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She knehere Peris lived fro pretty Peris hadn't given an address, but Tally knew the trick for decoding the rando They led to someplace called Garbo Mansion in the hilly part of town

Getting there was going to be tricky In their expeditions, Tally and Peris had always stuck to the waterfront, where vegetation and the dark backdrop of Uglyville made it easy to hide But now Tally was headed into the center of the island, where floats and revelers populated the bright streets all night

Brand-new pretties like Peris always lived where the fun was most frantic

Tally hadturn, she was toast Without her interface ring, she was invisible to vehicles They'd just run her down like she was nothing

Of course, Tallywas nothing here

Worse, she was ugly But she hoped Peris wouldn't see it that way Wouldn't seeher that way

Tally had no idea ould happen if she got caught This wasn't like being busted for "forgetting" her ring, skipping classes, or tricking the house into playing her music louder than allowed Everyone did that kind of stuff, and everyone got busted for it But she and Peris had always been very careful about not getting caught on these expeditions Crossing the river was serious business

It was too late to worry now, though What could they do to her, anyway? In three months she'd be a pretty herself

Tally crept along the river until she reached a pleasure garden, and slipped into the darkness beneath a roeeping s Under their cover sheflames

A pretty couple wandered down the path Tally froze, but they were clueless, too busy staring into each other's eyes to see her crouching in the darkness Tally silently watched the at a pretty face Even when she and Peris used to spy on thes the pretties said and did, they couldn't resist staring There was so that made you want to pay attention to whatever they said, to protect theer, to make them happy They were sopretty

The two disappeared around the next bend, and Tally shook her head to clear the hts away

She wasn't here to gawk She was an infiltrator, a sneak, an ugly And she had a mission

The garden stretched up into toinding like a black river through the bright party towers and houses After a fewthe trees (it was a pleasure garden, after all), but in the darkness they couldn't see her face, and only teased her as she y and slipped away She hadn't seen too s and arms

Finally, the garden ended, a few blocks from where Peris lived

Tally peered out fro vines This was farther than she and Peris had ever been together, and as far as her planning had taken her There was no way to hide herself in the busy, well-lit streets She put her fingers up to her face, felt the wide nose and thin lips, the too-high forehead and tangled mass of frizzy hair One step out of the underbrush and she'd be spotted Her face see here? She should be back in the darkness of Uglyville, awaiting her turn

But she had to see Peris, had to talk to him She wasn't quite sure why, exactly, except that she was sick of iht before she fell asleep They'd spent every day together since they were littlies, and nownothing Maybe if they could just talk for a few inary Peris Three h to hold her for three months

Tally looked up and down the street, checking for side yards to slink through, dark doorways to hide in

She felt like a rock cli for cracks and handholds

The traffic began to clear a little, and she waited, rubbing the scar on her right palhed and whispered, "Best friends forever," and took a step forward into the light

An explosion of sound caht, and she leaped back into the darkness, stu down hard on her knees in the soft earth, certain for a few seconds that she'd been caught

But the cacophony organized itself into a throbbing rhyth way down the street Wide as a house, it shimmered with theaway at every size of dru along with the beat, drinking and throwing their ee, impervious machine

Tally s masks

Theto coax more followers into the ireen s and cows, faces with crooked se noses

The procession passed slowly, and Tally pulled herself back into the vegetation A few of the revelers passed close enough that the sickly sweetness from their bottles filled her nose A minute later, when the machine had trundled half a block farther, Tally jumped out and snatched up a discarded mask from the street The plastic was soft in her hand, still war been stamped into shape inside the machine a few seconds before

Before she pressed it against her face, Tally realized that it was the sa snout and two pink little ears Sainst her skin as the mask settled onto her face

Tally pushed her way through the drunken dancers, out the other side of the procession, and ran down a side street toward Garbo Mansion, wearing the face of a pig