They talked about how he might try to get work done during Friday free periods to make Sundays a little easier, and even though Ben didn’t say any of the other things he wanted to say, he didn’t want to leave, either.

*  *  *

Into mid-February the thaw continued. Water ran down the paths and turned around the storm drains. Kids defiantly shivered in polo shirts and shorts above their wellies and Bean boots. The ice over the pond became cloudy, and long puddles formed in its depressions.

It stayed warm for several more days, and a small hysterical fever broke out among the students. There was no way the warmth was going to last through spring. Until now everyone had securely braced themselves against the cold and dark, but suddenly they saw how much better life could be when it didn’t sting to go outside, and the dread of having to descend back into winter caused a spasm of unhappiness.

Gray kept annihilating number ones at other schools. The Colony wrote two more articles about him, quoting another player coming off the court saying to a teammate, “I never want to play again.” The crowds at home matches became known as the Gray-lanx. Ben finally just stopped showing up to wrestling practice, and in his restlessness he started going to the courts to hit by himself when he knew for sure that the team was at an away match.

At the beginning of the third week of the thaw, Henry Carter, a fifth-former in Gordon and the hockey goalie, was getting a blow job from his girlfriend, Hannah Burke. He pulled out and came on her face without telling her first, and they had never done that before. Hannah was a fifth-former in Paige, and, in response, she and the other Paige girls decreed a hookup ban on campus: if any girl was caught doing anything with her boyfriend, the Paige girls would make sure she either had a nervous breakdown or withdrew from school, or both. The ban would end whenever the Paige girls said it would end.

Faculty felt that something had gone wrong. It took long minutes for Chapel to quiet down before morning announcements, kids began to miss classes, and there was even a shouting match in the Den over a game of pool.

The kids who already hadn’t been hooking up with anyone felt delicious schadenfreude for a few days, but as the clammy humidity went on, even the teachers and staff began to bristle over little nothings.

One afternoon before Seated, Ben came back to the room to find a note on the little table in front of the couch. His chest felt light for a moment and then it wasn’t for him. Across a piece of the buff stationery Ahmed used to write to his father, someone had written in blue ballpoint,

The 27th works for everybody. Cool?