Marcus's parents had tried two French tutors before Sarah. Both had been kind. Both had been expensive. Both had been unable to make Marcus stop dreading Tuesday afternoons. By the end of seventh grade, his French grade was a quiet C and his attitude was a loud sigh.
I'm not gonna lie I was nervous my first lesson but Sarah laughed when I got the past tense wrong instead of making it weird. Now I actually know what passé composé is.
Nine months later Marcus's French grade was an A. More importantly, when his cousin asked at Thanksgiving whether French was hard, he said: 'It's actually kind of fun if you don't hate the person teaching you.' His mother cried in the kitchen. Sarah Chen is still his French tutor.