Duckling Ugly

'No! It's impossible ... Cara?'

Her face began to stretch in horror and disbelief. I took an­other step closer.

'A-B-O-M-I-N-A-B-L-E.'

She couldn't speak now. Her throat had closed up; she could barely breathe.

I grabbed her by her pretty little sweater, pushing her hard against the wall. And that's when things, as strange as they were, went to a whole new level, as I spelled one more word for her, looking her dead in the eyes.

'M?'

The color of her eyes went from bright blue to a muddy gray.

'O?'

Acne began to rupture forth from her skin like the earth pushing up mountains.

'N?”

Her earlobes drooped, and one whole ear started to sink lower than the other.

'S?'

Her strawberry blond hair with the pretty highlights lost its sheen and started to tangle.

'T?'

Her pouty little lips drooped and cracked.

'E?'

Her teeth began to fade to a sickly shade of gray.

'R!'

I let go of her, and stepped back to look at her transforma­tion. I should have been horrified, but all I could feel was satis­faction as deep as the Caldero cavern.

'My, my, Marisol?you're as ugly as ... roadkill!'

Marisol reached up, feeling the change as she touched her face, and she screamed. 'What did you do?' she wailed. 'What did you do to me?!' Even her voice had changed. It was the raspy screech of a hag.

She caught her reflection in the mirror, but only for an instant before the mirror shattered. Then she ran into a stall to hide, sobbing, as if it was the end of the world.

I stepped gently over the broken glass, feeling it crackle be­neath the soles of my shoes, and I picked up a mirror shard from the ground, catching a bit of my own reflection in it.

There was no zit on my cheek?not even a red spot. I must have been wrong. My complexion was creamy pure.

I was filled with absolute contentment as I strode out of that restroom. That was the moment I knew that I wasn't going back to De Leon. Not tonight, not tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. No matter what I had promised?no matter how much I would miss Aaron, what I had now in Flock's Rest was worth the cost.

Harmony had been wrong. She said there would be no place for me in my old life, but I now knew otherwise. In De Leon, I was one face in a crowd of beautiful people, but here I was the star. And I was going to enjoy it.

20 Uglifications

Sometimes you make decisions that you know are wrong, but you make them anyway. When you're a little kid you think, Should I hit my brother and make him cry, even though I know I'm going to get in trouble for it? But the force of your will wrestles down the sense in your head and you do it anyway.

When you get older, the situations aren't quite as simple, and although you tend to have more sense, you tend to be more will­ful as well. Sometimes that sense wins out, and other times you set yourself up for a world of suffering.

My parents seemed happy that I had chosen to stay, although I think they, like Vance, would have been relieved if I didn't. It wasn't so hard making the transition to being Linda DeFido. My father knew a guy who knew a guy who could make all the com­puters in the world believe you were Marilyn Monroe, if that's what you wanted. He even managed to get fictional records transferred over from Billington High, with grades not quite as high as my real ones. Like that mattered now.

As for what happened to Marisol, I didn't understand at the time how I had 'uglified' her. I thought that maybe it was like Miss Leticia had once said: Spells and spelling weren't all that different?maybe I had a little bit of witch in me after all. Maybe the fountain had brought it out.

She stayed in that bathroom stall all day long. The counselor couldn't get her out. The principal couldn't get her out. In the end, her parents came and her daddy kicked the door open.

I wasn't there to see the commotion when they saw what she looked like. All I know is they rushed her off to the hospital. The rumor was that she had come down with some rare disfiguring disease, like acute leprosy or something.

I had my date with Marshall that Saturday. He talked about himself, bragging mostly. I made up stuff about my fictional life as Linda DeFido.

He walked me home, his arm around my shoulder.

'I'd like to spend more time with you,' he said. 'Marisol wasn't right for me. I mean, I feel bad about her getting sick and all, but, hey, I've got my own life, right?'

He smiled at me. There was a gentle look in his eyes. Was Marshall Astor falling in love with me? I wondered. How deeply would he have to fall until I could effectively break his heart? I thought about that painful night at the homecoming dance. True, a lot of what had happened was my own fault, but I still couldn't wait to make him feel as miserable as I had felt when I ran out that night. Maybe then he'd have a glimpse of what it had been like to be me.

'Sure, Marshall,' I said, gently rubbing his arm. 'I'd like to see you again.'

The moment became awkward, and he looked off?and pointed at the window boxes. The ones that held my mom's marigolds.

'Someone oughta water those,' he said.

I looked at them. They had completely lost their petals. They were all stem and seedpod?twisted leggy things with little round black heads.

'I guess everything around here can't be as beautiful as you,' Marshall said. Then he left me at my front door with a kiss that didn't make him puke.

'Was that Marshall Astor?' Momma asked as I stepped in.

'Yes. And Dad didn't even have to give him a free car to go out with me.'

Dad grumbled from his spot on the sofa.

'First that boy Gerardo . . . and now Marshall,' Momma said. 'Exactly which one are you dating?'

'Both of them,' I told her. 'Any of them. All of them.' And why not? I could date as many boys as I wanted. I'd earned that right. And if me seeing Marshall would make Gerardo jealous, all the better.

'Oh, by the way,' I told Momma, 'you need to replace your marigolds.'

She wrinkled her brows. 'Replace them? Why? They were fine this morning.'

Gerardo never called me. Even though he had my number? even though I made it clear that I wanted him to call, he never did. It was just plain frustrating. Marshall asked me out again, though?and so I agreed to go to the movies with him, if for no other reason than to spite Gerardo.

At the movie, Marshall held me a little too close, tried to go a little too far, and I slapped him a little too hard. After that, he acted like a scolded puppy for the rest of the night.

He left me at my door, I let him give me a good night kiss, and I accepted his apologies graciously. I didn't tell him that his weren't the kisses I wanted.

There was something different about Marshall now. Maybe it was just that I was seeing through new eyes, but he didn't seem quite as good-looking to me anymore.