8. The Spins #2
Despite this, Audre takes extra care as she gets ready for First Dance.
She slips on an ivory linen sheath, then layers gold necklaces and slides her feet into a pair of stacked heels with gold straps that she bought for her cousin’s wedding in 2012 and hasn’t worn since.
She adds gold hoops and applies what she thinks of as her “going out” makeup, including a deep plum lip with shimmery gloss on top.
Why am I making such an effort? she wonders. But she knows why.
Cordelia decides on a flowing turquoise dress for First Dance, along with her favorite statement necklace. In the moments before she leaves her cottage, her phone pings with a text. It’s Honey: Have fun at First Dance. I miss you, Cord.
My, how the tables have turned, Cordelia thinks.
Honey is in hot pursuit. (“Hot pursuit” might be overstating things, but receiving a second text is pretty thrilling.) Cordelia is tempted to respond with a picture of herself taken in the mirror so Honey can see what she’s missing.
Then Cordelia decides silence is better. Let Honey wonder.
When Audre arrives at the Egg, Cordelia calls out, “Smokeshow!”
Audre swats the compliment away. “Anything to report?”
“Not a thing. Everyone is behaving.” Cordelia gives Audre a pointed look. “Dr. Coopersmith is here chaperoning.”
“Is he?” Audre says, as though she had no idea.
Audre remains at the entrance with Cordelia, checking the kids in: third-form girls in tie-dye, fourth-form girls in metallic, fifth-form girls in the hideous neon tube dresses cut with holes, and sixth-form girls in black with whistles around their necks.
The only student Cordelia stops on the way in is fourth-former Reed Wheeler from Nantucket. She frisks him, checking his pockets and socks for nip bottles—but she finds nothing.
“I can’t believe you don’t trust me, Mrs. Spooner,” Reed says. He takes her in his arms and twirls her around. “Save a dance for me.”
Cordelia laughs. “You are such an instigator!”
Audre and Cordelia wait until Charley, East, and Davi make their entrance.
Once those three hit the dance floor, Audre and Cordelia slip into the Egg themselves, closing the doors behind them.
Audre immediately spies Dr. Coopersmith by the table of hors d’oeuvres.
This year, Chef has gone with a Latin American theme of tacos, empanadas, tiny Cuban sandwiches, and churros with chocolate sauce for dipping.
Audre is starving—she hasn’t eaten a thing since lunch—so she wanders over to fix herself a plate and finds Dr. Coopersmith at her side.
He’s wearing jeans and a blue gingham button-down shirt turned crisply back at the cuffs to expose his strong forearms.
This is the first time Audre has seen him out of a coat and tie, but she notes that he still maintains an elegance. He is, Audre thinks, that kind of gentleman.
“Audre,” he says. “You look beautiful.”
Audre knows the correct thing is to smile at the man and say thank you.
But she has too much weighing on her to flirt.
Her next thought is that exchanging pleasantries with a colleague should never be considered “flirting.” Audre is Head of School, Dr. Coopersmith one of her teachers.
She’s his boss; there’s a power differential.
Surely there’s a rule in the Tiffin bylaws forbidding a romantic relationship between the Head of School and a teacher…
but Audre knows this rule does not presently exist because she’s checked.
There’s never been a need for such a rule because, for the 108 years before Audre took over, all the Heads were married men.
“You’re enjoying First Dance, I hope?” she says—and then, almost without thinking, she winks. Flirtatiously! “Chaperoning this dance is a chore foisted upon new teachers, I’m afraid. Roy Ewanick and the Wullys, for example, wouldn’t be caught dead here.”
“I was just feeling my age,” Coop says. “When I went to high school, we were dancing to Earth, Wind she hung only with the girls on her floor and requested songs, fully cognizant (“aware”) that she was the center of attention.
But this year, Davi stays out of the spotlight, beyond the reach of the crisscrossing green-and-gold laser lights.
She’s with Charley and East and, most importantly, Liam.
It’s so much better to be out of the fray.
Davi and Liam dance side by side at first, but when “Just the Two of Us” comes on, Liam pulls Davi into his arms and…
wow, feelings. He’s tall and solid, his hands on her are confident without being aggressive.
She rests her head against his chest as they sway.
On one side of them, Charley and East are whispering; on the other side, Hakeem and Taylor are fully making out—but there isn’t a chaperone in sight.
This, Davi thinks, is the beauty of being a sixth-former. The teachers leave you alone.
Davi catches a glimpse of Cassie Lee and her little friends in their metallic sets, arms interlocked. Dancing in their center, like Gulliver among the Lilliputians, is Dub Austin.
Davi never wants the song to end, but then a familiar beat takes over.
Arms reach into the air. It’s the Tiesto remix of “Dancing on My Own.” Before anyone can chant the chorus, the doors to the Egg, which are supposed to stay closed until the end of the dance, fly open and everyone—including Davi, including Liam—looks over.
A backlit figure stands in the double doorway. Then, almost as if the moment has been planned in advance, the figure is hit with a spotlight. Davi chokes out a laugh. Her shock and disbelief are ineffable (“too great or extreme to be put into words”).
It’s Pippa Sacks. She’s wearing black like the rest of the sixth-form, but her “black” is a sheer black body stocking with black floral appliqués over her nipples and pubic area.
She’s in over-the-knee boots and a black Boys Lie trucker hat.
She’s slicked back her curls and applied a slash of scarlet lipstick.
Goodbye Kilimanjaro, hello Coachella, Davi thinks. There is no universe where this outfit passes dress code, even tonight. Pippa is basically naked.
Over by the food table, Ms. Robinson and Mrs. Spooner whisper to each other, but they don’t move. Ms. Robinson takes a bite of empanada.
What? Davi thinks.