Category: CYOA

You wake up the next morning, tired but happy. What a wild day yesterday was! You think back on all the times Marco almost found out about the party. “Man, I really need to lock down my phone more!” you think, as you run downstairs for some breakfast.

As you sit at the table, eating your Cinnamon Toast Crunch and reflecting on some of the funny things that happened at the party, your little sister walks over with a guilty look on her face.

She’s holding your brand new PS5 controller, which is dripping with juice.

THE END!!!

*****

Thanks for reading the “Marco’s Surprise Party” choose-your-own-adventure story. We hope you had fun trying to keep the surprise and prevent Marco from finding out about his party! Depending on the path you chose, you may have missed a couple of things that are important to consider about devices and location privacy. Here are a few takeaways:

• It’s ok to be the expert. Sometimes, like your mom in the story, adults don’t know as much about social media as you do. If you understand more about privacy settings than the adults you know, it’s ok for you to be the expert. Teach them the stuff they don’t understand, they’ll appreciate it!

• Always be aware of your surroundings. Even though in one of the paths you weren’t in the TikTok video with Sam and Kenya, someone else was filming the rehearsal and posted it, which included a conversation about Marco’s party. Even if you aren’t trying to purposefully make a video or be in one, make sure you know what the people around you are doing and posting. This also goes for phone convos; when Ace saw you at the party supply store when they were looking for a card for Marco, they were on the phone with Marco. If you’d yelled out to them, Marco would have heard you and known something was up!

• Regularly check your privacy settings on apps. It’s easy to forget to check on settings. But some apps don’t need to know your location all the time. When you forgot to change your settings after the concert two months ago on the Find My Friend app, Marco was able to find you today. When you left your Venmo privacy settings on friends, thinking you’d never need it to be private, it ruined the surprise. Don’t think of privacy settings as a one-time decision. Make it a habit to check on them: You could set a reminder on your phone to check once a month, or just get in the habit about being more mindful of what things really need to be publicly shared and what don’t.

You arrive home, with 1.5 hours until the party! Ace, Sam, Jess, Kenya, and Johnny arrive early to help you set up. You all work to put up decorations and get everything ready. Sam and Kenya are working on getting the drinks on the table. Ace and Johnny are setting up the new Redlands game on your system. You and Jess are putting the “Happy Birthday” sign up on the steps. Dad has ordered the pizzas and they’ll be here soon. As you listen to him placing the order, your stomach makes a low growl. You’re starving; you realize you haven’t eaten since breakfast that morning. “Oh man, it’s been a day! I can’t wait to eat some pizza,” you think, looking down at your watch. It’s 2:40. Everyone starts arriving and you all start deciding where to hide before Marco gets there. At 2:58 on the dot, Marco knocks on the door. You all hide as your mom lets him in. “Where’s that annoying kid of yours?” he jokes with mom, flashing a toothy grin.

“SUPRISE!!!” Everyone screams, jumping out from their hiding spots. Marco jumps as he turns around to see you all. “I knew it!!!” he exclaims. 

“You didn’t know nothing!” you laugh, knocking his hat off his head. 

Marco laughs back. “You’re right, I had a hunch, but you’re good! You pulled it off.” You grin with satisfaction. “YES!!! I pulled it off. I’m so proud of myself,” you think, as you look around the room at your friends laughing and chatting. There’s a knock at the door: it’s the pizza. “Just in time!” you think, as your stomach growls again.

You look at the cake: There is a small replica of a game system with two controllers coming out of it. The cords from the controller wind to spell out “Happy Birthday, Marco!” at the top of the cake. Wow, Mrs. Park really outdid herself; this cake is perfect! Marco not only loves playing video games, but he also designs his own. He wants to be a game designer when he grows up. You know he’ll be so excited when he sees this cake! 

“Thanks Mrs. Park, this looks amazing!” you exclaim. Mrs. Park is beaming as she accepts your praise. You need to pay and get home so you can start decorating; the party is in less than 2 hours. Because she’s a small business, Mrs. Park doesn’t take credit cards. “How would you like me to pay you?”

“Well, I take cash and Venmo,” she replies. Cash… who has that anymore?! You reach into your pocket and grab your phone. You enter the payment amount, plus a tip, into Venmo. “Thank you Mrs. Park! Tell Johnny not to be late!” you yell behind you as you carefully carry the cake to the car.

As your mom is securing the cake in the car, your phone vibrates. It’s a text from Marco. “Dude, what kind of cake did you get me for my birthday party?!” 

What?! How does he know?! You text back: “What r u talking about?”

Marco: “I just saw on your Venmo that you paid for something at ‘Creative Cakes.’ That’s definitely gotta be a cake for my birthday!”

You forgot that your Venmo privacy setting is on friends; Marco saw your payment on the app. Busted!

You look at the cake: There is a small ramp, with a skater on a board flipping upside down in the air at the top. The cake reads, “Happy Birthday, Marco!” in large blue graffiti-style letters. Wow, Mrs. Park really outdid herself; this cake is perfect! When Marco isn’t playing video games or designing his own games, he’s usually practicing at the skatepark. He’s a really talented skater, and you know he’ll be so excited when he sees this cake! 

“Thanks Mrs. Park, this looks amazing!” you exclaim. Mrs. Park is beaming as she accepts your praise. You need to pay and get home so you can start decorating; the party is in less than 2 hours. Because she’s a small business, Mrs. Park doesn’t take credit cards. You pay with the cash your mom gave you before you ran in to grab the cake. “Thank you Mrs. Park! Tell Johnny not to be late!” you yell behind you as you carefully carry the cake to the car.

Mrs. Park, the mom of one of your friends from school, has her own in-home baking business. She makes all sorts of baked goods: pastries, cookies, brownies, you name it, she bakes it! But what she’s really known for are unique and delicious cakes, which is why you ordered from her. It also helps that she’s only 3 houses down the street from you. “I’ll wait here in the car,” says mom. 

You walk into the house, and are greeted by the smell of vanilla and sugar. “Mmmmm… I can’t wait until it’s cake time!” you think, as you look at the orders lined up on the table to your right. You see a box of brownies, a mountain of cookies wrapped in purple cellophane, and a large plate of breakfast pastries. What you don’t see is Marco’s cake.

“Oh hello, sorry to keep you waiting! I was just pulling another cake out of the oven.” Mrs. Park says, as she walks into the foyer. “Here is the cake you ordered for your friend! I just finished decorating it, so the icing is very fresh. Make sure you carry it carefully!” Mrs. Park hands you a:

You go to get a basket. The first one has some sort of sticky residue on the handle, gross! You carefully lift it out by its sides and put it down next to the stack. The next one looks good, so you grab it and look up at the signs: Aisle 1, table decorations… Aisle 2, plates, cups, utensils… Awesome! You’re grabbing the generic table stuff when your phone starts to ring. You look down and see it’s Marco. Man, he is really trying to track you down right now! You don’t answer and grab the rest of the things you need, meet up with mom to pay, and leave the mall.

You go to get a basket. The first one has some sort of sticky residue on the handle, gross! You carefully lift it out by its sides and put it down next to the stack. The next one looks good, so you grab it and look up at the signs: Aisle 1, table decorations… Great! You head down aisle 1 to find some decorations and a “Happy Birthday” sign. Just then, your phone rings. You’re concentrating so hard on choosing between two signs that you answer without thinking about it. “Hello?”

“Why are you at the party store? Are you throwing me a surprise party today?!”

“Wh-What?! How do you know where I am??” you ask, immediately panicked.

“I used the Find My Friend app we downloaded when we went to that concert two months ago. You never turned your location settings off, dude: Rookie move. What kind of cake are you getting me?!” Busted!!! Dejected, you tell Marco he’ll find out later when he gets to your place. 

You go to get a basket. The first one has some sort of sticky residue on the handle, gross! You carefully lift it out by its sides and put it down next to the stack. The next one looks good, so you grab it and look up at the signs: Aisle 1, table decorations… Aisle 2, plates, cups, utensils… Aisle 3, cards, balloons. You walk to aisle 3, grab the “Happy Birthday” balloons with some of Marco’s favorite video game characters. As you get to the end of the aisle you see Ace on the phone. You’re about to say hi again when Ace quickly puts a finger to their lips, motioning for you to be quiet. “Yeah, I sold out of the game this morning, sorry bro. I’ll let you know when the next shipment comes in. K bye.” 

“Was that Marco?!”

“Yeah, he called to see if we had any more of the Redlands games, told him I’d sold through ‘em already. He sounded so disappointed. He’s gonna be so excited when he gets to your place!” 

“Man, thanks for covering for me Ace! See ya later!”

Your mom has grabbed the rest of the stuff and meets you at checkout. On to the next stop!

Since you’re already at the mall, you decide to grab decorations. You and your mom head to the party supply store. While you’re there, you look at your list of things you need. The first things you grab are the:

“Nah guys, too much to do today. But I’ll catch you later at my place!” You walk into GameStop, and head for the controllers. The last gold one!! It’s yours! You can’t believe your luck. You walk up to the counter and see Ace is working today. “Hey Ace, what’s new?”

Ace flips her blue hair out of her face as she looks up at you. “Hey! What’s new?! Oh, you know, just the new Redlands that everyone’s been waiting for all year!! People were lined up at open this morning, but we still have two left. I’m about to buy one as soon as my shift is over. I know you want this last copy!” 

This is turning out to be an expensive trip… “Can you check and tell me how many points I have to cash?” 

“Sure, gimme a sec!” 

You stand there, fingers crossed, eyes closed. Please, pleeeeeease let me have a decent amount-

“You’ve got 10 bucks, that’s not bad!! That would bring your total for the controller and game to $100 even, before tax.” Thank goodness your mom gave you the money for the new controller, since it was your little sister that broke it. You’ve got just enough to cover the price of the game. You know Marco will be excited to play; he’s been talking about this game for months now. “Thanks, Ace! See ya later!” You run off to meet your mom at the food court.

Sam and Kenya are going over the dance steps one more time. The routine is familiar to you, similar to one the Dance Team performed at the last competition. They’ve incorporated a couple of new moves and you’re quickly figuring them out. They always wear coordinating outfits for these dances; Sam is rocking some new pink, black, and white sneaks and Kenya is fixing the new pink strands in their locks. Sam throws you a pink and white t-shirt to throw over your clothes. 

Jess, one of your friends from school, is setting up to film. “Hurry up, before security makes us move!” Someone cues the music, and the three of you flawlessly perform the routine. “Dang, good job catching up!” Kenya exclaims. 

Catching up… oh man, you’re going to be late! “Ya, I’ll see you at the house later for the party!” You run to GameStop and realize the last gold controller is gone. Ugh, if only you hadn’t gotten distracted! You grab the Hello Kitty controller and pay for it. Just then, you get a text from Marco: 

Text: Saw you dancing on TikTok. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to the mall? We could’ve gone together, I really wanted to grab that new PS5 game that just dropped!”

You quickly text back: “Sorry, was just grabbing a new controller real quick, little sis broke one of mine. See ya later!” Man, that was close! You decide that you can’t afford to get distracted again as you look at your watch: you’re supposed to be meeting your mom right now. Dude, she’s gonna be mad! You book it to the food court to meet her. 

You don’t have time to learn the choreography, but you’ve got a couple minutes to spare to watch for a little bit! A bunch of people have their phones out, getting ready to film. You see Jess walking slowly back and forth, looking for the perfect angle to shoot the video from. “Hey Jess!” you call, running over. 

Jess looks up, surprised. “Hey, what are you doing here?? Aren’t you supposed to be setting up for Marco’s party?”

“Yeah, I just came by here to pick up something from GameStop, but you’ll be coming over for Marco’s party later, right?”

“Of course! Can’t wait to play some games and hang out. Party’s at 3, right?”

“Yup! But get there by 2:45, that way we can all be there to surprise Marco when he arrives.”

“All right, bet! See ya soon!”

As you’re turning around to head off to GameStop someone smacks into you. “Hey, look out where you’re going!”

“Sorry!!!” Says the boy behind you, as he picks his phone up from the floor. “I was just trying to get some of the practice run on TikTok!”

“It’s cool, just look up from your phone and watch where you’re walking!” You gotta run to GameStop and get to your mom on time. You run into the store. As you pick up the gold controller, your phone rings. It’s Marco.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey, who’s invited to the party? What kinda food are you getting?”

“What?! How- how’d you know?”

“I saw some kid’s TikToks from the mall, of Sam and Kenya rehearsing a dance, but I could hear you and Jess talking in the background about my party. I knew you were planning something, I knew it!”

BUSTED!!! You hang your head, dejected, as Marco goes on and on about what he hopes the party will bring.

You get to the mall, and jump out of the car. You glance at your smart watch; 11:30 am. Cool, we’re doing great on time! 

“Honey, I’m gonna grab a smoothie at the food court while you go to your game store. I’ll meet you back here in 20, okay?”

“Sounds great, mom!” As you start walking over to GameStop, you hear a familiar voice behind you. It’s Sam and Kenya, two of your friends from Dance Team at school. They have a big TikTok following because they’re always ahead of the game with the next dance trend. There’s a small crowd gathering around them as they try to shoot a TikTok dance before someone comes and shoos them away. “Hey, come dance with us!” yells Kenya. You:

Your mom is really struggling with her social media game. She only has 11 followers on Instagram, and 6 of them are family members. You figure you’ll hope on IG real quick to give her photo a ‘Like.’ Good thing you did! In the caption for your photo, she’s written “On the way to pick up a few things for today’s festivities! First stop: Game Stop with my baby :)” And you’re tagged! Oh no! She’s going to expose you! You know that Marco’s mom is one of the 11 people following your mom; what if she mentions something to him about Game Stop?! What if Marco sees the tagged picture of you on your IG! 

“Mom, this is a surprise party! You’re going to ruin the surprise with your post! You tagged me in it, which means this is now visible on my IG. That means Marco could see it, and he’ll know I’m planning a party, “today’s festivities” is pretty obvious.”

“Oh dear, I didn’t think about that at all; Since it’s on my page, I didn’t realize Marco would be able to see this. I guess I didn’t fully think about how tagging works. Should I untag you, or just change the wording?”

“It’s probably better if you just do both. Here, I’ll show you how.”

Whew, that was a close one! Now, off to GameStop!!!

You open up the GameStop app and start scrolling through different controller designs. You’ve had your eye on a metallic gold controller for a while now, so maybe this is the right time to grab one? Man, there’s only one left! You also really like that Hello Kitty Limited edition controller. As you compare the two, your phone vibrates in your hand. 

Text message notification: “Hey, I saw ur mom tag u in an IG post, wut r u getting at GameStop? Can I meet u there??”

Oh no! You didn’t see what your mom wrote on her post. You’ve got to think quick.

Text: “Nah, not a good idea. Sister broke my controller, mom’s pretty pissed we have to grab a new 1 before u come by. I’ll just c u later.”

Text: “Sorry, that sux! C ya later!”

That was close… too close! You need to have a chat with mom about how tagging works, and what it means for who can see what you post. She almost ruined the surprise! “Hey mom, can I talk to you about something real quick?”

You’re planning a super secret surprise birthday party for your best friend, Marco. Marco knows you really well, and suspects you are planning this surprise party. He is very impatient and wants to find out all the details. He’s also good with technology and social media. In this game, you want to keep Marco from finding out about his party while you pick up supplies and prepare. Can you run all of your errands and get to the party location before Marco figures out what’s happening?

*****

You wake up and realize it’s the day of the surprise party! All the weeks of planning have paid off; Marco still has no idea his surprise party is today. At least you hope that’s the case. You look at your phone and see that there’s a text from Marco:

“We’re still meeting up to play video games at 3:00, right? Do you want to hang out earlier at the skatepark…. Or are you busy?”

Hmm. Does that sound like he’s suspicious? You definitely can’t meet up ahead of time; you have too much to do before the party at 3:00! You start getting ready and look at your schedule:

12:00 PM     Pick up decorations

1:00 PM       Pick up cake

2:00 PM       Decorate for party

3:00 PM       PARTY TIME!!!

You hear your phone buzz; it’s another text from Marco. It’s going to be a busy day!

*****

You run downstairs to grab breakfast. As you’re eating your Cinnamon Toast Crunch, your little sister walks up to you with a guilty look.

“What’s up?”

“Uhm, your PS5 controller isn’t working and I definitely have no idea why.”

“Oh no Mikayla, what did you do?”

“Nothing, I was just drinking my juice and somehow your controller fell into my cup!”

Man! You know that there’s more to that somehow but you don’t have time to continue the interrogation. It’s 11:00 AM; good thing you have time to stop by Game Stop and grab another controller before you start your party errands. After all, you can’t have a video game party without controllers!

*****

*CLICK!*

“Ewww, mom, why?!” you ask as you put on your seatbelt.

“You look so cute today, I had to grab a pic to post on my new Instagram account!” your mom exclaims, as she inspects the picture she just took of you with her phone. 

“Mom, seriously, that’s not cool! Would you like it if I took a picture of you when you first woke up and posted it online??” you exclaim, feeling frustrated.

Mom thinks for a second. “You’re right; I’m sorry. I definitely would not like that. Is it ok with you if I post this picture? You look so adorable!”

Well, she’s respecting your boundaries, and you do look nice in your party clothes. “Ok, as long as you promise to always ask, first.”

She flashes a big smile as she posts the picture to her Instagram account, then starts the car. While she’s fidgeting for something in her bag before you leave, you: