In Chap­ter VI, the pro­tag­o­nist steps into the church, only to encounter Ash­ley Bing and Emma Flint, both dressed for a par­ty and a painful reminder of her past at Hebron Mid­dle School. Hop­ing to avoid them for­ev­er, she feels out of place as Ash­ley’s gaze lingers on Will Junior, a boy she admires. Sum­mon­ing her brav­ery, she con­fronts Ash­ley, who dis­mis­sive­ly insults her. Ash­ley’s remark embar­rass­es her, espe­cial­ly with Will present, but Fish, a friend, scowls at the bul­ly­ing girls, show­ing his dis­plea­sure.

Will Junior, with a sym­pa­thet­ic smile, tries to ease the ten­sion and reas­sures her that she’s bet­ter off with­out friends like Ash­ley and Emma. He leads her away from the uncom­fort­able encounter towards the par­ty room. The atmos­phere in the room is under­whelm­ing, dec­o­rat­ed with sag­ging stream­ers and only a choco­late cake, indica­tive that peo­ple are still uncer­tain about the cel­e­bra­tion.

As Will gives her a birth­day gift—a pen set—she feels uncer­tain about the prop­er eti­quette of open­ing it right away. They con­tin­ue to the kitchen, where Bob­bi and her styl­ish friends pre­pare refresh­ments. Bob­bi’s dis­mis­sive atti­tude towards the pro­tag­o­nist’s birth­day dress makes her feel younger and inse­cure, real­iz­ing she no longer felt spe­cial at thir­teen.

Amidst the prepa­ra­tions, a pecu­liar sound calls for her atten­tion, lead­ing her to feel a strange clar­i­ty about her upcom­ing jour­ney to Sali­na. As she con­tem­plates and expe­ri­ences a bizarre sen­sa­tion, she acci­den­tal­ly knocks into Will Junior, caus­ing chaos with a fall­en tray of sand­wich­es. Dur­ing the com­mo­tion, she notices Bobbi’s tat­too, an angel with a mis­chie­vous grin, which ignites her curios­i­ty and con­cern about how Bob­bi obtained it.

The moment becomes sur­re­al when the tat­too seems to come alive, speak­ing to her in a whis­per that reveals the char­ac­ter’s lone­li­ness. Over­whelmed by the unfold­ing events and the unex­pect­ed com­mu­nica­tive pow­er of the tat­too, the pro­tag­o­nist faints, sig­nal­ing a turn­ing point in her expe­ri­ence and emo­tion­al state dur­ing this piv­otal birth­day gath­er­ing.