6. Day Student #3
Charley wants to assure Davi that Pippa will never replace her as queen bee of Tiffin, but when she looks around the Paddock, she can’t be sure that’s true. Everyone has pivoted in their seats so they can watch Pippa. Or is Charley just imagining this?
She’s relieved when East and Liam appear, their plates loaded with Chef’s double-doubles and piles of golden fries. East slips into the banquette next to Charley and Liam next to Davi. This will get Davi’s attention. Charley is pretty sure she has a crush on Liam.
But Davi seems barely to notice him. When Charley follows her gaze, she sees Pippa Sacks headed their way.
Charley is dismayed to find that Pippa is even more beautiful up close, naturally so. The only jewelry she wears is a gold signet ring on her index finger. Her nails are unpainted. A pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers perches on top of her head, sweeping the hair off her flawless face.
“Is this where the problem children sit?” she asks in her raspy voice. At first it seems she’s addressing the entire table, but then her focus narrows onto East.
East finishes swallowing and wipes his mouth with his napkin. “What are you doing here, Pippa? Did Brearley finally kick you out?”
Oh god, Charley thinks. East knows her, of course he does. When Charley pictured the kind of girl East knew in New York—and, in moments of self-doubt, the kind of girl East should be dating instead of her—it was someone like Pippa. Someone whose poise and confidence cannot be challenged.
Pippa reaches out to tousle East’s hair, and East swats her hand away. “Please don’t touch me.”
“Oh come on, Andy.” Pippa’s eyes flick to Charley. “Is this your girlfriend, then? The teacher’s pet?”
Andy? Charley thinks. She calls him Andy? Davi was right: This chick is going to be an issue. “Hey, I’m Charley. And yeah—guilty as charged. I’ve put a lot of time and energy into reaching pet status with Rivera.”
“It’s obvious,” Pippa says. She turns her attention to Liam. “You’re hot.”
Liam’s pale skin turns a hot, painful-looking shade of pink.
“Did I hear you’re from the city?” Pippa asks.
“Flushing,” he says. “End of the 7 line. I’m pretty sure you don’t know it.”
“I know Queens,” Pippa says. “I went to a club pop-up inside a Dollar Tree.”
“In Bay Terrace, yeah, I heard about that.”
“But you didn’t check it out? It’s murph played a set.”
Liam shakes his head. “Not really my scene.”
Finally, Pippa eyes Davi, who is cutting her sandwich into quarters with surgical precision.
She places one piece on Charley’s plate, and Charley gives Davi a full half of her turkey because she’s rapidly losing her appetite.
“The girls at the other table tell me you’re an influencer,” Pippa says. “That’s cute.”
Davi looks up at Pippa as if noticing her for the first time. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Making friends, as usual,” East says to Pippa. “Why are you here?”
Pippa sighs. “Sondra’s renovating a Victorian in Haydensboro for the show. I wanted to stay in the city, almost all the girls in my grade are emancipated and living on their own, but I don’t turn eighteen until June, so here I am.”
She’s seventeen, Charley thinks. She looks twenty-four and acts thirty-four.
“Why didn’t you just live with Erik?” East asks. “Is Lantern House too far west for your tastes?”
“His new girlfriend doesn’t like me,” Pippa says. “She was the one who suggested Kilimanjaro. I’m sure she was hoping my lungs would explode.”
“Kilimanjaro?” East says. “Seriously?”
“I summited three days ago.” She gazes around the Paddock; one of the third-form boys is hanging a spoon from his nose. “It doesn’t seem possible.” She turns back to East. “Speaking of girlfriends, I met O’Malley last spring at Robin Hood. She seems like a real gold digger. I mean, go-getter.”
“Correct on both counts,” East says.
“Hey bro, you can’t diss O’Malley,” Liam says. “She’s my dad’s cousin, and the whole reason I’m here.”
Charley stares at the food on her plate—but she’s too busy freaking out to eat.
East and Pippa know each other from the city, they run in the same circles, Pippa knows O’Malley, East is pretending to be nonchalant with Pippa, but what if he’s secretly attracted to her?
It’s the frenemy plotline from a romance novel: He acts like he’s indifferent to her, but their shared background will keep bringing them together.
Pippa probably parks in the Back Lot. She and East will bump into each other late some afternoon as the sun is setting, she’ll pull out a cigarette, ask East if he has a light—then they’ll start making out in the rock garden.
Everyone at Tiffin—or at least people like Olivia H-T and Tilly—will say that East and Pippa belong together. What was he doing with Charley anyway?
Pippa hands Liam her phone. “Give me your number,” she says. “Andy, you have mine, yeah? Sondra will be back and forth to the city all the time and I intend to throw some ragers at the house while she’s away. We’re going to wake up sleepy old Haydensboro.”
East turns back to his burger as the chapel bells ring. Finally, Charley thinks, this nightmare is over.
But they’re all trapped in the Booth while Liam taps his number into Pippa’s phone. “Aiiight,” he says. “Text me.”