1269_UgliesFreeBook

44 Scott Westerfeld
“Sure, great. But first let’s get this right.”
“What do you mean ‘get it right,’ Tally? Maybe I think
my face is already right!”
“Yeah, it’s great.” Tally rolled her eyes. “For an ugly.”
Shay scowled. “What, can’t you stand me? Do you need
to get some picture into your head so you can imagine it
instead of my face?”
“Shay! Come on. It’s just for fun.”
“Making ourselves feel ugly is not fun.”
“We are ugly!”
“This whole game is just designed to make us hate
ourselves.”
Tally groaned and flopped back onto her bed, glaring
up at the ceiling. Shay could be so weird sometimes. She
always had a chip on her shoulder about the operation, like
someone was making her turn sixteen. “Right, and things
were so great back when everyone was ugly. Or did you
miss that day in school?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Shay recited. “Everyone judged
everyone else based on their appearance. People who were
taller got better jobs, and people even voted for some politicians
just because they weren’t quite as ugly as everybody
else. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Yeah, and people killed one another over stuff like
having different skin color.” Tally shook her head. No
matter how many times they repeated it at school, she’d
never really quite believed that one. “So what if people look