Shaw woke to the sound of his mother calling.
"Hey, Shaw, honey, time to head to your dorm!" Cassidy, Shaw's mom, had been a nervous wreck all week, organizing and re-organizing all of his clothes for his big trip to Uglyville, even though he wouldn't wear them most of the time because of dorm uniforms. He wasn't a littlie anymore, but Cassidy wanted to make sure that his "transition into the real world was as smooth and pleasant as possible." Shaw knew better, though. As soon as he got to his dorm in Uglyville, all he would be doing is counting down the days until he could cross the river and begin his new pretty life of drinking, partying, and not worrying about anything.
He already wanted that day to come.
"Honey, you're going to be late. You don't want the minders to think you're tardy all the time, do you? That's not a great first impression." Cassidy was in his room now.
"I'm fine, Cassidy. It'll be fine. They won't care." Shaw threw his pre-packed duffel over his shoulder and trudged out of his near-empty room. Most new uglies went to their dorms in hovercars without their parents, but Cassidy and Xander, Shaw's dad, were some of the clingiest parents in the burbs. "Now when you get there, you won't be alone! You might not be in a dorm with any of the kids you've grown up with, but the new kids will be nice and your friends might be in some of your classes and…" Shaw was only half-listening to Cassidy as the threesome piled into the packed hovercar. "…and I know it's scary to be with all the older kids, but they'll be good role models and— "
"Cassidy, I'll be fine." Shaw was getting irritated. Wasn't it bad enough that he had to feel like a little kid in a community of almost-adults? It was like in Rusty days, when they had to go to a special four-year school after a littlie-type school. They called it "high school," and the first-years, freshman, Shaw recalled, were always rejected by the other students. That was going to be his life for a year. Living with other uglies, some more and some less ugly than he was, and being reminded every day that there was a way better life just a couple miles away. And even worse, Shaw was born in September, which meant that he would be the last one in his grade to turn. Sometimes it seemed like staying in the Burbs until you were sixteen was a much better option.
"Oh, Xander, honey, he's nervous. We're making him nervous!"
"Cassidy, I know we want to make Shaw feel ready, but maybe we should let him figure some things out by himself." Thank you, Xander.
A short while later, they arrived in Uglyville. The first word that came to Shaw's mind was "depressing." The thing that made it absolutely awful was that in contrast to Uglyville, New Pretty Town was clearly visible, almost as if the builders of the city had intended to dangle the carefree future life, which everyone in Uglyville would someday have, in front of their faces like a steak for a puppy. These next four years were going to suck.
Shaw kissed his parents good-bye, struggling away from his mother's arms, and started to drag his heavy duffel to his dorm. Shaw Newbridge, Building F, room 435. Staring at the little tag on his luggage made the whole experience so much more real. This was where he was going to live, dress, and study, until it was time for surgeons to rub his skin raw and add lean muscle to his scrawny arms and legs. Of course, it was only early summer, so class wouldn't start for a while, but this place already felt like a prison. He was trapped in his own unattractiveness, caged into his developing teenage angst that would make this experience even worse.
Shaw glances at the clock. 11:59. The clock turned 12, and the room said in a slightly electronic voice, "Shaw Newbridge, welcome to Uglyville. It is time for lunch." It was about time. He was starving. He'd skipped breakfast because he was too nervous.
As Shaw made his way to building A, the Food Services building, he observed all the people around him. There were very few sixteen-year-olds, only the ones who were unlucky like him and were born in late June, July, August or September. The other seniors had already turned pretty. Lucky them.
Standing in the lunch line, Shaw noticed a slightly older-looking girl sitting alone at a lunch table. She had light brown, slightly frizzy hair, and thin lips, but she wasn't awful-looking. She was probably a senior who had all of her friends turn already. Shaw made a mental note: Make friends with other people born late. She was stabbing at her cafeteria food, looking into her rice like it was a crystal ball. It looked like she was thinking about something; something important. "Hey, keep the line moving." A skinny girl with dark hair and fuller lips, also a senior, Shaw thought, was nudging him forward with her tray. "Sorry," Shaw muttered. "Hey, no problem, kid," she said. "So, I'm guessing you're new. Pull any pranks yet?"
"Pranks?" Shaw knew that uglies did tricks all the time…but did she expect him to pull one on his first day?
"Yeah, tricks! I'm guessing not? Don't worry, kid, you got time. Don't waste any of it." This girl was strange. She acted like time as an ugly was a thing to be savored.
"Well, what sort of tricks have you done?" Shaw asked the girl.
"Tons," she said with a smirk. "Not to brag, but I'm pulling a pretty big one tonight," the girl looked around, as if to check and see if any dorm minders were listening. "I'm going to cross the river." Shaw gaped. Was she crazy, or did she just have guts? It was hard to say.
"Won't you get caught?" Shaw asked as he scooped some mashed potatoes onto his tray. "Nah, I know all the tricks. You'll learn, uh…" She was reaching for a name. "Shaw. Shaw Newbridge," Shaw said. The girl let a smile spread on her lips. "That's funny, my name's Shay! Only one letter off; isn't life funny that way?" Shay made it seem like being an ugly wouldn't be so bad after all. She enjoyed life so much despite her thinness and uneven skin tone and too-far-apart eyes. Even though she was ugly, she was still happy.
They reached the end of the lunch line. "Well, good luck with the trick. It was, uh, nice meeting you, Shay." Shay flashed a smile and waved as she walked in the other direction. Shaw looked back again at the frizzy-haired brunette. She had barely eaten anything, but she threw away her tray and walked out of the cafeteria. Shaw wondered what was bothering her. He ate his lunch alone.
Shaw was in his dorm room later that day, and he had decided to pop in a wallscreen movie. It was a classic was some craze in the Rusty days, before the operation, where people who were exceptionally ugly started to be told that they were beautiful. This particular movie was about a handsome boy—well, handsome for Rusty days—who fell in love with an overweight ugly girl. And they sang about it. Shaw never got these types of movies, but it was the only wallscreen movie left from whoever left this dorm for him.
It was getting quite late, and Shaw heard some rustling outside his window. He looked down to see some people—girls, he determined—down in the bushes. They were giggling. This must be after some sort of trick, Shaw thought. Maybe it was Shay, coming back from crossing the river. "Lights out," the room said, and everything shut off. He would have to learn to trick his room into letting him stay up later, but tonight he actually was pretty tired. "G'night," Shaw said, and collapsed into his pillow.
Shaw awoke and looked around the room. That's right, he had come to Uglyville. This morning was the first of many that he'd be spending waking up in this dorm. He climbed out of bed. "Good morning, Shaw," said the room. He'd definitely have to get used to this constant voice, knowing what he's doing at all times. He'd lived in a fairly old house in the burbs, and it did not talk to him every time he went to the bathroom or got a drink from the hall fountain.
Shaw walked into the cafeteria for breakfast. He glanced around, looking for the brown-haired girl, or Shay. He realized he'd probably have to make friends his own age, and he shouldn't get attached to someone who was going to turn in a few weeks anyway. Shaw piled some scrambled eggs onto his plate. Then he took some pancakes, and poured butter and syrup on them, remembering that Cassidy wasn't there nagging him about his health. There were some pluses to living here.
He sat down with some kids his age. They looked just as uncomfortable with each other as he was with them. "Hey, I'm Shaw," he said, breaking the ice in an awkward way. They all smiled at him. "I'm Sienna," a blond girl with an upward-pointed nose and gigantic blue eyes said. "And this is Garrett, and this is Jayce," she said, gesturing first to a dark-haired boy with a sharp, square jaw line, and second to a dark redheaded girl with green eyes and huge, pointed ears.
"How was the first night for ya?" Jayce said, smiling.
"Jayce is a year older than us," Sienna said. "Sorry, assuming you're a new ugly, too." Shaw cringed at himself being referred to as an ugly.
"Hey, man, it'll get better after orientation. The place won't feel as freaky." Jayce seemed like she sincerely wanted to help. She reminded Shaw that he had orientation in a few days. He didn't get why they didn't introduce him to his surroundings right out of the gate, so that he didn't look like an idiot trying to get places, but the city's authorities had their reasons for everything.
Behind Sienna, Shaw noticed the brown-haired girl from the day before. And, of all people, Shay was sitting next to her. Were they the girls outside his window that morning? Had the brown-haired girl been distraught over Shay's—and her?—big "crossing-the-river" trick? Apparently they hadn't gotten caught. Was crossing the river a normal thing to do here? "Earth to Shaw," Garrett spoke for the first time.
"Oh, sorry," Shaw said through a bite of pancake, and lost focus of the girls across the room.
Throughout the next couple days, Shaw saw Shay and the brown-haired girl together all the time. They were hoverboarding in Cleopatra Park, which Shaw had begun to do also, they were always eating together and hanging out with each other, and it seemed like they also had a deeper bond than most uglies had with each other. A lot of the time, seniors were more focused on turning pretty than hoverboarding and pulling pranks. He had thought numerous times that he was too interested in these girls, and he had started to hang out more and more with Sienna, Garrett, and Jayce. It was fun to have a group. It made Shaw feel like he belonged here. Friends made him start to feel as if this temporary prison wasn't too bad after all. Orientation later today would seal the deal; Uglyville would be his home until he was sixteen.
"Okay, moving on from the classrooms, we're headed for the library next!" Shaw's tour guide said in a sing-songy voice. She was a middle pretty, saying things cheerfully because she had nothing to worry about. When she got home from showing the new uglies around, she'd go back to her nice house with her nice clothes, and eat her nice food that wouldn't affect her nice body, because if she ate too much fettuccine alfredo she could always use a calorie purger. Shaw realized that even though he knew nothing about this woman, he was jealous of her.
"This way, this way," She led them all to the library in a huddle, none of them wanting to stray in unfamiliar territory. They sat down at different tables to watch a video, and just as it was starting, they heard a yell from near the stairwell upstairs.
"Give me that book!" a girl was shouting, "It's mine!" Then Shaw realized that it was the brown-haired girl! He was seeing her everywhere, and now he heard her speak for the first time.
"No way, Pignose! I checked it out first!" shouted another girl, a little bit overweight and wearing a basketball jersey.
"Are you kidding, Fattie? You can't even read!"
"Oh yeah? Well, read this!"
And then it all happened, fast. The overweight girl tried to hit the brown-haired girl with a book, but the brown-haired girl took it away and swung back, pushing the overweight girl over the railing. Screams and gasps came from the new uglies as they all watched her tumble to the ground in horror. Shaw was expecting her to splat, but something strange happened. Instead of hitting the ground hard, the girl was bouncing and laughing at the top of her lungs. Shaw saw her face close up and realized the girl wasn't really fat, but she was actually Shay with a pillow stuffed up her shirt. If all of Uglyville was like this, he sure wasn't going to be very bored.