Orientation

A few weeks later, Tally and Peris were completely beyond the rings incident. The days had flown by, and the world held many more exciting things to explore and many distractions to hold their attention. Sneaking around, loosing interface rings, and Uglyville itself were all left alone and forgotten.

But just as quickly as they forgot the uglies, a ping was sent to them reminding about the beginning-of-ugly-school orientation. A reminder that they were leaving the suburbs forever, and once again returning to Uglyville. This time though, they would belong.

---

Tally hugged Sol and Ellie goodbye, and was waving as their groundcar left her at the outskirts of Uglyville standing next to a vaguely nervous Peris. She felt overdressed in the nice outfit Ellie had dressed her in. A skirt and tank top in muted pinks, her hair pulled back into a smooth ponytail. Ellie had told her that she should dress nicely to make a good impression on her new peers and teachers. Tally reached up and pulled out the ponytail, letting her hair fall around her shoulders.

Walking into Uglyville, her interface ring stayed silent – no warning pings.

A group of kids from their littlie school were standing with a multitude of other 12-year-olds outside a large building. They waved to Peris and Tally as they walked up. Her smile was a bit nervous, as were theirs

"Hey Tally, Hey Peris," their classmate Brinn greeted them.

"Hi Brinn. Have you seen Melly yet?" Tally asked while looking around for other kids from their old school.

"Nope," Brinn replied. "Wait, I think she's coming..." he stood on tiptoes to see over Tally's head, "Yeah, that's her over there."

A blond girl ran up to them, her cheeks flushed and hair slightly tousled from running. Tally grinned when she noticed that she was wearing a skirt too.

"Melly, late again?" Peris teased with a smile. You could always count on Melly to be the last one to class.

"Yeah, but they haven't started the orientation yet, have they?" She poked him gently. "Nope? Then that means I'm not late!"

Peris was about to say something back as a middle pretty walked up in front of the crowd. A hush fell over the 12-year-olds, and Tally saw now that nearly everyone had the same look, a mix of nervousness, awe, and slight excitement as the middle-pretty launched into a speech explaining what the littlie orientation would be all about. She got as far as saying that they would be divided into dorms, and then given a tour, before Tally started to get bored and look around again. She spent the next 10 minutes wondering which of the new faces she would be living and having class with.

When the long-winded explanation was done, they were all given bracelets. Tally's was green. So was Peris's. Melly, Brinn, and all the others from her old school had green as well.

"I wonder is that means we're in a group with them too?" Peris mused, motioning to other groups with the same color.

"Yeah, I guess so ..." More middle-pretties were herding the kids with matching bracelet colors together. She guessed that there were about 50 kids in each group, and there were 6 different groups. Within each group, it was obvious what littlies had gone to school together. Everyone seemed to cling to their old classmates and friends. Tally stuck next to Peris, with Melly and Brinn close by as well.

"Quiet please!" The middle-pretty leading them loudly asked. Silence quickly fell over the group. "Thank you," he continued. "Please follow me, and we will begin our tour of the Uglyville grounds." As tally's group left, se did the others, walking towards the dorms and buildings scattered throughout their new home.

---

A few hours later, they were sprawled out on the grassy hill behind their dorm, lunch trays in front of them. It was too nice a day to eat inside, the summer sun was warm and it wrapped around them like a blanket. Conversation flowed easily between the group, and it was the most relaxed they'd been all day.

The first half of the orientation, of which lunch was the half-way point, was a tour of the grounds. Uglyville was huge. Tally had counted about 25 dorms, each with their own colors and sports teams. If every dorm had about 50 people in it...she couldn't do the math in her head, but it was way more people her age then she had ever been around as a littlie. But along with the dorms, there were buildings for all the different subjects – and art school, science labs, gyms, a place for metal shop, fields, as well as parks and a beach at the river.

Tally was definitely going to put up a map in her dorm room.

How huge everything felt was practically all they talked about. So many people and places! "Ginormous!" Tally offered with a laugh as a synonym for big, huge, gigantic, and whatever else they could come up with to describe Uglyville.

Too soon, their lunch was over and they went inside for the 2nd half of the orientation; signing up for their fall classes. Inside their dorms library, yet another middle-pretty talked to them, this time explaining the class offerings and what they were required to take. By the end of the lecture, Tally was zoned out, just looking around the library and absentmindedly playing with her green bracelet. Green, it turned out, was one of her dorms colors. White was the other.

Peris nudged her "What are you going to take?"

Tally stared blankly at him. "Huh? Take?"

"What classes do you want to take this fall?" he slowly asked again.

"Oh!" Tally finally realized that the middle-pretty had stopped talking, and that everyone was murmuring about the classes. "Well, we have to take biology, Rusty history, English, and math. I'm going to take drawing too. It sounds cool."

"Yeah," Peris mused. "But I want to take metal shop. Maybe I'll take drawing in the spring."

"Well, we'll see about that in a few months. Let's just sign up for fall classes now," she pointed to workscreens where people were lining up to register.

Together they got up to get in line, and were followed by Brinn and Melly. Along with the basic requirements, Brinn was taking music and food history, while Melly wanted to take metal shop like Peris.

"Maybe we'll be in the same class!" She said excitedly. Peris laughed, but admitted that he hoped his classes wouldn't be full of strangers. Secretly, Tally agreed. She didn't like the feeling of walking into a room full of new people.

As the others discussed the possibilities of meeting new people, Tally stepped up to the screen, and an eye-reader flashed at her. Her name appeared on the screen, and she clicked through menus of classes, picking the ones she had wanted. It took her no more then 30 seconds, and she stepped away from the screen with a slight feeling of pride that she had figured everything out so quickly. She grinned slightly as Peris had trouble finding the math class he wanted to take.

While Peris struggled through picking his classes, Tally looked around the library again with a sense of happiness. Everything was done, and as soon as her friends were finished they could all go up to their rooms and just hang out. She looked for a place to sit down while she waited for the others, and noticed a group of older, senior uglies chatting at a small table. They had late birthdays like her, she guessed, since they were still in the dorm as all the littlies came in to take the place of older uglies.

Looking at them closer, something clicked in Tally's mind, something that made them look familiar. No way she thought, looking at two of them. I've never met them. It couldn't be. The only people I've met my age were in my littlie school. Uglies? I've never met ... any ... It couldn't be. A girl and a boy at the table looked just like some she and Peris had run into that night they snuck into Uglyville. I'd have to ask him. Peris would remember.

By chance, the boy looked up and caught Tally staring at him with her surprised expression. His eyes narrowed, as if trying to recognize her. Tally knew he had to be that boy who had made fun of them.

"Hey, you. Squint. Come over here," he motioned Tally over to their table. She she hesitated, glancing at Peris who had just stood next to her, he chuckled "What? We won't hurt you. We just want to talk to you about ... certain littlie things you might know about."

A nervous glance to Peris confirmed her suspicions. Those uglies were the ones they had run into during their little adventure. Tally slowly turned away from them, towards Peris.

"We can't ignore them!" He whispered.

"I know, but ... what if they are still mad at us?"

"Don't worry. What can they do even if they are mad?" He squeezed her hand and gently pulled her towards the uglies, whispering to her "We're not littlies anymore. We belong here now, Tally. We're ugly."