The Leap Day Birthday

When Leila told her new class that she was about to have her second birthday, everyone laughed.

"You can't be two," said Oscar. "You're in our class. You're nearly eight, like us."

"I am nearly eight," said Leila. "But I was born on the twenty-ninth of February. And the twenty-ninth of February doesn't come every year. So I've only had one real birthday so far. This year will be my second."

The class went quiet. Even Mr. Lindqvist, the teacher, looked interested. "Leila," he said, "would you like to explain to the class why that is?"

Leila had heard the explanation so many times from her mum that she knew it by heart. She stood up and went to the board.

"A year," she said, "is how long it takes the Earth to go all the way around the sun." She drew a big yellow sun in the middle of the board and a little blue Earth, with a dotted line in a circle around it.

"But it doesn't take exactly three hundred and sixty-five days. It takes about three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter of a day more."

Oscar frowned. "So what happens to the extra quarter?"

"That's the clever bit," said Leila. "Every year, there's a quarter of a day left over. After two years, that's half a day. After three years, it's three quarters of a day. And after four years, it all adds up to one whole extra day."

She drew four little quarter circles on the board and pushed them together into one full circle. "So, about every four years, we add that extra day to the calendar. We put it at the end of February. That's the twenty-ninth. A year with that extra day is called a leap year."

"What happens if we don't add it?" asked a girl named Greta.

"Then the calendar would slowly drift," said Mr. Lindqvist. "After many years, summer would start happening in what the calendar calls winter. The leap day keeps the calendar in step with the Earth."

"So when do you have your birthday in the other years?" asked Oscar.

Leila grinned. "My family has a rule. In normal years, I choose. Sometimes I have it on the twenty-eighth of February, because that's still February. Sometimes I have it on the first of March, because that's the day after the twenty-eighth. Last year I had it on both, just to be fair."

The class burst out laughing. "Two birthdays!" said Oscar. "That's not fair at all. I only get one!"

"But I've only had one real one in eight years," said Leila. "So it evens out."

Mr. Lindqvist did some quick maths on the board. "Leila is turning eight. Born on a leap day. Her real birthdays come when she is four, eight, twelve, sixteen and so on. When she is forty, how many real birthdays will she have had?"

The class counted together: four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, twenty-eight, thirty-two, thirty-six, forty. "Ten!"

"So when I'm forty," said Leila, "I'll be ten."

On the twenty-ninth of February, the class threw Leila a party. There were balloons, and a cake with two candles and eight candles side by side. Everyone sang, and Oscar made a card that said: Happy second birthday. You don't look a day over eight.

⭐ The End ⭐