1269_UgliesFreeBook

WORK
The Smokies all had lunch together, just like at an ugly
dorm.
The long tables had clearly been cut from the hearts of
trees. They showed knots and whorls, and wavy tracks of
grain ran down their entire length. They were rough and
beautiful, but Tally couldn’t get over the thought that the
trees had been taken alive.
She was glad when Shay and David took her outside to
the cooking fire, where a group of younger uglies hung out.
It was a relief to get away from the felled trees, and from the
disturbing older uglies. Out here, at least, any of the
Smokies could pass as a senior. Tally didn’t have much
experience in judging an ugly’s age, but she turned out to
be more or less right. Two had just arrived from another
city, and weren’t even sixteen yet. The other three—Croy,
Ryde, and Astrix—were friends of Shay’s, from the group
that had run away together back before Tally and Shay had
first met.
Here in the Smoke only five months, Shay’s friends