After meeting with Anna's family that consists of three cousins who are Jayme, Axel and Nixon (all of which are from separate families), Anna's mother, Reena, her father, David and of course dancing, the celebration unfortunately had to come to an end.

During the final week of The Draw, the top five are advised to spend their last week left on Mars with their families as their parents were not proven worthy enough to go and so therefore the top five will never be able to see them again.

But just because the celebration ended there doesn't mean the party's over elsewhere. To supply the top five with more bonding time with loved ones, their dorm rooms are the only rooms that do not have lights out at the standard time of everyone else, 8:30. Instead, lights out is at 10:00 and Nila's family is making the most of it.

"Woohoo! Okay, whadda we got?" Nila's father walks over to an old music player holding an alcoholic drink in his hand and shuffles through a handful of old disks. "Uh..no, no, no..hmm. Bob Marley.." Jerad mumbles to himself and pulls out a single disk from the bunch of them.

"Who's Bob Marley?" asks Nila.

Her father snorts in reply. "No idea."

Jerad puts the disk into the music player and presses play, suddenly carefree and happy music fills the room. Nila's mother sways into the room, smiling and makes her way to her husband. They share an embrace and slow dance for awhile until they turn to look at their daughter. Janice pecks a kiss on Jerad's cheek and heads off into the kitchen to get another drink.

"May I have this dance, beautiful princess?" asks Nila's father as he bows fancily and holds out a hand.

Nila giggles and accepts. They twirl and spin around the living room, Jerad mouths some of the lyrics as they dance.

Don't worry, bout a thing.

Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.

Singin: don't worry, bout a thing.

Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.

"Nila!" Her mother calls from the kitchen where a mouth watering aroma is spreading throughout the dorm.

As a reward of becoming one of the Drawn, each family of the top five is rewarded with baskets of high end and nutritious food. With which Janice has just finished cooking an amazing roast with.

"Food is ready."

Jerad and Nila hurry over to the small dining table in the centre of the room. As Nila sits down she hears a loud, "Oof!" and looks to her right to see her father had walked straight into the table and has spilt alcohol everywhere. Nila stifles a laugh.

Janice walks out of the kitchen holding a big plate of roast potatoes and throws Nila's father a look of mild disapproval. "Your father's drunk."

Jerad looks at his wife, bewildered. "I am certainly not," he pauses to burp, "Drunk."

"Sure," Nila's mother replies in a sarcastic manner.

By the way Nila's father composes himself and would slur his words gives Nila no doubt that he most certainly is drunk.

Nila and her mother both exchange looks and jokingly shake their heads. Nila's family enjoy a spectacular roast and the days that follow are exactly the same, joyful and festive.

Until Monday.

#

The day has come. The departure to Earth.

Nila can't seem to dial down the cyclone of butterflies in her stomach as she walks through The Tower hand in hand with her best friend, Anna. Her family and Nila's are slowly following behind, a particular drag in their footsteps. They finally arrive at the highest point of The Tower, that has a platform leading to a tunnel. Past large double doors there's a square room just outside the dome, where connected to one side of it is a high-tech pod, made of Andursite waiting to be boarded. Officials and leaders of Mars call and cheer as the top five make their way in the room. Hanging from the ceiling is a big banner with the word, "Farewell!" painted across it and confetti is thrown out of buckets into the walkway that they slowly make their way through.

The first in command strides over in his well-cut suit and formal looking attire with a handful of shiny, white medals in his hands. Nila studies him up and down nervously. She's never met the first in command before, let alone stood this close to him. The man styles a grey suit that matches his slicked-back greying hair, accompanied with a white tie. He clears his throat and begins to address the crowd.

"Citizens of Mars, here, in my hands I hold medals of courage and bravery! I would like to present these to the top five participants of The Draw on behalf of Mars' leadership committee and our beloved population to express our gratitude. For you are doing us proud by making Earth grow and flourish so maybe one day, we can all once again inhabit it. If you could walk up, one at a time please," he lowers his voice for the last part and Brice walks over to give him a firm hand-shake.

The first in command smiles and says thank you, then slides the medal over his head. He does this for everyone. Nila slowly creeps forward in the slow moving line as people want to say their goodbyes to their parents before they board the pod. The pod. Nila takes a glance at it and immediately finds herself thinking of Chloe. It's simply upsetting that non-TED member persons aren't allowed at the Send-Off party. Nila then looks around the room and catches sight of another friend. Dylan who is standing next to his father with a pained expression on his face. He must hate it that he can't go to Earth, his father (having such a high status) must've stopped him from going. There's no other possible reason because Dylan was one of the best the class ever had.

It's finally Nila's turn to receive a medallion and she turns to face her parents whom both have tears in their eyes.

"My little baby girl," her mother gets out between sobs and Nila gives her a hug.

"It's ok. Please, don't cry," Nila replies while stroking a hand down her mother's hair.

Nila's father steps forward and picks Nila up in a bear hug, squeezing while he does so. He also has a tear rolling down his face but quickly wipes it away. Wanting to make a good example, however, he isn't doing too well at it. He sets his daughter down and she kisses him on the cheek.

"Nila Weathers," the first in command interrupts.

Nila realises that she has to get going and says one final thing.

"I love you!"

"We love you too," they reply and Nila turns around to receive her medal.

The first in command shakes her hand firmly then puts the medal around her neck. "Thank you for your service. Just follow the path to the platform." Nila nods and walks away, out of sight of her family.

Nila sucks in a deep breath as she enters the pod. It's spacious yet small and there's all the requirements needed for a long journey like food, a small bathroom, a single shower and the cushiony seats that line the sides of the ship recline into beds. Of course for these appliances and luxuries to actually work and for them to make their way around the craft without floating, the spaceship spins at high speeds at a point where it's no longer felt on the inside and creates centrifugal gravity. This artificial gravity isn't exactly perfect but it's close enough to the real thing. It's just whenever Nila takes a peek out of the two small windows the spacecraft actually has in the body of the ship, the view results in her getting a motion sickness, nauseous feeling in her head and stomach.

The journey will probably take at least nine to twelve weeks, including stops at two separate stations to fill up the ship's fuel supply and check that everything is running optimally. One being at the halfway point from Mars and the other close to the Moon. Anna whistles and pats the empty seat next to her, Nila smiles and walks over. The seats are white and have a ridiculous amount of buckles and straps and so Anna and Nila help each other get settled.

The massive turbo engines start up, even louder and ear defining than the initial ones. The ship's door closes and the orchestra of cheering and applause outside suddenly halts to a stop, all sound from the outside can no longer be heard. Nila throws one last glance outside the window from before, noticing her family, as well as her friend's, being prompted to move away from the ship for safety by guards. She then looks around the ship to see Brice smiling over at Riley who's giving the thumbs up. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn looks just about as nervous as Nila feels. The racket of the impact-proof glass sliding doors behind them screeching to close echoes through the room, and Nila can only imagine the booming sound of the sturdy metal door ahead of them opening up to what lies beyond.

The pod starts to shake as it prepares to take off at high speed and Nila looks beside her at Anna. Suddenly, Nila recalls the gift Anna gave her at the Descension Party and hastily pulls out the necklace before they take off. A symbol of her home to hold in her hands as they're propelled away forever. They breifly share a smile before they're both pushed back into their seats from the air inside the pod as the ship flies away from Mars. Nila closes her eyes and remembers the moments her and her family had celebrating this week. Whispering a song to herself.

Don't worry, bout a thing.

Cause every little thing, is gonna be alright.

Singin: don't worry, bout a thing.

Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.