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

“Dawn!” I shouted. I put my fists to my forehead.


The back door opened, and I looked up to see Paul. “I’m sorry, honey, but you’ll have to leave.”


In complete humiliation, I rolled my bike out of the yard and put my helmet on so the facemask would hide my tears. I sped down the alley, not knowing where I would go, and wishing my engine could roar.


This wasn’t real, was it? How could Dawn have broken up with me?


It was only ten A.M., so I cruised around the streets I knew and branched out to some I didn’t. After I rode past the skate park a few times just in case Dawn had decided to go there, I groaned.


Malaki was walking down the street and waved at me.


I thought about ignoring her and driving past, but then realized I desperately needed to talk to someone.


“Hey!” she said cheerfully. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until tomorrow. What’s up?”


Chapter 36