"If I got nothing to worry about, you got nothing to worry about," she says. "I'm tall but I'm clumsy, and I got noodle arms, so I try to stay out of trouble--but sometimes, you know, fights happen. Sometimes people push you, and you gotta stand up for yourself. Or they're pushing somebody around who's even less suited to fighting than I am."

She shrugs lightly. "Most of the time, I've found, you just look crazy enough and people back down. They don't know what you might do, and they don't want to risk it. But when they don't back down... I take the advantages I can get."