Page 94 of The Academy
Does Simone not realize it’s Ivy Day?Honey thinks. She’s Canadian, so maybe not.
Simone texts again:I’m actually not doing so great. Do you have time to talk today, or tonight?
Tonight, Honey and Cordelia are supposed to go to the Wooden Duck. It’s their standing Ivy Day tradition, though Honey has lost all enthusiasm where Cordelia is concerned. During their time in Florida over spring break, Cordelia was saintly with Honey’s mother—but Honey knew that Cord expected emotional reciprocation.I’ll do the heavy lifting with Sarabeth as long as you love me like you used to.Cordelia wanted hand-holding and cuddling and early morning sex and walks on the beach and cocktails at sunset. Honey went through the motions, trying to ignore her growing ick.
She no longer felt the way she used to about Cordelia. There was no explanation, nothing had happened. Cordelia’s ardor had grown and Honey’s had diminished. It happened in relationships all the time, every day. Honey felt guilty about it, which turned her off even further.
She texts Simone:I’ll find time. Let me see how this morning goes with Annabelle.
Simone texts back:Kk.
Dear god,Honey thinks. She really has no idea what today is. She’s either living under a rock… orverypreoccupied with something else.
Honey is so suffused with anticipation and anxiety (Annabelle’ssafety school is West Virginia, chosen solely because if Annabelle can’t have Princeton, she wants to party her face off) that she swings by the chapel to light a candle. She then stops at the Teddy for a banana-pineapple smoothie. These are delay tactics: Honey doesn’t want to be sitting at her desk when the decisions come out.
The year before, Ivy Day was a cause for massive celebration: Honey had eleven kids apply to the Ivies and eight got in. Willow Levy’s older brother, Adam, got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton,andthe Naval Academy (which was where he ended up). Honey needs only a fraction of that success today. Just one kid, one school. Is it too much to ask?
As she waits for her smoothie, the chapel bells chime.Do not ask for whom the bell tolls,Honey thinks.It tolls for thee.Her heart is beating so fast it probably counts as a medical condition. Her phone buzzes: This is it, then. The answer.
She checks her texts. It’s Cordelia, with a row of question marks.
Honey huffs. Doesn’t Cord realize she’ll text as soon as she hears? While Honey has her phone out, she logs on to TikTok. It’s only 8:03, but the first posts are already up. A boy named Michael Josephson from Methacton High School in Fairview Village, Pennsylvania, films himself opening an email from Columbia. Rejected! Honey scrolls: A girl named Lucy Love in Grand Rapids, Michigan, opens an email from Yale. Rejected! Then Lucy opens an email from Dartmouth: Rejected!
What has Honey been telling the sixth-form parents? College admissions get tougher every year.
Honey’s smoothie is finally ready. There can be no more stalling; it’s off to work she goes.
Honey can see Annabelle through the glass of her office window, hunched over, sobbing.
Shit,Honey thinks.Shit, shit, shit.She feels bad for Annabelle, but also for herself. She has never, in all her years at Tiffin, had a student want a school this fervently; she should have done more. She shouldhave called Princeton one more time on Annabelle’s behalf, although sometimes, she knows, pestering them too much can lead to a rejection.
When Honey opens the door, Annabelle rushes into Honey’s arms. Honey absorbs her sobs and runs a hand down the girl’s spine the way she senses a mother would.
“It’s okay,” Honey says. “Everything is going to be okay.” She considers singing “Almost heaven… West Virginia…” but this definitely counts as “too soon.”
Annabelle finally lets Honey go and breaks into a smile as tears stream down her face. “I got in,” she says. “I don’t know how I can ever thank you.”
Whaaaa?Honey thinks.She gotin?In the next instant, both Annabelle and Honey are jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs. Honey makes Annabelle show her the email… because frankly, Honey doesn’t quite believe it. But there it is:Congratulations, Annabelle Tuckerman! We’d like to offer you a spot in the Princeton University Class of 2030.
It’s real,Honey thinks.
When Annabelle leaves Honey’s office—she’s late for Diff EQs—Honey collapses in her office chair.
She should text Cordelia first. Cord has been at Honey’s side through this journey since last spring; nobody will understand what this means to Honey more than her.
But instead, Honey texts Simone:Annabelle got into Princeton! What do you say we go out tonight to celebrate? The Alibi, maybe? Leave around six, back by nine?
Simone texts back a thumbs-up, and Honey beams. Now she just has to figure out how to break her date with Cordelia.
Honey insists that they Uber to the Alibi so they can both have a cocktail or two. “I’m in the mood for ice-cold Veuve Clicquot,” Honey says. “Too bad the Alibi doesn’t serve champagne.”
Simone wants to gag, remembering the two bottles of Pour Deux she demolished by herself when she and Rhode went to the Alibi at the beginning of the school year.
The same grizzled gentleman, Jefferson, is behind the bar when they arrive. He doesn’t seem to recognize Simone, but his eyebrows lift when he sees Honey. “Hey, Hon,” he says. “What’ll it be?”
“Maker’s Mark old-fashioned for me, Jeff,” she says. “And for my friend…?”
Simone knows she should stick to wine, but what are the chances they have even a decent bottle of chardonnay? “The same.”
