The three stood on the steps, watching the SUVs arrive and go to the parking lots where they could unload bicycles, computers, and as many of the comforts of home as the students were allowed to bring. There were long tables manned by teachers, who were handing out dorm assignments. As always, there was a mild degree of confusion, as parents wrestled with duffel bags and trunks, boxes and computers, while returning students went to look for their friends and find out what dorm they would be in. All the information had been sent to them digitally a month before, but the dorm assignments and schedule for the day were being handed out again for those who hadn’t brought the papers with them. Freshmen were assigned to suites with four to six students, seniors were in singles or doubles, and sophomores and juniors were in rooms set up for three or four students. The female dorms followed the same system. There would be a female teacher in each dorm to help anyone who was sick or had a problem, and to see that everyone behaved and followed the rules.
Gillian Marks, the new athletic director, had been assigned to one of the female dorms. Their old athletic director of twenty years had quit the moment it was confirmed that the school would be accepting female students. Gillian was an upbeat person and had been thrilled when they offered her the job. She was a star in her own right, and at eighteen had won a silver medal in the Olympics for the long jump. She had set a record that hadn’t been beaten yet. She was six feet two, thirty-two years old, had been the assistant athletic director at a girls’ boarding school, and was excited about the prospect of working with males too.
Simon Edwards, a returning math teacher, was going to help her coach the boys’ soccer team. He had lived in France and Italy for two years after college, and loved the game. He had previously taught at a top private co-ed day school in New York and had come to Saint Ambrose the year before, wanting the experience of teaching at a boarding school. He had come back with enthusiasm now that they were going co-ed. He was the youngest member of the faculty at twenty-eight. He and Gillian had met in August to talk about his coaching the boys’ soccer team. Tryouts for the teams were starting the next day. The school had an Olympic-size indoor pool, donated by a member of the alumni, and a strong swimming team. Gillian was going to be coaching girls’ volleyball and basketball too.
Taylor and Nicole watched Gillian greeting the freshman girls in their parking area, and Simon Edwards was welcoming the freshman boys. Returning students and their parents knew the routine, and where to get their dorm assignments, as the students threaded their way between their friends, happy to see them after the summer. As they watched with Shepard, they saw Steve Babson arrive. He had the longest history of academic probation of any student in the school. He barely managed to squeak through every year. His father, Bert Babson, was a cardiac surgeon in New York, who rarely showed up at the school, and was harsh about his son whenever the staff at Saint Ambrose communicated with him. His frightened, somewhat disoriented wife came to visit her son alone, and experience told Taylor, as well as Steve’s advisor, that Jean Babson had a drinking problem, which she kept in control when she came to the school. There were hints that Steve didn’t have an easy home life, with an aggressive father and unstable mother, but he had made it to senior year, and he was a sweet kid. He was a good-looking, slightly disheveled boy with brown curly hair and innocent brown eyes. There was a big, friendly, lovable puppy dog look to him that went straight to his teachers’ hearts, and almost made up for his poor grades.
Gabe Harris had come up from New York with Rick Russo, and Shepard groaned when he saw Rick’s mother. She was wearing a pink Chanel suit and stiletto heels in the middle of the country in Massachusetts. Her hair was freshly done, and as always she was wearing an inch of makeup. Shep knew that if he’d been any closer, he would have been overcome by her perfume. Rick’s father, Joe, owned high-end luxury shopping malls in Florida and Texas, and was by far the biggest donor to the school. In the past three years, he had given them an annuity for a million dollars, so they put up with them. Rick was the opposite of his parents. He had light brown hair, a quiet demeanor, gray eyes, and could have blended into any crowd, which was what he wanted, so he didn’t stand out like his parents. He was an excellent student. He was a quiet, unassuming boy who never showed off, unlike them. Shepard found Joe Russo unbearable, but as head of the board, he had to be pleasant to him, given the huge amount of money Russo donated to the school. Adele Russo was driving the new Bentley SUV that Shepard knew sold for just under three hundred thousand dollars. And the boy who’d ridden with them, Gabe Harris, was considered a good kid. He was a mediocre student, but he tried hard, and was one of their star athletes. He was hoping to get an athletic scholarship for college. He was one of the few scholarship students they had. He was the oldest of four children. Gabe’s parents were investing heavily in him, to show his younger siblings that he could make it and so could they. His father, Mike Harris, was one of the most successful personal trainers in New York, and his mother, Rachel, managed a restaurant. They worked hard to keep their son at Saint Ambrose, and he did his best to live up to their expectations. He was going to play soccer as well as football as a senior this year, and was a powerful tennis player too. He had broad shoulders from working out with his father, wore his hair in a buzz cut. He wasn’t tall but looked manly and had intense blue eyes.
They saw Tommy Yee arrive with his father. Tommy was a gentle, kind, very sweet Chinese American boy, an only child and had nearly perfect grades. His father, Jeff, was a dentist in New York, and his mother, Shirley, was the head of a prestigious accounting firm. Tommy spoke fluent Mandarin and Cantonese, was gifted in physics, strong in math, and a prodigy on the violin. He played in the school orchestra, and his parents expected nothing less than perfection from him. He was hoping for early admission at MIT, and from everything Taylor heard from his teachers, he would get it. Taylor knew that his parents pushed him hard and expected only the best from him. Their demands and expectations left him little time to hang out with friends.
Shepard left them then to find Jamie and get his room assignment. He knew he had a single this year, in the same dorm with several of his classmates. Shepard promised Taylor he’d stop by to say goodbye before he left. He had work to do until then, setting up Jamie’s stereo and his computer, and a small refrigerator seniors were allowed to have in their rooms so they could eat or have snacks while they did homework, or studied for exams.
Boarding school was more like college these days, with almost the same amount of freedom and independence for the older students, the privileges that came with age. The only difference was that cars were not allowed on the campus. Students could only go into the nearby town on weekends, with permission, on their bikes or on foot. But on campus, they were treated like adults, and were expected to treat the faculty and each other with decorum and respect. Drugs and alcohol were not allowed, and they had had only a few incidents, which were quickly handled. The students involved were expelled. There were no second chances where drugs were concerned, and the board fully agreed with the policy.
The therapist on campus, Maxine Bell, stayed in close contact with all of the advisors to make sure that they weren’t missing any important signs of students with depression, or suicidal tendencies. They had had a heartbreaking incident five years before, with a student who had taken his own life. He’d had top grades and strong family support, and a romance that went wrong. He reacted violently to it and hanged himself. There had been three suicides in the last twenty years, far fewer than their competitors. One of the top rated boarding schools had had four suicides in the last two years. It was something all of the institutions worried about, and Maxine was everywhere, and knew an amazing number of the kids. She went to their games and some practices, hung out in the cafeteria, and knew many students by name. She kept her finger on the pulse of Saint Ambrose. Betty Trapp, the school nurse, was another source of information for Maxine, since all the students knew Betty, and went to the infirmary to have her fuss over them when they were sick. A local doctor came when called, and there was a hospital ten miles away, with helicopter service to Boston. The school functioned like a well oiled machine, and there was no reason for it to be any different now with girls.