"Wake up, Orion! It's time for classes!"

Underneath the thick, ugly sheets lay a very tiny, very ugly girl. She was curled into a tight ball, hot tears running down her cheeks, chest trembling and with no intentions of leaving the sanctuary of her room.

The girl's ugly nickname was like a dagger through her heart. She'd begun to notice the horrific changes a week before her twelfth birthday, the red spots slowly rising up on her face, becoming more painful as the week progressed. When she had been diagnosed the day after her birthday, she almost gave up hope on ever actually being pretty. After all, how could even the city's best surgeons fix Orion Kinsley, a girl who was so cruelly dubbed Plague-Face?

Cystic acne, the doctor had said it was. She may as well have just said uncurable ugliness. No 'speshul' dermatologist medicines had been able to cure it, soap patches dried out her skin and made everything hurt worse, and as she got older, the acne spread to her arms and back. Slowly, she started ignoring her doctors' appointments, then her classes, and eventually, life in general. She hardly ever left her room for lunch, and when she did, she made sure to wait until the worst of the instigators had retreated from the cafeteria. That meant nothing but scraps for little Orion Kinsley. As a result of the poor treatment she gave her body, she had horrible posture, stunted growth, aching joints, and was dangerously underweight.

Sometimes, she'd notice a girl in the cafeteria who was almost uglier than her. She had clear skin, but a weird face. Her eyes were way too far apart, her nose had no bridge to it, and she had no Cupid's Bow above her lip. From a profile, her face looked like someone had smushed it flat.

The two had never talked to each other before. The two and a half years of constant bullying Orion had suffered caused her to mistrust every other human but herself immediately. Flat-Face had never been mean to her, but that wasn't to say she couldn't be.

Something thumped against the window. Orion groaned in frustration, but ignored it. More even louder thumps sounded off after it. Orion threw the comforter off, then charged up to the window.

The glass was covered in mud, and someone had just finished writing PLAGUE-FACE in the grimy sludge. Orion wrenched the window open and glared at her uninvited guests. Mud dripped onto her shoes, and Orion's mood further plummeted.

Standing outside were three new pretties, two girls and a boy. They all were laughing at her.

"What do you want?" Orion demanded. "Why would you cross the bridge just to make fun of me?"

The pretties were all still laughing heartily, but one of the girls, a wavy haired blonde with lovely blue eyes contained herself enough to speak. "Well, if it isn't Little Miss Plague-Face. You finally decided to greet the sun today?"

"What do you want, I said?" Orion demanded once more, recognizing the girl as Lottie Masen, the very girl who branded her with the horrid moniker. Lottie was five months older than Orion, and she'd hoped once the bitch had gotten the surgery, she could live in peace, or at least some semblance of it. This little stunt proved otherwise.

Lottie flipped her hair. "I just wanted to see if that mug of yours was still as ugly as I remember it a month ago. Turns out it got even uglier!" The trio of pretties all cracked up again, and Orion felt her heart break in two. Lottie hated her so much that even as a pretty, she couldn't get over her ugly pettiness. She'd never even done anything mean to Lottie. She was just cursed with ugliness.

Suddenly, Orion had an idea. She scooped up some of the mud on her shoes, leaned out of the window, and smacked Lottie across the face.

The laughter died out, and Lottie's grin fell, being replaced by a rage-filled grimace.

"I may look like I'm infected with the plague, but you look like you eat shit." With that, Orion slammed the window shut. To her delight, the window had slammed on top of Lottie's reaching fingers, and the older girl screamed in pain. Orion smiled, opened the window, and giggled when Lottie fell right into the mud pile.

"See you in five months, Lottie!" Orion shut the window once more, then retreated into her bathroom to clean up her shoes.


"Five more minutes." Orion grumbled.

The holoclock on her wall read 11:55 pm. The stars were out, the fireworks of New Pretty Town had yet to die down, most uglies who actually cared about the rules were asleep.

Not Orion Kinsley.

The night was her sanctuary, because at night, she could be alone, just her and her hoverboard. It was the only part of the day she could look forward to.

She stared impatiently at the window, and glanced at the clock once more. 11:58. Just two more minutes and she'd be free! She glanced at the bed, the heated coat stuffed under the covers like an unmoving, sleeping body. Her ring rested on the end table, her board trembled almost nervously at her side. The mysterious ping had said to be at Valentino Mansion by 12:30, that even uglies were invited. Of course, being an ugly meant that Orion still had to sneak into New Pretty Town. She wondered what all of this was about.

12:00 AM. The witching hour.


'Well', Orion thought, 'some pretties are smart.'

A brunette pretty girl was stationed at the edge of the bridge, handing out smart plastic masks to the uglies sneaking in. Orion hopped off her board and ran to her, taking a mask of Rita Hayworth and disappearing in the crowd. For once in her fifteen years, she appreciated her shortness.

As the crowd soon approached the old stone building, Orion looked up to see a group of pretties standing on the roof, struggling with something. Or was it someone?

She recognized Lottie as one of the pretties on the roof. Orion's heart sank. What the hell was she up to now?

At the side of the building, someone had managed to produce a wallscreen. Orion cringed hard at the sight of her tormentor. Lottie smiled brightly, but Orion knew there was nothing bright and happy about this gathering.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and ugly mugs as well!" Lottie's voice rang out in Orion's ear. She grimaced, and glanced up towards the roof once more. The other pretties were dragging someone to the edge of the roof.

"We've invited you to this very exciting show for one reason. Entertainment in this boring, booooring city! Our dancer is having a little bit of last minute stage fright, but rest assured, the show will go on!" It was then that Lottie turned to the struggling person, ripped the cloth away covering their face and smacked them hard.

Orion gasped in horror as she recognized the person. It was Flat-face.