Page 3 of Bred by the Alien Prince

“Hi, my name is Caspian Storm. I’m nineteen years old and a recent college dropout.” I breathed in and out. “The reason I left college was because… well… you’re told throughout high school that you must keep going to school, even if you don’t know what you want to do, that you will find out who you are if you keep going. Well, that didn’t happen. And with everything done by Androids... The only thing I would get out of going to school is thousands of dollars worth of debt and not even a job flipping burgers. But Iwantto do this. When I heard about Outer Worlds, I knew this was for me. I hate this planet anyway, and only scientists and doctors can go to Mars. I want to make history, too. I know it sounds so dumb; it’s not coming out right.”

It looks like I’ve already flubbed this up big time, but maybe there was a chance they would fall in love with my innocent charm and nervous tick? Perhaps they would view me as authentic? That’s it, authentic was a seller now. The craze of fake plastic smiles was at an end. People wanted to see what was real and what I gave them was real.

Let’s continue, shall we?

“I guess I want to say there isn’t anything here for me. But there, the possibilities are endless! I’m good at organizing, and I’m a writer. I plan to record all my experiences for the future. I’m also a fast learner. If the ability to survive is what you want. I know how to hunt, fish, set up a camp, cook outdoors, and gut animals. My dad taught me before his death.”

Oh God, I think I wanted to vomit. I turned off the recording and rummaged through my folder for some of my old hunting and campfire footage. This vid was gonna need a lot of editing to make it presentable,

“Urgh.” Jolie entered my room. The juicy crunch of the tart apple she bit into sent my stomach into a frenzy; I hadn’t eaten in hours. Jolie was my older sister, older and, dare I say it, the better version of myself. She was twenty-three, and she graduated from university with a major in nursing with plans to hightail it to medical school. She had perfect grades, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect everything. I guess, more accurately put, I was the imperfect version of her, and I hated admitting it.

Mom was so proud of Jolie and always let her know it… but with me? Every little mistake may as well have been announced to the world on a loudspeaker. In a sense, that’s just how it was, except it was done through social media. Yeah, my mom always framed her vids as her being the doting mom to her screw-up son; she got a lot of sympathy for it and made some extra money on the side. When I was a kid and didn’t know any better, I helped her with her videos. Or more like I just did as I was told, like spill my juice on the carpet so she could ‘catch’ me trying to hide it from her. Or hit another kid so she could deal with her unruly son at school, who was starting fights with the other kids.

My role was that of the bratty little brother who had to annoy his big, studious sister.

I didn’t stand a chance.

I don’t even know why I’m recording this portion of the story. Perhaps it gives me some solace to remember what my life was like before the shit hit the fan?

Anyway, my sister was already being scouted by SpaceZero, one of the chosen few who get to live on Mars. She was thinking about it; the fact that she could think about it made me wanna scream.

Outer Worlds was a new space program developed by a group of billionaires who wanted to colonize a newly discovered habitable planet with a future focus on space exploration. Unlike SpaceZero, you could be a regular person and get to space through Outer Worlds, so long as you were young and fit.

“Outer Worlds aren’t going to pick you; I hope you know that,” Jolie said, taking another bite of her apple.

“How the hell would you know?!” I replied, already annoyed by her presence.

“They said they want the best and brightest, not a dropout.”

“They also said they want ages seventeen to thirty-five. I doubt they are expecting everyone to be a college grad.” I rolled my eyes and continued to splice away at the footage, this time tapping my finger harder on the keys than before, like it was some telepathic link to let my sister know how angry she was making me. “Why are you here?” Yeah, might as well go for the jugular. Although I doubt that line of questioning can be considered going for the jugular, whatever, it still made me feel good.

“Mom is giving you one last time to re-enroll. Just pick any major and make her proud instead of banking on being one of the five hundred thousand chosen for a stupid colony.”

She was the one to talk.

“Is mom gonna pay for my education like she’s doing yours?” That was a loaded question.

“You know she and Dad only saved up enough for me.”

“Liar. When I got too old to play the part of the unruly brat son Mom milked for social media credits, she used my school money to move us around all over the damn place after Dad’s death. She couldn’t bear touching your precious college money.”

She knew what I was doing, throwing up the fact that she was Mom’s favorite in her face.

“Dad was alive and well while Mom was doing that social media thing, and he didn’t do anything to stop it. But you still praise him while hating Mom.”

“I don’t praise him. He’s just not here to hate.”

“Or you feel guilty for what you did to cause his death."

"Get out."

"Fine.” Jolie waved her hand dismissively and left the room.

Now you see and understand why I needed to get the hell out of here. Can you imagine having the same conversations with the same people repeatedly, resolving nothing?

You either give in to their demands, or you put your foot down like an unmovable tree. No quarter and no compromise. One day, you wake up and realize that your entire life has been a compromise; just compromising for everyone else!

And I couldn't take it anymore…how both mom and Jolie blamed me for Dad's death…I guess it was my fault…I just needed to get away.

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