3 months ago, on the 17th of December, I overheard my friend talking to his mom in French. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought anything of this as they are French, but what was truly strange was that I understood them. Now you see, I was pretty sure I didn’t speak French, so I was quite befuddled by this. It kept me awake at night, thinking, "What the heck? I don’t know French. I cheated my way through my 8th-grade French class. Something must be afoot…”

Ever since that day, I’ve spent every waking moment looking into possible explanations. Had I just assumed what they had said? Had our lord and saviour Ryan Reynolds spoken to me, telling me what they had said? Did I actually learn things in my French class last year? No, these theories were all completely ridiculous—especially the one about learning in my French class. There's no way I learned anything there.

Then, all of a sudden, it came to me. I realized that even though I wasn’t taking a French class, I was taking a language class. It may have been advertised as a Spanish class, but what proof do I have that that was the language I was learning? How am I to know that my teacher wasn’t teaching me another language, like French? I’ve never had a conversation in “Spanish” outside of class. In fact, whenever someone, like my sister, who had been taking Spanish for years, spoke to me in Spanish, I could barely understand a word they said! At the time, I just thought I was really bad at Spanish, but now that I know the truth, I know I’m really bad at Spanish, but for a far less disappointing reason!

Now armed with the most realistic explanation there is, I began my research. 3 months later, here is all the proof I have found.

• I’ve been able to do a ton of French lessons on Duolingo without struggle, but I struggled to do any Spanish lessons.
• I helped my friend with her French homework.
• I went to Mexico and couldn’t understand anyone (but I got a bunch of pretty pictures!!)
• I accidentally walked into a different Spanish class one time and I didn’t know what anyone was saying.
• My teacher called my class French 1 instead of Spanish 1 one time.
• I understood every word Frenchie from The Boys said in French.
• I understood every word the French guy at the restaurant in Spider-Man™ 3 said in French.
• This guy who I know that lies about everything said I was wrong when I told him my Spanish teacher was teaching me French.
• My grandma only knows French and English, but when I thought I was speaking Spanish, she understood what I said.
• I could do my old French homework that I cheated on originally.

Now it’s finally time to do something with all the proof I’ve gathered. Tomorrow, my months of investigation and plummeting grades will finally have their payoff.