UglyDolls by Arden Hayes

Author:Arden Hayes [Hayes, Arden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2019-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

She paused, meeting her own gaze.

Now that she was making over her friends, telling them about prettiness, she’d never felt like a bigger fake. “I’d choose a whole new me.…”

CHAPTER 13

Moxy and her friends stepped into the arena with their new and improved looks. Moxy was right—the makeovers gave them the confidence boost they needed. It was a real competitive edge.

“Just let me at that Gauntlet now,” Babo said as the group walked right up to Lou and the trio of girl dolls, who called themselves the Spy Girls. “I am ready to rummmble.”

“Well, what is this?” Lou asked.

“We’re Pretty Dolls now!” Moxy announced.

“Hmm, you certainly are,” Lou said.

“Why does he always say it with that tone?” Ugly Dog whispered to his friends.

“You’re happy for us, then?” Moxy asked.

“Sooo happy.” Lou smiled. “And yet so sad. You see, all your work has been for nothing.”

“There it is,” Ugly Dog muttered.

“No amount of makeup or fancy new clothes or manscaping can take away from the fact that deep down, you are UglyDolls. There’s no changing that. UglyDolls can never pass the Gauntlet.”

Lou shrugged, as if that were just the truth. Moxy looked skeptical.

“You don’t believe me?” Lou asked. “I suspected as much. But maybe you’ll believe him.”

Lou stepped to the side, revealing Nolan. The tall, handsome doll seemed deeply confused. “Can—can you move?” Lou asked, trying to peer around him. Then he cleared his throat and started his menacing speech again. “But maybe you’ll believe… him.”

Nolan stepped to the side, revealing Ox.

The UglyDolls gasped.

“We kidnapped him!” Kitty, the meanest of the Spy Girls, shouted.

“I don’t understand,” Moxy said, though she was still excited to see him. “Ox, wait. You won’t believe this—the Big World is real!”

“I know,” Ox said, his voice serious.

“What?” Moxy looked around at the other UglyDolls, but they all seemed just as confused as she was.

Lou smiled. “Come on, Ox, why don’t you relieve the poor creatures of their confusion. Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

“Make it sound like a story!” Kitty yelled. The Spy Girls pulled out popcorn and settled in, their eyes wide with excitement.

“What’s he talking about?” Moxy asked.

Ox was the one who always told her there was no Big World and she should stop dreaming about it. He thought she was silly for waking up every day determined to meet her child. And this whole time he knew that the Big World really did exist?! Why would he lie to her like that?

“It was a long time ago, before there was even an Uglyville…” Ox started. “When I was a brand-new doll. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow I ended up here at the Institute. Lou helped me become accepted among the Pretty Dolls. He made me better. We became best friends.”

Moxy glanced sideways at Ugly Dog. Lou and Ox… best friends? How could that be?

“Then the big day came when I was to run the Gauntlet,” Ox went on. “But I knew that would mean leaving my friend. So Lou and I decided we’d run the Gauntlet together.

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