Getting Under Nathan

12: "Can I come to dinner?"

Chapter 12 - "Can I come to dinner?"

Barely a month into university and we'd already been given a project. I hated projects. I always felt the need to constantly work on them. With essays at least you knew when you were finished. The other thing that worried me about this particular project was that we had to work in pairs, and our lecturer was the one who put the pairs together. What if I didn't get on with my partner? What if we were both too shy to make suggestions? 

The teacher gave everyone a number and then we had to walk around the class to find the person who had the same number. This was so that we were getting to know other people and practising Spanish at the same time. 

My number was fourteen and I said it to myself over and over again in my head. Catorce, catorce, catorce...it was ridiculous really. I'd known how to say fourteen in Spanish for years, and yet under pressure I was worried I'd forget and make a fool of myself.

As it happened, it was my partner who approached me, and he was the one who asked if I had number fourteen. I smiled, almost in relief, and said, "Si."

He grinned and held out his hand to introduce himself. The guy seemed very at ease with himself and very friendly, which calmed my nerves. He also seemed very Spanish, and the fact his name was Pedro only reinforced that.

"You know the good thing about working with me?" he asked as we took a seat next to each other in the library.

"Go on."

"Your Spanish is going to improve loads."

I laughed nervously. "I already feel nervous enough."

"Yeah but it doesn't matter because I'm not judging you. I'm already fluent in Spanish so it's not like we have to compare our levels."

"If you're fluent then why are you studying it?" I asked him. 

"For the grammar really," he admitted. "I can speak Spanish but my written Spanish is awful."

I smiled. "This project is going to be especially useful for you then?"

He grinned. "Yes. Extremely useful. Although you might have to help me."

"Helping a fluent native speak his own language seems strange. But I'll give it a go," I assured him.

I got along with Pedro like a house on fire. With university, there were people who you clicked with, like Jack, and then people who you got along with but didn't have that complete easiness around, like Hayley. I definitely clicked with Pedro. He was funny and kind, and helped me out so much with my Spanish. He somehow made me feel like I was good at it even though he was pointing out my mistakes.

"Your Spanish is so accurate," he told me. "Seriously, your grammar is spot on."

"My school really focused on the grammar aspect of things," I replied.

"You just need more confidence in yourself," he said. "Take a few risks. Guess a couple of words. You'll be amazed at how much you actually know."

I smiled in gratitude. "Thanks."

Pedro lived in the same halls as me but in a different block, so we walked back to our flats together, agreeing to meet tomorrow to get started on the project. We'd done so much talking about ourselves that we hadn't really made a start yet. But I could already tell that this was a project that I was going to enjoy doing and I'd hopefully learn a lot more whilst doing it.

-

"Izzy, what time is your first lecture tomorrow?" Jack asked me the next day.