4. Tiffin Talks Jewel Pond
Move-In Day Cookout
ENTRéE
Roast suckling pig with three sauces: whole-grain mustard, classic smoky BBQ, and Thai lime herb
SIDES
Grilled Silver Queen corn
Brown sugar baked beans
Macaroni salad
Heirloom tomatoes (Tiffin-grown)
Deviled eggs
Watermelon
DESSERT
Mason jar pies: peanut butter–chocolate and banana cream
Tiffin traditions start on day one: We have All-School Meeting, followed by a cookout at Jewel Pond.
The pond has a golden sandy beach, which was trucked in a few years ago from the shores of Wellfleet.
Head Prefect Madison J. thinks the faux beach makes the scene feel a little AI; she remembers her first year, when the entry to the pond was mud that squished between her toes.
Cordelia Spooner, head of admissions, finds that “the beach” is a major selling point for prospective students.
“Ew,” Olivia H-T says when she realizes that the annual cookout this year is a pig roast with, like, an actual pig, snout and everything. “I’m not eating that.”
But a second later, Olivia sees Liam Donovan get in line for food.
He’s changed into striped board shorts, a white polo shirt, and somehow also a pair of Dior Air Jordans (a strange choice for the beach but a flex nonetheless).
Isn’t he supposed to be poor? Olivia suspects the new clothes are a donation, which makes Liam seem even more vulnerable.
Olivia picks up a plate and follows Liam in taking not only the shredded pork but some of the crispy mahogany pigskin as well.
The things we do for love, she thinks.
“Hey,” she says. “I’m Olivia.”
When he smiles at her, Olivia feels like she might vaporize. “I’m Liam.” He shifts his plate so he can shake Olivia’s hand.
“Do you want to sit with my friend Tilly and me?” Olivia asks.
Her mother has repeatedly told her that men should do the pursuing, but Liam is a new kid, he has probably never been to a pig roast or swum in a kettle pond.
Olivia is being kind—but also, of course, self-serving.
Will Tilly mind if Liam sits with them? Will she ask patronizing questions designed to humiliate him?
Olivia should have thought this through.
At that second, Liam looks over the top of Olivia’s head—he’s at least six-foot-three, but he’s not at Tiffin to play basketball, she doesn’t think, and it would be rude to assume that—and waves to someone.
Olivia turns to see who it is.
“Remember the cookout last year?” East asks Charley and Davi.
“You mean the one where that weird girl sat on a patchwork quilt and read?” Davi says.
“Guilty as charged.” Charley lightly bumps hips with Davi. “At least East came over to talk to me. You just gave me dirty looks.”
“Not dirty,” Davi says. “Curious.”
“Should we race across the pond again, Charles?” East asks. “Re-create our meet-cute?”
“I prefer to make new memories,” Charley says. “Also, I’ve upgraded my quilt to a Matouk beach blanket.”
“You did get fancy over the summer,” Davi says. “Who knew shelving books at the Enoch Pratt library paid so well and inspired such fine taste?”
“It was a gift from O’Malley,” Charley says. “East’s dad’s girlfriend. When I visited them in the Hamptons, I complimented her blanket, and the next day she gave me one of my own.”
“Sweet,” Davi says.
“Annoying as fuck,” East says. “She’s desperate for people to like her.
Speaking of O’Malley, there’s Liam.” East waves and, over at the buffet, Davi sees a tall redhead.
Davi loves guys with red hair (it’s a whole Prince Harry thing).
How had she missed this dude in Chapel? She realizes this is the kid Liam that Olivia H-T was blathering (“to talk foolishly”) about.
Olivia is with him now, probably explaining how she thrives on lemon water and the occasional baby carrot.
But who is Davi to comment on other people’s eating issues? She survived her own battle with bingeing and purging; she should extend some grace. She takes back her ungenerous thoughts about Olivia but still feels the need to save Liam.
She strides over. “Liam?” she says. “Hey! I’m Davi Banerjee.”
He grins. His teeth are a little crowded in the front, which makes him even hotter. Everyone else at Tiffin suffers from extreme orthodonture.
Davi hasn’t had a single crush since she’s been at Tiffin, but she is instantly into Liam.
“Davi has one point eight million followers on TikTok,” Olivia says.
“I’m not on social media,” Liam says.
“You’re not?” Olivia says. “But you do have a phone, right? Or, I guess it doesn’t matter. My father says phones are ruining civilization, but he also has a serious Candy Crush addiction.”
Davi pretends Olivia hasn’t spoken; the girl is gum in her hair. “Come sit with us,” Davi says to Liam. “I’m with Charley and East.”
As Davi leads Liam over to the spot in the grass where Charley is spreading out her new blanket, Olivia H-T pitches her plate in the trash. She can’t believe Davi just slid in on her man. (She can believe it, actually.)
Olivia looks around for Tilly, but can’t find her anywhere.
Taylor, Hakeem, and Dub see Tilly Benbow in the woods bordering the pond, crying on the phone. Taylor is intrigued. “Should I ask what’s making the Ice Princess melt?” But the boys are hangry and pull Taylor along. “You don’t like her anyway,” Hakeem says.
The boys dap up Chef Haz while Taylor surveys the scene: The fifth-formers are having chicken fights in the water, the fourth-form girls—led by Taylor’s nemesis, Cassie Lee—sit in a circle on the beach sunning their legs, and the new history teacher, Dr. Coopersmith, is swimming laps.
Madison J. and Willow Levy are taking low-exposure pictures of the buffet that Madison will post to make kids at other schools jealous.
The whole scene at Jewel Pond is so picturesque, it hurts.
This, Taylor thinks, is their final Move-In Day cookout.
Here’s what nobody warns you about boarding school, Taylor thinks.
For the first three years, you dream about becoming a sixth-former.
But when that day arrives, you have to face the reality that your time at boarding school is coming to an end.
Next year, Taylor, Hakeem, and Dub will be at their respective colleges, learning new traditions, making new best friends.
Taylor would trade places with Cassie Lee in an instant.
The boys and Taylor load their plates—Taylor digs into the pig, all pretense of being a vegetarian is behind her—then they sit at the top of the gentle slope of grass, both physically and metaphorically above everyone else.
Taylor catches Cassie Lee and her friends eyeing them and whispering.
Taylor is Honor Board chair, the second-most-powerful student position in the school, after Madison J.
, the Head Prefect. Dub is the quarterback and Hakeem the star receiver, already committed to playing at Dartmouth.
The girls are probably discussing how last year Taylor was caught between the two boys and made a mess of things.
Taylor left all that drama behind in the fifth-form. She and Hakeem are together—she visited him in Evanston, and he visited her in Bryn Mawr—and they’ve planned the next big step of their relationship: Taylor is going to lose her virginity to Hakeem on the night of First Dance.
Taylor now thinks of Dub like a brother—but they share a secret that Hakeem knows nothing about. Before Dub’s girlfriend, Cinnamon Peters, died at the end of their sophomore year, she sent Dub an email with an attachment and asked him not to open it until the day of their graduation.
Taylor hasn’t had a moment alone with Dub to ask if, maybe in a weak moment over the summer, he peeked at the attachment? Just to see what it was? But somehow she knows he hasn’t. He’ll wait, just like Cinnamon asked him to. He’s reliable that way.
Both Taylor and Hakeem have noticed a change in Dub.
He smiles all the time now, and he keeps checking his phone.
He worked as a zip-lining guide this summer, a job that left him ripped and deeply tanned.
He probably met some outdoorsy girl who knows how to rock climb, can identify medicinal plants, and isn’t afraid to pee outside.
Taylor puts the girl together on a mental Pinterest board: dark ponytail, cutoff shorts and lightweight hiking boots, a flannel shirt tied around her waist.
Is Taylor jealous? Maybe a little.
Cordelia Spooner splashes shin-deep into the pond as she keeps an eye on the proceedings.
Audre has yet to arrive; she had an important call to make after All-School Meeting, she said.
The fifth-form chicken fights are as spirited as ever, and the playlist (made this year by Head Prefect Madison J.) blasting from the JBL speaker mixes enough ’80s tunes and classic rock with explicit rap songs that Cordelia can’t quite bring herself to protest (though a song called “Neck on a Yacht” causes Cordelia to raise her eyebrows).
All-School Meeting went smoothly, Cordelia thinks.
When Audre announced Tiffin’s ranking at number six, a few students let out indignant cries.
Robbed! Audre assured the students that number six was right where they belonged.
Being ranked at number two the year before had brought a scrutiny and pressure that Tiffin was, frankly, unprepared to handle.
The most satisfying moment of the meeting for Cordelia was when Audre introduced John Maverick and John Coopersmith. The kids whooped and cheered for the new faculty members in a way that made Cordelia beam with pride. What a welcome!
Cordelia looks across the beach at Mav, who has a cluster of sixth-form girls stuck to him like burrs.
Audre made a comment about Mav being “too good-looking,” but Cordelia waved away this concern.
By the time the leaves changed color, the girls would regard Mav the same way they did Kent Wully or Roy Ewanick.
Most of the appeal now, Cordelia thinks, is his novelty.