The departure of both Simone Bergeron and Honey Vandermeid leaves Classic South without a dorm parent. Audre asks the chaplain, Laura Rae, to take over Honey's floors. Audre will fill in for Simone.
Audre isn't sure what she expects—she hasn't set foot in the dorms since Move-In Day—but she finds the first floor calm and quiet.
Most of the girls sign out to go to the Sink or the Teddy to study for finals or write papers.
Audre checks in with the girls who are staying in the dorms. Is everybody okay?
Does anyone want to talk about the recent events?
Nope. If the girls are to be believed, Simone's abrupt departure was like a stone thrown into Jewel Pond—a disruption, a few ripples, stillness.
Then Audre gets to 111 South. Poor Charley, she thinks. When Audre taps on the door, Davi answers with a finger to her lips. Charley is asleep.
Audre mouths, How is she?
Davi makes a sad puppy dog face and Audre squeezes her forearm to telegraph: You're a good friend.
Audre hasn't been able to tell Davi yet about Cinnamon's role in Tiffin's ranking, but she will, she'll tell both Davi and Dub.
Audre is grateful this class has another year; she can't imagine Tiffin without them.
Before Audre enters Simone's room, she studies the quotes on the papered door.
The most visible quote is front and center, written in red ink.
From Demon Copperhead (a book that has languished on Audre's nightstand since 2022 because who has time to read?): "I think most of humankind would agree, the hard part of high school is the people."
But Audre does not agree. Just as Laura Rae was called to serve god, so Audre has been called to serve the students of this school. The kids who surround her every day are in the process of creating their personhood. Despite all the bumps in the road, Audre thinks, it's exhilarating to watch.
Audre wakes up in the middle of the night, unsure of where she is.
After a moment of complete befuddlement, it comes to her: the first floor of Classic South, Simone's room.
She hears a noise… a plinking … that seems to be coming from outside.
Audre rises from bed; the last few nights of school are when dorm parents must be on high alert.
The kids try to sneak out; the year is coming to an end and they want to be together.
Audre lifts the shade and peers out. At the other end of the building she sees a figure throwing pebbles at the window, the source of the noise.
Audre knows she should put on her robe and march outside, but she can see now that the figure is East. He's holding a bouquet of white roses. He is, of course, at Charley's window.
Head of School Douglas Worth is infamous for coming down on his kids hardest in the days before graduation (one of the reasons he's so unpopular)—but Audre has resigned herself to the fact that she's stuck with East until he graduates, this time next year.
She'd called him to her office and informed him that she'd visited Priorities—and she'd enjoyed the discomfort this caused him.
She then praised his ingenuity and creativity and told him that the room would be off-limits to students but that she might hold exclusive university functions there in the years to come.
This garnered a lopsided smile. "It's a good space, right?"
"You have wonderful taste, Andrew," she responded. "You're lucky I didn't find any contraband."
"Contraband?" he said, as though he had no idea what she was talking about.
Audre pulled the Priorities swizzle stick out of her pencil holder and waved it at the door. "You're excused."
Now, not even twenty-four hours later, she finds East breaking another rule. But who is Audre to stand in the way of a romantic gesture? She keeps watching as the window opens and Charley pokes her head out.
There they are, Audre thinks. Tiffin's own Romeo and Juliet.
They have a conversation through the window; they must be whispering, though East's gestures are theatrical; at one point, he falls to one knee in the grass.
Audre silently cheers when East hands the roses through the opening and Charley accepts them, then shuts the window, leaving East to look after her for a moment before retreating back to Classic North.
Audre drops the shade and returns to bed.
Good for him, she thinks. She hopes he gets her back.
I wasn't using you, I was using her… she caught me in the tunnel during First Dance…
I didn't know what else to do. I was with her, yes, a couple of times.
I needed to put her in a compromised position so she wouldn't turn me in.
It ended after first term. Once you and I were together at the Kringle, I never touched her again.
During spring break she came to my room with a bottle of wine.
I had to keep my leverage because she saw all the building materials in the back of my truck and I thought she was going to figure it out and put an end to Priorities.
I didn't touch her then, I swear to you.
Then she showed up Sunday afternoon, she barged into my room and wouldn't leave and I thought enough is enough, so I texted Ewanick and Rivera and I recorded our conversation.
If you don't take me back, I'll leave Tiffin.
You're the best friend I've ever had.
I don't want to be me without you.
I love you, Charles.
I love you too, Charley thinks, but she'll be damned if she says it back.
When he kneels down, Charley hisses, "Get up off the ground, East." A part of her wants to buy what he's selling: He got with Bergeron because he didn't want to lose Priorities.
Priorities was his purpose; he felt about it the way Charley felt about books.
Maybe she's an idiot, she's only sixteen, what does she know about men?
But the truth is, she doesn't want to be her without him either.
She can't make it too easy for him; she knows that much.
"Leave before I go get Ms. Robinson," she says.
"Will you at least take these?" he asks, holding out the roses. Charley imagines him driving to the florist in Haydensboro—the roses are long-stemmed, swaddled in fancy paper, tied with ribbon—and then choosing white roses over the more obvious red.
White, the color of surrender, of apology.
White, the color of hope.
"Fine," she says. She accepts the roses, closes her window, and drops the shade—though a second later, she peeks out to see East still standing there smiling, and it takes all her resolve not to smile back.
In the final days of school, while we're all talking about East and Miss Bergeron, and East and Charley Hicks breaking up, Annabelle Tuckerman has another question: What happened to Ms. Vandermeid?
"She just… vanished," Annabelle says to her roommate, Ravenna Rapsicoli. "When I texted her, she didn't answer, and my email to her bounced. As editor of the paper, isn't it your professional duty to find out what happened?"
Technically, yes. But the truth is, Ravenna heard a crazy rumor that Ms. Vandermeid had been sexually inappropriate with Miss Bergeron.
Ravenna doesn't have the heart to share this with Annabelle.
Annabelle was pretty sure that Ms. Vandermeid and Mrs. Spooner were a couple; she was rooting for that, anyway.
"I think we should focus on the future," Ravenna says. "Annabelle, we're graduating. "
Annabelle tears up. Yes, she's Princeton-bound… however, she can't bear to think about leaving Tiffin.
She's not alone. All 239 of us (240, if we include Levi Volpere at his family home in Annandale) suspect that we'll look back on our time at Tiffin Academy and tell anyone who asks that these were the best days of our lives.