Flipside

By Laura Schiller

Based on: The Uglies Series

Copyright: Scott Westerfeld

Shay never truly felt her de-specialization until hearing Tally's voice over the skintenna.

"I'm sleepy … "

A chill ran down Shay's spine that had nothing to do with being icy. Even as a bubblehead with a hangover, she could never remember Tally sounding this way: weak, slurred, indifferent. Entirely random. A week ago, she would have felt nothing for her but contempt. Today, her head snapped up, and she jerked her chin at Fausto in a silent order to track that ping, fast.

Fausto, who had cured her despite herself and patiently put up with all her emotional fallout, nodded back. Compassion flickered in his Special-black eyes as his hands began their interface ballet.

A map of Diego overlaid itself on Shay's vision at his request, with a pulsing red dot right where the city hospital should be.

"Are you at the hospital?"

"Uh-huh … help, Shay-la."

Duh, Shay. How brain-missing can you get? If Diego wants us cured, did you really think they'd let Tally go free?

What in the name of all things icy are they doing to her?

Tally never asked for help. Never. And she only used endearments when she meant them. The first time Tally had called her Shay-la since becoming special, as opposed to Boss, had been after pulling her from the river. Saving her life. Now it was Tally who needed saving, and she was calling on the very person who had turned her into a monster in the first place.

Clarity stabbed her, sharper than any knife she had ever used as a Cutter.

No wonder she had hated Tally for so long. It was easier than hating herself.

Tally was her, only better. Where Shay tried to lead, Tally followed so fast as to overtake her. Where Shay craved attention, Tally was driven by loyalty. Where Shay embraced the beliefs of whoever would accept her and make her life exciting – Smokies, Crims or Special Circumstances – Tally always struggled to make up her own mind.

They were both selfish, but Tally's selfishness had a flipside, and it was love. She didn't just want freedom, love and adventure for herself and her clique. She wanted it for the world, and at the same time, to protect the world from its consequences. She took the best of the Smokies', the Crims' and even Dr. Cable's wildly different ideologies and rolled them into one.

Tally was wiser than Shay. It was what she hated – and loved – more than anything about her.

No more forced operations on that mind of hers. Not now, not ever.

"I'm coming to get you, Tally-wa. Just hold on."