The humming of the hovercar had a strangely soothing effect on Tally's tortured nerves. She pressed her head further against the window, soaking in the view of New Pretty Town, its lofty party spires gleaming in the afternoon sunlight and the pleasure gardens stretching towards the river that kept the separated the glamorous from the unsightly.
Yet no longer was it the river that was distancing her from that world of partying and from Peris but it was her herself that had rejected the chance. She'd done it because she didn't want to betray Shay, because a part of her agreed with her friend about freedom and beauty.
So she'd refused Dr. Cable who, much to Tally's misery had followed through on her promise to keep Tally ugly. Forever. And as Tally thought of her squint and her wiry hair, she wondered if maybe she'd made the right choice. Maybe it would have been better for her, and Shay, if Tally had cooperated with Dr. Cable. That way, she could have brought Shay back and they could both have turned pretty and lived happily ever after.
The hovercar landed on the roof of a small, dull building, far away from New Pretty Town or even her own dorm, only the metal structures of the Industrial Complexes faintly visible in the distance. She dragged herself out the hovercar, depressed at the hopelessness of her future and scared of this strange place. Her dorm minders had informed her that she was being brought where the Unsuitables were taken. Those on whom the operation didn't work or went wrong. Their existence was often thought to be mythical, the horror stories told to little ugly children to make them eat all their vitamins.
And that's where Tally was supposed to spend the rest of her life.
(This is just the intro bit. Rest coming soon. Hope you like it. Let me know what you think.)