Chap­ter 18 of If These Wings Could Fly opens with Leighton tak­ing a hard look at her aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. She’s proud of her per­fect 100 in AP Eng­lish, but oth­er sub­jects don’t seem to reflect the same lev­el of suc­cess. Par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­heart­en­ing is her C in Art I, a grade she nev­er antic­i­pat­ed. Art was meant to be a break from the aca­d­e­m­ic pres­sures she’d been fac­ing, a sub­ject that would allow her to focus on her oth­er inter­ests, such as her work at the school news­pa­per and her col­lege appli­ca­tions. How­ev­er, this C brings dis­ap­point­ment, as she expect­ed the class to offer a bit of relief instead of caus­ing addi­tion­al stress. The emo­tion­al weight of this grade fol­lows her through the school halls as she tries to shake off her frus­tra­tion. She longs for a men­tal escape, a space where she can indulge in her love for read­ing and music, two pas­sions that help her clear her mind.

Leighton’s jour­ney through the hall­ways is inter­rupt­ed when she runs into Liam, a fel­low stu­dent who notices her frus­tra­tion. In their exchange, Liam teas­es her about her grades, break­ing through some of the ten­sion she’s feel­ing. Their con­ver­sa­tion reveals the begin­nings of a friend­ship, with Liam offer­ing to help her improve her art skills. Leighton is ini­tial­ly resis­tant, doubt­ing her abil­i­ty to suc­ceed in a sub­ject she had seen as easy. But Liam’s offer, wrapped in humor and good-natured teas­ing, begins to soft­en her stance. She finds her­self intrigued by the idea of spend­ing time with him out­side of school, even if the tutor­ing ses­sion is pre­sent­ed as noth­ing more than a casu­al aca­d­e­m­ic offer. As they chat, Leighton starts to feel the spark of a deep­er con­nec­tion with him, though she’s not entire­ly ready to admit it.

Their play­ful ban­ter con­tin­ues, and the con­ver­sa­tion shifts when Liam invites Leighton to a foot­ball game that evening. The event includes a bon­fire after­ward, some­thing that fills Leighton with anx­i­ety. She isn’t the type to enjoy large par­ties or social gath­er­ings, often pre­fer­ring the qui­eter moments spent alone or with close friends. Yet, Liam’s enthu­si­asm is infec­tious, and despite her reser­va­tions, she feels a pull to join in. A part of her wants to expe­ri­ence the excite­ment of the evening, to step out­side her com­fort zone and embrace the spon­tane­ity of the sit­u­a­tion. But the hes­i­ta­tion remains, as she grap­ples with the pres­sure to remain true to her­self while con­sid­er­ing what step­ping out of her famil­iar world might mean for her rela­tion­ships with oth­ers.

Leighton decides to decline Liam’s invi­ta­tion and boards the bus to head home, her mind spin­ning with uncer­tain­ty. Her friend Camp­bell notices her mood and press­es her about Liam, teas­ing her about her bud­ding con­nec­tion with him. The con­ver­sa­tion then shifts to her aca­d­e­m­ic future, par­tic­u­lar­ly her dream of attend­ing New York Uni­ver­si­ty. Campbell’s pro­tec­tive nature shines through as she express­es con­cern about Leighton’s grades, high­light­ing their shared fears about the future. Leighton begins to feel the weight of these wor­ries, as the pres­sure to live up to her own ambi­tions starts to mount. She won­ders whether her cur­rent path, which feels safe and pre­dictable, is the best one for her future. At the same time, she con­tem­plates what it would mean to take risks—whether in her aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suits or in her per­son­al life.

The chap­ter ends with Leighton lost in thought, weigh­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties of her future and won­der­ing which path to take. The themes of ambi­tion, friend­ship, and per­son­al growth are explored deeply, as Leighton faces the real­i­ty of her own fears and aspi­ra­tions. Her inter­nal strug­gle between stay­ing in her com­fort zone and push­ing her­self to take chances is some­thing that many read­ers will relate to, espe­cial­ly those nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of young adult­hood. The chap­ter invites reflec­tion on the dif­fi­cult choic­es that come with pur­su­ing per­son­al goals while also deal­ing with the expec­ta­tions of oth­ers. Leighton’s sto­ry is a poignant reminder of the courage required to move for­ward, whether in aca­d­e­mics, rela­tion­ships, or life itself. The nar­ra­tive mas­ter­ful­ly cap­tures the ten­sion between what feels safe and what might lead to a more ful­fill­ing and trans­for­ma­tive future.