“They’re at 18 Ninth Avenue,” Willa said, and my heart started hammering.

My parents were in New York? They were here, in the city? What if I ran into them? Then I wouldn’t just be able to not be in Lear. I might find myself going to Stanwich College in the fall, still living at home.

“There is an uptown D train arriving,” the loudspeaker voice intoned. “Stand clear of the closing doors.”

“Where are you?” Willa asked curiously.

“Um—nowhere,” I babbled. “Just—don’t tell them I called. And good luck with the casting, and—what’s that, Teri? Gotta go!”

I hung up the phone like it was hot and stepped back from it, trying to think.

I still had a hundred dollars. I would be able to find someone who could break it for me. Yes, I was still alone in Manhattan. But Mr. Campbell’s play was still happening.

What was I supposed to do—not see this play? Not try and do everything I could to get this part? The more I thought about it, the angrier at Stevie I got. Yes, we’d had a fight. I hadn’t thought it was a fight that was worth abandoning me over, but apparently it was.

So fine.

Fine.

If Stevie wanted to go back home and leave me to figure out the city on my own, that was her choice. I had wanted to help her, since going to Mr. Campbell’s play was going to be good for both of us. But since she was apparently giving up on theater forever, it was no longer my problem.

And if she didn’t care what happened to me, I didn’t care what happened to her. She could go back home, but I was going to do what I came in for and go see Mr. Campbell’s play. I was pretty sure that I could walk there from this subway station—that this train wouldn’t help me get any closer. Manhattan was a grid, right? That was what everyone said. I’d be able to find the Echo Theater.

Armed with my plan, I turned toward the exit just as the phone rang again. I hesitated, then crossed back to it. What if it was Willa calling again? Because the number of the pay phone would have shown up on our caller ID when I’d called. Maybe she’d heard from my parents—either way, I needed to make sure she didn’t report anything suspicious to them. I walked back and picked up on the third ring.

It was then that I noticed two people, dressed excessively cool, who looked like they were in their mid-twenties, walking up to stand behind me. Were they waiting to use the phone? That didn’t make sense—they were both holding phones.

“Hello?”