"Can't I learn the same things by asking people or looking it up on a computer?" Thomas wondered, trying valiantly not to blush. He knew his immediate reaction to being a girl would probably be to scream and hide but after that, he'd...probably scream again. There were some changes that Thomas could handle and others that would send him straight into the nearest room with a lock.

Before they'd been dumped in the Scorch, he'd slept a lot to escape his problems. Maybe he'd give that method a try here too.

"I don't think I'd be a great girl," he decided. "I'd freak out and scream until my neighbors complained."