The chap­ter opens with Lily expe­ri­enc­ing a mix of excite­ment and fear upon dis­cov­er­ing that some­thing she believed was only in her mind is real. She recounts attend­ing a high school hock­ey game in Adams, New Hamp­shire, with her friend Maya, where Ash­er, a stand­out play­er, scores three goals. The game’s inten­si­ty con­trasts with the qui­eter moments after­ward, as Lily observes the play­ers’ vio­lent yet grace­ful move­ments. The scene shifts to a post-game par­ty at Dirk’s house, where Ash­er, instead of join­ing the row­dy hock­ey crowd, spends time talk­ing thought­ful­ly with Lily and Maya on the porch, ignor­ing oth­er girls who try to flirt with him.

Lily is struck by Asher’s duality—his fierce ath­leti­cism on the ice ver­sus his qui­et, atten­tive demeanor off it. Their con­ver­sa­tion ranges from the Pacif­ic Ocean’s vast­ness to sea otters’ sleep­ing habits, show­cas­ing Asher’s curios­i­ty. Lat­er, Maya and Ash­er enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly intro­duce Lily to a local del­i­ca­cy: apple pie with steamed cheese. Despite her ini­tial skep­ti­cism, Lily finds the dish sur­pris­ing­ly deli­cious. The trio’s dynam­ic is high­light­ed as they bond over shared expe­ri­ences, though Lily feels a pang of exclu­sion when Maya and Ash­er rem­i­nisce about their long-stand­ing friend­ship.

As they sit in the din­er, Lily’s curios­i­ty about Ash­er deep­ens, from how he takes his cof­fee to his child­hood mem­o­ries. When Ash­er asks if she miss­es Cal­i­for­nia, Lily reflects on her past but avoids delv­ing into painful details. Ash­er empathizes, express­ing his own long­ing for places beyond their small town. The con­ver­sa­tion turns to New Hampshire’s harsh win­ters, with Maya and Ash­er jok­ing about the chal­lenges of “Mud Sea­son.” Lily’s excite­ment about expe­ri­enc­ing snow for the first time con­trasts with their weari­ness of the long win­ters.

The chap­ter clos­es with Lily imag­in­ing future adven­tures with Ash­er and Maya, even as she grap­ples with feel­ings of being an out­sider to their shared his­to­ry. The evening leaves her with a sense of both con­nec­tion and iso­la­tion, as she nav­i­gates her grow­ing fas­ci­na­tion with Ash­er and the com­plex­i­ties of fit­ting into a new com­mu­ni­ty. The chap­ter cap­tures Lily’s emo­tion­al jour­ney, blend­ing moments of warmth and belong­ing with under­cur­rents of uncer­tain­ty and long­ing.