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.

Maybe that was easier said than done.

+++

It had been fashion shows and talk shows and showing up everywhere trailed by a pack of paparazzi. She'd worn fancy dresses and so much makeup that she had trouble recognizing herself sometimes─ her brown skin and tilted eyes and curly hair, inherited from a Hispanic mother and a Japanese father. At least her hair, dyed in a fit of rebellion a month earlier, was the same shade of blue─ the Colonized people's fancy replicating dye had matched the color exactly, and now she wouldn't have to worry about redoing it while she was on the planet.

That thought─ that soon she wouldn't even be on Earth─ was what kept her awake at night in her fancy hotel room in New York. The boy was here somewhere, and the other contestants. She'd probably seen them, but she wasn't supposed to talk to them, in case one of them was Jace. The people from the show didn't want them to meet before they were supposed to, before tiny cameras could follow their every move.

And that was okay, because Twix had absolutely no interest in talking to Jace anyways.

She had no interest in any of this. She wanted another week of family time, an extra month to see her friends.

But launch day was tomorrow, and they were thousands of miles away off in Kansas.

Call Xacob, Twix thought, and the computer in her head initiated the call. She heard it beeping as it tried to connect. And after a minute, she heard it go to voicemail.

I tried, she thought. At least I tried.

Her tears were wet against her pillow.

+++

The time it took for them to reach the first planet passed in a blur. Survival training classes, celebrations, packing and unpacking, checking her messages, chatting with friends and strangers online, posting the art she made on her computer on her blog. She spent any free time drawing, sitting in secluded spaces and imagining brush strokes into existence.

There wasn't much of that, though. She barely had time to process anything before they were there.

It wasn't her planet. It was the one chosen by the Russians, and she'd heard that their two Contestants had been chosen, not through luck of the draw like America's, but through a rigorous application process that tested intelligence, survival skills, and genes to find the most compatible pair. Twix watched as the boy was led out to the surface pod, and when his door closed, the girl was put in the other half.

"Ten... nine... eight... seven..." a woman counted down, smiling for a pod camera hovering nearby. She stood in front of the barricade blocking off the dropship, backing away as she got closer to zero. "Drop in three, two, one... zero!"

The floor in the chamber behind her opened up and the surface pod dropped through the hole, falling towards the planet. A few minutes later, Twix heard the woman say, "Russia's Contestants have landed!"

The room applauded. Twix looked at the other teens in the room, wondering which of them she'd be with when they dropped, wondering what it would be like when it was their turn.

Everyone started to disperse, but Twix stayed for a moment. It felt odd leaving them there, like they were abandoning them as their ship soared off to another planet. Obviously it would return; the main ship would make rounds of the various planets to drop supplies and pick up footage to send back to Earth through the wormhole. But the two teenagers were alone on a new world, and there was no one nearby to help them if anything went wrong.

The thought gave her chills.

The next drop was Zymboga, then Ymboga, then the UK's candidates. Alaria passed, as did the United Islands. And then it was her turn.

Her trunk, with as many belongings squeezed in as possible, was loaded onto the surface pod. Another case with food, water, and tools, was stowed along with it. She was assigned a podcam that memorized her face and computer signal so it could always follow her around.

Twix took a deep breath as a lady led her into the left side of the pod and helped strap her into her seat. "This will release automatically when you land," the woman told her. "But just in case, there's a button by your left hand." Her mouth was dry, but she managed to croak out a "thanks."

Her heart was racing faster than it had even when they launched, and she could feel everything intensely. Every part of her body vibrated with nervous energy at the coming drop, at that feeling of the world falling out from under her. She'd gone skydiving with Wymmie once; the fear felt similar to that, but at least then she'd known what the ground looked like beneath her. Now she was going to fall with no idea where she'd land, and it terrified her. She took another deep breath.

"Good luck, Twix. America's rooting for you," the lady said with a smile. Twix's stomach turned, and she felt sure she was going to throw up. Then she thought about how the vomit would float around once they started to fall and vowed not to.

The lady stepped out of the surface pod and closed the door, and as it engaged, sealing her in, she felt overwhelming claustrophobic. Breathe, she commanded herself, just breathe.

Through the wall, she heard the same procedure being performed with the boy and realized through her nervousness that he was in there, which only made her feel worse.

"Drop in ten, nine, eight..." she heard a man saying, and against all logic and probability, her heart actually managed to beat faster than it already was.

"...seven, six, five..." I'm not ready, she thought wildly, not ready at all.

"...four, three, two..." She was so scared. Terrified.

"One..." God, help me.

"Zero." The floor dropped out beneath the pod, and Twix screamed.

Hey there! I hope you've enjoyed Chapter One! One of my favorite things about Wattpad is the ability of the author and readers to interact, so tell me what you think in the comments! I love hearing what you think! Also, if you liked the chapter, please consider voting or visiting my page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078PZG2ZW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514686693&sr=8-1&keywords=colonized+kimberly+tate! Thanks!

(Also, the image at the top was my first cover, made by 12242k01.)