At lunch, we all tried to make Jake feel better about his stolen phone. He was really quiet though, and didn’t feel much like talking.
Meanwhile, we still hadn’t solved the mystery, so things were getting tense.
When I asked Charlie Joe if he’d taken it, he was offended. “You’re crazy,” he said. “I would never do something that predictable. Give me a little credit.”
When I thought about it, he was right. His schemes usually had a lot more imagination to them.
My attention turned to Pete Milano, but it turned out he wasn’t in school that day. He was “sick,” which, amazingly enough, seemed to happen whenever there was a test he didn’t want to take.
As usual, the Cavemen were all sitting together. Also as usual, the Phonies were one table over. They were yakking and texting about the phone theft.
“Phone-tastic news!” Timmy hollered.
“I’ve never had so much phone in my life!” crowed his annoying friend Eric.
“E.T. phone home?” asked Charlie Joe. Then he launched into a bad E.T. voice. “I would, but I can’t find it!”
The whole cafeteria laughed, except our table. We sat there, glumly.
Finally Ricky smacked his hand on his tray, spilling some of his chocolate milk. “Enough! I’m sick of this. I want my phone back. I’m sick of being a Caveman. I want to be back with everyone else.”
“Me, too,” said Phil. Which meant Celia did, too, since they agreed on everything.
Amber eyed me suspiciously. “Katie, how do we know you didn’t take your own phone back, too? Everyone knows you like Charlie Joe. Maybe you wanted to do some text flirting.”
Eliza looked at me with shocked eyes. “Wait a second, you like Charlie Joe?”
“Where have you been?” Jackie mumbled, giggling.
I felt my skin start to burn. “Me, like Charlie Joe? Ha! That’s hilarious coming from you, Amber. You’re just trying to protect Eliza, since you’ve worshipped the ground she’s walked on for like five years.”
Amber’s face turned the color of tomato juice. “I have not!”
“You have, too!”
“ENOUGH!” Hannah yelled, slamming her own hand on the table.
I suddenly felt ashamed. “I’m sorry,” I said to Amber. “This is stupid. We can’t start fighting now. We’re too close to the end of the week! Let’s just be proud of what we’re doing, and finish the week out strong.”
Ricky rolled his eyes. “Finish the week out strong,” he muttered. “Whatever.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Tiffany said. “It’s not so great not having a phone, Katie. Sorry, but it’s true. I know we’ve had some good conversations and everything but otherwise it’s really kind of boring.”
A few heads nodded. I started to get nervous. I could probably convince Jane that one dropout was okay. But the whole thing looked like it was about to blow up.
“Only a few more days, you guys,” I said. “Then, at the talent show, we can celebrate. And just wait—soon after that, we’re going to celebrate again, and it’s going to be amazing, trust me. We just have to finish out the week. Trust me, it’s going to be awesome.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Ricky.
“Yeah, what’s going to be awesome?” echoed Jake.
Everybody looked at me. I wasn’t sure what to say. Obviously I couldn’t tell them about my deal with Jane, but I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t said it, either.
I tried to come up with something. “Um, I just meant that maybe we’ll get some kind of award from the school or something.”
“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.