'Aah! Finally back from school! Home, sweet home!' I said to myself, relieved. I entered the house and went up to my room. I looked around: the bright large windows, the cozy bed with white pillows on it, the big wooden desk with the blue chair, the massive wardrobe, the dark green rug, everything there made me forget in a second how tired I felt after a busy school day. I hurried to turn on the computer. I logged into Facebook as I wanted to update my profile. It said:

Mark Paul

18 years old

Attends high school

Single

Green eyes, blond hair, tall, smart and friendly

I noticed that I had an unread message from an unknown person, but the profile picture looked like Amy, a popular girl from school. I got curious, so I decided to check it out at once. Amy was short with green eyes and ginger hair. She was also pretty and smart, but a little bit petty and annoying.

'Hmm, she never texts me... Bizarre. Let me see what she wants!'

CLICK. I opened the message and I nearly fell off my chair...

The message said, “Hi Mark, I'm inviting you to my birthday party in my house. I hope you can come.”

My joy was short though, as I remembered that on the day of the party I had my final test to entry the University of Oxford. That night, I was thinking about what to do: going to the party or to the graduation ceremony.

I asked my parents for advice: my mother told me that I had to follow my heart, but my dad was convinced that I had to go to Oxford because it was a great opportunity.

That morning the first thing I did was texting back, declining the invitation to the party.

I went to the graduation instead of the party and Amy got angry. The graduation was very nice but I didn't enjoy it a lot because I didn’t stop thinking about Amy.

When the graduation finished I called her and I invited her to the movies. We saw a comedy film, we laughed a lot together. When the film was over, we went to the bowling alley and we played a match. She won, but I had to say that I let her win.

After the match, I went back home to get ready for the party because she had postponed it three hours later so that I could come. On my way to Amy's house, I was very happy but when I arrived...

I realized I had left my mobile phone at the cinema and when I told Amy she thought I was lying. She got angry with me for the second time.

At the cinema I asked one of the employees for my phone but I was told that another guy had come and caught it. He gave me a physical description of him. He said that he was a tall brown-haired guy, wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

I decided to go to the party after all. On my way I saw the guy who had stolen my phone in a shop and I went to talk with him.

'Good evening, sir! Sorry to bother you, but have you found a cell phone at the cinema today? That happens to be mine.'

'Hello! You're mistaking me for someone else. I haven't found any phones or been to the cinema today', he replied in a quiet, quavering voice.

'Ok, thank you for your help.'

I was about to turn round and leave when I heard the Final Countdown ringtone.

'Is that your phone ringing? The iPhone I lost has the same ringtone. What are the odds?'

The phone was still ringing but the guy had no intention of answering it.

'Aren't you taking that? It might be important...'

'No, I'm fine...'