During the Second Civil War, a new U.S. political party called the Family Protection Movement established The Divide, which separates Normal people from those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Seventeen-year old Serenity Blackwater lives in the normal Midwestern town of Mapleville, but she is not normal. She hacks into an illegal gay chat room and meets Dawn, a lesbian who lives in a gay community less than a mile away. Serenity discovers normal people can bribe their way inside the walls and decides to go, both to meet Dawn and check out what may be her future home. Dawn is even more beautiful than Serenity hoped, and the two soon become a couple. But Serenity only has a few months before she must take the Normal Verification Test, and then she’ll be separated from her family forever. So she joins the Human Equality Organization, an underground group working to end The Divide. Dawn thinks the rebellion is too dangerous, and since Dawn’s ex-girlfriend Malaki is also a member, Serenity doesn’t tell Dawn about her involvement. Serenity reveals to the HEO that her parents are leading a campaign to organize attacks on all Gay Communities. With her help, the HEO creates Project Jericho, in which all Gay Communities walls will implode at once. But after too many delays, and when Dawn discovers Serenity has been spending more time with Malaki than her, Serenity knows she has to start the revolution herself. She heads to D.C. to contact a group of senators secretly against The Divide ... or straight into a trap set by the Family Protection Movement.

Uprising

Serene1: Sorry, my mom busted into the room. She just thought I was doing homework, though.


Dawn360: I thought maybe you were a straight person pretending to be gay.


Serene1: I thought maybe you were a spy about to break down my door and arrest me. Or a creepy old guy.


Dawn360: Great, now I’m laughing, and I’ll probably wake my dads up.


Serene1: I can’t believe you actually want to chat with someone from a normal town.


Dawn360: I just wanted to talk to someone different; I didn’t know who I’d meet. But I don’t have anything against straight people. My brother Adam is straight and left for a normal college last fall. He’s only allowed to visit us for one weekend this summer.


Serene1: So now I know you have a brother named Adam, and I still don’t know your real name.


Dawn360: It’s Dawn. Not so creative with the screen names, huh?


Serene1: It’s cool, my name’s Serenity.


I peeked out from under my blanket to make sure my door was still shut.


Chapter 4