Page 11 of The Academy
“You held your own,” East said. When he handed Charley the spoon for the potato salad, their fingers brushed. “Which kind of turned me on.”
Charley had been struck dumb by this. It was only later, when she was back in her room, that the right response came to her:You’re that easy?But in the moment, she had made a squeaking noise and scurried back to her quilt.
The next day, East turned up in Charley’s history class. He chose the seat beside hers, but his eyes were glassed over and she was pretty sure she smelled weed. This was unsurprising, but a disappointment nevertheless.
Nothing to report on that front,Charley writes, which feels a bit disingenuous. Since fifth grade, Charley and Beatrix have shared every interaction with every boy they’ve spoken to or even looked at. Beatrix would gobble up these stories about East… but she would also make too much of them. Charley realizes that, at least in this, her mother was correct: Beatrix tends to blow things out of proportion.
But when it came to what happened with Joey, Charley believes her.
I miss you,Beatrix writes.Everyone at school misses you.
Charley’s social life in Towson included movies at the Cinemark, trips to Owings Mills Mall, parties in people’s finished basements, where Charley would drink exactly one White Claw (she could only tolerate the grapefruit flavor) and then spend the rest of the night babysitting Beatrix, making sure she didn’t do an impromptu pole dance or disappear upstairs with one of the assholes from the lacrosse team.
If Charley’s being honest, she sort of prefers reading by herself in this room on a floor where nobody’s sure what to make of her. She has escaped the shackles of her former existence: her father’s death, her mother and Joey, and yes, Beatrix.
I miss you too,Charley says.
4. GRWM
“She’s still in her room,” Olivia H-T says.
It’s time,Davi thinks. She’d hoped Charley Hicks would approach her—wave, say hello, smile at her in the bathroom mirror—but it’s been quite a while and she has remainedoccult(“beyond the range of ordinary knowledge; mysterious”). Davi hunts for the First Dance dress she packed before her mother (in an attempt to make amends for the hellscape their home life had become) presented her with an Out of Office custom creation—neon purple, bedazzled with Swarovski crystals, cut with diamond-shaped holes. Although Davi hates her mother (hates both of her parents, if she’s being honest), she can’tnotwear the dress.
Davi remembers First Dance as a third-former when the whole grade wore tie-dye and they gathered in the common room to crop their shirts with safety scissors in an attempt to elevate the look (aka make them as slutty as possible). Davi feels a sudden rush ofaltruism(“the practice of selfless concern”): She wants to give Charley a good First Dance experience. She rummages through the basket of costumes that lives on the floor of her closet.
“Aha!” Davi says. She pulls out a neon-yellow-and-pink piece of nylon fabric punctured with holes, something considered a “dress” by only the fifth-form girls at Tiffin. She marches down the hallway, preparing to enter Room 111, which she hasn’t done since Cinnamondied. Usually she would burst in unannounced, but Davi’s mind travels back to the morning of May 12.
She’d snapped Cinnamon the night before and Cinnamon had left her on read, which was sort of weird, but when Davi tiptoed down the hall after lights-out and pressed her ear against Cinnamon’s door, she heard faint guitar chords. Cinnamon was playing herself to sleep, something she did when she was anxious. Fine, Davi wouldn’t bother her. In the morning, Davi texted as usual to see what Cinnamon’s day was like. They were both doing community service as an afternoon activity, but they had recently gotten back their PSAT scores and Davi’s verbal score wasabysmal(“extremely bad; appalling”)—so now, Davi adds to a list of potential testing words with definitions in the notes app of her phone.
Davi was planning on switching out of community service so she could take an online SAT prep course. She was hoping Cinnamon would join her, even though Cinnamon’s score was far superior to Davi’s.
There was no answer to her text. Davi went to the bathroom, but Cinnamon wasn’t at the sink as usual. Also sort of weird; the girl was programmed like a robot.
When Davi got out of the shower and completed her skin care routine—her followers had been begging for another getting ready video but TBH, Davi was growing sick of her followers—she padded back down the hall in the new fluffy pink slippers that Gucci sent her and, once in her room, checked her phone. No text back. Davi considered going down to knock on Cinnamon’s door, but instead she FaceTimed. No answer.
Davi texted:Girl pick up.
She got dressed and filmed a GRWM video for TikTok, though she was half-hearted about it. She grabbed her backpack thinking she and Cinnamon would snag the Booth for breakfast since theywere early. It was Monday, which meant sausage and biscuits, and tonight was Burger Night and Piano Bar, which Cinnamon loved. That would cheer her up.
There was no answer when she knocked, and when Davi pressed her ear to the door, she heard nothing. “Cin?” she said. “I’m coming in?”
The door was locked. But no, not possible, the doors in the dorms didn’t lock, which meant what? Cinnamon had jammed it?
“Cinnamon!” Davi shouted.
There was no response. She turned around. Olivia H-T was standing in the hallway. “Call Mr. James,” Davi said.
“Ew, no,” Olivia H-T said.
Mr. James was the one who patrolled the Schoolhouse and God’s Basement for kids having sex, and everyone thought he got off on it. He’d once leered at Tilly Benbow’s boobs, apparently. Davi liked Mr. James—he drove Davi to class in his Gator when she slipped on the ice and sprained her ankle in winter of third-form.
“Fine,” Davi said. “I’ll go get Ms. Robbie.”
Davi’s throat constricts as she remembers how Ms. Robinson and Mr. James forced open Cinnamon’s door. Davi was hovering and Ms. Robbie shouted at her,Stand back, stay in the hallway!And then she heard Ms. Robinson cry out.
Davi takes a deep breath. She’s here at Room 111 on a mission for good. Charley is probably having an outfit crisis, and Davi will be her savior. Davi knocks.
“What,” Charley says.
