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 switched back and forth between conversations until the HEO members dropped out. Mal was still there sending me links to various illegal bomb web sites, and I told her I had to go. Dawn and I chatted for another hour. Several times I typed entire paragraphs about what I was doing with HEO and deleted them. Guilt tore at my chest. I had to tell her what was going on, but it would be best in person.


Finally my weary eyes forced me to tell Dawn good night. In the morning, I raced into 17 as soon as my parents went to work. I was inside the walls at nine o’clock, braids flying out from under my helmet, daydreaming about Dawn’s reaction to everything I had to tell her. She’d surely understand; maybe even want to help.


I parked in the back yard at Dawn’s house. She was doing tricks on her half-pipe.


“Hey!” She slid to the bottom. “I didn’t know you’d be here so early.”


She threw off her helmet and pads and ran into my arms. As always, she smelled wonderful.


Chapter 35