The Academy

A bookish outsider fills the room where a student died by suicide

Tiffin Academy opens its 114th school year still rattled by Cinnamon Peters's spring suicide—she was found dead from a pill overdose in Room 111 of Classic South.

A bookish outsider fills the room where a student died by suicide

Tiffin Academy opens its 114th school year still rattled by Cinnamon Peters's spring suicide—she was found dead from a pill overdose in Room 111 of Classic South. Head of School Audre Robinson greets arriving families while bracing for fallout, until the America Today rankings drop and Tiffin has vaulted from nineteenth to second in the nation. Amid jubilation, Charley Hicks appears: a bookish junior from Maryland who applied in May and was admitted to fill Cinnamon's spot. She arrives with crates of novels, a dozen houseplants, and fierce resentment toward her mother's new husband. She's promptly friendless—until Andrew Eastman, the untouchable son of Tiffin's billionaire board president, known to everyone as East, sits down beside her at Chapel and introduces himself.

East proposes a speakeasy—then kisses the wrong person in the dark

On the night of First Dance, while the school dances in the Egg, East throws pebbles at Charley's window and leads her through Classic South's cellar into a brick-vaulted tunnel connecting the two dormitories. In the middle sits an abandoned Cold War bomb shelter with running water and electricity. East reveals his vision: an upscale speakeasy called Priorities, invitation only, Saturday nights after lights-out. Charley should refuse—she has everything to lose and no safety net—but she agrees to be his partner. Minutes later, dorm parent Simone Bergeron follows the tunnel searching for Charley and encounters East alone. He kisses her. She doesn't push him away. Rhode Rivera, the new English teacher, arrives moments later—but East has already vanished into the dark.

An anonymous app begins exposing every secret at Tiffin

An app called Zip Zap, geo-fenced to campus, begins publishing anonymous posts that nobody can trace and nobody else can contribute to. The first target is admissions director Cordelia Spooner, accused of admitting students based on appearance. Subsequent posts expose sixth-former Annabelle Tuckerman for fabricating her senior speech, reveal that Tilly Benbow has been sexting off campus, and broadcast Chef Haz's gambling losses. Audre demands students delete the app under threat of Honor Board proceedings, but the student body revolts, citing censorship. The school newspaper, where Charley now works under editor Ravenna Rapsicoli, publishes a protest. Nobody can determine who is posting, yet Zip Zap clearly has access to emails, texts, and browsing histories across Tiffin's Wi-Fi network.