Page 21

Moscow, Idaho

They have no intention of going to the official formal.

That would entail a bus ride—and staying sober beforehand in the sorority house.

The older girls, who officially left Pi Phi the year before, wouldn’t even be allowed in.

The youngest two, Dylan and Bethany, prematurely left the house to live off campus and are loyal to Maddie, Xana, and Emily, so they won’t receive a warm welcome.

It’s picture time. They use a white shower curtain as a high-contrast backdrop for their LBDs—little black dresses—though Xana, who likes to be different, has donned a little red dress.

Maddie poses for a photo with Dylan. Then Kaylee poses with Dylan. They post both photos on Instagram.

The usual gang comes over: Emily, Josie, the Chapin brothers, Peter, Linden. Maizie pops in but not Hunter Johnson; he is working over at the high school.

Drinks are poured. More pictures are taken.

6:00 p.m.

They’re all feeling particularly festive because tomorrow is game day. The UI football team is playing UC Davis.

Out on the back deck, Maddie films a video of the Chapin brothers, Emily, and Xana shotgunning their drinks. She closes with a cameo of herself pretending to look ladylike and shocked. It’s funny.

The group is well on their way to getting drunk.

Though the Vandals hardly ever win, game days in Moscow are local celebrations regardless of the score.

Everyone flocks to the Kibbie Dome. Everyone.

Chief Fry is always there. So is the mayor, Art Bettge.

Parents with camper trailers host tailgating parties for the kids in the stadium parking lot.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast is bad, and the group has no access to a trailer tailgate, so the 1122 King Road roommates plan to party on campus instead of outside the stadium.

Nonetheless, it’s going to be fun.

They take another swig of their drinks. Cheers to that.

Saturday, November 12, 2022

8:00 a.m.

Emily wakes up early and gets to the dome by eight thirty.

She works part-time assisting UI football recruiting, which means she helps set up the stadium so that coaches can meet with visiting parents and official and unofficial recruits.

She’s annoyed to be separated from her friends. She keeps getting updates on their activities in group chats. Xana is rallying the troops on campus.

11:30 a.m.

Xana summons people urgently to King Road.

Get over here she texts Josie a dozen times.

Xana puts her hair in two braids because Emily’s not there to help her style it and her roommates are busy getting ready.

Everyone at UI knows it’s essential to look good on game day.

The 1122 King Road roommates take their time getting ready. They stick to tradition and drink champagne while they apply their makeup. Sexy casual is the unwritten dress code.

By noon, everyone’s gathered at the King Road house: Kaylee, Maddie, Xana, Ethan, Dylan, Bethany, Hunter Chapin, Josie, Linden, Peter, and Hunter Johnson.

1:00 p.m.

They move the party over to the Whites, where Emily and Josie’s rooms are and where the APhis have an apartment.

2:00 p.m.

Xana tugs at Ethan’s hand and tells him to come outside.

Obviously—obviously!—the residents of 1122 King Road want a roommate photo. They ask Hunter Johnson to take it.

First, they arrange themselves for an all-girl photograph.

Kaylee removes her Idaho sweatshirt for a sexier bare-midriff look; coquettishly, she kicks her left foot behind her.

The members of the group look at her. Dylan, who has her back toward the wall of the Whites, is on one side.

The others—Bethany, Maddie, Xana—hug sideways, lined up tightly.

Hunter clicks away fifteen times. “Higher? Lower?” he asks.

Kaylee checks, finds a decent one, and posts it to her Instagram.

Now they need Hunter to take a photo with Ethan in it. The girls joke that the picture is incomplete without their honorary roommate.

“Landscape or vertical?” Hunter Johnson asks.

The answer is easy: vertical. Kaylee, now in her sweatshirt, squats down so Maddie can climb onto her shoulders. They can fit better in the frame this way, next to gentle-giant Ethan.

Dylan is on the left, Bethany on the right. Between them: Kaylee, with Maddie hoisted high; and Ethan, who, as usual, has his arm around Xana.

Hunter takes fifteen shots on Kaylee’s phone and hands it back to her.

She texts her favorite to the group. Emily smiles when she sees it. She misses her friends already. She and Xana have hardly spent a day apart in two years! Kaylee forwards the photo to her mom, Kristi, and to Karen Laramie, Maddie’s mom.

3:00 p.m.

The group returns to the APhi apartment, where Hunter Johnson, Ethan, and Xana are watching Auburn versus Alabama, a college game they find considerably better than the one in the Kibbie Dome.

Hunter Johnson tells Xana and Ethan his sad news: He’ll be leaving them at the end of the semester. As part of his graduate degree, he needs to intern in either Boise or Post Falls.

“But you’ll come visit?” Xana asks.

“Bummer,” says Ethan. He tells Hunter to think of it not as goodbye but as a temporary separation.

4:00 p.m.

Maybe because he’s distracted, Hunter Johnson puts his phone down and forgets about it. Maddie and Dylan eye it and decide to have some fun.

They pose up a storm and take dozens of selfies, imagining Hunter’s surprise when he discovers them an hour or two later.

4:30 p.m.

“You want to come with me to the game?” Hunter Johnson asks Ethan and Xana.

He’s going to meet Emily and bring her home when the game is over.

Ethan pretends to be distressed. No one cares about the actual game, only the tailgating. “I can’t,” he says, fake-crying. “I’ve got my sister’s formal in a couple hours.”

“Asshole,” says Hunter Johnson good-naturedly.

He walks out of the room, having no clue it’s the last time he’ll see Ethan alive.

7:00 p.m.

It’s Theta’s formal at the local brewery.

Maizie is taking Ethan; Hunter Chapin is going with Maizie’s roommate.

Stacy, their mom, is so happy that the triplets are all together for Maizie’s formal. She asks them to send lots of photos. She wants a full recounting of the evening.

9:00 p.m.

Once the formal is over, Maizie’s brothers try to persuade her to keep partying with them. But Maizie’s tired. She asks her brothers to drop her back at the sorority house.

Jim Chapin has told his sons that they always need to see Maizie home safely. The job comes with a perk: The Theta fridge normally has some pretty good sandwiches in it, and the boys get to help themselves before continuing their Saturday night.

9:30 p.m.

The Chapin brothers go to the Sigma Chi fraternity house on Nez Perce Drive, across a field from 1122 King Road.

Xana is there already.

10:00 p.m.

The fraternity party is in full swing. Ethan wants his friends to enjoy it with him.

Where are you? Ethan texts Hunter Johnson and Emily.

Emily is in bed asleep, exhausted after her day working at the football game.

Hunter Johnson texts Ethan that he’ll be over when she wakes up.

He doesn’t feel comfortable leaving her.

Most unusually for a Saturday night, Josie and Linden are also home, asleep, at the Whites, in Josie’s bedroom next to Emily’s.

It’s been a hard twenty-four hours of partying.

11:00 p.m.

Ethan thinks about who else of his group is missing from the Sig Chi party.

His sister.

You are so lame! he texts her. He hates being separated from her.

Maizie doesn’t see the text until the next day.

When it’s too late.

Sunday, November 13, 2022

12:00 a.m.

In downtown Moscow, Kaylee and Maddie are together, jammed inside the Corner Club, a popular bar the size of a three-car garage.

The Corner Club is always packed, but on a game day, it’s heaving. It might be a windowless box, but it’s Moscow’s windowless box. This is a small college town where people look out for one another.

Marc Trivelpiece, the club’s owner, keeps a careful eye on the customers. He’s been in business too long to make rookie mistakes. Underage students like Dylan and Bethany won’t pass the Moscow cops’ strict protocols about IDs.

A team of kids from Greek life work the bar, discreetly watching for anyone who’s getting sloppy or might need help getting home. One of them is Adam Lauda, friend, fraternity brother, and roommate of Kaylee’s ex Jack.

1:20 a.m.

The best friends have had enough. They’re tired and hungry. And more than a little inebriated.

“I told Adam everything,” Maddie says of Kaylee’s quandary with Jack.

Kaylee throws up her hands, concerned that Maddie has overshared with Adam, the guy behind the bar.

The friends swerve as they make the eight-minute walk to the main street, where the Grub Truck is always parked.

Food. They need food.

1:30 a.m.

At the Grub Truck, Kaylee orders a carbonara mac and cheese for her and Maddie to share.

They know the guy in the hoodie who’s standing behind them, Jack Showalter. He’s an occasional visitor to King Road. He’s a good guy, they think.

The girls flirt a little with him. Kaylee asks if he’s interested in going to another party somewhere, but he’s tired.

Speaking of… so are they.

It’s been a long day. They need a ride home. Kaylee texts a designated sober driver.

1:50 a.m.

Hunter Johnson texts Ethan to ask if he’s still at the Sig Chi party. Emily is still asleep.

1:56 a.m.

Kaylee and Maddie head back home to King Road.

They chat in the living room.

Dylan is in her room, wasted. Bethany is in her room, asleep.

2:00 a.m.

Ethan responds to Hunter Johnson that he and Xana are still at Sig Chi.

Approximately 2:15 a.m.

Xana and Ethan return home.

2:15 a.m.

Kaylee and Maddie chat on the couch a little longer and then go upstairs and collapse on Maddie’s bed. Murphy, Kaylee’s goldendoodle, is in Kaylee’s room. Kaylee often leaves him there when she’s out.