27. The Devil You Know #3
Olivia wouldn’t say it’s full-on. They still don’t Intervis and they don’t hold hands or kiss in public, there has been no hard launch on social media. Olivia still sits at the senior table in the Paddock, but because Pippa and Tilly are gone, she’s surrounded by the freaks of her class.
Olivia drags Grady to one of the study rooms in the Sink and closes the door.
(No one uses the study rooms except for Mav and Charley on Wednesdays.) She tells him about her conversation with Miss Bergeron.
There’s sensitive—maybe even scandalous—information about East somewhere in Ms. Robinson’s files. Can Grady help her access it?
The previous year, Grady was half the duo behind the Zip Zap app—and luckily not the smart half. The smart half, Levi Volpere, got expelled and is now a sophomore at St. Albans in DC.
Grady says, “I can’t do it without Levi’s help, and also, if I get caught—”
“You’ll get expelled,” Olivia says. They might both get expelled. “It isn’t worth it, never mind.”
“But if we find what we think we’re going to find—all that stuff about East and Priorities and whatever—they won’t be able to kick us out. We’ll have leverage.”
This feels like a line from a movie, or at the very least, magical thinking. “Let’s just forget about it,” Olivia says.
Her tone of voice, perhaps, conveys that she doesn’t want to forget about it.
She’s burning with the desire for revenge.
Consumed by it. If she can get concrete details about Priorities, she can bring East—and Davi and Charley—to their knees.
She imagines this becoming not only a Tiffin news story, but a national news story—Page Six, the New York Times, People magazine.
Grady flips his bangs out of his eyes. It’s a gesture he stole from East, but Olivia likes it. “Let me talk to Levi, see what he thinks. You never know, we might be able to pull this off.”
His confidence is a narcotic. If Grady can get Olivia what she wants—material for a bona fide exposé!—she’ll agree to join the Harkness Society with him. She nearly tells Grady this for motivation, then decides she’d better not. She doesn’t want him to get distracted.
In the two weeks since Davi’s reel of the Balthazar pop-up went viral, Chef Haz has received calls from three Manhattan restaurants—Million Dollar Baby, Huggy’s, and the Crying Lion. They’re all looking for executive chefs and wonder if Haz would be able to come interview in the city.
Looks like Audre won’t be the only one leaving at the end of the year, Haz thinks. With three interested parties, he’ll get an offer for sure—and he won’t be beholden to Jesse Eastman to hire him back at the Dewberry Club.
He schedules interviews over the upcoming spring break and thinks, Toodle-oo, Tiffin!
Tiffin Paddock Dinner Service
Friday, February 26
STARTERS
Crispy vegetable spring rolls w/ apricot chili sauce
Grilled pork satay with peanut sauce
Blue crab rangoons
SALAD
Spicy green papaya
ENTRéES
Fried chicken bao buns
Grilled lemongrass short rib
Pad Thai with grilled shrimp or tofu
DESSERT
Mango sticky rice
Kaffir lime pops
Chef Haz creates a Thai-inspired menu; he wants to keep expanding the kids’ palates. He watches their curious expressions as they try the green papaya salad.
“I made some duck larb just for you,” Chef tells Liam Donovan. Davi has confided that Liam comes from Queens, where he ate a lot of Northeast Thai and Hunan street food, and finds Chef’s offerings a bit lacking where heat is concerned. “It’ll melt your face off.”
“We’ll see about that, Chef,” Liam says.
Madison J. is happy about the pad Thai because she recently developed a gluten allergy.
Charley Hicks fills her plate—two spring rolls, a bao bun, short rib—for the first time in two weeks.
She has gone from slender to gaunt; Chef suspects it’s because of her breakup with East. Young Eastman hasn’t shown his face in the Paddock during meal service even once since he and Charley split.
He must be eating at the Grille or DoorDashing from Moon Palace or subsisting on Celsius and Doritos from the school store.
Chef loads up a to-go container and gives it to Royce Stringfellow. “Take this up to East when you leave?” he asks. “Please?”
“Yes, Chef,” Royce says.
“Is he okay?” Chef asks.
Royce shrugs. “Not really.”
Well, Chef thinks, food will help—or so he likes to believe. High school is tough. It’s become his mission to make sure that, whatever else is going on in these kids’ lives, they’re well fed.
He smiles when Taylor Wilson comes back for dessert. She’s another one who has seemed off this term. Chef knows she’s headed to Duke and things seem okay between her and Hakeem, so what could the problem be? Maybe just the winter blues, which will be cured when everyone leaves for spring break.
New York… New YORK! Chef sings in his head. I want to be a part of it.
Dub Austin comes back for a second helping of everything. “This dinner is fire, Chef. Thank you.”
Chef feels himself growing nostalgic. He loves these kids so much, he can barely stand to imagine anyone else cooking for them.