Marked

Chapter Twelve: Earth Day

"Great way to celebrate our almost eight week anniversary." Chase said, parking his car.

I rolled my eyes. "We can celebrate when it's a bigger anniversary." I clutched my gut, feeling increasingly nervous as I got out of Chase's car and stood up.

Stella moaned. "Remind me again why I left without Travis?"

I smiled. "Sucks to be you,"

We had to park quite a few blocks away because of the parade. We were all tired of walking by the time we turned a block. After three blocks, the chants started to ring out. "Un-script-ed! Un-script-ed!"

I smiled at Chase, knowing where the shouts were coming from. The chants got louder as we got closer to our final destination.

I could stop smiling as we turned the last corner and saw a crowd. Not a small crowd. A crowd. Maybe four hundred people. All chanting with signs with phrases that support Unscripted rights.

Everyone stop chanting when I turned the corner and cheered. "Ri-ley Moore! Ri-ley Moore!"

I looked at Chase with a smile glued on my face. "We did it!"

"You did it!"

Someone forced a megaphone into my hand. "Who are we?!" I shouted into it.

"UNSCRIPTED!" The crowd shouted in unison.

"What do we want?!"

"RIGHTS!"

More cheers. Down the road the parade turned a corner as the crowd chanted, "Un-script-ed!"

I saw camera men start to walk down the street, their attention pulled away from the parade and to the shouts. A reported caught on to what was happening quickly and immediately came over to me with a camera and mic.

"Do you know what is going on here?" She asked, then put the microphone under my chin.

I nodded, proud. "This is a protest."

"For what?"

I smiled, my time to shine. "This is a protest that I, Riley Moore, put together for the rights for Unscripted people."

Her expression went blank. She turned to her camera man. "Are we rolling?"

He shrugged, the camera resting on his shoulder. "We can start rolling..."

"Do it." She turned to me and the camera man gave her the signal to roll. "I am here at the corner of Boulevard and Ramon Road with Riley Moore. Riley, can you explain what is happening here?"

I smiled. "I am here with supporters of Unscripted rights at a protest."

"And who put together this "protest"?"

"I did. With the help of my good friend Chase." I smiled at Chase and then at Stella. "We just hung up some flyers around our apartment building and... Wow, I'm really surprised at the turn out."

"What's your overall goal?"

I held up my wrist. "I want these tattoos to be gone. I want these Marks to just be a Mark on our wrist, not something that decides our fate. It's unfair that we get one chance." After I said that, more cheers and shouts erupted from behind me.

"That's quite a goal," Her tone hinted at a challenge.

"If all goes as planned, this group," I motioned behind me, sending more cheers and shouts through the air, "will double in size by the next protest. Before you know it, we'll be leading marches."

The reporter's features flattened. She obviously was against Unscripted rights. "Good luck with that." Her tone was harsh, but with a smile, the camera would never know the difference. The camera man stopped filming and the reporter left without a backward glance.