Page 6 of The Academy
“This morning,America Today’s rankings for the best boarding schools in the country were released. I am thrilled”—and utterly stunned—“to tell you that Tiffin Academy has been ranked… number two, right behind Old Bennington.” She pauses dramatically. “You are attending thenumber two boarding school in the country.”
There’s a split second of complete silence. Audre can practically hear the kids thinking,Is this a joke, a prank, a mistake? Number twenty-two, or possibly number twelve, makes sense—but number two?
Audre says in a louder, more confident tone, “Tiffin has jumped from number nineteen to number two.”
The chapel erupts in cheers. It’s bedlam—kids are up out of their seats, hugging, screaming, jumping up and down. Davi whips her phone out of her Staud Bean Bag clutch and films the celebration.
At a certain point in the future, Audre will think back on this moment—when their ascent to the top of the list had seemed like good news.
2. Tiffin Talks: The Rankings
Being rankednumber twoconsumes our group chats and private stories, not because anyone actuallycares(notable exceptions: our parents, who feel like their tuition dollars have increased in value, and sixth-former Annabelle Tuckerman, who believes this is somehow gonna help her get into Princeton) but because it feels as if the metaphorical dark cloud that has been hanging over camp since Cinnamon Peters died just let in a stream of sunlight.
At the Move-In Day cookout by Jewel Pond, we form a pyramid in the sand. Dub Austin anchors the bottom, Davi is smack in the middle, and Willow Levy, who weighs less than ninety pounds, climbs up top. Our Spanish teacher, Señor Perez, asks everyone in the pyramid to hold up two fingers indicatingnumero dos.He gets one decent pic before the whole thing collapses.
We have chicken fights in the water—Dub and Madison R. versus Taylor and Hakeem. Lisa Kim glides out to the center of the pond on the paddleboard she bought in Maui, where she did a “summer service project” (eye roll emoji). A JBL speaker blasts rap music, but Ms. Robinson doesn’t balk at the explicit lyrics and she doesn’t make Davi change out of her cheeky bikini bottoms, even though they violate dress code.
The sixth-formers among us are old enough to remember when the Move-In Day cookout meant frozen hamburger patties and bags of generic-brand potato chips. But this year, Chef Haz serves beefbrisket that he’s been smoking for days. There are rainbows of grilled vegetable skewers, homemade potato salad and broccoli slaw, and fluffy cheddar-chive biscuits. Instead of store-bought sheet cake, there are blackberry hand pies and rocky road brownies.
As Dub Austin drenches his brisket with Chef’s secret-recipe BBQ sauce, he says, “Number two is kind of like losing the Super Bowl.”
“That’s so negative,” Taylor Wilson says. “Number two iscrazy.We beatNorthmeadow.”
Most of us agree with Taylor: Itiscrazy. Tiffin ahead of not only all the brainiacs at Northmeadow but also Choate, Groton, Hotchkiss, and Deerfield? Seriously?
Everyone notices when East shows up (late, obviously; rules and schedules don’t apply to him). The past two years, he came to the cookout high as a kite, but today he seems clear-eyed. He strips off his T-shirt and charges into the water.
The new girl, Charley Hicks, is sitting alone in the grass behind the beach. She’s wearing the same clothes she arrived in—a green polo, like something a fourth grade boy would wear for school pictures, a khaki skirt that hits below the knee, and boat shoes. Her belt haswhaleson it. And that’s when we wonder if Charley Hicks is trying to beironic.(Mrs. Wully tried to teach irony back in third-form, but most of us still don’t understand it.) Does Charley Hicks not have a bathing suit, a cute cover-up, or a sundress if she doesn’t want to swim? She’s sitting on a patchwork quilt that looks like it came straight out of a Conestoga wagon, and she’s reading a book calledThe Night Circus.
We’ve heard that Charley Hicks is here to challenge Royce Stringfellow for valedictorian. (This would actually be great; Royce is a dick about his grades, and we’re like,Bruh, who cares, wouldn’t you rather get laid?) But even Royce is out in the water today, trying to impress Tilly Benbow with his dance moves.
What is up with Charley Hicks, reading all by herself? Is she super weird, or is she… intriguing? We’ve seen this storyline onNickelodeon—a new girl shows up and doesn’t fit in. Should one of us say hello? We were all new once.
“Want to go over?” Olivia H-T asks Davi Banerjee.
“Not yet,” Davi says. “We can’t overwhelm her.”
“She doesn’t seem overwhelmed,” Olivia H-T says. “It’s like she barely notices we’re here.”
“She notices, trust me,” Davi says. “She’s observing us just like we’re observing her.”
Ohhhh okay.Olivia H-T gets it. Davi is like a naturalist with a new species of wild animal. Or is Charley the naturalist?
Just as Olivia H-T is about to offer Davi her brownie—Davi eats like a long-haul trucker and never gains an ounce—an astonishing thing happens. East emerges from the pond, shaking water from his dark hair in a way that makes every girl swoon (except for Davi; she thinks East is a douche canoe, but Olivia H-T suspects this is because East is the only student at Tiffin who gets more attention than Davi herself). He strides across the beach to the grass, where he plops down on the quilt next to Charley Hicks.
Olivia H-T gasps, but Davi says, “Oh god, he’ssopredictable.”
Predictable?Olivia H-T thinks.What about the hottest (and richest) guy at school sitting next to the freak show is predictable?Olivia H-T fears she’ll spend the whole school year one step behind Davi.
“How so?” Olivia H-T asks.
“She’s supposed to be smart.”
Ah yes,Olivia H-T thinks.East will charm Charley Hicks, then get her to tutor him in English and write all his papers. Charley will be unable to resist because… well, because he’s East.
Over on the quilt, Charley shows East her book. He studies the cover, flips through the pages, then sets it down, leans back on his elbows, and says something that makes Charley laugh.
“Oh god,” Davi groans. “She’s falling for it.”
