OPERATION

When the day came, Tally waited for the car alone.
Tomorrow, when the operation was all over, her parentswould be waiting outside the hospital, along with Peris andher other older friends. That was the tradition. But itseemed strange that there was no one to see her off on thisend. No one said good-bye except a few uglies passing by.
They looked so young to her now, especially the justarrivednew class, who gawked at her like she was an oldpile of dinosaur bones.
She’d always loved being independent, but now Tally feltlike the last littlie to be picked up from school, abandonedand alone. September was a crappy month to be born.
“You’re Tally, right?”
She looked up. It was a new ugly, awkwardly explodinginto unfamiliar height, tugging at his dorm uniform like itwas already too tight.
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t you the one who’s going to turn today?”
“That’s me, Shorty.”
“So how come you look so sad?”
Tally shrugged. What could this half-littlie, half-uglyunderstand, anyway? She thought about what Shay hadsaid about the operation.
Yesterday they’d taken Tally’s final measurements,rolling her all the way through an imaging tube. Should shetell this new ugly that sometime this afternoon, her bodywas going to be opened up, the bones ground down to theright shape, some of them stretched or padded, her nosecartilage and cheekbones stripped out and replaced withprogrammable plastic, skin sanded off and reseeded like asoccer field in spring? That her eyes would be laser-cut fora lifetime of perfect vision, reflective implants insertedunder the iris to add sparkling gold flecks to their indifferentbrown? Her muscles all trimmed up with a night ofelectrocize and all her baby fat sucked out for good? Teethreplaced with ceramics as strong as a suborbital aircraftwing, and as white as the dorm’s good china?
They said it didn’t hurt, except the new skin, which feltlike a killer sunburn for a couple of weeks.
As the details of the operation buzzed around in herhead, she could imagine why Shay had run away. It didseem like a lot to go through just to look a certain way. Ifonly people were smarter, evolved enough to treat everyonethe same even if they looked different. Looked ugly.
If only Tally had come up with the right argument tomake her stay.
UGLIES 97The imaginary conversations were back, but much worsethan they had been after Peris had left. A thousand timesshe’d fought with Shay in her head—long, rambling discussionsabout beauty, biology, growing up. All those times outin the ruins, Shay had made her points about uglies and pretties,the city and the outside, what was fake and what wasreal. But Tally had never once realized her friend might actuallyrun away, giving up a life of beauty, glamour, elegance. Ifonly she’d said the right thing. Anything.
Sitting here, she felt as if she’d hardly tried.
Tally looked the new ugly in the eye. “Because it allcomes down to this: Two weeks of killer sunburn is wortha lifetime of being gorgeous.”
The kid scratched his head. “Huh?”
“Something I should have said, and didn’t. That’s all.”
The hospital hovercar finally came, settling onto the schoolgrounds so lightly that it hardly disturbed the fresh-mowngrass.
The driver was a middle pretty, radiating confidenceand authority. He looked so much like Sol that Tally almostcalled her father’s name.
“Tally Youngblood?” he said.
Tally had already seen the flash of light that had readher eye-print, but she said, “Yes, that’s me,” anyway. Somethingabout the middle pretty made it hard to be flippant.
He was wisdom personified, his manner so serious and98 Scott Westerfeldformal that Tally found herself wishing she had dressed up.
“Are you ready? Not taking much.”
Her duffel bag was only half-full. Everyone knew thatnew pretties wound up recycling most of the stuff theybrought over the river, anyway. She’d have all new clothes,of course, and all the new pretty toys she wanted. All she’dreally kept was Shay’s handwritten note, hidden among abunch of random crap. “Got enough.”
“Good for you, Tally. That’s very mature.”
“That’s me, sir.”
The door closed, and the car took off.
The big hospital was on the bottom end of New PrettyTown. It was where everyone went for serious operations:
littlies, uglies, even late pretties from way out inCrumblyville coming in for life-extension treatments.
The river was sparkling under a cloudless sky, and Tallyallowed herself to be swept away by the beauty of NewPretty Town. Even without the nighttime lights and fireworks,the city’s surfaces shone with glass and metal, theunlikely spindles of party towers casting thin shadowsacross the island. It was so much more vibrant than theRusty Ruins, Tally suddenly saw. Not as dark and mysterious,perhaps, but more alive.
It was time to stop sulking about Shay. Life was goingto be one big party from now on, full of beautiful people.
Like Tally Youngblood.
UGLIES 99The hovercar descended onto one of the red Xs on thehospital roof, and Tally’s driver escorted her inside, takingher to a waiting room. An orderly looked up Tally’s name,flashed her eye again, and told her to wait.
“You’ll be okay?” the driver asked.
She looked up into his clear, soft eyes, wanting him tostay. But asking him to wait with her didn’t seem verymature. “No, I’m fine. Thanks.” He smiled and went away.
No one else was in the waiting room. Tally settled backand counted the tiles on the ceiling. As she waited, the conversationswith Shay in her head came back again, but theyweren’t so troubling here. It was too late for secondthoughts now.
Tally wished there was a window to look out onto NewPretty Town. She was so close now. She imagined tomorrownight, her first night pretty, dressed in new and wonderfulclothes (her dorm uniforms all shoved down the recycler),looking out from the top of the highest party tower shecould find. She would watch as lights-out fell across theriver, bedtime for Uglyville, and know that she still had allnight with Peris and her new friends, all the beautifulpeople she would meet.
She sighed.
Sixteen years. Finally.
Nothing happened for a long hour. Tally drummed herfingers, wondering if they always kept uglies waiting this long.
Then the man came.
100 Scott WesterfeldHe looked strange, unlike any pretty Tally had everseen. He was definitely of middle age, but whoever haddone his operation had botched it. He was beautiful, withouta doubt, but it was a terrible beauty.
Instead of wise and confident, the man looked cold,commanding, intimidating, like some regal animal of prey.
When he walked up, Tally started to ask what was goingon, but a glance from him silenced her.
She had never met an adult who affected her this way.
She always felt respect when face-to-face with a middle orlate pretty. But in the presence of this cruelly beautiful man,respect was saturated with fear.
The man said, “There’s a problem with your operation.
Come with me.”
She went.