FIGHT

“Look at them all. What dorks.”
“Did we ever look like that?”
“Probably. But just because we were dorks doesn’t meanthey’re not.”
Tally nodded, trying to remember what being twelvewas like, what the dorm had looked like on her first daythere. She remembered how intimidating the building hadseemed. Much bigger than Sol and Ellie’s house, of course,and bigger than the huts that littlies went to school in, oneteacher and ten students to each one.
Now the dorm seemed so small and claustrophobic.
Painfully childish, with its bright colors and padded stairs.
So boring during the day and easy to escape at night.
The new uglies all stuck together in a tight group,afraid to stray too far from their guide. Their ugly little facespeered up at the dorm’s four-story height, their eyes full ofwonder and terror.
Shay pulled her head back in through the window.
“This is going to be so fun.”
“It’ll be one orientation they won’t forget.”
Summer was over in two weeks. The population ofTally’s dorm had been steadily dropping for the last year asseniors turned sixteen. It was almost time for a new batchto take their place. Tally watched the last few uglies maketheir way inside, gawky and nervous, unkempt and uncoordinated.
Twelve was definitely the turning point, whenyou changed from a cute littlie into an oversize, undereducatedugly.
It was a stage of life she was glad to be leaving behind.
“You sure this thing is going to work?” Shay asked.
Tally smiled. It wasn’t often that Shay was the cautiousone. She pointed at the collar of the bungee jacket. “You seethat little green light? That means it’s working. It’s for emergencies,so it’s always ready to go.”
Shay’s hand slipped under the jacket to pull at her bellysensor, which meant she was nervous. “What if it knowsthere’s no real emergency?”
“It’s not that smart. You fall, it catches you. No tricksnecessary.”
Shay shrugged and put it on.
They’d borrowed the jacket from the art school, thetallest building in Uglyville. It was a spare from the basement,and they hadn’t even had to trick the rack to get it free. Tallydefinitely didn’t want to get caught messing around with firealarms, in case the wardens connected her to a certain incidentin New Pretty Town back at the beginning of summer.
UGLIES 77Shay pulled an oversize basketball jersey over thebungee jacket. It was in her dorm’s colors, and none of theteachers here knew her face very well. “How’s that look?”
“Like you’ve gained weight. It suits you.”
Shay scowled. She hated being called Stick Insect, or Pig-Eyes, or any of the other things uglies called one another.
Shay sometimes claimed that she didn’t care if she ever gotthe operation. It was crazy talk, of course. Shay wasn’t exactlya freak, but she was hardly a natural-born pretty. There’d onlybeen about ten of those in all of history, after all. “Do youwant to do the jump, Squint?”
“I have both been there and done that, Shay, before I evenmet you. And you’re the one who had this brilliant idea.”
Shay’s scowl faded into a smile. “It is brilliant, isn’t it?”
“They’ll never know what hit them.”
They waited until the new uglies were in the library, scatteredaround the worktables to watch some orientationvideo. Shay and Tally lay on their stomachs on the top floorof the stacks, where the dusty old paper books were stored,peering through the guardrails down at the group. Theywaited for the tour leader to quiet the chattering uglies.
“This is almost too easy,” Shay said, penciling a pair offat, black eyebrows over her own.
“Easy for you. You’ll be out the door before anyoneknows what’s happened. I’ve got to make it all the waydown the stairs.”
78 Scott Westerfeld“So what, Tally? What are they going to do if we getcaught?”
Tally shrugged. “True.” But she pulled on her mousybrown wig anyway.
Over the summer, as the last few seniors turned sixteenand pretty, the tricks had grown worse and worse. Butnobody ever seemed to get punished, and Tally’s promise toPeris seemed ages ago. Once she was pretty, nothing she’ddone in this last month would matter. She was anxious toleave it all behind, but not without a big finish.
Thinking of Peris, Tally stuck on a big plastic nose. They’draided the drama room at Shay’s dorm the night before andwere loaded with disguises. “Ready?” she asked. Then shegiggled at the nasal twang the fake nose gave her voice.
“Hang on.” Shay grabbed a big, fat book from the shelf.
“Okay, showtime.”
They stood up.
“Give me that book!” Tally shouted at Shay. “It’s mine!”
She heard the uglies below fall silent, and had to resistlooking down to see their upturned faces.
“No way, Pignose! I checked it out first.”
“Are you kidding, Fattie? You can’t even read!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, read this!”
Shay swung the book at Tally, who ducked. Shesnatched it away and swung back, catching Shay solidly onher upraised forearms. Shay rolled back at the impact, spinningover the railing.
UGLIES 79Tally leaned forward, watching wide-eyed as Shaytumbled down toward the library’s main floor, three storiesbelow. The new uglies screamed in unison, scattering awayfrom the flailing body plummeting toward them.
A second later the bungee jacket activated, and Shaybobbed back up in midair, laughing maniacally at the topof her lungs. Tally waited another moment, watching theuglies’ horror dissolve into confusion as Shay bouncedagain, then righted herself on one of the tables and headedfor the door.
Tally dropped the book and dashed for the stairs, leapinga flight at a time until she reached the back exit of the dorm.
“Oh, that was perfect!”
“Did you see their faces?”
“Not actually,” Shay said. “I was kind of busy watchingthe floor coming at me.”
“Yeah, I remember that from jumping off the roof. Itdoes catch your attention.”
“Speaking of faces, love the nose.”
Tally giggled, pulling it off. “Yeah, no point in beinguglier than usual.”
Shay’s face clouded. She wiped off an eyebrow, thenlooked up sharply. “You’re not ugly.”
“Oh, come on, Shay.”
“No, I mean it.” She reached out and touched Tally’sreal nose. “Your profile is great.”
80 Scott Westerfeld“Don’t be weird, Shay. I’m an ugly, you’re an ugly. Wewill be for two more weeks. It’s no big deal or anything.”
She laughed. “You, for example, have one giant eyebrowand one tiny one.”
Shay looked away, stripping off the rest of her disguisein silence.
They were hidden in the changing rooms beside thesandy beach, where they’d left their interface rings and aspare set of clothes. If anyone asked, they’d say they wereswimming the whole time. Swimming was a great trick. Ithid your body-heat signature, involved changing clothes,and was a perfect excuse for not wearing your interfacering. The river washed away all crimes.
A minute later they splashed out into the water, sinkingthe disguises. The bungee jacket would go back to the artschool basement that night.
“I’m serious, Tally,” Shay said once they were out in thewater. “Your nose isn’t ugly. I like your eyes, too.”
“My eyes? Now you’re totally crazy. They’re way tooclose together.”
“Who says?”
“Biology says.”
Shay splashed a handful of water at her. “You don’tbelieve all that crap, do you—that there’s only one way tolook, and everyone’s programmed to agree on it?”
“It’s not about believing, Shay. You just know it. You’veseen pretties. They look . . . wonderful.”
UGLIES 81“They all look the same.”
“I used to think that too. But when Peris and I wouldgo into town, we’d see a lot of them, and we realized thatpretties do look different. They look like themselves. It’sjust a lot more subtle, because they’re not all freaks.”
“We’re not freaks, Tally. We’re normal. We may not begorgeous, but at least we’re not hyped-up Barbie dolls.”
“What kind of dolls?”
She looked away. “It’s something David told me about.”
“Oh, great. David again.” Tally pushed away and floatedon her back, looking up at the sky and wishing this conversationwould end. They’d been out to the ruins a fewmore times, and Shay always insisted on setting off asparkler, but David had never showed. The whole thinggave Tally the creeps, waiting around in the dead city forsome guy who didn’t seem to exist. It was great exploringout there, but Shay’s obsession with David had started tosour it for Tally.
“He’s real. I’ve met him more than once.”
“Okay, Shay, David’s real. But so is being ugly. You can’tchange it just by wishing, or by telling yourself that you’repretty. That’s why they invented the operation.”
“But it’s a trick, Tally. You’ve only seen pretty faces yourwhole life. Your parents, your teachers, everyone over sixteen.
But you weren’t born expecting that kind of beauty ineveryone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinkinganything else is ugly.”
82 Scott Westerfeld“It’s not programming, it’s just a natural reaction. Andmore important than that, it’s fair. In the old days it was allrandom—some people kind of pretty, most people ugly alltheir lives. Now everyone’s ugly . . . until they’re pretty. Nolosers.”
Shay was silent for a while, then said, “There are losers,Tally.”
Tally shivered. Everyone knew about uglies-for-life, thefew people for whom the operation wouldn’t work. Youdidn’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. Olduglies were really unbelievable.
“Is that it? Are you worried about the operation notworking? That’s silly, Shay. You’re no freak. In two weeksyou’ll be as pretty as anyone else.”
“I don’t want to be pretty.”
Tally sighed. This again.
“I’m sick of this city,” Shay continued. “I’m sick of therules and boundaries. The last thing I want is to becomesome empty-headed new pretty, having one big party all day.”
“Come on, Shay. They do all the same stuff we do: bungeejump, fly, play with fireworks. Only they don’t have to sneakaround.”
“They don’t have the imagination to sneak around.”
“Look, Skinny, I’m with you,” Tally said sharply. “Doingtricks is great! Okay? Breaking the rules is fun! But eventuallyUGLIES 83you’ve got to do something besides being a clever little ugly.”
“Like being a vapid, boring pretty?”
“No, like being an adult. Did you ever think that whenyou’re pretty you might not need to play tricks and messthings up? Maybe just being ugly is why uglies always fightand pick on one another, because they aren’t happy withwho they are. Well, I want to be happy, and looking like areal person is the first step.”
“I’m not afraid of looking the way I do, Tally.”
“Maybe not, but you are afraid of growing up!”
Shay didn’t say anything. Tally floated in silence, lookingup at the sky, barely able to see the clouds through heranger. She wanted to be pretty, wanted to see Peris again. Itseemed like forever since she’d talked to him, or to anyoneelse 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.