Read Online The Never War by D.J. MacHale - Free Book Online

sprayed enough water to wash a horse. I cranked up the shower, got it good and hot, and stood underneath the spray to let it massage my head.
    As I stood there trying to get brain dead, an odd thought hit me: I wasn’t going to school anymore.
    I know. Weird thing to think about all of a sudden. Maybe it was because I was sort of home. Part of me was psyched. School was important and all, but it wasn’t exactly something I looked forward to. On the other hand, school was important. It was where you learned stuff. What your parents didn’t teach you, school did. As I stood in that shower, I actually started to get nervous. All my friends were going to pass me by. They were learning things that I wasn’t.
    Then I thought of all the places I’d been that day. Hmmm. Maybe I was getting a pretty intense education after all. I wasn’t going to Stony Brook Junior High anymore; I was a full-time student at Traveler U. Maybe that was all the education I was going to need. After batting these ideas back and forth in my head, I came to one solid conclusion:
    All this thinking was ruining my shower.
    I stood there for another ten minutes, then found a stack of thick white towels, dried off, and left the bathroom to Spader.
    A few minutes later I was in the living room, settled into acushy chair with my feet up while Spader washed away his own thoughts. I was so dog tired, my eyes started to close. It was the first time since we got here that I could let the air out, and it felt great.
    Then an urgent knock came at the door.
    My eyes shot open instantly. I wasn’t asleep anymore. I wasn’t even tired. So much for letting the air out.
    Spader poked his head out of the bathroom. He shot me a questioning look that said, “What do we do?”
    I had no idea. We were busted. It looked like our stay at the hotel was going to be a short one.

JOURNAL #9
FIRST EARTH
    T his looked bad. How could we ever explain who we were and why we were hanging out on a closed floor of the hotel? In bathrobes. I didn’t want to get Gunny in trouble, but I didn’t want to get arrested, either.
    I snuck quietly over to the door, desperately trying to think up a story that would get us off the hook. None came. I peered through the peephole to get a look at who we would have to deal with and saw…
    â€œRoom service!” announced Gunny with a big smile.
    Phew. Talk about relief. I opened the door and Gunny came in wheeling a big cart that was loaded with those silver domes they put over plates to keep them hot.
    â€œFeeling better?” he asked.
    â€œI am now,” I answered. “We gotta get a secret knock or something so we know it’s you.”
    â€œSecret knock. I like that,” Gunny said with a sparkling smile. “Like G-men.”
    â€œLike what?” asked Spader as he walked in with a towel around his waist.
    â€œCan we eat now?” I asked.
    â€œAll in good time, gentlemen,” Gunny said. “We’ve got business first.”
    The cart was draped with a white tablecloth that went down to the floor. Gunny reached underneath and pulled out two brown packages. “Try these on for size,” he said, and tossed one to each of us. We tore them open to find our First Earth clothes, courtesy of one of the shops here in the hotel. We each had a pair of wool pants with jackets. My pants were light gray with a darker gray jacket. Spader’s were a light brown with a matching jacket. We each had plain white shirts.
    â€œWhat do I do with these?” Spader asked as he held up a pair of long, white boxer shorts.
    Gunny laughed. “Don’t they wear underwear where you come from?”
    â€œSure,” answered Spader. “But I could make a sail out of these. They’ll get all twisted up.”
    I put mine on and they came down to my knees. But you know what? I didn’t care. It felt good to wear regular cotton underwear again, even if I looked like some