Chapter 1
Best Friends Forever
Roan hovered over the river, looking at the moon and stars' reflection below her. She had fixed her hoverboard so that its magnets were stronger and she could fly higher and farther from metal than a normal board. But, still, she stayed close to the river and was constantly looking around to make sure there was no one around. But she was alone. She sighed. Alone. Ever since Jacob had left, she had been spending more and more time alone.
Plus, Special Circumstances had been watching her every move. She found herself spending hours every night hoverboarding, just to get away from the hawk-like faces and razor-sharp voices that followed her everywhere, asking where Jacob was. But she wouldn't tell them. She wasn't afraid of them. She didn't care if they made sure she was ugly forever.
She sighed again. (Another thing she had been doing more often since Jacob had left.) Ugly forever. She and Jacob had always talked about never turning pretty; ever since she had first met him. She had told him about not caring whether she was ugly or pretty. Now he was gone because of her.
She wished he had brought her with him, or at least left directions. They could have been in The Smoke at that very moment, laughing and eating and never turning pretty. But now she was stuck in Uglyville, with her 16th birthday looming a few months away. She'd give anything to see Jacob again. They were each other's best and only friends. They were always sneaking out at night to hoverboard.
A loud slap brought Roan back to Earth. Her hoverboard had been drifting downward slowly and finally hit the surface of the river with a noise as loud as a gunshot echoing off the forest. She wondered if anyone had heard it. She didn't see any one and she was almost at the rusty ruins, a long way from Uglyville, but she still curved into the forest, riding along the path she and Jacob had made by burying pieces of metal under trees that were marked with letters, eventually spelling "BEST FRIENDS FOREVER."
"Forever" Roan whispered.