In Chap­ter Twen­ty-Nine of *If These Wings Could Fly*, the focus cen­ters on the excite­ment sur­round­ing the Auburn Wolves, who have an unde­feat­ed sea­son for the first time in near­ly two decades. Sofia, a reporter, is keen on inter­view­ing the protagonist’s father about the team’s suc­cess, prompt­ing the pro­tag­o­nist to attend a game with Liam’s fam­i­ly. This out­ing con­trasts their ear­li­er qui­et ride to the game, filled with music, to a cel­e­bra­to­ry return after the Wolves’ lat­est vic­to­ry.

As they set­tle in Liam’s base­ment, the atmos­phere shifts to a com­fort­able and inti­mate space where Fiona show­cas­es her dance moves in a makeshift stu­dio. Their con­ver­sa­tion flows from dance to the dynam­ics of mid­dle school rela­tion­ships, reveal­ing the pres­sures of appear­ance and accep­tance among peers. Fion­a’s brush-off of a boy’s com­pli­ment illus­trates the often super­fi­cial nature of young attrac­tion, while her deter­mi­na­tion to enjoy the win­ter for­mal as a group under­scores the shift­ing social land­scape among teens.

Liam proves to be both play­ful and sup­port­ive, cri­tiquing *Por­trait of an Old Crow*, a draw­ing of a crow named Joe, reveal­ing deep­er themes of accep­tance and draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from unex­pect­ed places. Their dia­logue is light yet mean­ing­ful, as Liam encour­ages the pro­tag­o­nist to loosen up and embrace per­son­al flaws, cul­mi­nat­ing in a comedic moment where he sings ter­ri­bly, pro­vok­ing laugh­ter.

The chap­ter crescen­dos into a piv­otal moment as Liam, amid their shared laugh­ter, musters up the courage to ask the pro­tag­o­nist to be his girl­friend. This ques­tion car­ries sig­nif­i­cant weight, reflect­ing the com­plex emo­tions of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and will­ing­ness to explore a deep­er con­nec­tion. After a teas­ing exchange about dat­ing, the pro­tag­o­nist final­ly affirms her feel­ings, mark­ing a new chap­ter as they look for­ward to their upcom­ing for­mal togeth­er.

Ulti­mate­ly, this chap­ter encap­su­lates themes of youth, com­pan­ion­ship, and the mixed emo­tions sur­round­ing first love—highlighted by joy­ous moments, light­heart­ed ban­ter, and the ground­ing com­fort of shared expe­ri­ences. The nar­ra­tive weaves between humor and sen­ti­ment, pre­sent­ing a vivid por­tray­al of ado­les­cent life and rela­tion­ships.

In Chap­ter Twen­ty-Nine of “The Choco­late War,” Bri­an Cochran is deeply engrossed in tal­ly­ing the sales fig­ures of the choco­late sales cam­paign. He feels exhil­a­rat­ed by the stag­ger­ing rise in sales, expe­ri­enc­ing a high akin to intox­i­ca­tion from the increas­ing num­bers. The sud­den surge in sales is inex­plic­a­ble but pal­pa­ble through­out the school, with choco­lates becom­ing a new trend. Rumors sug­gest that The Vig­ils, a secre­tive group, are ral­ly­ing sup­port for the sale, although Bri­an avoids direct involve­ment with them. He observes mem­bers ensur­ing that stu­dents who haven’t per­formed well in sales receive a warn­ing, indi­cat­ing a pos­si­ble coer­cive effort behind the unusu­al lev­els of par­tic­i­pa­tion.

Bri­an jug­gles records and responds to a hec­tic atmos­phere as teams of stu­dents active­ly pro­mote choco­late sales in neigh­bor­hoods and even local fac­to­ries. As Bri­an updates the results on the board, the assem­bly hall becomes a hub of excite­ment; stu­dents cheer as they see the achieve­ments of their peers. How­ev­er, the fair­ness of cred­it dis­tri­b­u­tion trou­bles him. For instance, Carter, head of The Vig­ils, sub­mits a sig­nif­i­cant amount of mon­ey from what he claims to be sev­en­ty-five box­es sold, and Bri­an care­ful­ly counts it under Carter’s scru­ti­niz­ing gaze.

Carter requests that Bri­an allo­cate cred­its for the sales to var­i­ous stu­dents, many of whom did not make those sales. Bri­an com­plies, acknowl­edg­ing the shadi­ness of the sit­u­a­tion but ratio­nal­iz­ing that it’s not his place to inter­fere. Bri­an notes that sev­er­al stu­dents have reached their sales quo­ta, and Carter com­mends his work, momen­tar­i­ly boost­ing Bri­an’s con­fi­dence, despite his sus­pi­cions about the integri­ty of the cam­paign.

At the end of the day, the total sales fig­ure climbs to fif­teen thou­sand and ten box­es, with Broth­er Leon, the fac­ul­ty mem­ber over­see­ing the sale, appear­ing vis­i­bly thrilled by the suc­cess. He shares in Bri­an’s excite­ment, even address­ing him by his first name for the first time. When Bri­an posts the final fig­ures, he is met with applause, feel­ing like a star ath­lete, a mile­stone that marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in his school expe­ri­ence.