1269_UgliesFreeBook

78 Scott Westerfeld
Shay pulled an oversize basketball jersey over the
bungee jacket. It was in her dorm’s colors, and none of the
teachers here knew her face very well. “How’s that look?”
“Like you’ve gained weight. It suits you.”
Shay scowled. She hated being called Stick Insect, or Pig-
Eyes, or any of the other things uglies called one another.
Shay sometimes claimed that she didn’t care if she ever got
the operation. It was crazy talk, of course. Shay wasn’t exactly
a freak, but she was hardly a natural-born pretty. There’d only
been about ten of those in all of history, after all. “Do you
want to do the jump, Squint?”
“I have both been there and done that, Shay, before I even
met you. And you’re the one who had this brilliant idea.”
Shay’s scowl faded into a smile. “It is brilliant, isn’t it?”
“They’ll never know what hit them.”
They waited until the new uglies were in the library, scattered
around the worktables to watch some orientation
video. Shay and Tally lay on their stomachs on the top floor
of the stacks, where the dusty old paper books were stored,
peering through the guardrails down at the group. They
waited for the tour leader to quiet the chattering uglies.
“This is almost too easy,” Shay said, penciling a pair of
fat, black eyebrows over her own.
“Easy for you. You’ll be out the door before anyone
knows what’s happened. I’ve got to make it all the way
down the stairs.”