---- Here is the chapter you've deserved for a longg time. It's been a month since I've had more or less anything to do with fanfiction, namely my own. I'm sorry! I don't even have an excuse. Good news is, I've begun Pretties, and only have 100 or so pages left. I hope you like this chapter, and I hope you're still reading, and I apologize once more for taking so very long to update. ----
"You're late," Toothpick – Albany, Mindelle reminded herself – commented.
"I know," Mindelle replied, "I'm sorry. I overslept."
"It's a shock you're even here," Tayen spoke up, "I sure wouldn't be. Why aren't you a full-fledged pretty yet?"
Mindelle shrugged. She had wondered the same thing herself.
"I bet she's a spy. You're a spy, aren't you? She's a spy! Probably working for…" Guy lowered his voice, "…Specials."
A collective gasp rang out and everyone jumped away from Mindelle – the thought had never occurred to them before, clearly, but now they acted as though she was murderous.
Only Zaccai stayed put. "Really, guys, what are you? Littlies? Obviously Mindelle isn't a spy."
"And how do you know?" Guy sneered.
"What kind of spy doesn't have an interface ring? And what kind of Special isn't…scary?" Tayen said now, also recognizing the truth.
"Specials? As in…Special Circumstances?" Mindelle frowned, looking at the clique of Uglies surrounding her, "You must have littlie minds, to think Specials exist."
"They do!" Geo piped.
"You're liars," Mindelle protested with an eye-roll, "I can't believe you all actually still think Special Circumstances exist. Come on, guys. It's all just horror stories."
"No," Albany disagreed, "We've met them."
Mindelle let a gasp pop out of her mouth. Her evenly-spaced-apart and already-wide eyes grew wider, her flawless and creamy skin grew paler, and her tall, thin frame began to shake.
"I don't think," she began, voice hoarse, "I don't think I should be friends with you."
She couldn't believe it. The only chance she'd ever had at true friends – and she was willingly turning them down.
"Mindelle!" "Oh!" "But we weren't that bad, really!" Came the fretful cries from the Uglies.
"So then, you must trust us, at least, right?" Zaccai reasoned, "You wouldn't be so frightened if you thought we were lying…and if you were a spy you wouldn't be so shocked."
"Maybe she's programmed –" Guy started to protest but Geo gave him a shove. "Cram it, Oily-Face." He directed.
"I vote." Tayen added in, quietly and swiftly.
Her words meant nothing to Mindelle, but they seemed to send the group a signal.
"I vote," Albany echoed, and then Geo, and then Zaccai.
"Well I for one am not taking her to the Smoke." Guy hissed with a glare pointed straight at Mindelle.
"The Smoke?" Mindelle inquired, her mind already beginning to calculate. It might even be kind of cool. A way to see the world, just until she was ready for New Pretty Town.
"There's gotta be a reason why you haven't left Uglyville yet. Think about it. Come on, Mindelle. Adventure, ideas…?" Zaccai encouraged.
Mindelle looked at him. Adventure, ideas…maybe even romance? She grinned.
"I'm in," she told them.