In Chap­ter Six­ty-One of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the pro­tag­o­nist, Leighton, is called out of art class by Mrs. Riley to dis­cuss an impor­tant mat­ter in the news­room. Mrs. Riley reveals that the coun­cil has decid­ed to award Leighton a schol­ar­ship of five thou­sand dol­lars based on her essay. How­ev­er, there’s a caveat: they have decid­ed not to pub­lish her essay in the Auburn Gazette.

Leighton is ini­tial­ly thrilled about the schol­ar­ship, but con­fu­sion fol­lows as she grap­ples with the rea­son behind the coun­cil’s deci­sion not to print her work. Mrs. Riley explains that while the coun­cil acknowl­edges the wor­thi­ness of Leighton’s essay, they con­sid­er it a “lia­bil­i­ty.” This term rais­es con­cerns for Leighton, as she ques­tions who stands to be harmed by the essay’s pub­li­ca­tion. Mrs. Riley implies that the dan­ger may extend to both Leighton and her fam­i­ly, but it also reflects a wider thought about the town’s inter­ests.

While con­tem­plat­ing this, Leighton notices Joe, a char­ac­ter con­nect­ed to her, sit­ting out­side. His pres­ence, a silent wit­ness to her tur­moil, adds to her feel­ings of unease. This leads her to sug­gest a solu­tion: for the coun­cil to pub­lish her essay anony­mous­ly. Although Mrs. Riley hes­i­tates, Leighton insists that pub­lish­ing anony­mous­ly would shift the lia­bil­i­ty from her to the coun­cil. She argues that if they still refuse, it would prove their attempt to pro­tect her is not entire­ly altru­is­tic.

Leighton fur­ther express­es her deter­mi­na­tion to ensure her work is rec­og­nized, sug­gest­ing she could use her essay for oth­er col­lege appli­ca­tions even if it doesn’t appear in the Auburn Gazette. This resilient atti­tude high­lights her com­mit­ment as she con­cludes her con­ver­sa­tion with Mrs. Riley, who agrees to approach the coun­cil on her behalf. By the end of the chap­ter, when Leighton looks back out the win­dow, the absence of Joe under­scores her feel­ings of iso­la­tion amidst the cir­cum­stances she is fac­ing.