As the clock ticks forward to midnight during Wendy Davis's historic filibuster of the abortion bill HB2 in June 2013, an Austin teen grapples with his past mistakes, the complex issue of abortion, and the kind of person he wants to be. It's been a rough year for Alex Collins. In the past twelve months, he's lost his best friend, become the target of the two biggest bullies at school, and been sentenced to community service. But on June 25, 2013, he gets a call for help from Cassie Ramirez, the prettiest girl in school. At last, he feels like his luck might be changing. Cassie is at the Texas State Capitol to protest Wendy Davis's historic filibuster of the abortion bill HB2, and she's rallying everyone she knows to join her. Until today, Alex didn't know what a filibuster was, and he'd never given a moment's thought to how he felt about abortion. But at the Capitol, he finds himself in the middle of a tense scene full of pro-life ?blueshirts,? pro-choice ?orangeshirts,? and blustering politicians playing political games as Wendy Davis tries to run out the clock at midnight. Alex may have entered the Capitol looking to spend time with Cassie, but the political gets personal when he runs into his ex-friend Shireen in an orange T-shirt and quickly realizes that when it comes to an issue like abortion, neutral isn't an option. Over the next nineteen hours-as things get increasingly heated both on the Senate floor and between the two sets of protesters-Alex will struggle to figure out what side he's on, knowing that whatever choice he makes will bring him face-to-face with his past mistakes. AGES: 14 to 18 AUTHOR: Dan Solomon is a journalist based out of Austin, Texas. He's a senior writer at Texas Monthly, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Details. He covered the HB2 filibuster for the Austin Chronicle, where his work was part of the alt-weekly's AAN Award-nominated coverage.
