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“Escribe.”
“You just told me to write,” I chuckled. “So let’s try a whole sentence. Tell me to buy shoes.”
I cringed – visibly, not just internally – the second the words left my mouth. It was just the first thing that had come to mind. I had no idea why, but whatever. It worked.
“Buy shoes? God, you’re such a girl,” he laughed.
I giggled. I couldn’t help it. It was actually kind of nice to have this turn into sort of a normal conversation instead of just me grilling him.
“Actually, I’ll have you know that I only own like ten pairs of shoes. Which is why you need to tell me to buy more. So, tell me to buy shoes.”
“Um…” He looked at his textbook for a second. “Compra los zapatos.”
“Yep,” I said, smiling. He had this, but I figured doing one more wouldn’t hurt. “Tell me to please speak in Spanish.”
“Hábla en español, por favor,” he said, flashing that adorable smile again, like he was proud of himself.
“Yep. You’ve got this. But there are some verbs that don’t follow that rule. Like ir, to go. Do you remember what that one is?”
“Ve?” he guessed.
“Good,” I chuckled. “So, how would you tell me to go to your football game?”
I regretted that the second it left my mouth. I had no desire to ever go to one of his football games. I had no desire to spend time with him outside of these tutoring sessions twice a week. But part of tutoring was knowing what would work with your student. Ian was a football player, and making this relate to him might make it a little easier for him to retain.
“Ve a mi juego del fútbol americano,” he said, the pride in his tone unmistakable.
* * *
We spent another half-hour going over how to conjugate verbs for commands until I was sure he understood it. And then I closed the textbook.
“So, um, do you know how long you think you’ll need extra help for?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Probably through the end of the semester at least, if you can swing it,” he said apologetically. “You can tell me if it’s asking too much. I know you’re busy.”
“No, it’s okay. I was just curious.”
“So, tell me something about you. Something I don’t know.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with Spanish. Or Pre-Cal,” I grumbled.
The less he knew about me, the less he could take back to his teammates as fodder for their latest round of torture.
“It doesn’t. I just want to get to know you. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together. I’d like to know a little more about you,” he said. “Come on, one random fact about yourself. I’ll tell you something about me.”
“Fine. I have a bunny named Cosette,” I told him. That was superficial enough.
“Really? A bunny? I had you pegged as a dog person.”
“I never thought I’d be a bunny person, but a friend of my mom’s from work got Cosette for her daughter as an Easter present, and her daughter ended up being allergic, so I took her. And I fell in love immediately. She’s the sweetest.”
“Do you have a picture of her?”
I pulled my phone out of my purse and opened it to my home screen, which was a picture I’d taken of Cosette while she was out of her cage playing last week. I handed Ian the phone, and he smiled.
“She’s cute,” he said as he handed it back to me.
“Do you have any pets?” I asked him.
