Free Uglies by Scott Westerfeld Page A

they invented the operation.”
    â€œBut it’s a trick, Tally. You’ve only seen pretty faces your whole life. Your parents, your teachers, everyone over sixteen. But you weren’t born expecting that kind of beauty in everyone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinking anything else is ugly.”
    â€œIt’s not programming, it’s just a natural reaction. And more important than that, it’s fair. In the old days it was all random—some people kind of pretty, most people ugly all their lives. Now everyone’s ugly . . . until they’re pretty. No losers.”
    Shay was silent for a while, then said, “There are losers, Tally.”
    Tally shivered. Everyone knew about uglies-for-life, the few people for whom the operation wouldn’t work. You didn’t see them around much. They were allowed in public, but most of them preferred to hide. Who wouldn’t? Uglies might look goofy, but at least they were young. Old uglies were really unbelievable.
    â€œIs that it? Are you worried about the operation not working? That’s silly, Shay. You’re no freak. In two weeks you’ll be as pretty as anyone else.”
    â€œI don’t want to be pretty.”
    Tally sighed. This again.
    â€œI’m sick of this city,” Shay continued. “I’m sick of the rules and boundaries. The last thing I want is to become some empty-headed new pretty, having one big party all day.”
    â€œCome on, Shay. They do all the same stuff we do: bungee jump, fly, play with fireworks. Only they don’t have to sneak around.”
    â€œThey don’t have the imagination to sneak around.”
    â€œLook, Skinny, I’m with you,” Tally said sharply. “Doing tricks is great! Okay? Breaking the rules is fun! But eventually you’ve got to do something besides being a clever little ugly.”
    â€œLike being a vapid, boring pretty?”
    â€œNo, like being an adult. Did you ever think that when you’re pretty you might not need to play tricks and mess things up? Maybe just being ugly is why uglies always fight and pick on one another, because they aren’t happy with who they are. Well, I want to be happy, and looking like a real person is the first step.”
    â€œI’m not afraid of looking the way I do, Tally.”
    â€œMaybe not, but you are afraid of growing up!”
    Shay didn’t say anything. Tally floated in silence, looking up at the sky, barely able to see the clouds through her anger. She wanted to be pretty, wanted to see Peris again. It seemed like forever since she’d talked to him, or to anyone else except Shay. She was sick of this whole ugly business, and just wanted it to end.
    A minute later, she heard Shay swimming for shore.

LAST TRICK
    It was strange, but Tally couldn’t help feeling sad. She knew she’d miss the view from this window.
    She’d spent the last four years looking out at New Pretty Town, wanting nothing more than to cross the river and not come back. That’s probably what had tempted her through the window so many times, learning every trick she could to sneak closer to the new pretties, to spy on the life she would eventually have.
    But now that the operation was only a week away, time seemed to be moving too fast. Sometimes, Tally wished that they could do the operation gradually. Get her squinty eyes fixed first, then her lips, and cross the river in stages. Just so she wouldn’thave to look out the window one last time and know she’d never see this view again.
    Without Shay around, things felt incomplete, and she’d spent even more time here, sitting on her bed and staring at New Pretty Town.
    Of course, there wasn’t much else to do these days. Everyone in the dorm was younger than Tally now, and she’d already taught all of her best tricks to the next class. She’d watched every movie her wallscreen knew about ten times, all the