Final Grade Appeal

Early last quarter I enrolled in an independent study course and was instructed to go to meetings and do the research on my own online. I was going to these meetings weekly up until November where the meeting got cancelled two weeks in a row without my notice so i stopped going entirely because it took 45 minutes just to get to the lab and assumed they were discontinued. Then I emailed my professor asking about it but they never responded. After finals, I was wondering how i would get my final grade for the class so i emailed the professor again at the beginning of winter break and they told me i was supposed to write a final paper about my research for the first time. i explained that this was very short notice and i was not informed about this during the quarter. They then blamed me for not showing up to the meetings in which i thought were discontinued. I completed the research paper anyway and now i just found out I received a C+ for my final grade. Please be honest and let me know if I deserved this grade.