My Precious Princesa Would Never!

I’m nineteen and in college. Last year, I started a language education career. My first language is Spanish, and even though I often make mistakes, I can understand and speak English. Then, I realized I wasn’t in the right place, so I dropped out during the first semester. Now, I’m studying theatre at another school; that has always been my true passion.

During my first semester in language education, we had to do tutoring as a part of our grade. I was doing tutoring for English speakers that struggled in their Spanish lessons. One of my “tutees” was an eighteen-year-old girl who never showed up, not even once, and never gave me a heads-up or explained afterward why she didn’t. I just reported with my teacher that she hadn’t appeared and then reached out to her to reschedule the date of our meeting and called it a day.

Nothing of interest happened until a few days ago. I receive a call from a number I don’t recognize, and as the dumb boy I am, I answer.

Me: “Hello, who’s this?”

Caller: “Are you [My Name]?”

Me: “Yes, I am. What can I help you with?”

Caller: “It’s your fault that my daughter failed her exams.”

Me: “Excuse me? I don’t know what—”

Caller: “You tutored my daughter, and she didn’t learn anything from you! You sabotaged her and made her fail! I’ll report you to your teacher and make you fail, too.”

Me: “Sir, I dropped out last year.”

Caller: “That’s because of your incompetence! You have to pay me for wasting my time taking her to your classes!”

Me: “Sir, who’s your daughter?”

Caller: “I’M NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING!”

Me: “Listen. I need to know her name to give it to my ex-teacher, so he can tell you about my tutoring with her.”

Caller: “[Daughter].”

Me: “Sir, she didn’t show up once to—”

Caller: “DON’T YOU DARE LIE! I TOOK HER TO TUTORING EVERY TIME YOU SUMMONED HER! I WANT TO TALK TO YOUR TEACHER RIGHT NOW!”

I guess he forgot I told him I dropped out.

Me: “Wait a moment.”

I check my cellphone for my teacher’s number and quickly give him a heads-up about what is happening.

Me: “It’s [number]. Anything e—”

He hung up on me.

A while later, my teacher told me about how rude the parent was with him. The parent said I was rude to him and that I lied, telling him his daughter never did tutoring with me, and he demanded that I fail this semester. The teacher explained that I dropped out and then sent him the empty reports of her tutoring, explaining to him that his daughter and I never met. After he sent the reports, the parent stayed silent for like twenty seconds and then hung up on him.

I guess I won’t be failing at the college I don’t attend anymore!