Which book is this? Help me it's driving me mad

[byronicheroine]

I have googled. I'm reading The Magicians Land which is a pastiche of several popular fantasy books and I'm really enjoying it (it's the third in a trilogy). One story line is in a boarding school and they steal someone's special pencils and hold them to ransom, putting shavings of the pencils over breakfast.
I thought it was from an American boarding school book, maybe aa Holmes or Curtis sittenfield but I can't find it. Any ideas?

Anyone?

Are you on Goodreads? If you are then there's a big group on there dedicated to helping with queries like this. It's called What's the Name of That Book (unsurprisingly :)). If no-one can help here then there might be good place to try next.

Thank you! I'll check it out. Probably a bit niche!