#What Happens When You’re On Your Phone

by Sebastian Merkatz, age 10
#What Happens When You’re On Your Phone Sebastian is ten and lives in New York City. One of his favorite authors is Rick Riordan, and he really likes Judy Blume books.

“‘Hey girl,’ says my boyfriend. ‘What’s up,’ I say. He says, ‘I’m breaking up with you.’ I love the way he talks, I think to myself. But, then I say, ‘Wait, what?!'”

“O-M-G, O-M-G, O-M-G!!!” I scream. Trey Walker is following me! I am so happy, and I go to sleep. I wake up at 12AM because my boyfriend wants to Facetime me, and I see that I have over 12 million followers on Memed. Memed is basically a social media platform where you make your own memes. I scream softly so I won’t wake up my parents, but then I see that I got featured. Featured is when the Memed company takes one meme once a week and sends it to all of its users!!! I scream softly again.

Then, my phone starts to buzz. It must be my boyfriend, so I pick up.

“Hey girl,” says my boyfriend.

“What’s up,” I say.

He says, “I’m breaking up with you.”

I love the way he talks, I think to myself. But, then I say, “Wait, what?!”

Then, he hangs up. I stuff my face in my soft pillow, and I want to cry all night, but my phone buzzes. It’s a call from Trey Walker.

“O-M-G,” I say. “He can be my new boyfriend!”

I hear a voice in my head saying, “Don’t answer it, don’t answer it!” I answer it, and then I find myself in a black and white dome.

***

“Hello!!!” I scream, and my voice echoes.

“HELLO!” I scream again.

Something is pecking at me.

“Who are you?” I say.

“I’m a heart from Memed.”

“Wait, so you’re a heart?”

“Yep, when you like someone’s meme on Memed, I’m the heart.”

“Do you know where I am?”

“You’re in your phone.”

”My phone! How do I get out?!”

“Well, after the phone runs out of battery, you die! You will die if someone does not charge it. You get out by being on 100 percent.”

“But, my phone is not charging.” Well, I guess my mom will put it in the charger. “What’s that?” I say.

It looks like a rainbow.

“Oh,” says Heart, “that’s Instagram Land.”

“What’s Instagram Land?”

“Instagram Land is a place, where, when you walk into Instagram Land, you’re inside Instagram!”

“That’s so cool!” I say. “What’s that noise?”

“Oh no!” says Heart. “The Glitches and Bugs are coming. They’re trying to destroy your phone! We better hide. Quick, over there!”

I follow him because I don’t really understand what he’s saying.

He says, “Jump in this tube.”

“What tube?”

“The Youtube tube! It leads us to Google, the safest place in your phone.”

“What’s that thing in the air?” I say.

“Those are the Twitter birds. They are fleeing to Google.”

“They’re so cute,” I say.  

I hear a buzz. Where is the noise coming from?

“Is that the bugs?” I say.

“No, that’s the mobile strike army. They protect us.”

“But, I never downloaded that,” I say. “Only my brother has it.”

“Exactly, it’s from the Cloud.”

I look up and see clouds.

“When it rains, stuff drops. For example, your brother’s mobile strike, it knows a secret land in your phone.” Heart says.

“Oh, that makes sense,” I say.

“No more talking,” he says. “Jump into the tube!”

***

I do what he says. When I was in the tube, it went so fast, it only took half a second!

“Whoa!” I say. “Who are these guys?” I ask Heart.

“Oh, those are the googlets.”

“Who are the googlets?” I say.

“They are the people who manage your phone. They are basically your minions,” he says. “Just ask them to give you a bag of chips.”

“Okay,” I say.

I ask one of the googlets, “Can I have a bag of potato chips?”

The googlet says, “Anything for you, Princess Violet.”

Then he says, “Guys, Princess Violet is here! She wants chips!”

A hundred little googlets come running at me, carrying bags of chips. Hundreds of googlets say, “Please, can I have your autograph?”

“Okay, okay,” I say. “I will give you all autographs.”

It must have taken a hour to sign them all. I see one huge googlet walking towards me.

“Hello,” he says in a low voice. “I am your assistant. These are your minion googlets. We just heard some news that the mobile strike army won.”

“YAY!” The googlets scream.

“Oh, by the way, just call me Assistant James,” he says.

“Okay,” I say. “Assistant James, can you give me a tour of Google, please?”

“Of course, Master Violet, follow me. So, we start here at the Youtube tubes, then we come to your minions’ offices, they manage your whole phone, you know. Then, we come to my office. I have computers and everything you could possibly want in an office.”

“Cool,” I say.  

“Here are the bitbots. The bitbots help kill bugs and glitches that are hiding in Google. And finally, here are the emojis. The emojis help manage your texts and emails.”

“Hi, emojis!” I say.

One cute little angel emoji walks up to me. He says, “Should I delete your boyfriend’s contact because he broke up with you?”

“Please, do so.” I say.    

“And that’s the end of the tour,” says my assistant googlet.

“This place is awesome,” I say. “Thanks for the tour!”

“Anytime. You and your heart friend over there should explore your phone some more. There are so many great places in your phone, and if you ever need help, just ask me.”

“Okay, bye,” I say.

Then Heart and I head off to Instagram Land. I ask Heart, “Have you been everywhere in the phone?”

“No, I have only been to Memed land and Google.”

“Well, I guess we’re going to see something new today!”

“We don’t have days here because when you’re asleep, I’m still up.”

***

“Hey, look at the sign. It says Instagram Land is only a megabyte away.”  

“A mega bite?” I ask, “what’s that?”

“Instead of half a mile, we have megabytes. Gigabytes are our miles.”

“Wow. What’s that tall building?” I ask.

“It’s the great battery clock,” he says. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, silly me. There is another way to escape. You have to climb to the top of the battery clock, and once you reach the top, you solve a riddle. After you answer the riddle, you open a door, and then you go into a secret room, which I’ve never been in.”

“Why did you not tell me?!” I yell. “Sorry, I get really mad sometimes.”

“Do you want to go in the tower?”

“Sure,” I say. “Let’s go.”

I walk into the tower. I see a fat googlet, who says in a loud voice,”NO ONE BESIDES THE PRINCESS CAN ENTER.”

“I am the Princess,” I say.

“Oh, Princess, I have heard rumors that you were here. Oh, by the way, I’m Axel, chief of the police.”

“Oh, hi Axel. I’m Violet. I’m trying to escape this phone, but I need to get to the top of this tower.”

“It’s 500 stories, are you sure you can climb up all those stairs?” he asks.

“I’m positive.”

After a lot of walking up the stairs, I’m so tired.

“Are we there yet?” I ask Axel.

He says, “Nope, just 490 more floors to go!”

“Can we take a break?” I say.

“Sure,” says Axel.

After a few minutes of resting, I go back to climbing the stairs. Heart says, “My heart is beating so fast!”

I burst out laughing. “Good one, Heart,” I tell him.

After four hours of walking, I’m finally at the top.

“I feel like I’m gonna faint,” I say.

“Let’s take a break,” says Heart, and we do.

***

A few minutes later, we start the riddle. There is a sign that says the riddle. It reads:

You entered this everyday, everywhere. TW, TW. That is who you love. Dum dum dum dum dum. That is what you sum.

“What do you do everyday?” asks Axel.

“Well, I go on my phone,” I say.

“That’s it,” says Heart. “It’s your phone password!”

“But, what about the sum part?” says Axel.

“I know,” I say. “Maybe it’s the numbers of the password added up!”

This is the smartest I have ever been.

“Wow, that’s a good idea,” says Axel. “But, there is still the TW, TW, who you love.”

Heart says, “It must be Trey Walker. Maybe it’s the numbers added up and Trey Walker!”

“What are the numbers added up?” says Axel.

“Well, it’s 3+4+9+6+2. What does that add up to?” I say.

I am so stupid. Heart does a facepalm.

“It’s 24,” says Heart.

“Look, there is the door to enter the code to get in,” says Axel.

I enter the code “24TreyWalker”. It does not work, so I enter “TreyWalker24”. This time it works. I see an elevator, and it says “To enter the human world”.

“I will miss you guys,” I say. “Tell the googlets I say bye.”

Heart runs up to me and hugs me. After the hug, I step into the elevator. They say bye and I say bye back. I press the button in the elevator, and I end up in my bed.

***

“Wake up, honey,” says Mom. “You have been sleeping for two days!”

My body must have been in the real world, but my mind was in my phone.

“I’m gonna take a break from the phone,” I say.

And for the first time, I turn the power off.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *