Children of the Uprising by Trevor Shane

their rooms, and this time, when Christopher peeked out his doorway, Max and Addy were peeking out theirs as well. “It will be safer if we all stay in the same room,” Max announced with only a slight slur to his speech. They all knew that it was merely an excuse to stick together. Since Christopher’s room was the biggest, they all piled into it, Addy and Max carrying sheets and pillows from their beds.
    Once they were all inside, Christopher closed the door. He felt an uncertain level of giddiness that he could never remember having felt before. “So what did you guys think of our host?” he asked, not entirely sure if in this crowd, Jay was the weird one or he was.
    â€œDude’s nuts,” Addy offered. Then she began to lay her blanket down on the floor on the opposite side of the room from Max.
    â€œI’ll sleep on the floor,” Christopher said to Addy. “You can have the bed.”
    Addy laughed at him. “I don’t do chivalry,” she told him.
    As they were settling in, Max had a sudden idea. “I know what we should do, Addy.”
    â€œWhat’s that?” Addy asked. She was sitting next to one of the windows looking out over the ocean. Christopher couldn’t see the waves, but he could hear them.
    â€œLet’s give him a name,” Max said.
    â€œWho? Christopher?” Addy asked.
    â€œYeah. Everybody needs a name.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Christopher asked, growing dizzy from listening to how quickly Max and Addy spoke to each other.
    â€œYour name. If you’re going to be part of the Underground, you need a new name.”
    Even though he’d read about it in his mother’s journal, it hadn’t dawned on Christopher that Max and Addy weren’t his new friends’ real names. “So you guys picked your own names? And you just forget the old ones?”
    â€œYeah,” Max said. “Try to forget anyway. No one’s called me anything but Max for almost ten years.” Then he laughed before instructing Christopher, “Ask Addy how she got her name.”
    â€œShut up!” Addy yelled across the room to him. Christopher felt like he was on the outside of an inside joke.
    â€œWhy, where’d you get your name?” Christopher asked meekly, hoping not to offend anyone.
    â€œIt’s not a big deal,” Addy said. “It’s short for Adelaide—like Saint Adelaide. She was a princess, the daughter of a king, and her father arranged for her to be married to a man she didn’t want to marry. When she refused to marry him, they threw her into solitary confinement in the Castle of Garda. But she was rescued by a priest who dug a tunnel under the castle walls and snuck her out.”
    The room was quiet for a moment and then Max stifled a laugh. “God, you take yourself so fucking seriously, Addy.”
    â€œIt’s better than your name,” Addy shouted at Max. “At least I didn’t name myself after a children’s book.”
    Christopher looked at Max and tried to remember his favorite books from when he was young. He really had only one favorite. “
Where the Wild Things Are
?” he asked Max.
    Max nodded. “Of course.”
    â€œBut why?”
    Max grinned a grin that could have made even his worst enemies fall in love with him. “Because I’m the king of all wild things.”
    â€œJackass,” Addy muttered, but the word was full of warmth.
    â€œSo, what name should we give Christopher?” Max asked, staring at him. And for a moment Christopher wanted nothing more in the world than to have these two people he barely knew christen him with a new name.
    â€œI don’t think he should have a new name,” Addy said. She was staring at Christopher too, but she was looking at him differently than Max was. “I think he should stay Christopher.”
    â€œBut everybody gets a new name,” Max protested. Christopher sat