Uglies (The Uglies Book 1) by Scott Westerfeld

Author:Scott Westerfeld [Westerfeld, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2006-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

BRAVERY

That night at dinner, she ate alone.

Now that she’d spent a day cutting trees herself, the wooden table in the dining hall no longer horrified her. The grain of the wood felt reassuringly solid, and tracing its whorls with her eyes was easier than thinking.

For the first time, Tally noticed the sameness of the food. Bread again, stew again. A couple of days ago, Shay had explained that the plump meat in the stew was rabbit. Not soy-based, like the dehydrated meat in her SpagBol, but real animals from the overcrowded pen on the edge of the Smoke. The thought of rabbits being killed, skinned, and cooked suited her mood. Like the rest of her day, this meal tasted brutal and serious.

Shay hadn’t talked to her after lunch, and Tally had no idea what to say to Croy, so she’d worked the rest of the day in silence. Dr. Cable’s pendant seemed to grow heavier and heavier, wound around her neck as tightly as the vines, brush, and roots grasping the railroad tracks. It felt as if everyone in the Smoke could see what the necklace really was: a symbol of her treachery.

Tally wondered if she could ever stay there now. Croy suspected what she was, and it seemed like it would be only a matter of time before everyone else knew. All day long a terrible thought had kept crossing her mind: Maybe the Smoke was where she really belonged, but she’d lost her chance by going there as a spy.

And now Tally had come between David and Shay. Without even trying, she’d shafted her best friend. Like walking poison, she killed everything.

She thought of the orchids spreading across the plains below, choking the life out of other plants, out of the soil itself, selfish and unstoppable. Tally Youngblood was a weed. And, unlike the orchids, she wasn’t even a pretty one.

Just as she finished eating, David sat down across from her. “Hey.”

“Hi.” She managed to smile. Despite everything, it was a relief to see him. Eating alone had reminded her of the days after her birthday, trapped as an ugly when everyone knew she should be pretty. Today was the first time she’d felt like an ugly since coming to the Smoke.

David reached across and took her hand. “Tally, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

He turned her palm up to reveal her freshly blistered fingers.

“I noticed you didn’t wear the gloves. Not after you had lunch with Shay. It wasn’t hard to guess why.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s not that I didn’t like them. I just couldn’t.”

“Sure, I know. This is all my fault.” He looked around the crowded hall. “Can we get out of here? I’ve got something to tell you.”

Tally nodded, feeling the cold pendant against her neck and remembering her promise to Shay. “Yeah. I’ve got something to tell you, too.”

• • •

They walked through the Smoke, past cook fires being extinguished with shovelfuls of dirt; windows coming alight with candles and electric bulbs; and a handful of young uglies pursuing an escaped chicken.

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