Uglies

Tally frowned. She'd only imagined the Rusties working in the giant stone hives and struggling to escape on that last, horrible day. Not having fun.

"Let's do it," Shay said. "Let's roller coaster."

"How?"

"On your board." Shay turned to Tally and said seriously, "But you've got to go fast. It's dangerous unless you're really moving."

"Why?"

"You'll see."

Shay turned away and sped down the roller coaster, flying just above the track. Tally sighed and leaned hard after her. At least the thing was metal.

It also turned out to be a great ride. It was like a hoverboard course made solid, complete with tight, banked turns, sharp climbs followed by long drops, even loops that took Tally upside down, her crash bracelets activating to keep her on board. It was amazing what good shape it was in. The Rusties must have built it out of something special, just as Shay had said.

The track went much higher than a hoverboard could go on its own. On the roller coaster, hoverboarding really was like being a bird.

It wound around in a wide, slow arc, circling back toward where they'd started. The final approach began with a huge climb.

"Take this part fast!" Shay shouted over her shoulder as she zoomed ahead.

Tally followed at top speed, rocketing up the spindly track. She could see the ruins in the distance: broken, black spires against the trees. And behind them, a moonlit glimmer that might have been the sea.

This was really high!

She heard a scream of pleasure as she reached the top. Shay had disappeared. Tally leaned forward to speed up.

Suddenly, the board dropped out from under her. It simply fell away from her feet, leaving her flying through midair. The track below her had disappeared.

Tally clenched her fists, waiting for the crash bracelets to kick in and haul her up by her wrists. But they had become as useless as the board, just heavy strips of steel dragging her toward the ground. "Shay!"

she screamed as she fell into blackness.

Then Tally saw the framework of the roller coaster ahead. Only a short segment was missing.

Suddenly, the crash bracelets pulled her upward, and she felt the solid surface of the hoverboard coming up from under her feet. Her momentum had carried her to the other side of the gap! The board must have sailed along with her, just below her feet for those terrifying seconds of free fall.

She found herself cruising down the track, to where Shay was waiting at the bottom.

"You're insane!" she shouted.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"No!" Tally yelled. "Why didn't you tell me it was broken?"

Shay shrugged. "More fun that way?"

"More fun?" Her heart was beating fast, her vision strangely clear. She was full of anger and relief and…joy. "Well, kind of. But you suck!"

Tally stepped from the board and walked across the grass on rubbery legs. She found a broken stone big enough to sit on, and lowered herself shakily onto it.

Shay jumped off her board. "Hey, sorry."

"That was horrible, Shay. I was falling."

"Not for long. Like, five seconds. I thought you said you'd bungee jumped off a building."

Tally glared at Shay. "Yeah, I did, but Knew I wasn't going to splat."

"True. But, you see, the first time someone showed me the roller coaster, they didn't tell me about the gap. And I thought it was pretty cool, finding out that way. Best time's the first time. I wanted you to feel it too."

"You thought falling was cool?"

"Well, maybe at first I was pretty angry. Yeah, I definitely was." Shay smiled broadly.

"But I got over it."

"Give me a second on that one, Ski

"Take your time."

Tally's breathing slowed, and her heart gradually stopped trying to beat its way out of her chest. But her brain stayed as clear as it had for those seconds of free fall, and she found herself wondering who had found the roller coaster first, and how many other uglies had come here since. "Shay, who showed you all this?"

"Friends, older than me. Uglies like us, who try to figure out how stuff works. And how to trick it."

Tally looked up at the ancient, serpentine shape of the roller coaster, the vines crawling up its framework. "I wonder how long uglies have been coming here."

"Probably a long time. You pass along stuff. You know, one person figures out how to trick their board, the next finds the rapids, the next makes it to the ruins."

"Then somebody gets brave enough to jump the gap in the roller coaster." Tally swallowed. "Or jumps it accidentally."

Shay nodded. "But they all get turned pretty in the end."

"Happy ending," Tally said.

Shay shrugged.

"How do you know it's called a 'roller coaster,' anyway? Did you look it up somewhere?"

"No," Shay said. "Someone told me."

"But how'd they know?"

"This guy knows a lot of stuff. Tricks, stuff about the ruins. He's really cool."

Something about Shay's voice made Tally turn and take her hand. "But he's pretty now, I guess."

Shay pulled away and bit a fingernail. "No. He's not."

"But I thought all your friends-" "Tally, will you make me a promise? A real promise."

"Sure, I guess. What kind of promise?"

"You can never tell anyone what I'm about to show you."

"It doesn't involve free fall, does it?"

"No."

"Okay. I swear." Tally held up her hand with the scar she and Peris had made. "I'll never tell anyone."

Shay looked into her eyes for a moment, searching hard, then nodded. "All right. There's someone I want you to meet. Tonight."

"Tonight? But we won't get back into town until-" "He's not in town." Shay smiled. "He's out here."

Waiting for David

"This is a joke, right?"

Shay didn't answer. They were back in the heart of the ruins, in the shadow of the tallest building around. She was staring up at it with a puzzled expression on her face. "I think I remember how to do this," she said.

"Do what?"

"Get up there. Yeah, here it is."

Shay eased her board forward, ducking to pass through a gap in the crumbling wall.

"Shay?"

"Don't worry. I've done this before."

"I think I already had my initiation for tonight, Shay." Tally wasn't in the mood for another one of Shay's jokes. She was tired, and it was a long way back to town. And she had cleanup duty tomorrow at her dorm. Just because it was summer didn't mean she could sleep all day.

But Tally followed Shay through the gap. Arguing would probably take longer.

They rose straight into the air, the boards using the metal skeleton of the building to climb.

It was creepy being inside, looking out of the empty windows at the ragged shapes of other buildings. Like being a Rusty ghost watching as its city crumbled over the centuries.

The roof was missing, and they emerged to a spectacular view. The clouds had all disappeared, and moonlight brought the ruins into sharp relief, the buildings like rows of broken teeth. Tally saw that it really had been the ocean she'd glimpsed from the roller coaster. From up here, the water shone like a pale band of silver in the moonlight.

Shay pulled something from her shoulder pack and tore it in half.