Uglies

Tally falls into the Smoke’s routine after a few days. For once in her life, she sleeps easily thanks to the hard work. She doesn’t know what she’s going to do but she decides to put it out of her mind. This proves easy, as life in the Smoke is intense. Tally feels stronger than ever and she loves working on the railroads. David teaches her how to repair her clothes, and the natural landscape is spectacular without any kind of alternation like a pretty operation. One morning, David rides up beside Tally as they hoverboard to the railroad tracks. Tally knows now that David’s jacket is real leather, but that the Smokies only kill foreign or invasive species. David says that he has a gift for Tally: he offers her leather gloves. This is major—gifts are rare in the Smoke. Tally thanks him and says that the gloves have history, unlike everything in the city.

At the tracks, David announces that they have to use vibrasaws to cut through vegetation. Croy and Tally ask about the trees, and David shrugs that they can take the scrub trees back to the Smoke to burn. Tally looks to Shay, hoping she’ll support leaving the trees, but Shay looks carefully neutral. Croy and Astrix continue to push back on cutting down the trees, and finally, David agrees that they’ll only cut into the ones they have to. The saws cut easily through everything but the trees, and Croy, Tally’s work partner, stands a ways back. Tally cuts through a root and then Croy begins to ask Tally how much SpagBol she traded for her sweater and her sleeping bag. He assures Tally he wouldn’t really have taken all her stuff when she first arrived.

They move along to the next section, and as Croy cuts, he does the math out loud for how many SpagBols Tally would’ve had left if it took her nine days to get here. Tally struggles to come up with math that makes sense and then says that she has to share a secret: she exaggerated her story to make it more interesting. Croy doesn’t seem to believe her, though he says that he does. At lunch, the crew sits down at their worksite. Tally sits next to Shay and says they need to talk. Shay says they don’t need to talk about “him,” and they realize they’re talking about different guys—Shay is very confused when Tally mentions Croy’s theory.

Tally notices that Shay has been crying. Shay holds out her hand to Tally’s to prove that they’re the same size, and Tally sees that Shay’s hands are in worse shape. Tally tries to defend David and give Shay the gloves, but Shay insists she doesn’t want them. She says that David doesn’t talk to her about important things anymore, and asks if Tally has told David about whomever gave her the pendant. Tally sighs that maybe David has seen the pendant and doesn’t care, or that this is all in Shay’s head, but Tally can see that Shay’s right—David showed Tally the cave and shared the secret about his parents. On one level, Tally hopes that Shay isn’t overreacting. Shay asks Tally to tell David the truth, and Tally promises she will. Shay looks hopeful.