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

Morning came too quickly. After church, I hugged my parents and told them goodbye. In yet another lie, Z and I told everyone I preferred to ride my motorcycle to camp instead of riding with Z’s parents in the van.


“Honey, I think you can go one week without that bike,” Dad chided.


Mom eyed the van full of Z’s screaming siblings. “She’s old enough to want some independence.”


“We’ll take your things for you,” Z said.


I’d packed some random things into a suitcase and handed it over, but put my backpack in my bike’s seat compartment. The backpack held everything I really needed; the supplies from Mom, cash, and some extra shorts and tank tops my parents didn’t even know I owned. Dressed respectably in slacks and a collared shirt with a curly ponytail sticking out from under my helmet, I zoomed off while Z’s parents were still loading suitcases, ignoring my parents’ protests. Within minutes I was in 17 again.


Chapter 39