Katie Friedman Gives Up Texting! (15 page)

“Whoop-de-doo,” Ricky said. “We've given up our phones for a week and nobody even cares. The rest of the school thinks we're dorks, and you know what? They're right. We
are
dorks.”

“That's crazy,” Hannah said. “We're doing something cool, something no one's ever done before.”

Becca cleared her throat. She's a pretty quiet person, plus she's like eleven feet tall, so when she talks, people listen. Everybody waited, curious to hear what she had to say.

“I kind of agree with Ricky,” she said. “I'm not really sure what this whole thing is about, to be honest. I never considered myself addicted to my phone. And yeah, some kids definitely use their phones too much, but this seems extreme. It's just not how the world works these days. Charlie Joe is right. What if there's a real emergency and someone is trying to reach you? You need a phone. Everyone has one. If you don't have a phone you're literally missing the world going by.”

Then Becca looked right at me. “Not everybody cares about things as much as you do, Katie, and it makes you kind of bossy sometimes.”

I felt the sting of tears behind my eyes, but luckily, that's where they stayed.

Becca sat back down. Nobody moved for a second, then people started nodding. The tide was turning, and she was the one who turned it.

Suddenly I didn't have the energy to fight it anymore. We weren't going to make it. Jane would never hear my song, and why? Because of the co-leader of my band, that's why.

“Fine,” I said. “Whoever wants to drop out, go ahead. All I know is, we wouldn't be having this kind of conversation
right now
if we had our phones. Becca, you'd be texting what you just said about me to Ricky. And Ricky would forward it to Tiffany and everyone would think it was hilarious, except for me, because I wouldn't be in on it. Cell phones cause secrets, and secrets cause lies—and lies hurt people.”

“I like to think I can tell you anything,” Becca said to me.

I fake smiled. “Well, you can definitely insult me to my face, that's for sure.”

Becca looked wounded. “I wasn't trying to insult you. I was just trying to be honest. Didn't you just say that's what this was all about?”

“Well, thanks for the honesty,” I said. “Let's just forget it. Whoever wants their cell phone back, just come meet me at my locker after lunch.”

“Yeah, if you don't want us, we don't want you,” Eliza added. “We started this by ourselves, and we can finish it together.”

I wasn't sure that made sense, but I knew what she was getting at.

I waited for someone to come to my rescue, but nobody did.

“Okay,” I said at last. It was really over.

Then, as I got up to put my tray away, I heard a familiar
DING DONG
.

A sound that hadn't been heard at our lunch table all week.

The sound of an incoming text.

Everybody froze in their seats. Waiting. Because the sound always came a second time.

And sure enough, five seconds later:
DING DONG!

Even Charlie Joe could hear it at the next table. “What was that?” he said. “Was that what I think it was?”

Suddenly Phil shot to his feet. “Give it up!” he said. “Whoever has Jake's phone, give it up! Take the phone out and fess up!”

We sat still as statues, staring at each other.

Finally, the last person I would suspect reached into his pocket and placed his cell phone on the table.

Jake himself.

I stared in disbelief. “Wait a second. Your phone wasn't stolen? You …
took it yourself?”

He nodded, head down in shame.

Jake Katz. One of the most well-behaved, agreeable kids in school, the one who always played by the rules, the one who never did anything to make anyone upset. The one kid you could count on.

We all stared at him.

“I'm sorry,” he mumbled, so softly you could barely hear him. “I'm so sorry. It's just … I didn't know what to do … my mom was so mad. I'm…” He stopped for a second to check the text he got, then sent a quick reply. “Plus, I really missed playing Words with Friends. I was in the middle of a tournament.” He sighed in defeat. “I guess I'm kind of addicted to that game.”

Hannah looked shocked. “Why did you leave the locker open?” she asked.

“I wasn't going to,” Jake said. “But somebody walked by and I—I guess I panicked.”

I was too surprised to speak, at first. I thought about everything that had happened—Eliza telling me I was mean, Amber saying everyone knew I liked Charlie Joe, Becca calling me bossy, and now Jake betraying the whole group by taking his phone.

My heart sunk, and a weird burning sensation started pounding inside my head.

I trust you
, Jane had said. If I deserved that trust, I'd have to tell her what happened. I'd have to tell her that I hadn't quite lived up to my end of the deal.

Which would mean no backstage tour for all of us at a concert.

And no Plain Jane playing my song.

“THAT'S HORRIBLE!” I yelled suddenly, before I could stop myself. “You stink! We had a deal! We were all in this together! I hate you! You ruined everything!”

Jake froze in shock. Everyone stared at me like I was an alien creature.

“Plus you could be suspended for going into my locker,” I added for good measure.

Hannah looked furious. “What is
wrong
with you, Katie?! It's just a cell phone. It's not the end of the world.”

I felt tears spring to my eyes. “You don't understand … I had everything planned … it had to be ten people. It was going to be a surprise…”

“What was?” Hannah asked.

“OH, FORGET IT!” I yelled, and stared down at my plate.

Before anyone else could react, Eliza reached across the table and put her hand on Jake's arm. “Well, you know what? I'm actually not mad at you, Jake. It's okay. There were about a thousand times when I wanted to go into Katie's locker and get my phone. We get it.” Eliza looked around the table. “Right, you guys?”

No one was sure what to do or say, so everyone just sat there for a few seconds.

“Yeah,” Becca said, finally. “We were just about to bag this whole thing and get our phones anyway. Don't worry about it.”

Jake finally picked his head up. “Seriously? You guys aren't mad?”

More kids started nodding. “Dude, my parents have been driving me crazy,” Ricky said. “They used to tell me to put my phone away, but now they're all like, ‘When are you getting your phone back? We need to be able to reach you!'”

“I have to admit,” Jake said, “it's been kind of nice without my mom texting me every five minutes. I'm going to miss that.”

Everyone laughed, except me. The nicer everyone was being, the more I felt like a jerk.

Hannah looked around, shaking her head. “You guys are amazing. You're being so nice to Jake. You're like the best friends anyone could have.” Then she stood up. “And you know what? This is like a sign. We're in this together. We're Cavemen! And we're going to finish out the week as Cavemen!”

“Yeah!” Ricky said. “Cavemen all the way!”

Everyone around the table started high-fiving each other and chanting: “Cavemen! Cavemen! Cavemen!”

Mid-chant, Phil pointed at Charlie Joe's table. “No offense, dude,” he shouted to Jake, “but you should probably go sit over there now.”

As Jake got up, Hannah gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“You're a Phonie now,” she said, “but I still like you.”

Everyone laughed, then kept chanting.

Except me.

And nobody seemed to care.

 

38

A TRUE FRIEND

So the Cavemen decided to stick
together and stick to the deal, but I didn't feel like celebrating. And at recess, I didn't really feel like hanging around with them, or with anyone for that matter.

Everyone was mad at me for how I acted toward Jake, but nobody was more mad than me. Because when I thought about it, even though my deal with Jane had been very clear—get
ten
friends to give up their phones for
one whole week
—she probably wouldn't have cared if one person dropped out toward the end. But now, I had to figure out what I was going to do: either tell Jane what had happened and risk her canceling the deal, or not tell her and feel incredibly guilty about lying.

Ugh.

I was sitting on a swing by myself, trying to figure out what to do, when I heard a voice behind me.

“Are you okay?”

I turned around to see Eliza standing there.

I couldn't believe it. Eliza! Two weeks ago, I'd thought she was just another unbelievably pretty but shallow girl. But she was a lot more than that. And right at that moment, she was a true friend.

I tried to smile. “I guess. I don't know. Not really.”

“Well, that's a clear answer,” Eliza said, sitting in the swing next to me. “You want to talk about it?”

As it turned out, I did. I told her everything: the concert, the accidental text to Nareem, the tension with Becca about writing songs, the deal with Jane, lying to her about cell phones ruining your brain, Nareem not wanting to talk to me for a while, me getting mad at Jake because now Jane would never sing my song—all of it.

It felt so good to talk about it, even though the whole thing made me sound kind of like a terrible person.

Eliza just sat there, listening. After I was finished, I waited for her to walk away, or get mad at me, or at least shake her head in disappointment.

Instead, she said one simple thing.

“How can I help?”

That was kind of amazing.

And I realized exactly what I had to do.

“Do you think maybe you could ask Nareem to get one last letter to Jane for me? I'm not sure he wants anything to do with me right now, but I need to write to Jane and tell her what happened.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

I hopped off the swing and stared up into the white sun. “Thanks, Eliza. For everything. You're a really great person, and I'm glad I finally know that.”

“Write the letter today,” she said, “and I will give it to Nareem after school.”

She gave me a little hug and walked away. I think she sensed that I wanted to be alone.

She was right. I did want to be alone.

But not really.

 

39

THE LAST LETTER

Dear Jane,

I almost made it.

I tried, I really did. I had ten friends, and we had all given up our phones for almost a week. Then, this morning, one of the people took his phone back. But nobody even got that mad at him.

Except me.

Because instead of thinking about the group, I thought of myself, and how this might mess up the deal I had with you.

I acted badly.

It was worse because we've all become really good friends this week, even though some of us barely knew each other before. And everyone else was so nice to Jake. They understood that he tried his hardest. But I didn't. I blew it. Like I said, I was thinking that now you wouldn't play my song at your next concert. And the sad thing is, I'll bet you would have played it anyway.

Which reminds me, I have to tell you something else. You know how you asked me if I was working on the music to my song, and I said I was? Well, I was lying. I actually haven't written any music to it at all. I tried, but nothing happened. I wanted to play it at our talent show on Saturday night, but that's not going to happen. And so it turns out, I don't have a song for you to play at your next concert anyway.

So obviously, I know that all this means our deal is off.

Which I totally get.

But thank you SO MUCH for everything you did for me. I still feel so lucky that I met you. I'm sorry I let you down. I have a lot to work on and you are my inspiration.

 

Thanks again.

 

Your fan,

 

Katie Friedman

 

40

CREATING SOMETHING

That night, of course, the melody came to me in about five minutes.

How do you

Speak the words

That you never thought would be spoken?

How do you

Break the heart

That never has been broken?

I was in my room thinking about the whole day, starting with my locker being broken into, and thinking Charlie Joe did it, and finding out Jake stole his own phone back, and yelling at him, and Eliza being such a good friend, and the letter I'd written to Jane, and how I'd probably never hear from her again.