Lost--(ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE)

Chapter One

Chapter Song: Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots

"What do you mean you're going to Mars?" My mother screeched as I told her the news. I had passed all of the tests and was confirmed to be one of the seven astronauts on the Ares 3. Exciting, right? You would think that my parents would be happy, even excited for me. My dad was ecstatic, my mom, however, was going bat shit crazy.

"You heard correctly, Linda," My father tried to calm her down. Key word: tried.

"First your brother and now you!" She wailed. Wait, Mark was accepted too? Well at least I'll know someone there. My father motions for me to leave while he calms down Mom. She seems so nervous, but, in reality, I'm the one who should be nervous. I've got to work with 5 strangers on a spaceship. Even though the entire Ares 3 crew would be 2 weeks before the launch, its still kinda terrifying.  My phone buzzed, alerting me to a message from Mark.

Mark: Are they arguing again?

I looked at the text confused. How would he know?

Mark: I'm outside.

Ah. That explains it. I looked out the window and saw him sitting on the tree swing. I walked quickly to my room and climbed through the window. My parents were near the front door (i really don't want to talk to them at the moment) and my window is the closest to the swing. I slowly walked towards him and sat down next to him. He jumped up when he felt the added weight to the swing.

"Did you get accepted?" he asked. I had already did the two years of training, I was just waiting for the conformation to be on one of the Ares missions.

I smiled and told him, "Yes I did." He looked at me and motioned for me to go on. "Ares 3, which I assume is your mission too?" His face lit up as he processed the words. He grabbed me in a hug and held just a little too tight. But, thankfully, I'm used to it.

"This is gonna be awesome!" He practically shouted. I hope so Mark, I really do.

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Mark stayed for dinner and slept overnight. Apparently, everyone had a "partner" to make it easier  to go to the space station. Everyone had one except for a guy named Alex Vogel who lived in Germany. The pairs were Mark and me (duh), Chris Beck and Beth Johansson, and Rick Martinez and Melissa Lewis. Mark told me that all of us would meet up next week so that when we were ready to go, everyone would be comfortable with each other. I was fine with that, and so was Mark, but our mother was not.  She insisted that NASA was trying to take her children away from her. We both had moved out years ago. I guess leaving the planet was a whole different thing?  I guess that Mark and I had the same idea of not telling them over the phone. Well, Mark did, he was too excited to not tell them. After we calmed her down, I went to go pack. We would be leaving on Monday and today was Saturday. I forget things easily if someone doesn't remind me constantly. Hence the giant stack of sticky notes and a pile of pens in my bag. How did I ever survive college? I went through two container of pens (each had fifty pens) and my hands, arms, legs and feet were covered in ink.

Sunday was going to be a lazy day (I go to church on Saturdays) so I didn't have to worry about having a particular outfit. My Star Wars pajamas will do. Mom finally accepted that we were both going into space after dinner. Thank God.

"Char, Mark!" Dad yelled, which was really unnecessary- these walls are paper thin (I learned that the bad way, don't ask)  "You both have a package!" I darted out of my room, almost running into Mark, and practically ran towards my father. On top of the packages was a typed letter from NASA. These people think that they are so professional, don't they?

Mark and Charlie Watney,

You both are allowed to bring personal items from Earth on your trip to Mars. Make sure that the lid can close properly and that it is not too heavy.

-Venkat Kapoor, Director of the Mars Mission. 

Nice. I took one of the boxes and a sharpie and walked back to my room. I had already downloaded all of my music onto a flash drive and I put it in the box, I did the same with my movies and TV shows too. I crammed as many books as I could and put in my laptop and a bunch of pens. I then put a couple of photos and my camera in too. This is space, its gonna be beautiful. I placed the lid on top and it snapped nicely into place. I then took the sharpie and wrote WATNEY 2.0 on it. I'm sure Mark is gonna love that.  Walking to my 1967 Chevy Impala, I opened up the trunk and put the box in it along with my bag. Yes, my car is old- It was my father's. Yes it works perfectly. No I did not steal it from the Winchesters. No, I did not name it Baby. Yes it looks just like the one Dean Winchester has. Great minds think alike.

Mark walks next to me and puts his stuff in the trunk. I sigh, walking back to the house as night falls. Its gonna be a long day tomorrow.

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Word count: 932

So this is a side book while I write When Time Stops. I saw that there are that many Martian fanfics out there, so I decided to make one.

Criticism is welcome no matter what, and thank you for reading!

-Courtney