Page 86 of The Academy
East goes to the bathroom for toilet paper so Charley can blow her nose.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks.
Charley can’t imagine boring him with the whole story. East goes to school with them but he seems above the fray; it’s what she loves most about him.
She can’t believe she just thought the word “love.”
“No,” she says nasally.
“Okay, then,” he says, kissing her eyes, her nose, her lips. “Come help me sand.”
21. Head’s Holiday
The Zip Zap post about Davi Banerjee sends Audre into a tailspin. Isnothingoff-limits? She reaches out to Big East, describing the problem and asking for solutions. Does he know anyone who can figure out how to shut Zip Zap down?
I tried to ban the app schoolwide,she writes,and got called out for censorship.
Jesse Eastman responds:It took six seasons to figure out who Gossip Girl was.
Audre shows the email exchange to Cordelia Spooner. “This response is so absurd that I wonder ifBig Eastis Zip Zap.”
“He can’t be,” Cordelia says. “Remember the geofencing.” She lowers her voice. “It’s someone in our midst.”
As if Zip Zap isn’t bad enough, Audre receives a letter from ISNEC secretary Mikayla Ekubo saying thatAmerica Todayhas agreed to comply with their inquiry and be fully transparent about how the rankings were decided upon this year. Audre considersresponding with bravado:Wonderful, I look forward to seeing our legitimacy verified!But she can’t quite bring herself to do it.
On Tuesday morning, not long before spring break, Audre awakens to a startling sight out her bedroom window. After months of freezing rain, sleet, bitter winds, gunmetal skies, and flurries, Tiffin has been blessed with a proper snow. The entire campus is blanketed in white.
Audre hurries to her computer and sends a schoolwide email.
Today will be a Head’s Holiday: All classes and commitments are canceled. Enjoy the snow, Thoroughbreds!
By midmorning, the Pasture has been turned into a toboggan run. Sixth-former Teague Baldwin finds a couple of Radio Flyers and a half-dozen plastic saucers in the field house storage room, and the third- and fourth-formers go rocketing down the hill, then run back up. Rhode Rivera watches the kids from his window; he fondly recalls snow days when he was a student at Tiffin—which gives him an idea. He texts Simone:Want to go cross-country skiing? I know some trails behind the school.
He expects her to decline with some feeble excuse—she’s organizing a knitting circle for the girls on her floor—but the response he receives isOui! I have skis, where should I meet you?
There’s something magical about a snow day,Cordelia thinks. She takes a long, hot bath accompanied by an Irish coffee, then bundles up in cozy layers: cotton turtleneck, ancient L.L.Bean fishermansweater, down parka, long johns, snow pants, duck boots. She sets out feeling unfettered for the first time in months; she has no agenda other than to wander the campus and appreciate the beauty of the day. The sky is a lovely pewter color and snowflakes drift gently down, distinct against the stark black woods. The first two people Cordelia encounters are Mr. Rivera and Miss Bergeron on their cross-country skis. They’re chugging along, red-cheeked and smiling, Simone in a cute hat with a pom-pom.
Hello! Bonjour! Exhilarating… such good exercise… just out for a walk myself, wish I had snowshoes… have fun!Cordelia is delighted to see Rhode and Simone together. Maybe a romance is brewing after all…?
She passes Taylor Wilson and Dub Austin overseeing a bunch of the underclassmen football players in the making of a giant snowman outside the Teddy. She waves and carries on. Mr. James is out on his riding snowblower, clearing the paths.
Cordelia pretends like she doesn’t have a destination, but of course she does: Jewel Pond. This is where Cordelia finds Honey figure skating. Annabelle Tuckerman and Ravenna Rapsicoli are out on the ice as well, and while they’re both competent skaters, they aren’t nearly as skilled or as elegant as Honey. She skates backward and executes an axel jump, then goes into a sitting spin. Cordelia claps and cheers. She’s consumed by love.
East texts Charley the downward arrow. Charley had planned to dive intoDoctor Zhivago,but instead she gets dressed and heads to the cellar. Even though it’s the middle of the day. Even though anyone could follow her footprints. Head’s Holiday feels like a free-for-all; nobody is checking where they are, it’s an opportunity they would be stupid to waste.
When Charley gets to the bomb shelter, she finds that East hasunrolled a Persian rug and on top of the rug, a fleece blanket from his room.
Lana Del Rey plays from a wireless speaker, and the chandelier is set low on its dimmer.
East kisses her and they lie down side by side on the fleece blanket.This is it,Charley thinks.The seduction scene.
The instant Charley strips off her sweater and turtleneck, East’s mouth is all over her. He takes off his own flannel and T-shirt. Their bare chests touch for the first time and it’s both so tender and so erotic, Charley wants to cry out. East fiddles with the button of her jeans, and she grabs his wrist.
“Is it okay?” he asks.
“If we do this, you can’t break up with me,” she says. “You can’t ghost me. You can’thurtme, East.”
“I won’t, Charles,” he says. “Trust.”
