: In a nutshell, how can a friendship become a tragedy? The narrator is called Karl who is a sixteen year old pupil at a boarding school. During a summer Sports Day with a rival school, he

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"In a nutshell," Romeo and Juliet was the "classic" story along this line.

Admittedly, that was a "boy-girl" story, but you could have an "all boy" story along similar lines.

The two schools are "rivals" after all. If there was a plot development that made them "hate" each other, that would create the conflict you want.

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I think I understand what you're after. Here are a few examples that come to mind:

Karl quietly befriends boy, boy is mocked or teased by others, boy is significantly injured or killed as a result of bullying or self-harming, and Karl carries the weight of having done nothing.
Karl befriends boy, is jealous of boy because of confidence or other issues, doesn't trust boy, and thus Karl does something that results in harm/pain for someone else. Karl is deeply guilty.

Essentially you have to bring them close, establish that they are close, and then have the reason why a split happens. Making it a tragedy means that there has to be some large emotional event, e.g. a death, something burns down, someone is significantly harmed such that it changes them, etc. This can either result by explicit action (like in #2 above) or through inaction (like in #1 ).

I'm guessing you're looking at using this as backstory. However, if you aren't, it sounds like you aren't planning to have this as an over-arching element of the story. Careful not to overwhelm your story with it.

I hope this helps.

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