Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4)

by John Scalzi

There’s nothing like sharing menarche with a billion hermaphrodites. I think it was everyone’s first time.

So I told him to suck it up.” I blinked. “You actually used those words?” I said. “Well, no,” Gretchen said. “What I actually said was I wondered if I kicked a puppy if it would whine more than he did.”

Sometimes I don’t know if my life is complicated, or if it’s that I just think too much about things.

Bennett was silent for a minute, considering. “Offering to actually help me,” he said. “No one’s tried that tactic before. Very sneaky.” “We try,” I said.

“There aren’t a lot of people who can carry off petty,” I said. “Yet somehow you do.”

You can be happy anywhere, if you have the right point of view. And the ability to ignore the smell of an entire planet.

“How long do you think it will take them to get a transport here?” I asked. “Are you kidding?” Dad said. “If they didn’t send for one the second I was done talking to them, I’ll eat my hat.” “You don’t wear a hat,” I said. “I will buy a hat and eat it, then,” Dad said.

“Fine,” Dad said. “But if you have to choose between the hat and the army, pick the army. And make it a good one. We’re going to need it.”