Chapters 19–21 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 19
Starr wakes up to breakfast being made; Carlos, Aunt Pam, and Nana are all at the house. Carlos and Maverick have made up. Today is the day Starr is going to the courthouse to testify.
Starr has to walk alone into the grand jury room to be sworn in. The DA asks her to tell in her own words what happened to Khalil. She repeats the story again, and then the DA asks her to discuss the night of the shooting in detail. Starr does not feel brave but tells the DA she is all right with that.
Chapter 20
Starr was in the grand jury room for three hours, with the DA wanting every detail of what happened. Two weeks later, Starr is waiting for the jury's decision. At Williamson Prep, it's nearly the end of the school year and everybody is misbehaving, but Seven and Starr are more worried about King, who presumably threw the brick through the Carters' window.
At Maya's locker, Maya and Hailey are talking. Hailey accuses Starr of having lied to them and shows her two pictures: one of Khalil from the news and one of young Khalil with Starr. Starr shrugs and says yes, she knew him, which leads Hailey to demand an apology for Starr having "picked fights." Maya at this point interjects that Hailey has said and done racist things.
Hailey is angry about this and says she won't apologize for making jokes. Starr calmly tells her that if she cared about Maya, she would apologize. This devolves into Hailey saying that Star should "get over" what happened to Khalil: he was a drug dealer, and he probably would have been killed eventually.
Starr punches Hailey in the face, and a fight ensues. Hailey's brother, Remy, tries to intervene, but Seven appears and hits him.
An hour later, all four participants have been suspended for three days, to the outrage of Hailey and Remy's father, who thought the Carters should have been expelled. Lisa is upset because Starr has behaved as "They" expect from Garden Heights children, but Starr is enraged, saying her mother doesn't understand how it felt to see Khalil die.
When they get home, a number of Garden Disciples and King Lords are in the Carters' kitchen. They are discussing how to stop further riots happening and Black-owned businesses being destroyed. They agree that the last thing the police would expect would be unity in Garden Heights, and the gangs tentatively decide to become allies.
Lisa is proud of her husband. Meanwhile, the video of the fight is on the internet, and Maverick is proud of his children. Although the Carters don't condone what Starr and Seven did, they recognize that they would probably have done the same thing.
Chapter 21
There is still no decision from the grand jury by Seven's birthday. The Saturday before it, Seven is a new high school graduate, and everyone is swimming in the pool at Carlos's house, including Kenya and DeVante, who has bonded with Carlos's daughter, Ava. DeVante is considering whether to stay with Carlos for the next school year.
Chris and Maya arrive; Chris and Kenya have never met before, and Kenya has only briefly met Maya. At first, Starr is worried about her worlds colliding, but Maya and Kenya bond over the story of the fight with Hailey, then team up to encourage Starr to dance.
Then the phone rings. Iesha Robinson is at the security gate of the development, wanting to see Seven. Maverick says to let her in, as she is Seven's mother. However,...
(This entire section contains 901 words.)
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Iesha and Kenya quickly get into a fight: Seven says Iesha has never done anything for him, and Iesha responds by telling Maverick that King will punish them for letting Starr snitch on television.
Seven is crying; Lisa comforts him, while Kenya and Starr awkwardly talk about the fact that Kenya’s father, King, is angry with the Carters.
By the time Lisa brings out the birthday cake, Seven has cheered up a little, and Maverick says that he's proud of Seven for earning his high school diploma. It's a good day.
Analysis
Starr's testimony before the grand jury, which has occupied so much of Starr's mental time and space in the chapters leading up to chapter 19, is given surprisingly little coverage, which is, perhaps, a decision on Thomas's part to communicate the likelihood that it will be an exact reprisal of previous interrogations Starr has undergone. Starr has been asked the same questions about Khalil multiple times, and evidently, she is afraid that the same outcome will also result on this occasion.
While Starr waits to hear what the grand jury will say, her life must go on: good things happen and there are good days, even while living in the sort of limbo Starr is now in. However, in these chapters it is reiterated that the Carter family cannot escape the intricate network of relationships in Garden Heights, even by leaving. Their troubles follow them to Seven's pool party at Uncle Carlos's house, while Starr herself is friends with the daughter of a man who may want to kill her. Some elements of Starr's life may be going very right, such as the way in which she is able to integrate Maya and Chris into her family's world, but there is also a sense that something terrible may be about to happen.
