Private Tuition (Iker Casillas)

Iker Casillas One Shot

Jennifer Watson is in her First Year Spanish class, despite being three years older than the students who are supposed to be in the class. Mr. Casillas Fernandez asks her to conjugate the verb 'to be' in the present tense. She stutters as she gives the answers that the teacher desires. Of course, for the other members of the class, to conjugate a verb in the present tense is a piece of cake, seeing as they are native Spanish speakers. Jennifer had moved to Spain three weeks previously because her father had inherited a business there from his uncle and there were no other English-speaking schools in the area except for those special classes for foreigners in the school itself, so taking up Spanish was kind of the only choice for the sixteen year old.

  When the class is finally over, Mr. Casillas asks her to do some extra homework in order to catch up with the class. Even though she absolutely hates doing extra homework, she accepts as she takes the book that he gives her."If you have any problems with the verbs, don't hesitate to ask for help," says the teacher in flawless English. She nods and goes to her Biology class for foreigners, which is taught in English, to her relief. After an hour of listening to how plants photosynthesise, the bell rings and she heads to the cafeteria to eat the packed lunch that her mother made for her. 

 She feels like a fish out of water as she watches groups of friends eating together, until a girl comes up to her and introduces herself as Sara Carbonero. The Spaniard asks if she can sit next to her and being desperate to make new friends for the first time in the three weeks she has been here, the English teen accepts and she and Sara click immediately as they have quite a lot in common. They compare timetables and they see that they have all their subjects together, except the fact that Sara doesn't have 3 extra Spanish classes with Mr. Casillas every week. The Spaniard asks the Brit if she'd like to go shopping that weekend, to which she replies in the affirmative as she hasn't gone anywhere interesting since she hasn't got a great grip on the language. 

  Classes finish at half-two and Jennifer takes the school bus to go home, Sara sitting by her side. They talk about their favourite football team, Real Madrid and the Spaniard teaches her some proper Madrid songs, earning them some glares from Atletico supporters. When Jennifer arrives at her stop, she says bye to Sara and enters her home. When she sees that her father isn't there, she sits at the kitchen table to start her extra work in Spanish.

  When the opens the book on page 12, as previously instructed by Mr. Casillas, a pink post-it falls out. Meet me in room 205 after classes end. Mr. Casillas Fernandez. "That's weird," she says to herself. "Why would Mr. Casillas want to meet me after class? Maybe it's got something to do with my devastating Spanish." 

 She gets all her homework done, with the help of Mr. Casillas's notes and proceeds to start her Art project, when she hears the door open and sees her father enter the kitchen. "Hey Dad. How was your day at work?" 

"It was quite tiring as I almost didn't understand a thing my colleagues were telling me. Thank God I've got one English-speaking colleague that could translate everything until I learn Spanish. How was yours?"

 "My day was quite good actually. I had about 2 lessons of Spanish with the first-years and got extra homework because Mr. Casillas thinks I'm behind in Spanish, which isn't a surprise since I don't have a clue of the language. I had the rest of the subjects I was doing in England in the English-speaking section of the school. I even made a new friend during lunch. Her name is Sara Carbonero and she invited me to go shopping with her this weekend."

 "That's great love! Well, if you were asking for permssion, I'm going to let you go but don't get lost in the middle of Madrid for God's sake." 

"Dad, this girl knows Madrid like the back of her hand. I doubt we're going to get lost," she retaliates as she continues drawing the Real Madrid logo on her canvas. Her father compliments the drawing and she feels quite pleased with it.