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They both stood silent, theirThe question had popped out of Tally before she could think How had she uttered so so horrible?

"I’ed, turned away "It’s a fair question Yes, I do"

"Do what?"

"I think you’re more beautiful than Shay" He said it soabout the weather

Tally’s eyes closed, every bit of exhaustion fro into her at once She saw Shay’s face - too thin, eyes too far apart - and an awful feeling welled up inside her The warmth she’d felt from David was crushed by it

Every day of her life she’d insulted other uglies and had been insulted in return Fattie, Pig-Eyes, Boney, Zits, Freak - all the naerly and without reserve But equally, without exception, so that no one felt shut out by some irrelevant mischance of birth And no one was considered to be even reed because of a randoenes That hy they’d made everyone pretty in the first place

This was not fair

"Don’t say that Please"

"You asked me"

She opened her eyes "But it’s horrible! It’s wrong"

"Listen, Tally That’s not what’s important to me What’s inside you matters a lot more"

"Butfirst you see my face You react to symmetry, skin tone, the shape of my eyes And you decide what’s inside rarow up in a city"

"It’s not just culture, it’s evolution!"

He shrugged in defeat, the anger draining from his voice "Maybe some of it is" He chuckled tiredly

"But you knohat first got me interested in you?"

Tally took a deep breath, trying to calm herself "What?"

"The scratches on your face"

She blinked "Thewhat ?"

"These scratches" He softly touched her cheek again

She shook away the electric feeling his fingers left behind "That’s nuts In of a poor in that you’d been in an adventure, Tally, that you’d bashed your way across the wild to get here To ood story to tell"

Her outrage faded "A good story?" Tally shook her head, a laugh building inside her "Actually,through soh speed Soh As I thought the first tiers wound into a lock of her singed hair "You’re still taking risks"

"I guess so" Standing here in the darkness with David felt like a risk, like everything was about to change again He still had the look in his eye, the pretty look

Maybe he really could see past her ugly face Maybe as inside her didelse

Tally stepped onto a fist-size stone on the path and found an uneasy balance on it They were eye to eye now

She sed "You really think I’m beautiful"

"Yes What you do, the way you think, ht crossed her ot the operation" She couldn’t believe she was saying it "Even if they didn’t do your brain, I mean"

"Gee, thanks" His smile shone in the darkness

"I don’t want you to look like everyone else"

"I thought that was the point of being pretty"

"I did too" She touched his eyebrohere the line of white cut through it "So how’d you get that scar?"

"An adventure A good story I’ll tell you sometime"

"You promise?"

"I proht pressing into hiradually slipped down the stone, their lips met His arms wrapped around her and pulled her closer His body ar solid and certain in Tally’s shaken reality She held on tightly, amazed at how intense the kiss became

Afor just a second how odd this was Uglies did kiss each other, and a lotcounted until you were a pretty

But this counted

She pulled David toward her again, her fingers digging into the leather of his jacket The cold, her achingshe had just learned, all of it just er

Then one of his hands touched the back of her neck, traced the slender chain there, down to the cold, hard metal of the pendant

She stiffened, and their lips parted

"What about this?" he said

She enclosed the metal heart in her fist, her other arm still wrapped around him There was no way she could tell David about Dr Cable now He would pull away, maybe forever The pendant was still between them

Suddenly, Tally knehat to do It was perfect "Come with me"

"Where?"

"To the S"

She pulled hie

"Are you okay?" he asked, panting "I didn’t reat" She sle caathered to warm up every hour or so "Coet there fast, before her certainty faded, before the warive way to doubt She scrambled down between the painted stones of the hoverboard path, David struggling to keep up When her feet reached level ground, she ran, heedless of the dark and silent huts on either side, seeing only the firelight ahead Her speed was effortless, like hoverboarding on an open straightaway

Tally ran until she reached the fire, skidding to a halt against its cushion of heat and smoke She reached up to unclasp the pendant’s chain

"Tally?" David ran up panting, confusion on his face He tried breathlessly to say more

"No," she said "Just watch"

The pendant swung by its chain in her fist, sparkling red in the firelight Tally focused all her doubts on it, all her fear of discovery, her terror at Dr Cable’s threats She clutched the pendant, squeezing the unyieldinginto her own ht really rely at all

She opened her hand and threw the necklace into the center of the fire

It landed on a crackling log, theyellow and white in the heat Finally, a s trapped inside had exploded, and it slid fro the flames

She turned to David, her vision spotted with sinuous shapes frohed at the smoke "Wow That was drauess so"

He ave it to you - "

"Doesn’t matter anymore"

"What if they co I’athered Tally into a hug, pulling her away froblood, you certainly kno to make a point You knoould have believed you if you just told me - "

"No, I had to do it like this I had to burn it To know for sure"

He kissed her forehead and laughed "You’re beautiful"

"When you say that, I almost," she whispered

Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion struck Tally, as if her last bit of energy had gone into the fire with the pendant She was tired froht with Maddy and Az, from a hard day’s work And toain, and explain what had happened between her and David Of course, the one from around Tally’s neck, she would know

But at least she’d never know the real truth The pendant was charred beyond recognition, its true purpose hidden forever Tally slue of the glowing heart was burned into her vision

She was free Dr Cable would never come here now, and no one could ever take her away from David or the Smoke, or do to Tally’s brain whatever the operation did to pretties’ She was no longer an infiltrator She finally belonged here

Tally found herself crying

David silently walked her to the bunkhouse At the door, he leaned forward to kiss her, but she pulled away and shook her head Shay was just inside Tally would have to talk to her tomorrow It wouldn’t be easy, but Tally knew she could face anything now

David nodded, kissed his finger, and traced one of the re scratches on her cheek "See you to?"

"For a walk I need to think"

"Don’t you ever sleep?"

"Not tonight" He smiled

Tally kissed his hand and slipped inside, where she kicked off her shoes and crawled into bed with her clothes on, falling asleep in seconds, as if the weight of the world had lifted fro she awoke to chaos, the sounds of running, shouting, and the screa her dreams Out the bunkhouse , the sky was full of hovercars

Special Circumstances had arrived