Page 97 of The Academy
“And…?”
“Someone was able to upload a Tiffin-specific Zip Zap but limit access to posting. This person then hacked into the academy’s Wi-Fi in order to access everything that passes through the server. Think browsing history, emails, texts if they were using Wi-Fi rather than cellular data. That’s how the sensitive information was accessed. I uncovered three IP addresses. Two of them appear to be privately owned laptops, but one is a desktop computer on campus.”
Audre’s morning coffee repeats on her. A desktop computer on campus? What does this mean? Audre has a desktop computer and Cordelia Spooner does too, of course. There’s one in the kitchen where Chef Haz does his ordering. There used to be computers in the Teddy for students to use, but now everyone has a laptop—either their own or one discreetly provided by the scholarship fund.
“Which computer on campus?” Audre asks.
“It’s located in the Edward Tiffin Student Union,” Laurie Hummel says. “In the’Bred Bulletinoffice.”
Charley is in the middle of English class when her phone buzzes with a text. This is highly unusual: Everyone Charley knows is in class. She fears it’s her mother; something must have happened with Joey. (Charley doesn’t know if she should wish for this or not.)
Charley sneaks a peek at her phone while Mr. Rivera’s attention is on Taylor’s response to last night’s reading. The text is from Ravenna Rapsicoli:Call me ASAFP.
Charley rolls her eyes.CallRavenna? Charley doesn’t callanyone.Also, it’s the middle of C-period? Ravenna might have a free period, or she might be skipping. It’s the first beautiful spring weather day of the year, the wildflowers in the Pasture are starting to bloom (as proven by Dub Austin, who has sneezed two dozen times since classstarted). Ravenna is a sixth-former and headed to NYU. Maybe she doesn’t care about school anymore, but Charley does.
Charley tries to orient herself in the discussion. Mr. Rivera has finally finished with the old white dudes; he’s assignedColeman Hillby Kim Coleman Foote. The book is a brilliant novelization of the author’s family history from the Great Migration to the 1980s. The voice and perspective are as fresh and welcome as the weather outside. Charley was so excited to discuss the book that she almost didn’t sleep last night. (Yes, she is that weirdo.)
Charley’s phone buzzes again. Is Ravennadrunk? Why does she keep texting? But then Charley hears other people’s phones buzzing as well. In fact, if Charley isn’t mistaken, Mr. Rivera’s phone is buzzing.
Tilly Benbow, who puts “actually doing the reading” in the same category as attending a JV fencing match (in other words, beneath her), brazenly checks her phone and halts class discussion with a gasp.
“They found out who’s behind Zip Zap,” she says. Her forehead crinkles. “But wait, I’ve never heard of these people. Grady Tish and Levi Volpere? Do they evengohere?”
Now it’s Charley’s turn to gasp.Grady and Levi are Zip Zap.
The instant C-period is over, Charley races to the’Bred Bulletinoffice to meet Ravenna, who’s dressed like she’s going to a celebrity funeral: black Chanel jacket, black palazzo pants.
“I can’t believe it,” Ravenna says. “Those two little chew toys terrorized the entire school.”
Mrs. Spooner’s questionable admissions practices,Charley thinks.Annabelle Tuckerman’s senior speech. Tilly Benbow’s sexting, Chef Haz’s gambling losses, Royce Stringfellow using ChatGPT, Tiffin’s ranking under investigation, Taylor Wilson’s obsession with Dub, Miss Bergeron’s disgrace at McGill, Davi’s eating disorder, Charley “going down” on East.Grady and Levi, a couple of nobody third-formers, targeted the most visible people in the school.
“I came in here one afternoon while you were at play practice,” Charley says. “The two of them were doing something inappropriate on the computer, I could tell. I thought they were looking at porn.” But in retrospect, Charley thinks, it’s so clear. Levi told them he was a computer whiz. And Grady told them he learned about some gossip app from his little friend at Brownwell-Mather.
“The irony is, they’ve just given us the best story of the year.” Ravenna sits down at the offending computer and opens a new document. “Has a high school student ever won the Pulitzer?”
Charley tries not to roll her eyes.
That night at dinner in the Paddock—she and East have claimed the Booth as their own—Charley leans in and whispers, “It’s a relief, right? That Zip Zap is done?”
East says, “I went to that kid Levi’s room.”
“What?”
“He was packing up his shit,” East says.
Right. Charley heard that Levi got kicked out because he was the one who had actually done the hacking. Grady would merely be Honor Boarded.
“Was it sad?” Charley asks. “Was he crying?”
“Crying?”East says. “The whole third-form was lined up to give him fist bumps. The kid is alegend.I walked in and asked for his number.”
Charley can just imagine the third-form boys parting like the Red Sea to let East through, jaws hanging open.
“Why do you want his number?”
“When I get my business up and running,” East says, “I’m going to hire him. That kid’s got a set, pulling off that kind of disruption.”
“I don’t want to think about Levi’s ‘set,’” Charley says. “Especially not while I’m eating a meatball sub.”
