lycee childhood

Careful approaching, the plastic benches always get you with that static. When you're not paying attention is when it hurts the most. Then if I always think about them ahead of time I will be safer. Mental note: always then remember to think about them to avoid *ZAP* He thought crossing the sweeping plain of concrete courtyard from the brick stairs of the school building. It was Friday, afternoon, and Christmas vacation to begin. For Fred it wasn't Christmas, though. For Fred it was new year's and a Santa, Grandpa Frost to be more precise, that no one believed in. Grandpa Frost was a running joke his aunt would write on the package under the new year's Tree and refuse to admit having purchased the color-coded GAP sweatshirts for this pair of brothers. He was never given a chance to believe in anything that doesn't exist for his father made sure to ridicule every such thought out of existence. It would be an embarrassment to say you believed in anything, really.
Fred lived the life of a first grader crossing the courtyard, seeing his English teacher Maureen across the plain. She was between him and his battleground with static electricity.
Fred was smart enough, but too often didn't think about the things around him to the expected extent any person would. Perhaps you would say nothing short of average for a first grader to not fully grasp a thought, even an obvious one whose entire point is in its title that he often repeats mechanically, in both Russian and English (less so in French): new year.
new year was a celebration, a family gathering at his house with a large dinner and a triangular tree seen on no other occasion, decorated foolishly with old Russian ornaments dug out from the dust and gloom of the garage. A two week break was given for it. That was new year, without ever thinking about the concept the words new year aim to describe.
School Year. Now that he understood. That made sense, and was even introduced with a much more substantial vacation called SUMMER. It ushered in the relatable phenomenon of Grades: with every end of Summer began the School Year, which was defined by him in terms of introduction into the next grade level. This was all in relation to his context and his ability to understand numbers on a basic level (their order). Every Year he was aware of his own age which changed with his Birthday, which coincidentally was September 4th, just at the bend of Summer's end and the next grade level. Every Year he was aware of a grade of children younger than him and his colleagues, and a grade younger than these, and a grade one above him and then one above them (his brother's, the Third Grade). These were all the things that defined a Year. This he understood.
So he had often heard say and said himself new year (again in several languages) but today he was to be thoroughly shocked. Soon he was finally going to understand TIME.
Here's how it happened:
I will not get shocked because this time I remember. Should I tell Alex? No, why share a good advantage, even with a friend? Not worth it, it could somehow take the secret from me. Let him figure it out himself.
"Have a lovely vacation, Fred. I will see you next Year," chanted Maureen with the lovely smile of a woman who has exalted in teaching children rather than being warn to drags by the fuss involved. He looked at her, probably said Thank You in his complete hesitant confusion. Next Year? What next Year? Next Year is after this vacation with the dinner for new year's and then the whole rest of the School Year and then Summer. What in the world did she just talk about?
This was the moment of the planted seed. The realization or comprehension of the concept of a calendrical year started there, when he noticed that some people talked about some other form of a Year. He did not understand it for himself in that moment as his mind was unable to join the words new year with next Year into: New Year. This did happen, it's impossible to say when though. Perhaps it was later that day when he asked his mother or father, or later in the vacation, before the dinner or after, having elucidated the concept himself or not.