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    Guys Read: The Dirt on Our Shoes: A Short Story from Guys Read: Other Worlds
    Guys Read: The Dirt on Our Shoes: A Short Story from Guys Read: Other Worlds
    Guys Read: The Dirt on Our Shoes: A Short Story from Guys Read: Other Worlds
    Ebook40 pages57 minutes

    Guys Read: The Dirt on Our Shoes: A Short Story from Guys Read: Other Worlds

    By Neal Shusterman

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    About this ebook

    T-Bin has been traveling through space for years to deposit its passengers on a new planet, to give them a new life. But now, mere days from arrival, Tanner can’t shake the feeling that there’s a more sinister plot at work. A short story from Guys Read: Other Worlds, edited by Jon Scieszka.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 17, 2013
    ISBN9780062289698
    Author

    Neal Shusterman

    Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty books, including Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award; Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Dry, which he cowrote with his son, Jarrod Shusterman; Unwind, which won more than thirty domestic and international awards; Bruiser, which was on a dozen state lists; The Schwa Was Here, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award; and Game Changer, which debuted as an indie top-five best seller. He is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the body of his work. You can visit him online at storyman.com.

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      Book preview

      Guys Read - Neal Shusterman

      THE DIRT ON OUR SHOES

      BY NEAL SHUSTERMAN

      "Your hands are filthy, your hair is filthy—Tanner, you can’t come to school like this, surely you must know that?"

      Principal Hammond leaned back in his chair, perhaps hoping to distance himself from the unfortunate aroma of Tanner Burgess’s clothes. Through the window behind him, Tanner could see the star field in constant motion; points of light swept past, like the heavens themselves were scrolling through his file, just as relentlessly as the principal did.

      Are you even listening to me, Mr. Burgess?

      Tanner sighed, and forced himself to meet the man’s eyes. I could barely afford drinking water this month, Mr. Hammond. There was no way I could pay for water to bathe with.

      The principal grimaced in something between disgust and pity—two emotions Tanner couldn’t stand. What about your neighbors? Surely they could lend you—

      No one lends anymore. People are conserving for when we finally arrive on Primordius.

      Yes, I suppose they are. The principal looked down at Tanner’s file. But we’re not here to talk about your hygiene, are we?

      Tanner couldn’t help but grin. I suppose not.

      Simulating a spin-quake and setting off the school’s evacuation protocol is not a laughing matter.

      I didn’t simulate anything. I just tricked the school’s computer.

      Regardless, you disrupted the day’s studies and caused unnecessary strife. If we were back on Earth you would be expelled.

      Into space?

      No, expelled from school. The principal sighed through gritted teeth. But since there are no other schools for you to go to, that’s not an option, is it?

      Oh well.

      Tanner had enjoyed watching the other kids race out of the school, in comical, ill-fitting radiation suits. All those clean-cuts with their sweet-smelling hair and superior attitudes climbing over one another to save their own lives. Kids like Ocean Klingsmith, who thought he was God’s gift to the universe.

      We’re the ones bringing humanity to the stars, Ocean once told Tanner. You’re just the dirt on our shoes.

      It was particularly entertaining to watch Ocean run.

      Principal Hammond continued to flip through Tanner’s file, going Tssk and Pfft with everything he read, like a tire losing air. Tanner looked past him and out the window again. There were few windows in the hull of the Transtellar Biologic Incapsulation craft—or T-Bin for short. Glass was fragile and allowed too much energy to escape. A window on space was a perk reserved only for those in the highest positions. Principal Hammond, whose office was at the front end of the great rotating drum, was one of

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