SCENE opens on a teenaged girl, standing on a platform in front of train tracks. She turns and enters the TRAIN STATION behind her, and walks up to the ticket saleswoman.

GIRL: I need a ticket to New York. One way.

SALESWOMAN: That will be one hundred dollars.

GIRL: A hundred dollars?! For a one-way ticket to New York? I don’t have that kind of money!

SALESWOMAN: Well then, I’m sorry, but you can’t have a ticket.

GIRL: How can a train ride be a hundred dollars?

SALESWOMAN: It’s a 9 hour train ride to New York.

GIRL: ( runs a hand through her hair and turns around, looking at PEOPLE in room) Can anyone give me some money? Even just a dollar!

PEOPLE: (all shake head or ignore her)

GIRL: (storms out of the station, back onto the platform outside. Speaks to the audience.) Can anyone out here give me some money? All I need altogether is 15 dollars…

PEOPLE: (all shake head or ignore her)

A TRAIN goes by, not stopping, and dust is thrown up into the air, causing several people to cough. People lean out of the train, whispering in unison: You’ll never escape, you’ll never escape…

A second teenaged GIRL beckons to GIRL 1.

GIRL 1: (walks over to GIRL 2 and sits next to her, cautious look on her face) Yes?

GIRL 2: You don’t need a ticket to get onto the train.

GIRL 1: What? Of course you do, that’s the point. Otherwise nobody would buy them.

GIRL 2: It’s just that nobody knows the trick.

GIRL 1: (skeptical) How would you know the "trick" then?

GIRL 2: Lots of practice.

GIRL 1: Why would you practice sneaking onto a train?

GIRL 2: Haven’t you ever felt bored of where you are? Just needed to leave for a week or two, maybe a month?

GIRL 1: You’re Jenna aren’t you? I’ve heard about you. The Runaway.

GIRL 2: (with a grin) Yep! I’m famous then, I take it? Not as famous as I will be someday I know, when I’m a huge star.

GIRL 1: (slides away from JENNA a little) So how do you get a ride without paying?

JENNA: Where do you want to go?

GIRL 1: New York City.

JENNA: Why?

GIRL 1: Why do you want to know?

JENNA: I’m deciding whether or not to tell you how to sneak on.

GIRL 1: Great, just great. So maybe you’ll tell me. Why should I even bother with it?

JENNA: Do you have any other way of getting there?

GIRL 1: (sighs) I can’t stay at home anymore. My mom, Callie, lives in New York.

JENNA: What does she do in New York?

GIRL 1: She’s a performance artist. She’s in some kind of play right now. I’m not really sure what one. (looks down)

JENNA: Why not? Why don’t you live with her? C’mon, you’re getting boring.

GIRL 1: Boring? Well, my parents divorced, and Callie moved up there. My dad’s a computer programmer and my step mom is a housewife. After they found out that Callie had a girlfriend they haven’t let me talk to her since. I don’t think that’s legal, is it? But there’s nothing I can do. Except this.

JENNA: Whoa, that’s great! Is that why you’re running away?

GIRL 1: I’m not running away. Are you going to tell me how to sneak onto the train?

JENNA: Maybe, I still have to decide. Why are you leaving then?

GIRL 1: They changed the locks and didn’t give me the key. (pauses) It’s really hot out here. Can we go into the shade?

Both girls stand up and walk over to another bench.

JENNA: Your parents changed the locks, then?

GIRL 1: If you want to call them that. I’d say that people who lock you out aren’t parents.

Both girls sit down on a bench under the overhang of the station.

JENNA: So what are you going to do when you get to New York?

GIRL 1: I thought I’d try to find her. I don’t know where she’s living now though, or if she’d even want me. Nobody seems to want me. I’m just some throwaway. (pause) If I find her I’d like to live with her though. And her girlfriend if she’s still there. She sounded cool. They’re both actresses together. I’d like to do that. Maybe they could get me a job on stage or something.

JENNA: What if you don’t find her?

GIRL 1: I don’t know. Find a way I guess.

JENNA: Well you can come with me. If I decide I like you, of course. I think I might. The key to it is Meeting people. It’s really easy if you know how. (pause) I don’t think you do, though. But you did meet me. So maybe you’ll learn.

GIRL 1: So you’ll tell me how?

JENNA: Maybe, I haven’t decided yet. I told you that.

GIRL 1: So what did you mean before? Meeting people?

JENNA: Yeah! You meet them, they like you, they let you stay at their house. Then, if you’re really lucky, you can go out and party with them and meet all their friends and do tons of cool stuff.

GIRL 1: Is that why you run away so much, to do cool stuff?

JENNA: Nah. I told you, I get tired of one place for too long. All the same people, same scenery, same mother, same house, gets boring.

GIRL 1: Oh. Do you have any water? I’m really thirsty.

JENNA: Sure. (gets a bottle out of her backpack, gives it to GIRL 1. GIRL 1 takes a sip of it, then holds it.)

JENNA: So why did your parents divorce?

GIRL 1: Because of me. (drinks the water again, then gives the bottle back)

JENNA: (putting the bottle back in her backpack) Did they tell you that?

GIRL 1: Dad did. Callie denied it. She gave me some crap about how they just had too many differences. Really, though, they were arguing about how to raise me. Dad’s so conservative and Callie, well she isn’t, so my dad wanted to send me to this Catholic school and my Callie thought it would be nice if I got to choose—I wanted to go to an arts school—and there were so many arguments that they just gave up. (pause) Why doesn’t your mom watch you more closely, if you run away so much?

JENNA: Oh, she doesn’t care. (dismisses it with a flick of her wrist) She thinks that if I need to run away sometimes so that I don’t get bored, it’s a wonderful outlet for my creativity. She says that she doesn’t know any other girls who love to go all sorts of places and know how to get there alone. She’s very impressed with me. She says she always wanted a daughter as intelligent and imaginative as me. I’m very unique, she says, the way I do things.

A TRAIN goes by, not stopping, and dust is thrown into their faces and eyes. GIRL 1 coughs. People lean out, whispering in unison: You’ll never escape, you’ll never escape…

GIRL 1: I don’t want to move around. I just want to go to New York and stay there.

JENNA: How boring.

GIRL 1: So what about your dad?

JENNA: Oh, he disappeared off somewhere when I was, like, 5. I haven’t seen him since.

GIRL 1: Do you think that’s where you got it?

JENNA: You sound like that psychologist that my school made me go see once. Nah, I don’t want to find him or be like him. Fathers are a stupid thing to have, if you ask me.

GIRL 1: (quiet laugh) I agree with that one.

JENNA: It would be fun to live with two moms, like you said, though. Moms are great.

GIRL 1: Well, if you tell me how to sneak onto the train, I’ll let you live with them, if I can find them.

JENNA: I’m only going for a few weeks, not living there. I’m not even sure yet that I’m going to New York. I’ll get off where ever I feel like it, probably, and see where that is. (pause) I guess I’ll tell you though. I mean, why not?

GIRL 1: How?

JENNA: oh, I’ll just show you when it comes. (there is silence for a few moments) My best friend goes looking for me sometimes. I always write her or call her so that she doesn’t worry, but she does anyway. I think she wants some adventure too but her mom always gets really mad at her after she looks for me. I always tell her about all the people that I meet but she just gets upset after that. Allison, I mean, not her mom. I’d never tell her mom that stuff.

GIRL 1: How do you keep up with school if you keep running away?

JENNA: (looks at GIRL 1 strangely) Who cares about school? I told you, I’m going to be famous, I don’t need school for that.

GIRL 1: How are you going to get famous?

JENNA: I don’t know yet. But I’ll think of something. I’m really good at that.

GIRL 1: You should be an actress, like Callie… and like me. Maybe she could help us audition for stuff and all.

JENNA: Oh, and we could be famous together! Jenna and—what’s your name again?

GIRL 1: Rachel Shumake.

JENNA: Jenna and Rachel, famous actresses and friends. (getting very excited) And everyone will ask where we met and we can tell them that we were running away together and met that way and oh, it could be so cool! We can be in all sorts of movies together and plays—and Allison can write them! We’ll be a trio, the two actresses and their playwrite. Oh, it’ll be so exciting! We can be like Molly Ringwald, when she was on Caberet… (jumps up and starts singing) Life is a caberet old chum, come to the caberet!

RACHEL: We may not become famous you know.

JENNA: Oh, just stick with me and you will. I’ll be really famous and I‘ll say I won’t accept the movie offer unless you’re in it, so they’ll take you too and soon you’ll be famous on your own! (sits) If I decide that I like you, that is.

RACHEL: …oh. You haven’t decided?

JENNA: I know that I like you but I’ll be living with you for a while so I’ll get to see if I really like you so we can be famous together. I think I will.

RACHEL: So you’ll come live with Callie? If I can find her that is.

JENNA: Oh, if you can’t then I will. There are ways to do anything. Anyway, you can stay with me until we do, with whoever I meet that is. Maybe Allison will come looking for me this time and we can convince her to come with us!

RACHEL: Won’t her parents send the police after her?

JENNA: Oh, I’d find a way around that. And then—

RACHEL: Jenna? The train’s here. (points over to stage right)

JENNA: Great! I’m so excited. Ok, stick close, I’ll show you what to do. (both get up) C’mon! (JENNA takes RACHEL’S hand and pulls her offstage at a run)

After a pause, the TRAIN comes by. People lean out, whispering in unison: You can escape, you can escape, you can escape…