AN: Why hello. How long has it been? 4 months, six? It's been quite awhile, I know, since I last updated. Life really caught up with me and caused my writing urges to deflate and drop off the face of the planet, and I thought about leaving this story. However! I'm back with this chapter that I actually wrote a few months ago, but didn't post up, and due to the encouragement your reviews, I think I'm back in the game. I appreciate all of my old readers who may still be waiting for this story, and welcome to all of those new readers who have found this story. This chapter is a little short, but hey, it's all a step at a time. Enjoy!

Chapter Five

Jazzy, it is time to wake up. Jazzy, wake up.

Jazzy groaned and slowly rolled over before reaching out to clumsily grab her interface ring from the desk. "I get it, shut up." She muttered, quieting the obnoxious, automated voice from its babbling alarm while slipping the ring onto her finger.

With a loud sigh she flopped onto her back in the tangle of blankets and opened her eyes to look at the sun-splotched ceiling. "It should be illegal for us to be dragged out of bed before noon." She mumbled.

Jazzy looked around the room when only silence answered her. It was expected by now, but she was still finding it oddly difficult to adjust to the abnormal silence in the mornings, even though it had been nearly two weeks since Shasta had left the Ugly Academy.

Jazzy, it is time to get ready for morning classes.

"Alright, alright, I get it." Jazzy sat up and swung her legs over to set them on the floor. She got to her feet and walked over to the closet just as a knock came at the door. "Shasta, can you-" She called over her shoulder before pausing. Oh…right.

After grabbing her favorite sweater, Jazzy made her way over to the door and opened it after tugging the sweater on. She blinked for a moment in surprise when seeing her visitor. "Zac? What are you doing?"

He looked up at her and stared at her for a moment with a strangely quiet gaze. "Nothing, I was just seeing if you were up."

Jazzy raised an eyebrow while studying him. "Okay…I'm up?"

He nodded and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He didn't look at her but studied the floor's carpet with intent interest.

Jazzy bit her lip. What's up with him, he never acts like this… "Zac? What's wrong?"

Zac looked up at her. "Let's go and visit Shasta." He stated.

Jazzy stared at him. "Okay…I guess we could sneak over."

He nodded his head. "Tonight."

"Why tonight, Zac? We have to plan it out."

He shook his head again and looked at her with a more familiar stubborn gaze. "Tad wants to know how she's doing, but he hasn't been able to get away, lately. I think he's sort of…scared, you know? We have to go tonight. Just meet me at the river after dinner-hour, alright?"

Jazzy nodded after a moment of contemplation. "Okay…I'll be there."

A slight smile softened his features. "Alright, I'll see you then, Jazzy. Have a good day." He then turned and walked steadily down the hallway, his long strides eating up the distance until he disappeared around a corner.

Jazzy sighed slowly while she watched after him. Something's been bothering him, it's like he's aged thirty years in these past two weeks. Ever since Shasta left and we were shown those diagrams…the Creatures. Is that what's bothering him? Oh, Zac, he always gets so caught up in those sorts of things.

Casually, she closed the door and walked back into the room in order to wander back to the closet to retrieve her school uniform. While she went through the motions of her habitual routine, she was able to let her mind wander.

It had been only a few days after Shasta had left to be turned that the middle-pretty Professor – Zac's father – had shown the class of disinterested uglies actual diagrams of the new pretty forms: the Creatures. At first Jazzy had been shocked at her first impression of the images. She had been taught everything about pretties and the operation that would turn her from her ugly-state to a pretty, but out of all of those procedures and changes, the creation of the Creature had to be the strangest.

It had looked like a human, or at least had the posture and the body proportions of a human, but everything else was like…an animal. The Creature in the diagram had been a female, so she could tell, but it had been covered in a layer of soft, brown fur. The Creature had also been developed with ears, eyes and some facial features, paw-like hands with claws, and the tail of what was identified as a dog. Apparently, Creatures could be created to be a wide variety of humanoid animals with enhanced abilities and senses - in a nutshell.

Jazzy wrinkled her nose while she sorted through the information in her mind. She honestly couldn't understand why anyone would want to turn themselves into an animal. It didn't even fit into the usual pretty quota. Well, she admitted to herself, the Creature did have the perfect pretty figure, and the face itself had been perfectly sculpted with the dog-like features laced throughout it. The hair had also been pretty perfect, and the eyes had the intensity of any pretty. So…maybe it was pretty in its own way.

No matter what the reasons, the whole class had reacted in a variety of ways, everything from fear to excitement. However, as expected, it had been Zac who had stood up and defiantly argued against his father. After the two of them had broken into a heated debate about the entire issue, Zac had left the room. He hadn't really been the same after it, but instead had resorted to being gloomy and anti-social; even towards her…She supposed that the three-day suspension hadn't helped his mood any, either.

Class begins in 15 minutes.

Jazzy broke out of her thoughts and glared out at the room. "I know, I know." She finished with her grooming and grabbed her book-bag before running to the door.

Once she was in the hallway and heading straight for her class, Jazzy let her mind wander towards the event that was to take place after school. She and Zac often snuck over to the new-pretty town, usually whenever they were bored. If so, then why did it feel so different this time?

Ugh, Zac, you always have to make me worry. Jazzy muttered incoherently under her breath before sighing in exasperation. He honestly made her want to pull her hair out sometimes.

Class begins in 8 minutes.

She sighed again.

"Hey, Jazzy."

Jazzy looked up and smiled. "Hey, Tad."

Tad walked towards her smoothly and fell into step beside her. "How are you?"

"I'm…good. How are you?" She asked while glancing up at him. It looked as though he had grown a couple more inches in the past few weeks.

"I'm alright…did Zac talk to you?" His voice quieted as he looked at her with hopefulness in his eyes.

Jazzy nodded. "Yeah, he did. We'll go and see her tonight, okay?" She offered him another smile.

Tad smiled back warmly. "Thanks, Jazz, you two are the greatest. I'd go and see her myself, I really want to, but I've been under a lot heat from the Professors lately because I've missed a few classes and all." He rambled.

Jazzy nodded again in understanding. "Yeah, it's not a problem, Tad. We have it down to an art-form." She laughed before looking at him seriously. "Tad…have you noticed anything weird with Zac, lately?"

He looked at her for a moment before looking ahead thoughtfully while they weaved through the occasional crowd of commuting students. "He's been kind of quiet, lately, pretty grouchy too." He winced.

"Mhm…so I thought." Jazzy murmured. She stopped once reaching the door of her classroom. "Well, you'd better get going, Tad. I'll see you later." She smiled.

Tad grinned and nodded. "Yeah, you too, Jazz. Thanks, again." He turned and lumbered off towards his own classroom.

Jazzy bit her lip lightly in thought while she turned and walked into the bustling classroom. It's not just with me, then. Oh, Zac, what's going on?

The calls of fellow uglies drew her back to reality, and Jazzy walked over to join them for another long day of ugly lessons in the ugly classroom.

The speckled stalks of the cattails whispered and crackled quietly as Jazzy pushed them aside, spreading them like a curtain as she waded through. Twigs and leaves rustled and snapped under her feet, causing her to pause occasionally and glance around cautiously before continuing. It was rather unlikely that there would be any patrollers immediately around this area of the river but it never hurt to be careful.

Jazzy glanced around the forest of cattails and weeds as she made her way through them to the river bank. A light breeze rustled through the vegetation and made it sway hypnotically, and Jazzy was instantly thankful for the warmer weather of late spring. Sneaking out on these expeditions was never fun in the colder months.

The low humming of a water-cruiser caught her attention and Jazzy instinctively ducked down into the reeds. She held her breath and waited until the sound faded before she rose to her feet and continued her way to the bank. The mud made squishing noises as her sneakers sunk into it slightly when she broke into a run towards the appointed meeting spot between her and Zac.

Her appointed goal soon came into sight when she escaped the water vegetation and emerged onto a wide lawn of hip-high grass. Jazzy walked through it, keeping a wary eye on the nearby river for skimmers and in the grass for creepy-crawly things. She hated creepy-crawly things ever since a particularly long one had once made its way up her pant-leg a year ago. Jazzy shuddered and suppressed the thought as she continued walking until reaching the spot.

The spot was marked by a statue, or so Jazzy and Zac had concluded that it had once been. It was a tall, cement structure that had been carved into the crude shape of a cross. There had once been inscriptions chiseled into the surface near the bottom, but it was so worn with age and moss that neither of them could make out any of the symbols.

Jazzy smiled to herself while approaching the marker. She and Zac had assumed that it was a memorial of some sort, left over after the Rusties had gone extinct. Then again, they'd also believed that it was a magic doorway with ghosts and spirits when they had been littlies. Jazzy reached out and rested a hand on the cool, rough surface. No matter what the monument had been, it was like an old friend. She smiled faintly to herself.

A cracking noise snapped Jazzy out of her thoughts as she looked over her shoulder quickly towards the sound. She exhaled with relief when Zac emerged out of the bushes. She raised an eyebrow. "You went the long way?"

Zac looked at her for a moment before pointedly holding up his hoverboard. "I had to follow the trails." He replied while walking over to her side. Thoughtfully, he reached out and rested a hand on the monument, brushing some moss aside with his fingers to reveal some of the faded carvings.

Jazzy glanced at him and studied his expression. He always has that look, now. She turned her gaze to the inscriptions. "Do you ever think we'll ever figure them out?"

He shrugged. "I doubt we'll be on this side of the river for that long." He turned away from the structure and looked out across the river to the new-pretty town beyond. The lights were beginning to glow brightly against the darkening twilight. Already the sounds of blasting music, whistles, horns, and the elated squeals of pretties were echoing over the water.

"They sure don't take long to get going." Jazzy commented.

"No, they don't." Zac replied without taking his eyes off of the town for another moment. He looked at Jazzy. "If we know Shasta, she's probably still sleeping or is figuring out her outfit for the night, so we should be able to catch her in her room."

Jazzy blinked. "We're not going to be able to march right in there, Zac."

Zac didn't reply while he walked past her and towards the river with his hoverboard. He looked over his shoulder once he had set it to hover just over the water's surface. "Well, then we'll just have to sneak our way in, won't we?" He smirked mischievously.

Jazzy grinned. "…I guess so." She walked after him and stepped up onto the hoverboard after he was settled on it. She wrapped her arms around his torso and rested against his back lightly. "If we get caught, I'll blame it on you, though."

Zac shrugged in reply. "It's not like they would do much to us, anyways." He shifted his foot forward and nudged the board ahead, after checking the waterway for any approaching water vessels.

A couple of the uglies had discovered several years earlier that they actually could ride their hoverboards over the river, in spite of the lack of the metal grids that were implanted under the surface of the ground under UglyVille and New-Pretty Town. Zac had explained it to Jazzy once, that there were minerals and bits of metal in the riverbed that made it possible for the hoverboards to continue working with their magnetism. It had become very convenient for these sneaking missions, especially after Zac and Tad had figured out how to remove the sensors on the boards, making them untraceable. It definitely beat having to swim or float across.

They eased along the bank for a little ways, clinging to the security of the reeds for as long as possible before Zac shifted abruptly and sent the board shooting across the water in a mad, but controlled break for the opposite shore. Jazzy tightened her arms around him and braced herself for any sudden turns as they skimmed over the water.

"Once we get across, we'll hide and go through the gardens, alright?"

Jazzy looked up at Zac and nodded. "Yeah, okay."

She knew the routine.

AN: Hmm, wonder what's up with Zac? Anyhow, that's the end of another chapter. I'm heading to Mexico for a mission's trip for 6 weeks, but fear not, another chapter will be on it's way after this little hiatus. After all, We can't leave them half-way on their journey to New Pretty-town, right? 'Til then.