Pitch Wars ALT: DM-7: IF SKYSCRAPERS HAD SECRETS

MENTOR: Fiona McLaren
ALTERNATE: Rachel Horwitz
TITLE: If Skyscrapers Had Secrets
CATEGORY/GENRE: YA SciFi
WORD COUNT: 66,000

PITCH:

To save his mother from sickness, sixteen-year-old Dax teams up with a gang intent on helping people in need. When missions to save lives transform into finding dead bodies, he must either ignore the collateral damage, or expose the group and risk losing the transplant his mother desperately needs.

EXCERPT:

This wasn’t the first time I’d been dragged out of school in handcuffs. This time it was my fault, though. My first run-in with the E-level police turned out to be a big mistake. There was a fight in gym and somehow I ended up in handcuffs.

This time, it was because I skipped out of math. Well, sort of. I had a bladder full of orange juice and it just couldn’t wait. It was as good an excuse as any. I did my business and cleared the bathroom with one glance.

Pulling a marker from my pocket, I drew the wings on the glass over the urinal. A simple double-u to the ignorant, a beacon of hope to those who knew what the Angels were capable of. Sure, just like their mythological namesake, no one I had ever met knew if they really existed. But I was desperate. If the rumors were true, they might be able to save my mother’s life.

I stared at the window, awaiting what might happen. I’d heard once you call for them, you’re never seen again. Poof, gone. Shit, so long as I could buy mom a transplant, I didn’t care what happened to me. But when the bathroom door was kicked in, I sure as hell didn’t expect the E-level police.

In a single instant, a slingshot of handcuffs wrapped around my wrists and pulled me to the wet tile floor.

“Donald Emmanuel Jones Junior, you’re under arrest for attempted gang affiliation.”