When my friends heard that I was going to be the double of Olivia McCarthy, they almost didn’t believe me. I mean, I’ve done a few peoples’ stunts before, but they’ve never been famous!” her eyes were bright.
I laughed. “I’m just a human like you, Addison.”
“Call me Addie,” she offered excitedly. “Sadly, Cody doesn’t have a nickname.” She rolled her eyes. “He is such a jerk. He wouldn’t like talk to me at all when I first got here to wait for you and Alex to show up. What a jerk,” she repeated. “You guys are way more nicer.”
“Come on, Olivia,” urged Alex from up ahead.
Whenever Alex spoke I noticed that Addie held her breath and squealed quietly. Oh. My. Word. That’s so gross.
“OK, kiddos,” Andy called from up ahead. “We’re going to have you guys get to know each other better by hanging out some tonight. We’ll all eat together and play some games.” He winked at us. “It’ll be tons of fun, I promise.”
“Will any of the other actors be there?” Addie spoke up, eyes glistening.
“Actually,” Andy admitted, “I believe that Johnny Turner and Sarah Luna are going to join us tonight. Great you guys, huh, kiddos?”
Addie did her little squeal thing. It was seriously getting on my nerves big time.
“It’s about time for supper anyway now,” our director continued. “Come on—we’ll go and order some pizzas.”
We all followed Andy out of the parking lot.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex
T
he pizza wasn’t that bad. I guess. The annoying part was Addison and Cody. Addie, as Olivia called her (I have no idea why), was about the most annoying person in the world and kept on giggling like a nut. I didn’t even try and imagine her as a stunt person, let alone Olivia’s stunt person. And Cody was about the dullest kid on the planet Earth, or any other planet ever.
Olivia, amazingly, kept her cool and talked and chatted as if Addie and her had been best friends for forever. I just wanted to push back my chair and run out of there, never coming back.
“So you’re from America?” Olivia was asking Addie.
Addie’s eyes grew bright. “Yeah, from California. You’d love it there, Olivia.”
Olivia laughed. “I’ve been there before.”
“Oh, right,” laughed Addie, “duh. How silly of me.” She covered her giggling mouth with her hand, and I wondered faintly if she was embarrassed.
Cody had barely uttered a word throughout the whole meal. If there was ever a dull person, Cody fit the bill perfectly. He stunk in the world of socialness.
I couldn’t help but notice that Olivia’s mum had gotten into a big conversation with Johnny and Sarah over something. They all seemed really intent. Johnny was leaning forward, his brown eyes almost boring right into Olivia’s mum’s head.
Finally the thing was over. We all split to our trailers, and I couldn’t help but sigh in relief that I was finally getting away from our doubles.
Before I went to bed, I quickly checked Olivia’s email to see if Unknown had replied to my emails before we’d left to go to the set of The Key Secrets. I wondered faintly if the emails would keep on coming, or if Unknown would make himself or herself known in some other way.
Amazingly, there were no more emails from the creep. I checked my own email account really quickly. I saw one that made something in my brain click. I quickly clicked on it.
To: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
From: Harry Slater <harryslater@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Key Secrets
Alex,
As you probably know, I am a friend of Olivia’s. I’m warning you, back off. She’s not your friend. She’s my friend.
Harry
I frowned. So much for Olivia’s great friend Harry Slater. What on earth did she ever see in a friend like that? As far as I could see, he was even more of a jerk than Cody. Not that Cody had even said anything.
I wasn’t sure what to reply, so I just clicked off my email and got to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
I was going to be Jesse.
Chapter Fifteen
Olivia
O
livia,” whispered Mum. “It’s time to get up.”
I pried open an eyelid and glanced at my clock. One minute before my alarm would be blaring off in my ears. I sighed and got out of the bed, shutting off my alarm. Mum was smiling down at me from the doorway that went into my personal kitchen that I could smell breakfast from.
I quickly got out of bed and got dressed in my sweat suit. After eating breakfast, Mum followed me out of the trailer. Arthur was already there, waiting. We all walked together to the makeup and hairdo trailers.
I opened the door. The head of the makeup department for The Key Secrets was Angela Swanson. I’d heard about her since she’d done the makeup for famous movies like Elf Invasion and Ya Gotta Love Us.
“Olivia!” she smiled. “It’s so great to see you. Sit down right here and I’ll get your makeup ready.”
While Angela applied eyeliner and the other makeup Mum watched intently, Angela giving my mother tips for her own makeup job. Arthur looked totally bored to death. I was kind of surprised that Alex hadn’t showed up but didn’t comment.
Finally the door came open and Alex walked in just as I was done with Angela.
“Good morning, Bree,” Alex joked, sliding into Angela’s swivel chair.
“Morning, Jesse,” I snorted, moving over to the hairdo chair.
The woman doing hair told me her name was Annie.
“You know, like the movie?” she’d smiled, whipping out a flatiron that was already hot. “Yep, that’s how lots of people remember me! Of course, I don’t have red hair or anything. Maybe it’s just my personality. Everybody says I just talk way too much. Maybe I’m more like Anne of Green Gables. I don’t know. What…”
Her chattering was comforting, in a way. I listened to it quietly for awhile, closing my eyes and soaking in the niceness of Annie chattering as if everything was just going to be alright.
“You’re done!” Annie finally announced, much to my surprise.
I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like one of those fashion models in magazines that does their hair for probably like ten hours. It was straight and perfect, left down like lots of girls did.
“Wow.” That was all Mum could manage.
“My turn,” Alex grinned, pushing me out of the seat and taking it quickly.
We waited for him to get his hair “perfect”, and then Mum, Alex, Arthur, and I walked over to the costume trailer. The costumers got us all fixed up. I forgot their names in the flurry of the clothes.
I was being dressed in dark skinny jeans, layered pink shirt and orange tank top, and rainbow sneakers. And, of course, the first fateful key necklace that I’d be wearing for the whole movie…well, most of it, anyways.
Alex got a gray T-shirt, checked green and blue shirt, and loose jeans with sneakers, too, though his weren’t rainbow (lucky—just kidding). He didn’t have a key necklace, just like it said in the books.
“I think Andy’s waiting for you on the set,” the lady said, glancing at your watch. “You guys had better hurry.”
We arrived on set long enough to review lines and have Andy show us how he wanted the scene acted out. It was really easy. It was one of the scenes towards the beginning—a scene where Bree and Jesse arrive at their uncle’s mansion in the car and Bree gets into a very heated discussion with her uncle.
Our uncle was being played by the famous actor George Northumberland, a great and acclaimed actor that had starred in lead roles in such movies as the hits Josh Jackson’s Sister’s Trouble and Sorry, Maggie!.
So, first of all, we all piled into vans to take us out to the shooting site. Andy and his crew had found this really old mansion and had paid the owner and made a contract to use it in the movie for our uncle’s mansion.
Addie and Cody, thankfully, weren’t in our van. Alex and I were in the back with Mum and our bodyguards. Andy sat in the passenger’s seat. I glanced out the window and saw the other vans trailing us. I knew that the filming crew and lighting and all of those people were already at the site, having been working on getting ready since sunrise.
“So are you excited, Alex?” I questioned my best friend with a smile.
He chuckled. “Oh yeah. How about you?”
“Are you kidding?” I laughed. “I’m so excited!” I didn’t add that I was nervous that maybe somehow my dad had gotten back on set. And that maybe Unknown, whoever he or she was, would show themselves.
“I’m glad that Addie and Cody aren’t in here with us,” he leaned over and whispered. “I know that doesn’t sound very nice, but for some reason I don’t like either of them.”
“I’m afraid I don’t really, either,” I admitted with a sigh. “Addie’s OK, but Cody just seems like a jerk. I don’t like him at all.” I made a face.
Alex laughed. “You should just be glad that they didn’t choose him for Jessie instead of me. Otherwise you would’ve had to be in all of the shots with him. And I think you might’ve had to hug him, too…let’s see…” he went through the script. I punched his arm. “What?” he cried.
“Who says I’m going to hug you?” I teased. “Maybe I’ll have you hug Addie instead!” I couldn’t help but laugh at the horrified look on Alex’s face.
We finally arrived at the mansion. It was huge, surrounded by a large wall covered in ivy. There were cords and sound speakers and people everywhere. It was almost too overwhelming.
We got out of the car and Andy chuckled, “So, kids, what do you think of it?”
“Awesome,” I smiled.
“Definitely,” Alex agreed.
“Come on,” Andy urged. “We’ll get some last-minute makeup jobs done really quickly and then have a quick review over lines and then a few run-throughs of the scene before we give it our first try.”
Everything that he said we got done with quickly. By the time we’d practiced it several times, I was sure that even if our eyes were blindfolded Alex and I would’ve still remembered where to step and everything. Andy assured us that our reactions and expressions were perfect.
George Northumberland was a perfect gentleman and a great actor. When he first saw me, he pretended to be surprised and asked in astonishment, “Is this beautiful young lady going to be playing my niece?”
After being told several times by Andy that, “Yes, this is Olivia McCarthy, and she’s going to be playing Bree,” then George laughed and “welcomed me into the family”. It was pretty funny.
“OK, let’s get into positions!” yelled Andy.
We were about to shoot.
Chapter Sixteen
Alex
I
t’s not fair that we have to stay here with you!” Olivia practically yelled at George Northumberland. I could almost feel myself how unfair this whole situation was. Olivia’s eyes blazed as she stepped boldly up to the famous actor, even though she was lots shorter than him. “I think that it’s horrible that you would take us!”
“Bree…” I pretended to try and reach for her arm, as if to pull her back or something. But Olivia wrenched her arm away like she really was horribly angry at me. I wasn’t worried. When acting in Avalon Keepers with her, I’d seen how good an actress she was. So I wasn’t worried.
“Just leave me alone, Jesse!” she screamed at me, and ran off towards the woods on the edge of the mansion.
“Cut!” somebody yelled.
Olivia turned, smiling, and walked back.
“That was just great!” Andy smiled, walking towards us, rubbing his hands together. “I’m wanting to try getting a slightly different angle, though. And I’m thinking we’re going to want to try and do a completely different cut for when Olivia runs away.”
It didn’t damper our spirits that we were working on that one scene for the rest of the day. It didn’t even bother us when it was for the rest of the week, even.
“Hey, Olivia, Alex,” smiled Andy, walking up to us at our lunch hour one of those days. “I don’t think I showed you your alternates yet.”
I nearly choked on my food. “Our whats?”
Andy laughed. “Your alternates, Alex. Just relax.”
“You mean like somebody who acts for the real actor if they somehow get hurt or injured during a movie,” smiled Olivia.
Oh. Right.
“I hadn’t shown them to you,” Andy admitted, “because they just got here from England. We’ve had to search for people who really bear a striking resemblance to you guys.” He winked. “Meet me at my trailer after you finish eating and you can meet them.” Then he walked off.
After we were done, accompanied by our bodyguards and Olivia’s mum, we took off for Andy’s trailer. Olivia’s face was full of excitement. I could hardly see what was so exciting about seeing your alternate, but she really did look excited.
We stopped at the door to Andy’s trailer and knocked.
“Come in!” he called, sounding amazingly cheerful.
We came in. Andy’s trailer was a mess, full of papers and clothes and plates of half-eaten food. He’d cleared off his table, on which were three glasses of lemonade. He was sitting on at one of the chairs at the table. The occupants of the other two chairs were turned away from us, but I was startled to see Olivia’s almost exact shade of hair. If I hadn’t known that Olivia was standing right next to me, I would’ve thought it was.
I was surprised to see that from the back, the boy looked like my twin. How could that be? I was rather dumbfounded. Beside me, Olivia was stunned. I thought it was because of our likenesses, but I saw she was staring at the face of the “other me” as he turned around.
“Harry?” she whispered.
Chapter Seventeen
Olivia
H
arry’s eyes were unreadable. I couldn’t believe his resemblance to Alex, now that his hair was dyed blonde. If I hadn’t been paying attention really, I would’ve definitely thought that it was Alex, instead of Harry, that was standing before me. A small smile came onto Harry’s face.
“Hey, Olivia.”
“You two know each other?” asked Andy in surprise.
“We were apart of the same acting club back in England,” I explained quickly. “We’re…” I stopped myself from saying “best friends” and managed, “we’re really good friends.”
“Of course we are.” Harry’s voice sounded different. It sounded more…I don’t know. Sly? Evil?
“You’re Harry Slater?” Alex seemed almost unbelieving. “And you’re going to be my alternate?” if I’d read correctly, that was pure horror on Alex’s face.
“Yes, Alex, I am.” Harry crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow like “and what are you going to do about it?”.
Alex just nodded, but he didn’t look too happy about the idea. In fact, he looked rather angry. He scooted a little bit closer towards me. I just stood there with my arms crossed. I wasn’t sure what to do. This was just too strange.
The girl turned around, but I definitely didn’t know her. I had to admit that she looked less like me than Harry looked like Alex, but it’d have to work. Besides, if they only showed from the back, she looked like me.
“Olivia.” Arthur poked his head inside of the trailer. He saw Harry and the other girl and just frowned. Then he positioned himself beside me with his arms crossed.
Harry’s eyes were raised in surprise. “What’s going on, Olivia?”
“This is my bodyguard,” I said quickly. “Arthur.”
Arthur grunted, sizing up the boy. For some reason, I rather wished that Arthur would punch Harry out of the trailer. My old friend was giving me the creeps.
Harry just glared.
“Well,” started Andy, “I know you guys all know Harry, but you guys haven’t met Lauren yet. Guys, this is Lauren Hall, and she’s going to be playing Olivia’s second.”
“Hello,” I smiled. “It’s really good to meet you, Lauren.”
Lauren gave me a curt nod. “You, too.”
I supposed she was rather jealous. I was pretty much the most famous teen actress ever since Avalon Keepers. Thanks to all of these managers, there were shirts and posters and billions of other stuff with my face on it. Weird? I think yes.
“Well,” started Andy, seeming to finally feel the awkward silence that the rest of us had been wading in for the last few minutes, “I just wanted to get you guys introduced! Alex, Olivia, you guys can go back to whatever you were doing.”
Arthur followed us out the door of the trailer. The second we were far enough away not to be heard, Alex burst out, “I do not like those kids. Sorry, Olivia. I know that guy was your friend, but…he just looks like a total jerk!”
“He’s not the same,” I admitted. “The Harry I knew was a lot nicer and more…friendly, should we say.”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t know what he was like, but I definitely don’t want to get to know that guy better.”
“Me either,” I whispered. “Me either.”
Chapter Eighteen
Olivia
I
’m not sure what’s going to happen, but we’ll be OK,” Alex was saying to me, holding my hand. Don’t get any ideas on me. We were just shooting the movie.
Tears pricked my eyes. “But…but what about Dad?” I whispered. “What about Mom? Are we just going to forget everything?”
“They’re gone,” Alex answered softly, staring out the window. “We can’t bring them back.”
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my cheeks. “I haven’t ever told you, but…” I looked away.
“Cut!” somebody yelled.
We had finally mastered the scene, after what seemed like millions of times of filming it. But I’d loved every minute of it. Now, according to the script, we were going to be moving onto a short shooting part where the camera backed away and showed Jesse and Bree just staring out the attic window together.
I had read the book The Key Secrets and, keeping with the book, Jesse and Bree were getting housed in the attic together. George Northumberland joked that he couldn’t stand the noise that we made.
It wasn’t that hard to get that shot, though of course we had to do several of it. Andy assured us that it was just part of the process and that none of it was really our fault at all.
After that, it was all for the night.
Andy was sure to tell us that our stay in England wasn’t going to be much longer. Soon, we would be “touring the world”, as he put it. The keys would be taking us to all different places, and Andy explained that audiences these days were too smart to be fooled by California. So we were going to be actually filming in most of those places.
Excitement rushed through me that night as I went to bed. Mum’s snoring was quiet, so I could actually think. We’d already done a lot of the shooting. Already, we’d filmed all of the “arrival” scenes of Alex and me coming to the mansion.
Not only that, but we’d done most of the scenes before the parents died. The people acting our parents, Johnny Turner and Sarah Luna, had done all of their scenes before with us, during which we’d had to do special makeup to make us all look younger.
It had been pretty fun. Alex and I had gotten to act like we were little seventh graders, and then we were normal age, coming home from school. It had been one of my favorite scenes.
I still couldn’t get to sleep, so I hopped out of bed and walked over to the TV on the other side of the room. Turning it in, I went through the DVDs I’d been given of the scenes. I’d begged to see them to watch my acting and improve myself, so Andy had consented.
I inserted the scenes before all of this mostly even started. Most of the action was going to be happening while the credits and so on before the movie started would be going on. But I just wanted to see it, anyway.
I fast-forwarded to the part where Alex and I came home from school. I was almost surprised to see myself on the screen, opening the door and yelling, “I’m home!” before dropping my bag on the couch.
They had already put the beginning scenes in order, so it was just like watching a real movie. Alex followed me, talking on a phone to somebody. (In truth, he wasn’t talking at all, of course.)
“Jesse!” the me on the screen yelled. “Get off the phone with your girlfriend!”
On the screen Alex glared in my direction and then said, “OK, bye,” and hung up. It showed Alex walking into the kitchen where I was rummaging through the fridge.
“Have you seen Mom?” I asked him over my shoulder, not turning around.
Alex kind of looked around the kitchen, and then shrugged. “No. Why?”
The me on the screen just shrugged and then walked away from the fridge (closing the door, of course) and walked over to Alex just as he was about to dial his phone again. I frowned and swiped his phone from him, going through his text messages.
“Hey!” Alex on the screen yelled. “Give it back!”
I just chuckled. “Come on, Jesse. Relax. Ooh, what’s this?”
“Just stop!” Alex-on-the-screen grabbed for the phone and missed, sending it skidding out of my hands and flying against the wall. The broken phone landed on the floor.
Me-on-the-screen glared at him. “Great, Jesse. That was both of our phone. And now it’s broken. Great job, genius.” I walked over to pick up the phone, but noticed something stuck between the floor and the trim. “Hey, Jesse, what’s this?”
Alex-on-the-screen walked over. The screen then showed our faces as Alex-on-the-screen reached over and took the piece of paper. It zoomed back out as we got up.
“It’s…I don’t know.” Alex-on-the-screen turned it over. “That’s strange.”
“Why?” me-on-the-screen snorted. “Because it’s paper?”
“Because there looks like there’s writing on here.” Alex-on-the-screen walked over to the table and started to study the piece of paper.
I had nearly fallen asleep watching all of this, but suddenly my eye caught something. As Alex and me on the screen kept on dialoguing, I snatched the channel changer and rewound it, right as Alex/Jesse was leaning over the piece of paper.
I gasped and dropped the channel changer.
There was my dad, walking down the street and barely visible through the kitchen window.
Chapter Nineteen
Alex
I
woke up to the sound of someone pounding on my door. I groggily got out of bed and opened the door. In front of me was Olivia’s bodyguard, Arthur, looking as calm as always but a little more tense than usual.
“Olivia’s asking for you,” he told me.
“OK,” I nodded. “Just a sec.”
I disappeared back inside the trailer and reappeared a few moments later fully dressed. I followed Arthur to Olivia’s trailer. Arthur opened the door and I walked inside.
In fact, I walked in on Olivia crying her heart out to her mum with Andy and several other people there beside her. In fact, the whole trailer was practically busting at the seams with people.
Olivia looked up when she saw me and managed to gasp out, “Alex!”
I quickly ran to her side. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you OK? You’ve got to tell me, Liv.”
“I…I…” then she burst into more sobs.
“How long has she been like this?” I whispered to her mum.
“I found her like this about ten minutes ago,” she explained quietly. “That’s when I got people here to help me. She’s mostly in hysterics. I don’t know what happened, but…” she looked away.
“Olivia.” I got down on my knees in front of her face. “Please, you’ve got to tell us what happened. We can’t help until we know. Olivia, I want to help you. Tell me how to help you.”
Still sobbing, she shakily reached for a channel changer on the floor. I quickly rushed over and turned on the TV. She pressed play. And that’s when I knew what was causing her trouble.
“It’s HIM!” I cried.
“Who?” frowned Andy.
Olivia’s mum glared. “That’s my ex husband, who’s been harassing Olivia and trying to kidnap her!”
“How on earth did he show up on set?” I wondered as we watched the scene go on. He was in several. He would’ve had had to keep on walking back and forth on the sidewalk to get in that many times.
“If he even tries to get close…” started Arthur.
“He’s trying to send a message,” I whispered. “He wants Olivia to know that he’s here.”
“Oh, Alex,” glared Olivia’s mum. “Honestly.”
“I’m serious,” I hissed.
“OK, everybody,” Andy broke in. “Go back to your trailers. Miss McCarthy needs some space.”
There was some grumbling, but finally everybody was gone. Arthur posted himself in the trailer by the door, but never more than five feet away from Olivia, who was sobbing on the couch.
“I’m really sorry,” apologized Andy. “Just give me a call if there’s anything I can do, OK?”
Olivia’s mum nodded and then Andy left. She turned to me. “Can you watch over her for me for a little bit?”
I nodded, taking Olivia’s mum’s seat on the couch next to Olivia while her mum went off to have some words with Arthur about Olivia’s protection, I supposed.
“It’ll be OK,” I assured her. “It’s going to be OK. We’re not going to let him near you.”
“What if he’s Unknown?” she sobbed violently.
“Then we know who it is and we won’t have to worry,” I pointed out. “Look, I bet it is. See? There’s nothing to worry about. Arthur’s going to be there the whole time. And soon your dad’s going to be caught and you’ll see him again. It’s going to be OK.”
“I just…I just wished that he’d never come back,” Olivia sobbed quietly. “I just wished that he’d left us alone and that I’d never seen him again—not in Avalon Keepers and not ever.”
“It’s going to be OK, Olivia,” I whispered. “It’s going to be OK.”
“I just want to be safe,” she whispered. “I just want to get away from all of this.”
“I think we should pray,” I said unexpectedly. “Let’s ask God to keep you safe.”
And so I did. And suddenly I felt better.
Chapter Twenty
Alex
W
e finally managed to get Olivia under control enough that she was ready for shooting the next day, though I noticed that she was wearing a little bit more makeup than usual. Probably to hide the massive red spots she would’ve made the night before crying her eyes out. But I couldn’t blame her. This was scary, and it wasn’t even happening to me. Worse, it was happening to my best friend and I couldn’t even do anything about it.
Before I knew it, we were done with all of our England scenes. And, even better, Olivia was starting to seem to forget about her father’s appearance in the scene.
We had just finished filming the scene where Olivia/Bree puts the key into the lock of our father’s machine and we got sent back in time…or to some other place. As far as I could tell from Andy, we were getting shipped off to Russia in the morning.
“It’s supposed to be this freezing cold place,” shrugged Andy. “I’d say that Russia fits the bill, wouldn’t you?”
We were going to have lots more actors, too, which were going to act as the people who inhabited this strange cold place. (I knew that Olivia probably knew the name of it since she’d read the books more recently. As it was, I hadn’t read the books for at least a year.)
Before I knew it, we were on a plane to Russia. When we landed, we were shipped off to a super duper hotel that was pretty much off limits to everybody else. Our crew was so huge it almost filled it all up.
Olivia, Addie, Cody, me, and some others had gone down to play in the game room together. Arthur, of course, was there the whole time. He practically had Olivia on a leash. He wouldn’t let her go into the bathroom unless her mother went with her.
(I personally thought that part was rather embarrassing for her. It sure would’ve been for me. Thankfully, there wasn’t a life threat on my life.)
Then we were shipped off to our rooms and told to get some rest. I spent most of the night staring at the ceiling but finally managed to get to sleep.
In the morning we were shipped off to hair and makeup, and then we had to get into our costumes and get on set as soon as possible. And then started the long day of shooting.
So we started out with this scene of Olivia/Bree and I showing up in the place. We were supposed to be freezing cold, of course. (In fact, it wasn’t a joke. We were thrown out in our other clothes. Thankfully, the crew was waiting the second the shot ended with huge fluffy coats.)
The day was exhausting and I was glad when we finally got back to the hotel. Addie wanted to go and play more games, but I was too tired and I could see that Olivia was, too.
“Maybe some other night,” I suggested.
She just glared at Olivia. What was her problem?
Before I went to sleep, I went to check Olivia’s email on my laptop. Amazingly, there weren’t any more emails from Unknown. Lying in bed, I could only wonder who the creepo was that had sent them.
Before I went to sleep, I went to check Olivia’s email on my laptop. Amazingly, there weren’t any more emails from Unknown. Lying in bed, I could only wonder who the creepo was that had sent them.
A scarier thought entered my brain.
Maybe I didn’t even want to know.
Chapter Twenty-One
Olivia
W
e had been shooting most of the day, so Andy was giving us some time off. I wondered faintly if it were for my sake, since the big trauma of my dad and everything, but he didn’t say so, so I didn’t question him about it and gratefully accepted the day off.
“So,” started Alex, “what do you guys want to do?”
By “guys” he meant Arthur and I. Because I obviously couldn’t go anywhere without Arthur. And then that usually meant Mum, too, because she always wanted to come with me. It was also handy when I needed to use the bathroom.
I shrugged. “I suppose we should stay around the hotel. I think that’s what Andy was planning.”
“We could see if maybe the crew was planning something,” offered Arthur, surprising both of us. “Sometimes they do things together. I should know—I was a stunt guy once. Great times.”
“Hmm,” I nodded. “Good idea. Let’s go and ask them.”
We hurried through the hotel, finally finding Andy in the lobby arguing with a boy around our age who curly chocolate brown hair and blue eyes and wearing a Hollister sweatshirt and ripped jeans.
“Dad!” he cried. “We’re in Moscow, for goodness sakes! And I just got here! Surely you’re not going to keep me cooped up in this place. I’d die of boredom!”
“Kid,” he started. “You’re from L.A. Maybe you should go back.”
“Dad, no, no, I just got here.” The boy put his hands up, as if in defeat. “If this is what’s here, then I guess it’s just like Mom warned me about. It can’t possibly get any worse than this.”
“Oh, hey, Olivia, Alex, Arthur.” Andy nodded to each of us in turn.
The boy turned around. He looked at each of us in turn, managing a charming smile the whole time. It totally didn’t go with his heated manner a moment before.
“Oh, yeah, this is my son.” Andy cleared his throat. “Jeremy’s a little…headstrong, should we say. You guys will get used to it, though.”
“So, wait.” Jeremy glanced at us. “Dad, this is Olivia McCarthy and Alex D’Lacy? The Olivia McCarthy and Alex D’Lacy?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yes!” he jumped into the air. “This is so awesome. My friends are going to flip when I tell them that I met you, Olivia.” He eagerly shook my head, and then managed a grin towards Alex. “And of course you, too, Alex.”
Alex just frowned. “Mmhm.”
“Actually, Andy.” I turned fully away from his son. I didn’t like him, and I wanted to make it quite clear that I wasn’t going to listening to anything that he said. “We were wondering if maybe the crew was doing anything and if they were that we could go.”
Andy sighed. “Well, we were thinking about doing laser tag some time…”
“Laser tag?!” Jeremy turned to his dad. “Wait, so you were just going to leave me here while you guys all went out and played laser tag?! That hardly seems fair.”
“You’re fifteen, Jeremy,” snorted Andy. “Life’s hardly fair.”
“Well, uh, that sounds like a good idea,” shrugged Alex. “But…” he glanced over at me, and then up at Arthur. “Is that the safest place? I mean, it is in the dark…”
“You’re right,” nodded Arthur. “Sorry, Olivia, but not I’m sure that that would work.”
“I don’t see why not!” snorted Jeremy. “Why can’t she come? It’s not like somebody here’s going to attack her! Like she’s a total superstar! I mean really.”
I looked away. Alex stifled a snort and then waved towards the son and father, calling, “See you guys later,” and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me out of the lobby.
“That guy’s weird,” he announced.
“Uh, yeah,” I snorted. “Let’s just say that I’m glad that we decided not to do laser tag.”
Alex burst out laughing.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Olivia
T
he rest of our shooting in Russia took us several weeks. In the movie, we were barely even there, but we had to get the shots just right, as Andy would say. So we were there several weeks. Annoyingly, Jeremy didn’t leave. And, even more annoying, he seemed to think that Alex was unfit company and so he gave himself the job of following us around everywhere.
“Hey, where’s your dad?” Alex tried one time. “Doesn’t he ever worry about you?”
Jeremy snorted. “Dude, I’m from L.A. You think my dad worries about me? I walk around there by myself all the time. So just cool it, OK? I’m fine.”
Jeremy snorted. “Dude, I’m from L.A. You think my dad worries about me? I walk around there by myself all the time. So just cool it, OK? I’m fine.”
Several times, we tried to pawn him off on like Addie or Lauren, but Lauren made sure to tell him that he was horrible and that his breath smelled like garlic and Addie was so giddy that Jeremy basically did Lauren’s reaction to her.
Either way, our plan backfired. We then tried the “guy company” thing, but Cody was so boring that Jeremy was already complaining about him the second after we’d left his company, and Harry basically gave him the cold shoulder.
That was another thing. We barely ever saw Harry. Sometimes I’d see him, and when I did he was always leaving. It was weird. I supposed he was just really immersing himself in Jesse’s role just in case Alex got hurt or something.
And then were going off to Italy. I knew from the filming and everything that we were about to get eaten by a polar bear when I’d grabbed the key, which had been hiding in a huge hunk of ice, and we teleported off to this Italian place.
We didn’t spend that much time in Italy, mostly because in the movie we’d literally only be there a few minutes before we almost get killed by the Italian mafia and I get us teleported off to this other place.
But while we were in Italy Alex and I walked around, got some spaghetti, and then got into work shooting. It was lots of fun, though I barely got to see that much of Italy.
Before I knew it, we were being shipped off to New Zealand. The main bulk of the movie happened here. I was glad to be going back to New Zealand. We’d shot there for the Avalon Keepers movie, and it’d been awesome.
While on the plane, Andy told us that we were going spending several months in New Zealand. After that, we’d get shipped off to Ireland to do some last shots, and then do a few final shots in England. When asked why we hadn’t done those last shots while we’d been in England, Andy explained,
“You and Alex are growing up. It’s going to be a full year before we finally get back. And do you think it’d be kind of funny if you looked kind of older in one and then younger in the one before it?”
He had a point.
When we landed in New Zealand, we all got a hotel. The next day, these big trucks showed up and we drove off through New Zealand towards where our “camp” was going to be.
“God, keep me safe,” I whispered. “Just please keep me safe.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Alex
I
walked through the camp. The guys had gotten it all set up the night before. Flashbacks of Avalon Keepers was coming to me. I could almost see Olivia and I walked together through the set. But it was a totally different camp. This one was lots bigger and there were actually buildings instead of just trailers and huge tents everywhere.
Andy told us that that day we were going to be shooting this scene where we show up in the last place that we “warp” to. It was kind of this medieval-like place, though it was from medieval.
According to Andy (and, according to Olivia, the books), this last world that we’d be in before we got “warped” back was a place where everybody wore these modernized versions of medieval clothes, but they were mostly made of stained leather and wool. There would be bows, but they would be metal. It was kind of a strange thought for me.
Olivia and I would be appearing in the middle of this battle between the “resistance” and the “Horde”, which was the name of the evil people that ruled the land.
We had our normal Jesse and Bree costumes on. We got to do this cool stunt where the camera would be capturing what would look like we’d just been dropped on our backs. Andy explained how we’d be doing this with all of these cool wires and stuff.
“This is way cool,” whispered Olivia. She glanced up at me, worried. “But you don’t think my dad’s going to sneak into this battle and kill me, do you?”
“Of course not,” I assured her. “You’re going to be fine. I’ll be right beside you the whole time. I promise nothing bad will happen to you.”
“Of course not,” I assured her. “You’re going to be fine. I’ll be right beside you the whole time. I promise nothing bad will happen to you.”
She smiled wanly.
The scene began. We got the shot where we were falling onto our backs. We were in the middle of the battle scene. The fighters were all around us on this plain in the hills of New Zealand, looking almost like a desolate wasteland.
“Jesse!” shrieked Olivia/Bree, dropping to the ground.
She fell to the ground, missing the blow of the sword that she obviously thought was part of everything that we had practiced the day before when we’d been working on the sword moves for this part again.
But I knew that it wasn’t.
We hadn’t planned this.
And suddenly I knew what it was like for Olivia when she was struck by her dad in the middle of the end battle in Avalon Keepers. I fell to the ground, groaning and crying out.
“CUT!” somebody bellowed.
Suddenly, a hundred faces were clustering around me. My head was dizzy and my eyes weren’t focusing.
“Get out of the way!” snapped Andy. “Alex, are you OK?”
“It…that wasn’t planned,” I groaned.
“Well, at least you can talk,” he chuckled. He stood up and glared at the warriors. “OK, which one of you was it?”
Nobody spoke up, but suddenly I was pretty sure who it was. There was Harry in armor. I knew it was Harry because of his eyes—those scary eyes that were evil. I knew he wasn’t supposed to be in armor. And I knew that he’d been the one to hit me.
“Hey!” Andy yelled. “We need to get Alex to the hospital tent. ASAP!”
“It’ll be OK, Alex,” Olivia assured me, running alongside my stretcher.
“I just hope you’re right,” I whispered back.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alex
I
knew it was Harry. But nobody would believe me if I said anything. Even as I thought it, here came Harry jogging into the hospital tent where like a dozen nurses were hovering over me as if I’d actually been stabbed instead of just hit in the leg really hard.
Andy glared at the ground. “Well, I’m afraid that Alex’s not going to be able to shoot for awhile.”
“But I’ve got to!” I sat upright, turning towards Andy. “I’ve got to keep on shooting!”
Andy shook his head. “You’re hurt, Alex. You need to lie low and get better. In the meantime, we’ll have to have Harry fill your spot.” When Andy turned back towards me, I saw that sly smile on Harry’s face. This is what he’d been wanting all along.
I couldn’t just stand and watch. “But he’s the one who hurt me!” I spat. “I saw him with the armor on, out there in the field! He’s the one who struck me!”
“It’s OK, Alex,” Andy assured me. “You’re just confused, that’s all. Harry wasn’t out there. He’s been off training, just in case something like this happened.”
“But he did it!” I insisted. “I know he did!”
Just then Olivia came running into the tent, Arthur and her mum on her heels. She ran over to the stretcher.
“Alex,” she started. Then she looked at my leg and grimaced. “Oh, wow, that’s got to hurt.”
“Olivia,” started Andy, fidgeting, “Alex’s not going to be able to keep on acting for awhile.”
Her face was blank, and then she exploded. “What?!”
“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “Alex’s got to lie low and get better. Meanwhile, Harry will take his place.”
“But…but people are going to know that that’s not Alex on the screen!” Olivia pointed out.
I totally agreed with her.
“We’ll just have to work around it,” decided Andy with a frown. “We’ll have to direct it more towards you, Olivia.”
“But what about all of the shots where you have to see Alex’s face?!” she protested.
“We can save those,” he explained. “There’s some scenes where you’re just acting, or where you barely see Alex. We’ll go ahead and film those with Harry in Alex’s place.”
I could tell that Olivia wasn’t happy with the idea. But she was just going to have to go along. Andy and Harry left, and Olivia finally coaxed just a few minutes out of the nurses to spend alone—that is, with Arthur and her mum a few feet off.
“Just be careful,” was all I managed before I passed out from the pain.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Olivia
I
t wasn’t the same. It was horrible. Just awhile ago, I would’ve been totally psyched to be acting across from Harry. But that was back when we were best friends. It was like now Harry had turned evil. He wasn’t even my friend anymore.
Thankfully, Andy was true to his word. We did several scenes where I was the only one out of the two of us—Alex and I—in them. And then we did several where you wouldn’t be able to tell that it was Harry. I was relieved.
I didn’t want the front of the DVD to have “Olivia McCarthy and Harry Slater”. I wanted it to read “Olivia McCarthy and Alex D’Lacy”, like it was supposed to. Though I wondered if we’d actually make the front cover. There were others that were really famous in this movie, too.
Even though we were acting together, Harry still didn’t talk to me. I didn’t like it. Several times I tried to go and see Alex, but usually I had to go somewhere else suddenly or there was someone else visiting Alex or he was sleeping.
Finally, when I was sure that he was now back in his trailer instead of the hospital tent, I sent him an email, hoping that he’d be able to get it and then we could actually talk.
To: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
Subject: Hey, bro
Alex,
Sorry I haven’t been able to talk to you for such a long time. How’re you doing? Every time I try to visit, it’s like there’s always something else that’s happening, and suddenly I can’t. I hate it. Have those nurses been treating you OK? If they haven’t, I’ll go and beat them up for you lol JK Anyway, what’s new? Not much here. Harry’s still evil/weird/jerk and it’s so hard not having you here. I didn’t realize how close we were as best friends until you just like got hurt. Get better soon!!
Olivia
I sent the email and then just at that moment I got called back off to go to some party with some of the other actors. Of course I had to go, even though I would’ve rather just stayed back and have had a nap.
The days seemed to fly by, and I realized that I wanted nothing more than to have Alex get better and to have this movie over with. And, most of all, to just have a normal life. What with Jeremy being annoying about me being Olivia McCarthy, Harry acting evil, Addie acting kidding, Lauren acting like a jerk, and Cody acting like a total board, my life was pretty horrible at the moment.
Not to mention my dad and Unknown. What was I even going to do? Now that Alex was out of commission, Unknown might send another email. And what then? What was I supposed to do? I liked it better when Alex handled it.
Before I stopped myself, I sent another email, even though Alex had yet to reply to my other one that I’d sent him a few days ago.
To: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
From: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@gmail.com>
Subject: PLEASE GET BETTER SOON!
PLEASE GET BETTER SOON! OTHERWISE MY LIFE’S GOING TO COLLASPE AND I WON’T HAVE ANY FRIENDS TO HELP ME THROUGH IT!!
I sent it before I felt totally stupid.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alex
I
was rather surprised by Olivia’s emails, but it wasn’t hard to answer them. I had started to get really bored and mad at myself for not dodging that dirty hit by Harry. I just needed something to get my mind off of it. Thankfully, Olivia’s emails provided a way out.
To the first one I replied:
To: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@hotmail.com>
From: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
Subject: re: Hey, bro
Olivia,
I’m doing fine, thanks for asking! Wow, Harry really sounds like a pain. =P Sorry about that. Urgh, I wish I was better! This is so hard!! :( All that I’ve been doing here is watching old movies, and sometimes Avalon Keepers thrown in there. =P I just reread the Key Secrets, too. Good books. I think you make a better Bree than the Bree in the books. =D Do you know you’re supposed to have blonde hair? Anyway… What’s going on in Olivia-world? JK
Alex
To the other one, I managed:
To: Olivia McCarthy <actressfreak@hotmail.com>
From: Alex D’Lacy <alexd’lacy@gmail.com>
Subject: re: PLEASE GET BETTER SOON!
I’m trying. =P
Yeah, probably not the best reply, but it was all that I could manage. Meanwhile, I was stuck with movies and books. My leg was hurting me really badly. It was horrible. And boring. And, most unfortunate at all, I never got to see Olivia. She was always off filming or working or just sleeping.
I, personally, wished that I were having that life, too. As it was, I was completely bored. There was nothing to do. Sometimes, I’d see Olivia walking off to do something. Usually Jeremy was trailing her. Sometimes it was Harry, and even more rarely it was Cody. It was weird. That should’ve been me.
I wouldn’t have been trailing her because of some stupid crush because she was a superstar. I would’ve been trailing her because we were best friends and we stuck together, through thick and thin. That’s just the way we were.
It was at that moment that I realized that I would’ve been Olivia’s best friend if she lost her legs, had her beautiful face burned by acid, and could never speak again, let alone act. I’d always be there. We would always be best friends.
“God,” I prayed, “thank you so much for accepting me before I left for acting. Thank you for my mom that led me through this. God? Please help me get better soon.”
I opened my eyes. I just hoped he would.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Olivia
T
he days seemed almost endless. But I almost couldn’t believe the words that Andy spoke to me after one really long day of shooting—“Olivia, I know you haven’t had much time, but I’m giving you time right now—go and visit Alex, OK?”
I nearly hugged him. I went off sprinting almost before Arthur saw me leaving. He trailed behind me at a respectful distance (he knew I didn’t really like being trailed all of the time) as I ran to Alex’s trailer.
“Alex!” I yelled, banging on the trailer. “Alex!”
Slowly, the door opened. Alex’s mum was there. I also saw a man that I realized as Alex’s bodyguard, however new he was. Mrs. D’Lacy smiled at me.
“Oh, hey, Olivia.”
I spoke quickly. “Can I please talk with Alex?”
She chuckled. “Come on in.”
Our bodyguards talked in quiet tones by the door while Mrs. D’Lacy went into the trailer’s kitchen to get some refreshments. Alex was sitting on the couch facing a TV. There were stacks of movies and books everywhere.
“Wow, this place is a mess,” I joked. “Where do you want me to sit?”
“Olivia!” a smiled bloomed on Alex’s face. “Thanks so much for visiting.”
“I finally got some time,” I admitted with a wry smile, moving some books and sitting on the other end of the couch by his feet.
“I was praying that you’d come,” he said.
I paused. “So you became…you know…a Christian?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been one for awhile.” He paused, and then whispered, “Olivia, are you?”
I looked away. “No.”
“Do you want to become one?”
“You know,” I started, “somebody’s talked to me about this before. She was working on the Avalon Keeper team. I…well…” I glanced up. “Yeah, I do, Alex. I’ve wanted to for awhile, but…” I leaned over, whispering, “I didn’t know how. And I felt bad.”
Alex smiled.
“Olivia.” I glanced up at Arthur. He was waiting by the door.
I glanced over at Alex. “Thanks so much, Alex. For everything. But, most of all…well, you know what.” I winked. “I’ll be praying for you now.”
Alex nodded.
I followed Arthur out of the trailer, and we started towards my own trailer. It had to be around nine o’clock at night, and I was dead tired.
“What time are we going to need to get up in the morning?” I yawned as we neared my trailer.
“Probably around the usual time,” shrugged Arthur. “I doubt that you’re going to get anything special just because you visited Alex.”
I chuckled. “I guess you’re right.”
I stopped suddenly. Arthur stopped, too, getting tense. We had both heard it. A twig snapping, from behind us.
“Olivia,” Arthur started quietly, “go towards your trailer.”
At just that moment, everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alex
W
hat do you mean Olivia’s missing?!” I burst off the couch as Mum told me the news. “You can’t be serious! We’ve got to go and look for her! She’s probably out there somewhere, totally freaked out and maybe even unconscious and…”
“They’re taking care of it, honey,” Mom assured me. “You’ve just got to relax and get better.”
“I’ve been off this leg for weeks now,” I pointed out. “I’ve done all of the stretches. I think I’m good enough now.” I hopped off the couch to prove it.
I rushed into my room and threw on my clothes. I only moved with a slight limp, but I knew that it would wear off soon. I started towards the door, but Mum stopped me.
“And where on earth do you think you’re going?” she demanded.
“To find Olivia!” I pointed out.
“Honey!” Mom cried. “Her bodyguard got knocked out! You think you can beat somebody up who beat up Arthur?!”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. And I won’t know unless I meet them!”
“You can’t go.” My bodyguard, Larry, placed his arm on my shoulder. “I won’t allow you. It’s too dangerous.”
“But she’s out there!” I pointed out. “We’ve got to go and find her!”
At just that moment, somebody started screaming not that far off. I pushed past Larry and sprinted towards the source of the sound. It was coming from Olivia’s trailer, where Mrs. McCarthy was screaming her head off while reading a note that Andy had just handed her. The rest of the crew was gathered around.
“What is it?!” I demanded, pushing myself to Mrs. McCarthy’s side.
She dropped the note and I quickly picked it up and read it.
I told you I would get her. And I did.
I covered my mouth with my hands to keep from crying out. What were we going to do for Olivia now? She’d obviously been carried off by her dad. And he wasn’t going to give her up just like that. He was going to fight.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alex
O
K,” started Andy. “So is everybody in their groups of ten?” Everybody nodded. “Does everybody have a flashlight?” Again, everybody nodded. Andy nodded solemnly. “Good. Now we’re going to go and get Olivia back.”
I was pretty sure that this could be a hopeless search, but we still had to search. Where on earth could Olivia be? I could only imagine what she was feeling.
For goodness sakes, she’d just been kidnapped by her dad!
In my group was my mum, Larry, Arthur, Harry, Mrs. McCarthy, and some other crew members. We started off through the countryside in one of the company’s jeeps, flying over the terrain. Arthur took the wheel and Larry took shotgun, holding the flashlight like it was really a machine gun instead of just a flashlight.
I glanced over at my mum. Tears were in her eyes as she hugged Mrs. McCarthy tightly. Mrs. McCarthy herself was sobbing violently. She didn’t look like she was going to be letting go of my mum any time soon.
As we rolled along the terrain, flying through the air with every bump, a thought occurred to me. At first, I shrugged it off as too obvious. But then it came back again.
“Hey,” I started. “I wonder if Olivia has her phone.”
Mrs. McCarthy stopped her sobbing long enough to look up at me. “What?” she sniffled.
“Well,” I started, “usually Olivia had her phone on her at all times. Maybe she had it when she was kidnapped, and maybe her dad didn’t take her from her. So maybe we could text her or something.”
“Don’t you think she would’ve thought of that by now?” hissed who I realized was Jeremy. “She’s obviously a smart chick. Believe me, she would’ve thought of that already.”
“Look,” I snarled, “don’t talk about my friend that way. And maybe she’s still unconscious. You never know. And when we find her, stop trailing her around. You creep her out! You got that?!”
Jeremy look taken aback, and he quickly shrunk back into the mass of crewmembers in the back waving their flashlights about in the dark terrain.
I slipped my phone out of my pocket and started to send a text to Olivia.
Liv u there?
I sent the text, hoping for the best.
“God, please,” I whispered.
There was no reply. I had a feeling that Jeremy was smirking at me. I glared and pulled out my phone again to make another text. Just as I was about to, my phone beeped.
There was a new message.
Licking my lips nervously, I clicked off the “send text” and looked to see who sent it.
It was Andy.
Where r u guys?
Frowning in disappointment, I quickly sent back a text saying something along the lines of “uh, somewhere in New Zealand. Where on earth are you guys?”
Then I looked ahead through the dark and shined out my flashlight, hoping that Olivia would see it and soon send back a text.
“Dude,” snorted Jeremy. “Your phone just got a new text message.”
Apparently he’d just swiped it from my pocket while I’d still been the terrain for Olivia. When I turned, it was confirmed. Jeremy’s eyes were glued to the screen of my phone.
“Hey!” I cried, grabbing it. “Give that back!”
I quickly looked at the text, holding my breath. I almost couldn’t believe it.
It was from Olivia.
I breathed a sigh of relief and opened it.
Don’t send another text message. If you do, Olivia dies.
I nearly passed out.
Chapter Thirty
Olivia
L
et me go!” I screamed, kicking and fighting.
“Shut up!” Dad yelled back at me. “Just shut up and don’t try anything like that text message again!”
Dad was driving the jeep through the woods. I was totally lost. I had no idea how long we’d been traveling, or where he’d even gotten the jeep. The only thing I could think of was that he’d snatched it from the movie company.
I was tied to the chair, so I obviously couldn’t jump out. I was too small to try and fight him. Besides, he was as angry as a bull. I only had one weapon against him.
Acting.
I pretended to break down into tears. “Please, Dad,” I begged, feeling like I was Bree again begging Jesse to say that our parents were alive, “please, I’ll do anything. Just…just don’t hurt me.”
Dad glared at me. “Then shut up and stay still! I won’t hurt you if you just listen to me!”
I resorted to whimpering. Meanwhile, my hands felt for the bonds that bit into my hands and pushed against my back. My fingers reached, but I couldn’t get it. I really was stuck.
However, I looked down at the rope that was connected with my hands’ bonds and then in turn tied to the chair. My feet were tied, of course, but maybe he didn’t tie the knot down below very well.
I moved my feet below the seat like I was just trying to get comfortable. Dad didn’t even notice. I felt the knot, and I gulped as I realized that it was tight. And now, with the phone gone, I really was a goner.
I tried hard to think of some way to escape, but I couldn’t think of anything. Finally, I resorted to something that I realized was really the only way I was going to escape.
God, I prayed. Please. Please let me escape! Help me! I can’t do anything!
More tears slid down my cheeks, but these were real. Dad just thought they were part of my earlier outburst about not wanting to get hurt. But now I realized that I had to act now if I ever wanted to get away.
The jeep’s headlights revealed that we were on a long plain. If I ever wanted to get away, now was my chance. I glanced over at Dad, glanced ahead of us, and then made my decision.
“Ya!” I hit Dad with everything in me. Thankfully, he wasn’t expecting it. The jeep swerved and we started to slowly tip. I wasn’t sure if I was going to live through this, but, I consoled myself as I felt the jeep starting to flip over, at least I knew that I had done everything in my power to get away.
Chapter Thirty-One
Olivia
I
can’t move, was my first thought when my eyes started to flicker open. My vision was still a little blurry, but suddenly I realized that the reason that I couldn’t move was because the jeep was on top of me. I glanced down at my arms that were still tied. They were bloodied and cut, but amazingly I could still move them.
I knew it was only because of God that I was alive.
I looked at my bonds again and realized that they were half off. I slowly, and painfully, slipped them off. I turned my body and saw that my legs were stuck underneath the jeep.
I tried to lift it off my legs, but I just couldn’t. I was too strong. I collapsed from exhaustion. Slowly, my eyes closed.
Movement. Someone’s there, yelling.
“Olivia! Olivia, are you OK?! Oh, please, Olivia—say something!”
Hands, moving me. Pain coming off my legs. Finally, there’s peace. Finally, my legs aren’t being cut into. Finally the pressure on them is being released. Finally it’s just gone. I’ve never felt so relieved before in my life.
“Oh my word! Get a doctor over here!”
Footsteps. Somebody’s touching my leg. It hurts, but I can’t make them stop. I feel like somebody’s cutting my leg with glass shards, it hurts that badly whenever they put pressure on them. I wish that they would just stop. I try to tell them that, but I can’t speak.
“She’s going to be alright. I can’t believe it. Somebody up There was definitely watching over this young lady. There’s no way that she should’ve been in this good of condition.”
“How’s the dad?”
“I’ll have to check him. You guys, go get her in one of the vehicles and get her back to camp.”
Hands, lifting me. I’m on some kind of hard surface, kind of bouncing. It doesn’t feel stable, but I can’t say anything. I can’t get anything out of my mouth to protest.
“Be careful. I don’t trust that stretcher.”
“It’s OK, Alex. Just make sure that she doesn’t fall off, OK?”
“Right.”
Somebody holds onto me as I’m lifted up onto some kind of solid surface. A car is started, and suddenly we’re zooming along somewhere. My eyes flicker, but I can’t get them open.
“It’s going to be OK, Olivia. I promise.”
We’re still driving. Still going.
“Olivia, please say something. I need to hear your voice.”
I try to speak, but I can’t. I can’t even move. I almost can’t hold onto this half consciousness. I try to pull through, but I can’t. I’m stuck. I wonder faintly if I’m going to be like this for the rest of my life.
“OK, well, I just need to talk. Olivia, how long were you like that? We finally find you, and you’re wedged underneath a jeep, looking like you’re dead. And then we get to you…and I find out that you’re going to be alright. That you’re going to heal up and act in hundreds of more movies and get more and more famous as you go. And we’ll probably get to be in more movies, too. I mean, we’re really famous, and everybody just loves seeing us together. You’ll get better, you hear? You’re going to get better. I promise you, Olivia. I don’t know how your dad’s doing, but he’s never going to hurt you again. I promise.”
I couldn’t hold on any longer.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Alex
M
y baby,” whispered Mrs. McCarthy, cradling Olivia as we got her out of the jeep. “My poor baby. What happened to you? You’re going to be OK. Mummy’s here.”
“She really is going to be fine,” the doctor promised her. “God was watching over your girl, Mrs. McCarthy. She should’ve had much more severe injuries, but amazingly she’s going to come out just fine, without even a small blemish on her beautiful face.”
I almost couldn’t believe it.
Since I was better, Andy had me do some “just Jesse” scenes with Lauren filling in when Olivia couldn’t, much like what Olivia had been doing while I was out. For now, Olivia was confined to the trailer with her mum, her stepdad (who’d flown over from England), Arthur, and two new bodyguards that her family had hired to help protect her. Obviously they weren’t going to be taking any chances.
Though Andy had kept Olivia really busy while I’d been out of it, Andy made sure to give me extra time to visit Olivia. As far as we could all see it, me visiting her was like therapy. Already, she was sitting up and acting like normal, and performing exercises to her legs that had gone through a really bad banging up.
By the time that I’d gotten done filming all of the “just Jesse” scenes, Olivia was back to her normal self. There were a few scars on her legs, but you could barely even tell. Besides, she was naturally tan, so that also helped to hide them. I couldn’t even tell, and I knew that they were there.
“And now we just have a few more scenes and then we’re going to wrap up and get us all shipped off to Ireland,” Andy told us one day. “Then we’ll go to England and finish those scenes, and then of course you’ll be done and it’ll just be the editing time.”
As it was, scripts were already flowing in. I wasn’t sure which movie I was wanting to do next, but I was waiting—hoping—to see if maybe Olivia and I could get into the same movie again. I doubted it, but you never knew.
We finished the rest of the scenes and then shipped out of New Zealand. The plane ride to Ireland was actually really relaxing. We landed and then got into a hotel.
The next day we shot the scenes that we did in Ireland. It was right as we were shipping out that we finally found out the one last mystery that had been bothering us this whole time.
Who on earth Unknown was.
“Hey, Olivia.” Jeremy walked up, followed by Harry, Cody, Addie, and Lauren.
That’s when I remembered the Unknown thing. I looked all of the kids, and then frowned. I had to think of some way to trap them. Smiling slyly, I asked, “So, guys, I was wondering—none of you have actually really met Olivia before, right? Other than Harry, of course.”
“Uh, no,” snorted Lauren.
“Nope,” Addie shook her head.
Cody shrugged, which I took as “no”, but Jeremy was just fidgeting nervously. I frowned.
“Jeremy?”
He shrugged. “I saw Olivia at the premiere of Avalon Keeper, but that’s all.”
“So she was kind of unknown to you guys?” Olivia smiled slyly at me as I said the words as if she suddenly understood what I was doing.
“Of course she was,” snapped Jeremy. “What are you getting at?”
“Jeremy,” started Olivia, “are you Unknown?”
The guy was struck speechless.
“Jeremy,” started Olivia, “are you Unknown?”
The guy was struck speechless.
“I’d take that as a yes,” I chuckled. “Dude, you send creepy emails.”
“OK, OK.” He took a deep breath. “That was me. But it wasn’t my idea! My best friend wanted it to sound like that.” He snorted. “He thought it sounded like it came out of a book or something.”
“He gave me bad dreams,” glared Olivia.
“I’m sorry,” Jeremy managed.
“It’s OK,” she shrugged.
We shipped out of Ireland and started for England. I couldn’t wait.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Olivia
T
his key’s more important than we ever guessed,” smiled Alex, looking at the key that I was dangling in front of our eyes. It was the last scene we were going to be filming for The Key Secrets. I was so excited. It was going great.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “You’re right.”
“I wonder what’s going to happen next.” Alex got to his feet and moved over to the window of the attic.
I joined him, shrugging. “I don’t know what it’s going to be, but whatever it is, it’s going to be great. Because whatever it is, we’re going to do it together. Right?”
Alex grinned. “Right.”
We smiled at each other, linked hands, and then stared out the window.
“CUT!”
The filming was done. It had been a great time, even though I’d been kidnapped, rolled on by a jeep, stalked by a creepy boy, and lots of other things. But all through it I’d had God, my mum, and Alex. What more could I ask for?
Not only that, but my dad had been put in prison for life. And this time I was sure he wasn’t going to get out. It let me relax at night to know that I was going to be kidnapped in the morning.
I had lots of scripts coming to my door even now, even though The Key Secrets hadn’t even been finished yet and played. I was going through them, hoping for one that had Alex on board, too. I saw one that had Alex as one of the options for one of the people acting in it, and glanced at the title—Never.
“Hey, Mom,” I called. “Have you ever heard of a book called Never?”
“Oh, yeah,” she answered. “It’s a pretty new kids book by some new author, and apparently it was a New York Times bestseller. Why? Is it one of the movies?”
“Yeah,” I yelled back. “And Alex might be in it. I’m going to text him about it.”
“Do they have him on board for sure?”
“No,” I answered. “They’re going to be casting a lot of other famous actors. Oh, wow, this is going to be tough for him. They’re even having Caleb Brown as an option against Alex. You know—that really popular kid that Elle’s always gushing over.”
Mom chuckled. “I’m sure that Alex could beat him.”
I shrugged. “You never know. I’ll text Alex.”
I slipped my phone out of my pocket and send Alex a text.
Hey did u get a contract 4 Never?
I sent it and turned back to the Never contract, looking at the other names that Alex might have to be going up against. There were some other famous teen actors. I just hoped that Alex would be able to get in.
Ding!
I slipped my phone out of my pocket and quickly read his text.
Yes I’m thinking about it. what about u?
I smiled and quickly answered the text.
i’m in if u r.
I sent the text.
Ding!
I opened my phone back up and read Alex’s text back.
You’re on.
I grinned and then shut the phone.
To be continued in Olivia McCarthy: Never.
(P.S. This is from Storyteller. Sorry about the font change. =P)
Oooooohhhh, I wonder who the Unknown person is. (too bad I can't change fonts on this thing. I would have put the "Unknown" in chiller font=)
ReplyDeleteHaha, you'll soon find out, don't worry... towards the end of the book, but anyway...
DeleteHey, just wondering--you read any more of Rosalie? I sent some more to Ryder and I'm pretty sure Ryder put it up.
Bye!
~Storyteller
Ok! Thanks for putting the alert up on the Storyteller blog!
DeleteHaha, yeah, I was trying to catch you before you got off!!! ;) Hope you go check it out!!!!
DeleteAwesome! The part where the dad called gave my goose bumps!!! I can't wait for more!!! I'm "aquiver with antisipation"!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, I know!! Hahaha. So who do you think Unknown is?? You know, I had like this cool word art on Alex's blog, and pictures for everybody, but it didn't load very well.... Sorry about that, guys... Hope you're having a great day!!
Delete~Storyteller
i'm not sure! How did "Unkown" get her email?
DeleteHaha, I guess just like all of the rest of her fans did!! (in other words--I don't really know! Thus the "haha") =D
Delete&heartsS;
ReplyDeleteWow...... that didn't work.....
Delete&heartS;
ReplyDeleteWhat is &heartS;?
DeleteThat was me trying to do a heart. <3
DeleteOhhhhh. :D
DeleteYeah. :P Didn't really work!! Oh well. <3
DeleteHi! When are you going to post the rest of the story?
ReplyDeleteHmm...... can I add more? I think I have enough to add more!! I'll add it soon!! =D
DeleteHey! You added more! The unknown isn't Cody, is he?
ReplyDeleteYes, I did. :) I didn't say it was a he..... that's just what Alex thinks. But Olivia's not so sure........
DeleteIs "Unknown" Addie? Oh I can't wait till you post the rest!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMaddie
haha not telling!! =D Hopefully I'll have the time--and the brain haha--to work on it soon!!! =D
DeleteWill you post more soon? It's been a long time. And I know you're busy working on getting Connie ready..so...
ReplyDeleteSorry. :P Usually now I write on my computer instead of this one, and Olivia's story is on this one. I think I did move it over, though..... I'll have to work on it. For your sake. ;D
DeleteMore please!!! : )
ReplyDeleteIs Harry "Unknown"????? : / Hmmmmmmmmm............... guess I'll have to wait and see! Haha! : )
I'm trying... ;D
DeleteI'm not saying a word.... not one little word....... ;)
Ahh man!!! I was wrong! Great story,though!:)
DeleteWhen are you posting the 3rd one?
Thanks!! :)
Deletelol I haven't even STARTED the third one. =D
Lol!
DeleteWhat?!?!? Haven't even started it???
Make it your New Years Revolution to get that story done for me... QUICKLY! Lol! ;)
haha actually I don't make resolutions during New Year. =P
DeleteI was just kidding on that one... we don't usually make them either. LOL! :)
Deletehaha =D
DeleteThey've finally started! Whoa, Harry's different from the first book!
ReplyDeleteYep! DEFINITELY.
DeleteAHHH!!!!! That was a horrible ending! Please write more... SOON!!!!
ReplyDeleteI know, I know. I'm working on it. ;)
DeleteThis is the best Christmas gift EVER!
DeleteI'm glad you liked it. =D
DeleteMore please:):)
Deletelol =D
DeleteThat was awesome! Please write more! Quick!
ReplyDeleteThanks! lol I'm trying. =P
DeleteYay! I really really like this series. :) It's really refreshing to read a story about a girl and a boy who are best friends and not boyfriend/girlfriend. *Rolls eyes*
ReplyDeleteWrite more soon, 'kay?
Piper♥
Thanks!!! Yeah, I was going for that. I start wayyy too many books like that, and would just like a good book. I will!! :)
DeleteWow! You are an amazing writer!:) Please post more soon.
ReplyDelete~Autumn
Thanks, Autumn!! :)
DeleteHi Storyteller! It's Mandy, remember me? ;)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this so much. <3 Please write the third! :)
xo,
Mandy
Oh hey! :) Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier... #feelingbad
Delete