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

After we drove inside the gates, Adam handed me his card.


“What is this?” I asked. There was nothing on it except the alternating black lines of a bar code.


“Family Pass. They just gave it to me yesterday. I can come back with a guest and get in. Sophomore year I can come home on a couple holidays. We’ll have to use the pass to get out of here Sunday night.”


I handed the card back to him as relief washed over me; at least I wouldn’t have to sneak out of town in the secret compartment of a delivery van this time.


While Adam drove the short distance to Abbott Street, my heart pounded in anticipation. As soon as he parked in front of the white and black house, Dawn burst out the front door, braids flying.


“Hey!” She ran to Adam first, almost knocking him over with a hug.


I grinned, and suddenly pictured them growing up together, playing and bickering. As an only child, I always wondered what that would be like.


Chapter 15