Uglies Read Online Free PDF Page B

catlike eyes, and a wide mouth that curled into a knowing smile.
    â€œThat’s, uh, pretty different.”
    â€œYeah. I doubt it’s even legal.” Tally tweaked the eye-shape parameters, pulling the arch of the eyebrows down almost to normal. Some cities allowed exotic operations—for new pretties only—but the authorities here were notoriously conservative. She doubted a doctor would give this morpho a second glance, but it was fun to push the software to its limits. “You think I look too scary?”
    â€œNo. You look like a real pussycat.” Shay giggled. “Unfortunately,I mean that in the literal, dead-mouse-eating sense.”
    â€œOkay, moving right along.”
    The next Tally was a much more standard morphological model, with almond-shaped brown eyes, straight black hair with long bangs, the dark lips set to maximum fullness.
    â€œPretty generic, Tally.”
    â€œOh, come on! I worked on this one for a long time. I think I’d look great this way. There’s a whole Cleopatra thing going on.”
    â€œYou know,” Shay said, “I read that the real Cleopatra wasn’t even that great-looking. She seduced everyone with how clever she was.”
    â€œYeah, right. And you’ve seen a picture of her?”
    â€œThey didn’t have cameras back then, Squint.”
    â€œDuh. So how do you know she was ugly?”
    â€œBecause that’s what historians wrote at the time.”
    Tally shrugged. “She was probably a classic pretty and they didn’t even know it. Back then, they had weird ideas about beauty. They didn’t know about biology.”
    â€œLucky them.” Shay stared out the window.
    â€œSo, if you think all my faces are so crappy, why don’t you show me some of yours?” Tally cleared the wallscreen and leaned back on the bed.
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œYou can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?”
    â€œNo, I mean I just can’t. I never made one.”
    Tally’s jaw dropped. Everyone made morphos, even littlies, too young for their facial structure to have set. It was a great waste ofa day, figuring out all the different ways you could look when you finally became pretty.
    â€œNot even one?”
    â€œMaybe when I was little. But my friends and I stopped doing that kind of stuff a long time ago.”
    â€œWell.” Tally sat up. “We should fix that right now.”
    â€œI’d rather go hoverboarding.” Shay tugged anxiously under her shirt. Tally figured that Shay slept with her belly sensor on, hoverboarding in her dreams.
    â€œLater, Shay. I can’t believe you don’t have a single morph. Please. ”
    â€œIt’s stupid. The doctors pretty much do what they want, no matter what you tell them.”
    â€œI know, but it’s fun. ”
    Shay made a big point of rolling her eyes, but finally nodded. She dragged herself off the bed and plopped down in front of the wallscreen, pulling her hair back from her face.
    Tally snorted. “So you have done this before.”
    â€œLike I said, when I was a littlie.”
    â€œSure.” Tally turned her interface ring to bring up a menu on the wallscreen, and blinked her way through a set of eyemouse choices. The screen’s camera flickered with laser light, and a green grid sprang up on Shay’s face, a field of tiny squares imposed across the shape of her cheekbones, nose, lips, and forehead.
    Seconds later, two faces appeared on the screen. Both of them were Shay, but there were obvious differences: One looked wild, slightly angry; the other had a slightly distant expression, like someone having a daydream.
    â€œIt’s weird how that works, isn’t it?” Tally said. “Like two different people.”
    Shay nodded. “Creepy.”
    Ugly faces were always asymmetrical; neither half looked exactly like the other. So the first thing the morpho software did was take each side