Uglies

"Shay, I'm not going to be gone forever. I'd rather you…"

"Come on. I'm sick of this place."

Tally bit her lip. What was the point of giving herself up if Shay was coming too? Of course, they could always snatch her away again as well. Once the cure was proven to work, they could give it to anyone.

Or everyone.

"The only reason I've been hanging around this dump is to try to get you to come back," Shay said, then lowered her voice. "You know, it's my fault you're not already pretty. I messed up everything by ru

"Oh, Shay." Tally's head began to spin. She closed her eyes.

"Maddy always says I can go anytime. You don't want me to go back all alone, do you?"

Tally tried to imagine Shay hiking to the river alone. "No, I guess not." She looked at her friend's face and saw a spark in her eyes, something real ignited by the idea of going on a trip with Tally.

"Please! We'll have a blast in New Pretty Town."

Tally spread her hands. "Okay. I guess I can't stop you."

They rode together on one hoverboard. Croy came along on another, to take the boards back when they reached the city's edge.

He didn't talk the whole way down. The other New Smokies had all heard the fight outside, and finally knew what Tally had done. It must have been worse for Croy. He had suspected, and she'd lied to him face-to-face. He was probably wishing he'd stopped Tally himself before she'd had a chance to betray them all.

When they reached the greenbelt, though, he forced himself to look at her. "What did they do to you, anyway? To make you do something like that?"

"They said I couldn't turn, until I'd found Shay."

He looked away, staring at the lights of New Pretty Town, bright in the clear cold of a November night.

"So you're finally getting your wish."

"Yeah. I guess."

"Tally's going to be pretty!" Shay said.

Croy ignored her and looked at Tally again. "Thanks for rescuing me, though. That was some trick you guys pulled off. I hope that…" He shrugged, and shook his head. "See you later."

"I hope so."

Croy stuck the boards together and headed back up the river.

"This is going to be the best!" Shay said. "I can't wait for you to meet all my new friends.

And you can finally introduce me to Peris."

"Sure."

They walked down toward Uglyville until they found themselves in Cleopatra Park. The earth was hard underneath their feet in the late autumn chill, and they huddled close against the cold.

Tally wore her Smoke-made sweater. She'd wanted Maddy to keep it for her, but she'd left her microfiber jacket behind instead. City-made clothes were too valuable to waste on someone going back to civilization.

"You see, I was already getting popular," Shay was saying. "Having a criminal past is the only way into the really good parties. I mean, no one wants to hear about what classes you took in ugly school." She giggled.

"We should be a hit, then."

"Duh. When we tell everyone about your kidnapping me right out of Special Circumstances headquarters? And how I talked you into escaping from that band of freaks? But we're going to have to tone it down, Squint. No one's ever going to believe the truth!"

"No, you're right about that."

Tally thought of the letter she'd left with Maddy. Would she even believe the truth in a few weeks' time?

How would the words of a fugitive, desperate, tragic ugly look through pretty eyes?

For that matter, what was David going to look like after she'd been surrounded by new pretty faces twenty-four hours a day? Would she really believe all that stuff about ugliness again, or would she remember how someone could be beautiful even without surgery?

Tally tried to picture David's face, but it hurt to think of how long it would be before she saw him again.

She wondered how long it would take after the operation, before she would stop missing David. It might be a few days before the lesions completely took hold of her, Maddy had warned. But that didn't mean it was her own mind, changing itself.

Maybe if she decided to go on missing him, no matter what, Tally could keep her mind from changing.

Unlike most people, she knew about the lesions. Maybe she could beat them.

A dark shape passed overhead, a warden's hovercar, and Tally instinctively froze. The city uglies had said there were more patrols out these days. The regular authorities had finally noticed that things were changing.

The hovercar halted, then settled softly onto the earth next to them. A door slid open, and a blinding light popped on. "All right, you kids…oh, sorry, miss."

The light was on Shay's face. Then it flicked across to Tally.

"What are you two…?" The warden's voice stumbled. Didn't this beat everything? A pretty and an ugly taking a stroll together. The warden came closer, confusion all over his middle-pretty face.

Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end.

"I'm Tally Youngblood," she said. "Make me pretty."