Chap­ter 27 opens with the pro­tag­o­nist, seek­ing solace after a tax­ing and frus­trat­ing day filled with the pres­sures of a lit­er­a­ture exam. She finds her­self in the news­room, hop­ing to escape the weight of her aca­d­e­m­ic respon­si­bil­i­ties, when she is greet­ed by her close friend, Sofia. Sofia, ever per­cep­tive, imme­di­ate­ly sens­es the ten­sion in the protagonist’s mood and tries to light­en the atmos­phere with her play­ful ban­ter. Their con­ver­sa­tion is full of teas­ing, as the pro­tag­o­nist chides Sofia for slack­ing off and pro­cras­ti­nat­ing on work, despite her friend’s light­heart­ed response about their shared roman­tic inter­ests. The cama­raderie between the two girls is pal­pa­ble, and it offers the pro­tag­o­nist a brief reprieve from her inter­nal tur­moil. The warmth of their friend­ship becomes a much-need­ed refuge, remind­ing her that, despite the chaos in her life, some things—like the com­fort of a sup­port­ive friend—remain steady.

As the pro­tag­o­nist attempts to refo­cus on con­tact­ing an ornithol­o­gist for research, her atten­tion is pulled away by Sofia’s exu­ber­ant chat­ter about an upcom­ing win­ter for­mal. Ini­tial­ly unin­ter­est­ed, the pro­tag­o­nist express­es her dis­con­nec­tion from the event, espe­cial­ly since it falls on New Year’s Eve, a time when the pres­sures of under­age drink­ing and social expec­ta­tions height­en her unease. Sofia, with her char­ac­ter­is­tic excite­ment, con­tin­ues to describe the event in vivid detail, focus­ing on the allure of the “eight­ies” theme and men­tion­ing that Liam, a boy the pro­tag­o­nist has secret­ly admired, might be the one to ask her to the dance. Despite her ini­tial reluc­tance, the pro­tag­o­nist finds her­self intrigued by the idea, a spark of curios­i­ty ignit­ed by Sofia’s enthu­si­asm. The idea of attend­ing the for­mal grad­u­al­ly shifts from a dis­tant and unap­peal­ing event to some­thing that feels odd­ly appeal­ing, even though she remains unsure about embrac­ing the con­cept ful­ly. Sofia’s play­ful insis­tence that the pro­tag­o­nist should agree if Liam asks her cre­ates a mix­ture of excite­ment and uncer­tain­ty, high­light­ing the sub­tle com­plex­i­ty of ado­les­cent emotions—where desire for con­nec­tion inter­twines with appre­hen­sion about step­ping out of one’s com­fort zone.

The protagonist’s reluc­tance to embrace the idea of the for­mal is fur­ther chal­lenged when she agrees to let Sofia accom­pa­ny her to meet the ornithol­o­gist for prac­tice with inter­view skills. As they trav­el togeth­er, their con­ver­sa­tion takes on a deep­er, more reflec­tive tone, as they dis­cuss the del­i­cate bal­ance of adolescence—between grow­ing up and stay­ing true to one­self. The pro­tag­o­nist, still unsure of how to approach roman­tic engage­ments and social pres­sures, begins to real­ize how much her hes­i­ta­tions stem from a fear of change. Sofia’s care­free atti­tude about the dance and her insis­tence that the pro­tag­o­nist should say “yes” if Liam asks her serve as a con­trast to the protagonist’s inter­nal con­flict, reveal­ing the con­trast­ing ways that each girl approach­es the chal­lenges of grow­ing up. While the pro­tag­o­nist feels the weight of expec­ta­tions and respon­si­bil­i­ties, Sofia’s light­heart­ed per­spec­tive offers a dif­fer­ent way of look­ing at the world—one that is less bur­dened by self-doubt. This con­ver­sa­tion not only deep­ens their friend­ship but also under­scores the ten­sion between youth­ful desire and the real­i­ties of self-per­cep­tion, cre­at­ing a rich explo­ration of how peo­ple nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of ado­les­cence.

After final­ly mak­ing the call to the ornithol­o­gist, the pro­tag­o­nist is left reflect­ing on the unex­pect­ed excite­ment of the win­ter for­mal, which she had ini­tial­ly dis­missed as irrel­e­vant. As she begins to enter­tain the pos­si­bil­i­ty of Liam ask­ing her to the dance, she feels a sense of hope, a feel­ing she hasn’t allowed her­self to expe­ri­ence in a while. How­ev­er, this new feel­ing of excite­ment is tem­pered by her anx­i­ety about an essay con­test loom­ing ahead, which rep­re­sents a chal­lenge she is strug­gling to face. This jux­ta­po­si­tion of youth­ful joy and the bur­den of aca­d­e­m­ic pres­sure cre­ates a com­plex emo­tion­al land­scape for the pro­tag­o­nist. She feels torn between the fleet­ing hap­pi­ness of poten­tial romance and the heavy respon­si­bil­i­ty of her aca­d­e­m­ic life, which she feels com­pelled to pri­or­i­tize. The chap­ter cap­tures the essence of ado­les­cent uncer­tain­ty, where hope and joy coex­ist with fear and self-doubt. The protagonist’s inner tur­moil, oscil­lat­ing between her desires and her oblig­a­tions, paints a vivid pic­ture of the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty that defines her jour­ney through ado­les­cence. As she faces these chal­lenges, she is forced to nav­i­gate the del­i­cate bal­ance between friend­ship, per­son­al growth, and the weight of expec­ta­tions, all while ques­tion­ing what tru­ly mat­ters in her evolv­ing world.