1269_UgliesFreeBook

98 Scott Westerfeld
The imaginary conversations were back, but much worse
than they had been after Peris had left. A thousand times
she’d fought with Shay in her head—long, rambling discussions
about beauty, biology, growing up. All those times out
in the ruins, Shay had made her points about uglies and pretties,
the city and the outside, what was fake and what was
real. But Tally had never once realized her friend might actually
run away, giving up a life of beauty, glamour, elegance. If
only 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 all
comes down to this: Two weeks of killer sunburn is worth
a 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 school
grounds so lightly that it hardly disturbed the fresh-mown
grass.
The driver was a middle pretty, radiating confidence
and authority. He looked so much like Sol that Tally almost
called her father’s name.
“Tally Youngblood?” he said.
Tally had already seen the flash of light that had read
her eye-print, but she said, “Yes, that’s me,” anyway. Something
about the middle pretty made it hard to be flippant.
He was wisdom personified, his manner so serious and