I. Make Me Pretty, Already!

Being ugly was like being the only littlie not allowed in the sandbox.

Or, at least, that was how Kasie Holcombe thought of it. In her case, being in this state of ugly was pretty much like that. She'd been alone, with the exception of Teague, since June when her last ugly friend turned pretty. Almost three months had passed since Celia got picked up by that special car and had the special surgery. Three months before that, Danielle. Since then, Kasie had been the only trilogy that was still ugly.

A trilogy can't have just two parts. Kasie had cried over that on countless occasions, messing up her ugly face even further. Celia and Danielle had been Kasie's friends ever since that day back in Littlie School, when they still were with the crumblies. "The best books are trilogies," Celia had said, and since then, they referred to themselves as such. The Trilogy. Now Kasie was a flop seller, when her best friends were living it up as a two-part, best-selling book series. Great.

"Don't be sad, Kase," Teague had tried to cheer up, "We're going to be pretty in two days."

Teague was Kasie's nice, not so helpful, twin brother. He'd looked like the male mirror reflection as her for as long as she could remember. Some people had teased that if he grew his hair longer, he's look exactly like her. His eyes were the same dull blue colour, his top lip slightly fuller than his bottom, and the same mousy brown hair. They were twin uglies, and it made Kasie sad.

"But we're still ugly now." She mumbled back to him.

"Forty-six hours." He replied simply.

"Oh, shove it."

Forty-six hours until she was beautiful.

Kasie had wanted to run to hospital and shout to them, "Make me pretty, already!" but there were two things wrong with that thought. One, they never made exceptions, and two, Kara and Garrett. Otherwise known as "Mom" and "Dad." They weren't just pretties, they were the pretties. They were the ones responsible for keeping the villes in working order, and they, of all people, had expected their youngest children to follow the rules. No tricking, no nothing.

In her desperation to become pretty, Kasie had followed all of the rules to a tee. She always wore her interface ring, she'd never misused her wall screen or talked back in school, and she'd never, never gone to New Pretty Town. Teague, on the other hand, had never followed the rules and he was always "misplacing" his interface ring. If anyone was going to be held back from being pretty, it was Teague.

Kasie clumped her feet up the stairs and down the hallway to her room. She frowned at the happy-looking new uglies. They were late-borns, like her, so they were just getting in on the whole ugly experience. All their friends were ugly, too, so they weren't missing anything. Just wait until your best friends turn pretty, and you're stuck here alone. Kasie thought, being careful to walk around their playful jumping. To the new uglies, it didn't matter what they looked like, because it just mattered, to them, at least, how much fun they were having. Kasie longed for that again, when she, Celia, and Danielle would find ways across the river.

Kasie had been the last one to join Celia and Danielle as uglies, too. But, when she got there, it was almost like it hadn't mattered that she wasn't there. They still had seen each other when Kasie was still a Littlie, and it was just even better when Kasie moved to Uglyville, too. They would trick the sensors and hang out just inside New Pretty Town, no worries or sadness ever affecting them. Being pretty was much different- especially when you're the only one who isn't.

Placing her hand on the door handle, Kasie turned it and slipped inside through the smallest opening she could manage. She hadn't faced the room, yet, closing the door with her eyes to the wood. She sighed heavily, wanting nothing more than to turn around and scream into her pillow. Forty-six hours. She told herself.

Kasie shook her hair out of her face and turned around, her mouth dropping open in the extremes at what she saw.

"Happy Early Birthday, Kasie!"