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summer. summer everywhere. the heat suffusing. how it made time slow down. the way the heavy air hung close. the singing of the cicadas in the early afternoon. it reeked summer even inside kenma's bedroom. he had left his window open all day, word of his mother and now he could even scent the sweet odor of the peaches growing on the trees in the orchard in one of the fields behind his house. peaches were his favorite fruit but the scent in his room was so overwhelming it almost made him sick.
kenma laid star-fished on his bed so his limbs wouldn't touch each other, in an attempt of fleeing heat. he had switched the fan on and placed it so the air would go right on his body. he stared at the ceiling because he couldn't do anything. couldn't move, otherwise, he would feel hot again. all he wanted was for the day to slip away and for it to be replaced by the freshness of summer nights. well, he didn't know which was better since he didn't sleep a lot. no matter how long he left his window open and how long he left his fan on, crumbs of the heated hair of the day remained. but it was still better than nothing.
he felt gross because his t-shirt and shorts were beginning to stick to his skin, even though he had taken a shower not even half an hour prior. even the hair he had just washed was beginning to dry and stick to his forehead again. now all he craved for was taking another one and just after taking it, he would ask for another. even the fan didn't help in cooling the room, it only took the peach-scented-air in its wings and threw it back over and over only resulting in making the scent more present.
kenma was so bored he had even begun to count how many birds had flown near his open window. one, two, five, ten. a bee or a wasp. another bird. his orange juice had turned warm. the voice of his little sister outside. another bird. the sound of the wheels of a bicycle adhering on the rock-path next to his very own house. another bee. the sound the springs of his bed made when he moved an inch. a car stopping near his house. a car? kenma remembered overhearing his parents talking about the new neighbors. they were supposed to move in the house right next to his family's own this week yet he didn't expect them to come so soon. only, it was already wednesday and kenma didn't even notice how three days had already fled by. another summer was about to fly by.
it was hard to imagine, for someone who witnesses cold winters to hate summer, but kenma did. kenma hated summer. hated the heat. hated everything which turned around summer. in spite of having all the time he wanted, it was also when kenma did the least things. because during the rest of the year his mind is overwhelmed by school and the stress created by it, once summer breaks in, all he ever wants to do is sleep all his days away all the while waiting for the next school year to start. because it was all he could ever do, wait for it, and once autumn is there, wait for another summer to start. the only thing he would ever enjoy was the unexpected rainy days that leave you to stay all day in.
most of his days, he would spend them laying in bed or playing video games. sometimes he would do that outside or in the living room. sometimes he would do none of the above. he didn't even remember going on a holiday once, during summer. all he ever remembered of it was him, his bed, his window wide open, clothes sticking to his body.
other days, he would pass them at his window. he would stare at the spotless sky and watch the sun travel it until it set because he had nothing better to do. his mother suggested he went out in the garden or walked to the public pool with his sister, but the past few days had been so hot kenma couldn't even bring himself to move without sweating. summer was all over the place. it had been particularly hot earlier during the year. even in mid-april, when kenma should have been able to wear a sweater without feeling hot, he found himself wearing shirts and sometimes shorts more than half of the days. now that it was summer, the temperatures were even hotter, even more stiffening, more than the two last years so, it was hard to bear.
soon after he heard the car park, he was able to hear the sound of a door opening, quickly followed up by footsteps and the voices of two men. one seemed younger than the other. probably the father and his son. usually, kenma would have ignored it. he didn't care the slightest about the life of his neighbors but since he had nothing better to do but lay on his bed and stare into space, he stood up on both his feet and sneaked closer to his window to take a peek outside.
from where he was he had a clear view of the house next doors, his window was right in front of the sidewall of the building and he also faced a window, similar to his own. the houses of the neighborhood had all been built around the same time so, they looked all pretty much the same. each faced the road and had a small garden. some of them had a little bit of land behind and everything was surrounded by miles of fields and trees.
because his window was facing west and it was the middle of the afternoon, kenma had to raise his hand and use it as an eyeshade otherwise he wouldn't see anything but the light of the dazzling ball of fire. what he gazed upon shortly after adjusting his sight was a man entering the house while the other opened the trunk of the car and got out some bags and suitcases of it. he seemed to be around kenma's age, maybe older of a year or two, and even with the distance, he looked pretty tall. it was the first time kenma had a neighbor of his age. different people had lived in the house next doors, kenma had always been used to seeing people move in and out of the house but never in his seventeen years of living he had seen someone around his age. but only young couples or, on the contrary, elderly ones had been seen to live there.
the young man with the raven-black hair near the car suddenly turned around, as if he had felt kenma's gaze from where he was, and instead of ignoring him when their eyes met, he waved his hand to greet him in a smile kenma could sense from here. as kenma didn't have time to leave the window before being caught, he timidly waved back, after freezing because of the surprise. __
i just wanted to say i used the occidental educational system as a reference! therefore summer break lasts from july to august and the new school year starts in september.
