Chap­ter 55 of If These Wings Could Fly opens with the pro­tag­o­nist feel­ing weighed down by a promise made to Liam—to attend his game. Through­out the event, she strug­gles with regret and anx­i­ety, caught in a whirl­wind of con­flict­ing emo­tions. The ener­gy of the game sur­rounds her, with the loud cheers from fans and the live­ly per­for­mances of cheer­lead­ers fill­ing the air. Despite this out­ward excite­ment, the pro­tag­o­nist is keen­ly aware of the under­ly­ing ten­sion with­in her fam­i­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly her father’s increas­ing­ly volatile behav­ior. As they sit in the bleach­ers, sur­round­ed by famil­iar faces from the town, the com­mu­ni­ty’s pres­ence only adds to the sense of dis­com­fort. Though the pub­lic appear­ance of the fam­i­ly sug­gests nor­mal­cy, the pro­tag­o­nist can feel the cracks in the sur­face of their rela­tion­ships, par­tic­u­lar­ly between her par­ents. The promise to Liam now feels like a bur­den, as the pro­tag­o­nist finds her­self dis­tract­ed by the emo­tion­al tur­moil play­ing out before her eyes.

As the game unfolds, the father’s irri­ta­tion becomes increas­ing­ly vis­i­ble, and it soon leads to a con­fronta­tion with the moth­er. The pub­lic dis­play of uni­ty among the fam­i­ly masks deep­er, more trou­bling issues with­in their home life. The father’s esca­lat­ing behav­ior begins to draw the atten­tion of those around them, but the moth­er, ever the peace­mak­er, tries to cov­er up the strain with a forced smile. Even as the crowd cheers for the Wolves, the pro­tag­o­nist can­not shake the aware­ness of how much dam­age is sim­mer­ing just beneath the sur­face of their fam­i­ly dynam­ic. The moth­er’s efforts to main­tain appear­ances only height­en the ten­sion, as it becomes evi­dent that the cracks in their mar­riage are becom­ing hard­er to hide. For the pro­tag­o­nist, this pub­lic out­ing is a painful reminder of how frag­ile the veneer of nor­mal­cy tru­ly is, as her fam­i­ly’s strug­gles are laid bare amidst the fes­tive atmos­phere of the game.

The sit­u­a­tion takes a dark­er turn as the father, in a tense exchange, forces the moth­er to leave, his grip on her sig­nal­ing a dis­turb­ing esca­la­tion. The pro­tag­o­nist, des­per­ate to inter­vene and stop the grow­ing con­flict, finds her­self par­a­lyzed by fear, caught between loy­al­ty to her fam­i­ly and the instinct to pro­tect her moth­er. In this moment, the ten­sion at the game seems to mir­ror the tur­moil with­in their home life, where vio­lence looms just beneath the sur­face. The pro­tag­o­nist longs to restore some sense of nor­mal­cy, to hold onto the fleet­ing moments of peace before every­thing unrav­els com­plete­ly. As the fam­i­ly dynam­ics con­tin­ue to dete­ri­o­rate, the pro­tag­o­nist’s strug­gle to find sta­bil­i­ty becomes more intense, and the fear of what might hap­pen next begins to over­whelm her. The back­drop of the foot­ball game, a place usu­al­ly filled with joy and excite­ment, becomes taint­ed by the fear and emo­tion­al strain that marks their per­son­al lives, deep­en­ing the pro­tag­o­nist’s sense of help­less­ness.

Amidst the chaos, the pro­tag­o­nist decides to fol­low her moth­er, attempt­ing to shield her younger sib­lings from the esca­lat­ing con­flict. Although sup­port is offered by friends at the game, it pro­vides lit­tle relief from the emo­tion­al bur­den weigh­ing on her. The sit­u­a­tion feels out of her con­trol, and the protagonist’s desire to pro­tect her fam­i­ly only inten­si­fies the urgency with which she tries to keep them safe. This moment becomes a turn­ing point, where the pro­tag­o­nist real­izes that her family’s strug­gles are no longer some­thing she can ignore or com­part­men­tal­ize. The chap­ter con­cludes with a sense of urgency, as the pro­tag­o­nist races to catch up with her moth­er, yearn­ing for the sta­bil­i­ty that seems to elude them. The feel­ing of long­ing for peace in the face of such insta­bil­i­ty becomes a key theme, as the pro­tag­o­nist is forced to con­front the emo­tion­al strain and chaos sur­round­ing her. The chap­ter effec­tive­ly under­scores the pro­tag­o­nist’s inter­nal strug­gle and the dev­as­tat­ing impact of her fam­i­ly’s dys­func­tion, mark­ing a poignant moment in the unfold­ing nar­ra­tive.