“Sometimes you have to play with the cards life deals you.” He pauses and laughs. “I think that’s one of my mom’s lines from her self-help phase.”

“Uh-oh, you’re turning into your mom,” I tease. He nudges me.

“Seriously, though,” he says. “Okay, so maybe your dad is a selfish jerk and maybe your mom thinks about herself more than she thinks about you. But that doesn’t mean you have to walk away from everything. It just means you have to see things for what they are. You have to realize that there are literally millions of people out there who totally adore you.”

“That doesn’t make up for parents who don’t love me,” I say softly.

“No, it doesn’t,” Nick agrees. “But this is your life. And you can choose to let it get you down. Or you can choose to look at all the good things, all the cool opportunities you have and all the people who really like you, and maybe think about starting over again. Don’t let your mom control you. But maybe you can give her another chance to be a part of your life.”

Sure, there’s a lot that I don’t like about my old life. There’s so much that’s fake; there are so many stupid rules; I feel like I can never just be me. But Nick’s right. Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Maybe instead of walking away from it all, I can just work with what I already have and change it to make me happier.

And I’m not sure my mother deserves another chance. But if I don’t give her one, maybe I’m not being any better than her.

“Can I borrow your phone?” I ask Nick. He smiles and pulls his cell out of his pocket. I punch in my mother’s number.

“Mom?” I say when she answers. “I think I’m ready to come home now.”

Epilogue

Once I ran away,
away from who I was,
Now I’m coming back
to face up to me.
I lived in lies, in my own
disguise,
But in the end, the truth
will set me free.
When you wish, when you wish,
Dreams really do come true.

—“WHEN YOU WISH,” STAR BECK
ALBUM: WHEN YOU WISH

Epilogue

Seven Months Later . . .

“Star!”

“Over here, Star!”

“I have a question!”

“Star!”

“Star!”

“Star!”

The reporters clamor for my attention, waving their arms wildly in the air. I just watch them for a minute, smiling. I’m sitting in a fancy ballroom in New York, talking to a hundred journalists about When You Wish, the new album we started recording the first week of December. It’s my proudest accomplishment yet.