But Mum, I want it... by Ari, aged 10

"But Mum, I want an iPhone 5S. It's 450 times faster than this piece of junk!"

George was looking down as his iPhone 5 that lay in his palm. His mum tried to explain that she was working three jobs and had no husband to help out with the bills but George didn't listen. "The iPhone 5S has eyeball-popping resolution and comes with 5GB of 5G. Do you know how fast the 5G is? It is the fastest data on the earth. You have to let me get one. All my friends are going to have one and I don't want to be left out."

The next day at school all of George's friends were playing a game called Eyeballs. It is a game on the iPhone 5S where you have to grab all the eyeballs before the timer ends. All the girls were listening to One Direction on their iPhones. George was the only person in school without and iPhone 5S.

"To me I am nothing without an iPhone 5S! The only thing in the world I want is an iPhone 5S." George said in a whiney, annoying voice to his exhausted mum. 

Her eyes were bloodshot red. She sighed and surrendered. "We can go see the Apple store tomorrow after school."

"I can't wait till tomorrow! Now!"

"No, and I will not tolerate you talking to me in that manner."

"NO NO NO NO" George screeched in a high pitched voice and stamped off to his room ignoring his mother's hurt feelings.

The next day George was walking to the car on his way to the Apple shop to buy his iPhone 5S. He was so excited, he was jumping out of his shoes. His mum on the other hand was so stressed about her work that she forgot her keys in the house.

George was only thinking of the phone and was jumping around when suddenly he fell off the footpath into a wide sewage pipe which fell into a cave with a big Apple logo carved into the walls. George picked himself up and was unsure of his surroundings but was excited by the view of the Apple logo.

There were instructions on the wall for George. He understood that he needed to walk forward and do some sort of quest or challenge. It reminded him of a book he had read called Driftwood Danger. George carefully followed a passage and entered a huge pyramid shaped room which was warm and humid. Around the walls there were many doors leading to many rooms. George was excited and looked up at the point of the pyramid which was jagged and pointy. He thought that there must be an iPhone 5S inside there waiting for him.

George ventured into the first door he saw, hoping for the prize. He could see big puddles of mud in front of him. He realized this was his first assignment. He had to escape the thick and slimy mud without drowning. But George was also feeling nervous. There seemed to be someone watching. George could barely see who, but he was pretty sure it was a monkey or a chimpanzee. It was laughing at him and telling him to go home. George ignored it and concentrated on the task. 

As he tried to get through the gooey mud he could see that the ground was slowly transforming into slime. It smelled terrible and felt awful but it was becoming easier to walk. George was beginning to wish he was back in the car, safe with his mum. He was frightened and not sure what would happen.

As George forced himself to move on, he entered a library full of books, or were they books? As George investigated he found that they were disguised as books but inside them were scrolls. As George started reading he found out all of Apple's secrets and future plans for the new devices. George suddenly felt a surge of power, "hahaha" he screamed.

As George left the library he entered another room with muddy brown water and he realized that the only way he could get through was by swimming. George thought "why not? There are no crocodiles and I'm getting closer to my prize." So George jumped in and started swimming. 

It was freezing water. When George got out of the water he was shivering and saw on his arm a big slimy black leech sucking away at his blood. He took a torch off the wall and burnt it. "Ouch" George whimpered. Once recovered, George saw that he had two choices. He could go left or right. 

As George considered his options, he realized right was always right, so he went right. He went through a narrow and long tunnel. It was dripping wet and was very slippery, but George was determined to find the iPhone 5S inside the pyramid.

As he went through the tunnel he saw that there was a maze of some kind. As George entered the maze he remembered, from his book, to keep to the left when doing a maze. That's exactly what George did and before he knew it he was at the exit. Now that George had completed this he went inside the first door and there it was, somewhat of a holy room, and in the middle was a huge podium and on it was an iPhone 5S. It must be the first because it had a huge #1 that was carved into the podium beneath it.

As George approached to take the phone he quickly snatched it and climbed up a ladder that he only just realized was on top of the podium. As George reached the top and outside his house, his mum was just coming back to the car with her keys. Her head was bent low and her feet were shuffling with pain and exhaustion.

George suddenly realized he had an iPhone 5S but at what cost? He put himself in great danger doing the challenges and he was prepared to sacrifice his family's finances and his mother's health. 

George only then realized that he didn't even need an iPhone 5S - adventure was all around him and it was much more fun than a phone game. He saw his mother and was sorry for the way he had treated her. So George ended up throwing the phone back down the pipe for the next lucky adventurer.