26. Tiffinpalooza
Olivia H-T’s favorite day of the school year is the first Sunday in May: Tiffinpalooza. Everyone gathers in the Pasture to listen to live bands. Food trucks line up outside the Paddock, the artsy kids do face painting, and girls rock festival outfits.
At eight o’clock on Sunday morning (it’s a little early for a regular Sunday, but this is Tiffinpalooza), Olivia walks into Davi’s room to ask her opinion: Should she go with jean shorts and a baby tee or the more elevated look of a long, sky-blue jersey dress with cutouts?
But Davi’s room is pitch-black when Olivia enters. Davi rolls over, saying, “What the fuck?” She pulls down her silk eye mask, sees Olivia, and huffs. “What, Olivia?”
Shit, Olivia thinks. She should have waited.
Davi is, once again, obsessed with Charley—she has even started eating with Charley and East in the Booth, despite the dozens of times Davi told Olivia that she thinks East is a burnout and a waste of space—but Olivia is praying she’ll gain back some of her social capital today.
The headlining band is Liquid Butter; Olivia’s cousin Roddick is the front man.
Davi and Roddick had a moment a couple of months ago during the school musical, and Olivia hopes Davi is still interested in him.
(Even if she isn’t, she will be once she sees him perform.
Who has ever been able to resist a rock star?) It was at Tiffinpalooza the year before when Davi seemed to consider Olivia relevant for the first time— He’s your cousin?
Can you introduce me? —and Olivia would love similar magic to happen today.
“Sorry,” Olivia says. She holds out the outfits. “I just wanted your eyes on these looks.”
Davi pulls up her shade a few inches, then sinks back into her pillow. “God, I’m exhausted.”
“You are?” Olivia says. Olivia had asked Davi to hang out the night before, but Davi had said she wanted to go to bed early.
“Yeah,” Davi says. “I woke up in the middle of the night and studied vocab, then had a hard time falling back to sleep.”
Olivia knows Davi is obsessed with vocab and all fifth-formers will take the SAT in a week and a half.
But when Olivia’s eyes adjust to the dimness of the room, she sees Davi’s hot-pink Cinq à Sept slip dress in a puddle on the floor.
Olivia blinks. Was Davi trying it on for some reason or did she… sneak out?
Davi waves at her desk. “Would you hand me the Advil, please? I have a headache.”
Olivia complies. “Are you hungover?”
“Hungover?” Davi says. She seems even more annoyed now. “Can you come back later?”
“I mean, yeah,” Olivia says. She’ll go with the jean shorts even though she doesn’t love how her thighs look in them, but a long dress feels like too much. “So Roddick and the guys are arriving around one…”
Davi replaces her eye mask. “I don’t care about Roddick, Olivia. Can you please go?”
At least the weather is perfect, Olivia H-T thinks as she helps Miss Bergeron carry the common room sofa out onto the grass.
The stage is all set up and the first band—students from the local high school in Haydensboro—is warming up.
Everyone flows out of the dorms and the Teddy; the smell of barbecue smoke from the food trucks is literally mouthwatering.
Olivia and Tilly stand in line at the Moon Palace food truck because egg rolls and fried rice seem “healthier” than ribs and brisket sandwiches. Not that they’re overly concerned with wellness; Tilly has a water bottle filled with vodka and she offers Olivia a swig. “Act natural,” she says.
Hoooooh! Olivia nearly spits the vodka out, it’s so nasty. But one swallow on an empty stomach does the trick. Olivia immediately catches a buzz. She throws back another mouthful, then says to Tilly, “I’m pretty sure Davi was hungover this morning.”
“That’s funny,” Tilly says. “Madison J. got in my face earlier and she reeked of last night’s tequila.”
“Really?” Olivia says. “Madison?” That isn’t really possible.
Madison J. has just been elected next year’s Head Prefect.
“Well, Davi’s pink silk dress was balled up on her floor.
Almost like… she wore it out last night?
” Olivia realizes how crazy this sounds.
But Davi was tired, and maybe hungover; she was probably lying about studying vocab, and the dress was right next to the bed where she would have taken it off before climbing in.
At that second, Davi, Charley, and East appear, all of them moving in slow motion and wearing dark sunglasses. Charley spreads out her Yale blanket in the grass and the three of them collapse. They’re joined by Madison J., and then Taylor, Dub, and Hakeem.
Olivia H-T and Tilly technically have the best seats—on the common room sofa, dead center—but now Olivia feels left out.
Tilly whispers, “You know that East keeps a truck on campus, right? In the Back Lot?”
“Yeah?” Olivia says. There are a lot of rumors about East; she’s never been sure which ones are true.
“I wonder if those guys are sneaking out and going to the Alibi,” Tilly says.
“What’s the Alibi?”
“A dive bar in Haydensboro.”
Would Davi wear a silk slip dress to a dive bar? Olivia wonders. Maybe if, like Olivia, she had no idea what the Alibi was.
When Olivia sees Willow Levy step out of the dorms, she waves her arms. Willow can sit with them; three people will be slightly less pathetic than two.
But Willow heads for the food trucks. When she returns, she’s holding hands with Royce Stringfellow. Olivia blinks. Is this real? She looks at Tilly, who’s swilling from the water bottle. Is Tilly okay with this? Royce has been obsessed with her since third-form.
“I already knew,” Tilly says. “Someone told me Charley and East set them up.”
Sure enough, Willow and Royce head right over to Charley, East, and the others and they plop down.
Olivia lowers her voice. “How did Charley go from being weird to being the center of everything? Is it just East? She’s more relevant than even Davi.”
Tilly hands Olivia the water bottle. “She’s a freak. But don’t worry, I’m getting revenge on her.”
Olivia takes a third mouth-puckering swallow of vodka. “Tell me more.”
Before Tilly can answer, the band rips into “Teenage Dirtbag” with surprising authority and everyone jumps to their feet. Tiffin-palooza has begun.
Honey is back.
Cordelia isn’t sure how or why it happened, but Honey has returned to their relationship with a sweetness that has been missing since school started.
It might have to do with all the college decisions coming in.
Honey cleared the biggest hurdle: Annabelle Tuckerman got into Princeton—and after that, everyone else fell into place.
Now that the Class of 2026 is all set, Honey can relax until September.
Honey spreads out her navy-and-white striped ChappyWrap blanket and pats the spot next to her for Cordelia to sit.
They’re off to one side, away from everyone else, but they still have a decent view.
Simone Bergeron weaves through the crowd in yet another inappropriate outfit—a blue silk cami top and tight orange leather miniskirt.
(The dress code is suspended during Tiffinpalooza.) Cordelia hopes Simone doesn’t come over to them—and her wish is granted.
Simone glances at Honey and Cordelia, then veers in the other direction, leaving Cordelia to bask in Honey’s undivided attention.
Every once in a while, Honey will reach for Cordelia’s hand—and during the final band’s rendition of “Brown Eyed Girl,” she pulls Cordelia to her feet and they dance. Is anyone watching?
No: The entire school is dancing in the sun—even Audre, even Chef Haz, even Mr. James! Other schools may have their spring fairs and spring flings, but they can’t compare to Tiffinpalooza.
As the band launches into their final song of the day, “Mr. Brightside,” Honey whispers in Cordelia’s ear, “Should I come to your cottage tonight?”
Cordelia is so overcome with happiness she can barely answer, so she just raises her hands over her head and sings along.
In the week following Tiffinpalooza, Olivia can’t shake the idea that Tilly is right: Davi and Charley—and maybe even Madison J.
—are sneaking out of school and driving to bars in East’s truck.
Olivia watches Davi obsessively—more obsessively than usual—and notes the people she pulls for chats.
It’s not only Charley and Madison J. but Willow and Taylor as well.
Then, a piece of gossip rocks the school: Cassie Lee has broken up with Hakeem.
“What?” Olivia says to Tilly. “Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around?”
“I asked the same thing. She broke up with him. Nobody seems to know why.”
Olivia H-T can easily find out. She and Cassie Lee take Visual Foundations together.
It’s the introductory art requirement, but Olivia hasn’t had room in her schedule for it until this year.
Taking a class with third- and fourth-formers was initially mortifying, but Olivia quickly bonded with Cassie Lee and her little friends.
They are properly deferential to Olivia H-T because she’s two grades older and she’s tight with Davi.
Or she was tight, Olivia supposes one might accurately say now.
Olivia sits next to Cassie. “Girl, spill.”
Cassie pulls her perspective study from her portfolio and reaches for a graphite pencil from the bin of supplies in the middle of the table. “I was sick of it,” she says.
“Of what?” Olivia says. She regards her own perspective study, which looks like it was drawn by a rambunctious three-year-old with one eye closed. She rummages through the bin for the big eraser.
Cassie gazes at Olivia in disbelief. “You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed. The fifth-formers have some kind of major secret and Hakeem won’t tell me what it is.”
Olivia nearly responds: I’m in the fifth-form. But Cassie obviously knows this and knows Olivia isn’t privy to whatever the secret is. “Are you sure you’re not imagining things?”