Read Online Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - Free Book Online Page A

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.”
    “So what, Tally? What are they going to do if we get caught?”
    Tally shrugged. “True.” But she pulled on her mousy brown wig anyway.
    Over the summer, as the last few seniors turned sixteen and pretty, the tricks had grown worse and worse. But nobody ever seemed to get punished, and Tally’s promise to Peris seemed ages ago.
    Once she was pretty, nothing she’d done in this last month would matter. She was anxious to leave it all behind, but not without a big finish.
    Thinking of Peris, Tally stuck on a big plastic nose. They’d raided the drama room at Shay’s dorm the night before and were loaded with disguises. “Ready?” she asked. Then she giggled at the nasal twang the fake nose gave her voice.
    “Hang on.” Shay grabbed a big, fat book from the shelf. “Okay, showtime.”
    They stood up.
    “Give me that book!” Tally shouted at Shay. “It’s mine!”
    She heard the uglies below fall silent, and had to resist looking down to see their upturned faces.
    “No way, Pignose! I checked it out first.”
    “Are you kidding, Fattie? You can’t even read!”
    “Oh, yeah? Well, read this !”
    Shay swung the book at Tally, who ducked. She snatched it away and swung back, catching Shay solidly on her upraised forearms. Shay rolled back at the impact, spinning over the railing.
    Tally leaned forward, watching wide-eyed as Shay tumbled down toward the library’s main floor, three stories below. The new uglies screamed in unison, scattering away from the flailing body plummeting toward them.
    A second later the bungee jacket activated, and Shay bobbed back up in midair, laughing maniacally at the top of her lungs. Tally waited another moment, watching the uglies’ horror dissolve into confusion as Shay bounced again, then righted herself on one of the tables and headed for the door.
    Tally dropped the book and dashed for the stairs, leaping a flight at a time until she reached the back exit of the dorm.
    “Oh, that was perfect!”
    “Did you see their faces?”
    “Not actually,” Shay said. “I was kind of busy watching the floor coming at me.”
    “Yeah, I remember that from jumping off the roof. It does catch your attention.”
    “Speaking of faces, love the nose.”
    Tally giggled, pulling it off. “Yeah, no point in being uglier than usual.”
    Shay’s face clouded. She wiped off an eyebrow, then looked up sharply. “You’re not ugly.”
    “Oh, come on, Shay.”
    “No, I mean it.” She reached out and touched Tally’s real nose. “Your profile is great.”
    “Don’t be weird, Shay. I’m an ugly, you’re an ugly. We will be for two more weeks. It’s no big deal or anything.” She laughed. “You, for example, have one giant eyebrow and one tiny one.”
    Shay looked away, stripping off the rest of her disguise in silence.
    They