Colonized {PUBLISHED}

Chapter 1: Twix

Twix stood on the balcony, staring at the pale blue dot receding into the distance. Except it's not really a balcony, she reminded herself. It was a glass bubble on the side of the ship, protruding out into space as though trying to ensure that she was aware of how small she was, as though she could have forgotten.

Space was so much emptier than she had imagined. Children's drawings always showed millions of stars overlapping, all floating nearby, but that wasn't really the case. Just an inky blackness with occasional points of light. It didn't feel like she was swimming in stars, in the cosmic dust of the universe. It felt as it was─ she was standing on a balcony-that-wasn't-a-balcony, staring at the Earth- at her home- disappearing, being swallowed by the distance between. And there was nothing like that space between to make Twix feel like nothing more than a speck, no matter how much larger-than-life this competition had portrayed her to be.

+++

It was a Saturday morning. Her mom was making bacon in the kitchen while Twix and her stepdad sat on the couch, the TV turned on, even though they could have watched more easily on their personal computers. There was just something about watching together.

A bald man smiled at them from the TV screen, his teeth bright-white like the shirt he wore under his suit jacket. "─ like to thank everyone who applied to compete in our new reality show, Colonized. We had over 7 million applicants, and our random drawing selected two, who we will announce momentarily. The two lucky winners have not been notified yet, so we'll get to see their reactions firsthand!" Twix found herself smiling with Taylor Kramer onscreen.

"I can't believe you're watching this," Twix's mom grumbled as she walked in, handing a plate of bacon and eggs to each of them. "These shows are all the same."

"This one's on a different planet, at least," she pointed out. She tried to sound uninterested, but she was terrified that her beating heart would give her away.

Her mom frowned. "I just can't imagine how expensive this must be."

Twix's stepdad shrugged. "I can't imagine how rich Kramer is."

"─the male winner is─" Kramer said, and Twix hushed her parents. "Jace Blackstone!" A photograph flashed onscreen of a tall boy with dark, shaggy hair, and a casual smile. It disappeared then, and Kramer smiled for the cameras again. "And now, for our female winner─" he paused for effect; the silence lasted an eternity. "─is Twix Velasquez!"

And the eternity of silence stretched on.

She blinked at the TV as her parents blinked at each other, then at her.

"Twix?" Her mom asked, as her picture flashed onto the screen, her blue curls unmistakable. "How─"

"I told you it was for school," she said, her mouth dry and mind racing. "I didn't think this would actually happen. Xacob and I just thought─"

They looked at her like she was a stranger, and the silence grew choking. She ran to the front door and yanked it open, ready to jump in her car and drive anywhere, but a flash went off and she was blinded. She stumbled forward, blinking away spots, and when her vision returned, she saw them─ a sea of reporters had somehow materialized on her lawn. More lights flashed, more pictures were taken, and Twix's eyes watered as she realized what had happened.

She had won.

She was leaving Earth.

+++

Direction was relative in space. She knew she was the one flying away, but it felt instead like her home was leaving her.

Twix frowned at the stars, at the little blue planet that housed everyone she knew. Then she turned around back into the ship. Maybe it would be easier to deal with all of this if she didn't watch all of it vanish; maybe she needed to find a way to accept this unrealistic reality that she somehow was living in.