When I was about fourteen years old, I was pretty mischievous.

One day walking into my classroom, I noticed a girl holding a letter in her hand smiling. She was a pretty girl so I thought the letter must be from one of her admirers. To play a joke on her, I rushed over and seized the letter from her hand.

“Oh no,” the girl yelled, “give it back to me!” I started to run to the Boys’ toilet and she chased me.

Before she could catch up, I tore off into the Boys’. While panting, I heard her screaming from outside, “Take it away. I do not want it anymore. I do not want to see you anymore.” And then she left.

With a sense of accomplishment, I unfolded the letter. I could hardly wait to pry into her romance.

The letter went, “Alice, my dear. Long time no see. How is everything going? …” As I was reading on, I found that her parents were divorced and that she lived with her father. This letter was from her mother. Oh my God! What had I done? How could I have been so stupid? I could not help kicking myself when it dawned on me that I must have hurt her a lot.

No sooner had I realised that than I went out. I found the girl sulking under a tree. I walked over and apologised. I promised that I would never do such a thing again.

The girl became all smiles and pardoned me. After that we became good friends.

This experience taught me to respect others’ privacy. I also learned that a joke should not go too far.