In Chap­ter Twen­ty-Sev­en of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the pro­tag­o­nist finds solace in the news­room after a frus­trat­ing day filled with a lit­er­a­ture exam. Upon enter­ing, she encoun­ters her friend Sofia, who imme­di­ate­ly sens­es her dis­tress. The play­ful ban­ter between them reveals their close friend­ship, with the pro­tag­o­nist play­ful­ly chastis­ing Sofia for idling and insist­ing on work­ing, despite Sofi­a’s teas­ing about their youth­ful roman­tic inter­ests.

As the pro­tag­o­nist attempts to con­tact an ornithol­o­gist for research, her con­cen­tra­tion is dis­rupt­ed by Sofia, who excit­ed­ly shares details about an upcom­ing win­ter for­mal. The pro­tag­o­nist express­es dis­in­ter­est in the event, par­tic­u­lar­ly due to its tim­ing on New Year’s Eve, which is cou­pled with con­cerns about under­age drink­ing. How­ev­er, the allure of an “eight­ies” theme and Sofi­a’s play­ful insis­tence that a boy named Liam is like­ly to ask her to the dance slow­ly intrigues her.

Despite her reluc­tance, the pro­tag­o­nist agrees to let Sofia accom­pa­ny her to the ornithol­o­gist so they can prac­tice inter­view skills togeth­er. Their con­ver­sa­tion reflects the min­gling of youth­ful aspi­ra­tions and the ten­sion of impend­ing adult­hood, as they nav­i­gate social sit­u­a­tions and the protagonist’s hes­i­tance toward roman­tic engage­ments. Sofi­a’s light-heart­ed insis­tence on say­ing “yes” if Liam asks her fur­ther demon­strates the theme of friend­ship and the unspo­ken desires that accom­pa­ny ado­les­cence.

After the call to the ornithol­o­gist, she reflects on the unex­pect­ed excite­ment of the win­ter for­mal, feel­ing a twinge of hope that Liam might indeed ask her to go. How­ev­er, her thoughts also drift toward an over­whelm­ing essay con­test announce­ment, which stands as a chal­lenge she strug­gles to face. This jux­ta­po­si­tion of youth­ful joy and the weight of respon­si­bil­i­ties encap­su­lates her inner tur­moil as she bal­ances friend­ship, poten­tial romance, and self-doubt in a moment marked by sig­nif­i­cance in her teenage jour­ney.

In Chap­ter Twen­ty-Sev­en of “The Choco­late War,” Frankie Rol­lo, a non­cha­lant junior known for his inso­lence, is sum­moned by Archie Costel­lo and The Vig­ils for an assign­ment. Rol­lo refus­es to con­form, cast­ing aside Archie’s author­i­ty with a play­ful demeanor, which star­tles his peers. Rol­lo’s chal­lenge marks an unprece­dent­ed moment for Archie, who has nev­er faced such defi­ance. The ten­sion esca­lates when Carter, anoth­er Vig­il mem­ber, impul­sive­ly strikes Rol­lo after he belit­tles The Vig­ils’ abil­i­ty to intim­i­date. Rol­lo is quick­ly sub­dued and eject­ed from the meet­ing, elic­it­ing cheers from the mem­bers, which frus­trates Archie, who planned on using Rol­lo as mere enter­tain­ment.

Carter then address­es the group, assert­ing that The Vig­ils must not allow indi­vid­u­als like Rol­lo to under­mine their cred­i­bil­i­ty. He argues that the group has become linked with the choco­late sale, posi­tion­ing Rol­lo’s defi­ance as symp­to­mati­cal­ly indica­tive of their fail­ure. Obie, anoth­er mem­ber, presents a poster that crude­ly declares “SCREW THE CHOCOLATES AND SCREW THE VIGILS,” reflect­ing the increas­ing dis­sent among stu­dents.

Carter con­fronts Archie, imply­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for their predica­ment and cast­ing doubt on their con­trol. Archie, main­tain­ing a facade of calm, sens­es the need to reclaim author­i­ty and encour­ages quick action to com­plete the choco­late sale. His idea is to make sell­ing choco­lates appeal­ing, enlist­ing influ­en­tial stu­dents to facil­i­tate their goals. Although some like Obie ques­tion the fea­si­bil­i­ty, Archie assures them of suc­cess and plans to out­ma­neu­ver Rol­lo’s bur­geon­ing rep­u­ta­tion as a rebel.

Ten­sion between Carter and Archie remains pal­pa­ble, par­tic­u­lar­ly after Carter places Archie on pro­ba­tion regard­ing the sale’s suc­cess. Archie’s inter­nal resent­ment sim­mers as he hides his humil­i­a­tion behind a forced smile, aware that fail­ure would under­mine his posi­tion, but con­fi­dent in his strat­e­gy to ral­ly the school in a mass sale cam­paign. His goal is to neu­tral­ize Renault’s rebel­lious image, ensur­ing The Vig­ils main­tain influ­ence while dis­guis­ing their chal­lenges as mere obsta­cles en route to vic­to­ry.