No one had been active on the portal since December 22nd. Sloan sat cross-legged on her bed, reading and re-reading all the posts, trying to decide who she liked and who she didn't. Lilly was out.

  The worst thing about Lilly was that she thought she knew everything. Sloan imagined that when they met in person, she'd have a Kendra Scott necklace draped around her throat and a Stanley cup in hand. Sloan could run faster than Lilly, but instead of posting her training times all over the portal, she'd wait and enjoy the look on Lilly's face when she beat her in their first-time trial together.

  "Oh, you thought you were faster than me, Lilly? Nope, you suck. Go home."

  Presley and Mary Jane were harder to dissect. There were no obvious reasons to dislike them. Sloan wasn't a fan of the volume of pics and selfies Presley posted. But they weren't thirsty look-at-my-boobs pics. They typically featured something interesting, with her in the background or not at all. She made bacon-wrapped waffles in the air fryer last week and posted about it. If Sloan had an air fryer, she'd probably make something similar. But she didn't, and like so many other things, bacon-wrapped waffles felt luxe and out of reach. She'd give Presley a chance.

  Mary Jane was dry, which made it easy to chuck her in the dislike pile, Sloan's default category for most people. But she was also intelligent and occasionally, pretty funny. She'd only posted one picture of herself in the portal, squatting with her dog, Jet. Jet was a black Labrador who clearly loved Mary Jane, swimming, and taking photos. Mary Jane had glasses and shoulder-length brown hair. Sloan would try to give her a chance. No promises.

  Milani was a hard pass, the whiney type whom Sloan would never vibe with simply because she was a baby. Poor Kai had his hands full with her. She'd actually posted a video of herself crying during space camp. Of course, her mom had written a book underneath the post about how strong she was. Except that her mom didn't have the credentials to access the portal, so it looked like Milani replied to herself underneath the video, since her mom had used Milani's login to post. The whole thing was cringe. No one had liked or commented on the video. Milani would probably cry about everything. The idea of that made Sloan's skin crawl. She wasn't equipped to handle fragile people. They repelled her like two same sides of a magnet. Sloan had decided not to like Miliani and to tell her as soon as possible.

  "I'm gonna put it to you like this, Milani. No one cares."

  After finding out they'd been assigned to a room together during quarantine, she'd emailed Red Rock immediately, the message somewhat direct.

  Dear Red Rock,

  I will not be rooming with Milani.

  Sloan

  No one had responded to the email. She'd reevaluate in a few days if no one reached out.

  Mia seemed decent. She'd called Lilly out on the portal, suggesting she stop recommending foods everyone should eliminate from their diet. Sloan had elevated the discord by posting a Hitler GIF under the conversation strand. She'd received a phone call about the post asking her to take it down. And she had but now that no one could even email her back about the room assignments, she regretted her swift compliance.

  She'd DM'd Mia a few times, spurred on by a shared dislike of Lilly. They'd chatted about nothing, but the chatting was easy. Mia told Sloan about Trevor and his connection to her ex-boyfriend. Sloan had responded with two words ~completely fucked~ which resulted in a second phone call from Red Rock. However, Sloan refused to delete that conversation, citing her right to privacy, and claimed that Red Rock should be grateful she hadn't exposed them lurking around in their DMs. No one had mentioned those messages would be screened. She'd posted the following statement the very next day.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  All M6 candidates, be advised, Big Brother is watching what we POST and SAY to each other on DM. Personally, I think it's shit, as they never disclosed that our civil rights would be violated. So, if you're trying to get into each other's pants, RR knows. Cheers!

  The portal went wild for days after that, with everyone liking the post and tagging each other with kissy-face emojis and thumbs-ups. There'd been a third call, and Sloan's Mom, Renee, told her to chill out. Sloan had kept her posts and comments relatively mild since then, but she and Mia switched to communicating offline. Mia felt like someone Sloan could connect with. She hoped the ease between them wouldn't vanish when there wasn't a screen to hide behind.

  All the boys seemed decent, except Camden. He was constantly posting random memes and dumb comments. Presley didn't seem to mind. She liked and hearted them all. He'd mentioned knowing Presley since kindergarten in a recent thread. Maybe she'd grown used to Camden. Sloan felt that way about Max. They hadn't gone to kindergarten together because Sloan had lived five states away from him in kindergarten. But they'd known each other since sixth grade. He could be a dick, but never to her. The thing she liked most about Max was he intuitively sensed when she needed space. The trade-off was that she would allow him to act like an idiot sometimes without calling him out in front of his friends. They'd done well at space camp. She trusted him not to get her killed.

  There was nothing not to like about Trevor and Kai, the M6 class clowns, feeding off each other like a Vegas comedy act. They kept the vibe on the portal going strong. Sloan thought Trevor was good-looking, although she'd never admit that to Mia. It didn't matter anyway because Sloan wasn't into boys. Renee didn't know that about her daughter, but her alcoholic boyfriend did. He'd learned real quick after trying to kiss her once after Renee had gone to bed early.

  Edward, another teammate, was essentially a male version of Mary Jane, sharing facial features, including glasses and freckles, although Edward was a ginger. Sloan thought he might come in handy in a crisis, so she kept him in her "like" category. She wasn't planning to die on Mars, and if Edward could contribute to that goal in any way, she'd tolerate him. Lastly, there was Alejandro, or Alex as he'd rather be called. He was an interesting guy, mainly because he also got in trouble on the portal and seemed to think Lilly was ridiculous. And there it was, her rudimentary synopsis of all twelve soon-to-be teen astronauts.

  A crash jolted Sloan's attention away from the computer, and she was on her feet before she heard the thud.

  "Mother Fucker," she shouted, blood pulsing up her neck.

  "Oh God," she whispered, crossing her bedroom and throwing open the door. The sound of her brother crying made everything worse.

  "Get out of our house!" Sloan screamed, taking the stairs two at a time.

  "If I see you, I'm calling the cops!"

  And then she was at the bottom of the stairs, her mom, bloody and on the floor. Michael, her little brother, bent over, sobbing. Sloan crouched by her mom, touching her forehead, thick with clotting blood.

  "He threw a glass at Mommy," Michael said.

  "Mom, can you hear me?" Sloan said, pushing broken glass away from where Michael sat.

  "Yeah. Make a wet dishrag. Get some pressure on it."

  Sloan stood, putting her hand on Michael's shoulder. He stood, too, following her to the sink, burying his face in her hoodie as they walked. She wondered what would happen to him when she was gone. The guilt never left her.

  When Sloan returned with the dishrag, Renee sat up, robotically picking glass from her sweater. She smiled briefly, then looked away.

  "He's got to go. It's going to be just you and Mikey here soon. It's not safe."

  "I'll handle it, baby. Michael, go plug in the Christmas tree."

  "What the fuck, Mom?" Sloan whispered as Michael ran to plug in the lights. "I'm leaving in four days. Can you promise me he'll be safe?"

  "We'll be fine, baby. You know, Billy, don't stay mad. We work it out every time."

  Sloan stared at her mother, horrified. She was leaving and would have no control over what happened to her brother. The only thing she could offer was a promise to come home and take him away once she got rich and famous for going to Mars. She turned to watch Michael, who, after plugging in the tree, sat behind it, rocking. She'd kill anyone who stood in the way of her keeping that promise to her brother.