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

“I know a girl in my class who just moved here last year,” Dawn said. “She told her parents she was a lesbian, and instead of forcing her to be banned alone, they moved to 17 with her. Can you believe it? I didn’t even know that was possible!”


I grinned. “Sounds nice, but trust me, my parents won’t do that. They already told me what they’d do if they found out I was gay. That’s why I ran off here to see you the first time. I was so afraid. Still am, really.”


Her eyes widened. “You’re sitting too far from me.”


I was only a few inches away, but she pulled me closer and wrapped her arms around my waist


“You don’t deserve to be treated like a monster,” she whispered.


I moved one of her braids away from her face. She kissed me, and the emotion was more powerful than I’d ever known. I needed to tell her something in case I got arrested or killed on an HEO mission, or my parents decided to lock me up forever so I wouldn’t have to take The Normal Verification Test.


Chapter 22