I change out of my wet shirt into a nondescript I LOVE NEW YORK tee I got the last time we were in Manhattan. I rifle through my bag until I find the gray Dodgers cap I wore home from my show tonight. I put it on over my crazily colored hair. I remove my contact lenses, which I almost always wear, and replace them with the red-rimmed glasses I sometimes wear to read in bed. I check myself in the mirror one more time. Unattractive and unrecognizable. Just the way I want it.

“Wow,” Ben says, staring at me as I emerge into the hallway.

“I know,” I say. “Good-bye, Star Beck. Hello . . . weird-haired, glasses-wearing, normal girl.”

Ben smiles, but he doesn’t look happy.

“I hope this is the right thing, Star,” he says. “Is this what you really want?”

“Yes,” I say without hesitating. It is. “I know it seems like I’ve made a snap decision. But I have to get away from all this. I have to find my dad. It’s crazy, but it feels right.”

“I just . . . I’m thinking now that maybe I shouldn’t have been so gung-ho about helping you,” Ben says. “I forget sometimes that you’re only sixteen. I mean, this is illegal.” “

It’s fine,” I say firmly.

“But—”

“I’m fine,” I repeat with false confidence. “No one will ever know you helped. I promise. And Ben, honestly, I would have done this with or without you.”

He looks at me for a moment, as if trying to decide something. Then he nods.

“Listen. I think the best thing for you to do is travel south by bus,” he says. “They’ll ask for ID, but you can talk them into letting you on without one, I think.”

“Okay.” How different can a public bus be from my tour bus? Yeah. I decide not to think that way.

“Other than that, I don’t know how else I can help you,” he says. “You can’t call me. Once they discover you’re missing, they’ll put a trace on my phone. Your mom knows we’re friends. If you need me, make sure to call from a landline and end the call quickly.”

“I watch CSI too,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“That you do,” he says. He reaches out and pulls me into a hug. “I believe in you, Star.”

“Thanks,” I say. I wonder why Ben seems to be the only one in my world who really does.

When I arrive on the first floor a few moments later, I spot a man, a woman and two teenage girls exiting the elevator next to mine. I fall into step behind them, hoping that anyone on the lookout for Star Beck will just assume I’m a random teenager who belongs to this family.