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.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld