![]() One morning, she returns to her room to find Peris. For the next few days, Tally hoverboards by night and sleeps by day. Ellie insists that Tally has no choice but to cooperate with Special Circumstances, and for the first time, Tally doesn’t find her parents comforting. Cable says that Tally won’t become pretty until she complies. ![]() ![]() ![]() Tally shares that she’s never met anyone from outside the cities and she insists she can’t help, but Dr. Special Circumstances acts as a hidden police force, and it’s imperative that they crack down on people who live outside of cities because those people want to steal uglies away. Cable wants to know about Shay and the Smoke, and she explains that this place is called Special Circumstances. He takes Tally to a group of squat buildings and introduces her to a cruel woman named Dr. On Tally’s 16th birthday, she waits at the hospital for an hour until a middle pretty who looks cruel and scary fetches her. Before Shay leaves, she swears Tally to secrecy and gives her handwritten, coded directions in case Tally decides she wants to follow. Tally refuses to go with Shay because she desperately wants to be pretty. Shay sneaks into Tally’s dorm and says she’s going to meet David in a place called the Smoke, where people never receive pretty surgery. The girls don’t talk until a week before their birthday. Shay remains firm that they’ve been programmed to think they’re ugly, while Tally accuses Shay of not wanting to grow up. A little while later, Tally and Shay fight about the merits of becoming pretty. She confirms that it’s a signal-she’s looking for a boy named David, who’s an ugly but doesn’t live in the city. Then, Shay rides to the top of a building and lights a sparkler. At the ruins, Shay leads Tally to what she calls a roller coaster and tells Tally that they can hoverboard on it. Not long after, Shay convinces Tally to take a night ride to the Rusty Ruins, the remains of a Rusty city. She refuses to listen to Tally when Tally points out that pretty surgery is the only way to create a fair society. Shay has never made a morpho before, but she grudgingly lets Tally make one of her. One afternoon, Tally shows Shay her morphos (composites of what Tally could look like as a pretty). The girls discover that their birthday is on the same day, meaning they’ll get their pretty surgery at the same time. Shay teaches Tally to ride a hoverboard, and unlike most uglies, Shay insists that they use their real names instead of rude nicknames about their features. Back near the river, Tally meets an ugly girl named Shay waiting to go back across to Uglyville. Peris makes Tally promise not to get into too much trouble before she has her surgery. He points out that the scar on his palm from their blood pact to always stick together is gone (he got new skin with the surgery) and he takes Tally to the roof so she can jump off the building using a bungee jacket. When she finds Peris, he’s not happy to see her. Pretty people have big eyes and lips and perfectly symmetrical faces. When it’s dark, Tally sneaks across the bridge from Uglyville, where she and other uglies live, to New Pretty Town, where all the pretties live. Nothing has looked beautiful since Tally’s best friend, Peris, underwent his pretty operation a few months ago. 15-year-old Tally stares morosely at the sunset, which is the pink color of cat vomit.
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