Liz

“What are you doing?”
Ya!” said Jane, whirling around, her hands held up menacingly.
It was Mr. Nobley with coat, hat, and cane, watching her with wide eyes. Jane took several quick (but oh so casual) steps away from Martin’s window.
Um, did I just say, ‘Ya’?”
You just said ‘Ya,”’ he confirmed. “If I am not mistaken, it was a battle cry, warning that you were about to attack me.”
I, uh. . .“ She stopped to laugh. “I wasn’t aware until this precise and awkward moment that when startled in a strange place, my instincts would have me pretend to be a ninja.”

***

Surely a young beauty like yourself is lonely, too. It can be part of the game, if you like.”
Get off,” she said, thoroughly done with this.
His answer was to lean in closer. So she kneed him in groin. As hard as she could.
Aw, ow, dammit!” He doubled over and thudded onto knees.
Jane brushed off her knee, feeling like it had touched son thing dirty. “Aw, ow, dammit indeed! What’re you thinking?”
Jane heard hurried footsteps coming down the stairs. It Mr. Nobley.
Miss Erstwhile!” He was barefoot in his breeches, his shirt untucked. He glanced down at the groaning man. “Sir Templeton!”
Ow, she kicked me,” said Sir Templeton.
Kneed him, I kneed him,” Jane said. “I don’t kick. Not even when 1m a ninja.”
Mr. Nobley stood a moment in silence, looking over the scene. “I hope you
remembered to shout ‘Ya’ when taking him down. I hear that is very effective.”
I’m afraid I neglected that bit, but I’ll certainly ‘ya’ from here to London if he ever touches me again.”
― Shannon Hale

“I used to spend a lotta time worryin that I was different from other people, even from other homeless folks. Then, after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron, I worried that I was so different from them that we wadn't ever gon' have no kind a' future. But I found out everybody's different - the same kind of different as me. We're all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain't no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless - just workin our way toward home.”
― Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
― E.E. Cummings