"Hello, my name is Hope Anderson." A young woman with curly strawberry-blonde hair smiled and waved at the camera. "I am Dr. Bettencourt's top student at his worldwide preparatory schools. He asked me to record my final year; believing it would inspire future Mars colonization students. Although I could not fathom why anyone would not want to attend his schools."

It was dark in her room, except for the spotlight hovering above her. She sat on her bed and put black slippers on. She wore a grey Bett Prep t-shirt and blue jean shorts.

"Now, I'm going to show you the secret to my success. Are you ready?" she pointed at her clock that read 5:00 am and said, "The secret is hard work. There are no fairy-godmothers here or magic spells to make everything easier. Trust me. I tried. I was not born a genius like Cole or the rest of the competition, so I need to study a lot. Not to mention, I spent my life preparing for an opportunity to work at Bettencourt Enterprises, so when I got my foot in the door, I made it to the top and never slowed down." She pictured Lightning McQueen sprinting away the instant Mater released his restraining boot. Except in this scenario, she did not want to leave merely to beat everyone else.

She stood and continued, "School does not start until 8:00am, but to maintain first place, I must put in at least two hours of additional preparation. You can thank my dad for that tip. I wake up at five in the morning, shower, and get dressed. That leaves me ten minutes to deal with anticipated delays." Her viewer beeped. "Follow me. We need to wake Cole."

Hope beckoned the camera to follow into the hallway. She tiptoed across the front room, avoiding her sleeping dog Dusty on the way. Normally, that would have been a challenge, but the spotlight that followed her lit her path. Everyone in her house was still asleep. She exited through her front door and paused on her natural wood porch. She breathed in the fresh cool air and viewed the orange and blue horizon. The chill in the air outside raised the hairs on her bare forearms.

She lived on a circle, and every house in her neighborhood was identical. She grinned, knowing that at the end of this school year, they would finally leave this planet. Well, some of them would. Birds chirped, and squirrels tussled in the dry leaves. She continued toward Cole's house next door.

"Happy Birthday, Hope!" Cole's mom said, startling her. She wore a fluffy pink robe, pajamas, and slippers. She held the door open with one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other.

"Thank you, other mom," Hope said and smelled the pleasant aroma.

Cole's mom hugged her. "How does it feel to be fifteen?"

"The same as I felt yesterday. Is Cole up?"

His mom laughed, shielding her eyes from the spotlight. "Not yet. I tried to wake him, but his door's locked."

"Don't worry. I'll get him up." Cole had uploaded his passkey to her viewer.

"He's lucky to have a friend like you," she said.

Hope winked at her. Then marched to his room. She burst through his door, shouting, "Rise and shine princess, it's time to get up!" Her spotlight brightened his room, with clothes scattered everywhere. The chaotic sight agitated her. She yanked the blanket off him.

A nude Cole leapt to his feet, covering himself with his hands. "What the hell?" His hazel eyes squinted at her.

The bright light accentuated Cole's athletic body. "Relax, it's nothing I haven't seen." She lied because he had become taller and more muscular over the summer.

"Everybody's going to watch this; did you have to bring it here?" He pointed at the camera pinned to her shirt.

"It auto-censors nudity, although it won't make your room look any cleaner." She pinched a dirty t-shirt between her thumb and forefinger, then tossed it into his hamper.

"Cole, put your clothes on!" His mom appeared in the doorway. "Hope, oh good. You got in. I need to get ready; can you make sure he is moving? He quit listening to me years ago, but he follows you around like a lost puppy."

"I'm right here, mom."

Hope blushed. "I'll make sure he gets ready." She escorted her into the hallway and closed his door, making certain to lock it this time. Julie, Cole's mom, was part of the expected ten-minute delay, but she just exceeded her daily allotment with the birthday hug and this interruption.

Cole laid back down and pulled the comforter over himself.

"Not you too." She re-focused on Cole. "You promised to do whatever I told you," she said. "We're in this together, remember?"

"It's the first day of school. We have nothing to study." The pillow muffled his voice.

She knew he would use that excuse. "I asked the principal for a list of the required books."

"Of course you did."

"Cole, to go to Mars, we have to finish this year in the top three." He was aware just needed a reminder. "And this year starts today."

Cole leapt to his feet once more. "Fine. I'm up." He rubbed his muddled blonde hair. "I need a shower." He yawned and stumbled into his bathroom.

"Walk and talk, princess. We only have five minutes."

She heard him start the water, and he shouted, "Did you bore everybody with your detailed time budgeting?"

She chuckled.

Cole continued, "No one will join after they see how you schedule 'talking to the mailman' for 23 seconds."

She laughed and shouted, "I don't do that!"

Did she? If she did, it would be more like one minute or thirty seconds.

"Did you see the news?" Cole yelled.

"About what?"

"They announced that Skye Bettencourt will join our Mars trip."

"You're joking, right?"

"Nope. And her dad said she would attend one of his schools this year."

Hope took out her viewer and announced, "Find Skye Bettencourt news." A three-dimensional hologram appeared over her viewer with a news headline:

Trillionaire Princess Going to Mars

She heard Cole turn off the shower. Hope read the article. The beginning, focused on his son, Kody, and how he died of cancer one year ago. Then it switched to the popularity of his sister's reality show Being Skye. At the end, it mentioned the subject she was most concerned about. She said, "Oh good. It states that she will not take up one of our spots." She read the rest of it and put away her viewer.

Cole sauntered into the room, wearing blue jeans and a faded grey shirt. She breathed in his familiar baby powder scent.

"Good, you're dressed."

"Happy Birthday, Hope!" Cole embraced her. It caught her off guard, but she always felt better when he did that. "I'm glad to have you as my best friend."

"Thank you, very much. But you know I don't care about stuff like that."

"Yes. You do, which is why I did it."

What were they talking about before? Oh yeah. Skye.

Cole had his viewer opened to the same article.

Hope added, "Skye probably woke up this morning and said," Hope changed to imitating the whiny voice Skye made when she pleaded with her dad, "Daddy, can I please go to Mars?" She gave Cole her sad puppy dog eyes and batted her eyelashes. Skye always wore fake ones on her reality show. Nothing seemed real about her.

Cole stood tall, impersonating Dr. Bettencourt. He inhaled deeply, brought his fists up to hands to ribcage like Superman, and pompously bellowed, "Anything for you, my dear. Alert the media, Skye's going to Mars!" He thrust his hand through the air, where the headline would be.

Both belly-laughed uncontrollably. When they settled down, Cole said, "It must be nice to be rich. They can fly wherever, whenever, while we spend years begging for a chance. Did they say which school she's going to?"

"No. They did not."

"I hope she's going..."

"Name jinx!" Hope reached over and pinched the soft tissue on his upper arm.

"Dammit!" Cole shouted, rubbing his arm.

She knew the perfect spot to make it hurt the most.

"You're gonna pay."

"Like I was saying, I want her to go to our school because she's insanely hot."

His infatuation with her was nothing new, but the possibility that she could attend their school induced a twinge of jealousy. "The last thing you need is more distractions."

Her viewer beeped. "Time to study and eat breakfast." She herded him toward the kitchen. The aroma of French Toast made her mouth water. "I'm starving."

There were two plates with eggs, French Toast, and cantaloupe. She preferred eating here because everything his mom made was delicious. Her mom was not an awful cook, but she did not care about the result. Julie did.

Hope devoured her food because it was delicious, and it saved time. She bit into the crunchy French Toast with the perfect amount of butter and sweet maple syrup. She glanced at Cole's plate and he had touched nothing. That was rare. She stared at him quizzically.

"What do you think the chances are that Skye will go to our school?"

"Seriously. You should be studying if you're not eating."

Cole awakened his viewer.

"I forwarded you Professor Blanche's journal entry about the ideal temperature inside a dome. You can start reading it."

Hope did what she told Cole to do. Professor Blanche gave regular, not-so-surprise quizzes. She expected her to test them on her recent publication.

The sound of squeaky brakes came from outside. Everybody on their street could hear everything because even quietest sounds reverberated between the circular houses.

They ran to the window and found a large black SUV parked in Hope's driveway. A female driver, professionally dressed, exited the vehicle. She read something on her viewer while walking. Hope recognized her because she was their show's producer. She randomly appeared at school and followed Johnny around.

Another person with crazy fake blonde spiky hair checked his reflection in the mirror then exited the passenger seat. He opened the trunk and removed three large shiny silver balloons with six smaller pink balloons. One of the shiny silver balloons had "Happy Birthday". He also grabbed a bouquet of roses. It could have been a dozen or fifteen for her age.

"Why is Johnny Sonic bringing you balloons for your birthday?'

"Maybe because he's the host of the Mars Prep show."

"I'm assuming he did not ask because you would have mentioned it."

Hope made her way outside, but it was too late. He had already rung the bell at her house. Her mother answered the door wearing a robe with long messy hair. The same color as Hope's.

"Good Morning, Johnny." Hope met them on her porch.

"Happy Birthday, Hope!" He embraced her.

"Did we have something scheduled?" She knew the answer.

"Nope. This is a gift from your fans."

"I don't have fans."

"No way! Who would want to watch a bunch of nerds on TV?" Cole asked. He had followed her outside. "Especially when they could watch Skye instead."

"Good Morning, Cole." Johnny Sonic and Cole shook hands.

"Good Morning, Johnny." Cole yawned.

"Do not sell yourselves short. Many people enjoy watching the number one girl tackle her weekly challenges with her best friend. Your audience is not as large as Being Skye, yet you do have fans. Which is why I am here. Thousands of them contacted the show and insisted that we surprise you on your birthday with flowers and balloons."

Johnny handed them to her, then the producer aimed the camera at Hope. He placed his microphone in front of her face. He said, "Please say a few words for your fans watching at home."

"Wait," the producer said and made the timeout signal. She whispered to Johnny, but it was loud enough so Hope could hear. "The fans love to see them together." She positioned Cole against Hope. He placed his arm around her waist and stated, "OK. Go."

"Thank you to my fans for thinking about me on my birthday." She smirked. "I love these flowers and the balloons." She had nothing else to say. She peaked at Johnny and he gave her the stretch it out signal. "I won't let you down this year. I hope you keep watching."

"Name Jinx!" Cole shouted and pinched her arm.

"Dammit!" It stung. She pointed at Cole. "I'll get you later."

"Cut. That was amazing." The producer beamed and gave Johnny a high-five. "You can't plan moments like that."

"You just did," said Cole.

"Look, our ratings spike whenever you two are together. Your fans are going to love this vignette."

This eliminated her time to study. Shouldn't her fans know that? "Are we done? We have to get back to work." They never really started. Hope tried to watch their show once, but did not like the way her voice sounded.

"Yes. We are. We have to get back and get ready."

"Happy Birthday, Hope," the producer said and hugged her emotionlessly.

"Happy Birthday, Hope. This was great. Good luck this year." Hope and Johnny embraced again.

The producer went back to the driver's seat and Johnny shook Cole's hand.

"Goodbye, Cole."

They waved and then they went back to Cole's house. They laid down on his couch at opposite ends and read until her viewer beeped.

"Already?"

"It's time to go," Cole's mom said and went to the garage.

She opened his door and went to the car, waiting for them outside. Cole trailed behind her. She would read on the drive over to make up for lost time.

"If Skye does go to our school," Cole declared, "today will be the greatest day of my life."

She could not believe Cole was still thinking about Skye. "Well, I hate to kill your buzz, but they own hundreds of schools and the odds of her going to ours is slim."