CASSIE: Won

Dear Cassie,

I am pleased to inform you that you have won our 'Win A Date with One Direction' competition. Your iPhone will be sent to you by DHL and should arrived within three working days. Your date with Zayn Malik will be on July 20. You will recieve a telephone call today at 3:00pm to finalise details.

Yours faithfully,

Jennifer Greene

 

Jeunesse Magazine,

Editor

 

"Wow, I didn't think I'd actually win," I murmured to myself after reading the e-mail.

I'd entered a Creative Writing competition about a week and a half ago for a magazine I regularly read. The first prize had been for a date with a One Direction band member of the winner's choice, plus a new iPhone.

I'm not really a fan of One Direction, or 1D as they had were affectionately nicknamed; I'd just entered for the hell of it because I love to write. I write anything and everything; short stories, chapter stories, songs, poems...you name it.

I did my research on the boy band before I started writing because I wanted my story to be believable, rather than just relying on my imagination; and to help me choose which boy to go out with in the off chance if I did win.

There were five members; Louis Tomlinson, Zayne Malik, Harry Style, Niall Horan and Liam Payne.

From the rumours flying around the net, Louis, the oldest member, was already dating someone. I may not be one of their screaming hard core fans, but a girl has to have standards. I want my date's attention to be on me. Also, I don't want him to feel guilty for spending time with someone who is not his girlfriend.

Harry was the youngest at eighteen, and just a little too young for me.

Niall was Irish. I could never understand Irishmen when they spoke because of the thick accent; I didn't want to spend the majority of the date asking him to repeat what he said so he was out.

Liam was the sensible one of the group. From my research into him, he was the one I seemed to have the most in common with.

But Zayn seemed to be more interesting to me, so I chose him. The story I'd written was about him. Or rather a character that was inspired by what I imagined him to be like.

Looking at the time, I saw that it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, so I printed the e-mail and took it to the main house to show it to my mother. There were only two places that mymother could be found during the day: the kitchen or the gardens.

I found her in the vegetable garden, digging up carrots and potatoes from her sizeable patch.

"Mamma, I won the competition!" I shouted in Italian as I jogged up to her.

My mother looked up from attempting to pull out a particularly stubborn carrot.

"What competition?" she asked absentmindedly, also in Italian.

"The 'Win a Date Competition' I entered my story for," I reminded her as she stood up and brushed her knees. "I have a date with one of the boys from One Direction on the twentieth of this month."

"Oh, that competition," Mamma said. She paused as she pulled her gardening gloves off to take the printout from me. "The twentieth is next week, isn't it?" she asked.

"Si, Mamma. I thought you'd like to know," replied. My parents always took an interest in things I did. And because I was technically still living under their roof I still lived by their rules so I had to let them know when I was going out for the day, or night. "Do you think you could help me put together an outift later?" I asked her.

"Of course I will," she replied, giving me a 'do you really have to ask?' look.

"Grazie, Mamma!" I exclaimed, giving her a big kiss on her cheek.

I practically ran all the way back to my small house at the end of the garden. Though I was going on a date with someone I didn't even know, I couldn't help but feel excited at the thought of it as I waited anxiously for the phone call. It could be fun. And who knows? Maybe it'll be the start of something wonderful.