Laban - The Tragedy Paper

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright 2013 by Elizabeth LaBan
Jacket art copyright 2013 by Lee Avison/Trevillion Images

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LaBan, Elizabeth.
The Tragedy Paper / Elizabeth LaBan. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: While preparing for the most dreaded assignment at the prestigious Irving School, the Tragedy Paper, Duncan gets wrapped up in the tragic tale of Tim Macbeth, a former student who had a clandestine relationship with the wrong girl, and his own ill-fated romance with Daisy.
eISBN: 978-0-375-98912-4
[1. Interpersonal relationsFiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)Fiction. 3. Boarding schoolsFiction. 4. High schoolsFiction. 5. SchoolsFiction. 6. Albinos and albinismFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.L1114Tr 2013
[Fic]dc23
2012011294

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v3.1

TO ALICE AND ARTHUR

As Duncan walked through the stone archway leading into the senior dorm, he had two things on his mind: what treasure had been left behind for him and his Tragedy Paper. Well, maybe three things: he was also worried about which room he was going to get.

If it wasnt for the middle item, though, he tried to convince himself, he would be almost one hundred percent happy. Almost. But that paperthe Irving Schools equivalent of a thesis projectwas sucking at least thirty percent of his happiness away, which was a shame on such an important day. Basically, he was going to spend a good portion of the next nine months trying to define a tragedy in the literary sense, like what made King Lear a tragedy? Who cared? He could do that right nowa tragedy was when something bad happened. Bad things happened all the time. But the senior English teacher, Mr. Simonwho just happened to be the adult overseer of his hall this yearcared. He cared a lot, and he loved to throw around words like magnitude and hubris. Duncan would much rather work with numbers than words, and he had heard of the occasional Irving senior getting by without doing too much. Maybe all he had to do, really, was get a C on the paper. He would not let this ruin his senior year. Not after the mistakes he made last year. But when he thought about it, he realized it might be good to have a distraction; it was certainly better than dwelling on the past.

Duncan forced himself to walk smoothly under the archthe pull to stop and read the message etched in the stone was strong. But he had been going to this school for three years alreadyhe certainly knew what it said. He would look silly if he paused and read it, so instead he said it to himself, under his breath: Enter here to be and find a friend. He had walked under this pronouncement many times; he had to when he went to the dining hall or the headmasters office. And he had never paid much attention before. But now, well, now he hoped there was actually something to it, that these people were really his true friends, whatever that meant. After what he had been through, he was going to need their support more than ever.

Seniors got to live right on the quadthe beautiful courtyard that was surrounded by the schools main buildings. And the rooms that were the equivalent of the doubles he had lived in the last three years with Tad were all cut in half so seniors could live alone. It would be his first time ever at school not sharing a room with another person. Of course, the rooms were tiny. But he would have happily lived in a closet to be on the quad and alone.

He walked into the building, taking in the familiar smell of food from the dining hall and, he always thought, paper, ink, and brains thinking hard, and walked toward the stairs. He hesitated, knowing that his entire summers worth of wondering and hoping for the room he wanted was now going to be answeredfor better or worse. He knew what would make him happy: one of the rooms facing the quad, in the middle of the hall, next to Tad if he could have everything his way.

A hand touched his shoulder and he flipped around.

Come on, man, what are you waiting for? Tad asked, a huge grin on his face.

Duncan leaned in to shake his hand, but Tad pulled back at the last minute, challenging Duncan to chase him, and ran two steps at a time up the stairs. Duncan made a move to follow him but stopped. This was it and he almost didnt want to know. The only people who were told which senior would get which room were last years seniors, and they were swornliterally, they took an oath that involved dropping a few notches in their grade point averages (with the promise of their colleges being notified) if they broke itto never tell. The last day of school, they each wrote the incoming seniors name and posted it on the door, leaving behind a treasure for that student to find on the first day of school the next year. After that the halls were sealed until the following August. Many a new senior had tried to wend his or her way onto that floor, even trying to bribe the cleaning crew that came in the week before school started to take the musk and dust out of the air. As far as he knew, nobody had ever succeeded.

And the treasure awaiting him could be anything.

Hey, Dunc, Tad called down. If you dont come up here, Im going to steal your treasure.

Duncan had the urge to yell up to ask which room he got, but he couldnt. What was wrong with him? This wasnt that big a deal. No matter which room he lived in or what was left for him, how much of a difference could it really make in his life? But he would love to have a good story to tell at dinner tonight. At the very least that would help him steer the conversation away from what he worried everyone would really want to talk about.

Treasures in the past had ranged from an almost three-month-old rotting pizza to a check for five hundred dollars. There was a rumor that different lucky seniors were left two tickets to a Yankees game, a share in some famous company, and a gift certificate to one of the fanciest restaurants in Westchester County. And once, legend had it, years ago a senior was left an English bulldog puppy (the schools mascot). Apparently, the administration wanted him to find a new home for it, but ended up letting the dog stay and they named him Irving. Theres a picture of him in the library, but every time Duncan asked a teacher if it was really true, he or she refused to tell. There were also plenty of stories of lame treasures: bags of M&Ms and random books. Duncan slowly made it up the stairs. Other seniors flew by him, slapping him on the back. This was the staircase used for both boys and girls, but the senior girls went around the corner to their long hallway, which looked out over the wooded area behind the school. He heard a girl squeal that there was a bunny in her roomcould that even be possible? Someone must have gotten through to the cleaning crew and they agreed to bring it in recently, which is what must have happened with the mysterious bulldog. He hoped he didnt get an animal. That was the last thing he wanted.