Uglier

Chapter 7 The Offer

Chapter 7 The Offer

Ella, Janice Kind, and a muscle-bound man with Ram horns sat in the dining room after everyone left.

Alana-Hope slipped into the room without her date. "I wasn't seen."

The Ram man glared at her. "Alana-Hope, honey, you need to play nice with the board when you are around them. Just because you didn't see me, doesn't mean I can't see you."

She patted him on his arm. "Oh, I'm glad you're worried, but Yolanda thinks I'm sour because I broke up with a Mark Board Member. I didn't know how terrible they were until I dated him. We met on Earth when I was a teenager, and the board controls the off-planet media."

Janice handed The Ram Man a plate full of food, and he devoured every morsel within minutes, and she gave him another full plate.

Ella nudged Quincy, and then she pointed at the faux marble stairs as Zeda descended.

Zeda pulled her hair out of her face, exposing her Elf ears and her long neck. She owned her body and wrapped her shawl over a matching dress.

"Wow." Quincy's eyes followed her walk, but his eyes were inside his head and not bouncing after her like rubber balls.

Alana-Hope grinned, and she sat near the Ram Man.

Quincy could tell why a prince desired her. She was a dove among plastic swans. "It is disappointing she is forced to alter herself for others."

He wanted to ask her out, but she was destined to be one of the prince's numerous courtesans. Quincy imagined leaning Zeda against the wall and pressing his mouth to hers. His hands trembled and walked over to the buffet table, and he stuffed his loneliness with the last of the cheese puffs.

He doubted he could talk to her. Quincy wasn't instantly in love, but he was attracted.

Zeda tossed a stack of articles by Josh and Lisa Mort on the buffet table.

Alana-Hope left her chair to look at the paper. "Another, Lisa article."

*

Our communities accomplish greatness if we recognize we are born for a purposeful life, and half our population cannot fulfill that purpose because of the Mark.

Our badges are a painful reminder of how backward we are, and most citizens don't understand how Mark Badges work, or even how the Mark Board came to power five hundred years ago.

We were much like Earth and received their broadcasts, and it helped shape our society.

The underground blogs claim a dictator started the harsh rules on beauty, but it was a slow decay of internet video media run by a broken mathematical algorithm that favored specific looks.

The videos were ridiculous, with stupid titles such as, Is My Face Symmetrical, or Are My Lips Large Enough for my Face? And we remember the classic, Women Should Wear Identical Lipstick Shades.

The younger female population begged the then prime minister to form the Mark Board to tell them they fit into these strict and odd standards. They lost their style.

The board formed the Authority Squad and forced them to arrest bloggers and influencers who promoted fun cosmetic shades.

Mark Badges came into effect a year later, but they were gross stickers, and the ugly bits of plastic morphed into the badges.

These badges were needed to be removed by a doctor or nurse with special training. Tracking beacons go on if the patches are removed incorrectly and leave gruesome scars.