BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

Garbo Mansion was fat, bright, and loud.
It filled the space between a pair of party towers, asquat teapot between two slender glasses of champagne.
Each of the towers rested on a single column no wider thanan elevator. Higher up they swelled to five stories of circularbalconies, crowded with new pretties. Tally climbed thehill toward the trio of buildings, trying to take in the viewthrough the eyeholes of her mask.
Someone jumped, or was thrown, from one of thetowers, screaming and flailing his arms. Tally gulped, forcingherself to watch all the way down, until the guy wascaught by his bungee jacket a few seconds before splatting.
He hover-bounced in the harness a few times, laughing,before being deposited softly on the ground, close enoughto Tally that she could hear nervous hiccups breaking uphis giggles. He’d been as scared as Tally.
She shivered, though jumping was hardly any moredangerous than standing here beneath the looming towers.
The bungee jacket used the same lifters as the hoverstrutsthat held the spindly structures up. If all the pretty toyssomehow stopped working, just about everything in NewPretty Town would come tumbling down.
The mansion was full of brand-new pretties—the worstkind, Peris always used to say. They lived like uglies, a hundredor so together in a big dorm. But this dorm didn’t haveany rules. Unless the rules were Act Stupid, Have Fun, andMake Noise.
A bunch of girls in ball gowns were on the roof,screaming at the top of their lungs, balancing on the edgeand shooting safety fireworks at people on the ground. Aball of orange flame bounced next to Tally, cool as anautumn wind, driving away the darkness around her.
“Hey, there’s a pig down there!” someone screamedfrom above. They all laughed, and Tally quickened herstride toward the wide-open door of the mansion. Shepushed inside, ignoring the surprised looks of two prettieson their way out.
It was all one big party, just like they always promisedit would be. People were dressed up tonight, in gownsand in black suits with long coattails. Everyone seemed tofind her pig mask pretty funny. They pointed andlaughed, and Tally kept moving, not giving them time todo anything else. Of course, everyone was always laughinghere. Unlike an ugly party, there’d never be any fights,or even arguments.
12 Scott WesterfeldShe pushed from room to room, trying to distinguishfaces without being distracted by those big pretty eyes, oroverwhelmed by the feeling that she didn’t belong. Tally feltuglier every second she spent there. Being laughed at byeveryone she met wasn’t helping much. But it was betterthan what they’d do if they saw her real face.
Tally wondered if she would even recognize Peris.
She’d only seen him once since the operation, and that wascoming out of the hospital, before the swelling had subsided.
But she knew his face so well. Despite what Perisalways used to say, pretties didn’t really all look exactly thesame. On their expeditions, she and Peris had sometimesspotted pretties who looked familiar, like uglies they’dknown. Sort of like a brother or sister—an older, more confident,much prettier brother or sister. One you’d be jealousof your whole life, if you’d been born a hundred years ago.
Peris couldn’t have changed that much.
“Have you seen the piggy?”
“The what?”
“There’s a piggy on the loose!”
The giggling voices were from the floor below. Tallypaused and listened. She was all alone here on the stairs.
Apparently, pretties preferred the elevators.
“How dare she come to our party dressed like a piggy!
This is white tie!”
“She’s got the wrong party.”
UGLIES 13“She’s got no manners, looking that way!”
Tally swallowed. The mask wasn’t much better than herown face. The joke was wearing thin.
She bounded up the stairs, leaving the voices behind.
Maybe they’d forget about her if she just kept moving.
There were only two more floors of Garbo Mansion to go,and then the roof. Peris had to be here somewhere.
Unless he was out on the back lawn, or up in a balloon,or a party tower. Or in a pleasure garden somewhere, withsomeone. Tally shook away that last image and ran downthe hall, ignoring the same jokes about her mask, riskingglances into the rooms one by one.
Nothing but surprised looks and pointed fingers, andpretty faces. But none of them rang a bell. Peris wasn’t anywhere.
“Here, piggy, piggy! Hey, there she is!”
Tally bolted up to the top floor, taking two stairs at atime. Her hard breathing had heated up the inside of themask, her forehead sweating, the adhesive crawling as it triedto stay attached. They were following her now, a group ofthem, laughing and stumbling over one another up the stairs.
There wasn’t any time to search this floor. Tally glancedup and down the hall. No one up here, anyway. The doorswere all closed. Maybe a few pretties were actually gettingtheir beauty sleep.
If she went up to the roof to check for Peris, she’d betrapped.
14 Scott Westerfeld“Here, piggy, piggy!”
Time to run. Tally dashed toward the elevator, skiddingto a halt inside. “Ground floor!” she ordered.
She waited, peering down the hall anxiously, pantinginto the hot plastic of her mask. “Ground floor!” sherepeated. “Close door!”
Nothing happened.
She sighed, closing her eyes. Without an interface ring,she was nobody. The elevator wouldn’t listen.
Tally knew how to trick an elevator, but it took timeand a penknife. She had neither. The first of her pursuersemerged from the stairway, stumbling into the hall.
She threw herself backward against the elevator’s sidewall, standing on tiptoe and trying to flatten herself so theycouldn’t see her. More came up, huffing and puffing liketypical out-of-shape pretties. Tally could watch them in themirror at the back of the elevator.
Which meant they could also see her if they thought tolook this way.
“Where’d the piggy go?”
“Here, piggy!”
“The roof, maybe?”
Someone stepped quietly into the elevator, lookingback at the search party in bemusement. When he saw her,he jumped. “Goodness, you scared me!” He blinked hislong lashes, regarding her masked face, then looked downat his own tailcoat. “Oh, dear. Wasn’t this party white tie?”
UGLIES 15Tally’s breath caught, her mouth went dry. “Peris?” shewhispered.
He looked at her closely. “Do I . . .”
She started to reach out, but remembered to press backflat against the wall. Her muscles were screaming fromstanding on tiptoe. “It’s me, Peris.”
“Here, piggy, piggy!”
He turned toward the voice down the hall, raised hiseyebrows, then looked back at her. “Close door. Hold,” hesaid quickly.
The door slid shut, and Tally stumbled forward. Shepulled off her mask to see him better. It was Peris: his voice,his brown eyes, the way his forehead crinkled when he wasconfused.
But he was so pretty now.
At school, they explained how it affected you. It didn’tmatter if you knew about evolution or not—it worked anyway.
On everyone.
There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness thateveryone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid’s;smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousandother little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds,people were always looking for these markers. No onecould help seeing them, no matter how they were broughtup. A million years of evolution had made it part of thehuman brain.
The big eyes and lips said: I’m young and vulnerable, I16 Scott Westerfeldcan’t hurt you, and you want to protect me. And the rest said:
I’m healthy, I won’t make you sick. And no matter how youfelt about a pretty, there was a part of you that thought: If wehad kids, they’d be healthy too. I want this pretty person. . . .
It was biology, they said at school. Like your heart beating,you couldn’t help believing all these things, not whenyou saw a face like this. A pretty face.
A face like Peris’s.
“It’s me,” Tally said.
Peris took a step back, his eyebrows rising. He lookeddown at her clothes.
Tally realized she was wearing her baggy black expeditionoutfit, muddy from crawling up ropes and through gardens,from falling among the vines. Peris’s suit was deepblack velvet, his shirt, vest, and tie all glowing white.
She pulled away. “Oh, sorry. I won’t get you muddy.”
“What are you doing here, Tally?”
“I just—,” she sputtered. Now that she was facing him,she didn’t know what to say. All the imagined conversationshad melted away into his big, sweet eyes. “I had to know ifwe were still . . .”
Tally held out her right hand, the scarred palm facingup, sweaty dirt tracing the lines on it.
Peris sighed. He wasn’t looking at her hand, or into hereyes. Not into her squinty, narrow-set, indifferently browneyes. Nobody eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “But, I mean—couldn’tyou have waited, Squint?”
UGLIES 17Her ugly nickname sounded strange coming from apretty. Of course, it would be even weirder to call himNose, as she used to about a hundred times a day. She swallowed.
“Why didn’t you write me?”
“I tried. But it just felt bogus. I’m so different now.”
“But we’re . . .” She pointed at her scar.
“Take a look, Tally.” He held out his own hand.
The skin of his palm was smooth and unblemished. Itwas a hand that said: I don’t have to work very hard, and I’mtoo clever to have accidents.
The scar that they had made together was gone.
“They took it away.”
“Of course they did, Squint. All my skin’s new.”
Tally blinked. She hadn’t thought of that.
He shook his head. “You’re such a kid still.”
“Elevator requested,” said the elevator. “Up or down?”
Tally jumped at the machine voice.
“Hold, please,” Peris said calmly.
Tally swallowed and closed her hand into a fist. “Butthey didn’t change your blood. We shared that, no matterwhat.”
Peris finally looked directly at her face, not flinching asshe had feared he would. He smiled beautifully. “No, theydidn’t. New skin, big deal. And in three months we canlaugh about this. Unless . . .”
“Unless what?” She looked up into his big brown eyes,so full of concern.
18 Scott Westerfeld“Just promise me that you won’t do any more stupidtricks,” Peris said. “Like coming here. Something that’ll getyou into trouble. I want to see you pretty.”
“Of course.”
“So promise me.”
Peris was only three months older than Tally, but, droppingher eyes to the floor, she felt like a littlie again. “Allright, I promise. Nothing stupid. And they won’t catch metonight, either.”
“Okay, get your mask and . . .” His voice trailed off.
She turned her gaze to where it had fallen. Discarded,the plastic mask had recycled itself, turning into pink dust,which the carpet in the elevator was already filtering away.
The two stared at each other in silence.
“Elevator requested,” the machine insisted. “Up or down?”
“Peris, I promise they won’t catch me. No pretty canrun as fast as me. Just take me down to the—”
Peris shook his head. “Up, please. Roof.”
The elevator moved.
“Up? Peris, how am I going to—”
“Straight out the door, in a big rack—bungee jackets.
There’s a whole bunch in case of a fire.”
“You mean jump?” Tally swallowed. Her stomach did abackflip as the elevator came to a halt.
Peris shrugged. “I do it all the time, Squint.” He winked.
“You’ll love it.”
His expression made his pretty face glow even more,UGLIES 19and Tally leaped forward to wrap her arms around him. Hestill felt the same, at least, maybe a bit taller and thinner. Buthe was warm and solid, and still Peris.
“Tally!”
She stumbled back as the doors opened. She’d left mudall over his white vest. “Oh, no! I’m—”
“Just go!”
His distress just made Tally want to hug him again. Shewanted to stay and clean Peris up, make sure he lookedperfect for the party. She reached out a hand. “I—”
“Go!”
“But we’re best friends, right?”
He sighed, dabbing at a brown stain. “Sure, forever. Inthree months.”
She turned and ran, the doors closing behind her.
At first no one noticed her on the roof. They were all lookingdown. It was dark except for the occasional flare of asafety sparkler.
Tally found the rack of bungee jackets and pulled atone. It was clipped to the rack. Her fingers fumbled, lookingfor a clasp. She wished she had her interface ring to giveher instructions.
Then she saw the button: PRESS IN CASE OF FIRE.
“Oh, crap,” she said.
Her shadow jumped and jittered. Two pretties werecoming toward her, carrying sparklers.
20 Scott Westerfeld“Who’s that? What’s she wearing?”
“Hey, you! This party is white tie!”
“Look at her face. . . .”
“Oh, crap,” Tally repeated.
And pressed the button.
An ear-shattering siren split the air, and the bungeejacket seemed to jump from the rack into her hand. She slidinto the harness, turning to face the two pretties. Theyleaped back as if she’d transformed into a werewolf. Onedropped the sparkler, and it extinguished itself instantly.
“Fire drill,” Tally said, and ran toward the edge of theroof.
Once she had the jacket around her shoulders, thestrap and zippers seemed to wind around her like snakesuntil the plastic was snug around her waist and thighs. Agreen light flashed on the collar, right where she couldn’thelp but see it.
“Good jacket,” she said.
It wasn’t smart enough to answer, apparently.
The pretties playing on the roof had all gone silent andwere milling around, wondering if there really was a fire.
They pointed at her, and Tally heard the word “ugly” ontheir lips.
What was worse in New Pretty Town, she wondered?
Your mansion burning down, or an ugly crashing yourparty?
Tally reached the edge of the roof, vaulted up onto theUGLIES 21rail, and teetered for a moment. Below her, pretties werestarting to spill out of Garbo Mansion onto the lawn anddown the hill. They were looking back up, searching forsmoke or flames. All they saw was her.
It was a long way down, and Tally’s stomach alreadyseemed to be in free fall. But she was thrilled, too. Theshrieking siren, the crowd gazing up at her, the lights ofNew Pretty Town all spread out below like a million candles.
Tally took a deep breath and bent her knees, readyingherself to jump.
For a split second, she wondered if the jacket wouldwork since she wasn’t wearing an interface ring. Would ithover-bounce for a nobody? Or would she just splat?
But she had promised Peris she wouldn’t get caught.
And the jacket was for emergencies, and there was a greenlight on. . . .
“Heads up!” Tally shouted.
And jumped.