Pretties

But talking to the two uglies was less awkward than it might have been. Tally’s unpretty thoughts over the last month had made it easier to look at their imperfect faces. They didn’t horrify her as much as her first glance at Croy had. The tiny gap between Sussy’s two front teeth seemed more charming than revolting, and even Dex’s zits didn’t make her skin crawl.

  “But the damage wasn’t permanent,” Zane was saying. “We’re starting to get smarter. Which, by the way, is not something you can spread around to everyone, okay?”

  The two nodded dumbly, and Tally wondered if hinting about the cure to random uglies was worth the risk. Of course, enlisting Sussy and Dex might be the quickest way to get a message to the New Smoke.

  “What’s the news from the ruins?” she asked.

  Sussy leaned closer, remembering to whisper. “That’s why we came down here. As far as we could tell, the New Smokies had all disappeared. Until last night.”

  “What happened last night?” Tally asked.

  “Well, since they went missing, we’ve been going to the ruins every few nights,” Dex said. “To check out the old spots, light sparklers. But we haven’t seen anything all month.”

  Tally and Zane shared a glance. A month ago was about the same time Croy had left the pills for Tally to find. The timing probably wasn’t a coincidence.

  “But last night we found some stuff in an old hideout,” Sussy said. “Burned-out lightsticks and some old magazines.”

  “Old magazines?” Tally asked.

  “Yeah,” Sussy said. “From the Rusty era. Those ones that showed how ugly everyone used to be.”

  “I don’t think the New Smokies would have left those lying around,” Tally said. “Those are precious. I knew someone who died to save them. So they must be back.”

  “But they’re lying low,” Dex said. “Playing it safe.”

  “Why?” Zane said softly. “And for how long?”

  “How would we know?” Dex said. “That’s why we came down here today. We were going to sneak over in the rain and find you, Tally. We thought you guys might have a clue.”

  “After you were all over the news the other day, we figured something was up,” Sussy added. “Like, that stadium thing was a trick, right?”

  “Glad you noticed,” Tally said. “The New Smokies were supposed to notice too. Apparently, they did.”

  “We figured you knew something about it,” Sussy said. “Especially after we spotted some of your pretty friends out here in Uglyville.”

  Tally frowned. “Pretties? Out here?”

  “Yeah, in Cleopatra Park. I recognized a couple of them from the feeds. I think they were Crims. That’s your clique, right?”

  “Yeah, but . . .”

  Sussy frowned. “You didn’t know?”

  Tally shook her head. After the last couple of days, she had gotten a few pings from other Crims—mostly complaints about the rain. But no one had said anything about going to Uglyville.

  “What were they up to?” Zane asked.

  Dex and Sussy looked at each other, unhappy expressions on their faces.

  “Um, we’re not sure,” Sussy said. “They wouldn’t talk to us, just chased us off.”

  Tally let out a slow breath through her teeth. Pretties were allowed on this side of the river—they could go anywhere they wanted in the city—but they never came to Uglyville. Which meant that Cleopatra Park would be a great place for a pretty to find some privacy, especially in the driving rain. But privacy for what?

  “Didn’t you tell everyone to lie low for a while?” Zane asked her.

  “Yeah, I did.” Tally wondered which of the Crims was behind this. And what “this” was.

  “Take us there,” she said.

  • • •

  Sussy and Dex led them up toward the park, flying slowly in the steady rain. Figuring that someone was monitoring the cuffs’ positions, Tally had asked them to take an indirect route. The journey wound through half-familiar sights of her childhood: ugly dorms and schools, sodden parks, and empty soccer fields.

  Despite the downpour, there were a few uglies out. One bunch was taking turns skidding down a hill, screaming as they ran to throw themselves onto a mudslide. A few played tag in a dorm courtyard, slipping and falling and winding up just as muddy as the first group. They were all having too much fun to notice the four hoverboarders gliding silently past.

  Tally wondered if she’d had that much fun as an ugly. All she could recall from those days was dying to turn pretty, to get across the river and leave all this behind. Floating above the earth, her perfect face hidden by a hood, she felt like some risen spirit, enviously watching the living and trying to remember what it was like to be one of them.

  Cleopatra Park, high in the greenbelt on the outer edge of Uglyville, was empty. The walking paths had been transformed into small creeks carrying the rain down toward the swollen river. The wildlife seemed to be in hiding except for a few miserable-looking birds that clung to the branches of the great pines that drooped low under their loads of water.

  Sussy and Dex brought them to a clearing marked with slalom flags, and Tally felt a flush of recognition. “This is one of Shay’s favorite spots. She taught me to hoverboard here.”

  “Shay?” Zane said. “But she’d tell us if she was up to some kind of trick, wouldn’t she?”

  “Um, maybe not,” Tally said softly. No pings had come from Shay since the fight. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, Zane: She’s kind of pissed off at me right now.”

  “Wow,” Sussy said. “I thought pretties all liked each other.”

  “Usually, they do.” Tally sighed. “Welcome to the new world.”

  Zane narrowed his eyes. “I think Tally and I need to talk.” He glanced at the two uglies.

  It took them a moment to realize what he meant, but then Sussy said, “Oh, sure. We’ll be going. But what if . . . ?”

  “If the New Smokies show up again, send me a ping,” Tally said.

  “Doesn’t the city read your mail?”

  “Probably. Don’t say anything except that you saw us on the feeds and you want to join the Crims when you turn sixteen. Leave the real message hidden under that recycler, and I’ll send someone to pick it up. Got that?”

  “Got it,” Sussy said with a gap-toothed smile. Tally figured the two would be headed out to the ruins every night now, rain or not, looking for the New Smokies, happy to have a mission.

  She gave them a pretty smile. “Thanks for everything.”

  • • •

  Tally and Zane sat in silence for a minute after the uglies had left, watching the clearing from a thick stand of trees. The plastic slalom flags drooped miserably in the rain, the wind barely lifting them. Rainwater gathered in spots, the shallow pools reflecting the gray sky like rippling mirrors. Tally remembered flying between the flags on her hoverboard in ugly days, learning to bank and turn. Back when she and Shay were really friends . . .

  It was impossible to guess why Shay would be visiting this spot. Maybe it was nothing but a few Crims practicing their hoverboarding, figuring it was a great way to stay bubbly. No big deal.

  As they sat, Tally realized she was out of excuses for not telling Zane everything. It was time to admit what she’d done to the Smoke and how she’d told Shay about the cure, and past time to bring up what Dr. Cable had revealed about Zane. But Tally wasn’t looking forward to the conversation, and being soaking wet and cold wasn’t helping. Her coat’s heating was already turned up to maximum. The bubbliness from hoverboarding had worn off, replaced by Tally’s anger at herself for having waited this long. The always-listening cuffs made it too easy to avoid mentioning uncomfortable subjects.

  “So what happened between you and Shay?” Zane said. His voice stayed soft, but carried an edge of frustration.

  “Her memories are starting to come back.” Tally stared into a mud puddle before her, watching drops that had made their way down through the soaked pine trees distort its surface. “On the night of th
e breakthrough, she got really mad at me. She blames me for the Specials finding the Smoke. Which, I guess, is pretty much what happened. I betrayed them.”

  He nodded. “I figured that. All the stories you two told—back before the cure—they had you rescuing her from the Smoke. That sounds like pretty-talk for betrayal.”

  Tally looked up at him. “So you knew?”

  “That you’d gone undercover for Special Circumstances? I’d guessed it.”

  “Oh.” Tally didn’t know whether to feel relieved or ashamed. Of course, Zane had cooperated with Dr. Cable himself, so maybe he understood. “I didn’t want to do it, Zane. I mean, at first I went out there to bring Shay back, so they’d make me pretty, but then I changed my mind. I wanted to stay in the Smoke. I tried to destroy the tracker they’d given me, but I wound up setting it off. Even when I tried to do the right thing, I betrayed everyone.”

  Zane faced her, his eyes intense under his hood. “Tally, we’re all manipulated by the people who run this city. Shay should know that.”

  “I wish that was all,” Tally said. “I also stole David from her. Back when we were in the Smoke.”

  “Oh, him again.” Zane shook his head. “Well, I guess she’s pretty pissed off at you right now. At least that’ll keep her bubbly.”

  “Yeah, really bubbly.” Tally swallowed. “And there’s one more thing that’s got her mad.”

  He waited silently, rain dripping from his hood.

  “I told her about the cure.”

  “You what?” Zane’s whisper cut through the rain like a hiss of steam.

  “I had to.” Tally spread her hands imploringly. “She had it halfway figured out already, Zane, and was thinking she could cure herself. She climbed the Valentino tower like we did, thinking that was what had changed us. But of course it didn’t work, not like the pills. She kept asking me what happened to us. She said I owed her, after everything I did to her back in ugly days.”

  Zane swore under his breath. “So you told her about the pills? Great. That’s one more thing that can go wrong.”

  “But she’s totally bubbly, Zane. I don’t think she’ll give us away,” Tally said, then shrugged. “If anything, finding out about the pills made her furious enough to stay bubbly for life.”

  “Furious? Because you’re cured and she’s not?”

  “No.” Tally sighed. “Because you are.”

  “What?”

  “I owed her, and you got the other pill.”

  “But there wasn’t time to—”

  “I know that, Zane. But she doesn’t. To her, it looks like . . .” She shook her head, feeling hot tears in her eyes. The rest of her was so cold, her fingers were slowly going numb. She began to tremble.

  “It’s okay, Tally.” Zane reached out and took her hand, squeezing hard through the thick glove.

  “You should have heard her, Zane. She really hates me.”

  “Listen, I’m sorry about that. But I’m glad it was me.”

  She looked up, her vision blurring with tears. “Yeah. Thanks for all the headaches, you mean.”

  “Better than staying a pretty-brain,” he said. “But that’s not what I meant. That day was about more than just finding those pills. I’m glad about . . . you and me.”

  She looked up and found him smiling. His fingers, still interlaced with hers, also trembled in the cold. Tally managed to smile back. “Me too.”

  “Don’t let Shay make you feel bad about us, Tally.”

  “Of course not.” She shook her head, realizing how much she meant it. Whatever Shay thought, Zane had been the right person to share the cure with. He had kept her bubbly, pushing her to pass the Smokies’ tests, pressing her to dare the unproven pills. Tally had found more than a cure for pretty-headedness that day—she’d found someone to move forward with, past everything that had gone wrong last summer.

  It had been littlie days when Peris had promised to stay her best friend forever—but the day he’d turned sixteen, Peris had left her behind in Uglyville. Then Tally had lost Shay’s friendship, betraying her to Special Circumstances and stealing David from her. Now even David was gone, missing somewhere in the wild and half-erased from her memories. He hadn’t even bothered to bring her the pills—he’d left that job to Croy. Tally could guess what that meant.

  But Zane . . .

  Tally stared into his golden, perfect eyes. He was here with her right now, in the flesh, and she’d been stupid to let what was between them get tangled up in her messy past. “I should have told you about Shay earlier. But the smart walls . . .”

  “It’s okay. But you can trust me. Always.”

  She pressed his hand in both of hers. “I know.”

  He reached up to touch her face. “We didn’t really know each other very well that day, did we?”

  “We took a chance, I guess. Weird how that happened.”

  He laughed. “I think that’s the way it always happens. Usually without mysterious pills or Special Circumstances pounding on the door. But it’s always taking a risk, when you . . . kiss someone new.”

  Tally nodded, and leaned forward. Their lips met, the kiss slow and intense in the chill of the rain. She could feel him trembling, and the muddy ground beneath them was cold, but their two hoods joined to block out the world, making a space that became warm from their mingling breath.

  Tally whispered, “I’m so glad it was you with me that day.”

  “Me too.”

  “I—Ah!” She pulled away, wiping at her face. A trickle of water had crawled inside Tally’s hood and was running down her cheek like a cold, malevolent tear.

  He laughed and stood up, pulling her to her feet. “Come on, we can’t stay here forever. Let’s go back to Pulcher and get breakfast, and some dry clothes.”

  “I wasn’t uncomfortable.”

  He smiled, but indicated his wrist and lowered his voice. “If we sit in one place too long, someone might get curious about what the big deal is out here in Uglyville.”

  “Whatever it is,” she whispered.

  But Zane was right. They should go home. They hadn’t eaten anything all day except for a few calorie-purgers and some coffee. Their winter coats were heated, but between the physical effort of hoverboarding and the shock of getting dumped into the freezing river, Tally was starting to feel exhaustion and cold down in her bones. Hunger, the cold, and the kiss were all dizzy-making.

  Zane snapped his fingers, and his board rose into the air.

  “Wait a second,” she said softly. “There’s one more thing I should tell you about the night of the breakthrough.”

  “Okay.”

  “After I took you home . . .” The thought of Dr. Cable’s feral face made her shiver, but Tally took a calming breath. She’d been stupid not to drag Zane outside sooner, getting him away from Pulcher Mansion’s smart walls to tell him about her encounter with the doctor. She didn’t want any secrets between them.

  “What’s wrong, Tally?”

  “She was waiting for me . . . ,” she said. “Dr. Cable.”

  The name made Zane’s face go blank for a moment, then he nodded. “I remember her.”

  “You do?”

  “She’s kind of hard to forget,” Zane said. He paused, staring out into the clearing. Tally wondered if he was going to say more.

  Finally, she said, “She made me a weird sort of offer. She wanted to know if I—”

  “Shhh!” he hissed.

  “What—,” she began, but Zane silenced her with a gloved hand. He turned and crouched in the mud, pulling her down beside him. Through the trees, a group of figures were marching into the clearing. They moved slowly, huddled in almost identical winter gear, their left wrists wrapped in black scarves. But Tally recognized one of them instantly, copper eyes bright and flash tattoo spinning in the cold.

  It was Shay.

  RITUAL

  Tally counted ten of them, slogging with quiet determination across the muddy ground. They reached the middle of the clearing
and arranged themselves in a wide circle around one of the slalom flags. Shay moved to stand in the center, turning slowly, peering at the others from under her hood. The others settled into place about an arm’s length apart, facing Shay and waiting silently.

  After a long moment motionless, she dropped her winter coat to the ground, pulling off her gloves and spreading her arms. She wore only trousers, a sleeveless white T-shirt, and the fake metal cuff on her left wrist. Tipping her head back, she let the rain pound against her face.

  Tally shivered and gathered her own coat tighter around her. Was Shay trying to freeze herself to death?

  The other figures did nothing for a moment. Then, slowly and with awkward glances at one another, they followed her example, pulling off coats and gloves and sweaters. As their hoods came down, Tally recognized two more Crims. Ho was there—one of Shay’s old friends who had run away to the Smoke only to come back on his own. Tally also recognized Tachs, who’d joined the clique a few weeks before she had.

  But the other seven pretties weren’t Crims at all. They placed their coats on the ground gingerly, hugging themselves against the bitter cold. When Ho and Tachs spread their arms, the others followed reluctantly. Rain ran down their faces and plastered the white shirts to their skin.

  “What are they doing?” Zane whispered.

  Tally only shook her head. She noticed that Shay had gotten new surge, some sort of raised tattoo hash marks on her arms. They extended from elbow to wrist, and Ho and Tachs seemed to have copied the design.

  Shay began to speak, facing upward, addressing the flag overhead like a crazy person talking to nobody in particular. Her voice didn’t carry across the clearing except for a word here and there. Tally couldn’t make sense of it—the cadence sounded like a chant, almost like the prayers that Rusties and pre-Rusties had once offered up to their invisible superheroes in the sky.

  After a few minutes, Shay fell silent, and again the group stood without saying a word, all shivering in the cold except the apparently insane Shay. Tally realized that the non-Crims all had flash tattoos on their faces, fresh-looking surge that glistened in the rain. She guessed that since the stadium disaster, swirly face tattoos must be the rage, but it was an awfully big coincidence that all seven of the unknown pretties had them.