In Chap­ter Twen­ty-One of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the nar­ra­tive cen­ters on a young girl get­ting ready to vis­it a friend, Liam, who is help­ing her with art home­work. The pro­tag­o­nist’s moth­er informs her that Liam has called, and though she is amused by the idea of a “boyfriend,” she focus­es on prepar­ing for the vis­it. In the bath­room, her younger sis­ter, Juniper, shows signs of jeal­ousy, apply­ing lip gloss and ques­tion­ing the nature of the pro­tag­o­nist’s rela­tion­ship with Liam. The play­ful ban­ter reveals a sib­ling dynam­ic, high­light­ing Juniper’s child­like inno­cence con­trast­ed with a slight­ly more mature under­stand­ing from the pro­tag­o­nist.

As the pro­tag­o­nist pre­pares, Camp­bell, anoth­er sis­ter, enters and adds to the con­ver­sa­tion, ques­tion­ing whether Liam is just a friend. The pro­tag­o­nist reas­sures Camp­bell that Liam is nice, evi­dent­ly eas­ing some of Campbell’s con­cerns. The con­ver­sa­tion touch­es on the com­plex­i­ties of sib­ling rela­tion­ships, under­scor­ing Camp­bel­l’s pro­tec­tive­ness and con­cern for her sis­ter’s well-being.

The nar­ra­tive cap­tures a moment of bond­ing among the sis­ters as the pro­tag­o­nist makes a “pinkie promise” to Camp­bell to be care­ful while out with Liam. Camp­bel­l’s intro­spec­tion about the fair­ness of life, after feel­ing guilty about being mean to Juniper, reveals her depth and wor­ry about famil­ial dynam­ics and per­ceived con­se­quences for behav­iors. This dia­logue empha­sizes the inno­cence of youth while also explor­ing deep­er emo­tion­al themes.

Ulti­mate­ly, the pro­tag­o­nist reas­sures Camp­bell regard­ing their sit­u­a­tion at home and delves into the idea of kar­ma, chal­leng­ing Campbell’s belief about a tan­gi­ble sys­tem of rewards and pun­ish­ments. The chap­ter con­veys themes of trust, sup­port, and the com­pli­cat­ed jour­ney of nav­i­gat­ing rela­tion­ships, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing ado­les­cence. The inter­play of humor and seri­ous­ness pro­vides a rich tex­ture to the chap­ter as it explores fam­i­ly dynam­ics and the essence of grow­ing up, ulti­mate­ly leav­ing the read­er with ques­tions about moral­i­ty and the nature of jus­tice in their lives.

In Chap­ter Twen­ty-One of “The Choco­late War,” Kevin Charti­er attempts to sell choco­lates after school but faces fail­ure, hav­ing sold noth­ing after vis­it­ing sev­en hous­es. Dis­heart­ened, he calls his friend Dan­ny Arcan­ge­lo, only to learn that Dan­ny only man­aged to sell one box to his aunt, who is dia­bet­ic. They joke about their predica­ment, and Kevin express­es admi­ra­tion for a fresh­man named Renault, who has refused to sell the choco­lates, think­ing maybe Renault is cor­rect in reject­ing the assign­ment.

As their con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, they reflect on the sell­ing pres­sure placed on stu­dents like them by their school, Trin­i­ty, and the Vigils—an influ­en­tial group. Kevin wor­ries about what the Vig­ils, with whom he might be involved next year, will do con­cern­ing Renault’s rebel­lion. Mean­while, Howie Ander­son, a respect­ed stu­dent, declares his refusal to sell choco­lates too, empha­siz­ing the prin­ci­ple behind the deci­sion. Encour­aged by Howie’s stance, Richy Ron­dell express­es his agree­ment and sug­gests a meet­ing might be called to offi­cial­ly declare their sol­i­dar­i­ty in refus­ing the choco­late sale.

The chap­ter shifts to focus on Archie Costel­lo, who waits in the gym for Obie, who arrives the­atri­cal­ly. Obie shares alarm­ing news about Renault’s ongo­ing refusal to sell choco­lates, which some stu­dents attribute to the Vig­ils. This defi­ance pos­es a chal­lenge, as it is an affront to their author­i­ty. Obie notes the mixed reac­tions among stu­dents, with some still con­form­ing to the choco­late-sell­ing assign­ment.

Archie con­tem­plates the sit­u­a­tion, weigh­ing his options regard­ing pos­si­ble Vig­ils’ involve­ment and the impli­ca­tions of Renault’s actions. He decides to orches­trate a meet­ing with Renault to assess the choco­late sale’s sta­tus. This leads to the real­iza­tion that the Vig­ils are already impli­cat­ed in Renault’s refusal, giv­en their orig­i­nal assign­ment to him. The chap­ter clos­es with a ten­sion-filled atmos­phere as Archie plots next steps, aware of the poten­tial con­se­quences of Renault’s defi­ance.