Katie Friedman Gives Up Texting!

by Tommy Greenwald

  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 ble
w 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.

  Then I picked up my guitar, and I started singing, and the music just came out.

  How do you

  Find the strength

  To finally walk out the door?

  How do you

  Tell the one you loved

  You don’t love them anymore?

  An hour later, I had the whole song. I don’t know how it happened. It just did. I guess that’s what creating something is. It’s waiting for whatever it is to be ready to pour out of you, and then when it’s time, getting out of the way and letting it happen.

  I remembered when I wrote the words to the song. It was the night I sent my very last text, that horrible mistake that broke Nareem’s heart. Now here I was, finally able to write the music, on another night I was really upset. Did that mean I could only create things when I was sad? I hoped not. I wanted to write songs, but I didn’t want to have to live a miserable life to do it.

  But that was something to worry about some other time. For now, I had written a song! And I was excited to teach it to the band at rehearsal the next night. Maybe Becca and the girls would love it, and we could even play it at the talent show!

  For the first time all day, I felt something like hope.

  41

  TWO APOLOGIES

  The next morning I went to find Jake and apologize. I looked all over the school, then found him and Hannah standing by my locker.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Hi,” they said.

  They waited. I had a whole speech prepared in my head, but I forgot every word.

  “I’m really, really sorry for screaming at you,” I stammered finally.

  Jake said, “It’s okay,” and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders.

  We stood there kind of awkwardly for a second, then I said, “Um, what are you guys doing here? By my locker, I mean?”

  Jake held out his phone. “I wanted to give this back to you.”

  I stared down at it. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” Jake said.

  I still didn’t understand. “Really?”

  “You were totally a jerk yesterday,” Hannah said to me. “But you know what? Jake kind of deserved it in a way. If he wanted his phone back, he could have just asked for it. But he was scared and ashamed and so he didn’t. He went into your locker without asking, which is definitely not cool.”

  “You’re not the only one who’s sorry,” Jake told me. “I owe you an apology, too. And I want to stick to the deal. One for all and all for one, right?” He smiled.

  I took the phone. “Okay!”

  I’m ashamed to admit that the next thing I thought about was somehow getting word to Jane that our deal was back on.

  But I’m proud to admit that that thought only lasted a second—maybe three—and then I banished it from my head.

  Forever.

  42

  THE LAST REHEARSAL

  At the end of the school day, I went to my locker, got the bag of phones, and brought them home. I was going to give them back to everybody at the talent show the next night. I went to my closet to put the bag inside, but first, I pulled out my phone and stared at it. Who knew such a little device could cause so much drama? My fingers itched as I thought about checking my texts, and taking a picture of the bag of phones and posting it online, congratulating the Cavemen on finishing the week. But I put the phone back in the bag. I could wait one more day.

  That night, I got to Becca’s house early for rehearsal, as usual. I wanted to talk to Becca privately and play her the song I wrote. But when I arrived, I was surprised to see Sammie and Jackie already there.

  I hadn’t seen much of Sammie over the last couple of days, since she was a Phonie.

  “Hey,” I said to her.

  “What’s up?” she said.

  I said hi to the other girls, but I could tell that something was a little weird, like I was interrupting a private conversation or something.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Everything’s great!” Becca said, oversmiling. “Let’s get to work. We’ve got a lot to do.”

  “Yeah,” Jackie said. “Big show tomorrow night! We’ve got to nail down our songs.”

  I got out my guitar. “I’m ready, you guys,” I said, relieved to get to the music. “Let’s do this.”

  We rehearsed for about an hour, going through about six songs, then we decided that the ones we’d play at the talent show would be “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett and “California Gurls” by Katy Perry.

  “We’re gonna rock it!” Sammie said from behind her drum set. Everyone laughed, including me. I actually felt happy and so relieved. The power of music is amazing. Which might be why I felt bold enough to say what I said next.

  “Listen you guys, I wanted to let you know that I finished my song last night.” They all stopped fiddling with their instruments and looked at me. “I’m not saying we should do it at the talent show or anything, but I just want to play it for you guys, so you can tell me if it’s any good or not.”

  Jackie noodled on her keyboard. “I’m sure it’s good. You don’t need us to tell you that.”

  “I bet it’s amazing,” Becca said.

  “You’re really talented,” Sammie added.

  Suddenly I felt this overpowering need to play it for them. Just to share it with someone.

  “I don’t know how talented I am, you guys,” I said. “I’ve never written a whole song before. It’s short! I just want to play it for you!”

  “Of course,” Becca said. “Of course you can play it for us. But can you maybe play it for us later? Right now we should really rehearse the songs we’re playing tomorrow night.”

  “Okay,” I said. “No problem.”

  We played “California Gurls,” and it sounded really good. Then we played “I Love Rock and Roll!” which also sounded really good.

  “What should we do now?” I asked.

  The rest of the band looked at each other.

  “We should probably run the two songs again, just to nail them down,” Sammie said.

  “Why?” I said. “They sound great. We don’t want to overrehearse.”

  Jackie, Sammie, and Becca looked at each other, as if trying to figure out who should talk next.

  “It’s awesome you wrote a song,” Sammie said, finally. “But I think we should probably just use this rehearsal to work on our talent show stuff.”

  “Yeah,” Jackie agreed.

  Bec
ca nodded, without looking at me.

  “I need to go to the bathroom,” I said.

  “Okay,” said Becca.

  I went into the bathroom and locked the door. I took about twenty deep breaths. I made myself calm down. Then I headed back down to Becca’s basement, promising myself I’d play those two songs a zillion times, if they wanted to.

  But when I was on the steps, I heard them talking. More like whispering.

  I stopped.

  “I thought you were going to tell her,” I heard Jackie say.

  “I didn’t have a chance,” Becca answered.

  “At this point, we’ll just wait until after the talent show,” Sammie said. “It will be fun and a good way to end.”

  “CHICKMATE’s farewell tour,” said Jackie, giggling.

  “Do you think she’ll be mad?” Sammie’s voice.

  “Maybe at first,” Becca said. “But she’ll get over it. She might even thank us. This isn’t the group she wants, and we’re not the musicians she wants.”

  “She wants to be Jane Plantero,” agreed Sammie. “I just want to bang on a few drums between field hockey practices.”

  They all laughed.

  “Jane Plantero! Good luck with that.”

  I wasn’t sure who said that last thing, because I was already on my way back up the stairs and out the door.

  43

  THE LONG WALK HOME

  Walking home from Becca’s house, I went over the whole last week in my head. Was it only a week ago that I’d gone to the concert with Nareem? That was hard to believe.

  It should have been the greatest week of my life.

  But instead it turned into one of the worst.

  How could it have gone so wrong?

  I was trying to figure that out when I looked around and realized something.

  It was getting late.

  Then I realized something else.

  I wasn’t going to make it home before dark.

  I started running, which considering my general state of fitness, is not necessarily a good idea. After about five minutes, I started breathing so hard I thought I was going to keel over.