somewhere else!â
Everyone laughed and repeated the word phonies . All of a sudden we had a new nickname for the phone-users of the world.
âIf weâre phonies,â Charlie Joe said, âthen youâre cavemen. Youâre living in prehistoric times.â
âYeah, youâre cavemen,â Pete said. âYou should probably leave now so you can start hunting for dinner.â Then he laughed way too loudly at his own joke.
âOkay, enough you guys,â I said. âCharlie Joe, letâs not turn this into a big thing. Youâre obviously entitled to your phones and your texting and whatever, just like weâre entitled to sit at lunch and have interesting conversations.â
Charlie Joe raised an eyebrow. âSo youâre saying people with phones donât have interesting conversations?â
I sighed. âIâm saying when everyone is staring down at the little device in their hands, thereâs not a lot of connecting going on. Like right now. Weâre disagreeing, weâre getting on each otherâs nerves, but at least weâre connecting. Right? Thatâs what this week is all about.â I paused, because I wasnât sure I should say what I was about to say. But then I said it anyway. âIf itâs too intense for you, thatâs fine. You can go back to your cat videos and Instagrams and Snapchats. What weâre doing isnât for everyone. I get it.â
Charlie Joe stopped smiling at that moment, and looked at me for a minute like he didnât know who I was. âWow, Katie. I never thought Iâd see the day when you would actually say out loud that you thought you were better than me.â
âIâm not saying Iâm better than you,â I said. âDifferent, thatâs all.â
Charlie Joe shook his head slowly. The fun and games were over.
âLetâs go, you guys,â he said. âThe cavemen are too good for us. Letâs go back to the twenty-first century where we belong.â
âYeah,â Timmy said.
âLetâs,â Pete said.
As we watched them walk away, Ricky muttered, âSee ya later, phonies.â
âPhonies!â Tiffany squealed, laughing. âWhat a hilarious nickname.â
As everyone got busy congratulating one another for being so clever, I kept watching Charlie Joe. He was staring down at his phone, but Iâm not sure he was reading anything. I felt bad. I felt good. I felt guilty. I felt proud. I felt happy. I felt sad. And I felt right.
Communicating is complicated.
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32
ITâS FOR YOU
So it was official: There was an âus versus themâ thing going on.
The war escalated in language arts, when Ms. Kransky asked me and Jake to talk in front of the class about our decision to give up our phones.
âI would like everyone to hear from these impressive young students, who have recognized a problem and are trying to do something about it,â she said. âWe can all learn something from them.â
Talk about a foolproof way to get everyone to hate you.
Two minutes after we started talking about how great it was to sit at lunch and actually look at each other, among other wonderful things about a phone-free existence, an actual phone started ringing.
Charlie Joe held his hand up.
âI think Iâm getting a call,â he said. He got out his phone. âHello?â Charlie Joe listened for a second. Then he held the phone out toward me. âItâs for Katie.â
âCharlie Joe, put that away,â Ms. Kransky ordered.
Charlie Joe looked concerned. âWhat if itâs an emergency?â
For a second I got scared. Could he possibly not be making a joke for once?
âCHARLIE JOE!â commanded Ms. Kransky.
âOkay, fine,â Charlie Joe said, putting away his phone. âBut you get my point. If someone really did have something important to tell Katie, or Jake, or any one of the
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