Phoneless

Perhaps I could use one of these instead. Or maybe a messenger falcon.

Two weeks ago, my phone decided it was going to hide from me. I looked all over the house before my brother finally found it in the car, in the pouch on the back of a seat..
Not having a phone for a while reminded me painfully of how things were before I ever got it. That's my brother's life right now. He's twelve and thinks it's utterly unfair that I have one and he doesn't. I didn't get my first phone until I was fifteen, a hand me down from my older brother. I still am fifteen and I still using that same phone.
If you are a parent with a child nagging you for phone, here are some reasons (beyond scary kidnappers and peer pressure) that they might actually need one. And if you are the said child, well, here's some more arguments to nag your parents.
1. For when you're seeing a movie with your friends, who don't have cell phones either, and it ends half an hour early. This happened to me. We tried using a pay phone but weren't sure if we were supposed to dial or insert the money first. And then we discovered it was unplugged anyways. Finally my friend found a girl she knew from second grade. She owned a phone and we were able to call home. Sometimes it's not about all your friends having phones, but the complete opposite.
2. Awkwardness. Yes, there will always be other kids in the whole wide world, even in the whole wide school, who don't have phones. But there's ample oppurtinity for you to be the only one out of a group of six. Somebody suggests you exchange phone numbers for that project you're working on, or so you can see each other after camp, or so you can all make it to the right place at the right time. The paper comes to you and you have to put down your mom's number, even though you know they probably won't feel comfortable calling her. And when they do, she thinks it's strange that random teenagers are texting her and wants to know everything about them.
3. Sometimes you get stranded at school. This used to happen to me all the time. I'd stay after school to retake a quiz, staying until four. Then I'd stroll on down to the attendance office to use their phone, after all, that's what it's for, only to find that they'd closed up and gone home. So I'd backtrack to the classroom where I took the quiz and discover my teacher didn't stick around any longer than she needed to. On good days, I'd run into a friend who'd also been retaking a quiz and we'd ride home together.
On bad days, I'd have to borrow one from that boy from science class who's name I don't exactly know while his mom is waiting for him outside. Sorry for that inconvenience.
And then you have to go wait out front for your parents to pick you up. Some kids have been loitering around in front of the school for the past hours. You don't know any of them and they look kind of rough. So you slump down next to a bush and hope they won't notice at you. But you can't just sit there, you need to act like you're doing something, so you pretend to organize your backpack and wish you could text while you wait.