1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 273
Tally wondered which had come first: the operation or
the lesions? Was becoming pretty just the bait to get everyone
under the knife? Or were the lesions merely a finishing
touch on being pretty? Perhaps the logical conclusion of
everyone looking the same was everyone thinking the
same.
She leaned back in her chair. Her eyes were blurry, and
her stomach clenched whenever she thought about Peris,
her parents, and every other pretty she’d ever met. How different
were they? she wondered. How did it feel to be
pretty? What was it really like behind those big eyes and
exquisite features?
“You look tired,” David said.
She laughed softly. It seemed like weeks since she and
David had arrived there. A few hours of conversation had
changed her world. “Maybe a little.”
“I guess we’d better go, Mom.”
“Of course, David. It’s late, and Tally has a lot to digest.”
Maddy and Az stood, and David helped Tally up from
the chair. She said good-bye to them in a daze, flinching
inside when she recognized the expression in their old
and ugly faces: They felt sorry for her. Sad that she’d had
to learn the truth, sad that they’d been the ones to tell
her. After twenty years, maybe they’d gotten used to the
idea, but they still understood that it was a horrible fact
to learn.
Ninety-nine percent of humanity had had something