Page 89 of The Academy
Charley gorges on photo after photo of pastel bungalows with wide front porches, conch shells on windowsills, clear turquoise water, girls riding horseback on a stretch of pale pink sand. In Harbour, everyone drives golf carts; Ravenna posts a video of Teague Baldwin and six of his friends packed into a cart meant for two, cruising the wrong way down a narrow one-way lane. In one of Annabelle’s posts, Charley sees the back of a familiar-looking head.
Wait, what?
A little creeping reveals that both Davi and Tilly Benbow are in Harbour crashing the sixth-form trip.Of course they are,Charley thinks. It looks like they’re staying at some fancy hotel called the Dunmore. Davi posts pictures of her and Tilly eating mango and croissants on the waterfront veranda and of the two of them playing pickleball in matching white skirts and navy visors.
Everyone from Tiffin gathers for happy hour at a place called Valentines, where there’s a DJ; Teague Baldwin is shown shucking off his polo shirt and whipping it in circles over his head. After happy hour, there are cocktail parties hosted by the sixth-form parents. Every single night ends at a club called Daddy D’s. These late-night photos are dark and blurry, but Charley gets the gist: Everyone grabs a rando at the end of the night and makes out on the dance floor before heading to the after parties, which mostly seem to take place at the Doll House, the villa where Teague and his football teammates are staying.
Charley keeps herself from feeling jealous and morose by imagining how jealous and morose Olivia H-T must feel. Olivia H-T’s Instagram shows pictures of her shopping at the Chanel boutique on Newbury Street with her mother. Willow Levy comments:So wholesome!♥. Charley wonders if buying a 6,000-dollar bag and a 150-dollar lipstick can be considered wholesome.
When Charley runs out of student content, she stalks the teachers. Ms. Robinson is in New Orleans. There’s a picture of her on a balcony with gingerbread trim and window boxes dripping with ivy, another of the line outside Acme Oyster House, and a video of a brass band marching down Chartres Street in the French Quarter.
Mr. Rivera is in New York City. He posts a selfie at an event with the writer Dani Shapiro at the 92nd Street Y, then another selfie taken outside the Frick Collection, then a video of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the captionGreen and drunken hell.
Charley goes hunting through Instagram for Miss Bergeron, but comes up empty. Is there a universe where Miss Bergeron doesn’t have an Instagram account? Or maybe she does, and she’s blocked Charley? That would be weird.
Finally, Charley stumbles across a little-used account belonging to Mrs. Spooner. Ha! Charley would have guessed that Mrs. Spooner stayed at Tiffin throughout spring break (somehow Charley can’timagine her anywhere except campus). But from the look of things—a stretch of beach crowded with olds, an alligator in the middle of the road—she’s somewhere in Florida. The most intriguing photo is of two drinks side by side—a glass of white wine and something rust-colored with maraschino cherries—on a balcony with a setting sun in the background. The caption is one red heart.
Even Mrs. Spooner is having a romantic break, which Charley finds annoying.
All this snooping is meant to serve as a distraction from Charley’s longing for East. He flew to LA to see his mother and then his plan was to return to school early to work on the bomb shelter. He was building the main bar; the granite would be delivered during the one week Mr. James left campus to visit his daughter in St. Charles, Missouri.
Charley’s former high school, Loch Raven, isn’t on spring break, so Charley sees Beatrix only once, when Beatrix asks, “So what’s up with Davi?”
Charley rears back. “What do you mean?”
“Her posting,” Beatrix says. “It’s changed. It’s all sponsored stuff. No new organic content.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Charley says. “I don’t follow her.” Her words are sharp; she doesn’t want to talk about Davi.
Charley gets so bored at home—not even reading holds her interest—that she considers going back to Tiffin early. Her mother obviously knows how long Charley’s break lasts (she made a snide comment about how the more expensive a school is, the less a student actually has to attend), but Charley thinks she might be able to claim an independent study that needs her attention. When she imagines two or three days alone on campus with East, she slips her hand down into her underwear.
March is Fran Hicks’s busiest month of the year. She and Joey leave the house long before Charley gets up and they get home after Charley has made herself dinner and closed her bedroom door. However, one night, Fran makes a reservation for two at Sabatino’s in Baltimore’s Little Italy, the restaurant she and Charley go to for special occasions.
It feels good to get dressed up and head downtown in Charley’s father’s Audi instead of one of the garden center vans. It feels good for it to be just the two of them. A part of Charley wants to tell her mother about East, but the other part of her fears that as soon as she claims she’s in a relationship, the relationship will end.
At Sabatino’s, Fran orders a glass of Chianti and a Coke for Charley. The table next to theirs is just receiving their entrées—bowls of clams with linguine, a chicken parm so big it hangs off the plate. Charley is suddenly ravenous, so she orders the special shrimp to start, then the Florentine steak with a side of gnocchi. Bread is delivered along with a dish of olive oil sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
Right after Charley and her mother touch their glasses for a toast, Fran says, “I think Joey is having an affair.”
“What?” Charley says, leaning in. She thought six months at Tiffin had desensitized her to drama, but she isshook.“What makes you say that?”
“He’s become very weird about his phone,” Fran says. “He’s always texting and he changed his passcode.” Fran takes a deep drink of wine. “I showed up unannounced at a project he’s overseeing and he was off by himself, basicallyhiding,on the phone. He hung up as soon as he saw me, and when I asked him who it was, he said Ant, which I knew was a lie.” Fran shrugs. “I assume he’s found someone younger.”
Well,Charley thinks,it’s unlikely he’s found someone older.
Charley’s immediate next thought is that Joey is having an affair with Beatrix. Beatrix didn’t bring up Joey during their chat, whichwas a relief—but now Charley wonders if that was intentional. Oh god.
“You’re too good for him, Mom,” Charley says. “You’re a fully formed adult with a successful business and a home and an awesome daughter.” Charley reaches across the table for her mother’s hand. “You’ve given Joey this whole life that he never would have had. I can’t believe he’d be stupid enough to cheat on you.” Charley can totally believe it. Trash takes itself out.
“I knew it was a risk, obviously, when I married him.” Fran sighs. “Part of me wishes I’d just left it as a fling, something to bring me back to life after your father died. I can’t believe Imarriedhim.”
Charley is about to sayThat makes two of us,but suddenly her mother is using her white napkin to wipe away tears. “He’s probably not cheating. He’s pretty obsessed with you.”
“Hewas,” Fran says. “Like a puppy dog, always at my heels, always asking me for one more kiss, always trying to get me to stay in bed…”
“Ew,” Charley says, waving a hand. Her shrimp arrives but Charley is too grossed out at the moment to eat.
Fran reaches over and helps herself to a shrimp, which drips white wine sauce on the tablecloth. “Your father was a rare breed. Most men can’t be trusted. It’s not entirely their fault. It’s their biology.”
